End Note

Two years, five months and thirteen days later, I've finished reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and everything in between,  no skipping around.  It's only taken me from May 16, 2011 to October 29, 2013.  I have no idea how people read the Bible in one year or ninety days or whatever else they claim to do.

Perhaps some are looking for a more general overview or maybe they have more of a foundation to begin with.  In any case, there's no way I could have completed the reading in one year, and, even with my extended-stay style of reading,  I'm not sure that I don't have much more than simply a general overview now that I've finished.  Alas!  Two and a half years of reading!  However, it's the Bible, an account of more than  2,000 years of  God's interaction with his creation.  There's no reason to expect that it should be an easy read. 

What can now follow is a different type of reading.  I would not opt for going through and re-reading the Bible again as one might do with a long-ago-read favorite novel although over the past two years I have had to do that, particularly with the book of Genesis.   I had thought of re-reading the particular books as they correspond to the daily lectionary readings.  It would be a perfect time to begin that because Year C is ending and Year A is just about to begin.  But that approach may be a bit of hop-scotching that could lead to confusion.  Garrison suggests re-reading according to themes of sin, salvation, fear, grace.  He suggests using biographies, an idea I like.  It seems neat and manageable.  Historical time periods is another possibility.  There are other guides as well.  I attempted to use this one briefly.

Re Lot's Wife Syndrome

I read articles from the site Catholic Womanhood on occasion.  This one got my attention, but disappointed.  Is the syndrome not letting go?   You shouldn't look back?  

Just A Matter of Geography?

The Old Testament readings for this week have been from the Book of Genesis and caused me to go back and re-read some of the chapters.   God brings Abram out of Haran (which is roughly in present-day Iraq) and into Canaan and tells Abraham that this is the land he will possess.  Remembering Moses bringing everyone into Canaan and having just recently  read about Joshua's battle, I started wondering why in the world Abraham just didn't stay in Canaan and possess the land.  I don't know how,  but during the time it's taken me to read from Genesis to Deuteronomy, I seem to have forgotten about all the wandering,  exile and tribal conflicts in the Old Testament. 

The footnotes in my study Bible speak of the dual promise of land and progeny which I take to mean that God's promise to Abraham is of a kingdom, a certain way of living, not just the promise of a tract of earth.  So, while it might be easy to hold on to a piece of land, it's not so easy to hold on to this idea of being God's chosen people.  The study notes  sketch out an elaborate chart on the Abraham Cycle, a chart I neatly skipped over before, which in turn reminded me that there was a migration from Haran (when Abram's family left) and a migration to Haran (I presume when Abraham's servant returned there to find a wife for Isaac).   

Jacob also returns to the homeland (Paddan-aram in the region of Haran) to find a wife, Genesis 28, 1-7 and lives there "in exile"  (Ch. 31) for what was about 20 years!    Later, God instructs Jacob to go to Bethel, Ch. 35 and by Ch. 36 we're back to Canaan where Jacob settles.  We're reminded that his father Isaac lived there as "an alien."   The story of Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, then of course takes us to Egypt.  References to Egypt are also a tad confusing;  my Bible's map of the ancient world shows the Egyptian Empire, 1300 B.C.,  covering roughly the area of the southern portion of the Levant. 

The Red Tent

I've been aware of this work of historical fiction for several years.  Several family members have read it and talked about it;  I confess to only having skimmed it.  Without consulting the Cliff Notes, I'm assuming that the author found it intriguing to reflect upon Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, who seems lost to history after her story is told in Chapter 34 of Genesis.  Even my study Bible comments that "sadly" Dinah is not mentioned further except for a passing reference in Genesis 46.15 when Jacob's family is re-united with Joseph in Egypt.

 
I'm also assuming that this is a woman-affirming book, a feminist novel.   No harm in that except that it's not of especial interest to me (I have previously dis-avowed any allegiance to feminism!).  It is curious, though, that while Dinah's brothers were central to the life of Israel, she, the biological daughter of Jacob and Leah (a real wife, not just one of the maids) is only a footnote.   Of course, as in the case of my comment about Cain and Abel, God's ways are not our ways, and if Dinah had been more essential to the life of Israel, we would certainly have heard about her. 


In Genesis, Dinah's encounter with Shechem is straightforwardly characterized as rape or "defilement" while in the novel more is made of the love and devotion of Shechem towards Dinah.  (I'd have to read the book more carefully to determine if rape is mentioned at all.)   This seems an attempt on the author's part to tweak historical reality a bit by making Dinah the object of romantic love whereas women in pre-Christian times were usually characterized as just there for the taking. (Well, Jacob did apparently fall for Rachel so things weren't all bad.)  In the novel,  Dinah becomes a mid-wife, far more palatable than had the author made her a priestess or warrior.  As a midwife, Dinah eventually delivers her own nephew, one of Joseph's sons, a neat sort of Dickensian twist.  

Cain and Abel

Apropos of another matter entirely, I chanced to be reading (trying, in my own humble fashion) Pope John Paul II's Evangelium Vitae.  He begins his Encyclical with the story of Cain and Abel and answers a question I asked earlier which was, Why was God unhappy with Cain's offering?  The Pope writes that there is no reason given for this, but he goes on to explain that God  ". . . although preferring Abel's gift, does not interrupt his dialogue with Cain.  He admonishes him, reminding him of his freedom in the face of evil:  man is in no way predestined to evil."  

Oh dear.  What a mundane mindset I had when reading this story.  It's the Bible, not a murder mystery!  What I saw was only that God was being mean to poor Cain who was only trying to be good and that God wasn't being nice, he was being unfair.   He's God, and His ways are not our ways!  

The Pope goes on.  God is "always merciful even when he punishes, . . . "  He put a mark on Cain  ". . . not to condemn him to the hatred of others, but to protect and defend him from those wishing to kill him. . . ."

Genesis

Book written:  10th century B.C.,  editing 6th century B.C. some attribute to Moses

Time Period/Setting:  time immemorial to about 1700 B.C.

Title:  Genesis means 'beginning'

Familiar Bible Stories:  I hope I'll finally remember that all the old, familiar children's Bible stories are told in the book of Genesis:  Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain (the murdering one who was a farmer ) and Abel (the shepherd), Noah and the Ark (and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth who are constantly memorialized in crossword puzzles), The Tower of Babel, Jacob's Ladder (a favorite Bible School song, too) and Joseph and his coat of many colors.   Jacob wrestles with God in the book of Genesis, and here, conveniently, is Pope Benedict's reflection on the matter.   And, back to Cain and Abel for a moment, why was God  unhappy with Cain's offering.  Maybe I didn't read carefully enough, but that stymies me.

Patriarchs and Wives:  The challenge I had in reading the book of Genesis was keeping the patriarchs and their wives and children straight and trying to place them all correctly in time and space.
 
Abraham and Sarah (formerly Abram and Sarai) started out in Haran which is present day northern Iraq in the year ?  , but at God's instruction worked their way down past Bethel to the Negeb and Egypt.  Seems like an awful lot of territory to cover.   The tale of Sodom and Gomorrah includes the astonishing manner in which Lot offered up his virgin daughters to the mob of angry men at his door.  Something similar happens later on in Judges (19.22  Gibeah's crime).  Let me make clear that I'm not a feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but the status of women in Biblical times makes my hair stand on end.  Talk about an oppressed, sub-par existence.  

Then, through God's power, follows Sarah's pregnancy and she gives birth to Isaac. 

Isaac marries Rebekah, who like Sarah must await God's touch in order to bear their twin sons, Jacob and Esau.  Rebekah was an agreeable figure at first, but proves to be nasty and calculating.  Why?  Are we to learn something from this mean mother (or mean wife)?

Jacob of course wants to marry Rachel, but is tricked into marrying Leah.  When he does get Rachel she, like Sarah and Rebekah, is barren.  God again intervenes.  Each of these births,  Isaac's, Jacob's (and Esau's) and Joseph's is an event set apart just as Christ's birth will be set apart, just as, I can't help but think we are being instructed here, every birth is a special event touched by God.  Marriage, pregnancy, procreation are not hum-drum, every day acts governed by human whimsy.  Nobody is an accident of nature.  Each of us is a distinct intention of God, created for a purpose.

Because God chose these women to be wives and mothers of Israel's patriarchs, I would have expected them to be, well, nicer, more refined, exemplary in their behavior.  But these women are awful.  Sarah is cynical and bitter.  Rebekah, sort of a Lady MacBeth, plots and schemes behind her husband's back.  Leah and Rachel compete with each other over who has had more children.  I would ask, what's their problem, but I think I know.  They have to share a husband and not only with each other!  How about the matter of the sisters "giving" Jacob their maids!  He has two sons with Bilhah and two sons with Zilpah.   And these sons count as his legitimate sons, heads of the twelve tribes along with their brothers.  

Rachel's sons seem to occupy pride of place, especially Joseph, and Rachel's death and burial are given some mention.  Interestingly, she was buried on the road to Bethlehem and  Jacob even puts up a stone at her gravesite.  I believe her tomb is mentioned again somewhere in Exodus or Numbers as the Israelites pass through.  Not sure about that.

Where:  As for where all this takes place, it seems that Jacob is sometimes in Paddan-aram which is near Haran, Abraham's point of origin, and at other times he's in Canaan and maybe other times he's elsewhere.  

Twelve Tribes: Jacob's sons, the twelve tribes, in alpha order:  Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Gad, Issachar, Joseph, Judah, Levi, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon and Zebulun.