The Bible and Me

For me this was my first time reading any biblical stories.  I have only heard of them from various places, but I never took the time until now to read any of them.  I used to feel like they would not be relevant to me at all.  After reading some of it one quick relies that there is a lot to take away from those stories and they can see the importance of it.

Last year I became a Buddhist and part of Buddhism is being excepting of other religions.  Before being Buddhist I was atheist and a bit of a dick about it.  I never grew up with a set religion when I was younger so I never got the point of religion.  I did see the point of it, and how it can help people.  I only saw the pole on T.V quoting it.

The bible has a lot to offer to people of any faith.  It just gets a bad rap because some people use it to push their own views on others.  Taking quotes from it and use it to try to justify their own views.  From what I read of it and I understand now it’s not meant to be taken literally it is a guide not an instruction manual.  It is meant to show you examples of positive ways to live your life and that is what I take it as. 

I probably would not have read any of it if it was not for this English class, but it was a worthwhile experience.  If only to just get a better understanding of what the Bible is about.  I found things I can take away from it and feel better informed because of it.

Homer vs Biblical Authors

Auerbach compared Homers writing to that of biblical writers.  He was comparing the literature to see who the better writer was.  He claimed that “Homer can be analyzed . . . but he cannot be interpreted”.  To understand that we must know what those words mean.

Analyzed- To separate (a material or abstract entity) into constituent parts or elements; determine the elements or essential features.

Interpretation - An explanation of the meaning of another's artistic or creative work.

Now given these definitions from Dictionary.com I would have to agree with Aurback.  Homer spells everything out in his writing. No stone goes unturned and nothing is leaven to the imagination.  “His mother’s father-a great thief and swindler” Homer even has to explain the back story of people who just make an appearance in a flashback.  There is nothing left to interpret because he holds our hand and tells us everything we need to know.  All we have to do is analyze it by looking at all the pieces in the writing.

The biblical writers took a different approach to this.  In Abraham and Isaac it says “Behold, here I am”.  That was god talking to Abraham, and we are given no context to where god is or even if he is in a physical or astral form.  “and they came to the place which God had told him of,”  again in this it is just a vague place that we do not know about.  We can interpret the bible and analyze it.  People can fill in the blanks and find meaning in it because everything is not feed to us.  People can take away different meaning from it because we interpret it and that is something we all do differently.

Auerbach felt that the biblical authors did a better job than Homer did.  Homer had to explain everyone motivation and everything that happened.  The biblical writers did not have to explain everything in their stories.  They left things up to interpretation.  Homers stories are entertaining but that is all they are.  The biblical stories are meant to teach us and make us think.

Enkidu

Enkidu is a character that is interesting to me.  He starts off innocent and at one with nature.  Then he becomes that of a civilized man.  Then he goes off and becomes an adventurer.  He dose through these phases so fast his character is very dynamic compared to everyone ells in the story.

“Enkidu ate grass in the hills with the gazelles” That says allot about his purity.  He just hung out with the animals and they accepted him for he was pure of heart.  He had no ill intent or malice in his heart.  He acted on instinct and was more beat than man.

That all changed when he lay with the harlot.   “When the gazelle saw him, they bolted away” He was rejected by the animals after he had embraced the women.   After he had no place left to go she showed him how to become a proper man.  She took him back to her temple and clothed him.  She fed him, and turned him into a real man.

After he met Gilgamesh they became good friends.  They went on adventures and relied on each other for they were two half’s of the same coin.  Enkidu even helped slay the bull of heaven he ‘seized it by the horns”.  The bull charged him and knocked him over so he gets up and restrains it by himself so Gilgamesh can kill it.  That is not something he would have done if he was still a feral man.

Enkidu to me was a really interesting character and noteworthy.  He was such a dynamic character in a story filled with static one.  When he died for me the story was less interesting because I did not really care about Gilgamesh.

Differences In Flood Story’s

Both the Hebrew stories and the Epic of Gilgamesh contained flood stories.  They stories have some similarities to them like a great flood happened, but they are very different at the same time.  The stories differ on three key things.

Length of Flood

In the epic of Gilgamesh the flood did not last that long.  “For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and flood raged together like warring hosts.”  After that the gods felt bad for man and stopped the flood.  They rushed their decision of the flood and after six day and seven nights they could no longer go forward with killing everything.  In the Hebrew story the flood was much longer. “And the flood was forty days upon the earth”.  God knew what he wanted to do, and he followed through with it.

Motivation

The motivation for the great flood’s where completely different.  In the Hebrew story god flooded the earth to wipe out evil.  In that story god said “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”  He had to cleans the earth of evil.  While in the epic of Gilgamesh the gods just where tired of hearing us. “The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the bable.”  And their solution to this well it was to just flood the world.  It was a more selfish reason then the Hebrew story.

What was on the Ship

In the Hebrew story Noah brought his family his son’s wives and two of every animal in the world.  “And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark”.  God told him this is what he needs to start the world back up after the great flood.  In Gilgamesh god said to “Take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures.”  Also craftsmen where taken into the boat so they can rebuild after the flood.

Noah

While reading this story I was struck by something.  Noah was six hundred when the great flood happened.  Does that mean he built an ark big enough to hold all the animals at such an ancient age?  Also when he died he was almost a thousand years old.  That just seems weird to me.   For a man to live that long but that is not for me to decide.

Why would god have someone so old build his great ark?  I have been trying to figure this out, because most people once they get old have a hard time doing physically demanding activities.  For one to be able to build the ark at such an old age he would have to have the strength and energy of a younger man.  If he did not have the energy to do it alone dosed that mean his kids helped him do it?  If I had able bodied sons I would have had them help me do it.

That leads me to my next thought.  Dose everyone in biblical time just live a really long time?  I feel like that was just the norm back then because Noah’s family would have been really old too, and the age really did not matter at all.    Everyone just lives a long time and stays productive longer in biblical times I guess.   I just don’t know why they picked such arbitrarily large number.

God

The Flood story was a practically interesting one.  God played a complex role in it.  He both wiped out and saved humanity.  He was Vengeful and at the same time he wanted to save man.  Here are the three attributes that I saw that god had in "The Flood".

Vengeful

“I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of earth: both man and beast… for it repenteth me that I have made them.”  He wants to cleanse the earth from all life and start over.  He was disappointed in the way mankind has become.  We strayed away from the richest path and for that we must face the consequences. 

Also god said “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”  This is my favorite quote from god.    He is angry and vengeful to the point where he decides to kill everything. 

Powerful

In the story god had all power.  He had the power to flood the earth, and wipe away all the wicked it held.  “And God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth”.  He had the power to not let that go on for he could change it.  He then chose he man to protect the good, and then he wiped out all the evil with his all mighty power.

Compassionate

Then God has a more compassionate side.  He decided he does not want the world to completely end.  So he chooses the best man to start the world over.  Noah was chosen by god to be the one to save humanity.  “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.”  Noah was a truly good man so god felt he was the best of mankind.

The Enuma Elish and Metamorphoses

creation myths Enuma Elish and Metamorphoses are two very different story's. These story's where told by two completely different groups of people at different times. Yet they share allot in common with each other, and have things happen in a very similar order.

In the Enuma Elish it says “when skies above were not yet named Nor earth below pronounced by name”. This correlates to a passage from Before the ocean was, or earth, or heaven, Nature was alike, a shapelessness, Chaos”. This is saying that in the beginning both opened up with chaos. From the chaos order can be born. The gods come into existence and they deliver the world from chaos.

There was a very similar chain of events that happened in the story's as well. Started out in chaos. The gods show up. The gods start creating things. They start to make more life forms. Then through acts of violence peace can finally happen.

In both story's acts of violence lead to order in the world. In the Enuma Elish a god was riped in half and from her created the boundaries of the world. In the Metamorphoses giants where slayed and there blood got the ocean pregnant. From that man was born into the world. The violence's was needed to give birth to man and finally end the chaos. There needs to be death in order for there to be life.


Water plays a important role in both story's. In Enuma Elish water is what the gods where born out of. The water god is also killed and helped divide up the earth. Water is a driving force in both story's. In the Metamorphoses story it helped shape the face of the earth. The ocean also gets pregnant from the blood of giants and gives birth to man.

This is a depiction of Marduk killing Tiamat from the Enuma Elish.

Creation

There is a few things i did not quite get in the creation myths.  The first the gods all seamed to make man just because they where board I don't get it.  It just happens and they almost always seem to not be worth it.  Also war seems to follow creation.  If god created them in his image then dose that mean the gods are no better then man?