Noah and the Flood
From Genesis 6:9 to Genesis 9:17
It's a story we're all pretty much familiar with. Men and women have pissed off God way too much that he decides to send a great flood to destroy them all (along with the animals and, don't forget, the babies), but not before he warns Noah and gives him some instructions on how to build a ship/ark that would protect him, his family, and multiple pairs of animals of all kinds from the flood. Once all of them were inside the ark, the flood occurs and lasts for many days, killing all living beings that were outside the ark (except for the fish ... and perhaps the bacteria as well). The waters finally recede completely, and Noah and the gang are out of the ark. Noah then sacrifices some poor birds and animals to God who, enjoying the resulting pleasant aroma, promises that he will never ever flood the earth ever again ... but he'll still unleash fire and brimstone when he wishes to.
This was the first story I read from the Bible that disturbed me as a kid, but I can see why this story was told. The ancients had to "understand" that just as God can rain down blessings, he also rains down curses on them. If God was not pleased with them, they had every reason to be shitting their pants at the prospect of being punished by him. Thankfully, this story still provides some relief for the ancients with the promise that they will never have to worry about a great flood covering the whole world and drowning them all in the process, even when they will continue to displease God. So God is cruel, but he is also forgiving and willing to let go of things.
Also, and I hate to say this to literalist Christians, but that ship seemed way too tight to fit all the animals in it. And yes, there are heaps of problems with this passage from a literalist perspective, but I'll leave it to one of you guys to dissect this passage to the full and nitpick the shit out of it (should any of you choose to do so, of course).
Either way, still nice to read, and clearly shows how frightful God was to ancient humans. What do you guys have to say about this story? There's a lot of gems to glean here, anthropologically speaking. What's the deal with the rainbow, for example? The rainbow exists because God needed an occasional reminder of the covenant he made with Noah?
From Genesis 6:9 to Genesis 9:17
It's a story we're all pretty much familiar with. Men and women have pissed off God way too much that he decides to send a great flood to destroy them all (along with the animals and, don't forget, the babies), but not before he warns Noah and gives him some instructions on how to build a ship/ark that would protect him, his family, and multiple pairs of animals of all kinds from the flood. Once all of them were inside the ark, the flood occurs and lasts for many days, killing all living beings that were outside the ark (except for the fish ... and perhaps the bacteria as well). The waters finally recede completely, and Noah and the gang are out of the ark. Noah then sacrifices some poor birds and animals to God who, enjoying the resulting pleasant aroma, promises that he will never ever flood the earth ever again ... but he'll still unleash fire and brimstone when he wishes to.
This was the first story I read from the Bible that disturbed me as a kid, but I can see why this story was told. The ancients had to "understand" that just as God can rain down blessings, he also rains down curses on them. If God was not pleased with them, they had every reason to be shitting their pants at the prospect of being punished by him. Thankfully, this story still provides some relief for the ancients with the promise that they will never have to worry about a great flood covering the whole world and drowning them all in the process, even when they will continue to displease God. So God is cruel, but he is also forgiving and willing to let go of things.
Also, and I hate to say this to literalist Christians, but that ship seemed way too tight to fit all the animals in it. And yes, there are heaps of problems with this passage from a literalist perspective, but I'll leave it to one of you guys to dissect this passage to the full and nitpick the shit out of it (should any of you choose to do so, of course).
Either way, still nice to read, and clearly shows how frightful God was to ancient humans. What do you guys have to say about this story? There's a lot of gems to glean here, anthropologically speaking. What's the deal with the rainbow, for example? The rainbow exists because God needed an occasional reminder of the covenant he made with Noah?
