Avram in Egypt

Genesis 12 is the beginning of what we call the Patriarchal Narratives. In Genesis 12:10-13, we read:

Now there was a famine in the land,
and Avram went down to Egypt, to sojourn there,
for the famine was heavy in the land.
It was when he came near to Egypt that he said to Sarai his wife: Now here, I know well that you are a woman fair to look at. It will be, when the Egyptians see you and say: She is his wife, that they will kill me, but you they will allow to live.
Pray say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me on your account, that I myself may live thanks to you.

What do you see happening here, in this portion of the text? Do you find this troublesome at all? If so, or if not, why?

Please post your response no later than 4pm on Thursday, January 31.

Turn It and Turn It

In the "Introduction" of For the Love of God, Ostriker reminds us of one of the sayings regarding the Hebrew bible: "Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it" (2). She also writes:

"The past is not dead," William Faulkner remarked in his Nobel Prize speech; "it is not even past." Scripture is deeply archaic and starkly contemporary, universalist and tribal, conservative and radical, personal and public, hotly physical and coolly metaphysical. It can and should yield nourishment to many different sorts of hunger. The Bible's irreducible excess, its contradictoriness, its multiplicity, make it dazzling and durable as literature; it might also be said that these qualities point toward the irreducible plenitude and unknowability of God (3).

I would like you to respond to this passage. You are welcome to refer also to other parts of the Ostriker introduction or to what we've read in Genesis so far as part of your response.

Please post your responses no later than Tuesday, January 29, 10pm.

Re-Negotiating "The Fall"

At the end of Genesis 3, Ish and Isha (Adam and Eve) are expelled from the garden of Eden: "So YHWH, God, sent him away from the garden of Eden, to work / the soil from which he had been taken. / He drove the human out / and caused to dwell, eastward of the garden of Eden, / the winged-sphinxes and the flashing, ever-turning sword / to watch over the way to the Tree of Life" (Fox translation).

Within the Jewish tradition, this is known simply as the expulsion from the garden, whereas in the Christian tradition it is understood (typically) as "The Fall." Basically, this amounts to two different readings/understandings of the story. In the first (Jewish) reading of the text, it is a driving out, an in-out movement. In the second (Christian) reading, it is an up-down movement.

So for this post, I'd like you to comment on these two different readings of the story. The difference in interpretation, though it seems subtle, is actually quite significant, and says a great deal about what the readers see or expect to see in the text. What are the implications of each reading? What do they mean? What do YOU see in the text? How do YOU read this text? These are some questions to get you started, but you are not limited only to these.

Remember--try to avoid incorporating religious beliefs or ideologies. Try, instead, to look just at the text.

Also--I'm looking to see that you think critically in your responses. This means I'm not looking for length, but quality.

Finally--be sure to read the responses of your peers before you post your comment. Try to respond to your peers' comments. Think of this as an online discussion, a virtual classroom, where you can engage in dialogue with one another. Feel free to disagree with people, but be courteous. Also feel free to raise additional questions that will enrich the discussion.

Don't forget to include your name!

YOU MUST POST A RESPONSE NO LATER THAN MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 8PM.

Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog for Monica Osborne's English 264: The Bible as Literature.