So I've decided that I'm also going to use this blog to update how religion classes are going (as well as book reviews-- see first post for details). This will be my boring blog, I guess. Anyway, again, it will hopefully help me stay on track with my classes. We've only covered Confucianism so far in Asian Religions class, so this will just be OT.
Also, there's a lot of passive voice in this. Apologies in advance.
On the second day of OT (the first being syllabus day), we talked about the two Noah's Ark stories that are in Genesis. They are told at the same time, overlapping, like two slides showing at the same time on one projector. In one story, the flood lasts for one hundred and fifty days, and the water comes from underground, not rain. Noah brings one pair of each kind of animal onto the ark with him. In the second story, there are seven pairs of each type of animal, the flood lasts for forty days and is started by rain.
These two stories come from two "sources" that show up in Genesis: the P source and the J source. The P source (named "Priestly" because of its emphasis on ritual and tradition, therefore meant for the Priests to read and follow) focuses on details of the Law and usually calls God "Elohim" or "El Shadday" or some other variant prefaced with "El" ("El" in Semitic means "god" with a lower-case G). Coogan goes more into variants of "El" later on in the textbook. Anyway, God in the P source is usually more distant and remote than in any of the other sources, appearing in dreams, or messengers, and there are a series of covenants in the P source. The covenants with Noah (signaled by the bow in the sky, Gen. 9:12), Abraham (signified with circumcision Gen. 17:11), and Israel (signified by the Sabbath, Ex. 31:12) are all in the P source. Also, those long lists of genealogies that come between more specific stories in Genesis are usually attributed to being a P source, which is sometimes called the "frame" of the Pentateuch (also beginning Genesis and ending Deuteronomy).
The major source of Genesis is the J source (the "Jahwist" source, coming from the German form of YHWH, since all Bible source scholars-- and Biblical scholars in general-- are German). One difference with the depiction of God himself in this source (as opposed to the E source) is that God is very personable and anthropomorphic. He walks through Eden with Adam and Eve, he breathes life into them, he comes down to close the door of Noah's ark. The main setting of the J source is in the land later called Judah and ruled by David. The covenants of Abraham and Israel, as well as on Sinai are prominent themes in the J source; they are in J as well as P (and in the case of Sinai, as well as E); Yahweh's promises to Israel surface again and again in the J sources.
These sources stem from the Documentary Hypothesis, a conclusion reached by the German theologian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Julius Wellhausen. The Documentary Hypothesis argues that there are four basic sources that the Pentateuch stems from: the J, E, D, and P sources. While there are many variants on this Hypothesis (usually stemming from differences in opinion on the number of actual sources), and none of these sources have been discovered, most modern-day Biblical scholars accept this theory as legitimate today. It is the best answer to the question that the conflicting stories present. Did God create Man and Woman at the same time? (Gen. 1:27) Or did he make Man first, and then Woman? (Gen 2:5-22) If he made Man first, then he only commanded Man to avoid eating fruit from the tree, and not Woman; did Eve sin? How many days did Noah's flood last? (Gen. 8:3-6)
If there are two sources-- just for these two stories (the next source, the E source, doesn't start until at least Gen 15, if not later), then it suggests more than one possible purpose for the stories. For example, many Christians believe in original sin. Does it originate from both versions of the Creation story in the OT, or just one? Which one? The text itself never uses the word "sin" until Cain murders Abel. While it is perfectly legitimate to argue that there can still be a sin even if it's not named (after all, there is certainly an argument), another idea is that Adam and Eve were meant to eat the fruit, and know good and evil. While there are consequences, they are not the result of sin, but of being human: a species that God himself created. He says after the flood in Genesis 6-8 "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth." (Gen 8:21). While this doesn't paint a particularly nice image of humankind, it does suggest that this is what being human means. And God gives this as a reason for never flooding the earth again because of the "wickedness" of humankind; he acknowledges that this is natural. Whether or not it's because of the fruit, he doesn't say.
So now I've gone off topic and rambled, but I find that this class really gives me something to think about. We've just started talking about religions at the time of the OT, so we'll get more insight to different beliefs at the time. But learning about the different sources really makes me think about the ideas that different interpretations might actually depend on the different source that is being read, and therefore be equally legitimate. And I'm not saying that there is only one possible interpretation per version of the story, but the number of possible interpretations doubles if there are two versions of the story, and triples if there are three, etc.
Back to reading! I love this class. :)
