Does anyone else want to do a weekly Bible study group here on SDMB-Great Debates? The plan would be to have a thread that went through a portion or book of the Bible, talked about what it means/what it meant, why it would be important, translation issues/editions, different perspectives by different sects/branches/people, contradictions/paradoxes, and really all that would encompass that part of the Bible.
I’m really not sure what the best way to break it up would be though. Books like Genesis and Leviticus have too much going on for one thread whereas the Book of Job or Revelations could probably be done in one.
Job (and Revelation for that matter) are actually pretty dense books. I’d suggest focusing a thread on smaller chunks of the Bible, like particular stories/sections/characters of the OT or maybe taking one episode in the Gospels - for example, looking at the nativity or the feeding of 5000 or Jesus’ trial and comparing/contrasting the different gospel accounts. Some of the minor prophets or shorter epistles could be done in one thread, possibly. It depends how broad or how deep you want to go. I think it could be interesting.
You could set up a control thread for getting topics, like is done for certain game threads.
FWIW, the Revelation and Job can be split up easily. For instance, in Job, we have a set up (including a Satan in Heaven scene!), we have several speeches from about 5 different people (Job, three friends, Elihu), some of which are in direct contradiction to previous speeches, we have “God” talking, we have a denouement…
Years ago at work someone put up a notice offering a “Bible Study Group - meeting on Thursdays at 12.30PM in the lower ground floor meeting room.” Ten minutes later there was a notice beside it offering a “Devil Worship Society - meeting on Thursdays at 12.30PM in the lower ground floor meeting room. Bring your own fertility symbol.”
It’s always been one of my favorites. Lots to talk about there, from many traditions, literally and metaphorically. Should we talk about it here or start a new thread.
I would disagree. There’s a lot going on in Genesis. The different accounts of creation. I’m curious why the idea of creating Eve out of rib of all things. (As opposed to just creating her, or an animal, or any other bone…) Or how did the fruit in the garden be popularly assumed to be an apple. Cain killed his brother and was sentenced to be a fugitive and a vagabond but ends up just founding a city with a wife who pops out of nowhere. There’s a bunch of tales in there that really don’t make a lick of sense to me.
That’s a lot more ground than I like to cover in just one week. In the first week alone, you have creation, Adam & Eve, and all the events leading up to the flood.
OK, but why not start with Elisha and the she bears? Aren’t you at all curious as to what would cause the spirit of the Lord to tear up children with bears? Or does that already make sense to you?
