But even at that, he was extremely selective. There’s plenty of science, history, technology, linguistics, and the like you can cover without getting into the theology. It’s more a book of “Stuff I found interesting about the Bible” than a complete guide to it. (And, at that, it still takes up two pretty hefty volumes on my Religion bookcase). I just got the feeling he bit off more than he could chew with this one.
Yeah, there’s rape a-plenty. Witness the tale of the concubine: A gang of hoodlums surround a house where her “owner” is staying. To protect himself, he shoves her outside where she is raped to death.
In the morning, he goes out and finds her laying on the doorstep with her hands stretched toward the door. Does he ask her if she’s all right? Does he send for a doctor? No-- he says, “Get up. We’ve got to be moving on.” When he sees she’s dead, he chops her body into pieces and sends them all over the kingdom.
Fun reading.
Dr. A had a photographic memory, and in one of his pieces I remember him saying that he hardly ever looked at reference works, since he could call up the pages in his head. (Most of his science writing was fairly high level and superficial good for his target audience, but not requiring lots of extra research.) I’d guess that the Bible was enough out of his normal range that he would have had to spend more than his normal time on research to do a really thorough job - and do more editing also. Maybe he didn’t want to spend time he could have used to churn out yet more books.
I remember being particularly disappointed at his coverage of the NT, which was very brief and spotty.
I’m fairly sure he said he’d stay out of theology in his introduction, and I was indeed referring to the latest results in Biblical archeology, even at the time, and not religious interpretation.
Interested parties might want to check out Slate Magazine’s “Blogging the Bible”, which can be found here:
"The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000.
Ecclesiastes
OR, THE PREACHER
3
A Time for Everything
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?
10 ¶ I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past."
http://www.advancedpoetx.com/STUDIO/zhsongs.html
- Turn!Turn!Turn!
Seeger / Ecclesiastics
*REFRAIN
To everything turn! turn! turn!
there is a season turn! turn! turn!,
and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born,
a time to die,
a time to plant,
a time to reap,
a time to kill,
a time to heal,
a time to laugh,
a time to weep.
*
(rest of song lyrics snipped)
So, yeah, the Bible is worth reading. Some parts, anyway.
Slight hijack Cal-
Can you explain how Noah was possibly supposed to know the difference between clean and unclean animals, since the distinction was not made by god for another 1000 years?
I think Noah just opened the doors and the animals in desired quantities just walked in.
It’s just a good collection of stories, and some of the English translations (I can’t read the original Greek, etc. enough to make any sense of it) are beautiful works of art in themselves. On its own merits, the Bible is a worthy tome.
Throw in its status as quite probably the most important collection of Western liturature to come along in the past two or three millennia, and should anyone need more convincing?
I think they were actually teleported in, and in far greater quantites than is generally realized. But the majority were kept in the pattern buffer and not rematerialized until Ararat.
Where is that second version? I’ve read all of genesis, and a lot of the rest, but I didn’t notice it
Abraham and Ablimelech: Genesis 20
Voyager just got a detail or two wrong.
I’m a little unclear on exactly what is being debated here. Is it whether people should read parts of the Bible, whether they should read the entire book cover to cover, whether they should study it, or something else?
I got enough exposure to Bible stuff when I was required to attend church and religion classes as a kid. Never read it in its entirety (tho I read the Jefferson Bible within the last couple of years).
Lots of good stuff in the Bible, but as much if not more utter crap. You are only gonna be able to read so many books in your life. Do you really want to waste several months or a year on the Bible?
Get the Cliffs notes. Or perhaps better yet, a selection of scholarly works on comparative religions.
The second version of the creation story? There are two creation stories in the first couple of chapters of Genesis.
The first creation story is in Genesis 1:1-2:3 (chapter and verse divisions were added much later, and don’t always correspond to actual divisions in the underlying material). The second story is in Genesis 2:4-25. The first story is the story of creation in seven days; in it, plants are created on the third day, birds and sea creatures on the fifth day; and land animals on the sixth day, culminating in the creation of humans on the sixth day (after the creation of other land animals). Human men and women are created together. In English translations, God is referred to as God, translating the Hebrew Elohim, which basically means God-with-a-capital-G. God creates by the mere word of command: “Let there be ___, and there was ___.”
The second story of creation is the one with Adam and Eve in it (although the name Eve doesn’t actually appear until later). In it, God creates a man first; no plants or animals have yet been formed. God puts the man in the Garden of Eden, and God causes plants to grow up; having made the man, God then decides to create a “helper” for the man, creating first the birds and land animals, each of which the man names but rejects as a suitable helper (“That one–we’ll call it a ‘sheep’–it was almost…but no, still not there yet.”) Finally, God creates the woman from the man’s rib. In English translations God is referred to as the LORD God, which is actually translating the Hebrew YHWH or Yahweh–seen as the actual personal name of God, which the ancient Hebrews (and modern Jews) consider should not be pronounced for ritual or religious reasons. The second story is folksier and more down to earth than the first; rather than loftily declaiming “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear” and so on, God forms the man “from the dust of the ground” and “breathes” life into him–the picture is almost of God making a little mannequin out of clay, then breathing life into it CPR-style; this is reinforced when God makes the woman; he puts Adam to sleep and physically takes a rib from him, like some mad scientist doing a cloning experiment. The second creation story leads into the familiar story of the Fall of Man and expulsion from the Garden of Eden, which clearly follows on from the second creation account (God is referred to as Yahweh; the folksiness continues, with talking snakes and such-like, and God is more down to earth, with God “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” and asking Adam and Eve “where are you?”)