When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.It's unclear to me exactly what verse 2 means, what it's supposed to imply. Were only boys born for a long time and then, finally girls came around? If that's the case, then how were all those children born? In what time frame are we?
3Then the Lord said, ‘My spirit shall not abide* in mortals for ever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’
So the reason why people lived so long was because God's spirit was still strong in the direct descendants of Adam and Eve. But as the blood thinned out (presumably because there were lineages other than Adam and Eve's?) their longevity weakened.
4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterwards—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
The Nephilim, I had been told, are either giants or very scary warriors. But they don't exist anymore. But even knowing this, it seems like this verse is very opaque. what does it mean for 'the sons of god to go in to the daughters of humans?' Are there any daughters of God? Are the Nephilim being called heroes and warriors of renown? Or are the sons of God the heroes and they defeated the Nephilim? So confusing!
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 6And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ 8But Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord.So God's experiment failed. He decides to kill everything (animals included, which is strange since they haven't done anything evil). It seems to me that this is a pretty extreme action on God's part. I mean, he did the creating and he gave us free will (presumably). So what makes him think that starting from scratch is going to change anything? Is he planning on taking away free will? or is he just going to not allow our minds to do bad things? But the worst part is that when he starts over again, he doesn't allow Noah to begin at the beginning, in the garden of Eden. That would seem like the fair thing to do. Maybe Noah will be wise enough to not eat of the fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Noah Pleases God
9 These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.I don't think anyone can ever be sure what is meant by the phrase "walked with God" here. It seems to me that it means either 'believed in him' or 'did things that pleased him'. But, at this stage, God hadn't really told anyone how to behave. There were no commandments yet so (I've been told) that without God's will being expressed we were all savages without law. But for some reason Noah knew how to walk with God. Thus, he was spared a drowning death.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 13And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14Make yourself an ark of cypress* wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks.
Thus, God explains how to build the Arc. People have been arguing about these instructions since they've been put on paper, I assume, because to hold all of the creatures that are currently on the planet (and the food it takes to keep them alive for the duration of the flood) you would need a pretty big boat: A boat bigger than any that currently exists on this planet. And it would have taken Noah several years to build this boat.
Noah knew what was good for him.17For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.’ 22Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
The thing that strikes me the most about chapter 6 is the way we all know the story of God's choice to kill EVERYTHING minus a half dozen people and a couple hundred thousand species of plant and animal and we don't blink an eye at this kind of brutality. I know that when I was a kid I didn't think about it at all, but as I grew older it always troubled me the way that God really treated human life like something worse than a play thing. We hear a lot about God's love and compassion in the new Testament, but we really have to work hard to find it in the old.
Things get even worse in later books. But we'll get to those later. My point is that the more I read the old Testament the more I realize that there is very little wisdom to be taken from it. The old Testament paints an unpleasant picture of God and of humanity and humanity's history. Yet so many Christians seem to have no problem picking passages within it and creating a moral code from them.
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2 comments:
I could argue this point of "lessons not in the OT" but you are right that so far it may not seem so...and I like how you are critically doing the reading so I won't debate....
Don't be afraid to argue against my points. I certainly won't take it personally. I am being a bit overcritical on some of the points, but I'm doing that because I need to shake people out of the complacency of an unexamined life.
As I go through the old testament we'll find some good lessons, examples of a wise God, etc. But the fact that the bible doesn't often describe God as the benevolent lover that he has been represented as being (in churches across the world) is one that many people who haven't read the bible don't seem to be aware of.
Anyway, I'm very interested in other people's interpretations. I'm certainly no bible scholar, and if I hear an interpretation that makes good sense and doesn't require too many assumptions (not shared by the majority of christian theology) I will gladly amend my own interpretations.
Of course, I often disagree with the validity of the assumptions made in the christian theologies I'm more well versed in and I believe that reading the bible critically and using a bit of logic should show that many of those basic assumptions are very troublesome in a 21st century world view. But that's worth a post in itself.
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