[asa] Genesis

I am currently listening to the new Teaching Company tape on Genesis.
The
teacher, Professor Gary A. Rendsburg, who chairs the Department of
Jewish
Studies at Rutgers University, seems to have great awe for the book. He
illuminates various complex literary devices used even in the earliest
chapters.

However, he reveals several things that I find convincing, that
concordists
will find disturbing:

There is very strong evidence that the story of Noah came from the
story of
Gilgamesh. The mention of men having sex with gods and of God
smelling the
sacrifice are two strong indications. There are others.

He largely rejects the times given in the Bible, as they conflict
with the
geneologies and also are repetitive. He cites the fact that if you go
to the
middle east, or even more so if you had gone any time 100 or more
years ago,
and you ask random people when something happened or how old they
are, they
will not know. They will pick round numbers that may be totally off.
However, if you ask the same people their ancestry, they will
absolutely be
able to go back for quite a few generations, particularly along the
paternal
line.

He claims to be a maximalist, to believe that Abraham was historic, to
believe that the Bible is absolutely amazing in terms of historical
setting
and literary sophistication, and to believe that it is authentically
very
old and very confirmable as such in many aspects.

He uses scholarship in presenting the facts, so his beliefs about the
why of
the early chapters of Genesis is not directly stated, but apparently the
thought is that the theology of God was expressed in terms of legends
of the
day. The emphasis on theology and literature. Period.

If you enjoy literature, I really recommend the course. He is
teaching the
Bible as literature in a historical context - so if you do not like
literature, I doubt that you would fully appreciate the course.

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Received on Sat Jul 1 01:21:32 2006