Story More Types
Explaining and Complaining
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Noahs Ark
When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Noahs Ark cont.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those daysand also afterward when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These [their offspring] were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Noahs Ark cont.
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. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Noahs Ark cont.
In the six hundredth year of Noahs life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened [the waters of Tehom, Apsu
the Abyss].
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Noahs Ark cont.
The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
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Noahs Ark cont.
At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated; and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Noahs Ark cont.
The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared. Gen. 6 8
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Mount Ararat
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Mount Ararat
Mt. Ararat, in easternmost Turkey at its boundary with Iran and Armenia, is, at 16,690 feet, the highest mountain in the Taurus chain and second highest in the Near East. This picture shows Ararat, its volcanic cone covered with snow, and to the left of it a second peak called Little Ararat. The photograph gives the illusion that the two are nearby and comparable.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Some Conclusions
Notice that the Lord destroys with water just as he created the earth and heaven from waterand then he recreates life. Thus the Noahs Ark story is a another creation story, not quite a cosmological story, but an etiological story nevertheless.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Some Conclusions
Why would the biblical writers create a story in which all life is destroyed and then recreated? The logical answer is that this story was created to explain a geological feature that the author recognized. Any story told to explain a geographical element is a geogony.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Geogony
Anyone can recognize that water moves rocks and sand and cuts deep valleys. The author looked at the terrain and assumed large hills and mountains and assumed an enormous flood must have once covered the earth. People are still looking for proof of this flood.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Geogony cont.
Although the story tells us that mountains existed before the flood, nevertheless, the Noahs Ark story suggests the means by which God created mountains before the flood. Dont forget that Noah story is also a creation story, in effect recreating the mountains.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Another Geogony
When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city [Sodom]. When they had brought them outside, they said, Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Another Geogony cont.
Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lots wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Genesis 19
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Lots Wife
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Some Conclusions
Sodom was on the Dead Sea. The poisonous Dead Sea contains dead trees covered with minerals from the lake. Very likely the author looked at one of these structures, pictured a woman, and created a story to explain it. The Arabs call these deposits Lots Wife. The Moral: no command from God is trivial.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Pejorative Ethnography
A pejorative ethnography is an etiological story offering insulting details about the origin of a nation (Gk. ethnos). Most of the biblical pejorative ethnographies concern the origin of Israels enemies.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Sons of Ham
The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of CanaanNoah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Sons of Ham cont.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their fathers nakedness.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Sons Ham of cont.
When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave. May God make space for Japheth, and let him live in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave. Gen. 9
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Sons of Ham cont.
The descendants of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan...Cush became the father of Nimrod He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel,and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh,Egypt became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, and Caphtorim, from which the Philistines come.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Tower of Babel
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar [Sumner] and settled there. And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Tower of Babel
Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Tower of Babel
And the Lord said, Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one anothers speech.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Folk Etymology of Babel
So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. Genesis 11
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Etiological, Pejorative, AND Etymological
An etiological story because it explains the origin of foreign tongues. A pejorative ethnography because it mocks the origin of the Babylonians. An etymological story because it explains (wrongly) the origin of the name Babel. Babylonian bab-ilim, gate of the deity looks like Hebrew balal God confused.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Lots Grandchildren
Now Lot went up out of Zoar and settled in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; so he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the world.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Moabites and Ammonites
Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab; he is the ancestor of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and named him Ben-ammi; he is the ancestor of the Ammonites to this day.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Esau
In the Hebrew Scriptures, few people are hated as much as the Edomites. Esau is their eponymous father. Esau is so stupid that in Genesis 25, he sells his birthright (he is the first born despite Jacobs heel grabbing), to Jacob for a bowl of red lentils. Take that Edomites!
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Sabbath and Passover
Genesis 2 and Exodus 20 are etymological stories about the word Sabbath. Exodus 1213 is an etiological story of Passover and its rituals, particularly the unleavened bread and paschal lamb.
H. Shabbath is the 7th day of the week. H. shabbat means to cease
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Human and Animal Sacrifice
Genesis 22 (Abraham and Isaac) is an etiological story about the origin of permitting animal sacrifice instead of a human. The Bible permits human sacrifice: see Judges 11:30-40, 1 Kings 16.34, and 2 Kings 3.27.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
The Golden Calves
The famous account of the golden calves in Exodus 32 is a pejorative ethnography, but you need more of the history of Israel to appreciate it, so we will save it for later in the course.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Purim and Hanukah
The Bible contains more examples of these story types. The Book of Esther is an etiological story explaining the origin of the holy day of Purim. The origin of Hanukah (Heb. Hanukkah dedication) appears in the Apocryphal books 1 and 2 Maccabees.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Final Thoughts
Notice that although the stories are imaginative, each has a religious message to it. Perhaps the Israelites believed these stories but perhaps they saw them simply as a clever way of passing their religion and culture on to their children.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Final Thoughts
In later books of the Bible and in theological commentaries still being written, many people read these fanciful stories as factual events However, in considering only the facts, many readers miss the humanity, humor, and imaginations of the authors. Consider reading the Bible not for what it says, but for what it reveals about the authors and their perspectives of their worlds.
Copyright2006KeithD.White
Copyright2006KeithD.White