Wherein Joseph takes up dream interpretation
Joseph is still stuck in jail when Pharoah's chief cupbearer and chief baker are thrown in with him. One night, the two new prisoners each have strange dreams. When they awake, they lament to ol' Joe that there is no one around to tell them what the dreams mean. Joe chides them, saying "Do not interpretations belong to God?" and then he proceeds to make interpretations.
I won't bore you with the details, but essentially, Joe tells the cupbearer that his dream was a good sign: in three days he will be freed and restored to his old job. The news isn't so good for the poor baker. In three days, he will be executed.
In three days, Joe's interpretations prove to be true.
---
As I noticed in the previous post, Joseph's story is shaping up as a more lyrical, well-told part of Genesis than the stories previous. Evidently, I'm not the first person to notice this. Quoteth Wikipedia:
"Structurally, Genesis consists of the "primeval history" (chapters 1-11) and cycles of Patriarchal stories - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel.[2] The narrative of Joseph stands apart from these. Scholars believe that it reached its final form in the 5th century BC, with a previous history of composition reaching back possibly to the 10th century."
Aha! The story of Joseph may come across as more polished because it was written later and evolved more. Truth be told, I diligently tried to find a secondary source to backup Wikipedia's claim, and failed, so take it as you will. But it does make sense.
This brings up an important question: If historians can empirically prove that the Bible has been changed since it was first written, how must that alter our reading and interpretation of it? Most people would like to believe that POOF the Old Testament appeared and then a couple of thousand years later POOF the New Testament appeared. But, according to a many historians, that just doesn't seem to be the case.
This will be a topic of great discussion on the virtual pages of this blog, and I'm only going to devote a short amount of time to it right now, but this is as good a time as any to get this subject rolling.
I dug up two competing quotes on this topic for sake of comparison:
"How does it help us to say that the Bible is the inerrant word of God if in fact we don't have the words that God inerrantly inspired, but only the words copied by the scribes-sometimes correctly but sometimes (many times!) incorrectly? What good is it to say that autographs (i.e., the originals) were inspired? We don't have the originals! We have only error-ridden copies, and the vast majority of these are centuries removed from the originals and different from them, evidently, in thousands of ways" -- Bart Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus
In his book, Fabricating Jesus, author Craig A. Evans takes direct aim at Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, hoping to debunk it:
"The truth of the Christian message hinges not on the inerrancy of Scripture or on our ability to harmonize the four Gospels but on the resurrection of Jesus. And the historical reliability of the Gospels does not hinge on the inerrancy of Scripture or on the proof that no mistake of any kind can be detected in them."
Personally, I take issue with the logic of Evan's claim. He says that the important thing isn't to believe that the Bible lacks errors, but to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. But, if he accepts that the Bible does have errors, then how can he be sure that Jesus was indeed resurrected? I'm not saying that Jesus wasn't resurrected, only that Evan's argument won't be convincing anyone who doesn't already believe in the resurrection.
More to come on the Biblical inerrancy debate in future posts.
FYI: Since Genesis 40 is about dream interpretation, I thought it would be fun to look up the dream meanings of various things from the Bible. All these come from dreammoods.com
GOD - To see God in your dream, signifies your spirituality and expression of your feelings about divinity. God also symbolizes an untouchable, unreachable, and unattainable notion of perfection. Thus such a dream may highlight your struggles and attempts with trying to be perfect.
To dream that you are worshipping God, signifies repentance of your actions and errors.
To dream that God speaks to you, signifies feelings of guilt, eternal punishment, and damnation.
To dream that you are a god, implies your own special talents which you have not yet recognized or have not fully developed. Alternatively, it suggests your feelings of superiority over others. You think you are above others and have a tendency to look down on people.
JESUS - To see Jesus in your dream, foretells that your greatest desires and goals will be realized. This dream serves to console and strengthen you in your times of adversity, hardship and struggle. You will rise above any situation and circumstance and become victorious.
To dream that Jesus speaks to you or that you are praying with Him, signifies that you will be blessed with true peace of mind, joy and contentment.
CROSS - To see a cross in your dream, signifies suffering, martyrdom, death, and/or sacrifice. Perhaps your dream is telling you that you have a cross to bear. Ask yourself what is causing you to suffer or what is causing you great difficulties.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
This I Used to Believe
The most recent episode of This American Life involves a phone conversation between a deeply religious and a deeply non-religious person. What they talk about covers a lot of the tough, gnawing questions that I also have.
EXCERPT
Ira Glass and his non-religious guest talking about why people die when they do.
IRA: What if it's as simple as, for people who believe in God, God takes people at different times and that doesn't mean that God doesn't have some plan for you?
GUEST: See that makes more sense to me than anything he ever said in our conversation.
IRA: Well that's very sad because I actually don't believe in God.
GUEST: [laughs]
---
Check it out HERE (listen to the whole thing, or skip to act 2 for the story on religion)
EXCERPT
Ira Glass and his non-religious guest talking about why people die when they do.
IRA: What if it's as simple as, for people who believe in God, God takes people at different times and that doesn't mean that God doesn't have some plan for you?
GUEST: See that makes more sense to me than anything he ever said in our conversation.
IRA: Well that's very sad because I actually don't believe in God.
GUEST: [laughs]
---
Check it out HERE (listen to the whole thing, or skip to act 2 for the story on religion)
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
GENESIS 39, or, "Mrs. Potiphar, you're trying to seduce me"
Wherein we witness the Bible's first account of sexual harassment in the workplace
The Ishmaelites who captured Joseph take him to Egypt where he is sold as a servant to Potiphar, the captain of the guard for Pharaoh. Though now a lowly servant, God is still with Joseph, blessing everything he does. Because of this he exceeds at his job and becomes Potiphar's most favored and trusted servant.
"Joseph was well-built and handsome" the Good Book tells us, and so he quickly catches the eye of Potiphar's wife, who tries to get Joseph to sleep with her. Joe, being the stand-up guy he is, refuses. The wife gets more aggressive, grabbing Joe by the cloak. Joe (in not exactly the most manliest of moves in the Bible) runs away from her, leaving the cloak in her hands.
The wife later shows the cloak to Potiphar, claiming that it is evidence that Joe tried to seduce her. Furious, the captain throws poor Joe into jail. While in jail, Joe is treated well because God is still with him.
---
I suppose there's a lesson to be gleaned from this chapter - be righteous and God will stay with you. But most of all it's just a good story.
Chapters like Gen 39 reinforce my growing belief that the Bible is not a rule book - not entirely, anyway. Sometimes it just wants to entertain.
The Ishmaelites who captured Joseph take him to Egypt where he is sold as a servant to Potiphar, the captain of the guard for Pharaoh. Though now a lowly servant, God is still with Joseph, blessing everything he does. Because of this he exceeds at his job and becomes Potiphar's most favored and trusted servant.
"Joseph was well-built and handsome" the Good Book tells us, and so he quickly catches the eye of Potiphar's wife, who tries to get Joseph to sleep with her. Joe, being the stand-up guy he is, refuses. The wife gets more aggressive, grabbing Joe by the cloak. Joe (in not exactly the most manliest of moves in the Bible) runs away from her, leaving the cloak in her hands.
The wife later shows the cloak to Potiphar, claiming that it is evidence that Joe tried to seduce her. Furious, the captain throws poor Joe into jail. While in jail, Joe is treated well because God is still with him.
---
I suppose there's a lesson to be gleaned from this chapter - be righteous and God will stay with you. But most of all it's just a good story.
Chapters like Gen 39 reinforce my growing belief that the Bible is not a rule book - not entirely, anyway. Sometimes it just wants to entertain.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
GENESIS 38, or, "Masturbation is (not?) a crime"
Wherein we detour into the life of Judah and his sons.
Taking a break from the story of Joseph, Gen 38 focuses on his brother Judah, who leaves his family and gets hitched to a woman named Shua. They have three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah.
Er is married to a girl by the name of Tamar, but shortly afterward God puts Er to death for being "wicked." Judah then tells Onan to sleep with Tamar to produce an offspring for Er. Onan has some scruples with this, and so let's just say that he "pulls out" when he is with her. Because of this, Onan is soon put to death by God (for wickedness, of course).
Tamar goes to live with her father at Enaim. Later on, Judah is passing through and Tamar decides to disguise herself as a prostitute and sleep with him (only later does Judah realize he had sex with his daughter-in-law. Oops!). She becomes preggers and gives birth to two sons: Perez and Zelah.
---
Okay, this chapter has special significance to me. When I was a teenager, my clique consisted of both religious and non-religious folks and there was great debate about whether it was right or wrong to masturbate. The "wrong to masturbate" side cited the fact that the Bible classified it as a sin. The "right to masturbate" side cited the fact that masturbation is "totally awesome."
One of my friends was on the fence about the issue so he went straight to the source - good ol' Genesis 38. As it turns out, a group of kill-joy Roman Catholics in the medieval era interpreted Gen 38 as illustrating that both masturbation and coitus interruptus are sinful, and that interpretation has stuck ever since. But, as my friend and I discovered when we looked it up ourselves, that reading doesn't really hold water.
Here's Gen 38:6-10
"Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.
Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also."
You can make up your own mind, but the passage seemed to us to be saying that it was Onan's disobedience, not the fact that he "spilled his semen", that got him put to death. And thus a giant weight was taken off our shoulders.
GENESIS 38 in pop culture: In David Foster Wallace's magnum opus "Infinite Jest" the United States has been renamed "The Organization of North American Nations" or O.N.A.N.
P.S. Thanks to MumDoris for motivating to get off my butt and blog some more.
Taking a break from the story of Joseph, Gen 38 focuses on his brother Judah, who leaves his family and gets hitched to a woman named Shua. They have three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah.
Er is married to a girl by the name of Tamar, but shortly afterward God puts Er to death for being "wicked." Judah then tells Onan to sleep with Tamar to produce an offspring for Er. Onan has some scruples with this, and so let's just say that he "pulls out" when he is with her. Because of this, Onan is soon put to death by God (for wickedness, of course).
Tamar goes to live with her father at Enaim. Later on, Judah is passing through and Tamar decides to disguise herself as a prostitute and sleep with him (only later does Judah realize he had sex with his daughter-in-law. Oops!). She becomes preggers and gives birth to two sons: Perez and Zelah.
---
Okay, this chapter has special significance to me. When I was a teenager, my clique consisted of both religious and non-religious folks and there was great debate about whether it was right or wrong to masturbate. The "wrong to masturbate" side cited the fact that the Bible classified it as a sin. The "right to masturbate" side cited the fact that masturbation is "totally awesome."
One of my friends was on the fence about the issue so he went straight to the source - good ol' Genesis 38. As it turns out, a group of kill-joy Roman Catholics in the medieval era interpreted Gen 38 as illustrating that both masturbation and coitus interruptus are sinful, and that interpretation has stuck ever since. But, as my friend and I discovered when we looked it up ourselves, that reading doesn't really hold water.
Here's Gen 38:6-10
"Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.
Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also."
You can make up your own mind, but the passage seemed to us to be saying that it was Onan's disobedience, not the fact that he "spilled his semen", that got him put to death. And thus a giant weight was taken off our shoulders.
GENESIS 38 in pop culture: In David Foster Wallace's magnum opus "Infinite Jest" the United States has been renamed "The Organization of North American Nations" or O.N.A.N.
P.S. Thanks to MumDoris for motivating to get off my butt and blog some more.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
GENESIS 37, or, "Here Comes That Dreamer!"
Wherein the Bible gets the Broadway treatment
You can't be a Biblical patriarch without favoring one son over your others and thus instigate a violent and ruinous sibling rivalry. You just can't.
To wit. Jacob singles out his favorite son Joseph by giving him a swanky coat (of the "amazing technocolor dream" variety). His other sons get jealous. Then Joseph has two dreams in which he is being bowed down to. This doesn't help the situation. Joseph is kind of a spoiled blabber mouth to tell you the truth.
In reaction, his brothers plan to kill him. One of them, Ruben, asks that they simply throw Joseph down a water tank and leave him alive. This sounds good enough to the other brothers, so this is what they do.
For Joseph though, things turn from bad to worse when the brothers see a caravan approaching and they decide to sell off their smug sibling to the merchants ("Hey, at least we didn't kill him!" is their logic).
They then take Joseph's robe (coat, or whatever), dip it in goats blood and show it to their father Jacob to trick him into thinking that his favored son was mauled by some wild animal.
Genesis in Pop Culture: Joseph's story is plot to the musical, "Joseph and the Amazing Technocolor Dream Coat". I've never seen it, but it looks pretty incredible. Here's a track list of the songs:
* Overture (not on the recording)
* Prologue
* Any Dream Will Do
* Jacob and Sons
* Joseph's Coat
* Joseph's Dreams
* Poor, Poor Joseph
* One More Angel in Heaven
* The Journey to Egypt (Bill Kenwright Touring Version Only)
* Potiphar
* Close Every Door
* Go, Go, Go Joseph
* Entr'acte (not on the recording)
* Pharaoh's Story
* Poor, Poor Pharaoh
* Song of the King (Seven Fat Cows)
* Pharaoh's Dreams Explained
* Stone the Crows
* King of My Heart (2007 London staging and subsequent UK tour only)
* Those Canaan Days
* The Brothers Come To Egypt
* Grovel, Grovel
* Who's the Thief?
* Benjamin Calypso
* Joseph All the Time
* Jacob in Egypt
* Finale: Any Dream Will Do / Give Me My Coloured Coat
* Joseph Megamix (for curtain call in some big productions)
And here's a clip from a recent TV production starring Donnie "A Little Bit Rock 'n Roll" Osmond.
You can't be a Biblical patriarch without favoring one son over your others and thus instigate a violent and ruinous sibling rivalry. You just can't.
To wit. Jacob singles out his favorite son Joseph by giving him a swanky coat (of the "amazing technocolor dream" variety). His other sons get jealous. Then Joseph has two dreams in which he is being bowed down to. This doesn't help the situation. Joseph is kind of a spoiled blabber mouth to tell you the truth.
In reaction, his brothers plan to kill him. One of them, Ruben, asks that they simply throw Joseph down a water tank and leave him alive. This sounds good enough to the other brothers, so this is what they do.
For Joseph though, things turn from bad to worse when the brothers see a caravan approaching and they decide to sell off their smug sibling to the merchants ("Hey, at least we didn't kill him!" is their logic).
They then take Joseph's robe (coat, or whatever), dip it in goats blood and show it to their father Jacob to trick him into thinking that his favored son was mauled by some wild animal.
Genesis in Pop Culture: Joseph's story is plot to the musical, "Joseph and the Amazing Technocolor Dream Coat". I've never seen it, but it looks pretty incredible. Here's a track list of the songs:
* Overture (not on the recording)
* Prologue
* Any Dream Will Do
* Jacob and Sons
* Joseph's Coat
* Joseph's Dreams
* Poor, Poor Joseph
* One More Angel in Heaven
* The Journey to Egypt (Bill Kenwright Touring Version Only)
* Potiphar
* Close Every Door
* Go, Go, Go Joseph
* Entr'acte (not on the recording)
* Pharaoh's Story
* Poor, Poor Pharaoh
* Song of the King (Seven Fat Cows)
* Pharaoh's Dreams Explained
* Stone the Crows
* King of My Heart (2007 London staging and subsequent UK tour only)
* Those Canaan Days
* The Brothers Come To Egypt
* Grovel, Grovel
* Who's the Thief?
* Benjamin Calypso
* Joseph All the Time
* Jacob in Egypt
* Finale: Any Dream Will Do / Give Me My Coloured Coat
* Joseph Megamix (for curtain call in some big productions)
And here's a clip from a recent TV production starring Donnie "A Little Bit Rock 'n Roll" Osmond.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
GENESIS 36, or, "So-and-so begat so-and-so"
You know the drill by now
This is another chapter where we learn the names of the descendants of an important figure in the Bible. This time, it's Esau.
Interesting things to note here: We are told that "Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan". Canaan, remember, is the land of the descendants of Ham, Noah's cursed son and believed by some to be the father of the African people. This reinforces Genesis' theme of "Good Brother/Bad Brother". There is the chosen lineage that God favors, and then there are the others. Without a doubt, Esau falls into the "other" category, where Ham also fell.
I've noticed that sometimes the Bible will throw in funny little asides while laying out these lineages. Like here, in GEN 36:24, we have "The sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who discovered the hot springs in the desert while he was grazing the donkeys of his father Zibeon"
I like imagining someone from the olden times reading that and going, "Oh... that Anah"
BONUS: Today, I'll leave you with a miniaturized version of a gigantic diagram that outlines the genealogy of the Old Testament. See the full resolution diagram HERE on the University of Minnesota Duluth website (Go bulldogs!).
This is another chapter where we learn the names of the descendants of an important figure in the Bible. This time, it's Esau.
Interesting things to note here: We are told that "Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan". Canaan, remember, is the land of the descendants of Ham, Noah's cursed son and believed by some to be the father of the African people. This reinforces Genesis' theme of "Good Brother/Bad Brother". There is the chosen lineage that God favors, and then there are the others. Without a doubt, Esau falls into the "other" category, where Ham also fell.
I've noticed that sometimes the Bible will throw in funny little asides while laying out these lineages. Like here, in GEN 36:24, we have "The sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who discovered the hot springs in the desert while he was grazing the donkeys of his father Zibeon"
I like imagining someone from the olden times reading that and going, "Oh... that Anah"
BONUS: Today, I'll leave you with a miniaturized version of a gigantic diagram that outlines the genealogy of the Old Testament. See the full resolution diagram HERE on the University of Minnesota Duluth website (Go bulldogs!).
Friday, October 24, 2008
Genesis 35, or, "Everybody Dies"
Okay, not "everybody," but quite a few.
Namely, Rachel, Isaac, and a bunch of innocent townsfolk.
With Jacob's sons having just slaughtered every man in a nearby ruling tribe, God decides that it's time for him and his family to get the heck out of Dodge. God tells Jacob to flee to Bethel, the site where the stairway to Heaven was revealed to him (See Genesis 28). Jacob packs his family up and they hightail it out of there.
Just to make sure nobody follows them, God then kills everybody in the nearby towns.
Okay, to be fair, this is my interpretation of this passage. The actual verse reads: "the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them." I suppose you could take this as meaning that God spared their lives, yet paralyzed them with fear. Kind of like Gotham City at the end of Batman Begins. If God were Scarecrow, the villain.
Anyway.
Jacob and his family vamoose. On their way to Bethel, Rachel dies while giving birth to one last son, Benjamin. And then, when the family reaches Bethel, Isaac dies as well.
---
FYI: Rachel's tomb is still in existence and is the third holiest site in Judaism. You can visit a website about it HERE. There, you can learn more about the tomb, buy a pizza for an Israeli soldier, or, if your name happens to be Rachel, sign up for their project to collect the names of every Rachel in the world. Mazel tov!
Namely, Rachel, Isaac, and a bunch of innocent townsfolk.
With Jacob's sons having just slaughtered every man in a nearby ruling tribe, God decides that it's time for him and his family to get the heck out of Dodge. God tells Jacob to flee to Bethel, the site where the stairway to Heaven was revealed to him (See Genesis 28). Jacob packs his family up and they hightail it out of there.
Just to make sure nobody follows them, God then kills everybody in the nearby towns.
Okay, to be fair, this is my interpretation of this passage. The actual verse reads: "the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them." I suppose you could take this as meaning that God spared their lives, yet paralyzed them with fear. Kind of like Gotham City at the end of Batman Begins. If God were Scarecrow, the villain.
Anyway.
Jacob and his family vamoose. On their way to Bethel, Rachel dies while giving birth to one last son, Benjamin. And then, when the family reaches Bethel, Isaac dies as well.
---
FYI: Rachel's tomb is still in existence and is the third holiest site in Judaism. You can visit a website about it HERE. There, you can learn more about the tomb, buy a pizza for an Israeli soldier, or, if your name happens to be Rachel, sign up for their project to collect the names of every Rachel in the world. Mazel tov!
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