biblical literature

the beauty of death in "the slave"

2006-12-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

the deaths of sarah and jacob are vivid and beautifully portrayed. while i feel that sarah's death was tradgic, she had prophesized that she would die during childbirth. while she was suffering through the difficult delivery of her son benjamin, the towns people gathered around her thinking that the second miracle of the mute speaking was occuring. however, sarah wanted to confess what had really been going on. she told the people of pilitz everything: that she was a peasent gentile girl named wanda who had fallen in love with jacob and he taught her the ways of the torah, but her yiddish was not good enough to get by. so the young lovers had agreed that sarah would pretend to be a mute in order to not get them both into trouble. when sarah had finally come to the end of her struggle, jacob wanted nothing more than to die and be with her. "now his only desire was to die with her. he had forgotten the child. he wanted to descend into sheol from which none return" (242). jacob was then forced into excommunication. he fled to israel with his newborn son. he had a very dangerous adventure with himself being weak, and the baby not having a breast from which to suckle. twenty years later, when jacob returned from israel to pilitz to gather the bones of his beloved, he got want he had so honestly wished for two decades previous. jacob became weak after his long journey and new his end was near. when he breathed his last breath, the towns people decided he should be placed next to his deceased wife, who had never has a proper towbstone [or burial for that matter]. the last line of the towbstone had a quotation from the bible. it read "lovely and pleasent in their lives, and in their death they were not divided" (311). although jacob did not die when he had so badly wanted to, he was able to watch his child grow and prosper into a learned teacher and then lay to rest next to his beloved, sarah, in pilitz. when sarah died, or when any mother dies during childbirth, the father felt that he had lost everything. when in fact a part of both himself, and his beloved sarah, had just been born.

speaking of pissing people off...

2006-12-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

i hope that my bible that i shared in class didnt offend anyone to much. if it did you probably deserve to be offended. its just a silly project [provinghow much spare time that i used to have] that i did a long time ago, but felt that it went along with what i was going for in my paper. for anyone that didnt get it i am completely open minded and feel that those quotations that i highlighted are ridiculous. also i think the people that use them to justify slavery, rape, killing, and gay bashing are ridiculous.

many people dont practice what they preach

2006-12-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

as i wrote in my term paper, it astonishes me to watch how people choose to interpret and practice their religion. while much of the bible is meant to be understood metaphorically, many people are too ignorant to realize this and take the bible literally. this can be harmful because the bible does say some very ty things when taken literally word for word. however, this bible is ful of great stories which are beautiful life lessons for all of us. also the ten commandments are the basic principles for living a good, moral life.

many people consider themselves to be good "christians" and only go to church on holidays. others go to church at least once a week, but beat their kids, swear, and cheat on their husband/wife minutes after leaving the holy building. similarily, jacob, in singers "the slave" notices these same patterns within his religion. "despite the thirty-odd years he had lived in the world, jacob was continually astonished at how many jews obeyed only half the torah" (singer 219).

i have witnessed several protests in my travels in which a certain church is protesting that "god s....[fill in the blank]". usually these people are protesting homosexuals, abortion, or anyone thats not white and christian. it seems bizarre that these protests even happen. these people consider themselves religious, and honestly feel that they are promoting what is right. but it is my understanding that god is supposed to love EVERYONE with no exceptions. dr. phelp's westboro baptist church followers travels around the country promoting the idea that "god s fags". being an activist, as well as a lesbian, i have gone to several of these events to counter protest. there are usually about 5-10 of phelp's followers, and several hundred counter protesters. also, i should note that the westboro crew often does their protests outside of churchs on sundays so that they can be seen by all the church goers as they leave the service. these guys are had to take seriously, but they have obviously ed me, and thousands of other [christain, jewish, atheist, buddihist, mormon] human beings off.

Lady Pilitsky of singers "the slave" is an alcoholic

2006-12-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

Lady Pilitsky is clearly alcoholic. She drinks mead and wine in her room alone, and hints that one must consume alcohol in order to have fun. She speaks of her fathers manor Jew who would be the life of the party without being wasted. "but he wouldnt drink and though he took part in the fun, he stayed sober. my father always siad only a jew could do that" (Singer 194). she clearly needs to be buzzed in order to be socialable....(which some alcoholic people not in recovery would call social drinking). she goes on to say that she cannot image the world once she has died. this is a very self centered, alcoholic way of thinking. "sometime i find it impossible to believe that the world will go on after im gone, that the sun will shine, the trees blossom--but i wont be there. no its unimaginable" (Singer 194). although some people might feel as though lady pilitsky it a bitch, she is clearly suffering from alcoholism and i feel for her. i think its sad she died alone, with only her cats around her.

the song of songs

2006-11-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

i had a really good time reading, researching, and organizing a presentaion of the song of songs. the lustful book is a beautiful poem between two young lovers. three things that i would hope everyone would remember from our presentation are: 1. many poets throughout history have been inspired by the song of songs. 2. the use of bizarre metaphors and similies in songs create is strange mood that can't be taken very seriously by people from our culture. 3. in the song of songs, both the male and the female speak unshamelessly to one another, which is interesting because of the double standard that our society has today, where woman are supposed to be yeilding and shy.

hope everyone enjoyed our silly movie it was really fun to make.

they try to force jacob to eat non kosherly

2006-11-29T12:44:00.000-08:00

in singer's the slave, jacob is a jewish slave in gentile peasent society. since i picked up this book i related to jacob in the sense that i am the "black sheep" in my family, my group of friends, and most of society. while the peasents try to force jacob to eat non kosher foods, my family (especially my mother) encourages me to drink. now jacobs situation is far more serious, because at times he is faced with the decision to eat the food that is being offered to him, or to not eat at all. this is a huge test of his faith in god and will to practice what he believes is right. similarily, when i am around my mother (example, thanksgiving weekend) she really encourages me to drink. as a recovering alcoholic, i know that one drink with trigger a full blown relapse which i will propably not get out of without hurting myself and others both physically and emotionally. however, this past weekend i gave my will to my higher power (which is not a god, or gods, but my desire to be happy and healthy) and was able, for the first time since i was twelve years old, to be around my mother and not drink. it is funny that this remarkable achievement on my part occured while reading the slave, because i can very much relate with the situation that jacob was in while he was still in the gentile peasent society.

study guide for quiz #2

2006-11-11T17:58:00.000-08:00

hagiography: holy writings, writings about a saint
karos: deceicive momentin time that abliterates time
the sermon on the mound is positive version of the 10 commandments (decalog)
satan is accuser in judicial (prosecutor), not the judge
parabol: attack on structures of expectations
job is being tested not punished
3 great tradegies: job, bk, king leer
"removal of veil, so one may see": apocolyptic
theodicy: question of the justice of god
how does god justify jobs suffering: "who are you?"
epiphany in job: sudden manification of god
sublime: experience which is awful and awesome
enthusiasm: god is possessing you
opening of esslesiastes "vanity of vanities, all is vanity"
hebel: hebrew word for vanity
jesus individualizes the book of exodus
the lord gives and the lord taketh away (prologue to job)
job is not a model of patience
7 stages in the bible: creation, revolution, law, wisdon, prophecy, gospel, apocolypse
why is wanda's name changed to sarah? because all women who convert to judaism are called sarah
moses, david, & jesus are all archetypal heros
christianity started as a mystery religion
chapter mark 14: naked man runs away from sheep...
moses--burning bust/ job--whirlwind
define escotology: doctrine of the last days
according to frye gospels are not biographies
archetype: transcendent meaning specific history
tat tvam as: thou art, "your it!"
heilsgeschicnte: holy history
according to bloom, j's last great character is: moses
which images occurs at the very beginning and the end @ john 22: water
central mystery religion: demeter & persephone

good luck everyone, hope that this helps!

the ten commandments

2006-11-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

the ten commandments are my favorite part in the bible. they basically are simple concepts as how to live a good moral life. if everyone in the world would follow these basic laws, life would be a very different proposition. "the ten commandments are different from many of the laws of the books of deuteronomy and elsewhere in that they are really auguries of innocence. in other words, they describe a world which is not the world we live in, but which nevertheless is the genuinely human world" (frye 214). he goes on to say that some people think that the ten commandments are negative because they start out with, 'thouh shall not...' however they are in fact encouraging good moral behavior. this is my favorite feature of the bible because it is so simple and straight forward, and really has nothing to do with religion or faith, but rather living a good, moral life.

test thursday

2006-10-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

todays review session in class definantly was helpful in regards to the test we are having on thursday. does any one want to meet up wednesday night to continue studying?

quick response to tuesdays guest speaker

2006-09-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

i enojyed having a guest speaker come in on tuesday. it was nice to have a different point of view on what we have been talking about. it was very interesting to me how abram was the father of both isacc and ismael. isacc, who marries rebekka, is a father to christians and hebrews, and ismael is the father of muslims. i had not idea that the two branches of religions had some of the same early history.

comparing and contrasting j and p

2006-09-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

i was having a hard time trying to tell the difference between p and j when reading the bible, until sexton broke things down for us in class on tuesday. heres a list which will be helpful to anyone who wasnt in class or didnt take notes.

p version
-p's god is refered to as elchim
-transcendent god (sky god)
-writing based on faith
-p's writing is made up of order, lists (geneology, generation)

j version
-j's god is called yhw (yahweh)
-god is immanent
-writing based on experience
-j's book is writen as a story

hoped this clarified things a little bit.

god kills all of egypt's firstborns

2006-09-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

"thus says the lord: about midnight i will go out through egypt. every firstborn in the land of egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn livestock. Then there will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again." Exodus 10: 4-6

i continue to learn the ridiculous things that the bible says.

remember to pay rent today!

2006-09-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

having had no idea what to expect from this class, i have been pleasently encouraged by the readings and discussion we've had so far. although i was raised atheist, i went to catholic school for nine years, and have read much of the bible. however, i was always expected to take the readings literally. i am very excited to read the book as literature this semester. i have really enjoyed the book of j so far, and look forward to getting a chance to do some good reading on this long weekend.

(remember to pay rent today!)