Test Material: Test, Thursday 10-8,
-The Bible: Genesis
-Classroom Discussions: Check Blogs, Tom and this one
-Frye: Chapters 1 & 2
-Women and Bible lecture, Dr. Lynda Sexson
-David Plotz: Genesis
-Peer Blogs
Genesis: Chapter 38
-Lacuna, why did the lord slay Er, Judah’s firstborn. Judah’s other son must go unto Er’s wife, but Onan doesn’t want to – Wuss. And so the Lord slays him too. What’s Er’s wife gonna do? She pretends to be a temple prostitute, sacred prostitute.
Kugal and Berlinerb, call the bible junk sculpture and pastisch
Frye: bricolage: borrowing something here, borrowing something there. But that isn’t a bad thing, perhaps better, showing the unifying forces of these archetypes and mythos. Plotz thinks otherwise.
Genesis 42, 43: Joseph’s Brothers go to Egypt, Benjamin
-Benjamin getting handed around, keeping the game going, very narrative language, the J writer at her best.
Repetition in the bible is necessary, mandatory, deal with it.
Literature- to keep the game going
*Shift to a novel, Thomas Mann, a big novel that fills in the lacunas. * What’s better? The Lacunas or the details? Both?
Remember for Frye, ch. 3, Joseph is a fruitful Bow
Test Question/Material:
1. The two authors of creation stories in genesis, J, P; God in his PJ’s
2. JEDPR
3. First five books of the bible: Torah, Pentateuch. Genesis, Exodus, Levitucus, numbers Deuteronoy,
4. Torah, Nebahim, Ketuvim, Torah, Law, prophets, writing
5. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; three patriarchs.
6. How many sons did Jacob have? 12; which two are by the wife he wanted, Rachel, Joe and Ben.
7. What did Lynda think of Plotz? She hated him. Plotz thinks women are prostitutes, Lynda says they’re feminine metaphors of power, deception
8. Hosea: married a harlot, Israel is a harlot.
9. Lynda’s view of Lots daughters, passion and respect to procreate father’s seed.
10. Carl Eats Little Whinny Puppies with Gravy Asparagus: Creation, Exodus, Law, Wisdom, Prophecy, Gospel, Apocalypse
11. Vico’s ages: gods, heroes, men; Frye’s correlating stages of language: metaphor, metonymic, descriptive (demotic). *Frye says we should read the bible literally, as a child, what the text says is what it means, believe it for the sake or mythos, narrative
12. Mythos; Greek for “story”
13. Repetitive Parallelism, ex. Handsome and good looking.
14. Psalm 51, the boy hitting the high note.
15. Circumcision, biblical meaning, physical reminder of the covenant, sacrifice to God. Dr. Sexson’s mutilation of student’s earlobes,
16. Lacuna: Gaps in the text
17. Difference between Homer (not Simpson) and the bible: Homer describes everything, the bible leaves lacunas
18. Kerygma: revelation, a kind of language that blends revelation and proclamation.
19. Logos: story, words; has come to mean fact, truth; perhaps a true story about a talking snake.
20. Psyche: today means mind, back then meant “soul”.
21. Example of etiology: how did the elephant get its trunk, why do women give birth in pain? She listened to the snake. Why do snakes crawl on their bellies? Because the snake tempted, tricked Adam and Eve.
22. Archetype: a model narrative. Cain: archetype of fugitive.
23. Gnosticism: theology of philosophy, which locates salvation in knowledge. –Great definition Dr. Sexson. Movie: “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” See it.
24. Critical approach vs. traditional approach to the bible; critical = literary, scholarly approach; traditional = faith
25. Hubris: Tower of Babel, people who are to arrogant, excessive pride, so God jumbles their language.
26. Documentary Hypothesis: the first five books of the bile written by multiple authors. In a nutshell: that there were multiple authors of the bible.
27. Blogs: check the ones that have been brought up in class. Jason’s blog: colorful and inventive strategies to deal with hyperboles of bibles, but Jason explains that it’s metaphorical language; Occam’s Razor: the most likely answer is the simplest one. Nick’s blog on “The Lonely God”
28. Women in the bible, what were the writers worried about? Social Justice, Cultic purity, False Gods
29. Archetypes of Eve and Mary of women in the bible.
