Alternative interpretations of bible stories

[vijeno]

I think one of the mot beautiful aspects of ancient stories is that we can interpret them in different ways, and none of them is necessarily the best, none of them necessarily wrong - though certainly some might be more "out there" than others.

This thread is not intended to be about right or wrong - let's enjoy a bit of creativity and benevant misinterpretation!

Essentially, just asking ourselves "what if..." within the framework of the actual text.

Here are two of my favourite ones:

Gen 12 - Abram and Sarai in Egypt: What if the suggestion to act as if Sarai was Abram's sister actually came from her? Living in a serail for a while might have been a rather sedcuctive perspective. She was tempted by wealth, and for a while she gave in. Then she came to her senses and realized that true love is more important than money, and god helped her get back to her husband.

Lk 15 - The prodigal son: I like to see this as a story of a tragically failed cord cutting / emancipation. The son doesn't make it on his own in the world, so he has to crawl back to daddy.

If we can, it would be nice if we refrained from debating these interpretations. FWIW, I know that mine are not compatible with the original intention. Let's keep it relaxed and fun!

 

[sun rise]

My interpretation of Adam/Eve/snake is that it's a metaphor for animals becoming human, discovering that there's the bipolar concept of right and wrong and losing their animal innocence.

 

[vijeno]

My interpretation of Adam/Eve/snake is that it's a metaphor for animals becoming human, discovering that there's the bipolar concept of right and wrong and losing their animal innocence.

Oh wow, I never thought of that one, I like it!

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

This weeks parashah is Ki Tetze' (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19) which includes the following:

22:6 If, along the road, you chance upon a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go , and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life. [source]​

The JPS Commentary adds:

Not Capturing A Mother Bird Along With Her Young (vv. 6-7)​

​

This law is similar to Leviticus 22:28, "No animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young." Both laws inculcate reverence for the parent-child relationship even among animals. This motive is suggested by the preceding law in Leviticus 22:27: "When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall stay seven days with its mother,, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering." The prohibition of boiling a kid in it's mother's milk (14:21) most likely has essentially the same motive. [ibid]​

Nice. Now let's move to the latter prohibition (as we did in today's Torah class.

It is from this verse that one derives the Jewish law against mixing meat and milk. So, what does this have to do with the mother bird and her young?

In Hebrew, Deuteronomy 14:21 looks like this ...

לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽוֹ​

where we see a form of the Hebrew word for milk (חָלָב). Interestingly enough, one Hebrew word for fat/suet/grease/marrow is (חֵלֶב), i.e., identical except for the vowel pointers (niqqud). Note that niqqud evolved centuries after both the Torah and the Talmud. So ...

---

What if Deuteronomy 14:21 was misinterpreted?

What if it, in fact, prohibited cooking a kid in its mother's fat? Why such a prohibition? For the same reason discussed above, the idea being that cooking a kid in its mother's fat could suggest that both were killed at roughly the same time.

 

[Spice]

A very interesting take on a Bible story is the novel, The Way, by Kristen Wolf. This is a take on the New Testament "if" Christ had been chosen as a female.

Another I enjoyed is The Betrayal, the Lost Life of Jesus, by Kathleen O'Neal Gear. The primary premise of this novel is the cause and purpose behind the hiding of what we know as the Nag Hammadi Library. In this story, however, the tale of the end of Jesus's life is different.

And a very enjoyable, light-hearted version of the Gospels can be found in the comedic novel Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Jesus's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. As hilarious as this story is, it still brings serious thought to the exploring mind as it covers those undocumented years, and brings the Crucifixion into focus through the eyes of a BFF. I laughed all the way through, but cried at the end from a new view of a very old story.

 

[nizar]

I think we can interpret Moses' staff by the human desires, when we throw them on the ground we could see their truth as dangerous snake.

 

[wellwisher]

I think we can interpret Moses' staff by the human desires, when we throw them on the ground we could see their truth as dangerous snake.

The staff is a phallic symbol. But a staff is used to balance yourself over rough terrain, help support your weight when hurt or tired, and it can also be used as a weapon for self defense. In that sense, the staff is not desire. Desire runs heads first into things; no staff needed. Rather the staff is used to appease uncertainty, weakness, and even fear. Staff=Snake =Satan= knowledge of good and evil. The dangerous snake is Satan who lives in the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God asked Adam, to avoid, since it is an illusion.

Satan scammed, Eve and Adam by saying, " as soon as you eat you shall be like God knowing good from evil." This made Adam and Eve feel more secure and safe, until the crap hit the fan, and then they realized that was an illusion; magic trick. It led to a hard life.

The tree of life would have been more connected to desire, since whatever you desired was there in paradise to be had. That tree was not about fear of evil, but rather attractions based on the desires of natural instincts.