sealchan
Well-Known Member
I was kindly asked to write about how I interpret the Genesis story...to what extent literal or figurative. I will try to briefly address this request and hopefully I will also be able to consolidate some of what I've learned in recent years as I have slowly moved from Chapter 1 to 36 in my study.
The title of the thread is my attempt to capture the main way in which I seem to be approaching my understanding of Genesis. Genesis and the Bible is a work of literature. I don't mean to say that at the outset the whole of the Bible is an invention without reference to reality. On the contrary I would say that in spite of the ambiguity and strong likelihood that its historical accuracy is questionable, it is most importantly about the reality of human experience in the world that a people who had come to believe in a unique God. Like any work of literature, if it were merely the invention of the imagination, its relationship to the reality of the reader might be so random as to annoy and put off the reader. But the Bible is anything but that although the distance of the original audience in time and even cultural reality can have the same impact on today's reader.
Now the Bible can be read as literature without also being dismissed as a basis of faith. Although reading the Bible as literature may challenge some of the as to the literalistic and perfect nature of the Word, I think that many will understand that its authors, although divinely inspired, still expressed God's truth partly from their own perspective. My hope is that by reading it as literature in a public context, both believers who want to understand the beauty, truth and original intent of its authors will have much common ground with atheists who want to do the same. Although atheists might approach the Bible as literature from a highly skeptical view as to its virtue, they can be asked to treat it as literature and take it at face value as a serious work and one often understood as deeply influential in the history of literature. In fact, more and more non-believers these days have taken up noteworthy careers in a study of the Bible simply because they see in it an opportunity to explore a great work of literature. Each line and each story in Genesis is part of a greater whole that was intentionally crafted by its authors in an effort to capture reality and the God of that reality.
In my own study I have found that the authors of Genesis should be seen as having consciously molded the story using motifs that repeat themselves in ever evolving and shifting ways. When one follows the motifs and sees how they are varied, you get the impression that the truth these stories are describing is never fully understood from just one perspective. You must take the whole evolution of the motif in hand to understand the whole of the spiritual truth that the Bible is trying to convey. The effect of such a structure of story is to invite interpretation and to provoke the individual to draw from their own personal experience in order to clarify the intentional ambiguities in the stories and across the stories. in other words, the Bible is a work of literature designed to invite participation from its audience through the intentional use of ambiguity and variety of perspective. As such the characters in the story, including God, do not have a neat, unambiguous description. The original audience as much as any later audience must bring to the story their own understanding and in a community effort discuss and learn about the subtleties and deep truths that are revealed when scripture is sincerely discussed together.
I also see Genesis as having been deeply inspired by other mythic and epic works from other cultures. I believe that modern scholarship is helping to show that the Bible was written from both local and foreign influences and that these influences were available to the authors through the cultures that the Jews were inundated by. Having been so often inundated yet cohesive enough to persist, the Jews became adept at survival within a more economically and militarily stronger conqueror. I have read some from other mythic and epic stories and have found either the direct or the shared influence between the Bible and these other works. Most notably I see a deep similarity in a shared cluster of motifs between Genesis and the Mahabharata. This goes beyond a sort the idea of shared motifs across stories due to human psychology. There are too many superficial complex similarities to see this as merely an unconscious similarity. If I ever decide to "go back to school" and get my PhD, I will probably aim at doing a thesis on this similarity and attempt to bring to light this deep similarity between these two stories. Currently my knowledge of the Mahabharata is relatively superficial and I am making the effort now to correct that.
Anyway this is a summary of my view on the understanding and interpretation of Genesis. Any questions, comments and thoughts are welcome.
The title of the thread is my attempt to capture the main way in which I seem to be approaching my understanding of Genesis. Genesis and the Bible is a work of literature. I don't mean to say that at the outset the whole of the Bible is an invention without reference to reality. On the contrary I would say that in spite of the ambiguity and strong likelihood that its historical accuracy is questionable, it is most importantly about the reality of human experience in the world that a people who had come to believe in a unique God. Like any work of literature, if it were merely the invention of the imagination, its relationship to the reality of the reader might be so random as to annoy and put off the reader. But the Bible is anything but that although the distance of the original audience in time and even cultural reality can have the same impact on today's reader.
Now the Bible can be read as literature without also being dismissed as a basis of faith. Although reading the Bible as literature may challenge some of the as to the literalistic and perfect nature of the Word, I think that many will understand that its authors, although divinely inspired, still expressed God's truth partly from their own perspective. My hope is that by reading it as literature in a public context, both believers who want to understand the beauty, truth and original intent of its authors will have much common ground with atheists who want to do the same. Although atheists might approach the Bible as literature from a highly skeptical view as to its virtue, they can be asked to treat it as literature and take it at face value as a serious work and one often understood as deeply influential in the history of literature. In fact, more and more non-believers these days have taken up noteworthy careers in a study of the Bible simply because they see in it an opportunity to explore a great work of literature. Each line and each story in Genesis is part of a greater whole that was intentionally crafted by its authors in an effort to capture reality and the God of that reality.
In my own study I have found that the authors of Genesis should be seen as having consciously molded the story using motifs that repeat themselves in ever evolving and shifting ways. When one follows the motifs and sees how they are varied, you get the impression that the truth these stories are describing is never fully understood from just one perspective. You must take the whole evolution of the motif in hand to understand the whole of the spiritual truth that the Bible is trying to convey. The effect of such a structure of story is to invite interpretation and to provoke the individual to draw from their own personal experience in order to clarify the intentional ambiguities in the stories and across the stories. in other words, the Bible is a work of literature designed to invite participation from its audience through the intentional use of ambiguity and variety of perspective. As such the characters in the story, including God, do not have a neat, unambiguous description. The original audience as much as any later audience must bring to the story their own understanding and in a community effort discuss and learn about the subtleties and deep truths that are revealed when scripture is sincerely discussed together.
I also see Genesis as having been deeply inspired by other mythic and epic works from other cultures. I believe that modern scholarship is helping to show that the Bible was written from both local and foreign influences and that these influences were available to the authors through the cultures that the Jews were inundated by. Having been so often inundated yet cohesive enough to persist, the Jews became adept at survival within a more economically and militarily stronger conqueror. I have read some from other mythic and epic stories and have found either the direct or the shared influence between the Bible and these other works. Most notably I see a deep similarity in a shared cluster of motifs between Genesis and the Mahabharata. This goes beyond a sort the idea of shared motifs across stories due to human psychology. There are too many superficial complex similarities to see this as merely an unconscious similarity. If I ever decide to "go back to school" and get my PhD, I will probably aim at doing a thesis on this similarity and attempt to bring to light this deep similarity between these two stories. Currently my knowledge of the Mahabharata is relatively superficial and I am making the effort now to correct that.
Anyway this is a summary of my view on the understanding and interpretation of Genesis. Any questions, comments and thoughts are welcome.
