2. Keep working on your TFA observations-chart-summary-claim-discussion. If you've added a specific quotation from the text to your discussion in a graceful way, now choose a juicy word from that quotation, discuss that word in relation to your claim, and integrate this addition into your discussion in a graceful way.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
due Friday 9/18
1. Please read chaps. 10-15 of Genesis, and blog about it here. Please try to notice places where the words reveal or imply something about the culture or values of the people who produced the book of Genesis, and speculate about what environment could give rise to such culture or values.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
in chapter 11 it says how in there culture they used bricks that they hardened with fire- and became stone. Kind of like what the people in Sumer did (what were learning about in english) that is big cultural fact.
ReplyDelete* i also really like the line Chaper 11;1 The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words' for some reason that stands out to me.
-Audrey Emerson
I agree with Audrey that it's neat how in chapter 11, there are accounts of using bricks made from clay, and mentioning Babylon which is what we are currently discussing in World History. The language part is neat too because the evolution process that was mentioned in a discussion was how each individual place was developing one language. Maybe in the Bible it could be literal, and everyone really did speak the language, or it could be a metaphor as in everyone was close to God, and worshiped.
ReplyDeleteAlso it's neat how people are connected in these stories, and the similarities and differences between then and today really stand out. (There is a lot of famine throughout the book of Genesis just as an observation, but it wasn't uncommon for that to be the case in those times)
-Maddie Adams
Building off of what Audrey and Maddie said, further on in chapter 11 of the book of Genesis, God (the Lord) states that "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do..." (Genesis 11:6). They were really starting to become one nation of people. This is very different from the life style that we live in now; instead of one language and one way of living, we have many ways of doing things. It makes me wonder how all of this broke apart over the many years.
ReplyDeleteMiranda- you put into words what I couln't haha.!
ReplyDelete-I have read
Audrey Emerson
I noticed something else in chapter 11 that struck me as interesting."The Lord said, "look they are on people,and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do;nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them." This is before God scatters the people across the planet. Clearly this shows that they are living in a much older society without the help of technology. People living far from us are reachable with the touch of a button and with the concept of public education many people are familiar with several languages. This truly shows that little is impossible for our society to achieve and that this message from god has been lost
ReplyDeleteThroughout the story, I was amazed at Abram’s faith in God and his obedience. Abram had to face numerous adventures in his life, but he always depended on God. Genesis 12:4 says, “So Abram left, as the LORD had told him…” Also, in Genesis 14:22, Abram would have actually not minded receiving any gifts from the King of Sodom, but since God had told him not to, he obeyed without any excuses. Most interestingly, Abram desperately wanted to have a son. But God promised him against all impossible odds that He will give him his son, and as 15:6 says, “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” I felt that while both Mesopotamian religion and Christianity are both rigorously religious, they are very different from each other. Mesopotamian religion is about need connecting to gods, while Christianity is more about the personal relationship with God and the faith and trust you put in Him.
ReplyDeleteThe Tower of Babel is one of my favorite stories in the bible because i find it so interesting how these people thought they could build a tower to heaven. A couple of noticeable elements of their culture in this story are the fact that they used brick and tar for mortar to make the tower and also the fact that these people wanted to make a name for themselves. This means that making a name for themselves was important in thier cultue much like it is in our culture today. While reading i also noted that Abram followed gods command, like Noah in the last reading, very closely and did whatever God commanded him to do and they were blessed by god. This gave me an idea of why some people wanted to reach the heavens in this time. God was a head figure and if you followed him, he blessed you, and if you did not then you were constantly trying to be noticed and punished by God.
ReplyDelete(sorry-i think i phrased that last part strangely, so i hope you can understand what i meant!)
-Erin Moody
I have another Bible/Sumer comparison. In the Bible they say "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens." This is similar to the Sumerians belief that the higher they place the temple on a ziggurat, the closer it is to the gods, giving them greater benefits in life.
ReplyDeleteBecause the people in chapter 11 resorted to using bricks as a building material(much like the Sumerians, as Audrey said), then we can presume that the land in which they settled has few trees or rocks that could be usable building materials, and that it is probably a warm climate. Through these chapters, you also get a sense that having many children is of much value in their culture, which is understandable, when presumably they are re-populating the earth. Also, on a completely other note, God see's that humans are being very productive, so he decides to confuse them by changing their language, but why would god want to reduce the productivity of the human race?
ReplyDeleteI think it's very interesting how most of chapters 10 and 11 were basically a listing of many family trees which were spun off of other family trees. I think it would be fascinating to see if there was an actual picture linking all of the names listed within chapters 10 and 11. I also that it's a great coincidence that today in history class, we talked about using mud brick as a form of substance to use for buildings. Lastly, I thought that the story of Abram was captivating, because of the fact that he had a direct conversation with God.
ReplyDeleteNo I totally understand what you are saying Erin. I also love the story of the tower of babel. I like this story so much because it is very much like Adam and Eve where people were curios and wanted to know more or be able to reach God( the fruit, and the tower rising to heaven) and every time humans have tried God punishes them (adam,working for food, Eve, painful childbirth, and the people building the tower, speaking different languages,) I feel like people back then in that culture were always trying to get as "close" to god as possible,but never succeeded. Nowadays people just understand that it is impossible to "cheat the system" and they just follow his law.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how in chapter 11 God said "Behold, the people is one, and they have one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." This shows one fleeting moment of a perfect unity. The people then ask to be separated and not understand each other's speech and God obliges. No explanation is given why the people did not want to be together and speaking one language nor does it give an explanation why God obliges so easily. Why did the people want to be separated?
ReplyDeleteI also noticed the connection between Sumer's use of bricks and the large stone tower of Babylon. To me they seemed like Ziggurats (as mentioned above me). However the whole part of god taking away their unified language struck me as quite odd. It seems that even back then us humans were never quite happy with our lot.
ReplyDelete-Ashley
I can relate to Julian fully, about how God sees all people being productive. I always thought that God was always prepared to build a city,and create what we live on today. It's so ironic how similar the Sumerian culture is to chapter 11 and how they used bricks to build their buildings.
ReplyDeleteI found the exact thing that Audrey found interesting, interesting. I thought that it was cool when it said that they used bricks that they hardened with fire which later became stone, that was just like what we were talking about in History Class, and I thought that it was cool that there was that connection between the two classes that just brought everything together.
ReplyDeleteI agree with almost everyone who has posted here, especially Chris in when he said the tower high in the sky reminds him of a ziggurat. I actually thought of that myself, but you got to commenting before me :)
ReplyDeleteI find it funny how it says the whole world had the same language. It reminds me of Mesopetamia, the area we are studying in History. In Mesopatamia, alot of the cities have the same language, writing and ways of living, and I found it ironic that one of those similiaries could be found in the English homework. I also found it funny how Abram did everything the LORD told him to. That just shows how much they believe in their god and how much trust they have in them.
I thought that the most powerful phrase in these chapters was "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." because todays modern world is full of differences in culture and language. It is hard for us to imagine a world where everyone can understand eachother and unify the way the sons of Noah did. Until the lord scattered everybody and there language, whic could be their explanation as to why todays society is full of many different people.
ReplyDeleteThere is also an obvious connection to the modern world (and Babylonia) in chapter eleven...These people wanted to build a temple "As close to the heavens as possible", similar to the way we build our churches with tall steples, and the babylonians built their Ziurrats as tall as possible
I have a revision on my comment. I think that I may have interpreted what I wrote about the wrong way, (partially due to my bad copy of genesis- I have a better one now). The people did not ask to be separated, God separated them as a punishment. The act was so random and unexplained. It makes me wonder why God would do this? Was he angry because they might have been trying to reach Heaven?
ReplyDeleteIf you ever look at this post again Mr. Durning will you talk about this in class. Thanks!
Alana