For Wednesday & Friday: The Old Testament/Genesis (94-115)

NOTE: For many of us, Genesis is not literature and not something we read alongside works like The Iliad, etc.  However, there is an advantage to reading The Old Testament in a Humanities class: it allows us to be an ‘outsider’ to the work and read it with fresh eyes.  Even if you know it well, try to re-read the work as someone who has never heard it before, and consider the connections between it and other works in class from the same period. 

Answer TWO of the following…

1. This version of Genesis is translated by Robert Alter, so it’s not the King James’ version or another version you might be more familiar with.  Since whenever we read The Old Testament it’s in translation (unless you’re a Hebraic scholar), what does it mean to translate the word of God (for believers, at any rate)?  Are there any passages that are markedly different from what you’ve read or from what you remember?  How might this affect how we read the entire work? 

2. From an outsider’s point of view (someone who had never read this before and is not a believer), how would you characterize the wrath and judgment of God?  Sometimes the sin is apparent, as when Eve takes the apple and shares it with Adam when they were told not to; but at other times, the judgment seems less clear-cut, as when Canaan is punished for seeing his father naked, or Esau is passed over in favor of his ‘clever’ brother, Joseph.  What kind of morality does Genesis seem to express—and why might this seem troubling to modern readers?

3. Names are very important in Genesis: the name of God changes throughout, from the unpronounceable YHWH to the mysterious Ed Shaddai.  Adam and Eve are given names, and Abram and Sarai must change their names to Abraham and Sarah.  Indeed, many Herbrew names are also puns suggesting a deeper meaning or symbolic purpose.  Why does Genesis focus so much on names and the act of naming?  What does it tell us about the nature of faith, ideas, or religion? 

4. Discuss the role of women in Genesis: how does this relate to other women we’ve read about, from The Wife of Bath to Desdemona?  Are women made to ‘take the rap’ for the sins of man, as the Wife of Bath accuses in her Prologue?  From an outsider’s point of view, does this work seem misogynistic?  Consider Sarah’s comment, “Laughter has God made me,/Whoever hears will laugh at me” (105). 

5. We earlier discussed the role of art and faith, and how many traditions feel it is blasphemous to depict religious events in art.  What did you think about Robert  Crumb’s illustrations of Genesis, Chapter 25? (this is from an entire book he did on Genesis—he’s a famous graphic novelist).  Does he place too ‘modern’ a spin on the story, or does he strive to be more accurate and faithful?  How does it contrast to the text itself?  Should Genesis be a comic book?