tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88997930397829341602011-04-21T15:47:29.168-05:00Alex Richnoreply@blogger.comBlogger91100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-68039870004885273202007-03-28T17:11:00.000-05:002007-03-28T18:14:56.090-05:00

Well, there's lots more crazy dreams and poor management decisions in this chapter. In other news, God is a sadistic prick. But you already knew that, didn't you?So we start off with the Pharoah having a restless night of sleep. He's dreaming about skinny cows eating fat cows and scraggly stalks of wheat eating healthy stalks of wheat, and he's all upset because he doesn't know what this means

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-46074564645439667772007-03-09T11:23:00.000-05:002007-03-09T12:45:50.491-05:00

Man, Whoever wrote this chapter needs a lesson in economy of words. Like, I realize the copy I have now is an updated version of a translated version of the original text, but it really reads like the Author was just trying to fill out His word count, but didn't really have much to say. Maybe He was writing on a deadline, and this was His last chapter to finish and He was just really tired or

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-87940526169241830312007-03-07T17:11:00.000-05:002007-03-07T18:44:39.714-05:00

Wow. I've read some boring Bible passages, but this one was one of the worst. The only good thing I can say about Genesis 39 is that it's short. Short and stupid.Ostensibly, the lesson of this chapter is that if someone is with the LORD (whatever that means), he will do well in all of his endeavors. Whether that means being head slave for the Egyptian ruler or being in charge of the other

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-40924630455861633472006-12-12T15:48:00.000-05:002007-01-28T00:57:56.780-05:00

I get accused of being naïve quite a lot, usually because I am. I tend to be kind of slow realizing the implications of a lot of the hipocrisy and institutionalized discrimination in the world. Like, I'll say something like, "What in the hell is Bush talking about all the time when he says we need to 'win' in Iraq? What does that mean? Win what?" And then

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-80427617536997541222006-08-07T14:45:00.000-05:002007-01-27T15:47:56.575-05:00

It seems to me that whenever anyone talks about the book of Genesis, they only ever mention Noah's ark or Adam and Steve. The fact of the matter is, these terse, boring stories only last about a page or two each. Even the Cain and Abel story, which I always assumed would be rich and multi-layered and full of hatred and jealousy and barely-disguised rage,

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-15577124562522525392006-08-06T14:40:00.000-05:002007-01-28T01:06:46.837-05:00

So, a disturbing turn of events in Jacob's life. For those who are keeping track, Jacob is the younger son of Isaac. He usurped Isaac's dying blessing by pretending to be his older brother, Esau (apparently each blessing can only be given once, and Jacob got all the good stuff), meaning that Esau got the left-over blessings: "Your dwelling will be away

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-63007653272224814462006-08-05T14:38:00.000-05:002007-01-27T15:39:54.381-05:00

One of the main things I was interested in when I started this project was religious rituals. I don't claim to know everything about specific rituals performed in every denomination of Christianity and Judaism, but I am familiar with some, and I was curious about their origins. Well, circumcision is a pretty big ritual, one that's become so commonplace

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-23652492154796780752006-08-04T14:36:00.000-05:002007-01-27T15:37:57.610-05:00

There are some great, oft-overlooked Biblical names in this book. Stand-outs include Gomer, Kittim, Put, Ham, Peleg, Eber, and, of course, the great warrior Nimrod. I was actually curious how Nimrod went from great hunter to bumbling idiot, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. According to them, the lexicological leap is thanks to Bugs Bunny, who once called

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899793039782934160.post-27071688917804696162006-08-03T14:14:00.000-05:002007-01-27T15:35:59.372-05:00

So far, my major impression of the book of Genesis is that it reads like a much more boring version of One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Parts of it, like the ages of Adam's descendants, seem like they were written by a child just learning about adding big numbers:"When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son ... and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800

Alex Richnoreply@blogger.com0