Reference links:
- Overview of the Book of Genesis
- Overview of the Gospel of Matthew
- Overview of the Psalms
- Overview of the book of Proverbs
Old Testament
SAB count: absurdities: 26, contradictions: 16, science and history: 7, women: 1, injustice: 3, interpretation: 1, sex: 1, cruelty and violence: 4, prophecy: 1.
This is one of those days when I feel like the SAB annotation counts are rather inflated. One of the things I dislike about the annotations is that they tend to count the same thing over and over again. Thus, for example, we get an injustice count for each time the text repeats that God is killing all the creatures on the earth with the flood.
Unlike some people, include the SAB, I’m not bothered by the long lives of these Biblical characters. They’re like elves. They were probably pretty like elves too (the text explicitly said the women were beautiful enough to tempt the sons of God).
I find this genealogy interesting. Adam had only been dead 126 years when Noah was born. I wonder what the family dynamics were like when Adam was alive with all of Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech. Given that the world was descending into evil great enough for God to commit mass murder, Adam must have had a good number of “back in my day” conversations with his descendants.
Oooh, new characters! “Sons of God” who have sex with human women and produce giant Nephilites who “became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times”. I feel like there is a whole fantasy genre that must exist that I have been missing out on. Although one has to wonder where they come from and why they were so evil.
I won’t waste much time wondering about the complete implausibility of the flood or the massive violence of it. That’s been done before. Plus, I like the story. It is entertaining. I must say though, saying that Noah must take a single pair of every animal and then sentences later saying that he must take 7 pairs of some animals is just plain sloppy story telling.
I wonder what Lamech and Methuselah thought of all these flood preparations. Methuselah lived up until the start of the flood (600 years after Noah’s birth) and Noah must have been preparing by the time Lamech died (595 years after Noah’s birth). Did God communicate to them what was going on? Were they saddened to know that all of their other descendants were going to be killed? Was Methuselah killed by the flood or did he die peacefully before it? More great fanfic fodder.
New Testament
SAB count: absurdities: 3, contradictions: 5, intolerance: 2, injustice: 2, science and history: 1, language: 1, cruelty and violence: 1, prophecy: 1
Jesus’ baptism and subsequent temptation has never really struck a cord with me.
Psalms and Proverbs
SAB count:
- Psalms: injustice: 1, intolerance: 1, cruelty and violence: 1
- Proverbs: 0
This may very well be a translation choice of the New Living Translation, but I find the line in today’s psalm “Slap all my enemies in the face!” to be absolutely hilarious given that, in popular culture, face slapping is associated with catty fights between women.
Today’s proverbs reading has some good advice: stay away from people who think they can make a living by stealing and murdering.