January 22nd, 2023
It will take me more than a year to get through this whole, full analyzation. I've come to terms with this fact. To combat this long, long process, I have created a method that may make this easier to digest. I will read, take notes and stop when I feel like I have enough to write about. The issue with this method is that there's a lot of interesting things and stories to write about. In only nine chapters, I have read most of the memorable stories I grew up learning at sunday school and my christian preschool. Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve, and Noah's Ark. I was expecting to have filler inbetween these stories (not to say there isn't, it's just weird short filler). But I have dug my hole, and now I must lie in it. Now we may start.
We begin chapter four with the introduction of the sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. Cain is a farmer and Abel is a sheep hearder. They both give their offerings to the lord, but the lord did not respect the offerings of Cain. This is never really understood, but it may be a test. Cain is rightfully peeved at this and becomes irritated. The lord warns that, if Cain continues this way of thinking, sin will soon "lieth at the door." And the feeling will rule over him. God's warning (or prediction?) seemingly went in one ear and out the other, as Cain kills Abel in the field. When God asks where Abel is, Cain replies, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Lord then replies, "What hast thou done? The voice of they brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." God then curses Cain, saying, "now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand." God refers to the earth as "her" which confuses me greatly. Is he refering to Eve? The King James Version is so confusing! There is no mention of the earth being given feminine pronouns in the other versions. Cain's punishment is to be a restless wanderer, with no crops yielding to him when he works the ground. Cain is fearful and worried. He believes that whoever finds him will kill him and will suffer vengeance sevenfold. The lord then puts a mark on Cain so that no one who finds him will kill him. Is this to punish him more? To have him live through a sufferable life without any chance of death? Cain then leaves and begins a family. The next chapter just deals with the offsprings and deaths of the two living men, Cain and Adam and Eve's new son, Seth.
Cain's family tree leads down to Lamech, who fears he will be avenged seventy fold (because he is the great great great etc. grandson of Cain.) Seth's family tree eventually leads to the birth of Noah. Because Noah's father and grandfathers and great grandfathers etc. lived a noble life, God tells Noah he must create a boat that will house all of the female and male animals, and that his wife and his sons and his son's wives will be able to board this boat when the great flood comes. This great flood will be created to rid the world of all of its evils. God seems to be very vengeful in these early chapters. It's almost like he hates what he's created, and he hopes that with this flood he will finally be able to start again and create peace on his earth. God says the flood will go on for forty days and for forty nights, which reminds me of how long Jesus was in the desert while being tempted by the devil. The number 40 definitely plays a major role in the holy book, as does the number 7. On the seventeenth day of the second month, the flood begins. For forty days and forty nights waters from the sky rain down, and in 150 days the waters of the flood prevail upon the earth. The ark rested on the seventeenth day of the seventh month as the waters began to decrease, and the mountaintops are slowly visible once again. Noah's obedience to the Lord gives the Lord hope for the people he's made. He declares he will no longer curse the earth.
God cleary has a very strained relationship with the people he has created. God seems to express humanlike qualities, but I suppose we are supposed to be made in his image.
-- > i want to go back home < --