Angel Genatalia

Close to the beginning of the semester I brought up the myth that angels do not have any genitalia. Being from a Catholic descent, I figured that is where my bias came from, but I have also seen it referenced in movies such as Dogma. From what we have discussed in class and what I have read the bible doesn't make any distinction between male and female angels. However, anytime that there is a mention of an angel in the bible it seems to get pushed towards the male spectrum. This does not necessarily indicate that angels are male. Matthew 22:30 seems to indicate that angels are “sexless,” without gender, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”

God always refers to Himself in masculine language, although God is neither male nor female. God just uses masculine language because it more adequately describes the patriarchal cultures in which the Bible was written. Moses did get to see God's backside for a brief moment, but not enough to give a good description. As we have discussed in class there is no direct reference to somebody staring God straight in the face, so it is hard to say what the anatomical structure of these beings really is. If angels do have a gender, in some form, Scripture would indicate that they are predominately or universally male. It is more likely that angels are genderless, just as God is, and that masculine language is just used to describe them and their role in serving God.

The Tower of Babel

The small section in Genesis called the Tower of Babel is one of the most disturbing incidents in the entire Bible. This is one lesson that I do recall learning in Catechism, except for my teachers put a lot different spin on it than the meaning I came too from actually reading it. I always had a Sodom and Gomorrah attitude when I was younger about the architects of the Tower of Babel, but these people were the pinnacle of human civilization. After God had just flooded the entire earth and kept what he deemed fit, his people become all that he wants them to be and starts trying to replicate Eden. Obviously God is confused in what he wants, because he doesn't want people to live in pandemonium, but he also doesn't want them to live together in peace.

"Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing is impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

The only conclusion that I can come up with is answered in one of my previous blogs about God's fear of man and how he doesn't want people to become equal to him. It is also interesting that David Plotz skips over chapter 11 in his commentary on Genesis. I don't know why he chose not to discuss this part of the Bible considering the connotations of God's decision. The republicans could be right in trying to slow down the progress of society, because I don't want to have to learn a new language right now.

Great Destruction

There are so many scenes of destruction in the Bible that I could do a blog for each one for the next couple years. Our God, the way and the light, the salvation and glory, is also the God of taking names and kicking ass. The first great scene of destruction that comes to mind in the great flood in Genesis. God decides to erase the memory of humans off of the planet, because they haven't turned out like he would have liked.

"I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created--people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."

Luckily for mankind there is the great hero Noah tells God that may be a little rash and to spare all of the descent ones. With this God tells Noah to round up the animal pairs of the world and get them on his ark. This story really brings God down to human level. His emotions let the reader know that they are definitely God's children. Its like building something with your legos and then realizing you didn't like it and then destroying it against the floor. Luckily Noah was able to convince God that we are more than just legos and to give the best of us another chance. That also allows the reader to feel special considering all of us must be decendents of Noah, so we are the cream of the crop.

Noah makes a god-like move himself when dealing with his two sons. After the ship has landed and the first vineyard had been planted, Noah was able to be the first drunk and pass out naked in his tent and have his sons see him. His son Ham looked upon his nakedness and told his brothers to do something about it. Since Ham was the only one to look upon his father's "nakedness" he was cursed to be a slave to his brothers. It makes you wonder just what people did that was so bad that the earth was flooded, if looking at a naked man constitutes slavery.

LDS and Me

In every town I have lived in there have always been Mormon missionaries wandering around spreading the word of Jesus. When your a little kid and your mom allows the people in the house and you receive all of the cool little pamphlets, I had little understanding of what these people were trying to do for me. As I have gotten older though and have began searching into my own beliefs, I have a better understanding and respect for the door to door Christian. Since I have been in this class I have received a new found understanding for the Bible and with that understanding comes the desire to argue.

The LDS missionaries came to my roommates and I apartment and we invited them in ready to religious battle. The format and decorum of the conversations were very polite and civil. The interesting thing about the conversation though was that we didn't really argue the points and facts of the Bible, but instead talked about how Jesus made us feel in our lives. Since my roommate and I were on a mission to debunk some myths, this change in direction made for deep philosophical debate. The one question that I did get an answer to dealt with the hardening of Pharaohs heart during Moses exodus through Egypt. The missionary pulled out his Book of Mormon and showed me the side notes, like the ones that are in our Bibles, and pointed out that the Book of Mormon had answered that question saying something like the pharaoh hardened his own heart. Talking with these guys made me realize that the literary content of the Bible is secondary to the individuals understanding and emotional attitude towards the text itself. It seems a class could spend an entire semester on trying to understand faith.

Jacob and Job

During my readings and in my final paper I was able to contrast Jacob from The Slave and Job from the Bible. Jacob is another man that hasn't wronged God in any way. He was an honest scholar from a Jewish town until the Cossacks came and destroyed his village and took him into slavery.

"He remembered his own children, little Isaac, Breina, the baby; he imagined them thrown into a ditch of lime and buried alive. He heard their stifled screams. Even if these souls rose to the most splendid mansion and were given the finest rewards, would that cancel out the agony and horror?"

Both Jacob and Job lost most of their family and personal property within a day. Job recieved great sickness from God and Jacob had to endure slavery. In the case of Job, he never really questions the existence of God, but he finally does question why God is persecuting him.

"I will give utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me."

Jacob has to answer these questions to himself several times throughout the novel. Job mirrors Jacob's predicament to the point that it may overtake Jacobs relation to his namesake in the Bible. The whole story questions the sanctity of God and the deceptive ways of society. "Where was God? How could he look down on such want and keep silent? Unless, Heaven forbid, there was no God." This story will continue to help people question what is right and how they decide to accept fate.

Behind the name

We have discussed a lot about the meanings of names in class and that made me want to look up my namesake and see where I sat in the biblical name realm. I spell my name Kristopher which seems to be a new variant of the spelling. Within the name Christopher though, there is a deep rooted biblical heritage. I started my search at behindthename.com and found that Christopher comes

"from the Late Greek name Christophoros meaning "bearing Christ", derived from Christos combined with phero "to bear, to carry". It was used by early Christians as a metaphorical name, expressing that they carried Christ in their hearts. In the Middle Ages, literal interpretations of the name's etymology led to legends about a Saint Christopher who carried the young Jesus across a river. He has come to be regarded as the patron saint of travelers."

I mean it doesn't take a genius to see that my name belongs in the Bible, it has "Christ" in it. I looked up St. Christopher on Wikipedia and saw that he was on a mission to serve the greatest king of the world. He started out with a couple of kings and even moved on to the devil until he found out that the devil was afraid of this Christ figure. St. Christopher looked around to try and find Christ so that he could serve him. I also forgot to say that I was ten feet tall in the story. A hermit that lived by the river told St. Christopher that if he was to walk people across these treacherous river that that would be a great service to Christ. Finally one day a child asked to be carried across the river and when he took him across the river began to rage and the child became unnaturally heavy.

"You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were." The child replied: "You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work." The child then vanished."

That makes me like one of Jesus's first bodyguards. According to wiki St. Christopher traveled to a new kingdom and began converting pagans to Christianity. Finally after various attempts by the king to have St. Christopher killed there were finally able to get him beheaded. From now on no one can say that I'm not carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Demons and Spirits

You aspect to learn a little about God, angels and the afterlife during biblical literature, but some of the funnest things I have got to read about are all the little spirits and devils that are mentioned in The Slave. From the beginning, Wanda questions all of the unexplainable things that happen in the world. In the beginning of the book she is like an eight year old girl hiding from the monster in her closet. She has herself running through the meadow scared of her own shadow.

"Hostile imps and derisive spirits were abroad, she knew. They might play nasty pranks on her. A rock might be put in the path; the imps might swing from the pitchers and make them heavier; they might weave elflocks in her hair or dirty the milk with devil's dung."

In these people's world of uncertainty, everything is explained with evil creatures and spirits. Wanda even accuses Jacob of sorcery for the amount that she loves him. Even though she has never seen any of these malevolent spirits she still fully believes in them.

When the condition of the town is discussed, there is usually a demon or spirit that was behind the situation. Polonidca, Dizwosina, and Skrzots were all spirits that had affected the crops in years past. All of these spirits seem to live off of the demise of regular people. Skrzota,"As was well known, it came from an egg which had been hatched in a human armpit. Even though Jacob is apprehensive about listening to these pagan ideals, he has his own superstitions as well. Most of which are dealt with in the Bible. The Bible doesn't have an account of most of the demons discussed in this novel, which shows how much pagan religion may have been forgotten or how important folklore was to communities.