When I begin discussing the Bible with students, I am always happy when they find that they know more about it than they consciously realize (as I always tell them they will). While, yes, the Bible is a religious text, its integration into Western culture has led to many stories being divorced from their counterparts. This results in references to the Bible appearing throughout literature, art, music, politics, and daily jargon that are thought of as standalone moments.
For example, we can look at this image, which, while not everyone knows the full Biblical story it is related to, they know the image:
So, often, when I begin teaching a course of the Bible, the class becomes the process of supplying context to these individual stories, themes, and symbols, just ask much as diving into an analysis of each of them. For example, the Binding of Isaac can be picked apart for days on end (just ask Soren Kierkegaard -- Fear and Trembling is worth every second of your time), but what implications does it have on stories found mere pages after it? How about in the rest of the Torah? The Wisdom Literature? If these moments are more than vignettes, then we need to figure out how they fit together.
This concept of various threads being woven together to form a complete worldview is not foreign in the world of religious studies. After all, the Eastern, Dharmic religions have sutras -- studied by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains alike -- which literally translates to "thread." In the Bible, all of the various stories fit into a single narrative, and the layers of wisdom this narrative contains are (at the risk of sounding a touch dramatic) infinitely deep. If the study of any single story of the Bible is worthwhile, then how much more should we commit ourselves to a reflective, rigorous, and thorough analysis of the text in its entirety?
For me, this is the joy of teaching a class on the Bible. Everyone in the class already has a few threads, and my role as a teacher is not to re-explain what those threads mean. It is to help them to be understood in the context of all the other threads, thus prompting conversations that transcend the individual moments of the Bible and move towards the fullness of Truth. Yes, a capital T "Truth." I will step down from my pedestal now.
The first few chapters of Book of Genesis establish a very important theme: God and humans are in relation with each other. Even more so, humans are defined by this relation to God. After all, what is Adam, in essence? Whether you follow the first of second story of creation, he is God's creation. Eve is no different. But what does it mean that Adam and Eve are relative to God?
It may seem rudimentary, but imagine that someone has built a car. That car was made for a specific reason, and its parts were arranged in such a way to do a certain task particularly well. The value of the car is determined by how well it does what it was made to do. In other words: relative to what it was made to do, how effective is the car?
Nobody (unless you are very good with mechanics and very into sci-fi) is upset when they start their car and it does not begin to hover. Nor is anybody upset that their car cannot drive at 2000 miles per hour. That's not what a car was built for. The creator of the car had different (and much safer) ideas in mind. But what if you didn't know what a car was built for? What if you happened upon this machine for the first time? How would you determine its value?
Imagine going into a pawn shop (I hope you'll excuse the momentary switch in metaphors) with a watch given to you years and years ago. You know nothing about watches, you have no need for a watch, and you would rather have cash. The shopkeep offers you fifty dollars for it...do you accept? How do you know it isn't worth more than just fifty dollars? Your best move is to go home, find the watch catalogue, and try to find your make and model to determine its value.
At the risk of sounding heretically quotidian, the Book of Genesis seems to be a watch catalogue for humans. The entire book is attempting to explain what we are, why we were made, and how to live valuable lives that do justice to our identity as God's creation.
Just like you need to understand what a car was created to do to understand how good of a car it is (or perhaps how effective of a car, if you're feeling utilitarian today), the Bible seems to suggest that we need to understand what humans were created for in order to make value judgements about them...about ourselves. In fact, this is so important that it is one of the first claims in the entire Bible: "God created mankind in his own image" (Gn 1:27) is not merely an axiom, but a foreshadowing of the remainder of the Bible. "To understand who you are" the Bible seems to say, "you must understand God."
A grandiose start to a course? Absolutely. But there is no better place to find yourself as a teacher: at the base of an enormous mountain, gazing up with your students at a peak hidden by clouds. The fun and joy of studying the Bible isn't transporting students to the peak of the mountain--it's helping them find their own foothold so they can explore the path when it calls to them.
With that, I will sign off. Any more of this and the metaphors will become the very icons that some say distract from the worship of God. Have a great day, and enjoy Genesis.
-AT
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