BIBLICAL REFLECTIONS
Genesis: The Story of the Victors
History is not only written by the victors, it is interpreted by the victors. In Genesis, the stealing of lands, rape, dishonoring of wives, and blatant deception is glorified.
Day 15 in reading the Bible: This is not how you want your children to act
For those who found this article and wonder what’s happening, I’m reading the Bible in a year. It has been decades since I’ve attempted this. My life and spirituality has changed dramatically since I was in the convent, studied scripture, and believed the Bible was the to pathway to God.
The Judeo-Christian scriptures were the foundation of my spiritual life. I wanted to see what they say to me now that my spirituality has expanded beyond Christianity into what is popularly known as “New Age.”
Yes, a gigantic gasp from evangelicals and other Christians who believe New Age spirituality is evil and will take you away from Jesus and send you to the depths of hell.
Back to the part, “this is not how you want your children to act.”
I have completed half of the book of Genesis. Included are the wonders of the creations stories, the pain of Adam and Eve’s banishment, the devastating loss of two children, a flood killing off virtually every one and every thing, the giving of women to be raped to save the guys, and deception after deception.
These are the stories of the foundation of Judaism and the Christian faith.
Since I’m not Jewish, I can’t speak from that perspective. Having been in the convent for 20 years and having a Master’s in Theology when I left, I’ll speak from my Christian experience.
Reading Genesis these first 2-weeks of the New Year, I had the following revelations (they weren’t really revelations as I knew they were present):
- Except for the first Chapter of Genesis which is the first creation story, so much pain, deception, and violence is contained.
- Women are treated like animals to be passed from one to another, even if they are wives or daughters. This includes giving women to men to be raped and abused to save their own lives or the lives of other men.
- Trickery and deception are the ways to get what you want.
- Slavery is a way of life. The female slaves were treated even worse than their female owners.
- The implication from Judeo-Christian tradition is this was all God’s plan for us.
Where are the sermons which emphasize these things are wrong
It’s well accepted since the 10 Commandments, that murder and stealing are wrong. How about what was done to the women?
Hagar sat upon the lap of Sarah for Abraham to impregnate her. I’ve never heard anyone say about this act, “This is rape. Rape is wrong. Don’t rape women (or men).”
Abraham gave his wife (twice) to the ruler of another land to save his own skin. (Genesis 12) Do you really think Sarah wanted to go? Again, “Hey, guys, don’t be worse than jerks. Don’t let women be raped. Protect them.”
Note that Abraham benefited from letting the ruler “sleep with,” euphemism for rape, his wife. Abraham pimped out his wife.
Lot offers his two virgin daughters to the crowd of men who want his visitors. (Genesis 19) If that crowd had taken Lot up on his offer, can you imagine what would have happened to his daughters, the violence, the gang rape, possibly death?
And… it was only after the unruly crowd refused to take Lot up on his offer, the crowd was struck blind by the angels. It was perfectly okay to the angels of God that the girls be raped and possibly killed, but not acceptable for the crowd to refuse them and want violence done to the men.
In the rivalry between Leah and Rachel, they both used their “maidservants,” as concubines for Jacob to have children. (Genesis 29, 30, 35) The “maidservants,” Zilpah and Bilhah, didn’t have a choice. Sounds like slavery and more rape to me.
How many sermons have you heard against rape and against slavery? I’ve never heard one against either, perhaps you have. Yes, sermons against adultery, against abortion, but not against slavery or rape.
The victor writes and interprets the history
Genesis is probably the first story in what is known to Christians as Salvation History. It normalizes stealing, deception, rape, and slavery by saying, “God took these wrongs and made a great nation and, later, brought Jesus to save the world.”
This is definitely an end justifies the means history. If the women wrote the story, how would it read? If the slaves wrote the story, it would read much differently.
Here we are, several thousands of years later, struggling with the horrors of rape, slavery, and deception.
Men are protected from the repercussions of rape by the legal system. Remember Brock Turner? Repeatedly, rape is the one offense in which the victim is purported to be guilty, the cause of the man’s actions.
Today, we still have slavery. Additionally, the descendants of slaves in the United States are still considered unworthy by a major proportion of the US population to the same benefits as white people.
Those benefits include parity in the legal and educational systems, buying homes, and hired for their skills. Where white people are first seen as customers when entering a store, black people are often seen as potential thieves.
Read Marley K’s articles on racism in the United States.
Let’s not forget the business and corporate system in the United States. It’s perfectly acceptable to hold down the working class so the owner can gain, just as Abraham gained by giving his wife to Pharaoh.
If the foundational history of Christianity is seen as noble, no wonder there is so much division and, yes, hatred, in Christianity today.
Conclusions
Reading the Bible now after the many changes I’ve had spiritually in the last 25+ years since I left the convent, has been difficult. There is no excuse for the pain involved in what I have read so far in Genesis.
There is absolutely no excuse for those who preach from the pulpit to not address the wrongs in the Bible which are influencing today.
Yes, God can and does work through our imperfections. That does not excuse our wrongs. God does not need our failings to create beauty. Note the beauty of Genesis 1.
