I'm still keeping up with MiracleWord.net, and the version of the Bible I'm reading is just about right for my brain. I'm reading The Message Remix, kind of brings the language down to the street level I can comprehend! When I start my reading, I find I usually can't believe I'm done because this version really and truly DOES read like a novel.
Sailing right through Genesis and I'm at the part where Jacob is handing out dibs on final blessings for his sons. And the first son, Reuben, isn't getting a lot of kudos by his papa. Why you ask? Because he slept with one of his father's wives! I wonder if he figured she wasn't his main chicka, Dad wouldn't mind mind. Not! Jacob's not giving up any good stuff to Reuben in the end. Guess he's holding onto it awhile longer. Can you picture Reuben's face?
I remember several years ago reading The Red Tent with the ch
urch book club and hadn't yet been exposed to much Bible reading yet. So when I read this book (also based on Jacob's family, specifically his daughter Dinah), I told a friend what I thought. And a phrase was coined for the rest of the study on the book. Bible porn. Imagine my shock when I'm reading through what I assumed was the ultimate book of good things--the book filled with butterflies, arks and rainbows. And I come across one bad bad bad after another. Bad. Bad bad. Very bad.
6 Comments:
The book of Genesis is great! It is filled with so much drama, angst, sex, love, adventure. I'm going to check out the version you are reading. I need that street level language too.
I read The Red Tent several years ago. It's one of the few books that has stuck with me. I still think about it from time to time. I'll say it was filled with bad bad after bad bad bad.
I like The Message Remix bible too. I initially bought it because it was cute and purple, but I'm finding it to be an enjoyable read.
So, what do you think about all the old testament polygamy? I mean, God burned up Aaron's sons for using the wrong incense, but Jacob get's to hook up with lots of wives? I trust the bible.... but sometimes it sure doesn't make sense to a feeble brain like mine.
Moses just rang me to say he saved a seat for you. He'll drop in shortly, but not in the Ark!
I remember being very shocked when I was a pre-teen reading the story of Absolom and Tamar.
I've read the Bible several times throughout my life, but just kind of went through it in a sort of brain-washed fashion, taking from it what I had been told to take from it. Every time I pick it up now I can only read a little bit at a time because I see it completely differently. It's much more powerful to me now and I see many more nuances than I had ever been aware of growing up with it.
I remember an after school special--back in the day, and a banned book rally at some school where parents were freaking out over the books their kids were reading. This woman stood up and read the most violent passage and the moms in the crowd, shouted things like, "Yeah, that needs to be taken off the shelves of our libraries. Our kids might read it!" The woman who read it said, "That's from the bible." As gasp fell in the crowd. The point of the story--don't ban books.
That's when I got the bible out and read it. Violence, sex, betrayal. Yep. Have you read the Songs of Solomon? Great poetry and quite sexual if I recall.
Sounds scandalous!
I'm never far from one of my trusty Jane Austen novels, and I just love the amount of scandal, backstabbing, betrayal and all that juicy stuff was being written about back in the "proper" era of the late 18th/early 19th centuries. It beats any "chick lit" from our modern times any day - for me, at least!!
Jane, Pinks & Blues
Post a Comment