Exodus

Before I delve into Exodus, I have a few more thoughts on Genesis from Plotz's book.

The first thing that jumped out at me was when Plotz says, about Lot's daughters, "what exactly is the moral lesson here? (15)" That got me thinking: is the Bible supposed to have a moral lesson? I mean, obviously that's the intention of the Ten Commandments, Jesus' teaching, and most of Paul's letters, but I tend to think that a lot of the Old Testament is purely informational; like a historical account of what happened, not what was supposed to happen.

The second thing I would argue with Plotz about is how he speaks about the Genesis women around page 20. He says that the female characters are evil, conniving and have no rights. First of all: are the women in Genesis any more badly behaved that the men in Genesis? Second: I know from my own research that Hebrew women had a lot of rights. They could own their own land and possessions, they could veto a potential husband, they could get divorced, they could even hold jobs. There is significant evidence to suggest that Jesus' own mother had a job sewing tapestries for the Temple.

I think it's awesome that the midwives foiled Pharaoh's plan to kill the Hebrew babies. Go midwives!

The plagues of Egypt was actually always one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I don't know why; I guess I just have a sick sense of humor. I understood why Moses was hesitant; his going up against the High Priests would be like myself or one of my classmates going up against the Presidential Cabinet...

I don't completely agree with Plotz when he says that God was responsible for Pharaoh's non-cooperation; though he "hardened his heart," Plotz leaves out the inevitable fact that, in the end, we all have free will.

Why were the Puritans against dancing when Miriam herself does it in Exodus? It seems like a lot of radical Christian groups give the rest of us a bad name by picking and choosing which parts of the Bible to actually believe. I guess it's a good thing to read all of it...