Genesis

This is the second or third time I've read Genesis, so it hasn't been anything too terribly new so far. I do remember reading the story Plotz mentions about Dinah when I was 11 or 12. One thing that stood out to me this reading was when Plotz says, "But the founding fathers of Israel lying, breaching a contract, encouraging pagans to convert to Judaism only in order to cripple them for slaughter, massacring defenseless innocents, enslaving women and children, pillaging and profiteering, and then justifying it all whith an appeal to their sister's defiled honor? (2)" I saw that sotry completely different. First of all, Plotz says that they "encouraged pagans to convert to Jusaism." Jacob's sons did no such thing. They convinced the pagans to be circumcised. While circumcision is certainly important to the Jews, it does not a Jew make. Secondly, I always liked that Jacob and his sons pillaged the village. Why shouldn't Dinah have her justice? Rape and "defiled honor" are two very different things. Call me a feminist if you must, but making an inappropriate comment at a cocktail party is "defiling honor;" rape is in a whole nother class.

The second thing I always found interesting in Genesis is, of course, the fall of man. I noticed for the first time that Genesis 2:17 says, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." I noticed that God says to Adam "for in the day that thou eatest." It sounds to me like God knew Adam was, eventually, going to eat the apple. Was it inevitable? It reaminds me of Milton's Paradise Lost, in which Milton argues that the fall of man was inevitalbe and that it was all in God's plan. However, he never tells us why. Neither does the Bible.

Also, Plotz said that God broke his promise to Adam and Eve, telling them they'll die if they eat the forbidden fruit. Plotz took the promise literally. I think that God meant that Adam and Eve would die spiritually and lose their connection with God, which they did.

Where did the taboo of incest originate? Obviously not from the Hebrews, because Lot's daughters conceived children...they conceived their own siblings, oddly enough. I'm not saying that incest isn't wrong, but why do we, as a culture, treat it as the ultimate taboo?

Some random thoughts:
I always thought it was funny that Adam and Eve tried to hide from God.
Why did God put cherubim in place to guard the Tree of Knowledge? Wasn't the damage already done anyway?
Did the people who built the Tower of Babel really think they could reach up to Heaven?