I can definitely see what I am looking for when reading/studying the Bible. I am not particularly interested in the history of the Hebrews or the development of their religion. I am way more interested in the stories and how we can learn from them or relate to them in today's world.
In this lecture we get a lot of history, but a lot of the stories were left out.
In the previous lecture there was mention of how Jacob was tricked by his uncle into marrying Leah ahead of Rachel who he gets to marry after promising Laban another seven years of service. The irony of course is that Jacob tricked his father and brother only to be tricked by his uncle into marrying someone he didn't love. What kind of household was that like.
Leah gives birth to six sons and Rachel remains barren. Jacob fathers four more sons by both Leah's and Rachel's handmaids (the Bible isn't the best place to argue the sanctity of marriage), but Rachel remains barren. A daughter, Dinah, is born to Leah. (I love the story of Dinah as well as the story of Judah and Tamar but neither is mentioned in the lecture.) Finally the favoured Rachel gives birth to Joseph and then dies giving birth to Benjamin, the 12th son. After wrestling with who we assume is God, Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and the 12 sons become literally and figuratively the 12 tribes of Israel.
This wrestling with God, which I like to think is Jacob wrestling with his conscience, occurs after he has taken his family and left his unscrupulous uncle to head back to the Promised Land. On the way, he meets his brother Esau. Jacob (Israel) is so frightened to meet with the brother that he cheated that he sets aside a huge gift of cattle and other goods to give to Esau as a peace offering (bribe?). In today's lecture, the professor only refers to Jacob's changed character when he gives the gift to Esau as if he was doing Esau the greatest of favours, but what I found more interesting about the whole story was Esau's willingness to forgive Jacob. Esau said that Jacob did not have to give him anything. This is a total change from the man who was ready to kill his brother when they were last together. No mention is given to explain Esau's change. Like Ismael, the neglected brothers don't seem to get much respect from the storytellers nor from, what I can gather, modern readers.
In the lecture, we are told about Joseph being sold by his brothers and how he ended up in Egypt but little is told of his story either. Joseph forgives his brothers and reunites that family. But what is interesting here is that Joseph forgives but when does so he admits that all turned out for the better. If the brothers hadn't sold Joseph, he wouldn't have ended up in Egypt becoming the rich and powerful person he became and thus able to save his family from the famine and possible death. I wonder how forgiving he might have been if he had remained in jail all this time and it was the brothers who rescued him. I suppose all of this is done in the seminars which is the negative of learning from free online courses.
What we do get is some of the historical evidence about the Hebrews in Egypt and the approximate dating for their arrival and the exodus, but even that is not 100% certain. For example, there is one tablet that refers to a Semitic group being in control of Egypt (perhaps like Joseph being the pharaoh's advisor), but little else.
She talked a lot about the different names given to God in the Patriarchal stories compared to the ones given to Him in the stories involving Moses and the significance of names. In Genesis, El is used a lot e.g. Elohim which has its root in many of the Canaanite gods. This has been used as proof that the Hebrews (Israelites) originally worshiped Canaanite gods and through time allowed the one god Yahweh to gain dominance. In other words she is presenting evidence that argues against the theory posed in one of the earlier lectures that monotheism was not an evolutionary change from previous religions but a completely radical approach. As interesting as that may be, I just don't care all that much.
She also started to outline the story of Moses (a root of the name Ramses) and hinted that more would follow. I hope so. She was more interested in the story of the burning bush and Moses trying to learn the name of God (I am who I am) and how this naming was an important part of the story. I found the unwillingness of Moses to do the bidding of God more fascinating. Who or what calls our present leaders? If Moses was reluctant, do we have any current leaders who are reluctant and why do they run for office. I think the psychology of people who seek powerful positions is an interesting study.
I am hoping that next week we get more about the Hebrews leaving Egypt. I do want to know why God kept hardening the Pharaoh's heart leading to all those plagues. I do want to know more about the Ten Commandments which I consider a pretty lame bunch of rules that are either outdated or obvious. I really want to hear her take on the Golden Calf which is a brilliant story of a leader, in this case Aaron, dumping his bad judgement onto the people. And I want to learn more about the wandering around in the desert and some of the other 600 or so commandments that God passed onto Moses some of which are cherry picked to prove a point about life today while others are conveniently ignored because they are no longer relevant.
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