Studying Genesis . . . sort of . . .

I have appreciated reading Bart Ehrman's books. My first was Misquoting Jesus, and I have read a number of them since then. I have also listened to many of his lectures on YouTube.

He puts in layman's terms what biblical scholars have been observing and teaching for many years. These are not things we learn in church, particularly in evangelical churches where I was raised and remained until my mid-to-late thirties.

Ehrman has begun to stream actual paywalled courses, and for interest, I decided to subscribe to the newest course, Genesis. When I say it is a course, I don't mean that it is for credit. It's not that long either, only 6 lectures of about a half hour each. There is also a brief Q&A section after each lecture. Once again, his commitment is to show us the kind of information that scholars have learned and concluded. 

For my taste and pocketbook, it is expensive for just three hours of content — about $35US, which will make it about $45 for me. He plans to do the whole bible, and I probably won't be subscribing. But right now it is something different to do in the dogdays of winter. 

Speaking of winter, January was frigid, and February has been miserable in its own way. This Sunday morning,  I sit inside while squall conditions swirl outside (see photos below),and I am afraid that the two-week forecast doesn't look very appealing. Hopefully when we hit mid-March, it will begin to improve. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it takes longer.

What I have decided to do while I listen to these lectures is to also read Genesis although that wouldn’t be absolutely necessary to learn from the course. When I last read it, I was a very committed evangelical. I read now, much older and with a different mindset. It now seems like mythology to me, especially the first 11 chapters up to and including the flood.

This is a little passage from Genesis chapter 19 that I read last night (emphasis mine).

4Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” 6So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, 7and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.”

Later in the chapter, after Lot fled from Sodom and Gomorrah, and after his wife was turned into a pillar of salt, both of his daughters got him drunk and had sex with him in order to preserve his line. This is the kind of stuff that I didn't want to think about too much when I was an evangelical. One just  tends to put it to the back of one's mind and move on to the next chapter.

I may comment more on this mini course once I am done. We shall see what we shall see when we get around to shall seeing what we shall see.

I may even go on to read the whole bible — again! I say again, for I have done it once before. Parts of the bible, I have read many times — the gospels and Paul's epistles, for example.

To switch horses once again, here are photos of the squall. It had abated somewhat by the time that I had consumed my Sunday morning french toast and gotten around to taking the photos. It had been quite a whiteout previously: front and back in that order.