THE BIBLE In the Beginning...

1966

Some terms:

Myth: story believed to be true and sacred. Often about gods and demi gods

Legend: story believed to be true but not sacred. Often about real known people (George Washington and the cherry tree)

Tale: Story believed to be neither true nor sacred

Bible mixes myth and legend uniting historical people into myth. Most "legends" and "myths" are purged from canon. None the less these are still told and are often used to deal with "problematic" situations in the Bible - Why does God reject Cain's sacrifice? It is claimed he didn't give it with all his heart.

In some, for example, when Adam is dying his third son "Seth" goes back to the Garden of Eden and gets a branch from the tree of good and evil to try to cure him. When he comes back, Adam has already died, and Seth disposes of the branch which takes root and becomes the tree which will yield the wood for the crucifixion. Before that (an additional story claims) the tree was cut down and became a bridge which the Queen of Sheba passed over and said of the bridge. "This will be the death of the Jews". As a result the bridge was destroyed and thrown in a lake, where it sank to the bottom. Ultimately the lake dried up and the tree became exposed and is then used to produce the wood for the cross. Wow!

Scholar feel that Judaism was originally polytheistic (having many gods) which slowly evolved into a monotheistic religion (one god). The others have been reduced to a "court".

With many gods the existence of evil (generally acknowledged) is easily explained. Some gods are good some are not. In Monotheism it gets harder. Most obvious is that the single god is both good and evil. In the earliest parts of the Old Testament, God appears rather difficult and has some very human traits which are often seen as negative - vindictive, jealous and so on.

THE BIBLE - IN THE BEGINNING...

Actually the film The Bible was originally planned as covering the entire book. That quickly became obviously impossible and so the film restricts itself to the book of Genesis exclusively, and even then it didn't cover all of Genesis!

Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament. It is a complex book and scholars agree that at least four different authors and probably more wrote. These are often distinguished by some specific linguistic traits. One version (dated approximately at 950-800 BCE) is known as "J" because it involves the use of the word YHVH for God (Hebrew does not transcribe vowels and the word appears typically as Jehovah. This author is responsible for many of the famous stories.

A second author(s) (approximately 850-750 B.C.E.) uses Elohim as the work for God, which is curiously enough a plural form of "El". This is, in and of itself a problem, which is not clearly answered by anyone. One solution is that the Hebrews were in earliest times polytheistic and El was one of the Gods. The term Elohim has been held to refer to God and the others. The rest become a sort of court, and later possibly the angels. This is the author of the binding of Issac.

Another fundamentalist Christian belief is that the plurality refers to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. This implies in a peculiar way the existence of Christ from the beginning. Since Christ is born to redeem man from original sin, there is a kind of implication that if the Son exists form the beginning it is because God knows that Adam and Eve will sin, so in a sense it is inevitable and hence free will becomes problematic.

Next is the Priestly writer (700-500) called B, who is the author of "Joseph and his Brothers".

There are a number of other "early sources" (1,000 - 900 B.C.E) and late sources (850-750 B.C.E).

Finally, there is an editor or redactor noted as "R" (450-400), who attempted to reconcile these diverse sects, and for this reason is probably more reasonably considered the "author" of Genesis. In some instances this did not work well, and contradictory material appears. For example, the creation story is repeated twice - once in Genesis I and once in Genesis II

In Genesis I:20-23 God creates the birds and fish on the Fifth day, and in Genesis I:24-26 the land animals and Adam are created.

Later (Genesis II:18-19) God is unhappy that man is alone and he creates the animals for him (that is after he is created ) reversing the original order.

Many biblical films are "epics". Just what is an epic? What approaches does Hollywood take in making an epic film in terms of casting etc.?

The Bible: In the Beginning

The film deals with the book of Genesis. Genesis has a large number of stories in it that are very famous. Among these are:

Other famous stories like The Ten Commandments come from Exodus while the story of Samson and Delilah comes from Judges.

Many of the stories raise complex moral issues and can be used as starting points for discussion about morals and ethics.

What is God's role in the testing of Abraham? Is this a role God continues to play throughout the Bible?

Did Cain murder Abel? If no one has died yet can Cain understand that he could kill some one? It seems clear that Cain and Able both understand "killing" from the sacrifices. In addition, God says to Adam and Eve "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 shall surely die" (Genesis 1:17). Things to look for:

How is creation depicted? Is it from Genesis 1 or Genesis two?

How is the Garden of Eden depicted?

How are Adam and Eve phographed?

What information is given filmically about Cain's sacrifice?

What happens in Cain's killing of Abel? How is the killing filmed?

What is the knowledge of the tree of knowledge? Why does it involve nudity (sex must be OK - "Be fruitful and multiply") Knowledge of what (avoided).

Gnostic sects held Bible was really written by the Devil to make God look ad. God is serpent - he wants people to have knowledge, the Devil does not. What does the serpent look like in the film? Is it meant to be the Devil? That is a later tradition.

Reconcile Genesis 1 and 2 (film ignores Genesis 2) Why does God reject Cain's offering in the film? (Takes food back - doesn't offer it freely). Is this is the Bible?

Cain kills Abel (Does he understand his act? No one has ever died before.)

What kind of character is Noah? What is his relationship with the animals - a kind of early environmentalist - love animals they won't hurt you. Casting:

Casting in epics usually involves "cast of thousands" and casts major name stars in relatively small parts. What is the impact of this in terms of "intertextuality"?

Do Adam and Eve look "Middle Eastern" (Eve,playde by Ulla Bergryd, is from Sweden)