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TITLE: Use and Misuse of Religious Texts: Interpreting Bible stories GOAL: To explore how the Bible contains self-contradictory ideas and descriptions allowing a careless and/or unscrupulous interpreter to find a proof text to support almost any desired idea. To explain that the self-contradictory texts are one form of evidence used by scholars to propose that there were several independent collections of the Bible stories that later were redacted into the Bible as we currently know it today. To explain how modern forms of Judaism have used proof texts to support and justify their modern values while ignoring the proof texts for out-dated values. MATERIALS: LESSON:1. Gain attention of learners: (Warm up to get students interested in topic) 2. Relevant past learning: (brief review of previous learning relevant to the topic) 3. Introduce new material: The Bible, as we know it, is divided into large sections called **books**, smaller sections called **chapters** and still smaller sections called **verses**. 4. Provide guided practice: (Demonstration and guided practice for activity that uses/expands on new material) 5. Provide independent practice: (Activity that uses/expands on new material where students work independently of the teacher) 6. Close the lesson: (review and wrap-up of independent practice and important points of the lesson. Generate answer to parents' question "What did you learn today")
 * “Noah Sections” demonstrate self-contradictory and / or out-dated values for posting on wall.
 * “Noah Questions” for students to answer after reading “Noah Sections.”
 * “Jewish Timeline” for explaining Bible mythology vs. later history.
 * “Bible Stories Handout” for discussion of several Bible stories.

Post attached"Noah Sections" 5 page summary on the wall. Have students, in pairs, read it and answer the 6 written"Noah questions." Some possible answers are below:

1. Why did God want to flood the whole world? Corruption, violence

2. Why did God pick Noah and his family to be saved from the flood? Righteous man. Only one in his generation.

3. How many animals of each kind did Noah bring onto the ark? and:

4. How many birds of each kind were on the ark? Either 2 of each kind or 7 pairs of clean and one pair of unclean.

(What is clean and unclean? = kosher and nonkosher, suitable for eating or sacrifice to Yahweh.)

QUESTION: Why would this story contradict itself like this? ANSWER: There are two different authors, P and J, whose stories were mixed together by an editor. "P" text in the "Bible Stories Handout" is in bold type; "J" is in normal type. Note that "P" calls the deity "Elohim" and J uses the name "Yahweh," which is translated into English as "The Lord."

5. How long did the flood last? Either 40 days or 150 days. Again the reason for the contradictory answers is that there are 2 authors.

6. How did Noah learn that the land had become dry again? Either raven or dove. Again shows 2 authors.

Why is it important to understand there are multiple authors of the Bible?

Review what the Bible is. Refer to "Jewish Timeline," attached. Left-hand margin shows that period of Bible mythology is from Creation to (-)1000 the time of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon and the splitting of the united kingdom of Israel (which never actually existed) into two kingdoms, Israel (north) and Judah (south). The later events shown in the timeline are real history.

According to the religious tradition (both Jewish and Christian) Moses was the sole author of the Torah receiving the words from God at Sinai. But there are many problems with this notion, such as: the Torah describes what happens after the death of Moses making it unlikely that Moses wrote it.

Also, we can see many contradictions and repetitions in the Torah text, such as those in the Noah story. For example: God tells Noah to go onto the ark twice, but each time with different numbers of animals. The Flood ends twice, but after a different number of days. 7:24 And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days. 8:6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent out the raven...

Noah sends out a bird to detect dry land twice, but each time it's a different kind of bird:

What about "meaning" of Noah story?

QUESTION: Do you think that every single person on earth could be so bad that there could be a good reason to kill them all off?

QUESTION: What about Noah? Do you think Noah should have objected when God said he was going to kill everyone else on earth?

QUESTION: Why do you think that God assumes that Noah's descendants will be any better people than those he is killing off?

Actually at the end of the Flood, God seems to agree that people in the future will not be any better than those he killed off:

8:21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, AI will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.

This seems to mean that God did not accomplish his goal in killing all the people except for Noah's family.. He killed almost everyone just to realize that nothing has improved Noah's descendants will be no better than the people exterminated in the flood.

BINDING OF ISAAC: (Handout page 5)

Read the story.

So what does this story mean? What would a person who saw the Bible as an authority as a source of information about how to behave conclude from this story?

The text seems to answer the question of the story's meaning in the last section, from Genesis 22:15-18. God tells Abraham that he will reward Abraham's obedience even though, as far as Abraham knew, that obedience meant killing his son, Isaac.

Modern people can't accept this interpretation so they invent new interpretations e.g.,

C The meaning of this passage is that God does not want the Israelites to sacrifice their children to him. C Others might say that it was Abraham's conscience that stopped him. C Or that Abraham was testing God and didn't intend to kill Isaac at all.

ABRAHAM ARGUES WITH GOD: (Handout page 6)

Read story.

Here Abraham is doing exactly the opposite of what we just read in the story about Isaac. Here Abraham isn't blindly obeying God but is, instead, arguing with God.

So what is the A"meaning" of this story about Abraham arguing with God?

It is usually taken to mean that it is important to stand up for what is right and just even if that means going up against God himself. That's a wonderful positive message.

But God destroys Sodom anyway. The story could be interpreted to mean that it's futile to argue with God.

Also, in the previous two stories, Noah does not object when God intends to kill everyone on earth except for Noah's family and Abraham himself moves forward to follow God's orders to kill Isaac without objecting. So even if we see Abraham as brave and admirable for arguing with God about Sodom, the Bible has other stories that give a very different message.

Can't you conclude whatever you want from this story? From the Bible in general?

CURSE ON CANAAN/HAM: (Handout page 4)

Read story.

Why is Canaan cursed, not Ham? To show that Canaanites deserve to be conquered and exterminated. The Israelites were, in the Bible story, going to conquer the Canaanites and take their land so the Bible authors needed to provide a justification for this.

Historically, many assumed that the curse was really on Ham. Who is Ham?

Gen 10:1 These are the descendants of Noah's sons, ... 6 The descendants of Ham: Cush, Egypt [Mitzriam], Put, and Canaan. NRSV

Cush = Ethiopia (southern part of Nile) Put = Libya (the area west of Egypt)

So Ham represents the people of Africa. This Bible story was the main religious justification for slavery in the United States before the Civil War.

Other people used the Bible to show that slavery was bad.

You can read whatever you want to in the Bible. People put their own ideas in and say it's from the Bible.