sobaba’s Reviews > The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version > Status Update

Why write a poem of arbitrary suffering? In a world where bad things happen to good people, the rational conclusion seems to be that injustice abounds and God doesn't care to do anything about it. There are the usual apologetics of the incomparability of God and man, these are ultimately don't comfort one's suffering. Even when God speaks to you, he won't touch on the apparent injustice of your situation but gloat.

The Historical Books of the bible are a misnomer in that they are not attempts to accurately note down the history of the Israelites from creation of their kingdom, to its collapse and eventual slow rebuilding. They are a narrative tool to communicate the key message of obedience to God's laws as set in Deuteronomy & co, whilst also emphasising the need for cultural and marital separation from neighbouring cultures.

Mmm... depravity

Reading Numbers, like bits of Exodus, gives you a top-down perspective of what Israeli culture through what they could and couldn’t do. I wonder if that skews our perspective of ancient Israelite society, or does it emphasise the importance of the priestly sect in the running of society.

Exodus was an introduction to the shape and form of what an ancient Israel society would look

Genesis has a lot of the most memorable stories of the Bible, it establishes humans as flawed creatures that God has taken a large amount of interest in. It presents patterns and themes that will become key motifs.