...and all the host of them.

One thing I will try to do as I move through the Old Testament is chart God's individual commandments. That is, in the first chapter of Genesis, God issues to Man this commandment: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the brids of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." I think this significant for two reasons. First, the fundamentalists among us frequently claim that God is the source and arbiter of all morality. God prohibits killing in the Ten Commandments, and thus killing is wrong. But a literalist reading of the Bible renders this interpretation a bit problematic, mainly because there are plenty of instances in the Bible in which individuals or nations are punished for actions against which God has issued no explicit prohibition. I'll revisit this theme from time to time, when it comes up.

Second, and more importantly, the commandments God issues give some insight into His character. Jack Miles gives this thorough and enlightening treatment in his book God: A Biography, which I thoroughly recommend.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished...

Genesis, Chapter 1
Genesis, Chapter 2
Matthew, Chapter 1

I've tackled parts of the Bible before, and one enlightening way to read it is in true literalist fashion, and see just how many knots one can tie oneself into along the way. The fact that there are two distinct and contradictory Creation stories in the first two chapters of Genesis has been remarked upon many times over. But it's remarkable to me how little-noted this is amongst our more fundamentalist brethren, especially given that the contradictions aren't all that hard to spot.

In chapter 1, God's Creation unfolds as follows: light, the firmament ("Heaven"), Earth, the Seas, plants, the greater and lesser lights to rule the day and the night respectively, the creatures of the water ("sea monsters"), birds, the creatures of the earth ("cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth..."), and finally, on the sixth day, Man. The text leads us to believe that He created man and woman simultaneously.

In chapter 2, however, the chronology - and the advent and role of Man - is far different. In this Creation story, Man is created "In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens," before the appearance of any other members of the Plant or Animal kingdoms. Our unicellular brothers and sisters don't even get a mention, tragically. God sequesters the man he has created (beautifully, "of the dust from the ground," breathing "into his nostrils the breath of life") in the garden of Eden, from which by God's command all the plants of the earth spring. Then, after warning the man of certain death should he eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God gets busy creating animals. The man gets the not insignificant task of naming each and every one of them. God, being all-powerful and all-knowing, has to seriously restrain Himself from jumping in and moving things along when the man gets stuck on animal #4267, known today as a macaque. But after God has created all the animals, He decides that the man needs a better companion, and steals his rib in order to make a woman.

Likely I'll write more on this later, but for now I'll just note that while in the first Creation story Man is created last, and given dominion over the earth, he doesn't play much of a role in the Creation itself. In the second Creation story, Man's role in Creation - in particular, the naming of things - is far more central. Why God gives this job in particular to Man is unclear to me, but it does raise questions about the extent of His power and knowledge, even early on in the Book.

In the beginning...

...seems as good a title as any for the first post in a blog at least nominally about the Bible. I am no true believer. But I have always wanted to read the Bible in full, and frequent (if not quite daily) scripture reading and commentary posting seems a good means to this end. I'll be reading from the Revised Standard Version, and using this reading schedule as a guide along the way. Obviously I won't be following the dates given by the schedule, just the order of the books.

Other thoughts and observations may sneak in from time to time in between Bible-oriented postings. But for the most part I'll stick to my own sort of Bible-thumping, which will entail a reasonably close reading of the Book itself. At no time will the Bible be used as a moral cudgel, except upon smug, sanctimonious pricks like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who, sadly, won't notice in the least.