I've complete 4 days of reading now. I've actually finished the entire book of Genesis. I've never read a complete book of the Bible before. That's actually pretty cool once I stop to think about it. My giddiness quickly turns to my standard state of pessimism when I realize I have 65 more books to go.
So here's what I've learned so far:
1) I've already used up my limited amount of Old Testament knowledge. Growing up, I learned your basic Bible stories in Sunday school and Bible school but you know what? All that stuff happens in basically the first 12 pages of the Bible. My first day of reading covered creation, Adam and Eve (and that pesky snake), Cain and Abel, Noah and his big boat, Lot and his sodium-heavy wife and why Jewish guys get circumcised. That's a lot of information! After all that, I still have 795 pages of the Old Testament to cover. I wonder what else is in there 'cause I'm pretty sure this is all I ever learned to this point.
2) Apparently, it was common practice in those days to pretend your beautiful wife is your sister so the rulers of foreign countries don't kill you. Seriously. This has happened more than once so far in my readings. But here's the deal, God always lets the ruler of said foreign land know the truth, which scares the bejezus out of the ruler and usually ends up giving the husband his wife back, plus some shekels. This may or may not happen after he's slept with her and produced an heir.
3) Life expectancy plummets after the flood. Adam, he of the apple-eating controversy, lived 930 years. His son Seth lived 912 years. Seth's son Enosh lived 905 years. Enosh's son Kenan lived 910 years. Kenan's son Mahalalel lived 895 years. Mahalalel's son Jared lived 962 years (he must have worked out). And so on it goes for several generations. Methuselah wins the prize though. That guy lived 969 years. Side note: now I understand my mom's lovely down-home expression - "She's as old as Methuselah!" Now along comes Noah and the flood that wipes out humanity. But here's the rub: Noah lived 950 years but his direct descendants didn't fare quite so well. Shem only got 500 years, Eber only 430and Reu and Peleg only 209 and 207 years respectively. After that most men only tend to get in the range of 130 - 150 years. Now this might not be the most important aspect of what I read, but I couldn't help but wonder what happened there. I'm pretty sure fast food hadn't come into the picture yet so what's the deal here?
4) There's a lot of incest in the Old Testament. It always involves drinking much wine so I guess times haven't changed all that much. So to all those right-wing, conservative, holier-than-thou nut jobs out there who want to ban books like To Kill a Mockingbird or Tom Sawyer I say this: "Have you read the Bible lately?"
5) I think I learned where the word sodomy comes from. Those dudes that lived in Sodom were freaky!
6) Jacob was renamed by God and given the name Israel. His descendants were the Israelites. Ok, so most 10-year-olds who DON'T skip Sunday school probably already know this but I had no idea. NO. IDEA.
So that's what I've covered so far. I've learned more about the Bible in the last 4 days than I did in my entire confirmation class. I've just started Exodus and it's not too bad so far, but I hear Leviticus, which comes after that, can be a little dry. Guess I won't recommend that one for book club.
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