Line #34 YMMV/BookOfGenesis


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** A fairly common one is that neither the serpent nor Eve or Adam did anything wrong. One version is that they were simply in the right to choose knowledge over ignorance; a less generous one is that they were deliberately set up to fail.
3	** Why was Cain's sacrifice not accepted by God? Was it simply because God wanted an animal sacrifice (a scenario which seems to be unfairly stacked against Cain, given that Cain was a farmer and not a herdsman, and would not have livestock of his own to offer in sacrifice). John Milton's poem Literature/ParadiseLost gives an interesting alternative explanation: it depicts Cain as carelessly selecting crops as his offering, whereas Abel chooses the finest sheep from his flocks, thus suggesting that Cain's sacrifice was rejected because he performed it insincerely or without the appropriate care.
4	** When Noah is described as "a just man and perfect in his generations", does it mean that he was truly just and morally perfect?[[note]]This completely contradicts the central pillar of Christian theology: that after the Fall of Man, ''everybody'' who has ever lived or will live, with no exceptions, is imperfect and full of sin and needs Jesus to redeem them. Yet here, the implication is that Noah's perfection exempts him from this.[[/note]] Or was he simply [[FairForItsDay the best of a bad generation]], who wasn't so perfect compared to later heroes -- as evidenced by the fact he doesn't plead for God to spare the world, the way Abraham later does for Sodom and Gomorrah, and that all he does after the Flood is get drunk and curse his grandson for a sin the boy's father committed? Alternatively, are his post-Flood actions a sign of [[ShellShockedVeteran character-damaging trauma]] from having survived the world's destruction? Furthermore, adding up the dates that his descendants have children reveals that he did not die until Abraham was sixty years old, meaning that disregarding the unlikely case that the Tower of Babel was built only in the decade between Noah dying and God commanding Abraham to go to Canaan, he was alive when the Tower was built. Did he just become a hermit after his children's children grew up and didn't know about it? Did he know, [[PushoverParents but feel powerless to stop it]]? '''[[FaceHeelTurn Was it his idea to begin with?]]'''
5	*** A possible (but based on conjecture) reason for Noah finding God's favor was that he was uncorrupted by Nephilim DNA, as one of the things God wanted to eliminate was the Nephilim. That, combined with Noah and his family being the only ones left who honored God, made him a natural choice to carry on humanity after the flood.
6	** Lot's proposed deal with the gang rapists at Sodom has some questioning how righteous he really was. On the other hand, before he offered them his daughters, the text states he ''[[HeroicSacrifice went out and closed the door behind him]]'', thereby leaving himself vulnerable to the rapists while protecting both his daughters and his guests.
7	** Why is Isaac so passive throughout his life compared to his father Abraham and son Jacob? Some scholars think it might be a sign of PTSD due to nearly dying at his own father's hands, or else a sign that he was born with a mental disorder... which might be a reason why Abraham was willing to sacrifice him (though sacrifices were required to be unblemished). A [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] explanation, on the other hand, offers that Isaac being OutOfFocus [[https://www.timesofisrael.com/when-abraham-murdered-isaac/#gs.glqj8p reflects an earlier version of the story where he was actually sacrificed]], and when child sacrifice [[ValuesDissonance became taboo among the Israelites]], the story was altered.
8	** The entire Binding of Isaac story raises questions about Abraham, Isaac and God.
9	*** Was Abraham truly willing to sacrifice his son, or did he have faith all along that God would stop him? Might he even have been testing God to see if He would act morally by stopping him or not? If he really was willing, should we admire it, or should we be appalled? Does he truly love Isaac and agree to sacrifice him as a selfless act of devotion to God, or does he secretly want to be rid of his passive, possibly disabled son (see above), with God stopping him to teach him Isaac's worth?
10	*** The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament says that Abraham, having already been promised that Isaac would live to have children, "reasoned that God could even raise the dead". However, that part of Hebrews intentionally glosses over the less noble aspects of other Old Testament stories for rhetorical effect, so Abraham might also have had less admirable motives as well as that one.
11	*** Was Isaac a child or a young adult at the time? Was he completely helpless at his father's hands, or did he lie down willingly on the altar for God's sake? Does the fact that afterwards, he and Abraham are never shown directly interacting again imply that the incident estranged them?
12	*** Did God intend to stop Abraham all along, or did He actually want him to sacrifice Isaac, but then change His mind? Was His goal really for Abraham to put Isaac on the altar, or did He want him to argue for Isaac's life the way he had for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, meaning that Abraham actually fails the test rather than succeeding?
13	** Why does Rebekah help her son Jacob cheat his brother Esau out of their father's blessing? Is it a shameless act of ParentalFavoritism? Or is she doing what she believes is God's will, since God told her before her sons were born that the elder would serve the younger? Or does she objectively realize that Jacob's character makes him better suited to be Isaac's heir? For that matter, is Isaac really fooled by Jacob's disguise, or -- since he does briefly recognize his voice -- does he only pretend to be fooled because he belatedly realizes that Jacob is the more suitable heir, but knows that the HotBlooded Esau will never willingly give up his blessing?
14	** Shechem: Dinah's rapist, or just her defiler? The Hebrew word that many versions translate as "rape" ''can'' actually just mean "defilement" in the sense of "the filthy heathen [[DefiledForever defiles the girl]] [[MyGirlIsNotASlut by having sex with her]]" in this case. Levi and Simeon's murderously violent reaction to their sister's violation suggests that he did indeed rape her, but Shechem's belief that he could cut a deal with them for her hand in marriage (and willingness to be [[GroinAttack circumcised]], which his people would have viewed as being not that far off from CripplingCastration, and even convincing them to go through with it too) suggests it might have been more in the "defilement" category.
15	** Joseph's RestrainedRevenge against his brothers may also have been a SecretTestOfCharacter, putting them into a position where they could again sell their half-brother (and their father's favorite) into slavery, as they had done with him years prior.
16	** When Judah offers to [[HeroicSacrifice become a slave in Benjamin's place]], does he truly expect to be enslaved and not know that the Egyptian governor is Joseph? Or by watching "the man" carefully, has he already recognized him as Joseph and resolved to move him to reveal himself and reconcile the family?
17	** Who did Jacob wrestle? The text is ambiguous as to whether it was an angel, God himself, or some kind of avatar. Jacob earns the name "Israel" (''yisra El'', "struggles against God") through his victory, which seems to point to his opponent actually being ''God'', but the Literature/BookOfHosea later refers to him having wrestled against an angel (''malak''). It gets fuzzier (and prone to fighting) when considering the opinion of most scholars that the story dates from pre-monotheistic traditions, when the terms 'angel' and 'god' were defined differently anyway.[[note]]Furthering the confusion is the fact that the name 'Israel' shows up as a personal name elsewhere in the area, and may in fact actually mean something closer to "God prevails" or "El prevails". It's possible that the scene was essentially intended to make two separate folk heroes, Jacob and Israel, into a CompositeCharacter as the Israelites assimilated more tribes and cities around them.[[/note]]
18	** The Talmud contains a reinterpretation where Reuben's disturbance of his father's bed was not actually a euphemism. That is, instead of having sex with Bilhah, he was angry that Jacob favored her over his own mother and so forcibly modified their sleeping arrangements to give Leah her due honors. [[SeriousBusiness Jacob did not take this well]].
19	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Sent to check on his brothers, Joseph fails to find them immediately and is advised by a stranger who overheard them discussing where they were headed. Significant effort (including a full dialogue) is devoted to describing the scene although the brief delay ultimately makes no difference to the plot and the episode is never referenced again.
20	* BrokenBase: This, alongside the Literature/BookOfRevelation, is one of the most divisive books of the Bible.
21	** How historically accurate anything in this and the subsequent four books of the Bible are. While it was taken for granted at the turn of the 20th century, later archaeology in the Levant, Mestopotamia and Egypt, cast severe doubt on the existence of any of the Biblical patriarchs or the actions of their contemporaries as reported in the Bible.
22	** One reason for the debate is that after the nations we know today as Judea and Israel were founded, a system of scribes were set up to preserve the holy books, copying the books EXACTLY as they had been written. This was considered a profession you had to train for, and is one of the reasons the Bible is considered a historical document. Now obviously, the scribe system hadn't been set up until long after Genesis, so the picture isn't going to be as clear. Also, these are very bare-bones accounts up to Abraham's time, which has some scholars contending that they must have originally been preserved only as oral accounts up to then.
23	** God's promise to Abraham at 12:3 is also a source of division for modern Christians. God's promise that those who love the Jewish people will be blessed, and those who show hate will be cursed, has been taken by some to be a prophecy of the coming of the State of UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} in 1948, and conflate a long-ago promise to the people with the creation of a man-made nation state four millennia later. Other Christians argue it means no such thing and this has been taken wildly out of context, and given an incorrect meaning and a significance it should never have received.
24	* DesignatedHero:
25	** Due to ValuesDissonance, Lot can come off as this for unbelievers (and some believers as well) when he offers his daughters to the rapists. Yet he's described as a righteous man in the New Testament, specifically in the ''Literature/EpistlesOfPeter''.
26	** Jacob in general: he swindles his brother Esau out of his blessing, makes a poor husband to his wives with his favoritism to Rachel driving them to vicious sisterly rivalry (dragging their handmaidens into the feud by making them his concubines as well), and does rather poorly as a father as well in view of the murderous envy his favoritism to Joseph stirred up in his other sons. Even so, God continues to favor him to the end.
27	** Abraham and God during his story. Not only was Abraham willing to sacrifice his "only" son without much question (and in the earliest version, he killed Isaac), but before this, he also exiled his concubine and their illegitimate son on God's orders. God also comes off as needlessly abusive in this story, first by making Abraham's wife barren for most of their lives, then banishing his other wife and child when his first wife finally gives birth to Isaac, and then forcing Abraham to murder Isaac to test him. And then changing his mind at the last second. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Maybe.]] This is a big reason why this is one of the Biblical stories ''not'' [[NightmareFuel taught to young children.]]
28	* DesignatedVillain: Ham, in that many question how stumbling upon your naked drunk father and laughing about it to your your brothers [[DisproportionateRetribution warrants having your bloodline cursed into slavery]]. Some scholars suggest he did something worse like castrating and/or raping his father in his sleep.
29	* DiagnosedByTheAudience:
30	** There are some scholars and Biblical historians who believe that Joseph might have had autism (albeit impossible to state due to not being classified at the time of writing). This stems from being seen as childish due to being on his own and spending time with the sheep, and not picking up social cues such as [[InnocentlyInsensitive telling his brothers about a dream where they bowed to him.]] His fascination with dreams (always asking God about their meanings) can also be seen as a special interest.
31	** As mentioned above under "Alternate Character Interpretation," some scholars also think Isaac may have had autism or some other developmental disability. This could explain why his role is so passive compared to his active father, sons, and grandsons, why his father so easily accepted God's order to sacrifice him, and why he was so easily tricked by his wife and son in his old age.
32	* HarsherInHindsight: After everything Ishmael goes through, God promises to make him a great nation, with the Ishmaelites being considered to be the ancestors or predecessors of the Arab peoples. With Isaac as the patriarch of the Jews and Ishmael as the patriarch of the Arabs, [[EarnYourHappyEnding both would come together to bury their father Abraham]], but their descendants [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict still fight to this day]]. There have been attempts at peace however, with advocates invoking Isaac and Ishmael reuniting as a sign that it's an endeavor worth achieving.
33	* MoralEventHorizon: The men of Sodom attempt to gang rape a pair of angels, thus establishing that they are too wicked to save. Since God sent the angels down specifically to see if there were any righteous people to be found in Sodom, this is the final straw that convinces Him to destroy the city, with only Lot and his family being allowed to escape.
34	* OneSceneWonder:
35	** For being mentioned in all of one line, Methuselah is the subject of a lot of extra-biblical stuff.
36	** Nimrod is amazingly popular in folklore (the Tower of Babel was apparently built on his orders and he tried to have Abraham killed) and pop culture (shares the name as a villain from The X-Men).
37	** Melchizidek makes exactly one very brief appearance, but is important enough that Abram of all people venerates him as a king and priest and pays him a tribute. He's even name-checked again in the Literature/BookOfPsalms (which is quoted in turn in the New Testament), where he is theologized as something of a MessianicArchetype-- not that Melchizidek is like the Messiah, but that the ''Messiah'' is like ''Melchizidek''. There are also those who say that he was in fact Noah's son Shem, who would have been about 430 years old at the time, certainly deserving some reverence.
38	* RonTheDeathEater: Esau was a rival to his brother Jacob, but nowhere near an outright villain (and remember, Jacob tricked ''him'' out of ''his'' birthright). He even forgives Jacob when they meet again as adults.[[note]]Jacob did give him a lot of livestock though.[[/note]] However, since he was considered to be the ancestor of the Edomites, enemies of the Israelites, he was given a HistoricalVillainUpgrade.[[note]]Note that the Edomites didn't exist as a nation by the first century, but they were considered by the rabbis to be the ancestors of all the nations and people that have persecuted Jews throughout history, including [[Literature/BookOfEsther Haman]] and Rome.[[/note]] According to Literature/TheTalmud, he was a [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking rapist, murderer, and he denied God]]. He also [[KickTheDog tried to prevent Jacob being buried]] with Abraham and Isaac in the Cave of the Patriarchs, claiming that as firstborn he had the right to be buried there. In the Quran however, Jacob is depicted to have fairly earned his father's blessing due to ValuesDissonance regarding lying.
39	* SignatureScene: The creation of the universe, to the point where saying "the Genesis story" by itself is automatically assumed to mean the creation myth, even though it's only three chapters out of fifty.
40	* ValuesDissonance:
41	** [[RocksFallEverybodyDies Kill everybody, even the animals!]] Then [[FinalSolution kill the whole town. All of them]]. Let's just say that those moments are a big reason for why there's a massive BrokenBase and leave it at that.
42	** A ''possible'' ancient example regarding the Binding of Isaac story. Some Biblical scholars have argued that in the original version, Isaac really was killed, but since HumanSacrifice became taboo among the Israelites and came to be used as a common polemic against their Canaanite neighbors, the story was altered to add the passage of the ram substitution and Isaac was given a role later in the story -- however, one that still amounted to more or less a GenerationXerox of his father Abraham.
43	** Lot's offer to let the men of Sodom have at his two daughters if they would leave his guests alone and not violate SacredHospitality is a fucked-up thing to do to one's own kids by modern standards at the ''very'' least, and as mentioned in AlternativeCharacterInterpretation, has led to some people questioning just how righteous Lot really was. Notably, it isn’t something for which Lot is praised in the text.
44	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic:
45	** Besides the creation story, there is Melchizedek, the HighPriest who gave Abraham and Sarah bread, wine, and a blessing in the name of their {{God}}. Some uphold him as a metaphor or foreshadowing of Christ, others just see him as some priest-king-dude who did something nice for Abraham and Sarah.
46	** Since the time of the Roman Empire, rabbis have believed King Herod was an Edomite and therefore a son of Esau. This association of Herod (a client of Rome) with Esau led rabbis to associate Rome with Esau as well. As a result Literature/TheTalmud and the Midrash describe Rome as "Esau/Edom". And since many of these texts were being composed when Rome was Christian, the rabbis ended up associating Christianity itself with Esau.
47	* TheWoobie:
48	** Isaac. His own father almost killed him. Later, his wife Rebecca and son Jacob conspire against him to trick him into giving Jacob the blessing.
49	** Hagar becomes Abraham's concubine with his wife Sarah's consent. Sarah thinks the pregnant Hagar is getting above herself, and her treatment leads Hagar to run away until an angel tells her to go back. Hagar returns and bears Abraham a much-desired son, Ishmael. Later, once Sarah herself conceives and gives birth to Isaac, she has Abraham evict Hagar and Ishmael, who have to wander around in the wilderness before [[DeusExMachina God intervenes]]. By the time He does, Hagar is lying on the ground weeping some distance from where she left her son because they're out of water and she can't bear to watch him die.
50	** Leah. She was into marriage with a man who doesn't love her but prefers his other wife, who is also Leah's sister. At the very least, God takes pity on her and allows her to bear more children than her sister.
51	** Joseph. Sold by his brothers to slavery, then wrongly accused of rape by a married woman who wanted him in the worst way and imprisoned for years. It takes a while before he [[EarnYourHappyEnding earns his happy ending]].

Context YMMV / BookOfGenesis