A Sinful Blessing

The story gets more and more complicated. God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. But, when he goes up on a mountain and is about to kill his own son with a knife, one of the angels of God comes to stop him and tells him this:

"Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." Genesis 22:12

It's like as if God was only testing Abraham to see whether he would do anything for him no matter what. It's interesting. Supposedly, it's not right to kill anyone whatever the cause (especially your own son). It's actually a sin. But, God was grateful that Abraham was about to kill his own son just for him. I'd say it's a bit selfish. They even bless Abraham and all his future descendants just because of that:

"That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Genesis 22:17

Anyway, later on, Abraham sends his servant to go get a wife for Isaac. And, so he does. After Isaac marries the woman (Rebekah), Abraham dies and everything is left for him. Now, here comes the interesting part where a new story begins. Rebekah and Isaac give birth to two sons, Jacob and Esau. Isaac likes Esau more since he hunts, and Rebekah prefers Jacob just because. And, of course there has to be some kind of problem in this kind of situation. Isaac asks Rebekah to bring Esau so that he can bless him. But, Rebekah brings Jacob instead and since Isaac was turned blind, he accidentally blesses Jacob.

I've noticed that all the problems in Genesis always occurred because of the flaws of humans (mostly because of their curiosity or their selfishness). It's like as if each little story of the Genesis is showing us our bad side so that we learn what is right and what is wrong to do. In other words, it's like teaching us many little morals.

Besides being written in long unnecessary riddles, the book is quite easy to understand. But, as I read it more detailed, I found out many different things that I haven't noticed before. My point is that The Bible is a great book to take time reading carefully, not only because of your religion.

Generations and Generations of Problems

After many generations following Noah, humans suddenly got the idea to build a city/tower in Babel that would be tall enough to reach Heaven. But, God randomly decided to give different languages to each of the humans so that they wouldn't be able to communicate with each other. I find it a bit funny how it's always human curiosity that starts some kind of a problem or situation and then comes God to try to fix it in some way. So anyway, they were now scattered all around the world and the city was never finished.

About ten generations after a guy named Shem, came the descendant, Abram. This is where it starts to get a bit complicated, so here's the long story in a short version. Abram, Sarai (his wife), and Lot (his brother's son) journey to the south because God tells Abram to leave and promises him that he will make him a very good nation. So, they go through Canaan and later reach Egypt. But, they are soon sent out because of a wife/sister problem of Sarai. So, they go back to Canaan where Abram has a son with Hagar and is named Ishmael. God comes and visits Abram and Sarai. For some weird reason, he decides to change their names to Abraham and Sarah. Then, he decides to destroy a city called Sodom since almost everyone was sinful, but of course, Lot and his family lives. Anyway, going back to Sarah and Abraham, they have a child named Isaac. Since there is a lot of jealousy and problems between Sarah and Hagar, Hagar and her son, Ishmael, are sent to another place. But soon enough, Ishmael somehow manages to become the leader of a tribe after getting an Egyptian wife.

The Genesis seems to be very interesting in many ways. It's sort of like millions of different short stories that are all connected to each other. Almost every 4 chapters, there are always new main characters throughout the book (except God). It's a bit strange since the previous characters are never mentioned afterward, as if they were forgotten after many generations. Not only that, but the main problem of the story also keeps on changing.

I also noticed how most of these short stories explain how some of the things in our world started. One example would be the part about Babel:

Gen. 11
7] Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
[8] So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
[9] Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Here, the text shows how the humans ended up scattered around the world with their different languages.

Anyway, the story of The Bible seems to have been a bit rushed, especially in the beginning. Every chapter, something new appears. But, even though some parts seems short, they all seem to state out or show what The Bible wants to show. Each little story of The Bible telling us an explanation of how something started or teaching us a moral.

The New Beginning

A lot more problems start to occur on Earth throughout chapters three to nine from the Genesis. Adam and Eve give birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. Since God seemed to prefer Abel over Cain because of his lovely sacrifices, Cain ends up killing his own brother. God of course, showing his human-like emotions, curses Cain and sends him to another place, away from his parents:

Gen. 4
[9]And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
[10] And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
[11] And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
[12] When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

Cain, then has generations of children and grandchildren, until the famous Noah is born. At the time when Noah lived, everyone seemed to be evil and unjust, so God decided to bring a flood to kill them all. As simple as that. But, he wanted Noah, the kind and generous one, to live, so he gave instructions to survive the flood:

Gen. 6
[18] But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
[19] And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
[20] Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
[21] And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
[22] Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

So, Noah happily did what he had to do and managed to survive the flood along with his family and a pair of each of all the animals on Earth. After the flood was over and Noah stepped on land once again, God decided to never do that again and made a covenant with Noah and all his future descendants.

No offense to anyone but God seems to be a bit bipolar sometimes throughout the Genesis. He seems to be very human-like and gets angry many times. Second of all, I kind of find it a bit odd how he suddenly just decides to kill everyone on Earth but leaves one alive. Afterward, he realizes that he shouldn't do it again. Anyway, The Bible seems more interesting when you analyze it as if it were any normal book.

Translating the Beginning

The Bible by King James seems to have been written in a way so that people would understand and comprehend easier. But, there still are a few confusing things. The reason isn't only because of how it's written but also because it's a translation in the point of view of King James.

The first two chapters talk about the beginning of the world and humanity. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Then, what confused me a bit was how God's name changed to LORD God on the second chapter, when he was creating the first man. I think that LORD God is written only in parts where he has an actual physical appearance or when he shows some kind of human-like feature, and God is written when he's more of an unknown, mysterious being, powerful than anything (superior to men). Anyway, there was something else that I also realized in this part:

[22] And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
[23] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

This doesn't make sense. How can the word, woman, be created because of the word, man, if English didn't even exist at that time? As a matter of fact, I don't think any phonetic language existed in the very beginning of mankind. I'm just saying. Anyway, I think I noticed these things because I started reading The Bible as if it were just an ordinary book. I think this will help me analyze the book a lot better.

Greek Morals

Most of Greek mythology, I have noticed, are all similar to the stereotypical fairy tales of nowadays. All of them seem to have some kind of a moral at the end. The story of Baucis and Philemon is one great example, and I'd like to use this one as an example since it actually has a happy ending (at least for me), unlike most of the other Greek myths.

Zeus, the god of gods, and Hermes, his son, decided to come down to Earth and dress up as beggars to observe how human beings would act among them. No one wanted to share even a tiny piece of their happiness and time with them because they were very poor and filthy-looking. But, one couple, Baucis and Philemon, invited them in with a warm welcome, even though they lived in a really small hut and had almost nothing to give away. For being so generous, Zeus, of course, transformed their little hut into a mansion of gold and gave them extravagant lives. Not only that, but he granted them a wish and the only thing they wanted was to be able to die at the same time in the future. Wish granted. Main moral of the story: Do acts of kindness, and something good will come back. As simple as that.

What also caught my attention, not only in the story of Baucis and Philemon but while reading Metamorphoses, was the way the gods acted. They were all like ordinary people. They all had their own emotions, thoughts, and personalities just like humans do. Here's an example from the story of Baucis and Philemon:

Narrator One: "At last they came to a little hut on the outskirts of town."
Hermes: "Why bother knocking here? We've knocked on houses of all kinds, the homes of people with plenty to spare. Whoever lives here obviously has nothing."
Zeus: "Let's give it a try all the same. We've come all this way."
(He knocks.)
Hermes: "This is hopeless. Let's just go home."

In this scene, Hermes is starting to give up and lose hope. He is definitely showing signs of human feelings. This seemed interesting since the concept that most humans have today about God is the way opposite than the Greek gods because most of us think of God as a perfect being without flaws.

So, it was very fun to read this play. Not only did I learn about the stories of Greek mythologies, but the way the author wrote it was very entertaining since he added modern ideas to the text.

Modern Greek

Phaeton, I think, is one of those typical mischievous kids that are selfish and that always cause problems. But, of course, with a slight touch of the exaggeration of Greek mythology, Phaeton causes a bit more than just a little problem usually seen in fictional stories. He asks his dad, Apollo (the god of the sun), to lend him his chariot that transports the sun around the Earth. Big mistake. He ends up destroying most of Earth, the stars above, and later on, himself. So yes, that's how the story goes. But, what was so interesting about this story was the way Phaeton talked:

"Now, there's only one thing I want, I mean it's obvious, right? I say, 'Give me the keys to your car.' Immediately, he starts backpedaling, saying it's his job."

Through this, we can surely tell that this version of the story is a remake of the actual original myth. I mean, of course there were no cars in ancient times. But, I guess that made the play a bit funnier and entertaining.


The way that the story of Eros and Psyche was written in Metamorphoses was very short but to the point. The characters Q and A obviously represented the words, question and answer. But, the characteristic that interested me the most was the way that Q and A talked to each other about Eros and Psyche. Just like Phaeton, Q and A also had modern characteristics. They were both talking to each other as if they were telling some kind of a gossip about someone (just like normal people today). The whole purpose of this part of the play, in my opinion, was to briefly explain the story of Eros and Psyche in a more informal way.

What also caught my attention was when Q and A started talking about the ending of this story:

Q: "So it has a happy ending?"
A: "It has a very happy ending."
Q: "Almost none of these stories have completely happy endings."

I agree with Q: almost none of these stories have happy endings. There's always some kind of a love problem that interferes with the happiness of the characters. But, I think that it's better to have a bit of a sad ending because it makes the reader think about it afterward. This story, on the other hand, didn't leave me thinking about it because it had a happy ending. I'm not trying to say that I like sad endings. I'm just saying that sad endings makes you think more. Anyway, it was fun reading this. Even though it was a bit short, I think it was able to cover the main ideas of the actual story.

The Typical Antagonist and the Replica of Alcyone and Ceyx

Erysichthon seems to be one of those typical greedy antagonists. But, since Greek mythology is a bit more dramatic than normal stories, Erysichthon is a lot more cruel compared to most of the evil characters that come out in tales. His first act of cruelty is cutting down a tree. This is what a "bad guy" would do in a typical fairytale, but this tree wasn't just a normal tree. It was a very old tree in a sacred grove beloved by the goddess, Ceres. Besides that, Erysichthon forces another guy to cut it down by using foul language. But, this is nothing. When Erysichthon is punished with hunger, and he can't satisfy himself even after eating everything he can, he decides to sell his own mother for money and doesn't really seem to care that much:

Narrator: "Now this part is true, though you may not believe it: His hunger led him to sell his poor, his darling mother."
Buyer: "She doesn't look so strong."
Erysichthon: "Just give--just whatever--just give it to me--"
Buyer: "All right then."
(Tosses him a coin.)

So yes, Erysichthon is a very cruel and selfish character.


On the other hand, Orpheus and Eurydice has only love to share with each other. They both love each other just like the story of Alcyone and Ceyx, but this time, it's the woman (Eurydice) who dies, instead of the man (Ceyx). Here, Orpheus, the man, seems to be the intense one. He literally goes to hell for the love of his life. Trying to bring her back to life, he bargains with Hades, the god of the underworld. The only thing Orpheus had to do in order to be with her was just to not look at Eurydice during the journey out of hell while going through the Styx River. But of course, the curiosity of humans compelled Orpheus to look back, and when he did, he was separated from his wife forever:

Eurydice: "She was already loosened like long hair, poured out like fallen rain, shared like a limitless supply."
(Orpheus slowly turns to look at her.)
Hermes: "He has turned around--"
Narrator Two: "She could not understand, and softly answered,"
Eurydice: "Who?"
(She looks at Hermes, who then looks at Orpheus. Then she looks at Orhpeus.)

So, I think these short Greek stories are very interesting. They are a bit odd sometimes, but they are fun to read.