Week Two: The Bible

 Mark Sledziewski

There are several things to be said about the Bible if you read it critically. First of all is the comparison of what the bible actually says, and what people think it says. Growing up, I was raised Catholic, and went to church, and Sunday school, the whole nine yards. There are many things that I feel like I learned purely because my church leaders believed it. The forbidden fruit was most defiantly an apple. The snake was most defiantly Satan (or something of the like). And Eve was the first female created by God. But going back, and actually reading this, I find no mention of an apple, or even of Satan. They aren’t introduced at all in the Bible. I find this interesting that things that I grew up thinking are in the bible, aren’t actually there. And without critically reading it, I highly doubt I would’ve picked up on these facts.

Throughout all of my life, I’ve always heard how merciful and forgiving God was, and how he loved everything. But the Old Testament God is quite the opposite. So far, just in Genesis he’s wiped out the entire world, and smote two cities. And in the name of God, Abraham led an army, and gained many slaves, because of his devotion to God. It was interesting to me to see the difference in what my Sunday school taught me, and what I’m seeing on my own, so many years later.

There is much choosing when it comes to the Bible. The pope chooses what books go in, and what stay out for a lot of the part. But it is interesting to see how certain ideas don’t fit the Christian ways. When I was looking around a year or so ago, I came across the name Lilith. Apparently, Lilith was the very first woman, even before Eve. But, she was made from the same dust as Adam, and there for thought she was equal to him. She ran away from Adam, because she did not want to be submissive to him, and allow him to know her. She was then known as a demon, and was forgotten, and God made Eve, to be submissive for Adam. This reflects the underlying masculinity in the Bible, which was very much ingrained in our society, and still is to an extent.