Literary-critical Sunday school, part 3

Reading: The Beginner's Bible, 327-370. 

Listening: Die Bibel (1984 revision of the Luther Bible), Genesis ch. 1-3; Margot Käßmann, Die Bibel für Kinder, 13:30-17:30.

I introduced Jamie to Old Testament stories about a year and a half ago. We have read, listened to, and seen numerous versions of the biblical creation; Adam & Eve; Noah and the ark; the tower of Babel; Abraham; Joseph; the Moses story up to and including the ten commandments; Samson; David and Goliath; Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego; Daniel; and Jonah. We once started a Cain & Abel story, but J wanted to stop right away and has not wanted to return to it yet.

With most of the stories above we have also read and listened to the Luther bible. We have been through Genesis ch. 1-3 some half dozen times already; it is one of J's favorite sections. The language is formulaic and not particularly difficult. 

Thus far I try to let the stories speak for themselves, let J initiate conversation on the things that interest him, and seek to draw out his insights. For example, this morning he asked flat out why God planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil if he didn't want Adam and Eve to eat from it. 

von Max Hoh (7 Jahre)

I told him that it was a great question, that it was the question, and that I couldn't answer it! Whereupon J said: Gott hätte ihn wegpflanzen sollen ("God should have planted it away"). When I asked him if he meant that God should have planted it somewhere else, he agreed, but then said: Er sollte ihn sterben lassen ("He should have let it die"). In the ensuing discussion I didn't get a clear sense of what he meant by that.  

I don't try to answer questions J hasn't yet asked. For example, he is also very interested in the big bang and has learned a lot about it, but has not yet begun asking questions about how it squares with Genesis. I did and do introduce bible stories as "stories," but J has occasionally asked if biblical characters really lived. In the case of Jesus I told him definitely, Moses and David possibly, and in the case of the others we don't know. 

I've only engaged in "biblical criticism" on one occasion. I told J at the outset that Christians generally consider the serpent in Genesis 3 to be the devil, but that I don't think this, that the people who actually wrote the story didn't think this, that the serpent is a trickster, as the text says, and that there are also helpful serpents in the Old Testament (Exodus 4, 2-4 and 7, 9-12; Numbers 21:9). 

My beef with the Christian reading goes all the way back to my own boyhood, when it really troubled me, since I loved snakes so much. 

Further listening: Albert E. erklärt Kroko & Co., 39:50-46:00.

Age 5.1.4