I would like to go through the bible and hear all its sounds. I managed an idiosyncratic ‘listen’ of Genesis. What sounds can you hear?
There is something about Leah’s eyes (v.17). NIV says ‘weak‘ with a note ‘or delicate’. NRSV says ‘lovely‘ with a note ‘meaning uncertain’. KJV says she was ‘tender-eyed‘. Does this echo Isaac’s blindness that Jacob took advantage of? Her first son (v.32) is called Reuben which means, ‘See, a son’. And she has a child … Continue reading Genesis 29 These chapters are filled with conflict and negotiation. Leah and Rachel fight over the children and their husband. God is drawn into this row as well. Somehow his presence seems aloof. His sound is through the others or through the birth of the children. Jacob and Laban invoke God as the cause of their actions. … Continue reading Genesis 30-31 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you … Continue reading Genesis 32 And they wept (Gen 33:4) What is the sound of men weeping? In several cultures the weeping man is unacceptable. So the weeping man is an unknown sound and when the sound comes up it seems inhuman and alien. But why do Jacob and Esau weep? It is unclear and the sounds of the text … Continue reading Genesis 33 The sound of rape enters the scriptures. Previously men just took women. But here there is something wrong in that taking. A distinction is made. Is it merely that the brothers think that they have been dishonoured? What about Dinah? Her name is sounded through the text. Yet she herself is silent in the text. … Continue reading Genesis 34 A name is sounded. We don’t know why. But the sound is just there in the text. Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth. (Oak of weeping) (Vs8) She is probably the unnamed nurse that came with Rebekah. We don’t know of her … Continue reading Genesis 35 Names. Sounds. Memory. Connection. Identity. Where I grew up, your family was key to your identity. Being a son of so and so was how you are introduced. Things are a bit different now. In urban London sounds have been muffled as now our work seems to be the key to identity. In some ways … Continue reading Genesis 36
Genesis 29
Genesis 30-31
Genesis 32
Genesis 33
Genesis 34
Genesis 35
Genesis 36