{"id":416,"date":"2012-03-22T14:26:19","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T14:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=416"},"modified":"2012-03-22T14:32:37","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T14:32:37","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjava-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=416","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> Session 22 \u2013 Held on Sunday, Mar 18, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Abram and Sarai in Egypt \u2013 Gen. 12:10 \u2013 20<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As we continue in our sojourn through Genesis the titles of the various passages hold more than we might first think.\u00a0 Let\u2019s begin, however, with reading the notes and the passage, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/12\">http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/12<\/a>.\u00a0 It also helps to ask a few questions that allow us to stay focused on the passage.\u00a0 We have a standard set of questions, Who are the characters in the passage?\u00a0 What is the \u201cwhen\u201d of the story?\u00a0 Always remember that there are at least three \u201cwhens;\u201d the when in the story itself, the when of the author \/editor, and our when, the now of our life.\u00a0 Recognizing these different \u201cwhens\u201d enhances our appreciation of God\u2019s word.\u00a0 The final question in our standard set is what is the plot, the story line, in the passage?\u00a0 To help answer this last question it might help to ask in this passage who is reported as talking to whom?\u00a0 And to ask what is the role that Sarai plays?<\/p>\n<p>Our group has become so accustomed to asking themselves this set of questions that their answers are nearly spontaneous.\u00a0 I did ask Carol in particular to see if she could identify who talks to whom and for Heber to wonder what role did Sarai play.<\/p>\n<p>The list of characters was quite easy to enumerate: Abram, Sarai, Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the Lord, male and female slaves, the Pharaoh\u2019s men and Courtiers.\u00a0 Turning to the when question actually sparked a bit of discussion.\u00a0 Tim pointed out that the sojourn to Egypt took place at the time of a famine in Canaan.\u00a0 Tim\u2019s observation brings up a point that the notes direct us to.\u00a0 This story is actually told on three different occasions, not uncommon in an oral culture.\u00a0 It also foreshadows the story of the people of Israel who were lead out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses.\u00a0 The title gives a hint to all of this simply by telling us that this occurred \u201cin Egypt.\u201d\u00a0Israel had, and in some sense, still has, an going relationship with Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>But what is significant first is that there is a famine in the very land the Lord has promised to Abram.\u00a0 What does this say about God\u2019s promise to us?\u00a0 By our time we wonder why bad things happen to good people.\u00a0 Reflecting on this passage gives us some input into that disturbing question.<\/p>\n<p>As the backdrop to the plot of this story Carol recognized that it was Abram who engaged Sarai in direct discourse and it was Pharaoh who engaged Abram in direct discourse.\u00a0 Sarai remains a beautiful, but barren woman, named, but without speech; yet she plays a dominant role in this story.\u00a0 The role of women is a developing reality in the biblical stories.<\/p>\n<p>It became difficult to control matters once the group turned to the question of the plot, the story line of this passage.\u00a0 Abram uses his wife to protect himself.\u00a0 He asks her to lie.\u00a0 He assumes the Egyptians and Pharaoh, in particular, are going to act in certain way; but, in fact, they don\u2019t.\u00a0 God punishes Pharaoh who appears to be an innocent victim and not Abram who, in some sense, is responsible for what takes place.\u00a0 Abram makes out like a bandit.\u00a0 Sarai is willing to do what Abram asks of her which in our world is a lot.<\/p>\n<p>Michael identified a discrepancy in the story.\u00a0 Abram asks Sarai to tell Pharaoh that she was his sister but Pharaoh asks why Abram told him that she was his sister. Ken remarked that Pharaoh would have been viewed as a god by the Egyptians and he himself would not have believed in the God of Abram.\u00a0 On the other hand, it is the readers \/ listeners of this story who believed in the God of Abram.\u00a0 Michael thought that from their point of view [the believing community for whom the story was written] its very telling confirms that God indeed does bless Abram.\u00a0Time ran out so our conversation will continue \u00a0next week.<\/p>\n<p>As we draw our conversation to a close, it is important to keep in mind a couple of things.\u00a0 First and foremost, the bible tells a story that develops over time and is always immersed in its own historical times.\u00a0 Just as the meaning of events in one time or period of our life can and often do have a different meaning because of events that occur later in our life; so too stories in the bible have a different meaning in the light of later events &#8211; this \u201cwhen\u201d factor is very important.\u00a0 Equally important, we cannot simply take our \u201cwhen\u201d in the form of questions and moral perspective and project them backwards in time.<\/p>\n<p>All of this makes clear to me the need for an adult community to engage in conversation together.\u00a0 This is what happens when our group gathers, we laugh, we share, interrupt, respect, attempt to understand one another, don\u2019t always agree, are sometimes surprised that we don\u2019t agree, and through it all hopefully grow.\u00a0 It is possible to do this on line as well, but a similar exchange of thoughts would have to occur.\u00a0 What is your take on all of this?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abram and Sarai in Egypt \u2013 Gen. 12:10 \u2013 20 As we continue in our sojourn through Genesis the titles of the various passages hold more than we might first think.\u00a0 Let\u2019s begin, however, with reading the notes and the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=416\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[15,28,7,18],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-scripture","tag-historical-method","tag-literal-interpretation","tag-modern-scripture-scholarship","tag-religion-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=416"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}