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Secret History #17: Literary Genesis | Predictive History | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Secret History #17: Literary Genesis
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Summary
Core Theme
The Bible, through its narrative structure and emphasis on debate and self-reflection, is presented as the foundational element behind the exceptional creativity and intellectual prowess of the Jewish people.
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Today we do the Bible,
the most influential book in human
history, and we'll discuss why the
Jewish people are so creative.
Today, the most creative people in the
world are Jews. In the past 200 years,
um there have been three extremely
influential individuals. Karl Marx,
Simon Freud, Albert Einstein. They're
all Jews. So why are Jews so creative?
And the answer is the Bible.
Okay. So
um let me provide some background as to
how Israel, the nation of Israel was
first formed. So remember um the branch age,
the Middle East was the center of the
then you had
the Leavant.
Up north is Anatolia.
Across the Aian is Minanian Greece
If you look at this map, the center of
the world really is the Leavant. And at
this time in history, the Lavant is
really a colony of Egypt. Okay, this
place is called Canine.
Now, um the thing about the Egyptians is
they didn't like to go outside of Egypt.
So, in order to control this colony, the
Lavant, which is strategically very
important, they use Greek mercenaries.
Okay, mercenaries from abroad.
Many were Greek but there are some other
countries as well also at the time in
history there's a lot of religious
strife in Egypt and a lot of the priests
who lost out in this struggle they were
exiled to the lavant okay so you also
you also had the hill people
of canine okay hill people they lived in
the hills they farmed. You also had um
nomatic pasturalists, nomads because
this place was a center of trade. So you
had bandits, you had people who traded
and you also had people who raise
livestock. So another saying this is the
lavant it is a multicultural melting
pot. lots of different groups of people
and at this time in history there's no
concept of nation or race or ethnicity.
It was very common for people to just
intermix together. Okay. But then what
happened of course was the bronze age
collapse. And what that meant was that
now you have this surge of refugees
coming through from North Europe and
from um uh Western Europe and overwhelm
the former empires. Okay. So Minian
Greece is destroyed. The high tide
empire of Anatolia is destroyed and the
sea peoples are attacking Egypt. But
Egypt is pretty strong. So it's able to
resist the attack. And what the
Egyptians say to the sea peoples is
listen, don't attack us. We'll set you
somewhere else. We'll give you land
somewhere else. And so they were put in
the Levant. Okay? And these people are
called the Philistines and they're in
the Bible.
The problem is that there's already
people in the Levant. And so they are a
threat. And so these people now, the
mercenaries, the Egyptian priests, the
hill people, the nomads, they're forced
to come together as a new alliance to
fend off against the Philistines.
Okay? And this grouping of people will
And um at first they're they have to
elect a king in order to unite them
against the Philistines. And they elect
a king called Saul. So Saul is the first
king of Israel.
He has a mercenary named David.
And remember what's very common in
history is for mercenaries to rebel
against their king and become a king
himself. That's what David did. But now
that David is now king, he has three
major problems. The first problem is legitimacy.
Why are you king?
We elected so as king but you stole the
throne from him. So why are you king? So
the first big problem that David faces
is one of legitimacy. Second is a
problem of unity because remember Israel
at this time it's a
diverse coalition. So how do you unite
these people together? Okay. Okay. And
Why are we different from the Egyptians,
the Anatolians,
uh the Mesopotinians, the Philistines.
Okay. So to um solve these problems,
what David did was three major
innovations that would forever change
forever change human history. The first
is in introduction of a patron god named Yahweh.
Yahweh.
Okay. So, what David says like Yahweh is
our God
and our God is better than the other
gods. Okay. So, in the what the Bible's
trying to do is trying to explain who
Yahweh is and trying to explain to
everyone that Yahweh is a better God, a
superior god than every other god that
came before him. Okay, that's number
one. Number two is the centralization of
religion for a temple.
So what David says is, okay, if Yahweh
is our God and he's the best God, we
need a house for him. So what we're
going to do is we're going to build a
temple in Jerusalem and that's where he
will live from now on.
And by doing this, what David's really
doing is centralizing the religion. When
you do that, you give jobs to Egyptian
priests who will now be your main
political ally. Okay?
All right. And the third thing that he
did that's very important of course is
sponsor initiate the Bible.
All right. Okay. So that's where the
Bible comes from. The Bible comes from
the fact that the is Israelite people
need to create mythology that explains
why they are one family and why they're
different from others and why they're
actually better than other people. Okay.
So what is amazing about the Bible is
that it does succeed. It exceeds because
of the great storytelling within the
Bible. Okay. So this in the beginning we
have the origins of Yahweh and the Bible
begins with Genesis. The first book of
the Bible is called Genesis which is
means birth or the beginning. Okay. And
in the beginning, God creates the
universe. And he discovers that he's
he's lonely. There's no one to talk to.
It's not very interesting. So, he
creates man,
um, Adam. But then he thinks that Adam
might be lonely as well. So, he creates Eve.
Eve.
Okay? And that's the beginning. So, then
the Lord God formed man from the dust of
the ground. Okay? Dust.
So man is made of dust
and breathed in his nostrils the breath
of life and then man became a living
being. Okay. So God's essence is in Adam
and the Lord God planted a garden in
Eden in the east and there he put the
man whom he had formed. Out of the
ground the Lord God made to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food. the tree of life also in
the midst of the garden and the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. So this is
garden paradise called Eden and man was
created in order to farm it to take care
of it. Okay, he's bas he's basically a
servant a slave and in the center of the
garden are two trees the tree of life
and the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. The tree of life as you can
The tree of the knowledge of good and
evil grants the ability to learn. Okay,
so let me explain. Let's imagine that
there's this wall in front of me. Okay,
so I walk
I hit the wall. It hurts, right?
But I don't know that hurting is bad. So
I keep on
I keep on hitting the wall and I keep on
hurting myself. Okay? because I don't
know what's good and what's bad. But now
if I know what is good and what is bad,
I know okay I should not hit the wall.
Okay, I now have the capacity to learn
and over a lifetime I will learn a lot.
This is the secret of creativity. Right?
What's really important about this idea
is that you need to make a mistake for
you to know what is good and evil. Okay.
So that's why school is stupid because
school we tell you there's a wall don't
touch it because you will hurt yourself
and you don't touch it you don't hurt
yourself but you never learn for
yourself because when you hit the wall
you now are able to reflect and
understand how the world works. Okay. So
the secret to creativity is trying for
yourself and learning for yourself what
is good and evil.
And what this is also saying is that
these two things together, creativity
plus immortality,
allows you to become God. Okay, does
that make sense? Because if you can live
forever, but you're always learning,
eventually you will absorb all the
knowledge of the universe, which is what
God is. Okay? God knows everything in
the universe. And you can also argue
that's why he created us because once
you are perfection once you learn
everything you're no longer capable of
making mistakes of learning for
yourself. What you so what you do is you
teach students or you get students to
learn for themselves and that way your
knowledge expands.
Okay. So it's a really important idea is
that men and women were created to be
part of the creative process.
Okay. That's why God created us.
Um, the Lord God took the man and put in
the garden of Eden to till it and keep
it. Okay, so again, the man now is
basically a servant or slave.
And the Lord God commanded the man, you
may freely, okay, you can do whatever
you want. Okay, this idea of free
choice. So if you want people to be
creative, you have to give people free
choice. Okay, you have to give people
the capacity to make mistakes for
themselves. otherwise they'll never
learn for themselves. [snorts]
Uh but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, you shall not eat. For
the day that you eat of it, you shall die.
die.
Okay. Now, what's amazing about the
Bible is that it is poetry. Like all
poetry, its meaning is very complicated.
Okay? There's multiple layers to the
meaning here. So, you shall die could
mean, okay, the food is poisonous. Okay,
don't eat the apple. Sorry, don't It's
not the apple. It's the Don't eat the
fruit because you'll eat it. It'll be
poisonous and then you'll die. Okay. But
it's also could be interpreted as a
>> punishment, right? If you eat it, I will
have to kill you. Okay.
All right. So what so this is a very ambiguous
ambiguous
story and that's what makes the story so
amazing because it is uncertain to us
what the true meaning of the the Bible
is and therefore we have to keep on
thinking about it discussing it and
finding out for ourselves and at
different stages of our lives our
understanding may be different. Okay.
What's also interesting is that
God draws attention to one tree but not
the other. That's kind of weird, right?
There are two trees, the tree of
immortality and tree of learning. But
God only says, "Hey, there's a tree of
learning. Don't touch that." Which means
now that now now that our attention is
now focused on this one tree, right? So
think of a metaphor. Let's just say that
we go to the amusement park, okay?
You're my kids and I say to you, you can
have you can ride any
ride you want in this amusement park,
but there's a ride called the dragon
roller coaster.
>> Do not ride that or you will die. What
do you do?
>> Ride that.
>> You ride that stupid thing. Okay. So,
it's a really strange setup where God
knows everything, but he draws our
attention to the one thing that he's
afraid of. And it's almost like he's
pushing us towards that tree. Okay?
Because again, you know, if you talk to
children, you'll know that if you if you
if you warn them not to do something,
they'll go and do it. Okay? So, what's
going on here? Well, again the nature of
God is up for debate. You can say that a
God is
uh being truthful and little and says
that if you touch that tree you will
die. Okay, so he's being dishonest
basically. Okay, that's one possibility.
Another possibility
is that he's just stupid. He doesn't
really understand how humans work. He
created humans but he doesn't really
understand what it means to be a human.
and he gave it and he gave us free
choice. So he doesn't really appreciate
that we would disobey him. Okay, that's
another possibility. Now another another
possibility, okay, which can also be
true is that it's all part of his plan,
right? If he truly wants us to
understand free choice. He truly wants
us to be creative, then he needs to
allow us to make our own mistake. And so
therefore, he's sort of like setting us
up. Okay? He's sort of like sort of like
provoking us into making a mistake. All
right? Does it make sense? So as you can
see how it's only a few words but it's
so complex and it's an entire universe
onto itself. All right. Okay.
Okay.
All right. Now
um this is story of God creating woman.
Okay. Eve. [snorts] So Lord God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon the man. The man
is lonely and he wants a female
companion. Okay. And he slept. Then he
took one of his ribs and closed up his
place with flesh. The rib that the Lord
God had taken from the man he made into
a woman and brought her to the man. The
man said, "This at last is bone my bones
and flesh of my flesh, this one should
be called woman. For out of man this one
was taken." Okay. Now you can make the
argument that
um man is superior because man came
first. But you can also make the
argument that woman is superior because
woman is made of higher quality. Woman
is made of flesh, right? Man is made out
of dust. So this is almost revolutionary
the con conception because you would
think that
in this world men are at the top. But
this Bible is telling us no women are
made of higher quality material. They're
made of actual flesh.
Right? And that's why we think that the
person who wrote this was actually a woman.
And [snorts] as you read the Bible more
and more, you will discover like the
this genius who wrote the Bible, who
first wrote the Bible, was in fact a
woman. And that's revolutionary. Okay.
All right. So,
um, therefore, a man leaves his father
and his mother and clings to his wife,
and they become one flesh, and the man
and his wife were both naked and were
not ashamed. Okay. All right. Let's
let's let's continue. Now the serpent
was more crafty than any other wild
animal that the Lord had made. He said
to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall
not eat from any tree in the garden?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may
eat of the fruit of the trees in the
garden, but God said, "You shall not eat
of the fruit of the tree that is in the
middle of the garden, nor shall you
touch it, or you shall die." Okay, this
is really strange, okay? Because what
you will notice is that the serpent
chooses to talk to the woman, but not to
the man.
Okay. And also what's really interesting
is that they're having a debate. [snorts]
[snorts]
But the first serpent said to the woman,
"You will not die for God knows that
when you eat eat of it, your eyes will
be open, and you'll be like God, knowing
good and evil." So when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food and that
was a light to the eyes and that the
tree was to be desired to make one wise,
she took of its fruit and ate and she
gave some to her husband who was with
her and he ate and then the eyes of both
were open and they knew that they were
naked and they sold fig leaves together
and made loans clothes for themselves.
Okay, this is really interesting because
the woman is making this decision by
herself, right? The servant says, "Hey,
why don't you judge for yourself whether
whether the food is good or not?" The
woman looks at the food and says, "I
judge for myself it is good." Okay, this
is revolutionary where the woman is
making the decisions. She like you would
think that once she once the serpent
said this to her she would she would go
to her husband and say hey Adam the
servant said this what do you think okay
but the woman's like no I can see for
myself what is true and then so she eats
the fruit by herself and then she tells
her husband eat the fruit as well and
the husband falls as well so this tells
us that the real hero of the story is
actually the woman Okay. [snorts]
Okay. Then they heard the sound of the
Lord God walking the garden at the time
of the evening breeze and the man and
his wife hid themselves in presence of
the God among the trees of the garden.
Okay. So they know they're in trouble.
They know that God will discover that
they ate from a fruit. Uh they ate from
a tree and they're they're scared. Okay.
The Lord God called the man and said to
him, "Where are you?" I He said, "I
heard the sound of you in the garden. I
was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself."
myself."
So he knows that being naked is wrong.
Okay, being naked is bad. Who told you
that you were naked? Have you eaten from
the tree which of which I commanded you
not to eat? The man said, "The woman
whom you gave to me with me, she gave me
fruit from the tree and I ate." Okay, so
the man is blaming the woman. Okay, the
man says, "It's not my fault. I'm just
I'm I was just following her. Okay. So
again, the woman what's amazing about
this is the woman is the hero of the
story. Then the Lord God said to the
woman, "What is it that you have done?"
The woman said, "The servant tricked me
and I ate." Okay. All right. So at this
point in the story, what can we expect?
We can expect that God have no choice
but to kill Adam and Eve, right? Because
God's words were, "If you eat from that
fruit, you will surely die."
And so even though the food fruit wasn't
poisonous, God still has a duty to kill
Adam and Eve. And if we were in the
Iliad, okay, then surely Adam and Eve
would have died because the gods in the
Iliad, the Greek gods, most gods are
vengeful. They're wrathful, right? But
not this God. Okay? Yahweh is different.
Okay? Look what happens next is the man
named his wife Eve because she was the
mother of all living and the Lord God
made garments of skins for the man and
his wife and clothed them. Instead of
being angry at Adam and Eve, he offers
them a present. Okay, the question then
is why? Well, there are different
possibilities, right? The first
possibility is that God himself
recognizes that I made a mistake here. I
shouldn't have drawn attention to this
fruit, right? Therefore, it's my fault.
Therefore, this is a god that's capable
of self-reflection
and forgiveness.
Okay, this is revolutionary, guys. Okay,
because again, remember gods at this
time are revengeful, wrathful. You must
obey them or they will strike you down.
But this God is different. This God is
like, listen, it's you should not have
eaten enough fruit, but it was my fault
as well, so I forgive you. He's capable
of self-reflection. Okay. Another
possibility is again this is what God
wanted all along. Okay. And we know this
because the man named his wife Eve. So
the man honors his wife,
okay, with a name and it's the mother of
all living.
Okay, you are the true goddess.
goddess.
Okay. So, um what happens next is God's
like, "Okay, well, you still disobey me,
so I will have to punish you now." Okay.
So, what he does is he punishes a man
[clears throat] by making him now have
to toil for food. Okay? He has to be a
farmer. He punished a woman by making
child birth painful. He punished a
serpent by making him slither on the
ground. Okay? So, this is all good,
right? But now, what God does is this.
He actually throws the
Adam and Eve out of the garden. Okay.
Okay. So why the Lord God said see the
man has become like one of us. All
right. So Eve did the right thing
knowing good and evil and now he might
reach out his hand and also take from
the tree of life and eat and live
forever. Okay. So that's what godhood
is. God is a capacity to learn for
yourself as well as to live forever. So
God's afraid, hey, if Adam and Eve eat
that tree of life, he'll they'll become
like God as well. >> [snorts]
>> [snorts]
>> Therefore the God sent him forth from
the garden of Eden to till to the ground
from which he was taken. He drove out
the man and at east of the garden of
Eden he placed a sherim, an angel, a
sword flaming and turning to guard the
way to the tree of life. And so this is
our banishment from the garden of Eden.
Now um most people think that this is a
bad thing. Okay? But you can also
interpret this as a good thing. So God
chose us to make us creative without the
possibility of living forever. Why?
Because if you think about it, creativity
is death.
Well, the concept of death,
[clears throat] you cannot be truly
creative. Okay, first of all, if you
think I'm going to live forever, you're
not actually motivated to do anything,
right? You're not motivated to make the
most of your life. But actually making
the most of your life, you can't be
creative. Also, if you live forever,
your children cannot be creative. Your
grandchildren cannot be creative. So for
humans to be creative as a species,
death must be an inevitability. Okay,
does that make sense? So you can you can
say that okay, God doesn't really know
what he's doing. It's his first time
having children. He's making a lot of
mistakes. Okay. But you can also say
that um it's all part of his plan. His
plan is to make us creative because that
is what's divine. Creativity is what's
truly divine. Okay. [snorts] All right.
So we continue.
Now that Adam and Eve are outside the
Garden of Eden, they have children named
uh Cain and Abel. Okay. Now the man knew
his wife Eve and she conceived and bore
Cain, saying, "I produced a man with the
help of the Lord." Next she bore his
brother Abel. Now Abel is a keeper of
sheep and Cain a tiller of the ground.
Okay? So Cain is a farmer and Abel uh a
shepherd. In the course of time Cain
brought to the Lord an offering of the
fruit of the ground and Abel for his
part brought of the firstlings of his
flock their fat portions. And the Lord
had regard for Abel and his offering but
for Cain's offering he had no regard.
Okay, this is a very common thing in
this world where you have to make
sacrifices to the gods. The gods will
favor you if the if the offerings are
good. Okay, and so you're god, Cain
comes with some plants and then uh Abel
comes with some meat. Okay, so you're
like Abel, you're a better person. Okay,
and this is a very common thing in this world.
world.
But Cain gets very angry. His face fell.
The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you
angry? And why has your countenance
fallen? If you do well, will you not be
accepted? And if you do not do well, sin
is looking at the door. It's desires for
you, but you must master." Okay. A very
common thing in this world where the
gods are like, "This person sucks. Do
better next time." Okay. All right. But
Cain gets really angry and what he does
is he kills his brother.
And then um the Lord gets angry and
says, "What have you done? Your
brother's blood is crying out to me from
the ground, and now you're cursed from
the ground, which has opened its mouth
to receive your brother's blood from
your hand. When you till the ground, it
will no longer yield to you with
strength. You'll be a fugitive and a
wanderer on the earth. Okay? So, at this
time, what God will could should do is
just kill Cain, right? An eye for an eye.
eye.
Um, but God doesn't do that. All right?
God says that I banish you. And then
Cain says, "If you do that, my
punishment is greater than I can bear. I
today you have driven me from the soil
and I shall be hidden from your face. I
should be a fugitive and a wanderer on
the earth and anyone who meets me may
kill me." Okay? So people will know that
I've left my community. I must have done
something wrong and therefore they may
kill me. And God says, "Okay, I'm going
to put a mark on you and this will
protect you so that no one who came upon
him would kill him." Then Cain went away
from the presence of the Lord and
settled in the land of Non east of Eden.
Okay. So again, this is a god of
forgiveness, of reconciliation, of
compromise, of debate. Cain says, "Your
punishment is unfair." And then most
gods be like, "Screw you, man. I'm I can
do whatever you want." But this God is
like, "You know what? You make a good
point. Look, I have reflected. I
recognize that I shouldn't have said
that your brother's better than you.
Okay? I recognize that this is partly my
fault. So as a compromise, I protect you."
you."
Okay, this is again a revolutionary
idea. This was written 3,000 years ago.
Okay, today we think okay this is a very
common concept but remember in the Iliad
the major problem is one of forgiveness
and in the Bible this is a god of
forgiveness. Okay, he's kind of silly
but he's not perfect and what he's
telling us that perfection is not a
possibility. What is a possibility? What
we should all try to do is try to
reflect and improve ourselves. Okay? And
this is a theme throughout the Bible. So
as humanity continues to develop, God
looks down and says, "You know what?
These humans, I designed them to be
creative, to do wonderful things, but
they're killing themselves. They're
enslaving each other, explaining each
other. This is stupid. I need to start
over." Okay? So he creates a flood. But
there's one person on the earth that he
thinks is a noble person, Noah. Right?
So he says, "Noah, build build an ark
and save yourself." So Noah builds an
ark and he saves himself. And then after
the flood recedes, Noah comes and
rebuilds humanity. And then
God looks down to Noah and says, "You
know what? I will never again curse the
ground because of humankind. For the
inclination of the human heart is evil
from you, nor will I ever destroy every
living creature as I've done. As long as
the earth endures, seed time and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and
winter, day and night shall not cease.
This is God saying, "Oops, I made a
mistake again." Okay, I didn't like the
evil that humans were creating on this
earth and therefore I want I want to
wipe evil from this earth. But you know
what? If I give them free will, if they
have that fruit of from the tree
knowledge from the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, then yeah, some of them
are going to make mistakes. Okay? Okay?
And this something that I'm have have to
put up with. So he promised no one in
humanity, I will never do this again. If
you guys do evil, well, you're going to
have to solve this problem yourself. I'm
not going to come and suffer for you.
All right? It it was a mist it was my
mistake to to make everyone suffer like
this. I will never do this again. All
right? So humanity is rebuilt. And of
course, humans go back to being evil,
starting wars, enslaving each other,
explaining each other. So then God's
like, you know what? What I need to do
is this. I need to build a nation that
is the best nation and which will be a
great example to everyone. And this
nation I will call Israel. Okay. So he
looks around the earth and he he
discovers a name named Abraham. And
Abraham is the patriarch of the nation
of Israel. But these are also the patri
patriarch of the religions of
Christianity and uh Islam. Okay. So,
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are
considered the Abrahamic faiths because
they all think Abraham is their
patriarch or their uh forefather. And
so, um Yahweh says to Abraham, I will
make a covenant with you. I will make a
contract with you where I will favor
you, but you must swear loyalty to me.
You must you must promise me that your
people will be uh loyal to me. They will
worship me only. Okay? And and that's a
covenant, the Abrahamic covenant. Now,
what's interesting is the relationship
between Abraham and Yahweh.
Okay? You would think that Abraham would
just be a slave and a servant to Yahweh,
but that's not actually what happens.
Okay? So, let's read the story. So, what
happens is this. God promised to not
destroy the earth, but then he's like,
"Yeah, but then there's some places that
are so evil, I need to destroy them to
teach everyone a lesson." Okay? So, this
place is called Sodom and Gomorrah. And
Son Gomarra is known for its wickedness.
So um God sends men, okay, angels to
summon Gomorrah to destroy it. Abraham
is shocked by this. So Abraham's like,
"Yeah, but you can't destroy everyone."
Okay, so what happens and this is really
interesting is that Abraham and Yahweh
start having a debate and Abraham pleads
with Yahweh to change his mind. Okay? So
yeah, Abraham says to Yahweh, "Will you
indeed sweep away the righteous with the
wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous
within the city. Will you then sweep
away the place and not forgive it for
the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be
it from you to do such a thing to say
the righteous with the wicked so the righteous
righteous
fear as the wicked." Okay, he's saying,
"Yahweh, you're making a mistake." Think
about that. Okay, a mortal is telling a
god, you're making a mistake. But not
only that, but Yahweh is like, "Yeah, I
think you're right." Okay, so they agre
so Abraham says, "Um, if there's 50
people who are righteous, you cannot
destroy Sodom and Gomorrah." And God
says, "You're right. If I find 50
righteous, I will forgive everyone."
Okay, so Yahweh agrees with Abraham. At
this point, you would think that
Abraham's like, "Yes." Okay? And then he
would run away. But he doesn't do that.
He keeps on arguing. He says, "Yeah, but
let's just say there's 45. Okay,
45. Suppose five of the 50 are lacking.
There's only 45. We can't find 50. Don't
you think we should still forgive Zam
Gomorra?" And God's like, you know,
that's a good point. Yeah. So, you know,
45 is good as well. Okay. And he keeps
on going on and on until they get to 10.
For the sake of 10, I will not destroy
it. Okay. This is what Yahweh promises
Abraham. So in other words, it's not
that Yahweh and Abraham, it's not like
master servant. It's more like friend
friend because what a friend does is a
friend is honest with you. A friend
tries you to be to tell you the truth. A
friend tries to get to get you to be
better. Okay? So what Abraham's saying
to Yahweh is like I know you're a
virtuous god, but sometimes you make
mistakes. So it's important for for me
to argue with you. Okay?
And that's why Judaism is such a
powerful religion because the basis of
Judaism is debate
and argument and questions. Okay, debate
and questions.
Why are you so creative? It's this
simple, guys. Jews are encouraged to
debate each other to figure out what is
truly right. There is no absolute truth.
It's always a process of asking
questions, open debate, and
self-reflection. Yeah. >> Okay.
>> Okay.
All right.
So eventually what happens is that um
what will happen is that Abraham will
give birth will have a son named Isaac.
And Isaac will have two sons Esso
and uh Jacob. Jacob's name will
eventually become Israel. So Israel is
founded by Jacob. What would happen is
that um Jacob is the younger son. Esso
is the older son. So you would think
that Esso would inherit everything from
Isaac. But Jacob Jacob and his mother
Rebecca schemes and steals from Esso.
Okay, they trick Isaac and they steal
the birthright from Esso. So now the
Esso is pissed off at Jacob. So Jacob
has no choice but to run away. Okay, he
runs away and he meets a relative. Okay.
And what follows next is the greatest
love story in the Bible. You can also
argue it's the greatest love story ever
in human history. Okay. And what's
amazing about the story is how simple it
is. But once we start analyzing, you
will discover that it's actually a very
complex story. All right? It's a
beautiful, complex, and sophisticated
story. All right? Laban, who's a
relative, says to Jacob, "You're my kinsman.
kinsman.
um should you therefore serve me for
nothing? Tell me what shall your wages
be? Okay. So, Jacob's um running away
from his brother and he's [music] and he
finds um safety with Laban and he offers
to work for Laban. But Laban said,
"Listen, I can't just um enslave you.
So, you work for me and I'll give you
whatever you want." Okay? And then you
take what says
Laban had two daughters. The name of the
elder was Leah. The younger was Rachel.
Leah's eyes were lovely and Rachel was
graceful and beautiful. Jacob loved
Rachel. So he said, "I will serve you
seven years for your younger daughter
Rachel." Lean said, "It is better that I
give her to you than I should give her
to anyone else." So yeah, I agree to
this deal. Okay. It's a contract now.
All right.
Jacob served seven years for Rachel and
they seem to him but a few days because
of the love he had for her. Okay. So he
loves her so much that seven years is
nothing to him. Okay. Then Jacob said to
Laban, "Give me my wife so I may go into
her, for my time is completed." So Laban
gathered together all the people of the
place and made a feast. But in the
evening, he took his daughter Leah and
brought her to Jacob, and he went into
her. Um when morning came, it was Leah.
And Jacob said to Leah, "What is it that
you have done to me? Did I not serve you
for Rachel? Why then have you deceived
me?" Lean said, "This is not done in our
country. You the younger before the
firstborn. Complete the week of this one
and we will give you the other also in
return for serving me another seven
years." Jacob did so and complete her
week. Then Laban gave him his daughter
Rachel as a wife. So Jacob went into
Rachel and he loved Rachel more than
Leah. He served Laban for another seven
years. Okay, this again is a beautiful
love story and it doesn't sound like it.
Okay, but let's go into the complexity
complexity of it. Okay, first of all, clearly
clearly
Laban deceived Jacob, right? But did he
did he mean to in the beginning? The
answer is no. Okay, the question is why
did he do so? And the answer is
Rachel and Leah are sisters, right? And
therefore, they probably hate each
other. They're in competition with each
other. So when
Jacob says to Laban, "I love Rachel, but
not Leah." Leah now is pissed, right? So
what do you think he did? She did for
seven years. For seven years, she just
pester her father and says, "Hey, am I
not your daughter? Am I not your first
born? Will you let me be insulted and
humiliate this? If Jacob were to marry
Rachel, who will ever want to marry me?"
And Leon's a father, okay? And he
doesn't want to deal with this crap. So
he's like, "How do how do I get out of
this mess?" Well, what I'll do is I'll
trick um Jacob and first give him Leah
and then
I'll give him Rachel. And how does he
know this? Because he knows that Jacob
loves Rachel, right? Laban's able to
like stand far away and look at how
Jacob and looks at Rachel. So he knows
that Jacob will have to endure. Okay,
he'll put he'll he'll do this. But then
the question is,
does Rachel love Jacob? And the answer
is yes, of course. Right? Because once
um Jacob married Leah, then Rachel could
have just said, "Screw this. I'm going
to marry someone else." But she didn't.
She had to wait seven years. And you can
imagine those seven years were the
longest seven years for both Jacob and
Rachel. In fact, every day Leah probably
said to Rachel, "Haha, okay, she was
laughing at Rachel, just saying, you see,
see,
Jacob doesn't really love you." And um
Rachel had to endure. Okay, so that's
this the power of love.
The way that Jacob and Rachel were able
to endure all the humiliation in order
to just be together. Okay, it's a
beautiful love story. And this is the
great thing about the Bible. The Bible
written by this person, okay, who's
who's clearly a woman, right? Only a
woman would write stories like this. It
has both economy
and irony.
Economy just means that she's able to
with very few words convey deep meaning.
She's able to in the story just a couple
paragraphs create an entire universe. We
can see actually the movie play out.
Okay, it's 14 years where in the first
seven years, Jacob is really happy. But
in the last seven years, everybody he's
agonizing because he doesn't want to be
with Leah. He wants to be with Rachel,
but they can't be together and he has to
wait all these seven years. Okay, so
economy, but also irony. Irony just
means it's funny, guys. Okay, I know
that you're taught the Bible is a
religious text, but when it was first
conceived, it was meant to be a funny
story. Okay, this is a story of two
sisters who hate each other and they're
competing for the same guy. All right,
When Rachel saw that she bought Jacob no
children, she envyed her sister and she
said to Jacob, "Give me children or I
shall die. Okay, you have to get me
pregnant because Lee is having a lot of
kids." Jacob became very angry with
Rachel and said, "Am I the place of God
who has withheld from you the fruit of
the womb?" Then she said, "Here is my
maid. Go into her that she may bear upon
my knees and that I may have children
through her." So she gave him near. She
gave him her maid as a wife. And Jacob
went to her and Ba conceived and bore
Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, "God has
judgment. She has heard my voice and
given me a son." Okay, this is a comedy
where she's in competition with Leah.
Leah has a lot of kids. So Rachel is
going to cheat and give her maid to
Jacob. And whenever
um the a baby comes up, Rachel's like,
"It's mine. It's mine." And she's going
to go around and and cheer to to like um
try to out compete Leah. Okay, this is a
comedy. [snorts] Then Jacob said, "God
has judged me and has heard my voice and
give me a son. Uh Rachel's conceited
again and bore Jacob a second a second
son." Then Rachel said, "With mighty
wrestlings, I have wrestled with my
sister and have prevailed." So she knew
him not to leave. Okay.
All right.
Okay. So, does that make sense? And now
what is going to do is give her mate to
Jacob as well in order to continue the
competition. All right. To try to out
compete uh Rachel. Okay. So, this is all
just a comedy. Okay. It's meant to be
beautiful stories that force you that
provoke you into deep reflection.
Right? And this is why the Jews are so
creative. If you look at the media, if
you look at Hollywood, if you look at
academia, the Jews dominate, okay?
Because from the moment they're born,
they're born with these stories that
force them to think deeply deep deeply
about who they are, what it means to be
human, and what life is about. Okay? And
as you can understand, you can just have
multiple interpretations of what's going
on, but they force you to think very
deeply about life to have an inner
debate with yourself. Okay.
All right. Okay. So, now we go on to
David. Okay. The story of David, it's
very very um complicated. Okay. And so
in the Bible, what it tells us is that
um God needs a king for the nation of
Israel. And he sends a prophet named Sam Samuel
Samuel
to find a a king. And he goes to the
house of Jesse. [snorts] And in the
house of Jesse, he finds David who's the
young youngest boy. He says, "You not
you in the future be the favored king of
Israel." Okay?
And David in in his early age does
wonderful things. For example, he
defeats Goliath. Okay? So you've heard
the story of David and Goliath, right?
But after he kills Goliath, the king Saul
Saul becomes
becomes
envious, jealous of David and that
forces David to run away. Eventually
Saul is killed and David comes back and
becomes king. Okay, that's that story in
the Bible. Guys, as you learn in this
class, this is all propaganda. Okay.
What really happened is that Saul is
king. David is the mercenary and he's a
very good and popular mercenary. He has
a lot of soldiers who follow him and
therefore he kill heals Saul and becomes
king himself. Okay. But now what the
Bible needs to do is legit legitimize
David. Okay. Try to tell us that oh no
no no David is not ambitious. He was not ruthless.
ruthless.
God willed him to be king. Okay. And
that's why the babel Bible was written
the way it was. So this is written um by
the court historian. Okay. The person
who wrote Genesis is is a person we call
the Yahweh. Okay. Because for her the
God is Yahweh. The Yahweh or J. This
person is a court historian. So his job
is to clean up the image of David to
tell the story of David again but in a
much more clean way that absolves him of
so um where we are in the story is that
But Saul's family is still around and
Saul's family has a g general named
Abner. Okay. But after Saul is dead,
Abner feels slighted by the family. So
Amnner's like, "Screw this. I'm going to
go and support David." And David of
course is very happy. Okay.
Amnner came with 20 men to David at
Hebr. David made a feast for Amnner and
the men who were with him. Amnner said
to David, "Let me go and rally all
Israel to you in order that you may take
a covenant with me and you may reign
over all that your heart desires." Okay.
So what Ammer is saying is make me your
general and I will give you Israel.
David dismissed Abner and went away in
peace. Then the servants of David
arrived with Job from a raid. Okay, so
Job is David's general bringing much
spoil with them. But Abner was not was
not with David at Hebrron for David had
dismissed him and he had gone away in
peace. When Job and all the army that
was with him came, it was told Job Abner
came to the king and he has dismissed
him and has gone away in peace. Now Job
and Abnner have a conflict because
Abnner killed one of Job's brothers. So
Job wants to kill Abnner. Okay.
What have you done? Abnner came to you.
Why did you dismiss him so that he got
away? You know that Abner came to
deceive you and to learn your comingings
and goings and to learn all that you are
doing. Job came out from David's
presence. He sent messengers after
Abnner. They brought him back from the
christition of Sarah, but David doesn't
know about this. Okay, so Job goes and
kills Abner. Okay, now so if you read
the story, you think that David did
nothing wrong. Okay, but if you think
about it, there are lots of problems
with this story. The first problem is that
that
Job the general is rebelling against
David, right? If you're David, who who
are you more afraid of? Are you afraid
of Atner or you afraid of Job? You're
afraid of Job, right? Because Job has
your army.
>> Okay. So there's no way that David would
allow Job to rebel against him. So the
only conclusion is that Job acted with
the permission of David. So David knew
about this. Okay? All right. This is a
lie. David knew all about this. In fact,
David probably ordered Job to kill
Abner. Then the [snorts] question is
why? Well, if you're a king, you're most
concerned about loyalty, right? If
Admiral betrayed Saul's family, there's
a possibility Adna will come and betray
you as well. Okay? So, this guy needs to
be eliminated because he's dangerous.
Okay? And it makes sense because
remember David betrayed Saul, so he's
afraid that others will betray him as
well. All right? So this story
even though it's a lie it gives it gives
us enough clues to construct the truth
for ourselves. That's what makes the
Bible different from other religious
texts. Other religious texts are sayings
or truisms but these are stories and
stories are living things that we can
reconstruct in our heads. Okay. And
again this explain helps us explain why
the Jews are so creative people because
they grew up in a tradition of stories
as opposed to truths or sayings. Okay.
So they can constantly reimagine these
stories for themselves.
All right. So now we get to the most
famous story of David. All right. So in
the spring of the year when the t when
kings go out to battle, David sent Job
with his officers and all Israel with
him. Okay. So what's really important to
know is that even though Job disobeyed
David and killed Amnner, Job was never
punished. Okay, which tells us that Job
was probably acting on the orders of
David. [snorts]
Uh they reverenc the Ammonites and
besieged Rabbi, but David remained at
Jerusalem. Okay, so David's in Jerusalem
while the army is fighting elsewhere. It
happened late one afternoon when David
roasted from the couch and was walking
about on the roof of the king's house
that he saw from the roof a woman
bathing. And the woman was very
beautiful. David sent someone to inquire
about her. It was reported this is Bash
Sheba. Okay. Daughter of Iliam, the wife
of Uriah the Hitite. So David sent
messengers to get her and she came to
him and he laid with her. Um then she
got pregnant. Okay. Again, this is a very
very
um problematic story because first of
all, a woman doesn't sleep with you just
because you ask her to. Okay?
>> And Bashibba, remember, is married to
Uria the Height. Okay? So, who is Uria?
Yuria is the best soldier in David's
army. He's very popular with the man.
So, if you're David, who are you afraid
of? You're afraid of your Ria. Okay?
Does that make sense?
All right. Yuria is the person you're
most afraid of. [snorts] All right.
So now he has a problem because Bashiba
is pregnant.
And David's like, I need to fix a
problem because if you comes back and
discovers that his wife got pregnant
while he's away, he's going to know that
I slept with her. Okay? So he has to he
has to solve this problem. So David sent
word to Job. Send me Yuria the Hitite.
And Job sent Uria to David. when you
came to him, David asks how it's going
and uh David says to Uria, "Okay, you
know what? You you're a great warrior.
Why don't you go and see your wife?"
But then Uriah doesn't go see his wife.
Because Uriah says to says to David, "Listen,
"Listen,
your army is fighting for you.
I cannot go sit with my wife and feel
good about myself while your men are
dying. I refuse to uh
uh be with my wife if the men are
outside. Okay. So now David has a huge
problem. So what David does is he writes
a letter to Job and tells Job, "Hey, go
do this. Okay, set Lura in the forefront
of the hardest fighting and then draw
back from him so that he may struck down
and die."
So David orders the assassination of Uriah
Uriah and
and
Job tells David, "Your servant Uriah is
dead." Okay. So I I've done what you've
asked me to do. Okay. So in the Bible,
what it tells us is that David
David
fell in love with Basheba and his heart
took over him and that led him to go
kill Uriah. Okay,
Okay,
but if you think about it, what probably
happened was reverse where David becomes
jealous of Uria and he becomes fearful
of Uria because he's so popular with the
soldiers. Okay? Because that's how David
got the throne by betraying Saul. So
he's afraid that Yura will betray him as
well. Okay. So he probably ordered the
assassination of Yuria to prevent this
threat from arising. And then what do
you do with what do you do to show that
you're better than your worst enemy? If
you have an enemy, how do you prove that
you are better than he is?
>> You go marry his wife. Okay.
So that's the real story. Okay. The real
story is that
David felt that Uria was being better
than him. He got very jealous and so he
killed Ura and married his wife to show
ha I'm better than Uria. [snorts] Okay,
that's the real story. But you and you
can see how the Bible framed the story
in a different way. So So in other
words, the Bible was written as an
apology for David to disguise his
crimes. And the story of Genesis was
written to show that God favors David.
Okay? Because if David is fallible, but
what David does that's really important
is that he omits his mistakes and he
reflects and he improves. That's what
God does as well. Okay? So David and God
are the same people. And that's why
Yahweh favors David above everyone else.
Yahweh is looking for a friend. David is
his best friend because David is most
like him. Okay. All right. Let's continue.
Okay. So the wife of Uria Bashibba
he she hears that her husband is dead
and she cries and then when after after
her morning is over David and Bashibba
marry and have a son together. Okay.
Then Nathan the prophet goes David and
says tells him a story. There are two
men in a city and one is rich and the
other is poor. Okay. So there's two men,
one rich, one poor. The rich had many
sheep and the poor had just one. Okay.
Um then
a traveler comes to the rich man and
um the rich man has has to have a feast
for the traveler but he doesn't want to
use his sheep. So he steals the poor
man's sheep. Okay.
Then David gets angry and says, "Hey man,
man,
that's wrong." Okay. I will find this
man and I will kill him. Okay?
And I will um give the poor four lamb
instead of one. And then Nathan says to
David, David, you are that rich man.
Okay. So what Nathan is saying to David
is your crime is he stole of Bashibba.
Guys, that's not David's crime. Okay.
David's crime is he killed Uriah.
Right? So this is what we call gaslighting.
gaslighting.
You see how clever this is where the
Bible set up so that you forget that
David's crime is killing Yora. Okay, you
think that the real crime is David
stealing Bashiba.
No, that's not the real crime. The real
crime is murder. Okay, not adultery.
All right, so in other words, the Bible
is an apology for David. But because
of the nature of Israel society. Okay.
So what's what's special about Israel at
this point in history is that it's a
very small community of people. So
David can't be like I'm king. If you
disobey me I'll kill you. Okay? He has
to get everyone to support him. So they
have to make up these stories to justify
why David is a good person. Okay? David
cannot say he didn't do this because
everyone know knows he did this. So
instead they change the story. And
what they say instead is that the pro
what makes David special is not that he
is infallible.
What makes him special is that he's a poet
poet
and he is capable of reflection and forgiveness
which is what Yahweh is. Okay. So Yahweh
is a poor king and so is David. All
right. And this is why again the Jews
are so literally so so literary and so
creative. They're not great warriors,
but they are tremendous intellectuals.
This has been true throughout their
history. They're capable of deep
reflection, open debate, and argumentation.
argumentation.
Okay? And this is and this is why the
Jews are so creative. Okay? Any
questions, guys? Okay. All right.
Um I don't know much about Bible. So
Bible is a collection of different
stories and poem, right? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And so the common feature of these
stories are uh
uh
are are I like I I can't really tell the
common feature between this story and uh
the previous story about uh Rachel and
uh Leah.
>> Okay. All right.
Okay. So that's a good question. Okay.
So let's go over some basic introduction
to the Bible. Okay. Okay. So the Bible
it's a library. Okay. Bible means sorry.
Okay. Bible means books in Greek.
So it's a library and it's composed of
um three major parts. The first is
what's called the Tanakat.
Sorry it's it's a Torah. Okay. So it's
the first five books of the um Bible.
Okay. Second is the historical books, history
history
and then you have the writings. Okay.
Okay. So the problem of Bible is that it
was actually constructed much later
than the time of David. Okay. So David
was David was about 1,000
BC around this time. Okay. And the Bible
we think was construed about 400 um
um
uh BC around this time. Okay. So there's
a 600 year difference. So the Bible that
we have was very different from the
Bible that uh was first conceived. Okay.
So the what what's the structure of the
Bible? The structure of the Bible is
this. It's a history
of the people of Israel. Okay. Remember
Israel is a fake nation. It's it's a
collection of different tribes,
different peoples, and they they need to
make it as so it's one people. So they
create a fake history. All right? So the
fake history is um Adam and Eve,
then uh Noah, then Abraham,
then Isaac,
then um
uh Jacob,
then Moses,
then you get all the way to David. Okay?
All right. So this is a cosmology,
an ordering of events or a fake history.
All right? And what this is doing is this.
this.
It's combining all the different tribes
and groups of Israel together into one
family history. Okay? So remember, you
you have the missionaries,
you have the nomads,
you have the heal people.
Okay? So Egyptian priests get explained
away by Moses. That's why the Israelites
go into Egypt because um they have the
Egyptian influence. Okay. Then you have
the hill people and the hill people come
from different families.
And what you do is you make them into
one big family. So Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob are all different part family. And
when you combine the nation together,
you make it as though it's one nation
together. Okay? So now rather than
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are different
families. It's like no, Isaac is the son
of Jacob and Jacob is the son of Isaac.
Okay. All right. So this is the original
Bible. And then what happened later on
was then they added other stuff as well.
Okay. Poetry and rituals and all that. Okay.
Okay.
Over time. Does that make sense?
>> All right. Good. Great.
Um I I don't understand like why does the Bible kind of trying to embolish
the Bible kind of trying to embolish like kind of trying to make people
like kind of trying to make people believe that David is a very successful
believe that David is a very successful figure figure or something?
figure figure or something? >> Oh sorry what is the question? Uh so
>> Oh sorry what is the question? Uh so like um
like um so the intention of the story about
so the intention of the story about David is to use these stories to let uh
David is to use these stories to let uh the readers uh the the Israel people to
the readers uh the the Israel people to understand
understand um
um their their culture or or is this just
their their culture or or is this just uh okay um listen okay okay so the Bible
uh okay um listen okay okay so the Bible will change over time okay this is
will change over time okay this is really important to understand what the
really important to understand what the Bible is changes over time because
Bible is changes over time because Israel becomes different over time. And
Israel becomes different over time. And we'll go over this next class. Oh,
we'll go over this next class. Oh, sorry, not next week. Okay, not next
sorry, not next week. Okay, not next class, next week. Okay, so what's
class, next week. Okay, so what's happening now is okay.
happening now is okay. Um,
Um, you're David and you're Solomon. Okay,
you're David and you're Solomon. Okay, so Solomon is the son of David who
so Solomon is the son of David who becomes king. All right, and there are
becomes king. All right, and there are people around you.
people around you. Okay, and they're gossiping. Okay,
Okay, and they're gossiping. Okay, gossiping. They know what happened with
gossiping. They know what happened with Bashiba. They know what happened with
Bashiba. They know what happened with Abner. They're all gossiping and that
Abner. They're all gossiping and that causes problems for the king. Okay? It's
causes problems for the king. Okay? It's like being in a village and everyone's
like being in a village and everyone's talking behind your back. So, what you
talking behind your back. So, what you do is you need to spin this. Okay? Or
do is you need to spin this. Okay? Or what we call uh public relations
what we call uh public relations or media, you need to tell the story in
or media, you need to tell the story in a different way that makes the gossiping
a different way that makes the gossiping less bad. Okay? So, the gossiping right
less bad. Okay? So, the gossiping right now is that David, he is ruthless. He
now is that David, he is ruthless. He killed Yuria because Yuria was a threat.
killed Yuria because Yuria was a threat. Okay. Now, the problem with this with
Okay. Now, the problem with this with the story is that if people believe the
the story is that if people believe the story to be true, one, it's possible
story to be true, one, it's possible that Uria's friends will want revenge
that Uria's friends will want revenge for what happened. Okay. It's also
for what happened. Okay. It's also possible that a soldier tries to kill
possible that a soldier tries to kill David.
David. Okay? Because David is clearly
Okay? Because David is clearly ambitious.
ambitious. So you change the gossip to like, oh no,
So you change the gossip to like, oh no, no, no, no. David was not ambitious.
no, no, no. David was not ambitious. David is just a poet who fell in love
David is just a poet who fell in love with Bashiba. Okay. Now people think
with Bashiba. Okay. Now people think that David is just irresponsible.
that David is just irresponsible. Okay. Infallible.
Okay. Infallible. But this is a lot better than people
But this is a lot better than people thinking that he's a ruthless killer.
thinking that he's a ruthless killer. Because if you if people think that he's
Because if you if people think that he's a ruthless killer, then I should be a
a ruthless killer, then I should be a ruthless killer as well. Okay. Now
ruthless killer as well. Okay. Now people are like, "Well, you know, David,
people are like, "Well, you know, David, he's king, but he's not perfect
he's king, but he's not perfect and he made a mistake and we should
and he made a mistake and we should forgive him because Yahweh, remember the
forgive him because Yahweh, remember the story of Yahweh is that he makes
story of Yahweh is that he makes mistakes too and we should forgive
mistakes too and we should forgive Yahweh as well." All right, do you
Yahweh as well." All right, do you understand what's happening? Okay, this
understand what's happening? Okay, this is what we call spin. Before it was like
is what we call spin. Before it was like he killed Yuria and therefore
he killed Yuria and therefore uh we should avenge Yora or it's okay to
uh we should avenge Yora or it's okay to be violent.
be violent. Now you switch a story to say no it was
Now you switch a story to say no it was really about Bashiba and this is just
really about Bashiba and this is just really about okay you know what people
really about okay you know what people make mistakes we should forgive him.
make mistakes we should forgive him. Okay and that and that's why the Bible
Okay and that and that's why the Bible was created in the way it was to change
was created in the way it was to change the gossip around so that it would it
the gossip around so that it would it would be less harmful. They both suck.
would be less harmful. They both suck. Okay, but everyone knows you killed
Okay, but everyone knows you killed Jaria. Now the question is why did you
Jaria. Now the question is why did you do so? Okay, you don't want people
do so? Okay, you don't want people thinking that hey David killed Yuria
thinking that hey David killed Yuria because he saw you as a threat because
because he saw you as a threat because then people will think okay then we know
then people will think okay then we know that David had to kill Saul as well.
that David had to kill Saul as well. Okay, that' be a huge problem on your
Okay, that' be a huge problem on your hands. So you switch like no no it was
hands. So you switch like no no it was just Bashiba.
just Bashiba. >> Okay, does that make sense?
>> Okay, does that make sense? >> So Bible is used like a to
>> So Bible is used like a to Israel people uh to to like kind of
Israel people uh to to like kind of manipulate their value.
manipulate their value. >> Okay. All right. Listen. All right. Very
>> Okay. All right. Listen. All right. Very simple. We remember this. Writing. What
simple. We remember this. Writing. What if writing? Writing does three things.
if writing? Writing does three things. First is legitimacy.
First is legitimacy. Okay. To explain that this guy should be
Okay. To explain that this guy should be the king because that's the will of God.
the king because that's the will of God. Second is unity. We are one family,
Second is unity. We are one family, guys. We have the same values. The third
guys. We have the same values. The third is differentiation. We're different from
is differentiation. We're different from other people. Okay. All right.
other people. Okay. All right. differentiation is Yahweh is a god of
differentiation is Yahweh is a god of forgiveness, a god of of fallibility,
forgiveness, a god of of fallibility, but a god of reflection and debate and
but a god of reflection and debate and openness. Okay? So, our god is different
openness. Okay? So, our god is different from other gods. The Greek gods is pure
from other gods. The Greek gods is pure vengeance. Our god is one of
vengeance. Our god is one of forgiveness. Okay? He's he's good. Unity
forgiveness. Okay? He's he's good. Unity is we're just one family with one
is we're just one family with one history. Okay? And legitimacy is that
history. Okay? And legitimacy is that David is a poet king which is just like
David is a poet king which is just like Yahweh. Okay? That's why Yahweh favors
Yahweh. Okay? That's why Yahweh favors him. Does that make sense?
him. Does that make sense? >> Makes sense.
>> Makes sense. >> Okay. That's what the Bible was
>> Okay. That's what the Bible was constructed or in initially to do. But
constructed or in initially to do. But over time, its nature will change. It's
over time, its nature will change. It's something we'll discuss as we go along.
something we'll discuss as we go along. But when the Bible was first
But when the Bible was first constructed, it was constructed as
constructed, it was constructed as propaganda. But Yahweh is, okay, the
propaganda. But Yahweh is, okay, the Yahweh or the
Yahweh or the Jay, she uses opportunity to create
Jay, she uses opportunity to create beautiful stories that become living
beautiful stories that become living entities, living memories onto
entities, living memories onto themselves and they ignite the
themselves and they ignite the imagination of the Jewish people. And
imagination of the Jewish people. And that's why the Jewish people are so
that's why the Jewish people are so creative. All right.
creative. All right. >> All right. So,
>> All right. So, okay. And do you have any more
okay. And do you have any more questions?
questions? Okay. Great. Okay, so we've done the
Okay. Great. Okay, so we've done the Greeks, we've done the Jews. Next class
Greeks, we've done the Jews. Next class we'll do the Persians. Okay, and these
we'll do the Persians. Okay, and these are the three most creative peoples of
are the three most creative peoples of this period. The Jews, the Greeks, and
this period. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Persians. And you can argue that
the Persians. And you can argue that it's these three people, the Jews, the
it's these three people, the Jews, the Greeks, and the Persians that have that
Greeks, and the Persians that have that are the pillars of Western civilization.
are the pillars of Western civilization. Okay. So we will continue this next
Okay. So we will continue this next class.
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