Abby Harris's Blog for Bible as Literature

After reading the first book of Paradise Lost by John Milton, I thought of two major comparisons to the book of Genesis in the Bible. In both comparisons of creation and disobedience, God’s almighty power is evident because of God’s ability to create Heaven and Earth; defeat the greatest angel, Lucifer, and cast him to Hell; and the banishment of Adam and Eve from Paradise and all the other punishments that would exist for all creations to follow.

The first chapter on Genesis details the creation of the Heaven and earth by God in which at first, it was “without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). However, by the seventh day there were living creatures, including humans and animals, there was light and dark, night and day, water and land, sun and moon, grass and seed, and fruit yielding trees. But, the dark emptiness before God declared that there would be light and all that would come reminds me of the Hell that God cast Satan and the other fallen angels to after they declared war on God and were defeated (Paradise Lost Book 1 Verse 40-70). Satan and his devil army then constructed a city for themselves and declared their opposition to God. The city center and capital was called Pandemonium (Paradise Lost Book 1 Verse 755). While God’s creation went from dark and empty to heavenly and light, Satan’s Hell remained dark, ominous and evil by nature. As declared in the first book of Paradise Lost, this story is about man’s disobedience to God and all that is a result of that disobedience. Lucifer’s (Satan) disobedience to God resulted in banishment to an underworld called Hell. This punishment reminds me of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God when God told them not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When they did not obey God’s command and instead ate from the tree, they realized that they were naked and felt ashamed (Genesis 3). As a result of their disobedience, Adam and Eve were banished from Paradise and cursed them with death and pain. These two examples of man’s (and woman’s) disobedience to God illustrates the almightiness of God and the two greatest of punishments: the creation of Hell and the fall of Adam and Eve.

The story of Joseph in Genesis is a story filled with jealousy, deceit, rivalry, and forgiveness. After years of struggle, hardship, and different ranks, Joseph is able to forgive his brothers because of his realization of God’s presence and plan throughout. 

Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, was his father’s favorite son and his brothers were very jealous of Joseph’s status with their father. Spanned by intense jealousy, Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave (Genesis 37: 28) where he was eventually brought to Egypt where his charm and devine success enabled him to eventually be appointed as Pharoah’s viceroy, or his “second-hand-man” (Genesis 41). This position was awarded to Joseph because he was able to predict and decipher Pharaoh’s dreams of an impending seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine (Genesis 41). As viceroy, Joseph was charged with preparing the nation for the famine. 

Feeling the effects of the famine, Joseph’s brothers traveled to Egypt where to get food where they, unknowingly, encountered Joseph (Genesis 42). Once realizing that his brothers had seemingly regretted their actions towards Joseph, the family reunited (Genesis 45). Despite having caused much hardship and displacement for Joseph, he chose to forgive his brothers. He was able to choose forgiveness because he realized that all the trials and tribulations that he had gone through were all part of God’s plan to ensure the survival of Egypt, its people, and the surrounding countries. We see many times throughout Joseph’s story that God is with him, for example with Joseph’s resistance being more powerful than his temptation when the wife of Potiphar attempted to seduce him (Genesis 39) and with the prisoner’s favor of Joseph by placing him in charge of all the other prisoners (Genesis 39: 21-22). Not only does the story of Joseph teach us the importance and power of forgiveness, but also perseverance as we see Joseph continue through his life never doubting the presence and plan of the Lord. In this, we also see Joseph remain humble as he never takes the credit for himself, but rather owes it all God. His humbleness also extended into his leadership. Joseph could have very well denied his brothers food out of vengefulness, but instead demonstrated forgiveness.

Many leaders today would likely not choose the same route as Joseph, but rather choose vengeance over forgiveness. Joseph’s story teaches many valuable lessons, for Christains the most important may be the reminder that God is always present during good and bad times. 

My name is Abby Harris and I am a junior from Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. My major is Markets, Innovation, and Design and I am very happy that this major and really any major within a liberal arts education, allows for me to explore classes outside of the constraints of my typical domain. 

While my family attended a Presbyterian church in my early childhood years, my most influential and relevant experiences with the Bible and religion in general were in middle school where I was a part of a youth group where we would meet every Sunday night and also travel in the summers to a different location to do service work. These mission trips are where I felt most connected to my faith. In high school while I attended two different religiously affiliated schools in which I was required to attend chapel two to three times a week, this interaction with the Bible felt more like a routine and a requirement rather than a connection. It wasn’t until I got to my junior year in college (now) that I made, for the first time, my own choice to interact with the Bible. After encouragement from a friend of mine who is now the leader of the Intervarsity Greek bible study group on campus, I decided to attend their weekly meetings. These meetings allowed me to discover religion on my own terms and see the Bible in a different way than I had before. Growing up in the south surrounded by deeply religious family and friends whose beliefs greatly intersected with their political beliefs complicated my own relationship with faith. Their relationship between politics and faith made me believe that I could not feel the way that I did about certain things and still have a relationship with God. It is with further investigation into the Bible and myself that I have learned that this is not true. 

I think that the stories that the Bible has to offer are so interesting and can be interpreted in so many ways. From this class, I hope to explore these stories and maybe gauge a better understanding of these different perspectives. 

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