Thinking up a Jesus (from the Bible) themed burlesque number and I wanted to do something specifically relating to Jesus The Son, as in son of man and fully human as he is fully god (damn the cult talk is hard to shake) but specifically I was thinking about his crusifiction and how it just, wasn’t fair. Like according to The Bible god’s all powerful, so why did he have to kill his own son? He could’ve saved humanity, Jesus, and even his own heartbreak (there the belief that the reason the sun went dark when Jesus died is because god himself was mourning (the implications of that are astounding I’ll come back to that)) WITHOUT killing Jesus, but didn’t. And Jesus would’ve known for most if not all his life that he was going to be a human sacrifice
Jesus was born to die
Yes he had his teachings and the hearts he touched and all that, but he did all that knowing he was always meant to die, and to die young, and to die painfully. He sat in the garden and begged his dad not to kill him. But his dad said he needed his blood shed. That the people needed his blood.
But as much as Jesus was the son of god and fully god, he was also the son of Mary. And god cried knowing his son would be victorious, Mary wept because she would never see her son again. Not until she herself died.
This is a god who spoke life into existence, who killed the whole world with a flood, who in his own cannon hardened and softened the hearts of man, and yet to save them, he had to make sure the son of Mary was tortured in front of her, in front of his friends and the people he loved the most.
I do not think god loved Jesus more than a sacrificial lamb anyone else could give to him. God only loved Jesus for what he could do for him, even when it tore Jesus apart
We’re doing something that I haven’t done since high school, and that’s opening a Bible and reading what’s inside. This time will be much different though, as the ones I was handed were the King James Version, which I’ve come to find is the worst one for studying due to the extra medieval style language and incorrect (or dated) translations. Makes a lot of sense as to why I struggled!
So today’s book is going to be The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) with Apocrypha. I’m excited to get into this one, even with the new edition hopefully on the way this year? I read that it keeps getting pushed back, but am very interested in the updates.
Genesis
This book deals with a lot of interesting happenings, kind of just the “before times” so what I’ve found is a lot of angels walking among humans with or without God as they do things. I’ll go into specifics by the verses I’ve highlighted.
Genesis 3:24 — Cherubim with flaming swords guard Eden.
This verse describes the exile of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, and mentions Cherubim. The NRSV notes mention them as being half human half lion, Sphinx-like– as in “Sphinx of Egypt” so it says. In other references and things I had seen they can also be seen as having three heads and more monstrous, but it’s clear that Cherubs are mainly tasked with the guardianship of sacred places. I do find it interesting here that it only mentions them being like Sphinxes, and why that is. They’re also guarding the east of the garden, which might have some symbolism to the temple (Ezekiel 10:19) and its processional gate?
Another note for this one from the footnotes is that they guard Jerusalem. (1 Kings 6:23-28,32,35)
There is also a cross reference here to Ezekiel 28:13-16 that we’ll be discussing at a later date!
Genesis 6:1–4 — The “sons of God”.
Ah this verse. When I reference angels and giggle it’s this verse that comes to mind because of how modern Christianity likes to have angels as these sweet holy beings. Of course they bring about retribution, fire and healing, but they don’t like to mention this stuff.
This is where the “sons of God” or divine beings, angels for our sake, come down and see all the pretty girls and lie with them. This is apparently a bit of a topic in theological circles, as the footnotes had mentioned. Mainly because nothing seems to happen to the beings except… “Well, I guess I’ll shorten their lives!” God responds in this matter like that, he shortens the lifespan to 120 years. This was made from the original fear as during the Garden of Eden when he feared humans obtaining divinity. This makes me think of demi-gods in Greek literature, and how this might coexist with the idea.
Genesis 18–19 — Angels visit Abraham, then destroy Sodom.
These verses deal with three beings that visit Abraham. It is said that one of the three is the Lord, but the other two are said to be angels. They travel to Sodom and Gomorrah and find Lot and his family. The story is a famous one, the city is full of sin and God wants to destroy it, and in the end he does.
Where the angels are concerned here is they were visiting and the people wanted to “know” them, as my text graciously offers as an alternative to the term non-consensual sex. This act is offensive because apparently a lot of the meaning is placed on how hospitable Lot is? Lot even offers his own daughters at one point to the strangers to avoid insulting the literal angels in his house. I’m not sure about being that hospitable.
The angels here are walking with God, just accompanying him on the visit. Yet they are eating and speaking with the family, which is interesting in itself. To me this says they can eat normally, even if performative. I know of further writings saying angels exist off of manna but the idea that they could and would eat human food is something worth noting to me. Especially as we tend to see these beings as above us and not needing fuel as humans do.
Genesis 28:12 — Jacob’s ladder.
A small mention of a vision Jacob has. Basically Heaven’s stairway and angels just going to work, going back home. Stairway was said to be a more accurate translation as well? He’s witnessing this and then the Lord is standing next to him and delivers a message.
I find it an interesting snapshot of a way angels might travel, though curious as well…wings. In this case I believe it might be Jacob’s brain interpreting astral/celestial travel the only way he can handle it, which happens a lot for us. Not that I think there is any “right” way but it feels very human in terms of travel between dimensional spaces. Not wrong, just curious.
Genesis 32:24–30 — Jacob wrestles a mysterious being.
To me, this set of verses was a bit silly. I say this because seemingly nothing was going on beforehand and then all of a sudden Jacob was just wrestling with a guy. An angel or the Lord, I’m not quite sure which it is in this instance because Jacob does say “for I have seen the face of the Lord” after the being sort of denies wanting to give his name when he asks. The name is not given, just a blessing and a hip check.
So Genesis wasn’t a lot of information, but it is a good introduction into angels and how we’re seeing them before a lot of the visions start up. So far it is just a lot of accompanying God and doing his bidding. I would like to put a pin in that idea that the Cherubim who guard Eden have flaming swords, just to see if this shows up again. As well as the idea of angels potentially needing fuel to exist, as when they ate with Lot and his family.
Next time I’m going to be reading Exodus and possibly Isaiah and getting into the Cherubim and Seraphim side of things! See you next time~
-Gwen A.
I’d like to dedicate this post to a kind woman I once knew, though briefly, named Genesis. She was a fellow pagan, bright, wild and had a kind heart. Rest in peace, miss lady, you touched my heart.
Ligonier Ministries, founded by R.C. Sproul, exists to proclaim, teach, and defend the holiness of God in all its fullness to as many people
Our souls cannot climb out of the mire of sin because they are dead. Salvation comes not to those who cry out, “Show me the way to heaven,” but to those who cry, “Take me there for I cannot.”
Lost Carolingian Text Written for Charlemagne Discovered
A newly identified Carolingian text written for Charlemagne offers insights into biblical interpretation, Islam and intellectual life at the emperor’s court.
