E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
www.searchvisualizer.com
When mentions of "life" and "death" are plotted in Genesis, a pattern emerges.
By Megan Gannon
LiveScience
Researchers using text-analysis software say they've discovered a new literary device in the first book of the Bible: the "Genesis death sandwich."
The name refers to a familiar rhetorical structure — sandwiching bad news in between the good. In the case of Genesis, the slices of white bread are themes of life, and the slimy cold cuts in between are mentions of death.
"The structuring of life and death in Genesis appears to be something that hasn't been noticed before," researcher Gordon Rugg, a senior lecturer in Computing and Mathematics at Keele University in the United Kingdom, wrote in a blog post on Thursday. "We think it's a standard literary device being used on a larger scale than had been previously realized. No aliens, no secret codes, no conspiracies, but some striking images, and a great name for a band."
For their study, Rugg and his colleagues ran the King James version of the text through software known as the Search Visualizer, which plotted mentions of life in red and death in green on a single gridded page representing the whole book. Their results showed frequent mentions of life in the opening and closing verses of Genesis.
For example, toward the end of the book, when Joseph is reunited with his brothers, he tells them: "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life" (Genesis 45:5). Meanwhile, mentions of death are clustered in the middle, the researchers found, especially in Chapter 27, when an aging Isaac talks to his son Esau, saying, for example, "Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death" (Genesis 27:2).
The researchers say this structure is an example of a literary convention known as inclusio, also called bracketing, where one theme frames another. Rugg acknowledged that it is uncertain whether or not this "death sandwich" convention was applied to the text intentionally. Nonetheless, he says it might have been used to cushion the negative messages of death, or perhaps to put life and death in stark contrast. [The 10 Weirdest Ways We Deal With the Dead]
"Whether it was a deliberate use of inclusio or a subconscious use is an open question," Rugg wrote. "We don't think that this structure is likely to be a coincidence, given the number of times the two words occur within Genesis, and given that these are themes that have long been recognized as significant within it."
Rugg and his colleagues ran other searches using the software for words not considered significant by scholars, finding no specific patterns in the book of Genesis. However, they did find the word "woman" appears overwhelmingly in the first part of Genesis, while it rarely pops up in the second half, Rugg wrote. Another term, "begat," illustrates something scholars have long recognized -- that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John mirror the themes and structures of the Old Testament (which includes Genesis); sure enough, "begat" showed a striking cluster in the first part of Genesis, mirroring what was found in the first part of the gospel of Matthew, Rugg said.
Rugg and David Musgrave of Amridge University in Alabama presented their research at November's meeting of the Association of Schools of Oriental Research in Chicago.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.
- Top Ten Conspiracy Theories
- Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus
- 8 Ways Religion Impacts Your Life
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Leave a Comment:
Good grief! What a waste of time. How does this contribute to the betterment of anything?
Did you ask yourself before posting?
Borrrrrrrrrring!
What next, a study showing that who-done-it novels tend to end with a climatic revelation?
But somebody actually got paid for conducting this "study", which is more than I could do.
I guess that makes them smarter than me, which is a sobering thought.
I am "praying" this study was not done with grant money, but I am betting it was. More wasted tax dollars thanks to our "wonderful" government.
Huh?
I looked and read 2x. Didn't see anything worth putting up here as an article. To think people got paid for all of this . . . I actually have to work for my pay. Sheesh. Where do I sign up?
? Pattern? All I see are a bunch of random dots or colored squares. What is the point to this article?
Seek Jesus. He gives sight to the blind.
But there was no Jesus in Genesis...
I'm still trying to figure out how anyone can read bible passages without giggling at the absurdity of it all.
yes there is red wizard , gen 1 states IN THE BEGINNING ,,,,,,, , in the new testament , Jesus states , I AM THE BEGINNING , if you look in the original hebrew , use the westminster leningrad codex (oldest dated copy of torah) in the first verse , after the word God (Elohim) you will find 2 letters that are never translated into any of the newer translations , not even the KJV , these 2 hebrew letters are the aleph & tau , or in greek , it would be the alpha & omega & as clearly stated all through scripture especially in revelation , this is Jesus the Messiah or in hebrew Yahoshua maschiach.
When considering design in scripture , read of Ivan Panins work , he was an atheist/agnostic mathematician that taught many , including einstein, read of his challenge .
Actually, Genesis contains many surprisingly modern references, namely:
To baseball: "In the big inning. . . "
And tennis: "And Joseph served in Pharaoh's court. . . ".
Really, ... a religion that preaches life, death, and resurrection has stories of death bracketed by life. Wow, these guys are literary geniuses ... about 3,000 years behind the times in biblical scholarship. Was this intentional??? Gee, ever read the Psalms, or the Prophets, ... where phrases about life are routinely repeated around passages about suffering and death. I guess the point is, we can prove it now with a dot graph, instead of actually reading the text. Watch out Alabama Christian... what's next? challenging creationism?
These dots make just as much sense as the text. We've proved that none of it means anything. Which is sort of what I assumed.
RedWizard, Jesus is in Genesis and throughout the whole Old Testament. Gen 1:26 Let "us" make man in "our" image...The trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. John 1:1 and Col 1:15-20 make it clear that Christ was the creator. Read Isaiah chapters 40-66 and you will see that all of it is talking about Christ. All of the old testament laws and much more were a shadow of Christ.
saw the headline and assumed someone accidentally left their ham on rye in the family bible for a few decades
Ham on rye? I don't suppose it was a Jewish bible.
I thought it was some new kind of weapon that I didn't catch when I read it. Then I thought...oh great...something more for Congress to waste their time on debating whether people have the right to own and use the "Genesis Death Sandwich" to defend and protect themselves. But I guess that wasn't it...and all those dots...where does the sandwich/bracket fall in? I can't see it. Maybe I am getting old.
Oh I see it! Connect the dots and it's Mario with a oversized hat.
who paid for this insane junk i hope not tax payers
Please note that this "research" was conducted at Amridge University. Now, go ahead and Google "Amridge University". Founded in 1967, " It was previously known as Alabama Christian School of Religion, Southern Christian University, and Regions University, and is a successor institution to Alabama Christian College."
That somewhat explains the motivation for this "research." Nice try Bible Thumpers. This is meaningless and proves NOTHING.
So textual analysis of the Bible is invalidated because the people doing the analysis work at a Christian institution?
It may not interest YOU, but it's interesting to others. I'd be interested in whether they follow this up by looking not at the book of Genesis as a whole, but split into the sections that we know to have been written by different authors. Whether or not the different authors line up with different frequencies of topics mentioned would be cool to know.
Literary analysis and research is still analysis and research, whether it appeals to you or not. You'll notice they didn't do any kind of "Bible Thumping", and they didn't try to prove anything religious. It's just a friggin literary analysis. Personally I find it interesting that an ancient text like this can illustrate literary devices like inclusio that are still used in modern times.
I find it fascinating how many negative folks out there just have to trash something that was intended to simply demonstrate a deeper insight into the Bible as far as the way some authors had written it. It is so easy to sit back, bash the work these folks had done, and feel all high and mighty.Claiming nothing new, everybody had already known that. But let's actually take a second look at something everybody already knows, shall we? See how much you know.Remember Jesus was always talking in parables.So those who were spiritually in tune, could get the message, while those who weren't, stayed blinded and in the dark.
In the parable of the ten virgins, He speaks of five wise and five foolish, who were waiting for the Bridegroom. But He was late, and they fell asleep, the lamps went out.Then when He finally arrived, and they went to light their lamps, the five foolish had no oil. They begged the five who did, but were told, there was no extra, but to go buy from them who did.The five wise, lit their lamps, went with the bridegroom, while the foolish scattered to find some.
To the uninitiated, it is simply a story.To those who understand, Jesus is speaking of the coming of the Son of Man.But it goes further, for there are different levels to parables. Allowing those who have more deeper spirituality to understand more, then those with less. Adapting truths to those ready to learn more.This is the first level.
The next level is recognizing the virgins represent the followers of Christ, to join the celebration of the wedding between the bridegroom and the bride(Church).Individuals who were separated from the world and knew that the bridegroom was coming.So they had no excuse and should have been better prepared. It is our responsibility to be in the world, but not of it.This is the usual message most folks take from the parable.To keep watch, obey the commandments. But there is one final level most don't comprehend.
The ten virgins actually represent the cream of the crop followers. They, being virgins, are the purest of members, chosen and invited by the bridegroom, because they are the ones being obedient. As virgins, in Christ's time, they have been washed, clothed, set aside. Spent all their time devoted to doing good works in the Temple, visiting the sick, widows, needy, fatherless. So they the members of the Church, would be those doing the same.Visiting the needy,fatherless, sick, widows, homeless, paying tithes, obeying the commandments, doing the works of Jesus.Not just the regular folks in the Church. Now here is the scary part. Half of THESE folks, are not going to be ready when Christ returns! So Obviously it isn't works that is going to give us oil for our lamps alone.
Suddenly, it becomes a whole lot less comfortable, realizing those who profess to be followers of Christ, doing His work, aren't actually prepared. It makes one, who understands the parable at this level, realize how much they need to totally come clean and strive to maintain complete dependency on their Savior each and every day, for repentance, guidance and mercy, using the Atonement, for salvation. No one is guaranteed saved for the rest of their life unless they keep repenting, being obedient and doing the works of Christ.Then it is up to Christ alone to make the call, through His Grace.
Thus every parable has more than one level, to help teach those who are prepared for more, while protecting those who are not, from accountability to higher laws they are not yet ready to live.
Just as there are chiasmus in the Bible which form a criss-cross structure of words, displaying inverted parallelism to emphasise important elements to ideas, in helping to teach.Especially effective and found through out the scriptures, but not exclusively used by the Jews.Being in Greek literature for instance, and continued in modern work. Understanding the way writers use different methods to help pass on important ideas, can lead to deeper ways of learning one would normally miss. Making all the difference in what we walk away with in the end.
Now, if the book was actually true, we might have something, as it stands, the contradictions and fallacies show the "good book" is simply the largest, longest running, and most mentioned work of fiction modern man has seen.
Jesus was a plagiarized version of Joseph and Joseph was a
plagiarized version of Horus and Horus a plagiarized version the solar deity
who came before him.
Horus was born on December 25th to a virgin
mother Isis-Meri
His birth was accompanied by a star in the east, and upon
his birth he was adored by three kings.
At the age of 12, he was a prodigal child teacher, and at
the age of 30 he was baptized by a figure known as Anup and thus began his
ministry.
Horus had 12 disciples he traveled about with, performing
miracles such as healing the sick and walking on water.
After being “betrayed” by Typhon, Horus was “crucified,”
buried for three days, and thus, resurrected.
These attributes of Horus, whether original or not, seem to
permeate many cultures of the world, for many other gods are found to have the
same general mythological structure. Attis of Phrygia, born of the virgin Nana
on December 25th, “crucified,” placed in a tomb and after three days, was
resurrected.
Dionysus of Greece, born of a virgin on December 25th, was a
traveling teacher who performed miracles such as turning water into wine, he
was referred to as the “King of Kings,” “God’s Only Begotten Son,” “The Alpha
and Omega,” and many others, and upon his death, he was resurrected.
Mithra of Persia, born of a virgin on December 25th, he had
12 disciples and performed miracles, and upon his death was buried for three
days and thus resurrected, he was also referred to as “The Truth,” “The Light,”
and many others. Interestingly, the sacred day of worship of Mithra was Sunday.
The fact of the matter is there are numerous saviors, from
different periods, from all over the world, which subscribe to these general
characteristics. The question remains: why these attributes, why the virgin
birth on December 25th, why dead for three days and the inevitable
resurrection, why 12 disciples or followers? To find out, let’s examine the
most recent of the solar messiahs. Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary on
December 25th in Bethlehem.
First of all, the birth sequence is completely astrological.
The star in the east is Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which, on
December 24th, aligns with the three brightest stars in Orion’s Belt. These
three bright stars in Orion’s belt are called today what they were called in
ancient times: The Three Kings. The Three Kings and the brightest star, Sirius,
all point to the place of the sunrise on December 25th. This is why the Three
Kings “follow” the star in the east, in order to locate the sunrise—the birth
of the sun.
The Virgin Mary is the constellation Virgo, also known as
Virgo the Virgin. Virgo is also referred to as the “House of Bread,” and the
representation of Virgo is a virgin holding a sheaf of wheat. This House of
Bread and its symbol of wheat represent August and September, the time of
harvest. In turn, Bethlehem, in fact, literally translates to “house of bread.”
Bethlehem is thus a reference to the constellation Virgo, a place in the sky,
not on Earth.
There is another very interesting phenomenon that occurs
around December 25th, or the winter solstice. From the summer solstice to the
winter solstice, the days become shorter and colder. And from the perspective
of the northern hemisphere, the sun appears to move south and get smaller and
more scarce. The shortening of the days and the expiration of the crops when
approaching the winter solstice symbolized the process of death to the
ancients. It was the death of the sun. And by December 22nd, the sun’s demise
was fully realized, for the sun, having moved south continually for six months,
makes it to its lowest point in the sky. Here a curious thing occurs: the sun
stops moving south, at least perceivably, for three days.
Now, probably the most obvious of all the astrological
symbolism around Jesus regards the 12 disciples. They are simply the 12
constellations of the Zodiac, which Jesus, being the Sun, travels about with.
In fact, the number 12 is replete throughout the Bible.
This is why Jesus in early occult art is always shown with
his head on the cross, for Jesus is the sun, the “Sun of God,” the “Light of
the World,” the “Risen Savior,” who will “come again,” as it does every
morning, the Glory of God who defends against the works of darkness, as he is
“born again” every morning, and can be seen “coming in the clouds,” “up in
Heaven,” with his “Crown of Thorns,” or, sun rays.
Do remember the game you played in school where you sat in a
circle and one child would whisper a phrase in the next ones ear and then it
would continued to be whispered around the circle? Well when the phrase reached
the first person the uttered it, it no longer resembled the original phrase.
That is all our modern day religion is, a plagiarized, bastardized version of
an ancient oral tradition that spoke of the original solar deity, THE SUN.
And then there is the plagiarized story of Moses. Upon
Moses’s birth, it is said that he was placed in a reed basket and set adrift in
a river in order to avoid infanticide. He was later rescued by a daughter of
royalty and raised by her as a Prince. This baby in a basket story was lifted
directly from the myth of Sargon of Akkad of around 2250 B.C. Sargon was born,
placed in a reed basket in order to avoid infanticide, and set adrift in a
river. He was in turn rescued and raised by Akki, a royal mid-wife.
Furthermore, Moses is known as the Law Giver, the giver of
the Ten Commandments, the Mosaic Law. However, the idea of a Law being passed
from God to a prophet up on a mountain is also a very old motif. Moses is just
another lawgiver in a long line of lawgivers in mythological history. In India,
Manou was the great lawgiver. In Crete, Minos ascended Mount Dicta, where Zeus
gave him the sacred laws. While in Egypt there was Mises, who carried stone
tablets and upon them the laws of god were written. Manou-Minos-Mises-Moses.
And as far as the Ten Commandments, they are taken outright
from Spell 125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. What the Book of the Dead
phrased “I have not stolen” became “Thou shall not steal,” “I have not killed”
became “Thou shall not kill,” “I have not told lies” became “Thou shall not
bear false witness” and so forth. In fact, the Egyptian religion is likely the
primary foundational basis for the Judeo-Christian theology.
Over the centuries, with each successive telling of the
story, and as cultures drifted apart and began their own civilization, they twisted
and manipulated the stories, transferring the attributes of past characters and beliefs to
characters they created to form their belief system.
In fact, the aspect of transference, of one character’s
attributes to a new character, can be found within the book itself. In the Old
Testament there’s the story of Joseph. Joseph was a prototype for Jesus. Joseph
was born of a miracle birth (Gen 30:22-24), Jesus was born of a miracle birth
(Mt 1:18-23). Joseph was of 12 brothers (Gen 42:13), Jesus had 12 disciples (Mt
10:1). Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver (Gen 37:28), Jesus was sold for
30 pieces of silver (Mt 26:15). Brother “Judah” suggests the sale of Joseph
(Gen 37:26-27), disciple “Judas” suggests the sale of Jesus (Mt 26:14-15).
Joseph began his work at the age of 30 (Gen 37:28), Jesus began his work at the
age of 30 (Mt 26:15). The parallels go on and on.
> KS712 Now, if the book was actually true, we might have something, as it stands,
> the contradictions and fallacies show the "good book" is simply...
Guys - the article has nothing to do with the Truth or fiction of the stories in the Bible. It's simply an article about discovering a literary device in a very old book. The article is about the writing technique used by the author(s), and I don't see anywhere where they suggest this somehow makes the stories in the Bible more or less True or false.
Some folks are so quick to attack anything that mentions the Bible, that there can't even be a science story that won't also be attacked.
tell me why all kingdoms and cultures around this planet put clothes on their bodies, 99.9 % that is. which there is no book required to naturally feel this shame when uncovered, "naked" in front of people you know not. yet That Book the Holy Bible it is written not only there but The Writer of the Bible Said He Wrote These Words upon the tables of your heart as well. if there was no Holy Bible on planet earth then you can be 100 percent confident clothes would not exist. for it is Written and it shall come to pass.......get a King James BIBLE now and read it people while there is still time.......King of Kings and Lord of Lords, King James is one of these Kings OF THE KING.......
Timothy - this article has nothing to do with religion. It's about the literary mechanism used by the authors, and the statistical method the study used to recognize those patterns.
Todd - right. And apparently inconclusive too. A waste of taxpayer grant money - I hope not.
GM, First Lady. You are so eloquent and I so blunt. Believe, Dammit! Have a great day. :)
This research was conducted using a software tool that was developed to analyze literature, but also has applications in keyword searches, internet searches, and forensic science - especially 'cold cases'. It's called Search Visualizer, and is freely available on the internet here.
Search Visualizer is the property of a UK company called SearchVis Limited. It isn't funded by tax dollars - neither here nor in the UK.
I honestly don't understand such hostility in the complete absence of facts. If you don't care to know that parts of the Illiad are older than the main text, don't read stories about Search Visualizer (yes, it was used to learn that, too).
Some people really do like to know more about human history, but some would rather not do just the smallest bit of research on the article's subject, I guess.
Humans were wearing clothes for tens-of-thousands of years before the Bible ever existed, you doofus. They began wearing them because most parts of the earth tend to get a little chilly at certain times of year. Most likely, it originally had nothing to do with modesty or shame, and it certainly was not because some book supposedly written by God commanded them to do so.
So what they are saying is it is written like every other fairy tale.
(Good/Life) once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.
(Bad/Death) An evil queen appears and causes bad stuff and things.
(Good/Life) A heroic prince saves the day and they all live happily ever after.
So it is a proven method to appeal to the masses.
Hey Deprogrammer, you really believe the crap your spewing don't you? Pretty much everything you are saying is just plagerized from Zeitgeist, so none of what you said is your own thinking or research. Second, most of what Zeitgeist teaches is pure BS, with no real evidence to support any of their claim. Since you claim to know much about Jesus and Horus and Zeitgeist claims, why don't you do a google search on "The Zeitgeist Challenge" and submit your evidence to your claims to that site so you can win the $1000.
For the rest of you that believe in the zeitgeist claim, that site also have a youtube video which refutes most of the claims.
Grumpy -- I'm right there with you ... no pattern at all ... just a bunch of red and green dots ... I think it kind of looks like the big dipper up top ... so maybe it IS an alien conspiracy but no sandwich ... just a bunch of random dots ... great study.
DJ - who did you expect to be doing research on the bible? A school of economics? It doesn't immediately invalidate their results any more than a study of economics should be rejected because it came from said school.
hbebe, you are wrong, wrong, wrong. You said people wore clothes because it gets a little chilly. I say, at least half of the population...the women...wore clothes so that Seth McFarlane wouldn't be able to poke fun at them in his "We saw your boobs" song.
Physicist, the haters have to spew their wrath about articles like this.
It always amazes me. They CLAIM that God isn't real, that the Bible is fiction, but they feel the need to ridicule those of us who do believe.
I have to wonder. Who are they trying to convince? Us or themselves?
What are they afraid of?
For those who believe no proof is necessary. For those who don't, no proof will ever be enough.
A blog can be anything: True, false and whatever. If the university researchers, who published this blog wish to claim any scientific value, they should run a standard statistical test to show that it supports their claim of a pattern at some level of confidence.
Short of that, the blog is noting but an exercise in seeking attention.
Why not study tea leaves or the entrails of birds? Patterns exist everywhere, if we can but see them. Most are neither meaningful nor -less, but thinking - and wanting to believe - makes them so.
A room full of monkeys with typewriters......
What are you people talking about? They simply say they recognize a particular writing style. They are not saying this is something magical and of god. It's a style or tool used today, they just had not recognized it before in the Bible.
EXACTLY - it's an article about a literary technique used by the author(s). It's not at all suggesting that the content of the Biblical stories are therefore somehow more or less true.
There is no reason to be so defensive or afraid of religion that we can't even study the history or literature of a religious book. People also study the literary techniques used by Homer in The Odyssey, and that doesn't somehow mean that they are suggesting that the Cyclops was real.
Now, it would REALLY be interesting if they could compare the writing style of the book of Genesis with another author...I would probably start with one of those "scholars" that worked on the bible for James the first.
It sounds like the authors were eating Stupid Sandwiches, or maybe pot brownies.
Another load of useless. meaningless crap from some pseudo-intellectual study.
Another load of useless, meaningless crap from a troll. You don't like the subject matter, don't read it.
I saw Genesis Death Sandwich open for Ozzy in '92.
Ya they rocked on Devils Inclusio.
Genesis Death Sandwich is my favorite band!
Is there really a hippie-music group by that name, or ar you just pulling my leg?
This is nothing new. You write a book and open with serenity, goodness, life, then somewhere in the middle the tragedy happens and all is sad. Then as you close the characters learn that with death comes life and goodness again. There is your happy ending.
DJ-680277 "That somewhat explains the motivation for this "research." Nice try Bible Thumpers." Even though I don't see what the big deal is with this 'finding', this is exactly what I would expect from a religious institution, just as I would expect any research from any institution to promote their bias', including evolutionary ones. So, are you suggesting that secular instititions are unbiased in their research and others are not? Hardly! Most 'believers', on either side, know to check their sources, believe it!
In fact, it actually seems like they're showing graphically that the Bible is a book by humans, rather than some infallible 'word of God,' with no attempt to imply otherwise.
Yup, looks like you get it too! Why would a god, so powerful, need to send his message via a book and then show how serious he is by killing his own son, not to mention countless other people by flooding them to death, infanticide, plagues, etc.
KS712, from the look of things, you will probably never get the answer to your question. If you did, you'd probably dismiss it as fiction.
No KS712, that's not really what Doug was saying.
First - there is actually no 'religious' content in the article or the study. It's about the literature and the writing techniques used by the authors, and the discovery that the ''good news - bad news - good news'' structure of the story is similar to how modern authors will structure a story.
What Doug was saying about DJ-680277's suggestion that they study was done by motivated "Bible Thumpers" is that (even though the study doesn't directly make any suggestions about the 'Truth' of the Bible at all) that in a sense, the discovery that the writing techniques are similar to modern novels written by Humans would show that Genesis was also written by Humans.
So, it seems like DJ assumes (like many people here do) that any science story that touches religion (the literature, the history, the artifacts, the people, the archaeology, etc) are the work of "Bible Thumpers". Doug was saying that, if anything, this study shows a common 'human author' footprint in the literary techniques, so the study wasn't done by "Bible Thumpers" trying to prove anything.
KS712, God didn't send the flood just to show off, He did it because of all the buttsex they were doing, and He thought that was kinda nasty. God designed the bunghole as an output port only.
KHAN!
Not surprising to see typical fairy tale writing patterns in the Bible.
I believe this is a flawed "analysis".
While life seems to be mentioned more at the beginning & the end, in the three "sections" the word "life" is written 14,10 & 8 times. If the word were randomly distributed, it would appear 10.67 times in each section. So, are the observed & expected values statistically different? Furthermore, in the last section, most instances of "life" appear in a cluster - is this just repetition about a single subject which basically makes it one occurrence?
The word "death" does show a concentration in the middle section with 8 mentions, but the word "life" appears 10 times so it's almost random 50/50 in that section.
What is interesting are the sections of Genesis in which "life" did not show up. Genesis means origin, birth, formation so you'd thihnk the word "life" would be scattered everywhere in the text.
Why is this in the science section?
If the article was about composition of the clay tablets used for the "Epic of Gilgamesh", would that be a Science & Technology story? Of course it would. If the article was about Homer using his left hand when he wrote "The Illiad", would that be a Science & Technology story? Of course it would.
This is an article about a discovery that a ''bad news sandwich'' literary technique was used by the people who a story in a very old book, and that's why it's in the Science & Technology section.
Science Fiction
Everyone who reads the Bible and understands it already knows that it is filled with pleasant news interspersed with death. The Bible is full of death, yet also conveys a lot of good things. This is really not news, but one person's technical analysis of something that almost all theologians already know, and don't think it is important enough to make a full page news article out of it. However, if the mainstream media believes this is important, let them begin to practice it. Let's start by balancing the anti-gun articles with pro-gun articles, where citizens actually manage to protect themselves from criminals by using legal guns. That's a start.
Lame. Not even food for thought here...
May be obvious, lame and\or proof of human authorship, but y'all gota agree. They got attention . They got media coverage & they got y'all to talk about it.
What I think is most interesting is that they presented it, not to a theological body, but to the Association of Schools of Oriental Research. How weird is that?
I just made a "me" sandwich...between my wife's legs. That was way better than reading this article and the useless study it describes...
"And Timothy came into his wife and, lo, it was good. . . "
"And his seed was spilled into the chamber, being fertile ground, and the grew a new life, therefore Genesis was again incited."
Well said boys. Too bad all those afraid of the birds and the bees had to collapse my well written and poignant comment...
What??? No aliens? I was hoping they'd help improve economy and let us live american dream!
Oh Please God! Please Jesus! Please anyone: tell me this study was not done with taxpayer money.
I wonder what the Prezzs speaches would look like following this same study?
Even when an ATHIEST is in a severe situation he says "LORD HELP ME!"... I have had Athiest to ask me to: "Pray to your GOD to help me I'm in a bad situation, and need some help" He had FAITH in MY faith, but almost none of his own! So...when ye of little faith wake up DEAD and feel the fire around your feet, on't really have the the original emember how you belittled the BIBLE (God's letters to us written by an inspired individual) HEBREW was the original Language it was written i, and very hard to translate...ESPECially to English. The first translation was done by four people and one of which was my ANCESTOR John Rogers (The Thomas Matthews Bible) It was was done under stress, and he was rewarded by being BURNED @ the stake, authorized by BLOODY MARY, reigning Queen of England for a Birthday present on his 55th. He had used an assumed name (Thomas Matthews) so that if it were found the four of them wouldn't lose their lives. One of the Translators died before the work was finished...His BONES were dug up and burned in retaliation, and to Prevent a monument being built @ his gravesite, commerating for his desire to help English speaking people to get the Plan of Salvation....*UNTIL you accept God's plan of salvation and ask for FORGIVENESS,( I am sorry to say) YOU are condemmed to HELL already....This is not a JOKING matter...(Read John chapter 3 and verse 18) KJV
So one atheist asked you to pray for him, and you conclude that ALL atheists are hypocrites? Asking someone to pray for them because it couldn't hurt or believing in someone/thing because it couldn't hurt is not my idea of much of a faith. That is a pretty lame reason to "believe".
And what the hell are you rambling on about???? Are you on some kind of drug?
No one can make themselves believe or have faith. It either exists or it doesn't. Hard for me to believe in an omnipotent God or even a little guy god when this "creation" is filled with such evil and hatred.
There is nothing religious about the study, except for the fact that this analysis was run on a religious text. It is a study in literary style - it just shows the lierary style used is one the was and is commonly used for all kinds of stories.
First of all this study used the King James Version.
King James is literature not scripture which is very prosaic but reactionary script.
No surprise then the discovery of the literary formula as the text is actually
a fairly recent edit of the ancient original tests.