Is this thing (and sequels/spin-offs) worth reading for the, let's say, story angle as opposed to the religious learning angle?
>>25125045No there's a lot of filler, multiple retcons and contradicitons, and the "God" character is unlikeable in the OT
Some stories are good. It's not worth reading cover to cover unless you are a Christian.
If you're going to read it, don't be gay and interpret everything through a modern secular lens. There is nothing to be gained from Christ's teaching if he's reduced to a worldly wise-man.
>>25125118I don't understand this post.
>>25125045>sequels/spin-offslmao>worth readingyes, but don't read the whole thing. imo the Gospels, Exodus, Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Genesis are where you should start. read KJV for psalms/ecclesiastes and NIV for the rest. honest to christ, translation matters less than 4chan will tell you it does
>>25125140>psalms Isn't that the poetry?>translationWhat if I read it in my native language?
>>25125132Don't be the type of guy who thinks the author of Genesis was writing an allegory about climate change when he described the flood
>>25125045Read the kjv and appreciate the language.
>>25125150I've read books before ...
Yes, get the Norton Critical EditionHowever purely as literature you will definitely want to skip long infodumping about measurements, land division, laws and that sort of thing, unless you are making an historical study.
>>25125118yeah. if you're going to read it, remember it was written as religious propaganda to support monotheists in their drive to wipe out any tribe that doesn't worship old Country-Come-To-Town.
Read the KJV. Genesis, Exodus, the Gospel, Psalms, and a few other books are well worth reading, but most of the Bible has little to no aesthetic value.
>>25125519The wisdom books, kings, Joshua (except the tribal jurisdiction shit), and lamentations and big chunks of the prophets all have aesthetic value
>>25125045No. Definitely not. I remember reading the story of Babel for the first time. I had seen the painting and was expecting this epic story of the grandest civilization coming to an apocalyptic end. This is the story of Babel: >The whole world had the same language and the same words. 2 When they were migrating from the east, they came to a valley in the land of Shinar* and settled there. 3 They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky,* and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”> 5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built. 6 Then the LORD said: If now, while they are one people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that no one will understand the speech of another. 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the speech of all the world. From there the LORD scattered them over all the earth.That's it. That's the entire goddamn story. If you want a story with characters and actual story telling, you need to read The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost.
>>25125528EPIC
>>25125045Where Jews ended up is a real petered out ending, a real let down. Didn't meet expectations.Not even an unresolved cliffhanger just a lame ending
>>25125045>story angle as opposed to the religious learning angleread John, its specifically about the religious conflict between Jesus and the jews. then read Acts, which continues the religious conflict between Jesus and the jews. then the main character from Acts, a jew who became Christian, rants for 16 chapters of Romans about why Christianity is right. what do you want in a story? judaizers keep judaizing to this day
>>25125528Abraham and Jacob are actual and distinct characters in Genesis
>>25125907Paul says not to speak ill of Jews because they are the root and Christians are the branches
>>25125045Fair question to posit -- story-wise . . . any good?Yes. Every piece of good /lit/ rips this off. It gives depth to the pagan tragedies, it gives the works that come after it true drama -- true consequence. When the most creative among us -- Shakespeare for instance -- write their dramas, they can aspire not to merely symbolically show 'the divine' as Homer did, or as poets do, but you can see that in the modern story the understanding of fate, death, life, redemption, corruption, is that of the Biblical story. This story gets at the fundamental meaning of death, of life, of providence, tragedy and fate. The Bible is the science of what life is, of what purpose is -- of what good and evil don't just seem to be, but are. The Bible is also the best philosophical book -- Read St. John chapter one: its cosmology of dark being but the privation of light, and light entering the mutable creation from God, Who is outside of it and in His infinite might created it from nothing -- That explains everything. We are darkness but in Him, Who is the only one Who can give light as He is light. Thus in his all-just and all-mercifulness banishes the evildoer, yet gives Himself as ransom to rescue the wretch. We have free-will and sinned, but we can freely love and accept Jesus' gift of salvation & life.
>>25125118>There is nothing to be gained from Christ's teachingCorrect. You can get it all from previous sources.
>>25125149>Isn't that the poetry?Not great poetry, but yes.
>>25125943What sort of AI nonsense is this?Just say "If you want an art history reference, the bible is pretty fucking important to properly understanding the creation of art for over a thousand years."
>>25125978I wrote that screed myself, nigger.
>>25125082Personally I found God likeable from the perspective that he is constantly dismayed over the people he's dealing with
