Num. 18-22 - On keeping clean, fetching water and talking to donkeys

The readings - Days 50-51 - Numbers 18-22

Well, I'm only just reaching the two-thirds mark of Numbers, and I have to say, it's not so bad. Don't get me wrong, it started off with an almost unbelievable lack of pace, but this has been several sustained chapters of actual story - something I wasn't expecting at all.

It also turns out that I did know some stories from Numbers, I just didn't know they were from Numbers. Huh.

That said, however, there are still some dry bits, but even those tend to not be so bad. 18 starts off with, shades of Leviticus, instructions for priests as far as their duties, roles and dinner portions following sacrifices, but what struck me about this was not any of the particulars, but rather the downright casual approach to the concept of "unclean" demonstrated throughout.

Lev. 11-17 - of scapegoats and crappy old laws...

The readings - Days 35-37 - Leviticus 11-17

It figures that the time I would fall three days behind in postings (not the readings, though - I've managed to do those each day...) would be the time when I come across some actually interesting stuff in Leviticus.

By way of quick recap before we dive in, here are some of the topics covered by these seven chapters:

• what to (and not to) eat
• childbirth
• loads on leprosy
• a bit more on health in general
• making up for stuff (atonement)

Lev. 5-10 - all dressed up and nowhere to go but the slaughterhouse

The readings - Days 33-34 - Leviticus 5-7, 8-10

Leviticus is hard enough to read, but five months (and counting) of moderate-to-severe sleep deprivation makes it impossible some nights. Last night was one of those, so here we are with two days in one post again.

Chapter five starts us off with a discussion about guilt offerings, in fairly significant detail. There's a lot of clean/unclean talk, as tends to be expected and presented as typical in the Old Testament discussions of law and order.

What's less typical, and I don't quite know why, is the fact that despite attempts by people who don't know any better (as well as by some people who ought to ) to portray the Old Testament as ruthlessly legalistic in every way, and to counterpoint the "everyone dies no matter what" picture with the "merciful-God-of-the-New-Testament" idea, this whole chunk of text begins with the depiction of a sliding scale of justice that flies in the face of the typically presented Old Testament view.

Lev. 1-4 - Well, that explains that...

The readings - day 32 - Leviticus 1-4

Remember yesterday? When I said something about Exodus really not having much of an ending?

I'm not so sure it actually ended... Based on the "beginning" of Leviticus (how many books really begin with the word "Then" anyway?) I've actually got several questions about how these book divisions really came about. I know that the chapter/verse splits were arbitrary and done much later, and I know that the way the text was actually recorded was very different (ALTHOUGHWITHNOREALEVIDENCETHATANYOFTHETEXTSTHATCAMEDOWNTOUSTODAYWEREACTUALAUTOGRAPHEDMANUSCRIPTSITSHARDTOSAYWHETHERTHEALLCAPSANDNOPUNCTUATIONPHENOMENONWASHOWTHEORIGINALTEXTWASLAIDOUTEITHERITCOULDJUSTASEASILYHAVEBEENALATERINNOVATIONLIKETHECHAPTERANDVERSEDIVISIONSALTHOUGHTHATRAISESAQUESTIONOFWHYANYONEWOULDTAKEAPASSAGEWITHSPACESANDPUNCTUATIONANDTURNITINTOAJUMBLEDMESSOFLETTERSTHATAREREALLYHARDTOREADBUTIDIGRESS)

Day 7 - Genesis 22-24

For the longest time, my general response to the "God-testing-Abraham-by-telling-him-to-kill-his-son" story was that it must have been excruciating for Abraham to go through something like this, and must have been an unspeakable relief for him when God stopped him and said "don't worry about that, here's a sheep instead."

Many people will point to this episode as proof of God's cruelty, insensitivity and arbitrary authoritarianism, but I've never believed that. I just don't see a way that this story could possibly have ended with Isaac dying.