Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Tells A Different Story About Biblical Isaac’s Fate

[Dan From Smithville]

I would say that it varies, but most of those told around campfires are told to thrill, entertain, and enlighten as you suggest. Telling the tale of the lovers that find a hook in the handle of their car one night is not intended to be taken literally, but to provide a lesson that going off alone on a dark night in a remote area can be dangerous.

Not to mention the issues with what that couple were up to and the problems that are perceived to arise from that. Cautionary tales.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

You know I have regard for you...

Consider the stories of Joshua's conquests... He didn't have any big armies and he didn't destroy any Canaanite cities. If he had any battles they were skirmishes, but that doesn't make great stories.

I agree. Over the years, tales of my exploits have grown considerably.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

You know I have regard for you...

Consider the stories of Joshua's conquests... He didn't have any big armies and he didn't destroy any Canaanite cities. If he had any battles they were skirmishes, but that doesn't make great stories.

And thank you. I regard you highly as well.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Many storytellers do not expect their audience to view the story as a real event even if they tell it as one, but some people do tell tales with an eye on convincing others to take them literally.

Some of the worst culprits do ut unintentionally.

That is a good point. The audience is part of this that I have been leaving out. Even if the teller does not intend for the story to be believed as a literal fact, his audience or even one among it, might.

 

[sooda]

I would say that it varies, but most of those told around campfires are told to thrill, entertain, and enlighten as you suggest.

Telling the tale of the lovers that find a hook in the handle of their car one night is not intended to be taken literally, but to provide a lesson that going off alone on a dark night in a remote area can be dangerous.

i have known a few terrific storytellers in my life.. and they could just enchant their listeners.. and send them into peals of laughter. And, of course they embellished their tales..

I think that's been around for thousands of years.. I think the Greeks did it too.. They were always coming up with new stories or plays about their gods.

Look at Aesop's Fables.

Aesop's Fables

 

[David T]

These early stories are essentially allegorical myths often portraying animals or insects e.g. foxes, grasshoppers, frogs, cats, dogs, ants, crabs, stags, and monkeys representing humans engaged in human-like situations (a belief known as animism)

"Belief known as animism"?

There is in this culture a deeply held idea belief can be projected out everywhere and that has some meaning..

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Indeed. Like i said the story framework is really old. It just gets redressed over generations. All one has to do is watch how movie universes shift over time. But they also have common aspects as well.

Todays "god" can esily be tomorrows "nature" but then again these old stories and nature were more singularly felt and understood, regardless how we have that split that psychologically today. Thats an odd split.

I think you have it on that point. Our ancestors were certainly closer to nature, but we understand it better. They experienced it more directly than we do. Not everyone, but in more developed countries, many of us have put nature at arms length.

 

[sooda]

"Belief known as animism"?

There is in this culture a deeply held idea belief can be projected out everywhere and that has some meaning..

I never thought of Aesop's Fables as animism, but I am also a HUGE fan of the Uncle Remus stories.

I dearly love Brer Rabbit and the Tarbaby... all those stories.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

@sooda, just wanted to say that I found this really interesting. I own a copy of Timothy Friedman's "The Bible with Sources Revealed" which helps one to directly read just the E, or J or P versions, since they are each textually different (colour, font, etc.) So if you're trying to read just the E version of the Isaac story, it's quite easy to do...just skip the bits that are in a different font/colour. It's a book that has actually helped me a great deal in understanding how the Bible came to be what it is (though trust me, I'm no biblical scholar).

 

[David T]

That is a good point. The audience is part of this that I have been leaving out. Even if the teller does not intend for the story to be believed as a literal fact, his audience or even one among it, might.

And guess what happens!!!! Religion can be like a 100 generation whisper circle gone bad.. But hell thats anything.. So religion getting whacky to me is just normal behavior l, find it everywhere and gasp, even in science. Go figure!!

 

[David T]

I never thought of Aesop's Fables as animism, but I am also a HUGE fan of the Uncle Remus stories.

I dearly love Brer Rabbit and the Tarbaby... all those stories.

Sooda now we are talking my friend! All artists are animist at heart!!! Well decent ones that is. But is that belief? Oh i dont think so..... its a something else.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

i have known a few terrific storytellers in my life.. and they could just enchant their listeners.. and send them into peals of laughter. And, of course they embellished their tales..

I think that's been around for thousands of years.. I think the Greeks did it too.. They were always coming up with new stories or plays about their gods.

Look at Aesop's Fables.

Aesop's Fables

Story telling and reading to us kids was a major entertainment activity when I was growing up. As we got older, the books got more advanced. I cannot recall how old I was, but my mother read Thor Heyerdahl's Fatu Hiva to us. It came out in 1974, so I would have been about 8. I was fascinated with that book. My mother was not a fan of Poe, but she must have liked his works, since those were some of the stories she read us too. My father would tell us stories about history, especially the Civil War and World War II, and historical accounts of old family members. It was all of that inspiration that set me on the path to learning.

 

[sooda]

Story telling and reading to us kids was a major entertainment activity when I was growing up. As we got older, the books got more advanced. I cannot recall how old I was, but my mother read Thor Heyerdahl's Fatu Hiva to us. It came out in 1974, so I would have been about 8. I was fascinated with that book. My mother was not a fan of Poe, but she must have liked his works, since those were some of the stories she read us too.

My father would tell us stories about history, especially the Civil War and World War II, and historical accounts of old family members. It was all of that inspiration that set me on the path to learning.

You were very fortunate to have parents like that.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

i have known a few terrific storytellers in my life.. and they could just enchant their listeners.. and send them into peals of laughter. And, of course they embellished their tales..

I think that's been around for thousands of years.. I think the Greeks did it too.. They were always coming up with new stories or plays about their gods.

Look at Aesop's Fables.

Aesop's Fables

We had a TV, but my parents spent a lot of time reading to us. King Author, Robin Hood, the Arabian Nights, Brer Rabbit, Aesops Fables, Sinbad, Greek and Roman mythology and a host of others were childhood friends of mine.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

You were very fortunate to have parents like that.

I always think so. My father was a WWII and Korean War vet. He suffered head injuries in combat and worked until he was no longer physically able to, so he was around a lot and had interesting hobbies related to history. He had grown up very, very poor and without a father, so he had to miss out on a lot of childhood himself. My mother said, we were a lot of fun for him, since he could be a kid through us. Sometimes he would forget and tell us things that he probably should not have. Like the time I got an idea from watching Star Trek and asked him if that was how black powder was made. He gave us a pretty good, basic understanding of the process. The next thing you know, we were making it in the garage and stinking up the neighborhood with smoke bombs.

I remember her telling him that those boys listen to everything you tell them and then they go do it. You need to watch what you tell them.

Somebody asked me once and I said that when I was growing up, my parents argued a lot. I was puzzled at the concerned response I got from that at first, until I realized how it sounded. The arguing I was talking about was not shouting matches over money, but discussions and debates about current events, history, politics, and science. We were a fortunately strange family at times. We were, I think kindly, referred to as "those book people".

 

[sooda]

We had a TV, but my parents spent a lot of time reading to us. King Author, Robin Hood, the Arabian Nights, Brer Rabbit, Aesops Fables, Sinbad, Greek and Roman mythology and a host of others were childhood friends of mine.

Makes a huge difference in education.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Makes a huge difference in education.

I think so too. It is a tradition that I passed down, though in an environment of much greater competition with technology.