Quote:
Originally Posted by Timmy
For that matter, if it's literal, what are we supposed to learn from it? The story is a bit less nonsensical than the Garden of Eden story, though, have to admit. Everyone's evil, 'cept the Noah family. OK, so destroy everyone 'cept them. With a flood. But don't endanger any species! So, Noah, make a really big boat. The lesson? Ummmmm, God doesn't like evil people? Really, really doesn't like them?
Yeah, that makes sense.
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There are many facets to understanding the ancient literature - and even then most scholars admit that they don't really understand it all completely.
One important theme was that life can be brutally complicated and that it will throw you a lot of circumstances that defy understanding. Now, how do you convey that thought in a story?
One way would be to have the characters in your story experience things that are beyond their comprehension. That may not give me a pithy little way to sum things up, but it does give me some confidence and faith that if my forebears went through some pretty weird and incomprehensible stuff and lived to pass along their genetic material, then I'll probably get through the stuff that I'm having to endure right now.
Job never did get an explanation for what he went through. But he went through it. Came out scarred and battered, but he came through it. In the end, the only message that resonates from that is when Job confessed to being speechless.
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