1986http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2013/05/bible-stories-1986.htmlThe story of "
Abraham" concludes. This time around, we get details about
Sarah's burial (it almost reads like a look into the cemetery business). As before, this is followed by
Abraham finding his son a wife,
Rebecca. I keep trying to figure out based on who was related to who if any incest was involved. Next are the stories of "
Isaac", "
Jacob and Esau". It's noted this time that
Esau seemed to care little for his "birthrite", but I still don't think that excuses the behavior of either
Jacob, or their mother,
Rebecca.
"
The House Of God" is unusual, as it's the first time they've told this story without the illustrations showing "
Jacob's Ladder". I had to re-read "
Jacob Meets Rachel" twice before I figured out that-- yes-- he married his 1st cousin. Is it just me, or does it strike anyone else that in "
Jacob's Descendants",
Joseph is just ASKING for trouble when he tells all his brothers-- who he must know by then hate him-- his dream? I notice in the last 3 episodes this year, Frank Bolle makes a point of showing
Reuben as, first, not taking
Joseph seriously, then, clearly exhibiting dismay at the rest of his brothers' actions. (I guess he was out-numbered... and considering he was surrounded by 10 brothers, all with murder in their heart, he was probably wise not to do anything to get on their "list".)
In addition... in the previous version of this story, something added that was not brought up before was that
Joseph's brothers did NOT sell hm to the
Ishmaelites, but rather, while they were argueing about what to do, some
Midianites came along, grabbed him, and THEY sold him to the
Ishmaelites. Then when the brothers went back to look in the hole,
Joseph was gone. I admit, I haven't read
The Bible in depth, but this almost seems like a way "out", to show that, yes, while they wanted to kill him, or at least, sell him into slavery ("
Let us do him no harm"-- ARE THEY KIDDING???), they didn't... because someone else came along and did it behind their backs.
However, this version has a new wrinkle. It says (and I quote),
"Midianite merchants sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites". But, later in the same installment, it also says,
"Meanwhile The Midianites had sold Joseph in Egypt to Pontiphar, the Captain of the Guard in Pharaoh's Court." Well, WAIT a minute! How could the
Midianites do this, when they had already sold him to the
Ishmaelites? Is this a slip-up? Wasn't the writer paying attention to his own work?
And further...in
34 years of this series (so far), it's notable they have never once mentioned that
Abraham had 2 sons, not 1. Impatient, and apparently not trusting The Lord, his wife urged him to have a baby with her servant girl. But after
Ishmael was born, Sarah finally got pregnant with
Isaac. And to prevent conflict, Ishmael and his mother were tossed out into the desert to fend for themselves! While it would be poetic justice to have
Isaac's youngest grandson in the hands of his disenfranchised relatives, it doesn't seem like enough time has gone by for the story to be so casually referring to
"an Ishmaelite caravan". (Unless of course, it consisted of all the
Ishmaelites there are in the entire world at that time.)
Finally, I'd like to know what was going on behind-the-scenes at this point. Once again, the artist's signatures have vanished. I could only find Frank Bolle's signature ("
FWB") on 2 episodes, the ones for
January and
May 1986.
