« Wes Howard-Brook Retells Eden for One Earth Living »

My assertions about those who first told the stories of Cain, Abel, and Eden, come from scholars whose writings I have sought out to answer my own questions about why so many people feel more attracted to Multi Earth living rather than One Earth living. One such scholar, Wes Howard-Brook, distinguishes between empire religion and creation religion, rough equivalents of Multi Earth and One Earth worldviews.

One day, when I opened the Catholic Agitator, the newsletter of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, I read a highly affirming review by Frank Cordero of Howard-Brook’s book, “Come Out, My People!” God’s Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond. I recognized quickly that this book was important to my quest. 

Howard-Brook teaches theology and scripture at Seattle University. He gives a long, well-researched answer to the question, “Just who were these storytellers who told the tales of Eden, Cain, and Abel?” I wanted to know who, when, and why they were told. Were they living in the cities that adherents to Cain’s worldview built or were they back-to-the-land peasants?

The short answer is they were Jews living in the grand city of Babylon in the 6th century B.C.E. when Babylon was the center of the dominating Babylonian Empire. These stories were their protest stories, protesting what was for them the highly offensive stories they heard in Babylon to justify the Babylonian empire of conquest and domination.

I’ll unpack this short answer in blogs over the next days. 

Comments

[Dan]

Yes, this is getting interesting now! The Jews in Babylon were something like the early Christians in Rome. See this quote from Lisa Sharon-Harper...http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/08/16/ramadan-karim-revelation "This bears resemblance to the way the early church would have read the scripture. They were an oral culture, not a written one. The Hebrew Bible was written on scrolls that were read aloud to congregations. Most of the New Testament was written as letters to the worshiping bodies of whole cities (i.e. the saints in Ephesus, the church in Philippi, the body in Corinth, etc.). When received, the letters would be read out loud to the whole church community and received as God’s instruction revealed through the apostles for the edification of their communities."

[Lee Van Ham]

Yes, I too see the similarity you refer to, Dan, between the Jews in Babylon and the "followers of the Way" in Rome. The center of empire shifted from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean. And the similarities to today when the center of empire has shifted to D.C., NYC (Wall Street), and major outposts among the wealthiest countries of the world with their markets. From Babylon to Rome to today, empires have extended their reach geographically until today the empire is global, more through economics than governments, though the U.S. gov't maintains itself as the leading center by being willing to foot the bill for over 800 military installments worldwide.