How do you read the Bible?

[rhu]

When I read the Bible -- especially the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy) -- I identify with the people I'm reading about. Regardless of the historical accuracy, I feel that I'm reading about my ancestors, my family, my people, and so the narrative has an immediacy that is lacking in other great literature.

Do others relate to the characters in Genesis the same way that they relate to Odysseus, Beowulf, Hamlet, and Arthur Dent? Do cultural Jews feel the same affinity that I do? Would non-Jews differ in their responses by religion/denomination?

This is something I've been wondering about since I made that Hanukkah puzzle. In particular, when I wrote "Who's that guy on our family tree?" (emphasis added) and expected the solvers to identify the family tree as the biblical patriarchs.

Comments

the perspective of the former southern baptist

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

as far as the bible goes, when i was a kid and a teenager, i very much identified with jacob. i don't think it had to do with being the younger child; i just liked that he fought, and questioned, and broke rules when they didn't seem fair. but then, i tended to identify with just about any protagonist who was an underdog in some way: laura ingalls, the road runner, simon peter.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I feel any real connection to Beowulf, myself, and possibly not Odysseus. Hamlet, yes, but--the thing is, the fiction is written differently. In a stage play, the author wants you to recognize the character as human, and puts in as many human quirks as possible. In the Torah, well, it's a recounting of actions, to me, without the same level of indication that there's a person behind it. (I might, in fact, say the same about Lord of the Rings--the books, not the movie. The latter humanizes the characters--yes, even the hobbits are humanized, not hobbitized--whereas the books read like a history lesson, and it's harder to get that same sense of emotion.)