middlemonk

Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate…

— Genesis 7:2.

Here begins the Bible’s obsession with “cleanliness” (we’ll be seeing much more of it in Leviticus). I’m of two minds on this: one, it does seem like a very simple way for an ancient society to frame social issues; marking certain people as “clean” and “unclean” must make governing them much easier.

On the other hand, it’s incredibly arbitrary. Who was it that decided a woman has to be unclean a full week out of every month, but a man can carve up a living creature and cleanse himself by nightfall? I suppose it was God who decided, but I feel like God’s word is just the theory that people must turn into practice. How can one practice such strange and baseless rules?

The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered…

— Genesis 7:19.

It’s not the first mention of heaven in the Bible but it’s notable. I’ve been thinking more about heaven as a concept and trying to form my own opinions on the subject. I’m not sure if it’s biblically accurate but the version of heaven I currently subscribe to Buffy’s: a warm, shapeless, timeless place where everything and everyone is safe. Peace, unending, forever.