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James Patrick Ball

Professor Farnsworth

English 102

17 March 2010

Multigenre Research Design: Day Seven

Topic

I’m going to do my project on the Bible. On how it really is a book on how

humankind has walked upon the earth and the past, present, and future condition of

man. The title comes from the creation narrative in first genesis, after God creates

man on the sixth day, he takes a break, a “sabbath” so to speak. He dwells among

us. Since a “day” in biblical perspective most likely is equivalent to a long period of

time, I figured since the bible hasn’t really said that another “day” has passed in

God’s eyes. So The Bible is being presented with this title and is primarily going to

show a literary approach to it—so that nobody, whether religious or not—can use

the excuse that they do not believe it, or that it is too boring—it is going to present

in as much as a non-religious, interesting light as I possibly can

Why I Chose this Topic

I have been reading the bible all my life. I feel no closer to any other book in

my life—I call it “God’s instruction manual for the human being” (I could put in a

section for the books of the law and put it in instruction manual form…). I’ve

annotated countless bibles, studied it for years and years, and have a very

comfortable understanding of it. In addition, I also have so much that I can still learn

and grow even closer to it, so I decided that being a Christian, doing this project

would give me an even greater understanding of what I already know and can
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discover about it. Not to mention that the bible is a great work of fiction that

probably has more references than any other book in the world, so it’s useful to

know and to let others know about.

What I Know So Far

(Where do I begin? Creation?) It starts out with a history of pre-Mosaic Israel,

giving stories from creation, to the fall of man, to the first murder, to the flood, to

the Tower of Babel, to the histories of Israel’s forefathers: Abraham, Issac (aka

Israel), and finally Jacob and Joseph, which takes them to Egypt, where they

eventually become slaves. Moses takes Israel out of this land of oppression through

a demonstration to Pharaoh of a series of miracles, and leads them on a 40 year

journey to the “Promised Land,” in Palestine. They come up with a complex

Theocracy system, establish a covenant via the Ten Commandments (which the

Israelites break before they even get to see it), and encounter many hardships on

the way. They arrive just as Moses dies, and put Joshua in his place, and Israel

starts to take possession of this land. The rest of the Old Testament describes

Israel’s ancient history as a nation: how it moved from a theocracy to a monarchy; a

history of all the different rulers from King Saul to King David to King Solomon and a

listing of all the other kings with a quick evaluation of their competence. In addition,

it provides much of the literature of Ancient Israel, such as Proverbs (words of

wisdom—short aphorisms of the prudent), Psalms (a collection of ancient lyrics),

Ecclesiastes (a sobering, nihilistic philosophical rant of King Solomon), Job (a story

of a man who loses everything not because of unrighteousness, but because he was

being tested, and his discussions with his friends); then it goes on to archive Israel’s

demise to the Babylonians and lists a few other stories about prophets and noble

women (I’m not the clearest about this part yet). After that, it details a little of
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Israel’s flow of power that went from the Babylonians to the Romans, and then it

goes on to talk about Jesus, who appears right in the heart of the novel (or the point

in the natural progression that shows the high point). His story is told through four

different witness perspectives in four books—the gospels, which detail his

geneology, his teachings, his professional life and miracles, and his tragic death on

the cross. Afterward, the early Church is born, starting with Peter and the remaining

band of Jesus’s disciples, and Acts shows the early Church in action. Roman’s is an

explanation for new Christians—an introduction into why and what one believes in

order to be a Christian. Then there’s Paul’s conversion, and the series of letters to

churches that comprise most of the NT, the other exceptions being James (a sermon

preached by Jesus’s half-brother) and Revelation, which provides the reader a sense

of bewilderment as the book gives startling images and description of what most

assume is of the end times (or at the very least—what awaits people in Heaven).

That’s what I know.

What I Want To Learn

What the general purposes are for all of the books of the bible—especially for

those that I am not familiar with—as well as perhaps having some of my questions

answered about the bible

Questions:

Do the seven churches listed in Revelation correlate to seven churches in

seven parts of the modern-day world? Does Israel’s transition from a theocracy to a

monarchy parallel America in any way? Is there any feat of the Greek language?

Considering it is very old and we still use the letters in modern day usage. Is there

any lapses in translation that need to be clarified for us? What historical facts could
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enhance the credibility and the understanding of this epic work? Does the bible

have anything to do with the natural progression theory?

My plan for writing the MGP:

The first thing that I am going to finish is the cover. I am going to have not

just one cover, but seven covers and even a back cover that is going to detail the

process of creation. The covers are going to be made over a period of time. Then, I

am going to really throw a bunch of the ideas that I have floating around in my head

and put them on paper, which might include: a legal agreement between God and

the Israelites; a dramatization of what happened at the Tower of Babel; a comic of

one of Jesus’s miracles (or his death on the cross); an explaination of the sign of

Jonah—how it is a symbol; a celebrity gossip blog/news article about Jesus; even the

first letter to the readers of the book will be done in the style of how NT letters were

written.

Preliminary Bibliography

Archaeological Study Bible, New International Version (I’m going to have several

different citations from here

http://news.google.com/newspapers?

nid=1320&dat=19891222&id=zuYRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OOoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2278,7422

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Donaldson, Sue and Will Kymlicka. "What would Jesus do?." Queen's Quarterly. (Vol.

111). .3 (Fall 2004): p381. Literature Resource Center. Gale. West Liberty

University. 16 Mar. 2010 <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=wlsc>.