Sheep who mate in front of stripey trees will produce stripey offspring

purrpurr

Genesis 30:37 leaving aside the whole "Joseph cheats laham out of his flock" issue. One passage of scripture that I've missed until now is 30:37 where it says how Joseph got all the sheep to be stripey etc ( BTW have you ever seen a stripey sheep? Cos I certainly haven't!)

Joseph made stripes in the bark of the trees where the flock watered. Seeing the stripes it appears really got the sheep in the mood and they humped right there and then in front of the stripey trees.... And get this... Because the lambs had been conceived in front of stripey trees... They were born with stripey coats!!!!!

Seriously?! Seriously!!!!? Is it just me who missed this?

Village Idiot

I knew about that one. It's a clear example of magic and the Bible is supposed to be against magic.

sir82

Houses can catch leprosy too.

The Bible has all kinds of "forgotten" scientific knowledge like that.

Billyblobber

A later verse says God did it. It's still ultra stupid, and makes Jacob look like a moron.

Witness My Fury

Try this one: 2 Kings 6: 1-7

Half banana

No, it's true Purrpurr...I tried this and I've got stripey children now.

Terry

Rule of thumb: the Bible means what it says and says what it means----UNLESS . .

we later discover what it says is glaringly preposterous. At that point, the Bible means what we interpret it must have meant by deconstructing the statements into mere words.

Sort of like Jesus returning and every eye shall see him.

JW's managed to make him completely invisible!

________________

The Bible is woefully ignorant of any underlying scientific principles. The history of the world is ignorant of science until the 17th century.

The bounden duty of the religious zealot is to straddle the bottomless chasm between the words of scripture and contradictions implicit in contemporary understanding of basic science.

CalebInFloroda

Actually the text is merely discussing an old Jewish bit of folklore "logic," namely that images affect what you will become(I.e., pray before an idol, you will become lifeless; procreate before a certain color or pattern...).

It is silly, but it is what the primitive people believed. Jacob in the next chapter states he got the idea from a dream he received from G-d (Genesis 31.10). So in order to make his dream come true, Jacob merely applied the "science" of the day.

As chapter 31 points out, Jacob's actions actually had nothing to do with it, but the fact that Jacob regularly "wrestled" with G-d makes the narrative an insight into Jacob's character more than anything else. Remember, this is a man who wanted to be in control of his destiny from the very beginning, or so says the entire mythos of Jacob.

Heaven

BTW have you ever seen a stripey sheep? Cos I certainly haven't!

The closest I can find is 'The Jacob Sheep'. They are actually spotted but some of the spots look a bit stripey.

Regardless, gazing upon striped sticks will not produce striped offspring. The Bible rendering makes it sound all magic-like when in fact it could have been they were drawn to these sticks for other reasons, but alas, the Bible does not articulate that.

GodZoo

Easily done.. striped bars have the same effect.

Sheep who mate in front of stripey trees will produce stripey offspring

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