There is nothing wrong with the legitimacy of the website, and as far as I can see Mebaqqwer2 gives appropriate references. I'll repeat that his submission is well presented. You can make an account without providing a credit card or confidential information. At least I could years ago.
Rekindled Light — The Narrative Structure of the Hexaemeron (Genesis 1:1–31)
by Mebaqqer2 71 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
-
Mebaqqer2
Greetings Anony Mous,
At least for me, academia.edu has always allowed the viewing of papers which people put up on the site without signing in, but has admittedly made downloads available only to people who have an account. There are ways to download documents from academia.edu without an account if you know where to look.
Given your name and the concerns you have expressed, you appear to be one the few people left in this world who actually values privacy and does not care to trade your personal information away to become a corporate commodity. Sharing this value on the one hand, yet having something important to relate nonetheless, I have posted some support documents for my work on academia.edu. I have also posted a video on the internet archive (YouTube would have required Gmail and I don't think I will be doing that). I have, however, made all of these available on my private .onion site together with a draft of the main paper. All things are in a certain state of flux, as I said earlier, as I tinker with the wording and, based on the reaction of readers such as peacefulpete, add material to better explain the points and address legitimate criticisms raised. Yet the main thesis, and therefore the core of the paper, is sound as far as I can see. The congruence of the five features which comprise the narrative structure is incontrovertible. But then, perhaps I am simply a crackpot loon who needs perspective. Here is where the call for substantive criticism comes in.
So understanding the value of privacy, perhaps you may understand why I do not formally go straight to a journal. ArXiV appears to be geared toward the hard sciences with no mention of religious studies or the humanities and OSF is apparently unusable to me (I am not able to load anything but the navigation bar).
As for references, I most certainly agree, as should be obvious from my posts here. The bibliography for my main paper stands right now at three pages with 67 sources. The supporting paper I have posted to academia.edu has 29 footnotes with 19 sources (omitting my main paper) in the bibliography. Even the video I posted has a short bibliography with the two translations I utilized and the references are given to every source I cite throughout the video. Even the the names of the readers of the Masoretic Text and the Samaritan Pentateuch as well as the music used in the video are referenced. And citations of ancient sources in all of these also include the original languages! So yes, I am fully cognizant of the need to "bring receipts."
-
Anony Mous
@Mebaqqer2 - I actually work in higher education/research. There are various offshoots of the ArXiV including some for religious/philosophical work (eg SocArXiV). I am in the STEM field myself, hence my opposition to commercial entities like academia.edu which, perhaps because my IP address originates from a .edu will not let me view/download without getting my library to buy a subscription and as I said, the Apple ID option (also .edu) just loops back onto the login/payment page. I know I can find ways around it, but if you’re asking even an assistant professor level to put that much effort into just looking at your paper, that is painful. Best to publish it as a PDF on a public site. Most of our public peer review requests are literally in attachment to an email through the department mailing list, those requests are vetted by the chair or co-chair, but getting it reviewed for pre-print on any OSF repo is pretty much a guarantee that it will go through.
-
Mebaqqer2
SocArXiV does indeed seem to be a solid suggestion, but, alas, I fear utilizing that site asks too much of me. I know that when the right eyes get on my findings, there will be a recognition of its contribution to a clearer understanding of the narrative structure of Genesis 1. I do of course desire substantive criticism from informed persons to refine the presentation of the thesis, but I care about privacy as I said. This is not because I worry that a refutation of my thesis will ruin my academic career or because of any wrong doing on my part. As I explain in the privacy policy of my own site,
Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states,
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) likewise states,
1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
The Right to Privacy is therefore a recognized human right under international law
…
The UDHR and ICCPR refer to “arbitrary” and “unlawful” interference and attacks on privacy. Here I find a connection with the legal right to a presumption of innocence.
Article 11(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states,
1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
Article 14(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) likewise states,
2. Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.
Here one may make an a fortiori argument: If individuals charged with a criminal offense have the legal right to be presumed innocent, how much more so do individuals who have not been charged with any criminal offense! Unfortunately, some state actors have failed to recognize these fundamental human rights and acted in a manner that infringes on them by assuming the guilt of entire populations and engaging in mass surveillance. Naturally, these infringements on human rights must be resisted.
The infringements on the right to privacy are not only done by state actors. According to Wikipedia, “Private sector actors can also threaten the right to privacy – particularly technology companies, such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo that use and collect personal data.” Not only do such companies often infringe on the right to privacy in their collection and utilization of personal data, disclosures have shown that a number of these companies have been commercial partners acting in concert with state actors to engage in mass surveillance. Thus the infringements on human rights by private sector actors must also be resisted.
There are no doubt some who feel that the concern expressed here is extreme for someone who has nothing to hide. Yet Edward Snowden explained it well when he said, “Saying you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” The rights to privacy and to free speech are assumed in international law. They do not come into force only when there is a need for secrecy or for controversial statements. The preservation of these rights through resistance to their infringement is therefore necessary whether or not one personally finds the need to appeal to them. Besides, in recent years we have seen how statements made 10, 20 or even 30 years ago which were uncontroversial at the time have been utilized to assassinate the character of individuals in the present day. Thus an acceptable statement made today could very well be deemed an unacceptable one tomorrow.
Way more than you cared to read, I know. Yet it is from this position that I must decline to use services that expect personal information from me as is the obvious norm in academia. I do not even enjoy clicking pictures of bicycles and traffic signals for reCAPTCHA here knowing that it trains AI models for street cameras and self driving vehicles just like it did years back when it was used to train OCR software. Yeah I know, the last sentence sounds bonkers. I get it. Be that as it may, I know that I have something original and significant to contribute to the discussion of Genesis 1. But my personal stance on privacy prevents me from using the usual avenues. Originality of thought comes at a cost. It is not easy being Howard Hughes, smoldering at the state of the world. Let me end here with a quote to hopefully make me appear saner by the contrast,
Four billion worldwide population—all living—have a Computer God Containment Policy Brain Bank Brain, a real brain, in the Brain Bank Cities on the far side of the moon we never see. Primarily based on your lifelong Frankenstein Radio Controls, especially your Eyesight tv sight-and-sound recorded by your brain, your moon-brain of the Computer God activates your Frankenstein threshold Brainwash Radio—lifelong inculcating conformist propaganda.
— Francis E. Dec
-
Mebaqqer2
Greetings Anony Mous,
You said, "Best to publish it as a PDF on a public site." Everything that I have placed on Academia.edu here as well as the present draft of the main paper is available on this .onion site. This site is accessible to anyone who has the TOR browser. I mentioned this page previously which explains how to access .onion sites for those who may not know. Brave users may also access .onion sites (the link to the YouTube video I placed here put a player in the middle of this post and was therefore deleted, apologies). A TOR site is not only more secure for everyone, but easier to deploy than a clear net site. Additionally, as mentioned in a previous post, I have also uploaded a video on the Internet Archive which gives a more succinct visual presentation of the main points made in the paper. That video may be viewed here. This should be viewable to anyone with a modern browser such as users of Chrome, Firefox or Safari for whom privacy is not particularly a concern.
-
Mebaqqer2
Greetings everyone,
Given the problems expressed by others concerning Academia.edu as well as an apparent reluctance/inability to visit my .onion site, I have uploaded the most recent version of my papers to the Internet Archive here. The main paper is entitled The Narrative Structure of the Hexaemeron and an example of why the narrative structure is significant to interpretation can be found in the paper Understanding בראשית in Light of The Narrative Structure of the Hexaemeron. I will be adding still other examples in the future as time permits. But first I would still like to hear evaluations of the main paper. The video In Hexaemeron: The Narrative Structure of Genesis 1:1–31 I posted to Academia.edu earlier gives a more succinct visual presentation of the main points of the main paper. The document An Outline and Diagram of the Narrative Structure of the Hexaemeron contains exactly what the title states. I await your substantive feedback to my original thesis.
-
PioneerSchmioneer
I hope you find whatever success you are looking for with regards to your paper.
It might be of interest to know that the Jews did not compose the 7-day Creation Week with the Hexaemron in mind (which is generally a Christian/Western invention from the faith of my forefathers, the Roman Catholics).
The first chapter of Genesis was the last portion of the Torah to be written, as it was the Introduction or Foreword to the work after the redaction and editing of the Torah was completed after the Exile. It is a mythological cosmology that introduces God in anthropomorphic form performing mitzvot in his creation of the "heavens and the earth," limiting his activity to 6 days and then resting on the Sabbath as if God is under obligation to observe the Torah itself.
The idea is that God is but another character like any other in this story and follows his yetzer ha-tov, his inner impulse to do what is "good," accomplishing good works on each day of the week, filling his days doing what is "very good" (Genesis 1:31), but stopping to do what the Mosaic Law commands, and resting from his works on the 7th day.--Genesis 2:1-3.
In this preface, God creates the first Jews--not the first human beings in general (Adam and Eve are the ancestors of Abraham and Sarah, and they are merely placed into this narrative like God is)--and they are said to be made "in the image of God." (Ge 1:26-27) Being that this is the Mosaic Law, the Torah, and not a history book, this is giving legal instruction to the Jewish people only, telling the Jews that they are meant to copy God, in whose "image" they were meant to follow: God does good works every day, six days a week, and then rests on the Sabbath, so Jews are supposed to do the same, working for 6 days but resting on the Sabbath.
A theology had been built to attempt to make sense of why the Jews ended up in exile. While the Jews have since abandoned it today, at the time it fueled the creation of the written Torah itself, namely the belief that God had punished the Jews for failure to obey the Mosaic Law in the first place, especially in keeping the Sabbath.--2 Chronicles 36:21.
Believing that strict worship of God via adherence to the Torah would prevent another national disaster should the Jews ever get to return to their homeland, this mythological cosmology was placed as the introduction to the Torah, teaching the Jews that it was part of their created nature, their yetzer ha-tov to obey the Torah, perform mitzvot daily, filling every day of the week by doing what was "very good" like God, and on the 7th day, resting on the Sabbath. The idea is that this was literally "built into the cosmological makeup" and could be seen with the passing of the heavenly bodies that kept note of the passing days until the Sabbath arrived.
It had nothing to do with explaining how the literal universe came into being or even explaining the origin of life for the Gentiles, which the original writers could have cared less about. In fact, the following narrative, the Garden of Eden expulsion, is actually about losing the first Temple/Promised Land due to breaking the Law and being sent "east of Eden" (Babylon) upon the development of Adam and Eve's yetzer ha-ra, inclination to defy the Torah.
Only later would Jewish commentators expand via allegory these characterizations as illustrative to humanity in relation to God, but never wholy applicable. Only the third creation myth, the Noachin Flood, involves Gentiles on a universal scale, with the Noahide Laws being added afterwards. But again, it is not to be considered as historical either.
-
peacefulpete
Pioneer...I was hoping you'd see this thread. I find your comment insightful as always. Mebaqqer2 is focusing on the literary mechanics not the theology so much. Have you looked at the proposed structure?
-
peacefulpete
Ok , I see you actually did respond to it.
-
PioneerSchmioneer
My comments were not meant in anyway to be seen or read as saying I disagree with the work of Mebaqqer2 (which by the way is totally different from what I wrote about).
Mebaqqer2 does indeed do well with the subject at hand which, though not directly from, did grow from schools of thought from what these Jewish writers were at first composing, which was religious law. Even some Jews dabbled with the idea that perhaps there was more to this cosmology and for a time some of these agreed with Christians prior to the Enlightenment with those who were involved in Hexaemeron theology. It did not last long, and no one does this in Judaism today, but it did happen. It is a very interesting subject.
Anyway, to all who celebrate, best wishes for Easter.