Hendonblog

I have just read R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated.  Now, those of you who are conservative in your reading of the Bible might be offended by the idea that Crumb, creator of Mr. Natural back in the 60s (above), would do this, but it is a serious effort.  Crumb says that he tried to be as literal as possible in illustrating the text.  This is just a strategy for illuminating the text as it stands.  Notes at the end make it clear that he is very knowledgeable about modern historical-critical approaches to the text—including feminist ones.  So Biblically conservative people will still be offended most likely.

But for me using the format of a graphic novel really brings out things that are easy to glide over if one is just reading the words.  This comes out best in the figure of Jacob.  What a character!  He tricks his brother out of his inheritance. He deceives his dying father.  He marries two sisters and has children by them as well as by their servants.  He tricks his father-in-law out of his wealth.  And so on and so on.  I asked a colleague in Biblical studies about Jacob, and he noted that Jacob can be read in the context of some ancient stories in which God is portrayed as a trickster.  I replied that Jacob reminded me of Odysseus, the many of many ways, the man of mêtis (cleverness, cunning).  Odysseus is always tricking people and telling lies to cover up his identity.  After his return to Ithaca, he continues the subterfuge until the time is ripe for his revenge against the suitors.  In Book XIII Athena confronts him:

            “Only a master thief, a real con artist,
            Could match your tricks—even a god
            Might come up short.  You wily bastard
            You cunning, elusive habitual liar!
            Even in your own land you weren’t about
            To give up the stories and sly deceits
            That are so much a part of you.
            Never mind about that though.  Here we are
            The two shrewdest minds in the universe,
            You far and away the best man on earth
            In plotting strategies, and I famed among the gods
            For my clever schemes.”

            (Lombardo translation, 299-309)

While the illustrations are revealing, I also recommend the fairly brief notes at the end.  They draw on scholars such as Savina Teubel for some insight into some of the stories about women that seem so strange to us moderns.  One starts with Abraham having Sarah say she is his sister which leads to sex with the pharaoh.  This story is repeated two more times with other characters.  Teubel interprets these stories as reflecting themes from an earlier partly matriarchal world in a society that had become patriarchal.  In brief in early Mesopotamia men who wanted to get ahead had to go to a priestess at a temple to get her approval.  The decision was based on whether the man could please her.  I have no idea about how widely this view is held among scholars now. 

The translation used is largely that of Robert Alter, one of the most prominent scholars of the Hebrew Bible.