#Genesis vs. Book of Abraham blog post

[mindfulldsliving]

Creation and Controversy: Responding to Paul Gee on Genesis 1:1-5 and Abraham 4:1-5

Paul Gee’s critique of Genesis 1:1-5 compared to Abraham 4:1-5 has sparked strong reactions, especially regarding the concept of “God” versus “the Gods.” Mormons who believe the Book of Abraham are denying what is written in Genesis. They are accepting a belief in a plurality of Gods instead of a one true God which the Bible teaches. As for Joseph Smith, who wrote this false Book of Abraham,…

[drsilverfish]

The Scapegoat - Speculative Musings on S14′s end (Moriah)

The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt 1854-5

As we know, the final episode of S14 (14x20) is titled Moriah, which, in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is the place (possibly a mountain and possibly a mountainous region) where Abraham (as set out in Genesis) took his son Isaac as if to sacrifice him to God. 

@mittensmorgul @profound-boning and @prairiedust have already been talking about the significance of Moriah here:

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/184043640359/prairiedust-mittensmorgul-profound-boning

One of the fascinating things about the Akedah (the Binding of Isaac) is that it has been interpreted in several ways, two key ones for SPN being:

1) Abraham testing God 

(putting pressure on God to intervene to save an innocent)

2) God testing Abraham’s faith 

(that God would intervene or would resurrect his son)

Both of these are of interest to the narrative of Supernatural. 

14x17 Game Night specifically stages a conversation between the angels, Anael and Castiel, about God’s intervention, or non-intervention, in human affairs.

Anael castigates God for being non-interventionist, whilst Castiel wishes to point out that, sometimes, God has intervened, even as he directly seeks God’s intervention (for help with his adopted Nephilim son) via Joshua’s copy of the Samulet to (it would as yet appear) no avail.

I’ve been musing on why the quote from the New Testament, which poor old whammied Donatello rasps out, whilst being messed about by Nick as a kind of prophet-radio conduit to Lucifer in The Empty, is, anachronistically, in Ancient Hebrew, rather than Greek (which scholars agree was the first written language of the New Testament, as opposed to the Biblical Hebrew of the Old Testament):

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour…” (Peter 5:8 King James Bible)

Perhaps because SPN has always, more overtly, drawn on the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament, and apocrypha like The Book of Enoch, whilst leaving its (abundant) Christ imagery largely in subtext. 

And Moriah, and thus the story of Abraham and Isaac, is very much a story of the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament.  

Let’s back up a bit, and consider the Jewish tradition of the scapegoat, as set out in Leviticus. 

Here is a discussion of this ritual, from a Jewish perspective:

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/leviticus-161-34-the-scapegoat-ritual/  

God tells Moses, to tell his brother Aaron, to approach the Ark of the Covenant (but not to get too close or he’ll die) and to bring two goats, as part of a sacred act of ritual cleansing and worship. 

@shirtlesssammy should be excited about this, as they were discussing Castiel in relation to the Ark of the Covenant here:

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/183969680699/castiel-and-the-holy-grail 

From Leviticus:

16:7.         Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the LORD at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting;

16:8.         and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the LORD and the other marked for Azazel.

16:9.         Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the LORD, which he is to offer as a sin offering;

16:10.     while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the LORD, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.....

So, one goat is a blood sacrifice for God, and as for the fate of the other goat?:

6:21.     Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated man.

16:22.     Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness....

Some Jewish scholars, apparently, see one goat (the blood sacrifice) as for God and the other (the scapegoat) as for Satan (Azaezel), indeed some argue Satan IS the scapegoat. Whilst some Christian scholars see the scapegoat, cast into the wilderness to carry the sins of the tribe, as an allegory for Christ.

One goat for God and one goat for Satan - we can see how that can be mapped onto the supposed “destinies” of the Winchester brothers, as sacrificial humans on the altar of the Apocalypse - one for Heaven (Dean as the Michael vessel) and one for Hell (Sam as Lucifer’s vessel). 

This is really interesting, in relation to Moriah, because in fact Abraham had two sons (who were half brothers) Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was sent into the wilderness (like the scapegoat) where he and his mother encountered an angel, whilst Isaac almost had his blood ritually spilled for God (like the blood sacrifice goat).

Cain and Abel are sometimes mapped onto these two goats too  (Abel as the blood-sacrifice goat and Cain as the scapegoat).

And Dean and Sam have themselves been mapped by the SPN narrative previously, during the Mark of Cain narrative of S10, onto Cain and Abel. 

Dean was, after all, told by John Winchester (sometimes a narrative mirror for God) that if he couldn’t save Sam, he’d have to kill him. And indeed, when Sam was in the Pit with Satan (after the events of 5x22 Swan Song) Dean was effectively “in the wildnerness”; his year of lost grieving trying to live “a normal, apple-pie life” with Lisa and Ben. 

Sam as the blood sacrifice goat and Dean as the scapegoat. 

However, because Dean has also, since Mary’s death, been a substitute parent to Sam (parentification) we can also view Dean as mappable to Abraham and Sam as mappable to Isaac. 

This parentified relationship was foregrounded, once again, in 14x17, when Sam almost died from a bloodied wound to the head (thanks to Nick) (i.e. he took the role of the blood sacrifice goat) and his (almost) last words to Dean were, “My whole life, you put me first,” (acknowledging Dean as the scapegoat, who has had to bear the weight of the sins of others, namely of their parents).

With me, thus far? Sam and Dean, sacrificial goats, fathers and sons, God and Satan, faith and doubt, sin and expiation? 

Now, how does all this map into the story of Jack the Nephilim, as well as the Jungian themes of the season?

Jack, we know, functions as a mirror for all of Team Free Will. 

He is the son of Satan by “blood” and he is the son of Castiel, Sam and Dean by love. He now contains within him elements of Heaven (AU!Michael’s grace) Hell (Lucifer’s parentage and, possibly, Lucifer’s control from beyond the grave via Nick’s blood spell) and Earth (his human parentage and soul from Kelly Kline).  

He is a trinity: Heaven, Hell and Earth; Castiel, Sam and Dean; Father, Son and Holy Ghost; a hunter, a Winchester, the son of Lucifer.  

Jack is also now the embodiment of the question of fate vs free will which epitomises Supernatural.  Is he “fated” to be evil, as the son of Lucifer, or does he still have the free will to choose his path, thanks to his Team Free Will adopted fathers?

Now we come to the two goats - Jack looks as if he is being set up to embody both - the blood sacrifice goat (he has now been explicitly linked to his father Lucifer via a blood spell) and the scapegoat, because the Winchesters all seem to be reaching the assumed conclusion (without unequivocal evidence) that Jack no longer has a soul.

Here’s where the Jungian themes of the season kick in. 

This season has been a season in which TFW have been confronted by their shadow-selves, meaning, in a Jungian psychological sense, the repressed (both negative and potentially positive) aspects of themselves.

Dean has been confronted by AU!Michael wearing his face  (representing his repression/ control).

Castiel has been confronted by The Shadow wearing his face (representing his sense of worthlessness).

Sam looks as if he is going to be forced to confront Lucfier, who has worn his face before, once again (representing his isolationism and rebelliousness). 

Control (power), sense of worthlessness (anxiety about being loved) and isolation/ rebelliousness - we can see all of these manifesting in Jack the Nephilim, adopted son of TFW.

Now, one of the psycholgical consequences of NOT confronting one’s shadow self, is projection, or the scapegoating of others (see how this all ties together?):

“When we scapegoat, we project what is dark, shameful and denied about ourselves onto others. This “shadow” side of our personality, as Carl Jung called it, represents hidden or wounded aspects of ourselves, “the thing a person has no wish to be,” (Collected Works, Vol. 16) and acts in a complementary and often compensatory manner to our persona or public mask, “what oneself as well as others think one is.” (Collected Works, Vol. 9).”

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/transcending-the-past/201703/how-facing-our-shadow-can-release-us-scapegoating

It looks as if a whole lot of projection is about to go down amongst Team Free Will (4x18 Absence promo) at least, in as much as we can take anything too concrete from next week’s promos, given how partial a picture these can paint!

Dean, Sam and Castiel have each travelled down the road to darkness, which they fear Jack is travelling now, themselves, in the past. Dean has been a torturer in Hell, on his way to demonhood after selling his soul. He has also been a demon enslaved by the Mark of Cain. Sam has been addicted to demon blood and on his own way to demonhood as a result, and he has been soulless (having been resurrected without his soul by Cas and Crowley). Cas has imbibed  the Leviathan from Purgatory, become Godstiel and Levi!Cas, and slaughtered many of his angel bretheren in Heaven.

If they cannot acknowledge their shadow-selves, they will end up projecting them onto one another and onto Jack. They will scapegoat one another and their adopted son. 

So the question is, who will be sacrificed on metaphorical Mount Moriah?

Will it be Jack, embodiment of them all?  

Will it (finally) be the parentification between Dean and Sam (as it needs to be for their both their psychological growth)?

And how will God answer all his wayward sons? 

Added editor’s note: Here is a good article on the idea of “The Adversary” (who later developed into Satan) in the Hebrew Bible:

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-do-jews-believe-in-the-devil-1.6588731

You can read my previous Jungian-themed meta on the season here:   

1) The Shadow 14x08

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/180906003584/the-shadow-14x08

2) 14x09 The Spear (Jungian Decoder Ring Edition)

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/181122764984/14x09-the-spear-jungian-decoder-ring-edition

3) Jung and Dean’s Journey Towards Self-Integration in 14x11 Damaged Goods

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182299438269/jung-and-deans-journey-towards-self-integration

4) Ouroboros in Prophet and Loss (14x12)

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182486474324/ouroboros-in-prophet-and-loss-14x12

5) A Pearl of Great Price - 14x13 Lebanon

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182660472289/a-pearl-of-great-price-14x13-lebanon

6) The Serpent and the Egg: Snake and Eye Symbology in 14x14 Ouroboros

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/183327000184/the-serpent-and-the-egg-snake-and-eye-symbology

7) Another Alchemical Easter Egg in 14x14

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/183388134889/another-alchemical-easter-egg-in-14x14