Gioacchino Assereto

Decided to spruce up my blog a bit, perhaps in some vain attempt to make up for letting it fall into disuse, yet again. No worthy excuses this time. Must. Blog. Regularly. All I need is a little faith.

Anyways, the new picture in my header is a cropped version of Isaac Blessing Jacob (1640) by Gioacchino Assereto (1600-1649), an Italian Baroque painter. I find it interesting that Jacob seems hesitant in Assereto's interpretation of the story, whereas he is very obviously a willing participant in my own reading, only initially giving minor protest that Isaac might feel his soft skin. Instead of the crafty mother instigating her trickster son, Assereto's Rebekah comes across as the sole schemer, a domineering hag of sorts. Poor Esau looks on with his dumb, kind eyes, although he is supposedly not present until Genesis 30, immediately after the blessing.

As an educated Catholic in 17th century Italy, Assereto may have been well-versed in Latin. Yet, the majority of his Biblical knowledge and interpretations were most likely gleaned second-hand from the words of clergymen. Thereby, Assereto's depiction of Jacob as an almost vulnerable figure keeps him in a positive light, staying in line with church doctrine. Rebekah, on the other hand, occupies a space of power. By controlling the swindle, Assereto's Rebekah upholds the prevailing mores of the times, in which insubordinate or strong women were regarded as manipulators. Ironically, had Rebekah not prompted Jacob, he would have never attained his requisite blessing.

Of course, I could have this all wrong. Giacchino Assereto may very well have been a feminist for his day, depicting Jacob as weak and Rebekah as strong and willful. Given his proclivity towards Biblical paintings typical of the Baroque era, however, I doubt he was much of a revolutionary. Admittedly, I may be making a mistake in pointing out the timing inconsistencies (i.e. Esau presence, Jacob hesitating/protesting after putting on the goat skins, et cetera). Paintings often compress time, in both linear and nonlinear fashions. As such, Assereto may have attempted to display the events of Rebekah and Jacob's deception all at once, taking the necessary liberties to create a static image that effectively tells a story. At least I can reach one conclusion: no matter the artist's intention, I find the painting fascinating.

Below is a full version of the Isaac Blessing Jacob, along with others by Assereto. Note the anachronisms -- those Semites and Egyptians sure look like Renaissance-era Italians!

The Finding of Moses, c. 1640

Moses Drawing Water from the Rock, date unknown

Tobias Healing the Blindness of His Father, date unknown

The Etymology of Eve - Part I

Awhile back, upon my first reading of the Bible for class, I found it odd that Eve was not named until Genesis 3:20, after being expelled from Eden. Better yet, Adam remains unnamed (i.e. "the man") until the Priestly writer reemerges at Genesis 4:25, at least in the Harper Collins Study Bible/New Revised Standard Version. Of course, one could argue that the generic "man" is simply a translation of 'adam in Hebrew. But why does Adam become a proper noun all of the sudden?

Unfortunately, the Harper-Collins Bible's footnotes offer little respite for my curiosity about Adam's name, besides commentary on the Hebrew wordplay between 'adam and the ground, 'adamah. Instead, those same footnotes give an intriguing bit of information about Eve's name, raising even more questions.

The passage to the harsh life of human culture is somewhat relieved by the naming of Eve (lit."life") ... The name of Eve and her description as the mother of all living may be related to similar names and epithets of older Near Eastern goddesses. (footnotes 3.20-21, p. 10)

Etymologically, Eve is derived from the Late Latin Ēva or Hēva, originating from the Hebrew word Chavvah (also rendered as Hawwah) from Hebrew ḥawwâ, meaning "life" or "living," which in turn comes from ḥāyâ, "to live," stretching back to the Semitic root of ḥyw. A close derivation of Eve's name is also used in the Qur'an, as Hawwāʾ.

The name Chavvah may further derive from Kheba, a Hurrian goddess ("the mother of all living") worshipped in Late Bronze Age Jerusalem. In turn, the name Kheba may come from the woman Kubaba or Kug-Bau, the first ruler of the Third Dynasty of Kish and only female on the Sumerian king list.

Even as far as India, both etymological and mythological similarities emerge in the Hindu story of Havyavati, consort of Adhama and child of Vishnu-Kardama, said to multiply the generations of mlecchas or non-Vedics (i.e. barbarians/outsiders) in a city next to a "God-given Forest" complete with the goddess Kali in the form of a persuasive serpent.

In my next post, I'll elaborate further and fully cite the claims made above.

Premature absence, at an end.

First off, my apologies. My activity in the blogosphere has been next to null since I created this page. I chalk it up to my lack of a working internet connection until last week, at which point I was knee-deep in tech rehearsals and later performances for Luke Hystad's senior thesis play, Greater Tuna. As the sole sound designer and board operator, and despite my having worked on it for the previous three weeks, my supposed free time outside of the theatre was still spent searching for the right music and tinkering with sound effects, right up until show time. So much for blogging from the library.

That's all behind me now. At least I didn't neglect my reading; I have a backlog of notes and ideas for my missed blog entries. Now to the task at hand, bringing those notes to fruition in the full blog-form, in the rough chronological order that they should have been posted in.

Better late than never?

Elohim Creating Adam by William Blake, 1795

...And There Was Light

Okay, so I'm sure that quoting from Genesis for the title of my first blog post is a bit tacky and cliched, but I feel safe knowing that I'm surely not alone in this overdone endeavor. I almost used "God Created the World in Seven Days" followed by the opener "And I created this blog in seven minutes!" Alas, I decided to try and keep my ego in reign, at least superficially, especially since I tend to be a critic of the maniacal egotism of our generation's "Look at ME!" web-culture. At least this isn't micro-blogging. I don't know if I could handle a class that required regular Twitter updates, mostly due to my lack of certainty that I'd be able to resist the dark, seductive allure of tweeting my life away.

Before I get too self-righteously off-tangent, I have to say that I really am excited for this class. Reading and dissecting the Bible in a scholarly, intertextual manner seems a very stimulating challenge. Unfortunately, I have no internet service until the 8th! A minor speedbump. Thank God for the library.