DCML digest, Vol 1 #162 - 10 msgs
bhc@primenet.com
bhc at primenet.com
Thu Jun 1 00:02:20 CEST 2000
Kristian wrote:
>At the risk of displaying to to the world my in no way impressive
>knowledge of the Bible (I _could_ go home and check first, but then I'd
>have to wait until tomorrow to post this), I think Noah actually DID take
>more than one pair from some of the species, didn't he? If that's true,
>and nothing further is mentioned, then we still don't know for sure
>whether whatever-it-is-that-Donald-and-Daisy-are (WIITDADA) = ducks ;)
The Biblical tale of Noah is, according to many scholars, a parallel
telling of a single tale, its threads taken from at least two
distinct sources (with certain passages suggesting a third). In one
of the two readily distinguishable threads the animals are permitted
a single pair of each type aboard the ark, whether clean or unclean,
while in the other the clean animals and all birds are allowed seven
pairs per type on the ark, and the unclean animals but a single pair
per type. The single-pair-per-type numbering is reiterated twice,
which might partly explain why it is the better known and most often
used in popular entertainment. However, the seven-pair-clean and
one-pair-unclean numbering is possibly the more valid from an
ecclesiastical standpoint, as it best serves the requirements of the
ritual sacrifices conducted by Noah after the waters receded. In any
event, both threads permit four pairs of humans aboard the ark,
though reproductively speaking one pair, Noah and his wife, are a bit
past it.
An interesting irony of the Old Testament concepts of "clean" and
"unclean" animals is that the prescribed fate of many "clean" animals
is to be sacrificed and to be eaten, while all "unclean" animals are
spared this. Humans also can become "clean" or "unclean" according to
certain natural cycles, types of physical contact, and rituals,
though in neither state are they to be sacrificed and eaten.
Anyway, if the Donald-type creatures seen boarding the ark in
Fantasia 2000 are human-equivalent, then not only are they not be
fixed in a "clean" or "unclean" state, but they don't belong in the
animal queue in the first place. If they are not human-equivalent
then they are birds, more specifically ritually clean waterfowl, and
Noah will sacrifice a number of them when the Deluge is over.
That first notion creates difficult contradictions, while the second
notion doesn't even bear thinking about. Come down to it, it's hardly
the sort of baggage the gag in Fantasia 2000 deserves. What Disney
version of any Old Testament story is going to include animal
sacrifices anyway?
--
Gary
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"I think we're missing a check or balance somewhere." - Wally
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