Genesis 42:6
“Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the
people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him
with their faces to the ground.”
Genesis 19:1
“The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the
gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down
with his face to the ground.”
I found the culture
in which Genesis was written to be particularly interesting. I began to notice
on several occasions, men were bowing with their face to the ground. I
visualize this as an extreme act of honor and humility. If you look at the body
posture of one who is bowing with their face to the ground it momentarily makes
them completely vulnerable. Joseph’s brothers, for example, came to the
governor in desperate need of food, so to pay their respects to this higher
authority they bowed their faces to the ground. I also found an instance in
Genesis 19 when Lot met the angels with a deep bow to the ground. This is once
again expressing a deep esteem for these men. I am very possibly reading far
too much into this phrasing, given that I do not understand the cultural
context of this text, but I found it gave an interesting perspective into the
culture.
P.S. I posted on Brannen Uhlman :D
Don't feel like you are reading too much into it, the details are often where important meanings in literature lie. Noting this repetition of humility you could say this action was evidence of righteousness in a person.
ReplyDelete