More Religious Weirdness

Sarai, Sara, Serah, Asher, Israel....whatever?

The Columbia Encyclopedia is pleasantly concise (said to only be one or two volumes offline), and free online, thus giving me hope I might finish reading some version of an Encyclopedia in my lifetime. I think I'd like that.

Anyway, I plugged in my wife's name, Sara
and got:
Sara or Sarah,in the Bible, wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. With Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, she was one of the four Hebrew matriarchs. Her name was originally Sarai [Heb.,=princess]. She was childless until, by divine favor, she gave birth to Isaac in her old age. After his birth, jealous of her handmaid Hagar, who was Abraham's concubine, she drove Hagar and her son Ishmael into the desert to die. Sarah is said to have died in Hebron and to have been buried in the cave of Machpelah. The Sarah in the Book of Numbers is the same as Serah. Her number is 6.
-but you knew that already

moving on, I plug in Serah, and get:
Serah (sē'ru), in the Bible, daughter of Asher. It is also spelled Sarah.
Serah and Asher use the same letters. okay, I didn't know that, and I kind of imagine it really doesn't matter to anyone, anyway.

But, I had to:
Asher
Asher (ăsh'ur)[Heb.,=happy], in the Bible, tribe of Israel. Its eponym was Jacob's eighth son. It occupied the northwestern part of ancient Palestine, and its position laid Asher open to influence from other nations and attacks by them. It seems to have become insignificant early in Jewish history. The name occurs in Egyptian inscriptions. An alternate spelling is Aser.

Wow, the tribe of Israel became insignificant early in Jewish history? Then, why did they name their country after them? Like I said, it should go back to being Palestine, or Palrael, or Israstine, or something. Have a contest for a new name. The encyclopedia can be kind of fun.

Sara could be as Ra, that's Egyptian.
Sarah could be my wife in her black Honda (k sirah sirah) (sp?)
or hey little sister shotgun, or hey little sister don't shed no tear, no woman no cry.
syrah wine is good, like sir AH (anthony hopkins)
book of numbers: wouldn't that be as simple as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 (or 0 through 9)
lol
Asher? I know something about ASH. Main Element is as H, hydrogen.
I like that I'm married to a queen, daughter of happiness.
Which brings me to what I found on OCW (open courseware) from Berkeley for now, the Fall semester: a class on Happiness.

What does Columbia say about Jesse?
Jesse (jes'ē), in the Bible, the descendant of Rahab, the grandson of Boaz and Ruth, and the father of David. Referring to the restoration of the Davidic monarchy, the Book of Isaiah speaks of a shoot coming from the “stump of Jesse.” The “root” of Jesse is the Davidic monarch of the eschatological age.

this makes me think of captain Ahab, baby Ruth, and ruthless. Ruth is hurt, rearranged.
what's this about eschatological (is that about poop? no, that's scatological) but scat is a jazzy thing, though. argh, whatever, I dunno.
okay, eschatology:
Pronunciation: (es"ku-tol'u-jē),—n. Theol. 1. any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters, as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc. 2. the branch of theology dealing with such matters.

egads. is this why people are obsessed about 2012 or being in the end times? ME? Little ol' me?? I'll be 41. That's quite a thing to ponder. What a bunch of hogwash is my reaction. Death and final matters concerning hog poop. Just like the Hannibal movie. Hannibal Lecter has a stump, last we know. Nuts. From the giving tree. I don't exactly feel like a Davidic Monarch, except that there's a David in my head. None but ourselves can free our mind, Bob Marley sings. We have one mind, apparently. The hive mind sometimes gets stung. Shocking.