Genesis 24.1-25.18

The Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah / Abraham Marries Keturah / The Death of Abraham / Ishmael's Descendants

The Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah: Genesis 24.1-67

Chapter 24 is the longest chapter of Genesis

Abraham is old, and his "only" son still is not married. Abraham calls his servant and says, "Put your hand under my thigh and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but will go to my country and to my kindred and get a wife for my son Isaac" (Gen. 24.2-4).

Acts do not come more symbolic than that. The servant is asked to place his hand near the source of all Israel, to acknowledge the patriarch Abraham's power in swearing the oath.

An intermarriage is necessary. The wife is not to come from Canaan because the bloodline is to be pure. When the servant asks if he should bring Isaac to Abraham's land if she refuses to follow him to Canaan, Abraham is emphatic that Isaac should not return. Canaan is the promised land, so Isaac must remain there. If the woman does not follow the servant back, the servant is freed of the oath.

The servant loads up ten camels with gifts and heads out for Nahor. Toward evening he arrives at a well outside Nahor. Women are coming out to draw water. The servant prays to the Lord, asking, "Let the girl to whom I shall say, 'Please offer your jar that I may drink,' and who shall say, 'Drink, and I will water your camels' - let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master" (Gen. 24.14).

Even before he finishes speaking, he sees Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel (son of Milcah and Nahor, Abraham's brother). The beautiful (and virgin) girl carries a water jar on her shoulder.

It took years and years for God to get land and a son for Abraham, but for Isaac, a wife is found in seconds. Isaac is a rather passive character, who simply receives things, like his wife, as those around him struggle. His parents are tested for his sake, his sons fight even in the womb, but for Isaac himself things come easily.

The servant does the work of courting Rebekah - she follows his prayer perfectly.

The man - by verse 21 he is no longer referred to as a servant - gives Reebekah a gold nose ring (weighing a half shekel) and two bracelets (weighing ten gold shekels). He asks whose daughter she is and whether he might spend the night. She is the daughter of Bethuel - and of course they have plenty of straw and fodder for him to spend the night. The man blesses the Lord.

Rebekah runs back to the house to tell everyone what has happened. Impressed by the nose ring and bracelets, her brother Laban runs to meet the man and invites him in. Food is brought out, but the man will not eat until he tells his errand, which tells the entire story but modifies it in two important ways:

When the man asks Abraham what to do if the girl does not follow, Abraham responds, "The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you and make your way successful. You shall get a wife for my son from my kindred, from my father's house. Then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my kindred; even if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath" (Gen. 24.40-41). The man is still freed from the oath if the family refuses, but in emphasizing that the Lord sent an angel to make the way successful, the man seeks to influence the family. Furthermore, the man strategically has the family responsible for giving the girl away. Abraham's original message allowed for the girl's free choice.

Laban and Bethuel are quick to give away Rebekah. The servant - as he is again called in verse 52 - gives more treasures to Rebekah: jewelry and clothing. Laban and Milcah also receive costly ornaments. Bethuel only appears to give away host daughter. He neither receives gifts for takes part in the rest of the narrative. 

The servant eats and drinks , and spends the night. When he rises, Laban and Milcah ask that she might remain ten more days. The servant indicates his preference to leave immediately, to which Laban and Milcah reply that they will ask Rebekah. She agrees to leave immediately, taking along her maids. As she leaves, Laban and Milcah bless Rebekah: "May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes."

Isaac is walking in a field in the Negeb, mourning the death of his mother, when he sees camels coming. Rebekah slips from her camel, asks the servant who the man is, and veils herself when she hears who it is. The servant tells Isaac of his work.

Here is the second Freudian part of the story. Isaac takes Rebekah into Sarah's tent. He falls in love with her and marries her. In this way he is comforted after his mother's death. His sadness at the loss of his mother is replaced by the love of a new woman.

Speaking of new women...

Abraham Marries Keturah: Genesis 25.1-6

Abraham marries Keturah. Check out the genealogy below of Keturah's children.

Abraham gives all he has to Isaac. The sons of his concubines receive gifts too, but they are sent to the east, away from Isaac (again, Isaac is protected by others).

The Death of Abraham: Genesis 25.7-11

Abraham lives one hundred seventy-five years. In a remarkable show of itneraction/cooperation, Isaac and Ishmael bury him in the cave of Machpelah, where Sarah is buried. After Abraham dies God blesses Isaac, who settles at Beer-lahai-roi.

Ishmael's Descendants: Genesis 25.12-18

Abraham's death is followed by a list of survivors, not unlike modern obituaries. These are the sons of Ishmael. See above for the genealogy.

Ishmael lives one hundred thirty-seven years.

Genesis 20.1-23.20

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit / Isaac's Birth / Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness (Redux) / Covenant Between Abraham and Abimelech / The Near Sacrifice of Isaac / The Children of Nahor / Sarah's Death and Burial

"Let's do some E!"

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit: Genesis 20.1-18

Chapter 20 is the first continuous E-source narrative in the bible, and is another example of the "matriarch=sister trick" tale first found in Genesis 12.10-20.

Abraham again journeys toward the Negeb, this time settling between Kadesh and Shur. While living in Gerar, Abraham tells King Abimelech that Sarah is his sister. Naturally, King Abimelech sends for Sarah. God confronts Abimelech in a dream, telling him he is about to die for taking Sarah. Abimelech defends himself, asking, like Abraham, if God will destroy an innocent people. Says Abimelech, "Did [Abraham] not himself say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands" (Gen. 20.5). (Though Sarah does not speak in the narrative, it is possible she actually did claim Abraham as her brother.)

God reveals his bluff, and furthermore claims his control over the situation:

Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours.

(Gen. 20.6-7)

In the morning Abimelech calls his servants and Abraham together. He asks why Abraham would act as he did. Abraham answers:

I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, 'This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.

(Gen. 20.11-13).

As in his dealing with Pharaoh in Genesis 12, Abraham receives sheep and oxen as well as male and female slaves. He also receives Abimelech's land and a thousand pieces of silver.

For this Abraham prays to God, "and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the house of Abimelech's because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Now, without getting crass, it appears that Abimelech was suffering a sexual problem, which. Hence God's earlier comment, "furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me." Quite tactfully put.

Ostensibly Sarah is beautiful and not old when King Abimelech takes her. This story does not fit chronologically in the narrative, then, and it is of note that Abraham and Sarah both are referred to names that they receive in the P narrative at ages ninety-nine and ninety, respectively. This might be an indication that in the E source, Abraham and Sarah always had these names. If that is the case, this alternative version of the story might have served as a parallel telling of roughly the same period of Abraham and Sarah's life.

Why insert it here? Possible the land that Abraham receives. It also plays with the idea of barrenness that pervades the Abraham narrative. Land and children are the two keys to the covenant.

Isaac's Birth: Genesis 21.1-7

Sarah conceives a son who is named Isaac. He is circumcised when he is eight days old, as commanded. There is more laughter. Sarah says, "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me" (Gen. 21.6) This is fitting, as Isaac's name means "he laughs" and laughter typifies the Abrahamic narrative.

Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness (Redux): Genesis 21.8-21

Genesis 21.8-21 is another E-source retelling of the J story of Genesis 16. This version, like Genesis 20, has a strange chronology, as Hagar's son, whose name is not given, is seemingly about the same age as Isaac, not fourteen as he would be in the P-source.

Isaac grows and is weaned. Abraham makes a great feast the day Isaac is weaned.  Sarah sees Hagar's son playing with Isaac and becomes angry. She demands that Abraham casts Hagar and her son out, which distresses Abraham. God tells Abraham to go with it; Isaac is the line of offspring that will carry Abraham's name. God will however still make a nation of the other son's descendants, who still have Abraham's blood.

Abraham sends Hagar off with bread and a skin of water. When the water is gone, she hides her son under bushes, not wanting to see him die. God hears her son crying and the angel of God comes to Hagar. The angel tells Hagar not to worry, and that a great nation will come of her son. When God opens Hagar's eyes, she sees a well (a connection with the J story).

The boy grows up in the wilderness and becomes an expert with the bow. His mother finds a wife for him in Egypt, her home land.

Covenant Between Abraham and Abimelech: Genesis 21.22-34

More E narrative.

Abimelech recognizes that Abraham, an alien in his land, is protected by God. He asks for Abraham to be open with him.

Abraham complains about a well of water that Abimelech's men seized. Abimelech justifies himself, perhaps fearful of Abraham's God: "I do not know who has done this; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today" (Gen. 21.26). Abraham and Abimelech deal with the problem by making a covenant. Abraham gives sheep and oxen to Abimelech, setting aside seven ewe lambs so that Abimelech will act as a witness that Abraham dug the well. The place is therefore called Beer-sheba (well of seven or well of the oath). The covenant sworn, Abimelech returns to the land of the Philistines. Abraham plants a tamarisk tree there and calls on the name of the Lord, El Olam. This is likely an epithet for the Canaanite high God El. Here Abraham applies it to his God, who has granted him this foreign land. Just as it is an old land with a new people living in it, the name El Olam is an old title with a new god it applies to.

The Near Sacrifice of Isaac: Genesis 22.1-19

My apologies if I just spoiled the ending. 

Still more E narrative!

God decides to test Abraham: "He said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am'" (Gen. 22.1). God tells Abraham to takes his only son Isaac to Moriah, to sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Normally this is something reserved for animals; Hebrew religion does not condone human sacrifice.

Abraham sets out the next morning with a donkey, two men, Isaac, and the wood. On the third day Abraham leaves the two men and donkey, loads up his son Isaac with wood, and continues on carrying the knife and fire. What follows is a scene full of irony and drama. Like God, Isaac calls out to his father, "Father!" Abraham answers, "Here I am, my son" (Gen. 22.7). Isaac asks where the lamb is for the sacrifice. Abraham, knowing his son is to die, nevertheless correctly answers, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son" (Gen. 22.8). The two walk on.

They come to the place God has appointed and Abraham builds an altar and lays the wood. He bounds his son and places him on the wood. He is about to kill his son with the knife when the angel of the Lord calls for him to stop: "Abraham, Abraham!" He answers, "Here I am." The angel of the Lord says, "Do not lay you hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me" (Gen. 22.12).

Abraham sees a ram caught in a thicket and offers it instead. Abraham names the place, "'The Lord will provide'; as it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided'" (Gen. 22.14).

There is a final promise of offspring. Abraham returns to the men and they return to Beer-sheba

Anyone know what mount this is? Anybody? Does the Temple Mount ring a bell? How about al-Haram ash-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary?

Is this where God gathered the dust for Adam? Where Abraham bound Isaac?  The site of Muhammad's Night Journey? The site of the Third Temple?

This much is true: It was the sight of the two Temples of Jerusalem. It is the current location of the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Not familiar with these terms? Tread carefully. Biased information and outright fabrications about the site abound.

The Children of Nahor: Genesis 22.20-24

Today's genealogy in burgundy!

Sarah's Death and Burial: Genesis 23.1-20

Sarah dies at the age of 127 in Hebron, a foreign land. Mourning the death of his wife, Abraham asks the Hittites for property so that he might bury his wife. The answer that he may choose his place. But Abraham wishes to own the land, presumably so that nothing will happen to it. What follows is a fantastic scene of diplomacy. Abraham desires Ephron's property. Ephron, overhearing him, offers it for free, which is of course an empty gesture.The real reason he does not give a price is because he does not want a foreigner buried on his land. Abraham offers to pay full price, though not naming it, as he probably does not know what the full price is. Ephron slyly asks an exorbitant price: "My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver - what is that between you and me? Bury your dead" (Gen. 23.15). Abraham immediately agrees to the price, seeing past the speech to the real meaning.

Sarah is buried facing Mamre/Hebron in a cave of the field of Machpeleah, in the land of Canaan

Tomorrow: Freudian tales from Genesis.

Genesis 17.1-19.38

The Sign of the Covenant / A Son Again Promised / Haggling for Lot / In Sodom / Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah / ...If He Was the Last Man on Earth

The Sign of the Covenant: Genesis 17.1-27

In this P-source account, God appears to Abram and expands upon the covenant first explicated in Genesis 15. Before the covenant consisted of a promise of land for Abram's descendants. Now God promises land and a multitude of ancestors:

You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations...I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come of you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.

(Gen. 17.4-8)

The sign of the covenant is circumcision for every male, free and slave. Anyone without the sign of the covenant is cut off from God's people. Because of the patriarchal/partilineal nature of ancient Israel, women do not need any mark to distinguish them as part of God's people. The circumcision of their father, husband, and sons is enough.

Naming serves a very important function in the Bible as a sign of change. Designated names commemorate events and locations and signal when a character has undergone a change. Hence with the covenant Abram's name is changed to Abraham and Sarai's name is changed to Sarah. Abram's name change shifts his designation from "exalted ancestor" to "ancestor of a multitude." As "ancestor" implies, the promise of offspring was always evident. Now the promise is of great nations. Sarah's name changes only in dialect, its meaning remaining something like "princess."

God first comes to Abram he falls on his face out of reverence. He repeats the action after hearing that his wife will have a child. And he laughs. Abraham is ninety-nine years old and his wife ninety. How are they to have children? Abraham says to God, "O that Ishmael might lie in your sight!" (Gen. 17.18). God answers that Sarah will bear Isaac (he laughs in Hebrew). The covenant shall be with him. Ishmael will not be part of the covenant, but will be the "father of twelve princes" (Gen. 17.20).

The chapter closes on a mass circumcision, with all the males of Abraham's house taking part. Father-son bonding: Abraham is ninety-nie at this time and his son Ishmael thirteen.

A Son Again Promised: Genesis 18.1-15

Genesis 18 is a J-source version of God's promise in Genesis 17. The Lord and two angels appear in the form of three men at Abraham's tent. In a grand demonstration of hospitality, Abraham runs out to meet them and bows down before them, ironically addressing them as "Lords" (Gen. 18.3). he promises them a little water and bread, then tells Sarah to make three cakes, runs to his herd and chooses a calf to be slaughtered, and brings out curds and milk for his guests. He stands with them as they eat, not taking part. Though Abraham has not introduced her, the three men ask where his wife Sarah is. Abraham points to the tent. One says "I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son" (Gen. 18.10). Sarah, who is listening, laughs at this; she and Abraham are both very old. The Lord asks Abraham why she laughed, but it is Sarah responds in fear, "I did not laugh." Too bad the Lord is omniscient: "Oh yes, you did laugh." (Gen. 18.15).

Recap: Promises and Laughter

This section represents God's last promise of offspring before the actual birth of Isaac in Genesis 21. It has been a long process, with all the stagnation of Waiting for Godot. This play, Waiting for Isaac, has the two protagonists waiting for a son, the result of God's action, rather than God(ot) himself.

The themes of promise and laughter have featured prominently throughout this "play." Promises come in the form of land and offspring. Laughter sets up a motif befitting Isaac's name (he laughs)

The promises promised:

"I will make of you a great nation" (Gen. 12.2)

"To your offspring I will give this land" (Gen. 12.7)

"...for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever" (Gen. 13.15)

"I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted" (Gen. 13.16)

"Look toward haven and count the stars, if you are able to count them...So shall your descendants be" (Gen. 15.5)

"I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess" (Gen. 15.7)

"To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates (Gen. 15.18)

Abraham's name chance to mean "ancestor of a multitude" (Gen. 17.5)

"You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations" (Gen. 17.6)

"And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God" (Gen. 17.8)

Sarah "shall give rise to nations; kings of people shall come from her" (Gen. 17.16)

"I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son" (Gen. 18.10)

The promise of Ishmael:

[To Hagar] "I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude."

[To Abraham] "I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation" (Gen. 17.20)

Laughter:

Abraham laughs hearing he will have a son in his old age (Gen. 17.17)

Isaac's name means he laughs (Gen. 17.19)

Sarah laughs (Gen. 18.12)

Lord asks Abraham of Sarah's laughter (Gen. 18.13)

Sarah denies laughter and God corrects her (Gen. 18.15)

Haggling for Lot: Genesis 18.16-33

The two men set out for Sodom, but the Lord stays with Abraham. There is a great outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah. Their sin is very grave. The Lord confides this in Abraham, who is probably thinking, "Uh-oh, that's where Lot lives!" So like any other Middle Eastern man, he haggles.

Abraham convinces the Lord to not destroy the city if there are fifty righteous within the city. The Lord agrees. Abraham cuts it to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, then ten. Hopefully, Abraham must hope, there are at least some others besides Lot and his family that are righteous.

In Sodom: Genesis 19.1-11

Unlike Abraham, who is active in the service of his guests, his nephew Lot is passive, yet still the most righteous man in Sodom. Rather than Lot running to the men/angels, the two angels find Lot sitting in the gateway of Sodom. He invites them to his house, which at least shows some concern. He even strongly urges them from spending the night in the square. And though he makes a feast, the bread is unleavened, and he eats with them rather than waiting on him.

But he is the most hospitable man in Sodom. The other men of the town come and surround the house, telling Lot to show his guests that they may "know" him (yes, in the biblical sense). Lot is hospitable enough that he goes outside to the townspeople, shuts the door, and offers his virgin daughters instead.  The townsfolk get angry that Lot is trying to direct their actions, saying: "Now we will deal worse with you than with them" (Gen. 19.9). They move on Lot, try to break the door down. The me/angels inside bring him in, shut the door, and blind the men outside so that they cannot find the door.

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: Genesis 19.12-29

The angels come clean with their story - the city is to be destroyed. Is there anyone Lot wants to save? The future sons-in-law think Lot is jesting, and the night passes. In the morning, the men/angels force Lot out with his wife and two daughters. Lot is told to head for the hills, but just like his uncle, he bargains to run to a nearby city instead. The angels consent. Lot and his family are warned not to look back during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, all sulfur and fire. Lot's wife turns around. She turns into a pillar of salt.

In a cinematic cut, Abraham goes out in the early morning and looks toward the Plain. Smoke rises up from the land like out of a furnace.

...If He Was the Last Man on Earth: Genesis 19.30-38

Lot serves as an interesting parallel to Noah in this tale.

Lot does not go to the town after all, deciding instead to settle in the hills. Because of this, his two daughters think they are the last family on earth. It is, in their minds, up to them to repopulate the earth. They get their father drunk on two consecutive nights, one for each daughter, and conceive Moab and Ben-ammi, the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites, respectively.

This part of the narrative serves to cast aspersion on the Moabites and Ammonites, both enemies of Israel. From a strictly patriarchal sense, it serves Lot right to have such terrible ancestors. After all, he offered his daughters to a bunch of gang rapers.

Up tomorrow: Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit

Genesis 12.1-16.16

Abram on the Move / Deception in Egypt / Lot of Bad Luck / God's Covenant with Abram / Call Him Ishmael

The story of Abram/Abraham has a lot of narration from God. God makes a lot of promises about the future, but deliverance is withheld. This creates tensions within the story that resound with the tensions of faithful everywhere: When will God deliver us? Where is God now?

When last we left our heroes, Terah had taken his family to Haran. Originally he meant to go to Canaan, but settled in Haran instead. The family included, in order of biblical importance, Terah, his son Abram (not yet Abraham), his grandson Lot (Abraham's nephew), and his daughter-in-law Sarai (Abram's wife, who happens to be barren).

Abram on the Move: Genesis 12.1-9

The Lord says to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Those people at Babel who wanted to "make a name for ourselves" (Gen. 11.4) were going about it the wrong way. It turns out you have to be chosen by God in order to have a great name. Which begs the question, what did Abram do to deserve this honor? Adam was the first man and Noah walked with God. Both were told to populate the earth. Abraham does not have any noble characteristics that the author feels merit attention. And yet, his name was made great. Three of the world's faiths trace their origins back to Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Yet faith has already had a bottleneck before with Noah - and a covenant. So let's find out what makes Abram/Abraham so special.

Abram leaves his father Terah in Haran and heads to the land of Canaan, which was the family's original destination in the first place. Abram makes it into Canaan. He finds himself at the "oak [or terebinths] of Moreh" at Schechem. Here the Lord says to him, "To your offspring I will give this land." Two problems: The Canaanites live here and Sarai is barren.

Abram builds an altar and moves to the hill country and pitches his tent between Bethel (to the west) and Ai (to the east). He builds an altar here as well. He journeys on by stages toward the Negeb.

Deception in Egypt: Genesis 12.10-20

A famine forces Abram to go down to Egypt. This is a common biblical device. Men will frequently go down to Egypt, do something, then go up from it. Important things happen there. Egypt has a tortured role. No one really wants to live there, but it is where important things happen to a number of important men in the biblical narrative.

Abram tells his beautiful wife Sarai to pretend she is his sister so that Abram will not be killed in Egypt by the jealous Pharaoh (for more on kings killing husbands of beautiful women, see the story of David and Bathsheba, 2 Samuel 11). Pharaoh finds Sarai beautiful, takes her into his house, and gives her "brother" cattle and slaves. The Lord is not happy, and afflicts Pharaoh with plagues. Pharaoh comes to Abram, knowing the truth, and commands Abram and Sarai to leave. Rich in livestock and slaves, Abram does so.

More Movement. Abram and Lot Separate: Genesis 13.1-18 

Abram goes up from Egypt into the Negeb with his wife, his livestock and precious metals, and Lot. Then he travels back toward the location of his second altar between Bethel and Ai, where the Canaanites and Perizzites now live. The land cannot support the vast amount of cattle Lot and Abram own, so Abram suggests they separate. Though he is the elder, Abram offers Lot his choice of land. Though he is the younger, Lot acts disrespectfully by not only choosing instead of deferring to Abram, but also by choosing the better land, the "plain of Jordan" that is "well watered everywhere like the garden on the Lord, like the land on Egypt." (Gen. 13.10). Unfortunately for Lot, it is also the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot in fact moves his tent to Sodom, where live "great sinners against the Lord (Gen. 13.13).

Abram settles in Canaan, which is the land the Lord promised promised him anyway. God comes to him and reiterates as much:

Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.

Abram does so, settling by the oaks (or terebinths) of Mamre at Hebron. Here he builds his third altar.

Lot of Bad Luck: Genesis 14.1-24

The Harper Collins Study Bible notes that Genesis 14.1-11 resembles a royal annal, used at the time to list rulers, their wars, and their accomplishments. The creator of this section was apparently familiar with the style, and uses it to weave fact and fiction. None of the kings are identifiable, but some of the names sound like those of a certain people. In addition, some actual places are named, though most are unidentifiable. What we have here is a sort of historical fiction, which will become more common and specific as biblical time continues.

Four kings of the east declare war on five kings of the plain, fighting in the Valley of Sodim, also known as the Dead Sea. After much fighting, the armies of Sodom and Gomorrah fall into bitumen pits as they flee to the hill country. The victors take the spoils, which includes Lot.

One who escapes comes to Abram to tell him that his nephew has been captured. Abram leads his 318 trained men (yes, he has an army) as far as Dan (which at this point does not exist). He defeats them at night, pursues them to Hobah, north of Damascus, and brings back all the goods, his nephew, the women and the people. What the five kings failed at, Abraham and his small band of 318 succeed. The four are defeated.

This is the first battle scene in the bible. Get used to it.

The king of Sodom (who fought in the war) went out to meet Abram at the Valley of Shaveh (the King's Valley).  King Melchizedek of Salem (Jerusalem), who did not fight in the war and is "priest of God the Most High," brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram (Gen. 14.18-19):

Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth;

and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!

(Gen. 14.19-20)

Abram gives King Melchizedek one-tenth of everything. All this serves to establish a relationship between Jerusalem and the house of Abram.

The king of Sodom asks for Abram to return the people he rescued, but allows Abram to keep the goods of Sodom. Abram gives everything back, having promised the Lord that he would not take action such that the king of Sodom might say he has made Abram rich.

God's Covenant with Abram: Genesis 15.1-21

The Lord comes to Abram and tells him, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great" (Gen. 15.1). Abram needs some convincing. He is still childless so that a slave, Eliezer of Damascus, is the heir presumptive. God makes another promise, bringing Abram outside and promising him an heir of his own issue: "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them...So shall your descendants be" (Gen. 15.5).

Again the Lord promises the land to Abram, but Abram is wavering, asking how he should know. God commands him to make a sacrifice of a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abram does so, keeping the birds away form the carcasses until sundown. A deep sleep falls upon Abram, and The Lord delivers an outline for the rest of the Torah:

Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nations that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; the the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

When the sun has set, a smoking fire pot and flaming torch pass through the sacrificed animals. The Lord them makes a covenant with Abram:

To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

The sign of the covenant, circumcision, is not explicated until chapter 17, which will be covered tomorrow.

Call Him Ishmael: Genesis 16.1-16.16

After ten years in Canaan Sarai and Abram still have no children. Sarai suggests Abram "go in to" Sarai's slave, Hagar, that they may have a child. After she conceives, Hagar no longer looks at Sarai the same way, and Sarai rages against her husband and Hagar. Abram responds that Hagar is in Sarai's power, and Sarai may do with her as she pleases. Sarai does so, and Hagar flees into the wilderness.

An angel of the Lord comes to Hagar and convinces her to return, promising to "so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude" (Gen. 16.10). The child is to be named Ishmael (Hebrew for God hears), for the Lord has heard Hagar's lament. Ishmael will be "a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin" (Gen. 16.12). This description is not surprising. In antiquity Ishmael represented the progenitor of the Arabs. In that respect, this story is an etiology, a story that describes how something came to be.

Hagar confuses the angel of the Lord for God himself and dubs him El-roi, meaning roughly God who sees. She also names the well where she stood Beer-lahai-roi, roughly the Well of the Living One who sees me. This too is an etiological story.

Hagar returns and gives birth to Ishmael. At this time, Abram is eighty-six.

Tomorrow: Abram becomes Abraham.

Genesis 11.1-32

The Tower of Babel  / Genealogy of Shem

The Tower of Babel: Genesis 11.1-9

Everyone on the earth speaks the same language. They all migrate from the east to a plain in Shinar and settle there. They decide to make some bricks and "burn them thoroughly." Then with their bricks an bitumen, they say, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

So these people are afraid of being scattered upon the face of the earth, unable to communicate with each other. Here comes a bit of situational irony. The Lord comes down to earth to check up on the mortals and decides that one people with one language is too much. "...this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come let us [the divine court] go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

The jealous Lord does exactly this. They are forced to discontinue construction. The abandoned site is called Babel, because in addition to displacing all these people, the Lord confuses (the Hebrew word babal means confuse) the languages of the earth.

Remember that these people want their own name. That will be important later in the bible story.

The Harper Collins Study Bible points out a really nice symmetry to the story. Here is a graphical representation I created to visually represent the editors' point. In fact - hey - it resembles a ziggurat!

Harper Collins pits the left side, humankind, with the right side, Lord. The point of symmetry, of course, is in the middle of the story, when God descends to Earth and sees what is happening. Allow me to expand on Harper Collins' ideas. If we view this as the story of humanity, we can see humankind's accomplishments building to the point of symmetry, which is not the point of climax. The point of climax occurs when the Lord corrupts languages and flings people to many corners of the earth. So really, our story resembles a sine curve:

(Thanks Wikipedia and my high school calculus teacher Mr. Messare! Who says math doesn't apply to real life and/or the bible?)


For argument's sake, let's bound the graph along the x-axis from 0 to 3π/2. Humans (the red sine curve) start at (0, 0). That is a decent level to be at. As they build, their potential for power grows, until God sees them at π/2. God plots their downfall from π/2 to π. He executes it at π, until humankind is at its lowest point, 3π/2, a state of confusion and disintegration.


If you are not thoroughly confused, I apologize. Perhaps the following will correct this.

Genealogy of Shem: Genesis 11.10-32

Below find the genealogy map, today's descendants in burgundy.

Question for any religion scholars or general knowledgeable people out there: Genesis 11.29 states that Milcah is the "daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah." I assume Milcah's father is of no relation to Haran the father of Lot, but the text is unclear. For now, these are two separate Harans until proven otherwise.

Sarai, of course, is barren. This is also important in the story.

Oh, and this: Terah takes Abram (his son), Lot (his grandson), and Sarai to Canaan, but they decide to settle in Haran. In fact, this is where Terah dies at the age of 250.

Tomorrow: The story of Abram.

Genesis 6.1-10.32

Noah:

Humankind's Wickedness  / Reconstructing the Noah Narratives  / Genealogy of Noah 

Humankind's Wickedness: Genesis 6.1-6.8

All those humans with the task of populating the earth begin to have daughters. This is good for fulfilling the whole "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1.28) blessing, except that the "sons of God" are equally as attracted to these young ladies as the human men. The "sons of God" are presumably member's of God's divine court/entourage/bureaucracy, and it's not good that they are taking wives for themselves when human women are reserved for human men. It's not kosher to mix mundane and divine, so God decides that humans will have a maximum life span of 120 years.

The offspring of humans and the "sons of God" are called Nepilim, "the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown" (Gen. 6.4). Does this sound Greek to anyone else?

People are becoming wicked. Some pseudepigraphic sources suggests this is because the "sons of God," (alternately called "the Watchers" in 1 Enoch) brought knowledge with them to Earth, in a sort of Promethean story. The Lord is so grieved at the sins of humanity that he decides to destroy all life on earth: people, animals, and birds. Well, actually, the sea creatures will still be alive. And Noah, who "found favor in the sight of the Lord" (Gen. 6.8).

Reconstructing the Noah Narratives: Genesis 6.9-9.29

Just as there are two accounts of creation, there are two accounts of the Noah narrative, a J source (Yahwist) and a P source (Priestly). Unlike the creation narrative, which provides two consecutive accounts of creation, the Noah narrative mixes the two stories. Here I will reconstruct the original narratives so that comparisons may easily be made between the two. Check out the passage on oremus Bible Browser by clicking on the passage above or link at the top of this post.

(Gen 6.9-10)

Just like his great grandfather, Enoch, Noah "walked with God." He is righteous and  "blameless in his generation" (Gen. 6.9). He has three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Priestly Narrative

(Gen. 6.11-22)

Seeing the earth is corrupt, God tells Noah that he is going to end all life except for Noah, his family, and some animals. God commands noah to make an ark of cypress, sealed with pitch. It is to measure 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits high (in feet about 450' by 75' by 45'). The ark will be covered by a roof and contain three decks, with a door on the side.

God will "bring a flood of waters on the earth" to destroy all life (Gen. 6.17). But with Noah he will establish a covenant. Noah, his sons, his wife, and his son's wives (listed in biblical order of importance) will be saved if they enter the ark. In addition, Noah is to bring two of every animal and bird onto the ark, as well as plenty of food.

(Gen. 7.6)

Noah was 600 years old when the flood occurred.

(Gen. 7.11)

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened." In this account God undoes his work on the second day of creation, when he separated the waters above from the waters below. It is a return to the primordial chaos.

(Gen. 7.13-16a)

Noah's party enters the ark, along with the animals, "two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life."

(Gen. 7.18-22)

The waters swell, covering mountains fifteen cubits deep. "Everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died."

(Gen. 7.24-8.5)

In another echo of the Priestly account of creation, God makes a wind blow over the earth so that the waters subside. The fountains of the deep and windows of heaven are closed and the waters begin to recede. After one hundred fifty days the waters have abated, "and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on on the mountains of Ararat." (Located in modern day Turkish Kurdistan). On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of mountains appear.

(Gen. 8.13-19)

"In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth." Noah peeks outside, sees that the ground is drying, and waits until the earth is fully dry on the twenty-seventh day of the second month.

God tells Noah to exit the ark: "you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you." In doing so the established order of personages, with an emphasis on men and elders, is upset.

It has been a long time on the ark; the Priestly author has the animals exiting "by families."

(Gen. 9.1-17)

God blesses Noah and his sons, telling them to "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." But things are different now. Animals will be afraid of humans, and represent a new food source. Anything is fair game, but an early form of kosher law is established: humans cannot eat flesh with blood in it. God justifies it thus:

For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life. 

Whoever sheds the blood if a human, by a human shall that person's blood be shed;

for in his own image God made humankind.

And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.

God then establishes the first covenant with all flesh upon the earth - Noah and his ancestors as well as all the animals. The terms of the covenant: never again will God destroy all life in a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. The sign of the covenant: a rainbow.

(Gen. 9.28-29)

Noah lives three hundred fifty years after the flood. He was nine hundred fifty years old at the time of his death.

Yahwist Narrative

(Gen. 7.1-5)

The Lord tells Noah to enter the ark with his household, for he alone is righteous in his generation. Noah is to take with him seven pairs of all clean animals, a pair of all animals that are not clean, and seven pairs of all birds.

God promises that in seven days he will send rains that will last forty days and forty nights.

(Gen. 7.7-10)

Noah and his sons and wife and son's wives enter the ark, along with clean and unclean animals, and birds. These creatures, "two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah." After seven days  the flood begins.

(Gen. 7.12)

"The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights." It is not an undoing of creation, but simply a very lengthy and lethal storm.

(Gen. 7.16b-17)

The Lord shuts Noah in. The flood continues for forty days. The waters increase, and the ark is born high above the earth.

(Gen. 7.23)

Every living thing is blotted out from the earth. Only the party within the ark is left.

(Gen. 8.6-12)

After forty days pass, Noah sends out a raven that flies about until the waters have dried up. Then he sends out a dove. The dove finds no place to land, and returns to the ark. After seven days Noah tries again with the dove. In the evening the dove returns with an olive leaf - indicating that the waters have subsided. After another seven days, Noah sends the dove out again. It does not return.

(Gen. 8.20-22)

Noah builds an altar to the Lord, and makes offering of every clean animal and bird. This is possibly because in the Yahwist narrative he brings seven of all the clean animals. Such action presumably would not be possible in the Priestly narrative.

The smell of the sacrifice pleases the Lord such that he says to himself:

I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil form youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,

summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.

(Gen. 9.18-27)

Shem, Ham, and Japheth exit the ark.

Perhaps in celebration of surviving the worst storm in human history, Noah plants a vineyard, makes some wine, and gets drunk. He passes out naked in his tent and Ham (who the author is eager to indicate is the father of Canaan), sees his father naked and tells his brothers. Shem and Japheth, being very reasonable men, put a blanket on their shoulders, walk backwards into the tent, and cover their father without every seeing him naked or making a fuss about it.

When Noah wakes up he knows what Ham has done and curses not Ham, but Ham's son Canaan: "Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers." He then blesses Shem and Japheth for their honorable actions.

Why curse Canaan? Because he is the forebear of the Canaanites, enemy of the Israelites and anyone else this story was being told to.

Genealogy of Noah: Genesis 10.1-10.32

You know what would make this a lot easier? A family tree. Thanks to the magic of FreeMind, such a representation is possible! Today's genealogy is denoted by burgundy text in a gray cloud.

Many of the names do not represent people so much as peoples. These are the ancestors who gave their names to the groups of people inhabiting the world.

Tomorrow: speaking in tongues and more genealogy.

Genesis 3.1-5.32

The Serpent in the Garden / Cain and Abel / Beginnings of Civilization

The Serpent in the Garden, in Play Form: Genesis 3.1-3.24

[Open on Man and Woman, loafing before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam remains interested in the action, though silent, until he answers God.]

[Enter Serpent, the craftiest animal in the garden.]

Serpent: Did got tell you not to eat of any tree in the garden?

Woman: We can eat pretty much whatever we want. But God said, "Do not eat the fruit of that tree in the middle of the garden - in fact, don't even touch it - because you will die."

[In fact, this is not entirely true. For irony, display a flashback sequence of God speaking to Man before Woman is created: "Eat the fruit of any tree you wish, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you do that you will die."]

Serpent: You won't die! It will open your eyes! God just doesn't want you to be like him, knowing good and evil.

Eve: Well the fruit seems edible and looks delightful and if it makes me wise...

[Woman takes the fruit and eats. She gives some to Man, who also eats. They look each other up and down, both seeing for the first time each other's nakedness.]

[Exit Woman, stage right. Exit Man, stage left.]

[Enter Woman in fig leaves, stage right. Enter Man in fig leaves, stage left.]

[Sound of whistling. Woman and Man give each other a nervous glance and hide behind the tree. Enter God, from audience.]

God: Hey Man, where are you"

Man: I heard you coming, and I didn't want you to see me naked, so I hid myself.

God: Who told you you're naked? [Thinks] Did you eat of the tree I told you not to?

Man: [Points at Woman] It's her fault!

God: [To Woman] What have you done!

Woman: [Points at Serpent] He tricked me!

God: Curses all around! [To Serpent] You bastard! You will now be cursed to crawl on your belly and eat dust. You will try to bite heels and be stepped on. [To Woman]  For the pain you've been to me, I'm making childbirth painful for you. Also, you shall desire your husband and he will rule over you. [To Man] Fie on you for listening to your wife and eating that fruit! Because of you the ground will be cursed. You will have to work for your food, weeding and plowing and sweating until you return to the dust you come from!

[Exit God and Serpent, to opposite wings. Man and Woman stand sheepishly looking around the garden.]

Man: [Using his newfound power] So, uh, your name is Eve now, since the Hebrew word eve resembles the word for living.

[Enter God (presumably with his court of angels), bearing garments of animal skins. Man and Eve put on the clothing]

God: This man is like us now, knowing good and evil. Now he might eat of the tree of life, and live forever. [Turning to Man] You are banished forever from Eden! Go till the ground until you turn to dust yourself!

[Exit Man]

God: You! Cherubim! Get your flaming sword and go to the east of the garden, that you may guard the way to the tree of life.

[Exit God (presumably with his court of angels)]

[Lights fade on Eve, lamenting her new position, and wondering why the story did not explicitly have her expelled from the garden as well.]

Cain and Abel: Genesis 4.1-4.16

The first family cannot escape wordplay. Adam (man, punning on dust) and Eve (woman, punning on man) have a child that Eve names Cain (punning on produced, because Eve produced him with the help of the Lord). Cain tills the cursed ground and his younger brother Abel keeps sheep. 

The brothers decide to bring a sacrifice to the Lord. Cain brings fruit, and Abel brings the firstlings of his flock. For some reason, perhaps because Abel brings the first of his production, the Lord favors Abel's offering. When the Lord sees Cain is disappointed, he admonishes, "Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it" (Gen. 4.6-7).

Then comes something "found" in translation. Genesis 4.8 in the Latin Vulgate and Greek translations, as well as the NRSV reads, "Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let us go out to the field'." In the Jewish canonical Masoretic text, however, the verse simply reads, "Cain said to his brother Abel." What Cain says here is anyone's guess. For some ancient readers it was a suggestion to go to the field. In any case, something is missing, and there is a long tradition in Judaism of trying to fill in that blank.

Immediately after these words, Cain kills his brother. The Lord asks where Abel is, to which Cain retorts, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen. 4.9). The Lord knew all along, however, and admonishes Cain for his actions: "What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth" (Gen. 4.10-12). The ground is now doubly cursed from the actions of Adam and Cain. When Cain laments that he will be killed as a fugitive, the Lord puts a mark on him, so that anyone who kills him will suffer a sevenfold vengeance. Cain then leaves and settles in Nod (meaning wandering), east of Eden.

Notes

Linguistically the brothers' names mean metalworker (Cain) and emptiness (Abel). From the Harper Collins Study Bible on Gen. 4.1-2: "In many traditional societies metalworkers belong to marginal ethnic groups and are looked upon with suspicion and disdain." Hence Cain's actions. Abel's name is also fitting with regards to his fate.

Beginnings of Civilization: Genesis 4.17-5.32

Following Cain's flight to Nod are two genealogies of Adam. Below I have constructed a visual representation of the decidedly patriarchal lineage.

Genealogy 1

This genealogy shows the cursed Cain's descendants getting into such trades as construction, tending livestock, music, and of course metalwork. But the line still bears the mark of Cain, and still has a penchant for murder. Lamech poetically proclaims to his wives:

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;

     you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:

I have killed a man for wounding me,

     a young man for striking me.

If Cain is avenged sevenfold,

     truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.

(Gen. 4.23-24)

Good thing Adam and his wife have another son, Seth, who God appoints for Eve instead of Abel. In classic first family fashion, Seth puns on the Hebrew word for appoint. Seth has a son, Enosh, and around this time there is a devout line, and people begin to worship God, or "invoke the name of the Lord" (Gen. 4.26).

Genealogy 2

The second genealogy, a P-source insertion into the story, begins with a recap of the creation of humans, quoting Genesis 1: "This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind, (adam) he made them in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them "Humankind" (adam) when they were created" (Gen. 5.1-2).

Each explanation follows a specific formula: "When _A_ had lived _B_ years, he became the father of _C_. _A_ lived after the birth of _C_ _D_ years, and had other sons and daughters.Thus all the years of _A_ were _E_ and he died."

There is one exception: Enoch, whose years number 365. "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him" (Gen. 5.24). Wait. what does that mean? Noah "walked with God" (Gen. 6.9) as well, but whether this is a physical walk or more metaphorical indication of belief is unclear. And if you are taken by God, do you die? And why is Enoch so special?

There are extra-biblical stories, part of the Pseudepigrapha ("false writings") concerning Enoch. The fact that he does not die, but that he walks with God and is taken by God, leads to accounts of him as a heavenly scribe and intellectual. Not surprisingly, the pseudepigraphic book Jubilees uses Enoch's life of 365 years to argue for a solar year of 365 days, rather than the lunar year in vogue at the time.

Then there is Noah, with his three sons. Look for his story tomorrow.