Showing posts with label Genesis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genesis. Show all posts
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Monday, September 29, 2008
GENESIS (3) Week of 7-14 October 2008
GENESIS: 7 October 2008
16:1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a handmaid, an Egyptian named Hagar. 16:2 Sarai said to Abram, “See now, Yahweh [the LORD] has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my handmaid. It may be that I will obtain children by her.” 16:4 Abram went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. 16:5 Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you.”The basic drama of GENESIS is "beginning." This involves BIRTH. So the stories are all related to birth and, beyond that, to the "promise" God gives Abraham that he will be father of many. How will this promise be fulfilled if Sarah (now called Sarai) is sterile and old too? And Abraham is also old. The point of the Bible is God is in control, not our bodies.
16:15 Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16:16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be blameless. 17:4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations. 17:5 Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
Already the universal motif has been introduced; but it's implicit from the beginning. That is, ALL NATIONS are under God, not just the Jews. In fact, the Jewish covenant does not begin until the third Covenant, though it's hinted at in the Abrahamic Covenant, since already the Jewish ritual of circumcision is required. Even this rite suggests birth, since it involves the male organ involved in birth. So Genesis is very much a drama of birth. And these births are mainly miracles. Finally, this theme of miracle births continues in the New Testament, in the birth of Jesus.
17:10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. 17:11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you. 17:12 He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations.”
Note, circumcision is not restricted to Jews. But the difference is in other cultures circumcision is usually a puberty rite as the male child reaches young adulthood. Here circumcision is done at birth; probably to emphasize that all births come from God, not from man. Regardless, circumcision becomes an enduring part of the Jewish religion, finally rejected by the first Jewish Christians.
As for the change of names, this is common when there's a major change of life. Even today, a young writer may change her name; movie stars change their names. Children known as Ricky request to be called Rick instead, as a sign of maturity. Most scholars don't see much difference between the names Sarah and Sarai, both of which mean "princess." "Abraham" means father of many nations.
17:15 God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name will be Sarah."
17:17 Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?” 17:18 Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
17:19 God said, “No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.”
17:23 Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money; every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the same day, as God had said to him.
Note Abraham's perfect faith and perfect obedience. Hence he becomes a model of faith for St. Paul in the New Testament.
17:24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
18:1 Yahweh appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. 18:2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him.
18:16 The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way. 18:17 Yahweh said, “Will I hide from Abraham what I do, 18:18 since Abraham has surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him? 18:19 For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him.” 18:20 Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, 18:21 I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”
Here we are introduced to the famous story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the twin evil cities destroyed by fire and brimstone for sin. Today the sin is commonly thought of as sex; but later prophets suggest it was pride. Needless to say, Hollywood found in this story possibilities for entertainment. Note the emphasis on justice above and below. It's possible that God put the idea into Abraham's head to fight for justice in 18:19, when God asks Abraham "to do righteousness and justice." What follows is a brilliant bargaining scene with God. The "three men" are images of God; perhaps of God's perfection (3=perfection); though one of them is actually identified with God. This is all "anthropomorphic" of course. That is, it's the only way for humans to speak of God. Note this is a J text, with emphasis on God with human traits. For example, God must "find out" whether something is true or not; but of course God would KNOW, without having to find out.
18:22 The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh. 18:23 Abraham drew near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? 18:24 What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it? 18:25 Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
18:26 Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake.”
18:32 He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?”
He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”
19:1 The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. 19:3 He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. 19:5 They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
19:6 Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him. 19:7 He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. 19:8 See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
One of the more shocking scenes in the Bible. Not knowing these "men" are angels (in fact, God himself) the men of the city want to have homosexual relations with them. This is a serious violation of the code of hospitality in cultures of that time. Yet Lot's offering his two daughters (and tempting the men by calling them "virgins") is no better. Perhaps Lot is punished when his two daughters force sex on him in a later scene.
19:9 They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door. 19:10 But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. 19:11 They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
19:15 When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” 19:17 It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, or you'll die in the fire!”
19:24 Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. 19:26 But Lot's wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
This is an etiological story explaining mounds of salt that resemble a woman. It's also related to other stories where people look back and ruin their hopes. Jesus may be referring to this story when he says that anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Looking back suggests one is of two minds: past and future. One can't change like this. As Jesus says, you cannot serve God and Mammon (money). Abraham became a model of faith for St. Paul because he never looked back once God told him to do something. Note that the Sodom and Gomorrah story may be another type of Flood story, or may derive from a model of this type. Because apparently there are nobody on earth left for the daughters to make children with:
19:30 Lot lived in a cave with his two daughters. 19:31 The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. 19:32 Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s seed.” 19:33 They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose. 19:34 It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s seed.” Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father. 19:37 The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 19:38 The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.
Another etiological tale that explains both the corruption and enmity of two of Israel's enemy countries: Moab and Ammon.
21:5 Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him. 21:6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 21:7 She said, “Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”
22:1 It happened after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”
He said, “Here I am.”
22:2 He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”
This is called the Aquedah in Jewish literature, meaning the "binding": a more accurate word than the "sacrifice," as it's known in Christian literature. Note how the writer emphasizes Abraham's loss of his "son, his only son, whom he loves"! So Isaac too becomes a type of Jesus, God's "only son." (Earlier the writer emphasized Abram's leaving home in the same triplet formula: leave home, father, country. The dialogue below is brilliant in its suggestion of Isaac's slow realization of what's happening:
22:6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together. 22:7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, “My father?”
He said, “Here I am, my son.”
He said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
22:8 Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together. 22:9 They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood. 22:10 Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.
22:11 The angel of Yahweh called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
He said, “Here I am.”
22:12 He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
Again we get the formula, "your son, your only son." This becomes a model of perfect faith. The Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard wrote an entire short book on the binding called Fear and Trembling. Bear in mind, not only a son is at stake; but God's promise; for without the son how could the promise be fulfilled? And if the promise is not fulfilled, then God is a liar; not God. So this becomes a model of perfect faith, beyond human norms of conduct, as Kierkegaard wrote. Of course, this can lead to abuse too, if someone THINKS he's following God's command. Nothing in the Bible can be used indiscriminately (without some kind of judgment). Note that these are etiological stories too (naming the mountain):
22:13 Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 22:14 Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Will Provide. As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be provided.”
22:15 The angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time out of the sky, 22:16 and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 22:17 that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies. 22:18 In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Note the theme of universalism again ("all the nations of the earth [will] be blessed). This theme is omitted after the Sinai Covenant with the Jewish nation as a whole but is revived in the later prophets. By the time of St. Paul in the New Testament, the Sinai Covenant is ignored in favor of the Abrahamic Covenant with all peoples. It's possible Jesus' entire mission may symbolically encapsulate (sum up) this change; first Jesus ignores the gentiles (non-Jews) then he and his apostles turn their attention to the gentiles instead, when the Jews reject Jesus' message.
24:1 Abraham was old, and well stricken in age. Yahweh had blessed Abraham in all things. 24:2 Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please put your hand under my thigh. 24:3 I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live. 24:4 But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
25:20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife. 25:21 Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 25:22 The children struggled together within her. She said, “If it be so, why do I live?” She went to inquire of Yahweh. 25:23 Yahweh said to her,
Another etiological tale, explaining the rivalry between Israel (Jacob) and Edom (Esau), sibling children of Isaac.
“Two nations are in your womb.
Two peoples will be separated from your body.
The one people will be stronger than the other people.
The elder will serve the younger.”
25:24 When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25:25 The first came out red all over, like a hairy garment. They named him Esau. 25:26 After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
25:27 The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 25:28 Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob. 25:29 Jacob boiled stew. Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 25:30 Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom.
The story of Esau selling his birthright to feed his belly became a cautionary tale of how to lose advantage by giving in to one's momentary appetites:
25:31 Jacob said, “First, sell me your birthright.”
25:32 Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”
25:33 Jacob said, “Swear to me first.”
He swore to him. He sold his birthright to Jacob.
25:34 Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils. He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.
27:1 It happened, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?”
He said to him, “Here I am.”
27:2 He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death. 27:3 Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison. 27:4 Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”
27:5 Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 27:6 Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, 27:7 ‘Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, and bless you before Yahweh before my death.’ 27:8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you. 27:9 Go now to the flock, and get me from there two good young goats. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves. 27:10 You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”
27:11 Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 27:12 What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”
27:13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”
27:14 He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved. 27:15 Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. 27:16 She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck. 27:17 She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
This is like a contemporary TV sitcom of a dysfunctional family. There's humor here too. Note, like father like son: the father has the same hunger for food as his son showed when giving up his birthright.
27:18 He came to his father, and said, “My father?”
He said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
27:19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.”
27:20 Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”
He said, “Because Yahweh your God gave me success.”
Note that "Yahweh" is still called "your God" by Jacob; as if Jacob worshiped another God.
27:21 Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
27:22 Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 27:23 He didn’t recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. 27:24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?”
He said, “I am.”
27:25 He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless you.”
He brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank.
27:26 His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.” 27:27 He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said,
“Behold, the smell of my son
is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed.
27:28 God give you of the dew of the sky,
of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and new wine.
27:29 Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers.
Let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you.
Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”
Apparently a blessing, once spoken, could not be undone, even though it was given by deception.
27:30 It happened, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 27:31 He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that your soul may bless me.”
27:32 Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?”
He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
27:33 Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed.”
27:34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.”
27:35 He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.”
27:36 He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”
27:37 Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?”
27:38 Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.” Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
27:39 Isaac his father answered him,
“Behold, of the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling,
and of the dew of the sky from above.
27:40 By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother.
It will happen, when you will break loose,
that you shall shake his yoke from off your neck.”
27:41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
27:42 The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 27:43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran. 27:44 Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away.”
28:10 Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. 28:11 He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. 28:12 He dreamed. Behold, a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 28:13 Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed. 28:15 Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.”
28:16 Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.” 28:17 He was afraid, and said, “How dreadful is this place! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Bethel means "house of God" (beth=house, el=God; as in the Arabic, Allah too). Bethlehem means "house of bread." "El" is common in many Hebrew names (Michael, Rafael, Gabriel), because one wants the name "God" in the child's name. Yahweh (another name for God, or Lord) appears, in shortened form, in many names too, in the "iah" ending of many names such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Josiah, etc.
28:18 Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top. 28:19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
29:19 Laban said [to Jacob], “It is better that I give [his daughter, Rachel] to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.”
29:20 Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.
29:21 Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.”
29:22 Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. 29:23 It happened in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her. 29:25 It happened in the morning that, behold, it was Leah. He said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Didn’t I serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”
Note that the deceiver is himself deceived; the position of children is stressed by Laban: "It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn," as indeed Jacob replaced the firstborn by trickery!
29:26 Laban said, “It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn. 29:27 Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me yet seven other years.”
29:28 Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife. 29:30 He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
After many years, Jacob decides to return to Canaan.
31:17 Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, 31:18 and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.
32:22 He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok. 32:23 He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. 32:24 Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the break of day. 32:25 When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled. 32:26 The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.”
Jacob said, “I won’t let you go, unless you bless me.”
32:27 He said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
32:28 He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
This is another famous story. Jacob wrestles with what may be an angel or God himself. The match causes a life change in Jacob, symbolized by his permanent limp and his name change. Psychologically, it can be seen as a struggle within himself that produces a change of life. There is also some suggestion of a vampire myth here, since the angel must escape before daylight.
The following 12 sons of Jacob with his two wives (Leah and Rachel, and their two maids) become the 12 tribes of Israel (Jacob is also called Israel), which will later become the foundation of the Israelite nation. In turn, Jesus models his 12 apostles on these 12 tribes, thus forming a New Israel.
35:22 Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
35:23 The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 35:24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 35:25 The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s handmaid): Dan and Naphtali. 35:26 The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s handmaid): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram. 35:27 Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.
37:1 Jacob lived in the land of his father’s travels, in the land of Canaan.
37:2 This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father. 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. 37:4 His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and couldn’t speak peaceably to him.
The story of Joseph and his brothers is another very famous story. Indeed, it became the basis of a famous musical by Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Here we get another image of a "dysfunctional" family of sibling rivalry. Joseph is not exactly a model of perfect behavior, but note that his dreams come true. And, like the philosopher Rene Girard points out, Joseph's innocence is clearly stated in the story, despite the fact that his brothers plan to murder him. This is a basic motif in the Bible according to Girard: defending the victim. Jesus becomes the perfect example of this: the innocent who is killed as if he were guilty. This story of Joseph ranks among the earlier perfect short stories in world literature.
37:5 Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him all the more. 37:6 He said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: 37:7 for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves came around, and bowed down to my sheaf.”
37:8 His brothers said to him, “Will you indeed reign over us? Or will you indeed have dominion over us?” They hated him all the more for his dreams and for his words. 37:9 He dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me.” 37:10 He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father rebuked him, and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves down to you to the earth?” 37:11 His brothers envied him, but his father kept this saying in mind.
37:12 His brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. 37:13 Israel [that is, Jacob] said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” He said to him, “Here I am.”
37:14 He said to him, “Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again.”
Joseph went after his brothers, and found them in Dothan.
37:18 They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. 37:19 They said one to another, “Behold, this dreamer comes. 37:20 Come now therefore, and let’s kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.”
37:21 Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, “Let’s not take his life.” 37:22 Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father. 37:23 It happened, when Joseph came to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him; 37:24 and they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it.
Note how cold-hearted the brothers seem to be, eating bread after abusing their brother!
37:25 They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. 37:26 Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 37:27 Come, and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him. 37:28 Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They brought Joseph into Egypt.
The pit can be symbolic here: Joseph goes down under (as if dead) then rises from the dead to command Egypt.
37:29 Reuben returned to the pit; and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit; and he tore his clothes. 37:30 He returned to his brothers, and said, “The child is no more; and I, where will I go?” 37:31 They took Joseph’s coat, and killed a male goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. 37:32 They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, “We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your son’s coat or not.”
Note again, the deceiver (Jacob/Israel) is deceived in the same way he deceived his aged father to steal Esau's blessing!
37:33 He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s coat. An evil animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces.” 37:34 Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. 37:35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
37:36 The Midianites sold Joseph into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard.
39:1 Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites that had brought him down there. 39:2 Yahweh was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 39:3 His master saw that Yahweh was with him, and that Yahweh made all that he did prosper in his hand. 39:4 Joseph found favor in his sight. He ministered to him, and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. 39:5 It happened from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that Yahweh blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of Yahweh was on all that he had, in the house and in the field. 39:6 He left all that he had in Joseph’s hand. He didn’t concern himself with anything, except for the food which he ate.
Joseph was well-built and handsome.
39:7 It happened after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph; and she said, “Lie with me.”
39:8 But he refused, and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, my master doesn’t know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand. 39:9 He isn’t greater in this house than I, neither has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
39:10 As she spoke to Joseph day by day, he didn’t listen to her, to lie by her, or to be with her. 39:11 About this time, he went into the house to do his work, and there were none of the men of the house inside. 39:12 She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!”
He left his garment in her hand, and ran outside.
39:13 When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and had run outside, 39:14 she called to the men of her house, and spoke to them, saying, “Behold, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. 39:15 It happened, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and ran outside.” 39:16 She laid up his garment by her, until his master came home. 39:17 She spoke to him according to these words, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought to us, came in to me to mock me, 39:18 and it happened, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and ran outside.”
39:19 It happened, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, “This is what your servant did to me,” that his wrath was kindled. 39:20 Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were bound, and he was there in custody. 39:21 But Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
41:1 It happened at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and behold, he stood by the river. 41:2 Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, sleek and fat, and they fed in the marsh grass. 41:3 Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ugly and thin, and stood by the other cattle on the brink of the river. 41:4 The ugly and thin cattle ate up the seven sleek and fat cattle. So Pharaoh awoke. 41:5 He slept and dreamed a second time: and behold, seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, healthy and good. 41:6 Behold, seven heads of grain, thin and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them. 41:7 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy and full ears. Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. 41:8 It happened in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all of Egypt’s magicians and wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
41:14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. He shaved himself, changed his clothing, and came in to Pharaoh. 41:15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
41:16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It isn’t in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
41:25 Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh. 41:26 The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. The dream is one. 41:27 The seven thin and ugly cattle that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty heads of grain blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine. 41:28 That is the thing which I spoke to Pharaoh. What God is about to do he has shown to Pharaoh. 41:29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. 41:30 There will arise after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, 41:31 and the plenty will not be known in the land by reason of that famine which follows; for it will be very grievous. 41:32 The dream was doubled to Pharaoh, because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
41:33 “Now therefore let Pharaoh look for a discreet and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. 41:34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt’s produce in the seven plenteous years. 41:35 Let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. 41:36 The food will be for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which will be in the land of Egypt; that the land not perish through the famine.”
41:37 The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants. 41:38 Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” 41:39 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has shown you all of this, there is none so discreet and wise as you. 41:40 You shall be over my house, and according to your word will all my people be ruled. Only in the throne I will be greater than you.” 41:41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” 41:42 Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck, 41:43 and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had. They cried before him, “Bow the knee!” He set him over all the land of Egypt. 41:44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without you shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.” 41:45 Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-Paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On as a wife. Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.
41:46 Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. 41:47 In the seven plenteous years the earth produced abundantly. 41:48 He gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was around every city, he laid up in the same. 41:49 Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number. 41:50 To Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him. 41:51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.” 41:52 The name of the second, he called Ephraim: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
41:53 The seven years of plenty, that were in the land of Egypt, came to an end. 41:54 The seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. 41:56 The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the store houses, and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land of Egypt. 41:57 All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth.
42:1 Now Jacob saw there was grain in Egypt, and said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 42:2 He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.” 42:3 Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 42:4 But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.” 42:5 The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 42:6 Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth. 42:7 Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, “Where did you come from?”
Note that Joseph's dream has come true! His brothers bow down to him!
They said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”
42:8 Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn’t recognize him. 42:9 Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
42:10 They said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. 42:11 We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies.”
42:13 They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more.”
42:14 Joseph said to them, “It is like I told you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ 42:15 By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here, unless your youngest brother comes here. 42:16 Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies.” 42:17 He put them all together into custody for three days.
42:18 Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this, and live, for I fear God. 42:19 If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses. 42:20 Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won’t die.”
They did so.
Note how the brothers begin to change their hearts:
42:21 They said one to another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.” 42:22 Reuben answered them, saying, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘Don’t sin against the child,’ and you wouldn’t listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required.” 42:23 They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them. 42:24 He turned himself away from them, and wept. Then he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes. 42:25 Then Joseph gave a command to fill their bags with grain, and to restore each man’s money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it was done to them.
42:26 They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there. 42:27 As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. 42:28 He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” 42:29 They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them.”
42:35 It happened as they emptied their sacks, that behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 42:36 Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”
42:37 Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”
43:11 Their father, Israel, said to them, “If it must be so, then do this. Take from the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry down a present for the man, a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts, and almonds; 43:12 and take double money in your hand, and take back the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. 43:13 Take your brother also, get up, and return to the man. 43:14 May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”
43:15 The men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin; and got up, went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. 43:16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and butcher an animal, and prepare; for the men will dine with me at noon.”
43:17 The man did as Joseph commanded, and the man brought the men to Joseph’s house. 43:18 The men were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph’s house; and they said, “Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time, we’re brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, attack us, and seize us as slaves, along with our donkeys.” 43:19 They came near to the steward of Joseph’s house, and they spoke to him at the door of the house, 43:20 and said, “Oh, my lord, we indeed came down the first time to buy food. 43:21 When we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks, and behold, each man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. We have brought it back in our hand. 43:22 We have brought down other money in our hand to buy food. We don’t know who put our money in our sacks.”
43:23 He said, “Peace be to you. Don’t be afraid. Your God, and the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks. I received your money.” He brought Simeon out to them. 43:24 The man brought the men into Joseph’s house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet. He gave their donkeys fodder. 43:25 They prepared the present for Joseph’s coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.
43:26 When Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves down to him to the earth. 43:27 He asked them of their welfare, and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he yet alive?”
43:28 They said, “Your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive.” They bowed down humbly. 43:29 He lifted up his eyes, and saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me?” He said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” 43:30 Joseph hurried, for his heart yearned over his brother; and he sought a place to weep. He entered into his room, and wept there. 43:31 He washed his face, and came out. He controlled himself, and said, “Serve the meal.”
This short story is a masterpiece of the genre and the first complete story in the Bible. Characters are vividly drawn and they change over time. The theme of betrayal and forgiveness is clear; the innocence of the victim is clearly stated. Details are powerful, as the detail just above of Joseph weeping then washing the tears off his face.
44:1 He commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in his sack’s mouth. 44:2 Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, with his grain money.” He did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. 44:3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. 44:4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, ask them, ‘Why have you rewarded evil for good? 44:5 Isn’t this that from which my lord drinks, and by which he indeed divines? You have done evil in so doing.’” 44:6 He overtook them, and he spoke these words to them.
44:7 They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing! 44:8 Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks’ mouths, we brought again to you out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold out of your lord’s house? 44:9 With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s bondservants.”
44:10 He said, “Now also let it be according to your words: he with whom it is found will be my bondservant; and you will be blameless.”
44:11 Then they hurried, and each man took his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack. 44:12 He searched, beginning with the eldest, and ending at the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 44:13 Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey, and returned to the city.
44:14 Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him. 44:15 Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Don’t you know that such a man as I can indeed divine?”
44:16 Judah said, “What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? Or how will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord’s bondservants, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found.”
44:17 He said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my bondservant; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
Now Judah tries to protect Benjamin. Note how Judah has developed from a selfish child willing to kill his brother to a child considerate of others:
44:30 “When I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; since his life is bound up in the boy’s life; 44:31 it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol. 44:32 For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’ 44:33 Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, a bondservant to my lord; and let the boy go up with his brothers. 44:34 For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn’t with me?—lest I see the evil that will come on my father.”
45:1 Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he cried, “Cause everyone to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 45:2 He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard. 45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Does my father still live?”
His brothers couldn’t answer him; for they were terrified at his presence.
45:4 Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.”
They came near. “He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
45:5 Now don’t be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 45:8 So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 45:9 Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says, “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don’t wait. 45:10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children’s children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.” 45:14 He fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. 45:15 He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them.
47:11 Joseph placed his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 47:12 Joseph nourished his father, his brothers, and all of his father’s household, with bread, according to their families.
48:1 It happened after these things, that someone said to Joseph, “Behold, your father is sick.” He took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
48:13 Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near to him. 48:14 Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. 48:15 He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, 48:16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
48:17 When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. He held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 48:18 Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
Note in the Bible the younger child is always chosen! This again puts God's choice above mere biology.
48:19 His father refused, and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations.”
49:1 Jacob called to his sons, and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.
49:9 Judah is a lion’s cub.
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down, he crouched as a lion,
as a lioness.
Who will rouse him up?
49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs.
To him will the obedience of the peoples be.
49:11 Binding his foal to the vine,
his donkey’s colt to the choice vine;
he has washed his garments in wine,
his robes in the blood of grapes.
49:33 When Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.
50:1 Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him. 50:2 Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel. 50:3 Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.
50:15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him.” 50:16 They sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father commanded before he died, saying, 50:17 ‘You shall tell Joseph, “Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 50:18 His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 50:19 Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive. 50:21 Now therefore don’t be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones.” He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.
Note that the motif of sibling rivalry ends happily. Joseph's forgiveness ends the cycle of revenge, a theme later taken up by Jesus.
50:22 Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father’s house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years. 50:23 Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees. 50:24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 50:25 Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 50:26 So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
GENESIS: Songs for Week of 30 September 2008
BIBLE SONGS: GENESIS
WEEK OF 30 SEPTEMBER 2008
WEEK OF 30 SEPTEMBER 2008
NOAH
The Bible has been a source of humor as well as wisdom. This is a comic song based on the story of Noah. It was recorded for the movie, Casablanca, but omitted. Old Noah, what did he do? He built the floating zoo of camels and mammals and all kind of animals. That's what Noah done. He rescued two of a kind and had his boat designed for muskrats and polecats and bulldogs and alleycats.
Who done that? Noah? Who done that? Noah. Who done that? Noah. That's what Noah done.
There was no nothing in sight for 40 days and nights. So Noah, Noah just took a row about. That's what Noah done.
Who done that? Noah. Who done that? Noah. Who done that? Noah. That's what Noah done.
There was no nothing in sight for 40 days and nights. So Noah, Noah just took a row about. That's what Noah done.
ON THE WINGS OF A DOVE
This song was a pop hit in the 1950s. The dove is a symbol in both the Old and New Testaments. For Christians, the Dove is the Holy Spirit.
On the wings of a snow-white dove, he sends his pure, sweet love. A sign from above on the wings of a dove. When troubles surround us, when evils come: the body grows weak, the spirit grows numb. When these things beset us, he doesn't forget us: he sends down his love on the wings of a dove. On the wings of a snow-white dove, he sends his pure, sweet love. A sign from above on the wings of a dove.This song was a pop hit in the 1950s. The dove is a symbol in both the Old and New Testaments. For Christians, the Dove is the Holy Spirit.
When Noah had drifted on the flood many days, he searched for land in various ways. Troubles, he had some, but wasn't forgotten. He sent him his love on the wings of a dove.
On the wings of a snow-white dove, he sends his pure sweet love. A sign from above on the wings of a dove.
On the wings of a snow-white dove, He sends his pure, sweet love. A sign from above on the wings of a dove, on the wings of a dove, on the wings of a dove.
DIDN'T IT RAIN?
Black Gospel. This song refers to the Flood in Genesis:
Didn't it rain, children? It rained all night long! O my Lord didn't it rain? Tell me didn't it rain, children? It rained all night long! You know it did! I said it did now! Well it rained 40 days and it rained 40 nights. There wasn't no land nowhere in sight. God sent a raven to spread the news. Bird spread his wings and away he flew. To the east, to the west, to the north, to the south. All day all night! Listen to the rain! In the north, in the south, in the east, it rained in the west!Black Gospel. This song refers to the Flood in Genesis:
Listen to that rain, yeah!
Tell me didn't it rain, children? It rained all night long! You know it did! I say it did now! O my lord didn't it rain Didn't it rain children? It rained all night long! Tell me, I want to hear it? Well it rained 40 days ad 40 nights without stopping. Noah got worried when the rain kept a-dropping!
Sent out a raven, sent out a dove The waters from God came down from above. Calling my God when it started to rain. The women and the children began to scream.
They knocked on the windows and they rattled on the door. Cried, "Ooh, Noah, take on more!"
Noah, said, "No, no, my friends! God got to keep that number in!" Father Noah!
Oh, God's going to ride on that raven, child!
Tell me didn't it rain children? Listen to the rain! (repeat) You'd better get ready and bear ths in mind. God told Noah, the rain this time. It won't be water, the fire next time.* Talk about rain, in the east and in the west! It's going to rain, you'd better get ready. Talk about rain! Listen to the rain! Drip-drop! Tell me didn't it rain, children? All night long! Didn't it rain?
*[B]by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are set apart for fire, on the day of judgment of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:5f.)
GOD PUT A RAINBOW IN THE CLOUDS
This Black Gospel song refers to the Noachide Covenant, the first of 4 covenants in the Old Testament, between God and his people. The rainbow is a sign of that covenant. This is what is called an "etiological story": a story that explains a common event (rainbows appear after a rainstorm).
When God shut Noah in the grand old ark, God put a rainbow in the cloud! When the thunders rolled and the clouds were dark, God put a rainbow in the cloud! Well, I say, God he put a rainbow in the cloudThis Black Gospel song refers to the Noachide Covenant, the first of 4 covenants in the Old Testament, between God and his people. The rainbow is a sign of that covenant. This is what is called an "etiological story": a story that explains a common event (rainbows appear after a rainstorm).
Well, God he put the rainbow in the cloud! Well, when it looked like the sun wasn't going to shine anymore Well, I say, God he put the rainbow in the cloud!
As a sign by day, and a sign by night, God he put the rainbow in the cloud Well, to lead and to guide his children right
God he put a rainbow in the cloud!
Well, I know it, God he put a rainbow in the cloud Yeah, God he put the rainbow in the cloud Well, when it looked like the sun wasn't going to shine anymore.
Well, I know it, God put the rainbow in the cloud Well, I know it, God he put the rainbow in the cloud Well God he put the rainbow in the cloud! Now when it looked like the sun wouldn't shine anymore. Well I know that God put a rainbow in the cloud!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
PLEASE BRING TO CLASS on Tuesday 23 September 2008
Week of 23 September 2008
Farther Along
The story is told of a young man who was preparing for a long trip. He told his friend,
"I am just about packed. I only have to put in a guidebook, a mirror, a microscope, a lamp, a telescope, a volume of fine poetry, a package of old letters, a few biographies, a book of songs, a sword, a hammer, and a set of books I've been studying."
"But you can't get all that into your bag," said his friend.
"Oh yes I can," he replied It doesn't take much room."
With that, he placed his Bible in the corner of his suitcase and closed the lid.
The value of the Bible to many people is explained in this spoken prologue to a Gospel song, above: The Bible is a guidebook; it guides the believer on conduct in daily life.
It's a mirror where the believer see himself or herself.
It's a "microscope" and "telescope" because the Bible shows us the smallest and the biggest things. Jesus compared himself to a "lamp" and "the light of the worl."
The Bible is "fine poetry." The "letters" are the letters (mostly by Paul) in the New Testament.
There are biographies in the Bible. These are the four "Gospels" of the life of Jesus in the New Testament. The songs are the psalms, the most popular book in the Bible.
The sword is the sharp blade that cuts right from wrong.
Jesus was a carpenter (or the son of one). Hammers are used to build a strong foundation.
Finally, the "books" are the books of the Bible.
IN THE BEGINNING
Three versions of the most famous opening in Western literature: the incipit (beginning) of Genesis. The first is a spoken version with musical accompaniment (also available in our library, without music). The second is a setting for chorus by the American composer, Aaron Copland. The final version has only the first line and is from the Austrian composer, Haydn's THE CREATION. Note how Haydn makes the word "light" stand out in his setting.In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said let there be light and there was light. And God said let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light that it ws good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
WEDLOCK
In this ballad, a text from Genesis is used to argue that woman should neither control man nor be abused by man:When Adam was created, he dwelt in Eden's shade (as Moses has related) before a bride was made. Ten thousand times ten thousand things wheeled all around, before a bride was formed, or yet a mate was found. He had no consolation but seemed as one alone. Till, to his admiration he found he'd lost a bone. Great was his exultation to see her by his side. Great was his elevation to have a loving bride.
This woman was not taken from Adam's head, we know: and she must not rule o'er him, it's evidently so. This woman she was taken from near to Adam's heart, by which we are directed that they should never part.
Jesus Christ, The Apple TreeThis woman was not taken from Adam's head, we know: and she must not rule o'er him, it's evidently so. This woman she was taken from near to Adam's heart, by which we are directed that they should never part.
The new student of the Bible will learn that the Jewish Bible, at one time the only Bible, was later taken by Christians as the first Testament before Jesus. Thereafter it became known as the "Old Testament"; while the Testament about Jesus became the "New Testament." Moreover, Christians read many verses in the Old Testament as in some way foretelling Jesus or events in Jesus' life. This is called a typological reading. Objects or persons in the Old Testament are "types" of Jesus or the Christian experience. In this reading, for example, the famous Tree in Eden which brought death into the world due to Adam's sin, now brings life through the cross, as in this song. Note that Jesus' tree is always green and with fruit.
HERE IN EDEN
(Eve)
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
(The snake)
Listen closely let me fill you in about the rich ripe round red rosy apples they call forbidden fruit, what I'm about to say is confidential so promise you'll be mute, because if every creature in the garden knows, they'll come round like hungry buffalos and in no time there'll be none of those precious apples left for you and me. Now in the average apple you're accustomed to skins, seeds, flesh and core. But you will find that these are special apples that give you something more. Why every seed contains some information that you need to speed your education, the seeds indeed of all creation are here. Why be foolish, my dear? Come with me to that tree. (The snake)
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Week of 23 September 2008
BIBLE
Week of 30 September 2008
THE FIRST MURDER
Week of 30 September 2008
THE FIRST MURDER
4:1 The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.” 4:2 Again she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 4:3 As time passed, it happened that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground. 4:4 Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. Yahweh respected Abel and his offering, 4:5 but he didn’t respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell. 4:6 Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen? 4:7 If you do well, will it not be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.” 4:8 Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” It happened when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.
The Bible writes about "dysfunctional families" from the beginning. Notice the first child is a murderer; the cause is envy. This kind of competing against one's neighbor, leading to sad results, cointinues. The Bible's style is to simplify what we think of as complex actions. But in the Bible we see the step by step process in simple form: Cain is rejected; his face shows anger; he invites his brother out to kill him.
4:9 Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?”
He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Who is responsible? Another insight of the Bible writers. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the snake. Cain asks is he responsible for his brother, even though he killed him.
The French philosopher Rene Girard makes a lot out of what he calls the special gift the Bible has in exposing innocent victims. In other myths, he says, the victim is never called innocent. But the Bible makes a point of calling the victim innocent, from Abel, to Jesus. Girard considers this the special genius of the Bible, which gave voice to the victim.
4:10 Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground. 4:11 Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 4:12 From now on, when you till the ground, it won’t yield its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.”
4:13 Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 4:14 Behold, you have driven me out this day from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. It will happen that whoever finds me will kill me.”
Note the escalation (increase) in violence. Anyone who kills Cain will be avenged seven times. There's a problem however. Who's going to kill Cain if he's the only one on earth besides his parents?
4:15 Yahweh said to him, “Therefore whoever slays Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should strike him.
4:16 Cain went out from Yahweh’s presence, and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 4:17 Cain knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
Note that its the murderer who builds the first city. Below, we are back to the so-called Priest document, which we saw in chapter 1. Now we have a new phrase: "Documentary Hypothesis," identified with a man named Julius Weilhausen (1844-1918). This is also called the Source Hypothesis. I've already mentioned this but will discuss it now in more detail. The Documentary Hypothesis strongly shows that the first five books of the Bible (called the Pentateuch; pent=5; teuch=scroll) were not, as once thought, written by Moses. Rather they were edited together from 4 different sources. The earliest is the J source; because this source uses the name Yaweh (translated as Lord); the next source is E, after the word for God, Elohim; E like P uses "God"; E is the least important for our study because the least preserved as far as we know. Probably the most famous E text is the binding ("sacrifice") of Isaac. P is important; we read him in ch. 1 and find him again below. He must have belonged to the Priest class because he is concerned with later Jewish ritual, which he then imagines back to the beginning. Thus "evening and morning were the first day" shows that the Priest ritual had already begun, as had the Sabbath by the time ch. 1 was written. The final source is also important, called D because the entire book of Deuteronomy is written by this writer, as well as other books outside the Pentateuch.
We find P again. Note there is no Cain, no Abel, no murder! There's only Seth. So Seth became a hero to some early religious sects, called Gnostics, who believed that man was not naturally "fallen"; so they traced themselves back to Seth and called themselves Sethians. Gnostics later influenced early Christianity, especially the Gospel of John. But we won't go too much into this, at least not now.
5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God’s likeness. 5:2 He created them male and female, and blessed them, and called their name “Adam,” in the day when they were created. 5:3 Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 5:4 The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 5:5 All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years, then he died.
5:32 Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The human race is traced through Noah's 3 sons. >From "Shem" we get "semites" (Jews); from Ham the darker races; from Japheth Europeans or Asians. The story of the Flood is famous. Here, in a more confusing way, the J and P stories are combined, rather than separated by chapters. This for example is a J text; note the use of Yahweh:
6:5 Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6:6 Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. 6:7 Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” 6:8 But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
The following is the Priest text:
6:9 Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. 6:10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 6:11 The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 6:12 God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
6:13 God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 6:14 Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch. 6:15 This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship will be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 6:16 You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels. 6:17 I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die. 6:18 But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 6:19 Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 6:20 Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come to you, to keep them alive. 6:21 Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.” 6:22 Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Once again the J text. Note that in the Priest text only 2 animals are taken to the ark, but in the J text 7. Why? Because the P would now allow anyone to sacrifice except the priest class. So he told the story without sacrifices. (If there had been sacrifices, one pair would not have been enough to continue the species after the flood.)
7:1 Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. 7:2 You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. 7:3 Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. 7:4 In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will destroy from the surface of the ground.”
7:5 Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.
7:6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7:7 Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the waters of the flood. 7:8 Clean animals, animals that are not clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground 7:9 went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah. 7:10 It happened after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came on the earth. 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky’s windows were opened. 7:12 The rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
7:13 In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship; 7:14 they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 7:15 They went to Noah into the ship, by pairs of all flesh with the breath of life in them. 7:16 Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; and Yahweh shut him in. 7:17 The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth. 7:18 The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters. 7:19 The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered. 7:20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 7:21 All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 7:22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died. 7:23 Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship. 7:24 The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred fifty days.
8:1 God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided. 8:2 The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained. 8:3 The waters receded from the earth continually. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased. 8:4 The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains. 8:5 The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
Note in the J version there are only 40 days to the flood; in the P version, 150 days.
8:6 It happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made, 8:7 and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8:8 He sent out a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground, 8:9 but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. 8:10 He stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship. 8:11 The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth. 8:12 He stayed yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him any more.
8:13 It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried. 8:14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
8:15 God spoke to Noah, saying, 8:16 “Go out of the ship, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 8:17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”
8:18 Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. 8:19 Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.
8:20 Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 8:21 Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done. 8:22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
Note how God accepts the fact that humans are evil. This is the first of the four Covenants in the Old Testament. This is called the Noachide Covenant, an agreement made with Noah. The next covenant is made with Abraham (the Abrahamic Covenant), then with the Jewish people (the Sinai Covenant), then with David (the Davidic covenant). Now people start to eat meat as well as vegetables. But the blood of meat is forbidden. This will become a key issue for Christians when they decided to give up the Law, since Jesus replaced the Law.
9:1 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 9:2 The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that the ground teems with, and all the fish of the sea are delivered into your hand. 9:3 Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As the green herb, I have given everything to you. 9:4 But flesh with its life, its blood, you shall not eat. 9:5 I will surely require your blood of your lives. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. 9:6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image. 9:7 Be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly in the earth, and multiply in it.”
Note above the basis for capital punishment (9:6). Also note how the passage is written like a recreation; as if God were making the world again, with the same commands: "Be fruitful and multipy," etc.
9:8 God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9:9 “As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you, 9:10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ship, even every animal of the earth. 9:11 I will establish my covenant with you: all flesh will not be cut off any more by the waters of the flood, neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 9:12 God said, “This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 9:13 I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. 9:14 It will happen, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud, 9:15 and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 9:16 The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 9:17 God said to Noah, “This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
This is what is called an etiological story. There are many of them in the Bible. An etiological story explains why something is the way it is, as in the case of a rainbow.
9:18 The sons of Noah who went out from the ship were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan. 9:19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, the whole earth was populated.
9:20 Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard. 9:21 He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent. 9:22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 9:23 Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness. 9:24 Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him. 9:25 He said,
“Canaan is cursed.
He will be servant of servants to his brothers.”
9:26 He said,
“Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem.
Let Canaan be his servant.
9:27 May God enlarge Japheth.
Let him dwell in the tents of Shem.
Let Canaan be his servant.”
This is another etiological story; it "explains" why the Canaanites are treated like slaves. This text was a key text used to justify slavery in the US South.
9:28 Noah lived three hundred fifty years after the flood. 9:29 All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, then he died.
Now follows another famous etiological story explaining why there are so many languages on earth.
11:1 The whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 11:2 It happened, as they traveled east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. 11:3 They said one to another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 11:4 They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”
Note the consistent language: "Come, let's" and "Come let's," until God "came down." Once again we see a step by step process. It shows the uselessness of fighting against God:
11:5 Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. 11:6 Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do. 11:7 Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 11:8 So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city. 11:9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.
11:27 Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot.
This is the beginning of the Jewish religion. Abram, later Abraham, follows God obediently, even leaving his home without pause. This is the beginning of Jewish monotheism as well as the Abrahamic Covenant. It's also important for Christians; because St. Paul valued the Abrahamic Covenant more than the later Sinai Covenant, based on Jewish laws. Abraham's religion was "by faith alone," which became an important idea for Paul and later Christians. Note how to save oneself one must turn one's back on everything: home country, parents. (We assume they were worshiping many gods in Abraham's home, so that home was a bad influence. To found a new religion, Abrahm had to leave. And he didn't hesitate. "GO!")
12:1 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. 12:2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”
V. 3 above seems to predict Christianity's appeal to "all families of the earth."
12:4 So Abram went, as Yahweh had spoken to him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran. 12:5 Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls whom they had gotten in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. Into the land of Canaan they came. 12:6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land.
Notice that 12:6b is a key verse for scholars of the Documentary Hypothesis; because we read that "The Canaanite was then in the land." Obviously this verse was written long after Moses had died!
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