House Church Discussion List

Genesis

Introduction

Christians and Jews are not the only ones who love Genesis. It is widely regarded in the literary world as an excellent example of ancient literature even among those who do not study it for its “religious” content. Christians study Genesis not as a relic of a dead society, but as a part of God’s word that has value to the modern church.

Some regard Genesis is the “foundation” of the Bible. This is not really the case. The people of God came into the knowledge of God during the wilderness period, so the foundation is best understood as the book of Exodus.

The Primeval History in Genesis

The first eleven chapters of Genesis are regarded as “primeval,” the Babel judgment having broken any possibility of oral transmission. Therefore, these early chapters of Genesis were not written by a human witness, but were a written to record ancient Israel’s understanding of the origin and nature of the cosmos, its creator, and of its occupants. Since the ancient people tended not to think subjectively as we do, they used story rather than the subjective language of a modern classroom. This changes when Abraham and his family arrive in Chapter 12 as those characters are deemed to be real.

The first challenge for the person reading Genesis is to reconcile the ancient biblical worldview with the modern view informed by science and technology. The readers of Genesis never had any concept of science. Their understanding of the world around them was based entirely on what could be observed with the five senses. Attempts by people with a modern world view to appropriate Genesis as if it were a science textbook are going to run into the same issues that were put to the test in the famous “monkey trial” of 1925 where the Bible was pitted against science in the courtroom and lost.

To read Genesis properly, One must first put aside modern cosmology. Also one must make the effort to understand the ancient cultures that prevailed when the book was written. Finally one must look for the lessons of theology and humanity that are abundantly present in the book rather than a mechanical description of how the earth and the life living on it came to be. Unless one is willing to take these steps, continuing to read this presentation would be a frustrating waste of time.

Authorship

Most people probably regard Genesis as the work of one writer, traditionally Moses. That is not the belief of scholarship today. Many theories abound on the “source” of the text. Here is a brief review of some of them:

1. The Documentary Hypothesis

As one reads through the book enough times, it is likely that some observations might be made:

  • The name of God is “Yahweh” which shows up on English translations as “the LORD.” But in other passages God is “Elohim” (translated “God”).
  • Some passages, especially genealogies, have a very structured pattern, as if these may have been recorded by a priest.
  • Another proposed source is the author of Deuteronomy, due to some similarities in these books.

These observations brought about speculation that Genesis may have been separate books from different authors that were merged into the present document by a “redactor.” Those advocating this hypothesis annotated the text of Genesis to show which verses were from each of these three sources.

2. Heptadic Repetition

Many events and words tended to be repeated the same number of times, especially seven times, the number of completion. Seven days, seven months, seven lamps, and so forth. Superimposing these structures on Genesis can clash with the divisions in the documentary hypothesis.

3. Chiasmus 

A Chiasm is a poetic structure of the form ABBA. ABCBA, and so on for as many layers as necessary. They are usually laid out with increasing and decreasing indentation, resulting in a “>” ,shape. This is the left half of the Greek letter chi (which looks like an English “X”), which explains the name. There are many chiasmic structures in Genesis, including one that puts the whole book into a single, large chiasm. It is difficult to imagine how multiple sources could have been merged together in a manner that preserved these chiasmic structures.

Conclusion on Authorship

With the discovery of so many elegant chiasmic structures that have been discovered in Genesis clashing with the lines separating the source divisions in the Documentary Hypothesis, it very difficult to imagine how all three of these approaches can coexist, yet none of them have achieved any kind of consensus among scholars. These and many other avenues of study continue to be applied so we are simply going to have to leave the question of the source and authorship of the book unanswered.

The “First” Creation Account: 1:1-2:4a

The First Day

1:1-5

Before we start reading the account, let’s put aside all we know about the cosmos and try to Imagine you are a son of an ancient family wondering about the world around you. You know that there’s water beyond the coasts that seems to go out forever, and you know that whenever you dig a well there’s water to be found under the ground. And rain comes down from the sky occasionally, so you know there’s water up there too. But you do see the stars and the moon in an occasional meteor. So with that information what would you conclude about the Cosmos. You would probably know that there is water everywhere, even in the sky above where it is sometimes released as rain.

The first creation story begins with a statement that God created the heavens and the earth. The verb translated “create,” when understood to mean creatio ex nihilo (creating out of nothing) means that God’s creative work was not constrained by any prior materials. We are to understand, in other words, that God had complete creative freedom and that what he created was exactly what he intended.

Verse 2 gives us some more information about the Earth and the water covering the earth. God’s spirit or wind moves over the surface of the water. we could argue about whether the text says spirit or wind because they’re both the same word in the Hebrew. There is total darkness, and a formless earth is totally submerged.

We advanced at verse 3 where God speaks, saying, “ let there be light.” Light suddenly appears. It is likely that this refers to the light blue illumination overhead in a sunlit day that we now know is caused by the action of sunlight upon the molecules of gases in the troposphere, but of course that’s science and does not belong here. But one might speculate that the light God created came from above and illuminated the remainder of the creation scene.

It is instructive that God performs this creative activity by a simple verbal command. This reminds us of the Prologue to John’s Gospel where we are told that the creation was accomplished by the “logos,” or “word.” Obviously, God’s “word” is a lot more than a part of speech. John puts the word in apposition with God, telling us that “word” and “God” are interchangable at times.

Verses 4-5 gives us the first of seven “goods” and also introduces the concept of “separation” that will eventually also apply to the separation of the godly (“holy”) and the profane. Here it is the division of day and night, which defines a “day” as it is here that also the first day of creation concludes.

The Second Day

1:6-8

The object of the second day will be exposing the submerged land so that it would become “dry land.” God does this by putting a giant air bubble over the land and the navigable waters around the land. Verse 6 calls this a “dome” and its purpose is to separate the waters below and around the earth from the waters above. God and his kingdom remain as they are, well above the dome and the waters above the dome.

The Third Day

1:9-13

The waters recede and the land, which God calls “earth,” dries out. The waters around the earth are called “seas.” God then planted vegetation, turning the earth into a lush garden.

Job and the psalms provide additional detail. We learn from God speaking to Job in the whirlwind hat the earth is held up by “pillars” that are attached to a “foundation.” Job also tells s us that God is actively holding the distant waters away, keeping them from flooding the earth. The psalms describe the springs that cause some of the waters below the earth to seep up to the surface of the earth. All of this was accomplished in the third day.

The Fourth Day

1:14-19

God populates the inside of the dome with stars, the sun, and the moon, each of them moving on tracks on the inner surface of the dome. These have the purpose of “separating” night from day and also to regulate the seasons that the vegetation obey.

The Fifth Day

1:20-23

God creates the birds and water creatures, and blessed them in order that they multiply in great numbers.

The Sixth Day

1:24-31

Land animals are created.

“Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” This verse creates two problems, the first being the plural “us.”:

  1. A “royal we.” God’s greatness exceeds the limit of a singular pronoun.
  2. God is referring to his “Divine Counsel.” See Psalm 82.
  3. The Holy Trinity. The Trinity is a New Testament teaching that would not make sense to the Old Testament community to which Genesis was intended. There is some new evidence, however, that second temple Jewish writings had a “two powers of heaven” theology where the one God had two “hypostases,” but shared one essence, one being Spirit and the other having flesh:

The relationship between Yahweh and the Angel of Yahweh (“Angel of the LORD”) provides the most familiar example of “two Yahwehs.” The OT writers at times deliberately make the Angel of Yahweh indistinguishable from Yahweh (e.g., Exod 3:1–14). For instance, according to Exod 23, the Angel has Yahweh’s “Name” in him (Exodus 23: Thank you for calling CVS Pharmacy if this is an emergency please type 20–23). This passage gives a glimpse of the Hebrew Bible’s “Name theology,” in which reference to “the Name” actually refers to Yahweh Himself. Thus, in Exodus 23, Yahweh indicates that He is in the Angel. And yet, in other passages, Yahweh and the Angel can be simultaneously—but separately—present (Judges 6). Various OT passages attribute God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt to both the God of Israel and the Angel (e.g., Judges 2:1–3; 1 Sam 8:8; Micah 6:4). In light of Deut 4:37, which states the “presence” of Yahweh was responsible for Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, these passages provide a constructive case for binitarianism. The divine presence, of course, is Yahweh Himself, His “essence.” Perhaps most tellingly in this theology Pharmacy is the text of Gen 48:15–16, which fuses God and the Angel. Jacob, near death and pronouncing blessing on Joseph’s sons, speaks of God’s saving action in a way that highlights the fusion of Yahweh and the Angel.1

The problem with the verse is what “image” might mean. Several options have been proposed:

  1. Some see Image, in this case, to indicate one having the ability to have a relationship with God.
  2. Some translate “in the image” as “as the image.” That makes humanity into God’s agents, or image bearers, on earth.2
  3. Others see a image as making a correspondence between God and the man.

These issues notwithstanding, the creation of “male and female” is accomplished in the s second half of one short verse.

The sixth day ends with “very good.”

The Seventh Day

2:1-3

God finished the work of creation on the seventh day. He honored the creation by blessing the seventh day, which continues to be a sabbath “day of rest.”

That raises the point of “what is a day? The answer is simple: A day is whatever God wants it to be. it could be 24 hours, an era, or a “revelation” day. This is a story and the events are important, but their timing is not. That “day” is not use here as a precise measure of time is further exemplified in 2:4b where the entire creation is in one day.

Verse 1:28, granting humanity with the power to dominate the earth, also deserves consideration. On the one hand, landscaping is a requirement for a garden, and garden-tending was the purpose of creating humanity in the first place (v. 2:15). But how much license do humans have to abuse the land is a point of controversy. Lynn White’s 1967 article in Science argued that Jewish and Christian religions are to blame for environmental destruction, while he praised other religions that honor and protect the environment because they worship nature.3

The Debate over Verse 2:4

2:4

The phrase “these are the generations” can either look backward to a “first “days” of a first creation account, or they can look forward to other material in the next few chapters that actually picture humans as they enter successive generations. “Generation” is commonly used in genealogies, but might also be synonymous with “days” in this case.

Verse 4 is usually divided into two half-verses, 4a being a recap of the creation and 4b being an introduction to a second creation story. But some argue against this separation and see 4b simply as a continuation of a single creation narrative. The theme of the following chapters have little to do with the material creation process but a great deal to do with the creation of humanity, so we might expect to see the book recapitulating the creation of humanity at th is point.

Eden

2:5-14

The Eden story begins by taking us back to the process of introducing vegetation, part of Day 6, above. God appreciates beauty and order, we learn with the creation of the first man. He was to also appreciate beauty and order and his purpose was to tend the garden to bring out its full splendor. God also provided rain and streams so that the garden would be well watered.

The exact location of Eden is deliberately ambiguous because some of the rivers in the account are unknown. But the mention of the Tigris and Euphrates locate Eden roughly in the region of the Fertile Crescent. That humanity is to be prevented from finding it again is made clear when the garden is closed and its entrance is guarded by cherubim at the end of Chapter Three.

The Man and the Trees

2:15-20

The process of forming the man begins with the dust of the ground and concludes with his. inhaling God’s breath, resulting in a “living soul.” Among the plant life that God provided were two significant trees. The first tree was life sustaining, and the second was “all knowledge.” God presented the man with a choice that he would eventually have to make. He could remain in close fellowship with God, with whom he would share evening walks in the garden, and sustain himself by eating the produce of the garden and, especially, the fruit of the Tree of Life. The implication is that he could live that way forever in exchange for accepting a role of loving servitude that would limit his ambitions.

Alternatively, he could pursue his own path by acquiring knowledge, something that would destroy his close relationship with God. This was a tough decision because a certain amount of knowledge is needed by garden tenders, but God gave him stern warning to avoid the knowledge tree on penalty of death.

The “Helper”

2:21-25

At this point in the story, We find the first “not good” in Genesis. God decides that it is not good for the man be alone. A search for a suitable helper begins with the animals that God had created. Each animal is brought to the man and God discusses with the man the attributes of that animal so that he either use it or be warned to stay away from it. This process of “naming” animals, therefore, goes well beyond simply giving them a title.

None of the animals, however, met the requirements that God had for a suitable helper because the language here is clear that this helper is not to be subordinated to the man but to be fully equal to the man. To reinforce this point he forms the helper from a part of the man’s anatomy in order to ensure that both are made of the same stuff. When the man is introduced to his helper, he utters a cry of recognition that they have the same bones and flesh. He then completes the naming cycle by naming his helper “woman.”

At this point a teaching is inserted into the record regarding child bearing. When men and women marry, their allegiances move from their parents to their spouses. Secondly, the relationships between the husband and wife are to be completely transparent with no hidden agendas or secrets. This is symbolized by their being naked without shame.

The Nachash

3:1-5

Chapter three opens by introducing us to a mysterious creature. The mystery comes about because the written Hebrew language lacks vowels, a situation that leaves us with three possible meanings depending on the vowels that were intended by the author:

NounSerpent
Verbto practice divination
adjectiveof bronze

Most English bibles translate the word as “serpent,” which is to say that the translators are okay with Eve having a casual conversation with a snake. All we really know about the creature is that he is capable of conversation and that he is “sly.” Functionally, we quickly see that his object is to put a monkey wrench in God’s plans for Eden, which makes him an instrument of spiritual warfare which would make the “diviner” meaning a good candidate. We can also conclude that the creature does not have an alarming appearance that would cause the woman to view it as a threat. If you are uncomfortable with “serpent,” you might use nachash, which is the Hebrew word. But, remembering that this is story, all we need to see is that he appears as an adversary of God and that he has some kind of agenda of his own. Many see him as a former member of God’s council who coveted God’s leadership role and wanted to take over (as in Isaiah 14:12 and Ezekiel 28).

The First Sin

3:6-7

Genesis 1-2 presented a ideal picture of how humans are to properly relate with each other, their environment, and with the creator. Genesis 3 suddenly brings us back to reality, providing a symbolic, theological discussion of how it was that the world became “fallen.” The problem is that of “sin”–its appearance, its nature, and its consequences. But just as important, it is also the chapter that reveals God’s grace. That is, it is the first of many instances when humans sin, are justly accused, and yet receive a judgment tempered with the grace of God.

Most of us will remember the key event of this chapter–the drama of the prototypical woman and man of the garden who eat the “forbidden fruit.” We are to understand their action as “sin”–but why? What is so wrong with a piece of fruit that it might have such tremendous consequences?

Prior to the event, all we are told about the “tree of knowledge, good and evil” that produces the fruit, is that the act of eating the fruit brings knowledge–all knowledge–the idea here being not just how good differs from evil, but all knowledge in between. So the proposition is that God makes the tree available, but commands that humanity remain in the comfort, ease, and happiness of an eternal relationship with him. But humanity demonstrates that it would rather acquire the tools (knowledge)– that will allow it to participate in its own destiny. So the first sin is not about eating a piece of fruit, but it is about rejecting God. That is what sin is.

It is a fact that the only reason Genesis gives as a reason that the eating of the fruit is a “sin” is simply that to eat the fruit is a direct violation of God’s good command. That is the way the Bible defines “sin.” We, in other words, are absolutely powerless to define what sin is and what it is not. Why? Because “sin” is not something that one does against another person–rather, to sin is to disobey God (see Ps. 51:4). This is an important biblical concept; if we were to define sin as something that is against another person, then any group of people could mutually agree to do anything they wanted and they would thus be in a position to declare that activity to be non-sin (do you suppose, had the man and woman agreed among themselves that it would not be a sin to eat the fruit, that God would have treated the matter any differently?). But when we use the word “sin” properly, its use is limited to those activities that violate the will of God. And how do we know the will of God? We can only know that through God’s revelation of his will to us. And that is where the Bible comes in; God does not limit his revelation to the Bible, but He does make it quite clear that nothing that he reveals will contradict that which has already been revealed (see Deut. 13:1-4). This concept that revelation builds on that which has already been revealed is maintained even in the New Testament (Mt. 5:17-19).

The effect of the serpent is to persuade the human (in this case the woman) that the sin is not a sin (a common tactic in today’s “liberated” and “post-Christian” world). He predicts what will happen if the sin is carried out–the woman’s “eyes will be opened” and that she will, by acquiring knowledge, “be like God.”

Just as in many sins, the tempter here is half right–the sin delivers some immediate benefit, but never the full measure that was promised. In this case, the woman’s eyes are opened–yet it quickly becomes clear that she never comes even close to being “like God.” The account describes the woman’s decision to eat the fruit in great detail, dwelling on how she considered the matter in her mind. In fact, it can even be argued that the precise microsecond of the sin took place before she actually ate the fruit; it took place with her contemplation and gradual acceptance of the serpent’s argument. But just as important as the sin, this is also the chapter that reveals God’s grace. That is, it is the first of many instances when humans sin, are justly accused, and yet receive a judgment tempered with the grace of God.

Von Rad summarizes the method the nachash uses is as follows:

The serpent “asserts that it knows God better than the woman in her believing obedience does, and so it causes her to step out of the circle of obedience and to judge God and his command as though from a neutral position. It imputes grudging intentions to God. It uses the ancient and wide-spread idea of god’s envy to cast suspicion on God’s good command. And man’s ancient folly is in thinking he can understand God better from his freely assumed standpoint and from his notion of God than he can if he would subject himself to his Word.”4

The Consequences of the Sin

3:8-24

The chapter continues with an open question, “Where are you?”

While the question is framed as God calling Adam, who at this point does not want to be found, It is one of several questions intended to confront the reader. The first effect of the sin was shame–he realized that he was naked, meaning that the trust and openness between the man, his wife, and God had been broken. Human behavior continues to be demonstrated in the narrative that follows:

  • I didn’t do it; the woman that you gave me did it.
  • I didn’t do it — the serpent tricked me.

Had the consequences been any different if the man and woman had accepted responsibility for their part in the crime? Perhaps. But their feeble attempts to justify their actions hardly impressed God, who then pronounced judgment.

  • The nachash was “cast down.”
  • The woman will suffer painful childbirth and she will be subordinated to her husband.
  • The ground will no longer yield crops easily so the man will need to work hard to feed himself and his family.
  • They will be denied access to the Tree of Life, meaning that they will grow older and eventually die, returning to the dust from which God made them..

These judgments were well deserved but stopped short of the immediate death penalty that was promised. The man and woman will eventually die, but the human race will continue because of childbirth. God’s grace even dealt with their newfound shame, as he made garments for them to replace their fig leaves. He will also release the judgment on the land (Romans 8). Eden will be closed to them, they will have to move on to less ideal conditions. So God’s grace abounds after this first sin, setting a pattern that will continue through the whole bible as humans continue to break their promises to God.

The First Murder

4:1-16

Chapter 4 starts with the good news of two healthy babies, Cain and Abel, the result of Adam “knowing” Eve –a biblical euphemism for sexual reproduction. The two boys each adopt vocations that are often opposed to each other, Cain becoming a farmer, and Abel a shepherd. Both decided to give a portion of what they earned to Yahweh, Cain some produce from his crops and Able a first-fruit from his herd. The story takes a dark turn at this point because Yahweh preferred Abel’s gift, perhaps because Abel’s was a “first fruit” and Cain’s may have been ordinary, but we are not given the exact reason for that Yahweh had no regard for Cain’s offering. Cain was so angry that Yahweh gave him good counsel to get control of himself and avoid very painful consequences. Yahweh knew what was going to happen but let it happen anyway–an illustration of “free will,” where God lets a person make bad decisions.

God re-enters the scene after the murder had taken place and asks the second of the three fateful questions that began in Chapter 3, “Where are you?”. This time the question is, “Where is your brother?”

The judgment quickly follows:

  • He will lose his vocation, no longer being able to get produce out of the ground.
  • He will become a fugitive, worrying that Abel’s relatives might seek vengeance.

To this latter concern, God’s grace brings a solution. Cain will not face vengeance because God has given him a “mark” to indicate to all potential attackers that Cain has Yahweh’s protection.

An epilogue: The first murder is a disagreement over how to worship God.

A Population Boom

4:17-26

As Chapter 5 opens, we find that Cain was right to be worried about those who may have designs on his life. With very long lifetimes, he would probably live to see several generations of new people forming cities and raising families. Reestablishing himself in Nod, his son Enoch built a city. As the population grew after four generations, Lamech was born. He and his two wives became the ancestors of several entrepreneurs who invented the trades of tent making, music, and metallurgy. As for Lamech, he would be mainly remembered for his taunt that claimed how he would always return vengeance many times greater than the provocation.

The fourth chapter ends with the introduction of Adam’s third son and grandson, Seth and Enosh, and the fact that people began to “invoke the name Yahweh” which either applies to the population in general or just to the descendants of Seth.

The First Genealogy

5:1-32

A few observations can be made from the genealogies of Seth and Cain. First, we have the remarkable story of Enoch, the only one who’s genealogy didn’t end with “and he died.” Instead, Enoch “walked with God” and was “‘taken” by God.

The second observation is the appearance of a second Lamech, Seth’s being the son of Methushael, and the other being the son of Methuselah, the name similarities suggesting that they may be the same person. Some suggest that the Second Lamech is a benign individual in deliberate contrast with the author of the Lamech taunt in Chapter 4.

In any case, the important outcome of Chapter 5 is that sin and corruption had built up to a point where God appointed Noah and his family to do a global reset, which commences with Chapter 6.

The Sons of God

6:1-4

The first four verses of Chapter 6 seem literally “out of this world.” Some regarded the Sons of God to be humans, many see them as disobedient angels (messengers). The story comes from the book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 6-7, a book outside of the Old Testament but one which was read by Peter who made reference to other parts of 1 Enoch in 1 and 2 Peter.

These “Sons of God” also appear elsewhere in the Old Testament. In Psalm 82 they form a counsel with God seated as chairperson, the counsel seen actually deliberating in 1 Kings 22:20. In Deuteronomy 32:8 one finds reference to “gods” that are allocated to the nations by God. Some believe that the “gods” that make up Yahweh’s counsel, just like humans, looked after their own pleasure rather than sticking to the rules and were judged to “die like humans” in Psalm 82. As the 1 Enoch story relates, they married humans and produced a species of Giants called Nephilim. Evidently more Nephilim were born after the flood, the Anakim, which would be the giants that Joshua’s spies encountered before Israel invaded Canaan.

5 Such and understanding of these four verses is far from generally accepted, but it is new and time will tell if it gains the respect of Old Testament scholarship. But this seems to be the only explanation for the appearance of the strange giants that were utterly wiped out by Joshua and others at God’s insistence.

The Wickedness of Mankind

6:5-22

The evil caused by the actions of the Sons of God, compounded by the wickedness of the whole race, got to the point that it “grieved him to his heart.” So God resolved to wipe out all the land creatures and birds with a global flood. At this point we pick up Noah again who, with his family, will be the instrument of God’s grace.

God tells Noah to make a large ark, giving him detailed specifications so that it would not only accommodate Noah and his family, but also a pair of each animal and bird and food stores for a long voyage..

The Great Flood

7:1-24

The suggestion that the earth could be completely covered with water is, of course, pre-scientific. Nevertheless, the Hebrew writer of Genesis is not the only flood memory in the region. Therefore, it can be concluded that there was some kind of flood event that triggered the various flood stories.

There certainly was abundant rain from the “windows of heaven,” but also from the “fountains of the deep.” It is best to see the Flood story an act of un-creation, God relaxing the outer region of the “dome” described in Chapter 1 so that the waters outside of the dome would surge inward, covering the earth to a depth that was so great that it inundated even the tallest mountains. God didn’t remove the flood waters until his goal had been achieved, no life remaining on the land.

The Flood Subssides

8:1-9:17

At that point the animals and birds were freed to repopulate the earth along with Noah, his three sons, and their wives. Noah makes a burnt offering to God, who then promises to never again use a flood as a method of discipline.

Not surprisingly, Noah is given virtually the same command as Adam was–to dominate the earth. The one change was that animals were included in humanity’s food regimen. Adding a command not to murder, God then seals the covenant with the rainbow which, wherever it appeared, was to be a reminder of the covenant. In short, God put away his war bow and replaced it with the rainbow.

The Nations

9:18-11:32

At this point there are only eight people on earth, four couples, so the next story describes the process of filling the earth into the seventy nations that comprise the world as it was known to the readers of Genesis. This process can be broken into phases, not necessarily in chronological order.:

  1. The descendants of Noah’s three sons.
  2. Genealogies that defined the nations.
  3. How God compelled the people to scatter into the nations.

1. Shem, Ham, and Japheth

9:18-29

Noah’s three sons had children of their own. Trouble developed when Noah unwisely drank too much of the product of a vineyard that he planted and fell into a naked stupor in a tent. Ham entered the tent, but rather than cover his father, he left the tent and told his brothers. The brothers then did what Ham should have done; they discretely put a covering on Noah out of respect for their father. When Noah awoke and learned of Ham’s disrespect he pronounced a curse on Ham’s son, Canaan, declaring that Canaan’s descendants would always serve his brothers. He also blessed Shem and Japheth for their act of respect, again pronouncing that Canaan’s offspring would serve their descendants as slaves.

There does not seem to be a consensus regarding Noah’s rationale for cursing Ham’s son rather than Ham himself. But the fact that Israel would defeat Canaanites over history seems to be the reason this episode is mentioned.6

The Genealogies of Noah and His Sons

10:1-32

Deuteronomy 32:8 describes how God assigned a “son of god” to each of the 70 nations listed in Genesis Chapter 10.

When the Most High apportioned the nations,
     when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
     according to the number of the gods;

One can only speculate God’s purpose here, but it is likely that God created subordinate “gods” to administer each nation. This could explain the source of each ancient nation’s “local gods,” who might often violate their assigned boundaries and become stumbling blocks to Israel.

The descendants of Noah’s sons are given in a genealogy that roughly assigns each descendant to a nation. A brief summary appears below:7

  • Shem: Son of Noah, ancestor of Semitic peoples including the Hebrews, Arameans, and Assyrians 
  • Ham: Son of Noah, ancestor of African and Canaanite peoples, including Egyptians, Cushites, and Canaanites 
  • Japheth: Son of Noah, ancestor of Indo-European peoples such as the Greeks, Romans, and Scythians 
  • Nimrod: Son of Cush, known as a mighty hunter and founder of Mesopotamian cities like Babylon and Uruk 
  • Elam: Descendant of Shem, founder of the Elamite civilization in southwestern Iran 
  • Asshur: Descendant of Shem, ancestor of the Assyrians 
  • Cush: Son of Ham, ancestor of the Nubians and various Arabian nations 
  • Javan: Son of Japheth, ancestor of the Greeks 
  • Gomer: Son of Japheth, associated with the Celts or Cimmerians 
  • Canaan: Son of Ham, ancestor of the Canaanites, including the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites 

How God Compelled the People to Occupy the Nations

11:1-32

God’s covenant with Noah commanded Noah’s descendants to “fill the earth.” This was resisted because the people realized that their power would diminish if they were distributed into nations, so they assembled in Babel with a plan to build a tower to God’s kingdom, build siege works against the walls of heaven, capture God, and take over the place. As preposterous as that plan sounds to modern ears, the readers of Genesis had no trouble accepting that this presented a very real threat to God.

God penetrated their plan before the work was completed and realized that their motivation was a refusal to fill the world. So he not only forced them to scatter into the 70 nations, but also scrambled their languages to break up their ability to communicate with each other.

The Babel Judgment was reversed in Acts 2 where representatives from all the known nations were assembled together and found that they could communicate easily through a miracle of hearing. But for the ancients, they would have to wait for God’s grace in Chapter 12.

This ends the Primeval period of Genesis 1-11. God had tried making a covenant with Adam, and it failed. He repeated it with Noah and it failed again. But did God fail? Remember we are dealing with story, not history in this primeval period. It would be a mistake to say that God implemented a defective plan that failed and then tried the same thing again? Did God really expect either of them them to succeed?

Before God introduces a new plan–the one that is still in progress today–the record had to show that humanity is incapable of holding up its end of a covenant. A new plan, after enough time passes to fill the nations, would finally provide the grace that was otherwise missing in the Babel account.

The Story of Abraham

11:27-25:18

Introduction

11:27-32

According to Heiser,8 Abraham’s story begins in Deuteronomy 32: 9. Disappointed with the failures of the sons of God in administering the nations, God gave up on them and decided to add his own nation where he would be the sole administrator. Using that as home base, he could then bring in the other people foprom the other nations.This would be God’s portion as described in Deuteronomy. To do so, he sought out a righteous, elderly, nomadic herdsman from Ur, somewhere in the Southern Mesopotamian North Country to beget a whole new nation through a barren, elderly wife. We are not to miss the miraculous nature of such a task.

Sometime before God called him he settled in Haran, a place that comes up again in the stories of his future children..

Although initially called Abram, God changes it to Abraham later as we shall see, and it easiest to simply call him Abraham throughout his story. The same can be said for Sarah, who entered the story as “Sarai.” Accompanying Abraham and his wife were his nephew Lot, a multitude of servants, and livestock.

Abraham would have worshiped a pantheon of ancient Gods in his early life but that changed when he encountered Yahweh. Here is a speculation from the Rabbis relating how this may have happened:

In those days people thought that there were many gods. They even made images, or idols, of wood, stone, or metal, and foolishly believed that they were gods, who had made the universe, and had even made them. One evening Abraham was walking about just as the stars came out, one by one. He was struck by their beauty, and thought, “Surely these are gods.” But soon the moon rose, full and bright, and her radiance obscured the stars. Then Abraham thought “no, this must be God.” But at last the dawn came and the moon paled and Abraham said, “surely the moon cannot be God, for its light has become dim and weak.” Then the sun rose majestic and glorious, and Abraham “thought, at last this is the real God.” But at evening the sun sank and once more the stars appeared. Then Abraham thought long and hard; And finally the truth dawned upon him, that none of these, beautiful though they were, could be God; that there was must be some power of good and love behind all these, whose servants they were and whose law they obeyed, and this must be God. So he bowed down and worshiped the one God of all the universe. Then it was that God first called to him to be a blessing unto all mankind.9

Abraham’s Call and the Blessing

12:1-9

God speaks to Abraham, ordering him and his entourage to leave Haran with his family and travel to a destination that would be shown to him. God also assured Abraham, despite his age and Sarah’s Baroness, that he would become the father of a great nation, that God would bless him, and that all families on earth will bless themselves because of him. This encounter was evidently very powerful , as Abraham obeyed it immediately.

The blessing of Abraham, extending to many future generations, will become a “who’s got the button?” theme for the entire balance of Genesis. Through which of many children and grandchildren will it pass? We will find that the blessing is constantly under threat, and we will wonder with each generation, “will this be the bearer of the promise?” Don’t miss the dramatic tension that arises as you continue through the reading of the book. Abram’s response to God’s call is immediate, and his devotion is evident in the alters that he builds along the way, God continuing to re-enforce the blessing, which is at their heart of the gospel message because it passes on through Israel t0 Christ and finally the Church.

An Encounter with Pharaoh

12:10-20

But Abraham falters when he encounters famine and changes his destination to Egypt–the place of safety to which our biblical protagonists so often take refuge when famine or other threats arise. He comes to the attention of the pharoah because of his wife, Sarai, whose beauty is so great that Abram creates a fiction that she is his sister out of fear for his own skin. For Sarai to pass as his wife or sister, she must be well along in years, but tradition holds that her beauty was especially evident in the loveliness of her hands [The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Damascus Document, 1QapGen, Col. 21]. We see Abram’s faith in God at a low point at this point in the story, a weakening of his trust in God. Even the Pharaoh’s behavior shows more integrity that does Abram’s. God extracts Sarai from the situation in a manner that forces Abram to leave Egypt with the Pharaoh’s curses ringing in his ears.

The Ending of the Story of Lot

13:1-18

It is probably best to interrupt the story of Abraham and look at his nephew, Lot, as a contrast with his uncle, Abram. Chapter 13 shows some parity between the assets of Lot and Abram as Lot’s story resumes, and the need for them to separate due to the immensity of each of their flocks. Abram shows generosity when he offers the choice to Lot, subordinating his own economic interests to his nephew. This was something he was not obliged to do, as it was his right as the clan leader to make the decision himself. But we can suppose that he knew him well enough to fully expect Lot to choose the way ye did — to move into the Jordan valley, toward Sodom. Abram goes in the opposite direction and enters Canaan, where God intended him to go in the first place and where God re-affirms his blessing.

Lot seems to get closer and closer to Sodom, and when we get to Chapter 19, we find him living inside the city and reluctant to leave when warned of God’s plan to destroy it due to its licentiousness. As they flee the city’s destruction, Lot’s wife ignores the warning to not look back. She does this not to get a better view of the destruction taking place, but because she was missing the life they had had there. Her judgment takes place immediately. Lot’s story then disappears from Genesis as he ends his days as an old widower, fearful of his own shadow, living in isolation in a cave. The last we see of him is as a drunken tool of incest, manipulated by his daughters for their own purposes. From this shameful episode the Moabites and Ammonites will emerge.

Abraham and the Kings

14:1-16

This story of four “kings” defeating five “kings” is no doubt a relatively minor episode among nomadic tribes, but the fact that Lot’s family was abducted got Abraham’s attention. We learn that Abrahams retinue of heresmeno and attendents were also trained in military skills, allowing us to see a part of Abraham’s character that we have not seen before. He enters the conflict of the kings in order to recover Lot, and in that he was successful. The four prevailing kings were from Mesopotamia, the five defeated kings wer from the South of the Dead Sea.

The first appearance of the word “Hebrew” occurs in v. 13, its origin unknown.

Melchizedek

14:17-34

The successful outcome of the battle made Abraham the one to deal with the booty. But, citing his promise to the LORD, Abraham rejected any of the booty to which his victory entitled him to take. The probable reason for this rejection of anything from the King of Sodom was a refusal to build any kind of relationship with that city or its monarch.

He does, however, receive a blessing from, and pay a tithe to, the mysterious Melchizedek, “priest of the Most High God and maker of heaven and earth,” who was probably the high priest of the chief god in the Canaanite pantheon in Jerusalem (“Salem”). While the purpose of Melchizedek is debated, it appears that Melchizedek is a kind of place holder for the missing priestly system that will not exist until the days of Moses. The blessing and tithe would, if that be the case, simply demonstrate the pious nature of Abraham. Even though the Law and sacrificial system was not yet delivered, Abraham would have obeyed it.

God’s Covenant with Abraham

15:1-20

As the years roll by, Abraham becomes anxious about God’s promise of future generations bearing God’s promise. He wants God to formalize that promise with a covenant. Realizing his own and Sarah’s age and her barrenness, he decides to “help” God by proposing that the promise be fulfilled through his adopting his chief servant, Eliezer of Damascus, to have his proxy. God, however, insists that the promise will be fulfilled as it was offered, and Abraham believes God; in doing so, God “reckoned it to him as righteousness.” The LORD then gives Abraham a prophecy that his descendants would suffer through 400 years (430 years in Exodus 12:40) of slavery in a foreign land, but that the blessing would continue through those generations and beyond.

What follows is the “cutting” of a formal covenant according to the culture in that part of the world at the time. This was necessary to instill in Abraham full confidence that the promise would be fulfilled. This procedure is documented in the Mari tablets and is described as follows: The division of the animals, and the passing of parties between them, symbolized that the one who failed to live up to his part of the agreement would suffer the same fate as the butchered animals. That covenants were “cut” comes from that ancient protocol. That the LORD would participate in this ancient ratification of a covenant shows that He was willing to go down to Abraham’s level, perhaps reminding the Christian reader of the incarnation.

Sarah and Hagar

16:1-16

Notwithstanding the ritual covenant renewal and God’s promises, Abraham continues to doubt how he and the barren Sarai can possibly bear the promised son who will carry on the promise to future generations. This time, it is Sarah who tries to help God out, giving her slave girl to Abraham so that the promise might be carried out though her. As the scheme begins to take shape in Hagar’s belly, Hagar begins to take advantage of the situation in the way that she treats Sarah. When Sarah complains to Abraham, she is reminded that Hagar is in her power to do anything with her that she wants–a response directly from the ancient code of Hammurabi.10 She treats Hagar so harshly that Hagar runs away into the wilderness where there is little hope that she and her coming baby will survive.

It is not the LORD’s will, however, to have Hagar and the baby perish. After all, the child she is carrying is the son of Abraham, which makes him a candidate as the bearer of the promise to the next generation. So the Angel of the LORD appears and asks the question that might be asked of each of us when confronting such a situation: “Where did you come from and where are you going.”11 A comparison with Louis Carrol Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is compelling, Alice asking almost the identical question of the Cheshire cat:

“Cheshire-Puss,” she began, rather timidly,
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to go,” said the cat.
“I don’t much care where–,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the cat.

In Ishmael’s described character, we can see the Bedouin people. See Galatians, 4:21-27 for Paul’s interpretation. Hagar is told to name the child Ishmael (“God Hears”), which is affirmed by Abraham when she obeys the instruction to return to her mistress and face the music.

The Abrahamic Covenant

17:1-17

13 years after the birth of Ishmael, the LORD visited Abraham again, this time changing his name to Abraham. This is the first of several such name changes (Sarai became “Sarah”) and is significant because it shows that God has made a significant change in that person’s character. The promise is renewed, but some new requirements are added. Now that the first of Abraham’s children have arrived, he needs to be aware of the circumcision rule; men who were circumcised bore the “sign” of the covenant, and their male offspring needed to have this done at the age of eight days. (It is noteworthy that this is the optimum age from a medical perspecitve, as it avoids a normal dip in Vitamin K that occurs shortly after birth.) This sign is important as it sets the people of the covenant apart. Typical of Abraham’s obedience to God, the procedures commence immediately.

This is the third covenant, the first two having failed because of human disobediance. This covenant is different, as it centers around a promise of blessinng to all mankind. Unlike the first two covenants to “fill the earth,” this one promises to will be a “lasting” covenent that that follows a liine of descendants that starts with the promised son of Abraham and Sarah. This will be the theme of the remainder of Genesis and, ujltimately, the whole bible. And it will be threatened many times as the stories ahead of us twist and turn and as the reader can’t help but wonder which son will bear the promise to the next generation.

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The Three-Fold Message from the LORD

Abraham suddenly becomes aware of the arrival of Yahweh, who he recognizes from prior visits . But this time, the visit consists of 3 men. He offers traditional desert hospitality to the men, washing phtheir feet and watching them eat a meal. so we know that these are not spirit beings, but have human characteristics.

Two of the men leave to investigate Sodom, and we are later told that they are angels (19:1). So, who is the third man? Clearly he is Yahweh in human form. This is one of the instances where it seems that there are two powers of heaven with the same essence.12

Abraham responds with the proper desert hospitality, offering them refreshments, which they accept. Sarah overhears their conversation, and when she hears the news that she will bear a child, she laughs to herself because she is far past menopause. Somehow, the Angel of the LORD hears the laugh and the conversation ends. God is patient with those who dispute him, as he was with Moses, Habakkuk, and Job, but laughing at a promise of God results in an immediate cut-off of dialog.

Angels leave Abraham with another significant question that jumps out to ask the reader: “Is anything too wonderful for the LORD?”

  1. John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016) ↩︎
  2. Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen World, (Bellingham WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 42-43. ↩︎
  3. L. White, The historical roots of our ecologic crisis, Science, 155 (3767) (1967), pp. 1203-1207, 10.1126/science.155.3767.1203 ↩︎
  4. G. Von Rad, Genesis, The Old Testament Library, (Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, Revised Ed, 1972), 88. ↩︎
  5. See Heiser. ↩︎
  6. Genesis 1–15 (Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 1 | WBC)
    Wenham, Gordon J. • Word • 1987 ↩︎
  7. AI generated list from Brave Search. ↩︎
  8. Heiiser, 111 note 4. ↩︎
  9. Julian Morganstern, The Book of Genesis, a Jewish Interpretation. Second Edition (New York: Schoken Books, 1995), 101. ↩︎
  10. “If a man take a wife and she give him a maid servant to her husband, and that maid servant bear children and afterwards would take rank with her mistress; because she has borne children, her mistress may not sell her for money, but she may reduce her to bondage and count her among her maid servants”. ↩︎
  11. This is the third such verse.
    3:9 “Where are you?”
    4;9 “where is your brother?”
    16:8 “Where did you come from and where are you going?”
    18:14 “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
    32:27: “What is your name?” ↩︎
  12. See the discussion on 1:26, “let us create mankind.” ↩︎

11:27-25:18