Copyright 1997MWSC/Jeanie C. Crain All rights reserved.
Notes to Genesis
Names of God (names =power, personality, fate)
| El Elyon-God Most High |
| Adonai--Jewish use to show awe, My Lord |
| Ha-Shem-The Name (Orthodox Jews) |
| Lord |
| The Eternal |
| Yahweh |
| Not a name but Presence Ex. 3.14 "I will be there when I will be there." |
| God Shaddai 17.1 |
Nature of Hebrew God
| Exists beyond fate, nature, and sexuality |
| (All powerful) Gives order and meaning to history |
| Bestows blessing to living creatures |
| Gives choice |
| Punishes evil justly |
| Rules mercifully |
| Makes covenants |
| Shapes human destiny through people of Israel |
Contradictions and Opposites from Beginning
| Promise and delayed fulfillment |
| Fertility and barrenness |
| Rest and unrest |
| Life and death |
| Knowledge and ignorance |
| Mankind and animals |
| Hiding and revealing |
| Presence and absence |
Themes
| Lonely hero provides cathartic release from frustrating battle against death |
| Death is overcome by community and law |
| Stress is on morality and order |
| Humankind must make it through the world with knowledge of death |
| Humankind created in image of God--1.27 (does not specify sex in Hebrew); image, passed on from generation to generation |
| Covenant and election; Yahweh chooses (act of grace) |
| Monotheism (several levels: preference for one deity, to worship of one deity, to believing that only one deity exists); contrast practical monotheism of Ten Commandments (exclusive worship of one deity) to philosophical monotheism (only one God exists); Abram, at least a practical monotheist |
| Sin (broken relationship and striving rather than rest) |
| Origins |
Themes Found in Patriarchs-Abraham
| Punishment for sin with human questioning (Abram, orginally quiet, progressively questions) |
| Intimacy with God through vision |
| Sibling rivalry with more serious outcome than murder |
| Singling out of one to perform will of God |
| Passing off of wife as sister episodes (12.8, 20, 26) |
| Motif of affliction (inability to bear son; Hagar abuses temporary position; Ishmael protected by God and made into a nation) |
Patterns in Life Span
| Abraham 175=7X5 squared |
| Isaac 180=5X6 squared |
| Jacob 147+3X7 squared |
Circumcision
| Rite of puberty and marriage |
| Hebrew moves back to birth (defuses sexuality; individual is made holy for life, not just for marriage; bears the mark in the body) |
Spokesperson of God
| 18.16 Urgent question of justice |
| Abraham shows moral outrage, compassion |
| Human being confronts and questions God |
| God converses with self as result of questioning |
Symbolism of Door/Entrance
| Place of contact with God (Garden of Eden, Jacob's ladder) |
| Confrontation with men 19.37 |
Life Themes
| Separation between heir and first-born |
| Leaving |
| Journey into the unknown |
| Child at point of death |
| Intervention of God’s messenger |
| Parents’ sighting of the way out |
| Promise of future blessing |
Lessons Apparent in Abraham’s Life
| Gives up past (12) leaves father, land |
| Gives up future (22) asked to sacrifice son |
| Abraham’s active life as man of God is lived in span between (in present). |
Mid-Point (22) Continuity/Discontinuity
| God comes to rescue |
| Being chosen leads to difficulties |
| Love leads to heartbreak |
| Man’s decides relative to God |
| Abraham’s silence--no sleepless night, says not a word |
| Abraham, though secure in God’s covenant, must still function in the world (23) |
Isaac’s Betrothal/Journey
| Second generation |
| Themes of leaving, finding way, returning |
25-Jacob
| Troubled, triumphant |
| Themes of struggle, deception, confrontation |
| Gives his name to Israel |
| Themes of wandering, sibling rivalry, barren wife, wives in conflict, renaming, God perceived in dream and vision |
Two Levels of Reality: Human and Divine
| Human events viewed in context of God’s will |
| Tensions of fate/free will, destiny/choice |
Jacob’s Journey
| Resembles that of grandfather Abraham (visionary) |
| Resembles that of son (Joseph, dreamer) |
| At portals of manhood, journeys into foreign land |
| 28--Conversion |
| Wives: love, jealousy, and children |
| 32--meeting with God |
| Wrestles with God, reunited with Esau |
| Jacob=Israel=God-fighter |
| Conflict between Jacob and Esau=threat to covenant: could lead to extinction of Abram's family; Jacob's leaving land for 20 years also threatens covenant--family could simply return to Mesopotamia. |
| Ethnic distinctiveness and the land (like 14, appear as interlude) |
Joseph (37-50)
| Relationship formed between Abram's family and land |
| Emerging profile of Judah (significance for later history); role is parallel to that of Jacob (deceived, asks for evidence concerning identity) |
| 37--Judah's younger son: forces his way out when all seems lost; makes breach (Judah-Tamar, twins Perez, Zerah) |
| Joseph (39), same kind of forcing out |
| Providential care of Joseph=sovereign control of history |