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Introduction to Genesis
Jewish tradition calls the first book of the Bible after its first word, Bereshit, which can be translated as "in the beginning" or "when first"; it was common in the ancient world to name a book after its first word(s) (see: mesopotamian epics).
Genesis comes from the ancient greek translation of the Torah, the Septuagint, Genesis in Greek meaning 'origin' or 'birth'; this name highlights an important dimension of the book of Genesis: its focus on genealogical origins: Though Genesis contains some of the most powerful narratives in the Bible, these stories occur within a genealogical structure, [. . .] within this framework, the book may be understood as an expanded genealogy of the "children of Israel" who will be the focus of attention in the book of Exodus and subsequent books.
In the ancient Near East, most literary compositions, including Genesis, were anonymous. Only during the Greco-Roman period do we start to see statements in early Jewish texts that Moses wrote Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch. This is thought to have been a response to Greek influence on Judaism, with Jewish authors retroactively painting the Pentateuch as having been penned by Moses, easily the most important figure to the work. Such claims included a supposed justification found in Deuteronomy 4.44, "This is the law [Heb torah] that Moses set before the Israelites," a passage taken to suggest Moses' authorship. Again, this can be taken as a later revision, as the Pentateuch includes events that happened after Moses' death (including Moses' death and burial, for that matter).
Most scholars agree that the texts now found in Genesis began to be written down sometime after the establishment of the monarchy in Israel in the tenth century BCE or later. Initially thought to have been composed of two distinct sources (J and E), modern scholarship sees the text as a more nuanced composition made up of various threads from various different times and locations. In any case, the earliest works now embedded in Genesis were products of scribes working in the contest of the monarchies of early Judah and Israel.
Many important parts of Genesis, however, were not written until after the monarchy had fallen in 586 BCE and Judean leaders were living in exile in Babylon. This is where many biblical themes of promises of land and progeny entered the biblical narrative, with scribes editing, adapting and tying earlier writings to the books of the present, reassuring the exiled peoples that God would bless them as he had blessed their ancestors. Revision, indeed.
In conjunction with this, Genesis sees the introduction of the Priestly source (P), with various sections and passages in Genesis seeming to have direct links to passages in later Exodus; the scribes of P having written their own parallel version of the events of earlier Genesis, having been consolidated with various other sources into the Pentateuch we know during the exilic period. This consolidation, however, also produced the numerous contradictions in Genesis that can be seen by the attentive reader, e.g., inconsistency in creation accounts, the differences between flood narratives (sacrifice versus no sacrifice).
Genesis can be said to be comprised of two main sections: the primeval history in chs 1:1-11:26 and the ancestral history in chs 11:27-50:26. The latter section can be broken down thusly:
Abraham and Sarah (chs 11.27-25.11)
Jacob and Esau (chs 25.19-35.29)
Joseph and his brothers (chs 37.2-50.26)
Notably, despite the male focus of headings like this and in the book iself, it is matriarchs of ancient Israel, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, who often play a determinative role in the Genesis narratives of birth and the fulfillment of God's promise.
The former section of primeval history itself is composed of two major sections:
(1) the creation of the cosmos and stories of the first humans (1.1-6.4); and
(2) the flood and dispersal of post-flood humanity (6.5-11.9).
It's worth noting that these narratives feature universal traditions similar to myths in other cultures, particularly those in the ancient Near East that predated the Biblical narrative by hyndreds of years, likewise featuring the creation of the world, a flood, and the vow of the gods (here plural) not to destroy life with a flood again.
These two sections are then followed by a genealogy in 11.10-26 that traces the generations connecting Noah's son, Shem, to Abraham, which is where we pick up on the aforementioned ancestral history that details God's promise to Abraham and his ancestors.
Taken all together, we can outline Genesis as follows:
(I) The primeval history (1.1-11.26) composed of:
(A) Creation and violence before the flood (1.1-6.4)
(B) Re-creation through flood and multiplication of humanity (6.5-11.9)
(II) Transitional genealogy briding from Shem (the Primeval history) to Abraham (Ancestral History) (11.10-26)
(III) The ancestral history (11.27-50.26)
(A) Gift of divine promise to Abraham and his descendants (11.27-25.11)
(B) The divergent destinies of the descendants of Ishmael and Issac (Jacob/Esau) (25.12-35.29)
(C) The divergent destinies of the descendants of Esau and Jacob/Israel (36.1-50.26)
By the end of the book, the lens of the narrative camera has moved from a wide-angle overview of all the peoples of the world to a narrow focus on one small group, the sons of Jacob (also named "Israel").
The history of interpretation of Genesis begins with its gradual composition over centuries. Early monarchic scribes reinterpreted oral traditions in writing the first preexeilic compositions behind Genesis. Later exilic scribes expanded and joined together earlier compositions in the process of addressing an audience of Judeans exiled in Babylon. Priests (exilic or postexilic) wrote their own versions of the beginnings of Israel, "P". Later postexilic writers consolidated the non-Priestly and Priestly writings into a common Torah that became the foundation of later Judaism. Each of these stages involved interpretation of how earlier writings pertained to the present. Genesis as we have it now is a crystallization of these multiple interpretations.
Commentary here on how Paul used Abraham's actions in Genesis as an argument for why Gentile converts did not need to fulill Torah requirements in order to partake of God's promise, as long as they joined themselves to Jesus Christ; this was in contrast to Jewish scholars who use Genesis to argue the opposite, that Torah law is certainly a pre-requisite in every sense of the word for salvation when it comes to Gentiles. I'm sure we'll see more on this later, so I write this here mainly for posterity.
Commentary too on how Islam interprets Genesis, with Abraham's son Ishmael, not Issac, being the almost-sacrifice unto God according to Islamic tradition. Moreover, it is said that Abraham and Ishmael went on to find and rebuild the Kaaba shrine at Mecca. In this way, stories from Genesis are linked to two of the five central pillars of Islam: monotheism and pilgrimage.
Discussion of the relatively new phenomena of arguing for the historicity of the creation narrative as found in Genesis; the notion of Genesis being literal history was not a significant concern in premodern times, such stories were often read metaphorically or allegorically: Moreover, many would argue that an ancient document such as Genesis should not be treated as scientific treatise or a modern-style historical source. Instead, its rich stoer of narratives offer nonscientific, narrative, and poetic perspectives on values and the meaning of the cosmos that pertain to other dimensions of human life.
Many who resolved to read the whole Bible, hey there! have made it through Genesis, but what they find often surprises them. Those who know the stories of Genesis through the lens of later interpretation often assume that the characters in the book are saints. A closer reading reveals otherwise. The supposedly "faithful" Abraham often seems doubtful of God's intent to protect and provide for him, and Jacob and his family are distinguished by their ability to survive in the world through bargaining and trickery. Such stories pose a challenge to those who would use the biblical ancestors as role models for ethical behavior. Standing at the Bible's outset, they challenge readers to develop other models for understanding and appreciating this ancient text.
Genesis
Gen 1:1: The priestly account of creation presents God as a king, creating the universe by decree in six days and resting on the seventh. Scholars differ on whether this verse is to be translated as an independent sentence, even a title summarizing what follows (e.g., "In the beginning God created"), or as a temporal phrase describing what things were like when God started (e.g., "When God began to create . . .the earth was a formless void"; cg. 2.4-6). In either case, the text does not describe creation out of nothing (contrast 2 Macc 7.28).
Gen 1.2: As with other ancient cosmogonies, Gen 1.2 begins with detailing what things were like before creation; Earth being uninhabitable sets the stage for God's transformation of it. Christian interpreters have often seen the "Spirit" of the Trinity later in this verse.
Gen 1.3: The first of eight acts of creation through decree. Like a king God pronounces his will and it is accomplished.
Gen 1.4-5: Introduction of two crucial themes: the goodness of creation, and the idea that creation is acomplished through God's manipulation of elements of the universe.
Gen 1.6-8: The dome/Sky made on the second day separates an upper ocean (Ps 148.4; see Gen 7.11) from a lower one, creating a space in which subsequent creation can take place.
Gen 1.11-13: Earth is a feminine noun in Hebrew; echoes universal mythologies of the feminine earth bringing forth life—God is involved only indirectly here, commanding the earth to put forth.
Gen 1.14-19: In response to non-Israelite cultures who worshipped the heavenly bodies, the bodies are not named and are identified as mere timekeepers.
Gen 1.20-23: God's blessing of the swarming creatures anticipates a similar blessing that God will give humanity.
Gen 1.26: The plural us, our, probably refers to the divine beings who compose God's heavenly court.
Gen 1.26-27: Image, likeness is often interpreted to be a spiritual likeness between God and humanity. This idea of God's making of humans as a "God image" (1.27) may instead be related to ancient ideas of the making of physical cult images of deities and/or ancient beliefs that the king was an "image" of the deity, and thus authorized to rule. This latter idea is democratized here. God makes all of humanity as images of God in order for them to exercise godlike rule over earth's creatures.
Gen 1.27-28: Stressing the creation of humanity as simultaneously male and female; prepares for God's fertility blessing that enables them to multiply greatly.
Gen 1.31: Where individual elements of creation were "good", the whole is very good, perfectly corresponding to God's intention.
Gen 2.1-3: God's seventh-day rest (Hebrew: "shabat") here weaves a seven-day rhythm into creation, anticipating later commands for Israel to rest on the seventh day (e.g., Ex 16.22-30; 20:8-11//Deut 5.12-15).
Gen 2.4-25: Creation in a garden. Non-priestly Yahwistic tradition differing from 1.1-2.3, as evidenced by the different style and order of events—though different, it nevertheless reflects ancient temple imagery.
Gen 2.4-6: A description of how things were prioer to creation is common in ancient Near Eastern creation stories.
Gen 2.7: The wordplay on the Hebrew "adam" (human being; here translated "man") and "adamah" (arable land/soil; here ground) introduces a motif characteristic of this tradition: the relation of humankind to the soil from which it was formed. Human nature is not a duality of body and soul; rather God's breath animates the dust and it becomes a single living being (Ps 104.29; Job 34.14-15).
Gen 2.8-9: Eden, likely meaning 'well-watered place'; elsewhere called "garden of God/the Lord" (13.10; Ezek 28.13-16; 31.8-9; Isa 51.3; Joel 2.3); such sacred gardens are known in other ancient Near Eastern temples. In addition, ancient Near Eastern art and texts feautre a prominent focus on trees, often associated with feminine powers of fertility.
Gen 2.15: God's placement of the human in the garden to till it echoes other ancient creation narratives where humans are created to labor on the gods' behalf.
Gen 2.18: The hebrew word rendered as "helper" need not imply a subordinate status.
Gen 2.19-20: Here, animals are created after the first man, rather than before (cf. 1.24-25). The human's naming of the animals suggests dominion over them analagous to that seen in in 1.26-28. Yet the Lord God here contrasts with the all-powerful deity depicted in ch 1; The Lord God creates the animals in a comical, failed attempt to make a truly corresponding helper for the human.
Gen 2.21-23: The connection of men and women is affirmed through the crowning event of creation: the making of the woman from a part of the man, mirroring that of humanity's connection to the ground, so too is there wordplay here, as seen in the man's poem, with the Hebrew for woman, "ishshah" stemming from that of the Hebrew for man, "ish".
Gen 2.24-25: Unashamed nakedness and the purity of sex is here considered as reflecting the essence of the connection God created between man and woman; innocent and uncivilized.
Gen 3.1-24: Garden disobedience and punishment. Though this story is often taken by Christians as an account of "original sin," the word "sin" never occurs in it. Instead, it is a sophisticated narrative describing how God's acts and their aftermath lead to the formation of fully adult, mortal humans to till the earth outside the garden.
Gen 3.1: Both the nakedness of the man and woman as well as the craftiness of the snake are described with the same Hebrew word, "arum", drawing contrast. Snakes were a symbol in the ancient world of wisdom, fertility, and immortality. Only later was the snake in this story seen by interpreters as the devil (see Wis 2.24).
Gen 3.3: Worth noting that the woman's recitation of God's prohibition differs from the actual words, leaving ambiguity as to which tree she is referring to, and though it was initially directed at the man, and not at her, she assumes she is included in the prohibition.
Gen 3.4-5: The snake introduces doubt by contradicting God's word, attributing God's prohibition to God's fear that humans would have their eyes opened so they gain godlike wisdom, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3.6-7: The couple eat from the tree, and gain enlightenment. Such wisdom takes them from the earlier unashamed nakedness (2.25) to clothing, a mark of their first move from childlike/animal-like unashamed nakedness to civilized adulthood.
Gen 3.8-13: The disintegration of the earlier simple bond between God, the man, and the woman is shown by the hiding of the humans from the Lord God and the tendency of the man to blame the woman (and implicitly the Lord God) for his action. Later interpreters of the story have shown a similar tendency to follow the man in blaming the woman (e.g., Sir 25.24; 1 Tim 2.14).
Gen 3.16-19: The man's rule over the woman here is a tragic reflection of the disintegration of original connectedness between them.
Gen 3.20: Eve, resembles the Hebrew word for "living"; because she was the mother of all living.
Gen 3.21: The fashioning of clothing for the man and woman by the Lord God is a form of divine recognition of their complete transition, through gaining wisdom, from childlike innocence to adulthood.
Gen 3.22-23: As elsewhere in the ancient Near East, humans here are depicted as having a brief opportunity for immortality. The Lord God's fear of humans becoming godlike (cf. 1.26-27) recalls the snake's assertions in 3.4-5. The term "us" probably refers to the heavenly court once more. God's speech here clarifies that the humans gaining of knowledge of good and evil would send them from the garden, permanently preventing their immortality, validating the prediction that they will "certainly die" made in 2.17.
Gen 3.24: Cf. Ezek 28.13-16. The last echoes of temple imagery occur here. The cherubim are composite, winged creatures like the half-human, half-lion sphinx of Egypt. Representations of them guarded sanctuaries like the one in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6.23-28,32,35). The gate to the garden of Eden is in the east, like the processional gate to the Temple (Ezek 10.19).
Gen 4.1-16: Cain and Abel. Relational focus on brothers, paralleling the focus on relations between man and woman in the prior chapter.
Gen 4.1: Emphasis on the power of creation that is childbirth; the child is named Cain, derived from a Hebrew word for create, "qanah."
Gen 4.2: The name Abel is the same word translated as "vanity", or "emptiness" in the book of Ecclesiastes: His name anticipates his destiny. The distinction in rpofessions between Cain and Abel implies a further step toward culture.
Gen 4.3-5: Why God has a preference for Abel's sacrifice and Cain's is not well explained; it is likely that the ancient Israelite audience would assume a divine preference for animal sacrifice over that of Cain's vegetable offering, but such an instance of divine preference would be unexplainable for Cain; he could not have known.
Gen 4.7: The first mention of sin in the Bible; sin is somehow linked wih the risk to Cain if he does "not do well" in dealing with his anger.
Gen 4.10-11: Blood is sacred, for it is the seat of life (9.4; Deut 12.23), and blood of unpunished murders pollutes the ground (Num 35.30-34).
Gen 4.13-14: The importance of arable ground in these chapters can be seen in Cain's conclusion that expulsion from the soil means being hidden from the Lord's face.
Gen 4.16: Land of Nod, Nod in hebrew meaning "To wander", or "Wandering". Footnote says to refer to notes on Gen 11.1-9 which mentions the conclusion of the eastward journey of the family that starts with Cain's leave in this verse.
Gen 4.17-26: First overview of generations from creation to flood. Deriving from a different source than 5.1-32, most of the names here are variants of those found there, but not in the same order. Note: the book includes two graphs of the two genealogies, taken from the Yahwistic and Priestly sources respectively.
Gen 4.17: Cain's marriage and fear of others (4.14) presumes the presence of a broader population thus far unmentioned, indicating that the narratives about him were not originally connected with the creation myth—another indication of intertwined myths unless we want to accept incest as the natural conclusion.
Gen 4.18-22: Emphasis on detailing what sons produced what aspects of civilization through their occupations, attributing culture and technology's entrance into the world through Cain's lineage.
Gen 4.23-24: The song Lamech sings (The Song of the Sword, thought to have originated in the now-lost non-canonical text the Book of the Wars of the Lord) in totality functions as a lamentation of the consequence of civilization's expansion: an expansion of the violence with which the family tree began.
Gen 4.25: Adam begets another child, Seth, which the wife named as such because "God [had] appointed" for her another child instead of Abel, the Hebrew verb for "Appointed" resembling the word for "Seth". This verse acts as a parallel to 4.1, introducing the new line of Seth.
Gen 4.26: This Yahwistic tradition locates the beginning of use of the divine name "Yahweh" (Lord) in the primeval period, in contrast to the Priestly tradition, in which the divine name is not used until the time of Moses (Ex 6.2-6).
Gen 5.1-32: Second overview of generations from creation to flood. This priestly genealogy prallels 4.1-26, building from the P creation story (1.1-2.3) to the Priestly strand of the flood narrative. The list of descendants of Adam was evidently a separate source which the Priestly writer drew upon for this chapter and used as a model for later notices (6.9; 10.1 etc.).
Gen 5.1-2: The Priestly writer uses this reprise of 1.26-28 to bind his genealogical source (where "adam" designates a particular person) to 1.1-23 (where "adam" designates humanity as a whole), In other words, purposefully referencing the opening of Genesis in the opening of this chapter that describes Adam's genealogy, thus connecting this lineage to that of the Priestly representation of creation, where Adam (singular) and adam (humanity) can now be interpreted thematically as being one; you can see the legwork the Priestly writer is doing here to bolster their narrative interrelations.
Gen 5.3: The divine likeness detailed in 1.26 is again invoked here, with Adam's son, Seth being described as being born in Adam's likeness, thus being transmitted to succeeding generations.
Gen 5.4-32: Ancient Babylonian lists similarly survey a series of heroes before the flood, each of whom lived fantastically long times. As in those lists, here too ages decline over time, to the 100-200 years of Israel's ancestors. The names in this list resemble those of 4.17-26.
Gen 5.24: Babylonian traditions also report that some individuals—e.g., Emmeduranki (a pre-flood figure), Etana, and Adapa—were taken up into heaven by God. Later Jewish tradition speculated at length on Enoch's travels.
Gen 5.29: The name of Noah, meaning "rest" in Hebrew, anticipates his founding of viticulture (9.20), providing wine that relieves the curse of the ground detailed in 3.17-19. Worth pointing out that Noah's father, Lamech, is apparently prescient of this fact, noting that Noah will bring them relief; how he knows this is an unanswerable question.
Gen 6.1-4: Divine-human reproduction illustrates the breaching of the divine-human boundary that the Lord God feared in 3.22. There the Lord God drove humans away from the tree of life. Here, in an abbreviated narrative often attributed to the Yahwistic primeval history, the Lord limits their life span to one hundred twenty years, the life span of Moses (Deut 34.7) Nothing appears to happen to the sons of God who instigated it all, though this becomes a matter of great speculation in postbiblical literature.
Gen 6.4: The products of divine-human intercourse are the legendary warriors of renown. They are distinguished here from the Nephilim, a race of giants said to exist both prior to and after those times (cf. Num 13.33; Deut 2.10-11).
Gen 6.5-8.19: The great flood. This story describes God's un-creation and re-creation of the world. The biblical version is an interweaving of parallel accounts; the combination of the Yahwistic and Priestly accounts being necessary to avoid describing two consecutive, contradictory floods.
Gen 6.5-8: This introduction links with the non-Priestly material, particularly 2.7 (compare 6.7)
Gen 6.5: Though the biblical account is quite close in many respects to Mesopotamian flood stories found in Atrahasis and Gilgamesh tablet 11, one significant difference is that this text attributes the flood to God's judgement on the wickedness of humankind rather than divine frustration with human overpopulation and noise.
Gen 6.11-13: Here the Priestly writers attribute the flood to corruption of the earth and violence filling it (see 4.8,10,23-24).
Gen 6.14-16: Utnapishtim, hero of the epic of Gilgamesh is likewise told to build a similar houseboat, sealing it with pitch: The description of a three-leveled ark may be based on an ancient idea that the ark reflects the three-part structure of both universe and temple.
Gen 6.18: Covenant, footnote refers to the notes on 9.8-17: Speaks of this being the first explicit mention of a Covenant in the bible, and it encompasses all of humanity as well as that of the animal world.
Gen 6.19-20: Footnote refers to notes on 7.2-3.
Gen 7.1-5: This non-Priestly text parallels P in 6.11-22 and continues the tradition seen in 6.5-8.
Gen 7.2-3: The provision of extra clean animals allows for the sacrifice that will occur in 8.20; if only one pair of each animal were taken, every sacrifice would eliminate a species. The priestly tradition instead presumes that both sacrifice and the distinction between clean and unclean animals (see Lev 11) were not introduced until the revelation at Sinai, therefore only one pair of each species suffices (6.19-20; 7.14-15; cf. 7.9). Example of one of the contradictions arising from the conflation of two flood narratives.
Gen 7.6-16: Noah, his family, and the animals enter the ark twice (7.7-9 || 7.13-16), reflecting the interweaving of the two originally distinct flood accounts. Whereas the non-Priestly account has the flood caused by forty days of rain (7.4,12), the Priestly account attributes the flood to God's opening of the protective dome created in the second day (1.6-8), thus allowing the upper and lower oceans to meet (7.11), reversing P's creation story. (Considered a full un-creation of that Priestly account at Genesis' opening which the mere mention of forty days' worth of rain would not fulfil)
Gen 7.17-24: The P and non-P strands are thoroughly interwoven in this description of the flood itself, including multiple descriptions of the extinction of life outside the ark (7.21-23). Such flood imagery powerfully represents a return to chaos. Though many world traditions speak of floods, there is no geological evidence of a global flood like that described here. Goes without saying really, flashbacks to the Bill Nye–Ken Ham debate on creation being a viable model of origins, good heavens.
Gen 8.1-2: God's wind echoes the first creation (1.2) in the process of starting the re-creation process. The closing of the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens reestablishes the space for life that was first created on the second day (1.6-8).
Gen 8.4: Ararat, a region in Armenia. Worth noting also that in the epic of Gilgamesh the boat also rested on a mountain.
Gen 8.6-12: Again, the sending out of the birds lifted straight from the epic of Gilgamesh.
Gen 8.20-9.17: Divine commitments after the flood. This section features two accounts of God's commitments after the flood (8.20-22 [non-P]; 9.1-17 [P]), both of which include God's promise not to destroy life through such a flood ever again.
Gen 8.20-22: The non-Priestly tradition describes Noah's burnt offerings of clean animals. In the Gilgamesh epic the hero offered sacrifices and "the gods smelled the pleasant gragrance" and repented of their decision to destroy humanity. here the Lord smells the pleasing odor of Noah's offering and resolves never again to curse the ground or destroy all creatures. The Lord does this despite full recognition that human nature has not changed (cf. 6.5-7). The final result of Noah's sacrifice is the Lord's promise to preserve the cycle of agricultural seasons. A central aim of temple sacrifice in Israel and elsewhere was to preserve that cycle, assuring agricultural fertility. The echo of that idea here is yet another way in which the "non-Priestly" primeval history reflects temple concerns (see also the focus on responses to sacrifice in 4.1-8 and notes on 2.8-9,10-14; 3.24).
Gen 9.1-17: The Priestly tradition lacks an account of sacrifice. Instead it focuses on affirmations of some aspects of the creation in 1.1-31 and revisions of others.
Gen 9.1-7: This section begins and ends with a reaffirmation of the fertility blessing (vv. 1,7; cf. 1.28).
Gen 9.2-6: Here God revises the earlier command of vegetarianism (1.29-30). This is a partial concession to the "violence" observed prior to the flood (6.11,13) and an extension of the human dominion over creation described in 1.26-28. At the same time, God limits human rule and regulates pre-flood violence through stipulating that humans may not eat the blood in which life resides (see 4.10-11n.) and that humans, as bearers of God's image (1.26-27), may not be murdered. Since these laws are given to Noah and his sons, the ancestors of all post-flood humanity, they were used in later Jewish tradition as the basis for a set of seven Noachide laws that were seen as binding upon Gentiles as well as Jews (see Acts 15.20; 21.25; b. San. 58b).
Gen 9.8-17: As noted prior, this is the first explicit mention of a Covenant in the Bible; A "Covenant" is a formal agreement, often between a superior and inferior party, the former "making" or "establishing" (vv. 9,11) the bond with the latter, and the superior protecting the weaker party. This agreement is often sealed through ceremonies. In this case, God sets his weapon, the bow (Ps 7.12-13; Hab 3.9-11), in the sky facing away from humanity as a sign of God's commitment not to flood the earth again. Did some googling on this one, traditionally taken to mean a rainbow, the "Bow" referenced here actually has quite a history of interpretation, with early Rabbinic sources imagining it as a war-bow, with the bow turned upwards so that arrows would be shot away from the earth—the Hebrew word used here is unhelpful, literally just meaning "bow" with no indication as to what specific kind might be meant. Modern scholars have theroized on the idea of the bow representing the firmament, the boundary between the primal seas that play into the creation-to-flood narrative. It's worth noting also that the Iliad also has mention of rainbows being a sign from the Gods to man: ...like the rainbows which the son of Kronos has set in heaven as a sign to mortal men.
Gen 9.18-29: Noah and his sons. Aside from P in vv. 18-19 and 28-29, this text is part of the Yahwistic primeval history. It links to the explanation of Noah's name in 5.29 and repeats major themes from the pre-flood period: farming, (nakedness, alienation in the family, curse, and domination). Though this text was once widely misread as describing a "curse of Ham" justifying slavery of African peoples, Noah's curse here is actually directed at Canaan, a figure not seen as an ancestor of African peoples.
Gen 9.22-23: Some speculation over Ham's actions here. Some accuse Ham of incest (described alike in Lev 20.17, though differences in wording make this comparison tenuous), but Shem and Japheth are specifically contrasted as turning away, indicating that Ham's problematic behavior was the fact in and of itself that he did not look away from Noah's nakedness. Such behavior is an example of the breakdown of family relationships seen in ch 3 (see 3.8-13,16-19) and ch 4 (see 4.1-16).
Gen 9.24-27: Many have puzzled over why Canaan is cursed for his father, Ham's, misdeed (9.25-26). An editor may have redirected an earlier curse on Ham toward Canaan, so that the curse could help justify the conquest of the land of Canaan (see 10.16-18a; 14.1-12,13-16n.).
Gen 10.1-32: The table of nations. A largely Priestly survey of the world of the Israelites; national groups depicted in relation to one another through means of kinship—Japhethites, Hamites, and Shemites overlapping precisely in Canaan. I have nothing much to note at this juncture, footnotes detailing whigh descendants correlate to which group. Clear enough that the descendants are a fictional anthropomorphization of their respective ethnicities and nations, existing as they do in order to explain the repopulation of a post-flood world, and there may be some indication that the genealogical groupings could have been political in nature at time of writing.
Gen 11.1-9: The tower of Babel. This narrative (from the non-Priestly Yahwistic primeval history) revisits the theme of preservation of the divine-human boundary. The threat to that boundary, self-reflective speech by the Lord, and act of divine prevention all parallel 3.22-24 and 6.1-4. With 11.2 the human family completes the eastward movement begun in 3.22-24. This story then focuses on a scattering of the human family into different ethnic, linguistic, and territorial groups, and gives background for the table of nations in ch 10, although it was not originally written with that in view.
Gen 11.4: Humans fear being scattered across the earth, so they build a tower. Their intention to stay together contradicts the divine imperative to "fill the earth" now found in Priestly traditions (1.28; 9.1,7).
Gen 11.6: The Lord is described here as fearing the human power that might result from ethnic and linguistic unity (see 3.22).
Gen 11.7: "Us" meaning the divine court.
Gen 11.8-9: The scattering of humanity and the confusing of language is the final step in creation of civilized humanity, the story of the tower of Babel acting as an etiology for cultural maturity in these areas. Each step toward this end has been fraught with conflict and loss. The name "Babel," interpreted here as "confusion" but originally meaning "gate of god" (cf. 28.16-17n), serves as af inal testimony to the result of this process.
Gen 11.20-26: The descendants of Shem. This genealogy from the Priestly tradition closely parallels 5.1-32, though it lacks death notices. It builds a genealogical bridge from Shem to Terah, the father of Abraham. Parts of the genealogy of Shem (10.21-31) are repeated, but now the text focuses on those firstborn male descendants who lead to Abraham, thus setting up Abraham as the firstborn heir of Shem, the eldest of Noah's sons.
Gen 11.27-25.11: The story of Abraham and his family. The bulk of this section is a non-Priestly narrative about Abraham. It builds on a blend of oral traditions around him, including the stories standing behind the present narratives about his descent into Egypt (12.10-20), the Abraham and Lot cycle (13.2-13; 18.1-16; 19.1-28,30-37), a pair of Hagar and Ishmael narratives (16.1-14 and 21.8-10), and the tradition about Abraham's stay in Philistine Gerar (20.1-18; 21.22-34; cf. 26.6-33). Some scholars think that the Abraham stories incorporate two separate written J and E sources, with remnants of J (the Yahwistic source) found primarily in chs 12-19 (along with ch 24) and E (Elohistic source) fragments in chs 20-22. Others suggest that they were composed as a single whole, though building on a range of separate traditions. Scholars generally agree, however, that the story of conquest and covenant in 14.1-15.21 and Priestly materials found in 17.1-27 and elsewhere (see 11.27-32n.; 12.4b-5n. 12.3n. 17.1-27n. 21.3-5n. 25.7-11n) were added later.
Gen 11.27-32: Introduction to the Abraham story.
Gen 11.27: Abram, footnote refers to a note on 17.5 regareding the etymology of Abraham's name. The designation "Abraham" is used here in the annotations as the better-known name of Abra(ha)m. Aside from his birth, nothing is told about the early life of Abraham; this lack is filled in by postbiblical tradition.
Gen 11.29-30: The first appearance of the theme of barrenness of the three most central matriarchs: Sarai/Sarah, Rebekah (25.21), and Rachel (29.31). Their initial barrenness highlights God's power to provide heirs of the promise.
Gen 11.31: Haran, in northwest Mesopotamia was Abraham's ancestral home, according to 24.10.
Gen 12.1-3: The Lord's call and promise to Abraham initiates a new movement in the story of Genesis. The first of three divine speeches in which a patriarch is given directions and promises of a blessing (12.1-3; 26.2-5; 41.1-4; see also 31.3,13). The combination of command and promise implies that the Lord's fulfillment of the promise will follow upon Abraham's fulfillment of the command.
Gen 12.1: This command is likely based on those that appear later, being added later so as to mirror them (31.3,13).
Gen 12.2: The promise of a great nation stemming from Abraham stands in tension with Sarah's barrenness, motivating much of the following narrative.
Gen 12.3: Paul interpreted this passage as meaning the Gentiles of all the world became blessed through Abraham (Gal 3.8), but it is more likely that the original translation means something more akin to by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves, i.e., they will say "may we be like Abraham".
Gen 12.4-9: Abraham's first journey to the land.
Gen 12.6-8: This report of Abraham's journey anticipates Jacob's travels through similar places with similar elements; sacred trees like the oak of Moreh occur elsewhere in Genesis and seem to have played an important role in the religion of the ancient Israelites due to their prevalence.
Gen 12.10-13.1: First story of endangerment of the matriarch (cf. ch 20; 26.6-11). Abraham appears not to trust the promise of protection just offered him. Overall, this story of descent into Egypt because of famine and rescue through plagues anticipates many aspects of the later narrative about Israel's descent into Egypt and exodus from it (Gen 45-Ex 14).
Gen 13.2-18: Split of Abraham and Lot.
Gen 13.2-7: The riches and flocks owned by Abraham at this point testifies to the preliminary fulfillment of the promise of blessing in 12.2-3.
Gen 13.8-13: Story anticipates the narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the wickedness of their inhabitants.
Gen 13.14-17: Only after Abraham has split from Lot and settled in Canaan does God show him the land. This certifies that Abraham has fulfilled God's command to go to the land that God "will show" him.
Gen 14.1-24: Abraham's rescue of Lot from the eastern kings. This and ch 15 relate to each other (see 15.1n., 15.12-16n.) and link in multiple ways with late layers of the primeval history (see 9.18-27n.; 10.6-18a n.).
Gen 14.1-12: Shemite king Chedorlaomer leads an alliance of eastern kings to crush an uprising within the ranks of their Canaanite subjects; this is a fulfillment of the curse of Noah on Canaan, confirming that his people would be enslaved to Shem—neither this battle (the Battle of Siddim) nor any of the kings are considered historical.
Gen 14.13-16: Divine blessing protects Abraham and his household, likewise his ability to overcome the Shemite conquerors testifies to his status as heir of Shem and his blessing.
Gen 14.17-20: First and only reference to Jerusalem by name in the Torah, "Salem". King Melchizedek blesses Abraham in the name of God Most High (El Elyon), highest God of the pre-Israelite Canaanite pantheon—Melchizedek is identified later as founder of a royal priesthood in psalm 110.4.
Gen 15.1-21: The first covenant with Abraham.
Gen 15.1: The promise to be a shield ("magen" in Hebrew) for Abraham echoes Melchizedek's praise of the god who "delivered" ("miggen" in Hebrew) Abraham, and the reward replaces the goods Abraham refused from the king of Sodom.
Gen 15.2-5: Repitition here indicates the intertwining of sources much like the flood.
Gen 15.7-21: Repeat of the pattern in 15.1-6, has covenant ceremony sealing God's promise to Abraham.
Gen 15.9-17: Ancient israelite practice of making a covenant by proclaiming that they will suffer the fate of the "cut" sacrifice if they disobey the terms of the agreement (see Jer 34.18); the Hebrew for "making" a Covenant is to "cut" a covenant. God passes between the pieces in the form of fire, establishing the covenant.
Gen 15.12-16: Though God promises a return in four generations in verse 16, verse 13 specifies 400 years: it is likely that verse 13 was later edited to 400 years so as to better reflect on Priestly material in Exodus 12.40.
Gen 15.16: The iniquity of the Amorites, see Lev 20.23; Deut 9.4.
Gen 15.18-21: Conclusion of ceremony has God promise to give the land of the Canaanite peoples to Abraham.
Gen 15.18: The boundaries given here are the broadest definition of the promised land in the Bible. They correspond to similarly broad, ideal descriptions of the land in the Deuteronomistic History (e.g., 2 Sam 8.3; 1 Kings 4.21; cf. Deut 1.7; 11.24; Josh 1.4). The phrase river of Egypt occurs only here and may refer to the Nile. But elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., Num 34.5; 2 Kings 24.7; Isa 27.12) and in other sources, the "Wadi of Egypt" is apparently either the Wadi Besor or the Wadi el-Arish, both south of Gaza.
Gen 16.1-16: Hagar's encounter with God and the birth of Ishmael stand at the heart of the Abraham story, enveloped by parallel traditions dealing with covenant (chs 15 and 17), Lot and Abraham (chs 13-14 and 18-19), the endangerment of Sarah (12.10-20 and ch 20), and the promise (12.1-6 and 22.1-19).' Interesting that this story mirrors the later exodus, with an Egyptian fleeing eastward into the wilderness to meet God. There will later in Genesis itself be a doublet of this story, with Gen 21.8-21. Both stories have their origins in ancient traditions surrounding the origin of the Ishmaelites, seen in Genesis as ancestors of the Arab peoples (see Gen 25.12-18).
Gen 16.2: According to ancient surrogate motherhood customs, a wife could give her maid to her husband and claim the child as her own (30.3,9).
Gen 16.7: Here the angel of the Lord is not a heavenly being subordinate to God, but the Lord (Yahweh) in earthly manifestation (cf. 21.17,19; Ex 14.19).
Gen 16.11: Explanation of the name Ishamel: "God hears, for the Lord has given heed to your affliction."
Gen 16.13: El-Roi, "God of seeing," or "God who sees."
Gen 17.1-27: The everlasting covenant and sign of circumcision. This account from the Priestly tradition is parallel to that in 15.1-21 and links to the Priestly covenant with Noah in 9.8-17.
Gen 17.1: The phrase translated as God Almighty (Hebrew: "El Shadday") is variously understood as "God [or "El"], the one of the mountains," "God of the Shadday [deities]," or even "fertile God" (literally, "God with Breasts," see 49.25). Whatever its original meaning, the Priestly tradition understands this epithet to be what the early ancestors of Israel called God before they learned the name Yahweh (Ex 6.2-8).
Gen 17.2-6: In a parallel to 15.1-6 this text includes the promise of offspring in the covenant.
Gen 17.5: A new name signifies a new relationship or status (see 32.28). Abram means "the [divine] ancestor is exalted," as does its dialectical variant here, Abraham. This verse, however, explains the extra syllable ham in Abraham as from the hebrew word, "hamon" (multitude), thus meaning that Abraham will now be ancestor of a multitude. This anticipates nations whose ancestry will be traced to Abraham, such as Edomites and Ishmaelites.' The promise to make Abraham exceedingly numerous and fruitful echoes the broader fertility blessings given to animals and humanity prior, suggesting that Abraham's line is now the recipient of the blessing originally intended for all humanity.
Gen 17.9-14: Notable that circumcision within the covenant pertains only to the household and heirs of Abraham. Circumcision was likely originally a fertility rite (see 34.14-17), elsewhere connected with warding off demons (see Ex 4.24-26).
Gen 18.1-15: The Lord's visit to Abraham and Sarah.
Gen 18.2-8: Secretly divine visitor motif. The narrative shifts between talking of the men as a collective and the Lord as a singular fluidly, confusing matters.
Gen 18.9-15: Sarah's laughter at the promise of a son stresses the incredibility of God's act.
Gen 18.11: Menopause.
Gen 18.12: Issac's name means "he [God] laughs"; other traditions develop the link with laughter as well (17.17-19; 21.6,8; 26.8).
Gen 18.16-33: Abraham's intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah.
Gen 18.20-21: Speech echoes that of Babel; going down and seeing what was going on there.
Gen 18.22-23: Like Moses (e.g., Ex 32.9-14), Abraham negotiates with an angry God, appealing to God's righteousness. Thus, this text appears to be a theoretical reflection on God's righteousness and how many righteous people are required to save a broader group; cf. Ezek 14.12-23.
Gen 19.1-38: The rescue of Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Prominent example of God's total judgement (Deut 29.23; Isa 1.9; Jer 49.18; Am 4.11).
Gen 19.1-11: Secretly divine visitors once more, however the sanctity of hospitality is threatened by the men of the city who wish to rape (know) the guests. Lot's attempt to avert this fate, in offering his own daughters in place of the guests, only angers the men of the city more: Where Abraham was the model of hospitality (Gen 18.1-16), Lot's actions show him to be a bungling, almost heartless imitator who does not deserve to be the heir of the promise to Abraham.
Gen 19.15-23: Lot hesitates at the angel's urging to leave Sodom, contrasting him once more disfavorably to Abraham, who hurried to serve his guests.
Gen 19.24-25: The rain of destruction continues the echoes of the Noah story.
Gen 19.26: The fate of Lot's wife acts as an etiological explanation for pillars of salt (common in the dead sea).
Gen 19.29: Priestly summary of the story. Echoes 8.1 (God remembered). Attributes Lot's rescue to his relation with Abraham.
Gen 19.37-38: Explanation for the origin of the Moabites and Ammonites through incest; Lot's daughters mistaking the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as being the destruction of the totality of humanity. Reminiscent of the story of Noah and his sons (9.20-27).
Gen 20.1-18: The second story of endangerment of the matriarch. Footnote details the discussion surrounding Chs 20-22 as possibly being the first major block of an Elohistic (E) source; not so clear-cut as the Priestly accounts however, as chs 20-22 are understandable only when read following chs 12-19 (Abraham's claim in 20.2 that Sarah is his sister, for instance), indicating that the Elohistic traditions here were written as part of a larger whole that included the preceding narratives, and can thus not be considered a wholly separate, independent source.
Gen 20.3-7: Abimelech's case is far more sympathetic than that of the foreign king in parallel accounts (12.15-19; 26.9-10), though it is worth nothing that God says it was he that kept Abimelech from sinning against him, calling into question free will.
Gen 20.7: First use of the term prophet, and the only designation of Abraham as a prophet in the Torah (but see Ps 105.15).
Gen 20.12: Abraham provides many excuses for his action despite Abimelech's god-proven sincerity in his questioning.
Gen 21.1-21: Issac and Ishmael.
Gen 21.14-17: In these verses Ishmael is a young boy; this is incongruent with the parallel accounts of the Priestly traditions (16.16; 17.25; 21.5) implying the contradiction was borne of later Priestly oversight.
Gen 21.22-34: Abraham's dispute with Abimelech. This text continues the story about Abraham and Abimelech that was begin in ch 20. They are later mirrored by Isaac's sojourn in Gerar in 26.6-33; it is likely they have a common oral background.
Gen 21.33: "El-Olam," everlasting God may be an ancient divine name once associated with the sanctuary at Beer-sheba.
Gen 22.1-19: The testing of Abraham. In general, the Bible suggests that God may control future events, but not that God knows all future events; Abraham's fear of God is not proven until he has reached out his hand to slaughter his son.
Gen 22.1-2: After giving up Ishmael earlier, Abraham must now prepare to give up Issac, his promised heir, as well. Echoing the start of Abraham's story, he is asked to go (Hebrew "lek laka") and sacrifice his future family on a mountain that God will show him, much like he was asked to go (Hebrew "lek laka") from his family of origin and go to a land God would show him. The highlighting of "your only son . . . who you love" presupposes that what is being asked of Abraham is extraordinary and extremely difficult. Though child sacrifice was not commonplace, it was known to happen (see 2 Kings 3.27).
Gen 22.3: Abraham leaves immediately to do as asked without question, much like in 12.4-6.
Gen 22.5: Abraham's promise that he and Isaac will return may suggest a faith that God will work out an alternative sacrifice.
Gen 22.9-13: Christian understanding of Isaac as a prefiguration of Jesus.
Gen 23.1-20: Abraham's purchase of a family burial place. A late priestly tradition.
Gen 23.17-20: As in many ancient cultures, the Israelites believed that burial of ancesors in a plot of land gave their heirs a sacred claim to it.
Gen 24.1-67: Finding a wife for Isaac among kinfolk in Haran.
Gen 24.3: Abraham is concerned about intermarriage with Canaanites that is otherwise seen primarily in late materials from Deuteronomy (Deut 7.3-4).
Gen 24.10-27: Commonplace of well scenes as meeting places for people in the Ancient near east.
Gen 25.1-11: The death of Abraham.
Gen 25.1-6: Keturah, one of Abraham's wives is considered the maternal ancestor of the Arabian tribes.
Gen 25.7-11: Conclusion to the Abraham story taken from the Priestly source.
Gen 25.12-18: Overview of the descendants of Ishmael. As the firstborn son of Abraham, we see Ishmael's descendants before that of Isaac's.
Gen 25.16: Like Israel, the Ishmaelites are said to have twelve tribes.
Gen 25.19-35.29: The story of Jacob and his family. Evokes early traditions of Jacob/Israel, father of the Israelite tribes; though many originated as oral tradition, this written version shows many connections to places that were important in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and thus likely originated there, enriched too as it is by emphasis on Judah, King David's purported ancestor. Added too is the Abrahamic promise to Jacob at Bethel, and fragments of other Priestly materials.
Gen 25.19-28: Introduction of the descendants of Isaac.
Gen 25.22-23: The narrative presupposes an ancient practice of seeking a divine oracle at a local sanctuary.
Gen 25.27-28: Much like Cain and Abel, this narrative plays on the tension between siblings and their respective lifestyles.
Gen 25.29-34: Jacob buys Esau's birthright.
Gen 25.31-34: The birthright refers to the extra rights that normally go to the eldest son: leadership of the family and a double share of the inerhitance (Deut 21.15-17). This caricature of Esau as a dull person, outwitted on an empty stomach, is intended to explain Israel's dominance of Edom (2 Sam 8.9-14; 1 Kings 3.9-12; 8.20-22).
Gen 26.1-33: Interlude on Isaac. Isaac's journey in this chapter clearly parallels that of Abraham's, the two likely influencing eachother; Isaac inherits Abraham's blessing and is thus prepared to pass it on to one of his sons.
Gen 26.32-28.4: The transfer of blessing to Jacob and not Esau.
Gen 27.1-45: Story of Rebekah and Jacob's cunning resembles "trickster" traditions in other cultures.
Gen 27.4: Deathbed blessings (and curses) were important in the life and literature of anceint peoples (e.g., 48.8-20' 49.1-28). It was believed that such blessings irrevocably released a tangible power that determined the character and destiny of the recipient. Ch 27 itself focuses exclusively on Isaac's blessing, but the preceding chapter makes clear that this is Isaac's transfer of a divine blessing first given to Abraham.
Gen 28.1-4: A Priestly parallel to the preceding story where Isaac was not tricked into blessing Jacob, bt intended from the outset to bless him in the process of sending him away to find a proper wife. Much parallels that of Isaac's goal in marrying Rebekah.
Gen 28.5-22: The split between Jacob and Esau occurs twice here, the Priestly version in 28.5-9 and the non-Priestly account in 28.10-22.
Gen 28.12: Jacob's ladder.
Gen 28.13-15: God's appearance here is awkwardly linked to the preceding stairway vision. Many scholars suppose this repetition of the Promise to Jacob was a later addition to an early Bethel narrative that lacked it.
Gen 28.13-14: The promise to Jacob after his split from Esau mirrors that of the promise to Abraham after his split with Lot.
Gen 29.1-30: Jacob's marriages to Laban's daughters.
Gen 29.10: Jacob, the folk hero, has superhuman strength.
Gen 29.23-25: Jacob, the trickster, is himself tricked.
Gen 29.31-30.24: The birth of eleven of Jacob's sons and Dinah.
Gen 30.21: The note about the birth of Dinah is inserted (without a story or explanation of the name) to anticipate the story about her in ch 34.
Gen 30.25-43: The birth of Jacob's flocks; Jackob outwits Laban by putting striped sticks before the female animals' eyes while they were breeding.
Gen 31.1-55: Jacob's departure from Laban's family.
Gen 31.13: Where Jerusalem Zion traditions claimed that the Lord dwells in Zion (Pss 9.12; 135.21), God claims in this text to be "the god of Bethel". This probably reflects the perspective of this originally northern Jacob story in comparison with Jerusalem-oriented traditions that predominate in the Bible.
Gen 31.19-35: Household gods may have been figures representing ancestral deities. Possession of them ensured leadership and legitimated property claims.
Gen 31.43-54: Based on an older tradition regarding a boundary covenant between Arameans and Israelites.
Gen 31.53: Footnotes don't note this, but I noticed that the God of Nahor is mentioned, the only place in the Bible that mentions such a God; theories point to Laban being a polytheist, though this is complicated by his recognition of the dream he recieved a day prior.
Gen 32.1-32: Journey toward Esau.
Gen 32.3-21: Jacob once more devises multiple strategies in order to attain his goals (though this time, his aim is appeasal).
Gen 32.22-31: Jacob wrestles with God. The divine being had to vanish before sunrise, an ancient folkloristic theme marking the antiquity of the tradition on which the story is based. Worth noting that Jacob's immense strength is allowing him the upper hand until the being puts his hip out of joint. Jacob is renamed Israel, "The one who strives with God", and the being notes too that he strives with humans—Esau and Laban. In this way, the community of Israel, as descendants of this god-wrestler, is depicted as a group that successfully strives with God and humans. The story is located at Penuel/Peniel ("face of El"), one of the first capitals of the Northern Kingdom (1 Kinks 12.25); it serves as an etiology for the site's choice.
Gen 33.1-17: Partial reunion with Esau.
Gen 33.10: Like seeing the face of God, who at Penuel also proved to be gracious.
Gen 33.18-35.5: The stay in Shechem and the rape of Dinah.
Gen 33.19: Here and in ch 34 Shechem is a personal name. As elsewhere in Genesis, the story portrays, in the guise of individuals, relations between Israel and non-Israelite groups.
Gen 34.1-31: In its broader context, this story explains why Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob's elder sons, did not receive his highest blessing.
Gen 34.2: May not be rape; some scholars interpret this to mean illicit sexual activity.
Gen 34.8-12: Israelite law stipulates that a man who has sex with an unbetrothed woman msut retroactively marry her by paying her father a marriage price (Ex 22.16-17; Deut 22.28-29). This narrative either does not recgonize this law or assumes that it does not apply outside the people of Israel.
Gen 34.25-26: Simeon and Levi lead the killing; Jacob is concerned less with family honor, and more with his relations with the Canaanites.
Gen 35.6-15: Jacob's return to Bethel.
Gen 35.6-7: Deities often had local manifestations (e.g., on ancient inscriptions we find "Yahweh of Samaria" and "Yahweh of Teman"). Jacob honors the local manifestation of El at Bethel by building an altar there and calling the santuary "El of Bethel".
Gen 35.9-15: Priestly parallel to the non-Priestly naming tradition in 32.28. Reiteration of the blessing of Abraham on Jacob. Another connection of "God Almighty" to passages regarding fertility.
Gen 35.16-21: The birth of Benjamin and death of Rachel. Rachel names the child ominously: "son of my sorrow"; Jacob overrules her decision and renames the child Benjamin.
Gen 35.22-29: Concluding materials on Jacob's sons and Isaac's death and burial.
Gen 36.1-43: Overview of the descendants of Esau and prior inhabitants of Edom/Seir. Once more, the narrative gives an overview of the firstborn son's descendants, Esau, before that of Jacob's.
Gen 36.6-8: Echoes the (non-Priestly) story of Abraham's split from Lot.
Gen 36.9: Repetition of introduction indicates an earlier Priestly source.
Gen 37.1-50.26: The story of Joseph and his family. As indicated in the introduction, this portion of Genesis features an intricate depiction of Joseph's relations with his brothers and father. Starting with a pair of dreams (37.5-11), the narrative follows a trajectory from his brothers' murderous hatred of Joseph to Joseph's eventual testing of and reunion with them (chs 42-45; 50). Joseph was a prominent northern tribe, and like the Jacob storym this narrative has Northern connections, especially with the addition of the story in 48.8-14 of Joseph's special blessing on his son, Ephraim. The first king of the Northern Kingdom, Jeroboam, was a member of the tribe of Ephraim (1 Kings 11.26), and stories like tehse about early Israelite ancestors would have reinforced his claim to rule. Yet over time the story evolved in significance, through additions assuming Judah's destiny to rule (see 49.8-12n.), inserted echoes of the promise theme first introduced in the Abraham story (such as 46.1-4; 48.15-16 and 12.1-3n.), connections leading to the book of Joshua (50.24-25), and a few fragments that may come from the Priestly source (e.g., 37.1-2; 46.8-27; 47.27-28; 48.3-6; 49.29-33).
Gen 37.2-4: Priestly and non-Priestly narratives offer different reasons as to specifically why Joseph's brothers take issue with him.
Gen 37.5-8: Joseph's first dream may be taken to predict the future rule of Jeroboam, a member of the Joseph tribe of Ephraim, over the other tribes of northern Israel.
Gen 37.9-11: Rachel being alive in this story indicates that this episode was likely part of an independent Joseph story that did not originally follow Rachel's death.
Gen 37.12-36: Joseph is sold into slavery.
Gen 37.25-36 Most scholars agree that some combination or modification of traditions has occurred here. Though the brothers decide here to sell Joseph (v.27) and Joseph later says that they did so (45.4-5), this narrative describes the Midianites as drawing him out and selling him to the Ishmaelites (v. 28). Later, both the Midianites (37.36) and the Ishmaleites (39.1; cf. 37.25) are identified as the ones who sold Jospeh to Potiphar.
Gen 37.31-34: Now Jacob is tricked by an article of clothing, contrasting how he himself tricked his father in 27.15.
Gen 37.35: Sheol, the underworld to which everyone went at death—the Hebrew Bible does not recognize a differentiated heaven and hell. Since this afterlife was at best a shadowy existence (see Ps 6.5; Eccl 9.10), Jacob's going to his son further reflects his misery.
Gen 38.1-30: Judah and Tamar. Two elements, the focus on Judah and anticipation of David, link 38.1-30 with a sequence of episodes, starting in 30.21; 34.1-31; 35.22, that prepare for Jacob's blessing of Judah and prediction of the Davidic dynasty in 49.8-12.
Gen 38.8-11: God really doesn't like when you spill your seed for means other than procreation (actually it was Onan's refusal to accord with a brother's obligation in furthering the family line, thus also offending God's desire for man to be fruitful and multiply that lead to God's killing of Onan).
Gen 38.27-30: The final link of this chapter to the David narrative occurs with Perez, firstborn and ancestor of David.
Gen 39.1-23: Joseph's success, temptation, and imprisonment. Includes Joseph's garment as misleading evidence once more, and has echoes of Abraham's blessing. Whole tale parallels that of an Egyptian "Tale of Two Brothers".
Gen 40.1-23: Joseph establishes his expertise as dream interpreter.
Gen 41.1-57: Joseph's elevation as the result of successful dream interpretation.
Gen 41.8: The narrator intends to demonstrate the superiority of Israel's God over Egyptian magic and wisdom, anitcipating the plague narrative in Exodus.
Gen 41.16: Joseph attributes his skill solely to God.
Gen 41.45: Joseph is accepted fully into Egyptian society, and no judgement is attached to his intermarrying with an Egyptian foreigner (see Deut 23.8-9).
Gen 42.1-38: Joseph's brothers' first journey to Egypt.
Gen 43.1-34: Joseph's brother's second journey to Egypt.
Gen 43.1-2: Simeon, left as a hostage in Egypt, is apparently forgotten, for his brothers only return when more grain is needed.
Gen 43.8-10: Judah depicted as hero once more.
Gen 43.34: Joseph favors Benjamin, mirroring the favor Jacob had for himself; this sets the stage for a reprise of his brothers' murderous envy possibly being directed at Benjamin.
Gen 44.1-34: Joseph's final test for his brothers.
Gen 45.1-28: Joseph makes himself known to his brothers and father.
Gen 45.4-13: Joseph reassures his brothers that it was not them that sold him into slavery, but God, so that he might grow prosperous and feed his family.
Gen 45.16-20: Asiatics are frequently attested to living in Egypt, though no Egyptian records refer specifically to the Israelites living there.
Gen 46.1-27: Jacob's migration to Egypt.
Gen 46.1-4: God states that he will fulfill the promise made to Abraham in making a great nation for Israel in Egypt.
Gen 46.28-47.28: Jacob's family settles in Egypt.
Gen 46.34: No nonbiblical evidence supports the assertion that shepherds were considered abhorrent in Egypt.
Gen 47.11: The land of Rameses cannot be identified with certainty. The first Egyptian pharaoh with that name ruled at the beginning of the thirteenth century BCE.
Gen 47.29-49.33: Jacob's preparations for death, including the adoption and blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh. This section is viewed by many scholars as a series of later insertions into the Joseph story, linking it back to the Jacob story and forward to the story of the Israelites in Exodus.
Gen 48.3-6: The division of the house of Joseph into two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, with Jacob adopting Joseph's two children to do so.
Gen 48.8-14: Jacob favors the younger son, Aphraim, over the older, Manasseh, echoing Jacob's ascendancy over Esau, as well as possibly predicting the Ephraimite Jeroboam's ascendancy over the Northern Kingdom.
Gen 48.15-16: Jacob passes onto the tribes of Joseph the special blessing of Abraham and Isaac.
Gen 49.1-28: Jacob's blessing on his twelve sons. Though the poem is depicted as a deathbed blessing by the text following it (49.28; cf. 27.4 and n.), this poem seems to have been originally designed as a prediction of the destines, good and bad, of the tribes of Israel. Many scholars have argued that the poem is ancient on the basis of its language and resemblance to other supposdly ancient tribal poems in Deut 33 and Judg 5. Nevertheless, the present form of the poem appears to have been modified to fit the narrative context in which it has been put. Its first part follows the birth order of 29.31-35 and legitimates rule for Judah and—by extension—the Davidic dynasty. The author of these changes may be responsible for inserting the whole poem into its present context, as well as for the addition to the Jacob-Joseph story of the narratives referred to in 49.3-7 (30.21; 34.1-31; 35.21-22a; cf. 37.36-38.30).
Gen 50.1-26: Burial of Jacob and final days of Joseph.
Gen 50.1-11: This non-Priestly narrative presupposes that the burial and mourning occurred in Transjordan, noat at the ave at Machpelah.
Gen 50.2-3: Jacob is embalmed as an Egyptian with full honors.
And with that rather long reading session, I am finished with Genesis, and in just about seven days, apparently. One thing has become clear to me, and that is that I am eventually going to have to stop taking such extensive notes; a lot of what I've noted down in this record have been direct quotations of footnotes and lots of compressing of others to best condense the information I find interesting—this can't go on through the entire Bible, lest it take me forever to do so; I find myself finishing a page in good time, only to spend minutes upon minutes transcribing information and copying quotes, not to mention the time that goes into the formatting of this record for upload to my website. This breaks my reading flow and already has set me to some apathy.
As such, I've decided that my note-taking will only be as extensive as this throughout the first 5 books of the Bible, the Torah. My reading of the rest of the OT will be much more sparse in terms of notes, likely noting each chapter as I have done thus far, but being strict with myself in not including so much detail so as not to harm my pace. This is absolutely subject to change, assuming later books interest me to the point I can't but help myself, but as it stands, this is the plan. When I reach the NT, we will reassess once more (I have to imagine the footnotes there will be deeply interesting).
As for Genesis itself, I have no wider notes to make, it's about what I expected, as I have read portions of it before in isolation, not to mention the sheer cultural osmosis that exists with the prevalence of these stories, but I am surprised to find that a lot of what I knew of said stories was extrabiblical in nature, with the scripture itself being a lot more scarce on details, details that I imagine church tradition filled in over time. Onto Exodus then.
From Him
Fallen winds
Assume barren lands
The promise of Dust
Embracing countless stars
That warn to take heed
Hither and thither
The lowest cry out
Unto most high
Calling out
To Him
Every vice of my existence
Begs and pleads and asks assistance
From your passions, I truly need this
To contrast is to know
For if there be your divine witness
Let me feel this pervert sickness
Mark my flesh and make me bleed, bliss
To contrast is to know
So when you're through I'll have my distance
From my former goodness, listless
Broken bodied, hear me plead, Miss
To contrast is to know
Introduction to Genesis
Jewish tradition calls the first book of the Bible after its first word, Bereshit, which can be translated as "in the beginning" or "when first"; it was common in the ancient world to name a book after its first word(s) (see: mesopotamian epics).
Genesis comes from the ancient greek translation of the Torah, the Septuagint, Genesis in Greek meaning 'origin' or 'birth'; this name highlights an important dimension of the book of Genesis: its focus on genealogical origins: Though Genesis contains some of the most powerful narratives in the Bible, these stories occur within a genealogical structure, [. . .] within this framework, the book may be understood as an expanded genealogy of the "children of Israel" who will be the focus of attention in the book of Exodus and subsequent books.
In the ancient Near East, most literary compositions, including Genesis, were anonymous. Only during the Greco-Roman period do we start to see statements in early Jewish texts that Moses wrote Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch. This is thought to have been a response to Greek influence on Judaism, with Jewish authors retroactively painting the Pentateuch as having been penned by Moses, easily the most important figure to the work. Such claims included a supposed justification found in Deuteronomy 4.44, "This is the law [Heb torah] that Moses set before the Israelites," a passage taken to suggest Moses' authorship. Again, this can be taken as a later revision, as the Pentateuch includes events that happened after Moses' death (including Moses' death and burial, for that matter).
Most scholars agree that the texts now found in Genesis began to be written down sometime after the establishment of the monarchy in Israel in the tenth century BCE or later. Initially thought to have been composed of two distinct sources (J and E), modern scholarship sees the text as a more nuanced composition made up of various threads from various different times and locations. In any case, the earliest works now embedded in Genesis were products of scribes working in the contest of the monarchies of early Judah and Israel.
Many important parts of Genesis, however, were not written until after the monarchy had fallen in 586 BCE and Judean leaders were living in exile in Babylon. This is where many biblical themes of promises of land and progeny entered the biblical narrative, with scribes editing, adapting and tying earlier writings to the books of the present, reassuring the exiled peoples that God would bless them as he had blessed their ancestors. Revision, indeed.
In conjunction with this, Genesis sees the introduction of the Priestly source (P), with various sections and passages in Genesis seeming to have direct links to passages in later Exodus; the scribes of P having written their own parallel version of the events of earlier Genesis, having been consolidated with various other sources into the Pentateuch we know during the exilic period. This consolidation, however, also produced the numerous contradictions in Genesis that can be seen by the attentive reader, e.g., inconsistency in creation accounts, the differences between flood narratives (sacrifice versus no sacrifice).
Genesis can be said to be comprised of two main sections: the primeval history in chs 1:1-11:26 and the ancestral history in chs 11:27-50:26. The latter section can be broken down thusly:
Abraham and Sarah (chs 11.27-25.11)
Jacob and Esau (chs 25.19-35.29)
Joseph and his brothers (chs 37.2-50.26)
Notably, despite the male focus of headings like this and in the book iself, it is matriarchs of ancient Israel, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, who often play a determinative role in the Genesis narratives of birth and the fulfillment of God's promise.
The former section of primeval history itself is composed of two major sections:
(1) the creation of the cosmos and stories of the first humans (1.1-6.4); and
(2) the flood and dispersal of post-flood humanity (6.5-11.9).
It's worth noting that these narratives feature universal traditions similar to myths in other cultures, particularly those in the ancient Near East that predated the Biblical narrative by hyndreds of years, likewise featuring the creation of the world, a flood, and the vow of the gods (here plural) not to destroy life with a flood again.
These two sections are then followed by a genealogy in 11.10-26 that traces the generations connecting Noah's son, Shem, to Abraham, which is where we pick up on the aforementioned ancestral history that details God's promise to Abraham and his ancestors.
Taken all together, we can outline Genesis as follows:
(I) The primeval history (1.1-11.26) composed of:
(A) Creation and violence before the flood (1.1-6.4)
(B) Re-creation through flood and multiplication of humanity (6.5-11.9)
(II) Transitional genealogy briding from Shem (the Primeval history) to Abraham (Ancestral History) (11.10-26)
(III) The ancestral history (11.27-50.26)
(A) Gift of divine promise to Abraham and his descendants (11.27-25.11)
(B) The divergent destinies of the descendants of Ishmael and Issac (Jacob/Esau) (25.12-35.29)
(C) The divergent destinies of the descendants of Esau and Jacob/Israel (36.1-50.26)
By the end of the book, the lens of the narrative camera has moved from a wide-angle overview of all the peoples of the world to a narrow focus on one small group, the sons of Jacob (also named "Israel").
The history of interpretation of Genesis begins with its gradual composition over centuries. Early monarchic scribes reinterpreted oral traditions in writing the first preexeilic compositions behind Genesis. Later exilic scribes expanded and joined together earlier compositions in the process of addressing an audience of Judeans exiled in Babylon. Priests (exilic or postexilic) wrote their own versions of the beginnings of Israel, "P". Later postexilic writers consolidated the non-Priestly and Priestly writings into a common Torah that became the foundation of later Judaism. Each of these stages involved interpretation of how earlier writings pertained to the present. Genesis as we have it now is a crystallization of these multiple interpretations.
Commentary here on how Paul used Abraham's actions in Genesis as an argument for why Gentile converts did not need to fulill Torah requirements in order to partake of God's promise, as long as they joined themselves to Jesus Christ; this was in contrast to Jewish scholars who use Genesis to argue the opposite, that Torah law is certainly a pre-requisite in every sense of the word for salvation when it comes to Gentiles. I'm sure we'll see more on this later, so I write this here mainly for posterity.
Commentary too on how Islam interprets Genesis, with Abraham's son Ishmael, not Issac, being the almost-sacrifice unto God according to Islamic tradition. Moreover, it is said that Abraham and Ishmael went on to find and rebuild the Kaaba shrine at Mecca. In this way, stories from Genesis are linked to two of the five central pillars of Islam: monotheism and pilgrimage.
Discussion of the relatively new phenomena of arguing for the historicity of the creation narrative as found in Genesis; the notion of Genesis being literal history was not a significant concern in premodern times, such stories were often read metaphorically or allegorically: Moreover, many would argue that an ancient document such as Genesis should not be treated as scientific treatise or a modern-style historical source. Instead, its rich stoer of narratives offer nonscientific, narrative, and poetic perspectives on values and the meaning of the cosmos that pertain to other dimensions of human life.
Many who resolved to read the whole Bible, hey there! have made it through Genesis, but what they find often surprises them. Those who know the stories of Genesis through the lens of later interpretation often assume that the characters in the book are saints. A closer reading reveals otherwise. The supposedly "faithful" Abraham often seems doubtful of God's intent to protect and provide for him, and Jacob and his family are distinguished by their ability to survive in the world through bargaining and trickery. Such stories pose a challenge to those who would use the biblical ancestors as role models for ethical behavior. Standing at the Bible's outset, they challenge readers to develop other models for understanding and appreciating this ancient text.
Genesis
Gen 1:1: The priestly account of creation presents God as a king, creating the universe by decree in six days and resting on the seventh. Scholars differ on whether this verse is to be translated as an independent sentence, even a title summarizing what follows (e.g., "In the beginning God created"), or as a temporal phrase describing what things were like when God started (e.g., "When God began to create . . .the earth was a formless void"; cg. 2.4-6). In either case, the text does not describe creation out of nothing (contrast 2 Macc 7.28).
Gen 1.2: As with other ancient cosmogonies, Gen 1.2 begins with detailing what things were like before creation; Earth being uninhabitable sets the stage for God's transformation of it. Christian interpreters have often seen the "Spirit" of the Trinity later in this verse.
Gen 1.3: The first of eight acts of creation through decree. Like a king God pronounces his will and it is accomplished.
Gen 1.4-5: Introduction of two crucial themes: the goodness of creation, and the idea that creation is acomplished through God's manipulation of elements of the universe.
Gen 1.6-8: The dome/Sky made on the second day separates an upper ocean (Ps 148.4; see Gen 7.11) from a lower one, creating a space in which subsequent creation can take place.
Gen 1.11-13: Earth is a feminine noun in Hebrew; echoes universal mythologies of the feminine earth bringing forth life—God is involved only indirectly here, commanding the earth to put forth.
Gen 1.14-19: In response to non-Israelite cultures who worshipped the heavenly bodies, the bodies are not named and are identified as mere timekeepers.
Gen 1.20-23: God's blessing of the swarming creatures anticipates a similar blessing that God will give humanity.
Gen 1.26: The plural us, our, probably refers to the divine beings who compose God's heavenly court.
Gen 1.26-27: Image, likeness is often interpreted to be a spiritual likeness between God and humanity. This idea of God's making of humans as a "God image" (1.27) may instead be related to ancient ideas of the making of physical cult images of deities and/or ancient beliefs that the king was an "image" of the deity, and thus authorized to rule. This latter idea is democratized here. God makes all of humanity as images of God in order for them to exercise godlike rule over earth's creatures.
Gen 1.27-28: Stressing the creation of humanity as simultaneously male and female; prepares for God's fertility blessing that enables them to multiply greatly.
Gen 1.31: Where individual elements of creation were "good", the whole is very good, perfectly corresponding to God's intention.
Gen 2.1-3: God's seventh-day rest (Hebrew: "shabat") here weaves a seven-day rhythm into creation, anticipating later commands for Israel to rest on the seventh day (e.g., Ex 16.22-30; 20:8-11//Deut 5.12-15).
Gen 2.4-25: Creation in a garden. Non-priestly Yahwistic tradition differing from 1.1-2.3, as evidenced by the different style and order of events—though different, it nevertheless reflects ancient temple imagery.
Gen 2.4-6: A description of how things were prioer to creation is common in ancient Near Eastern creation stories.
Gen 2.7: The wordplay on the Hebrew "adam" (human being; here translated "man") and "adamah" (arable land/soil; here ground) introduces a motif characteristic of this tradition: the relation of humankind to the soil from which it was formed. Human nature is not a duality of body and soul; rather God's breath animates the dust and it becomes a single living being (Ps 104.29; Job 34.14-15).
Gen 2.8-9: Eden, likely meaning 'well-watered place'; elsewhere called "garden of God/the Lord" (13.10; Ezek 28.13-16; 31.8-9; Isa 51.3; Joel 2.3); such sacred gardens are known in other ancient Near Eastern temples. In addition, ancient Near Eastern art and texts feautre a prominent focus on trees, often associated with feminine powers of fertility.
Gen 2.15: God's placement of the human in the garden to till it echoes other ancient creation narratives where humans are created to labor on the gods' behalf.
Gen 2.18: The hebrew word rendered as "helper" need not imply a subordinate status.
Gen 2.19-20: Here, animals are created after the first man, rather than before (cf. 1.24-25). The human's naming of the animals suggests dominion over them analagous to that seen in in 1.26-28. Yet the Lord God here contrasts with the all-powerful deity depicted in ch 1; The Lord God creates the animals in a comical, failed attempt to make a truly corresponding helper for the human.
Gen 2.21-23: The connection of men and women is affirmed through the crowning event of creation: the making of the woman from a part of the man, mirroring that of humanity's connection to the ground, so too is there wordplay here, as seen in the man's poem, with the Hebrew for woman, "ishshah" stemming from that of the Hebrew for man, "ish".
Gen 2.24-25: Unashamed nakedness and the purity of sex is here considered as reflecting the essence of the connection God created between man and woman; innocent and uncivilized.
Gen 3.1-24: Garden disobedience and punishment. Though this story is often taken by Christians as an account of "original sin," the word "sin" never occurs in it. Instead, it is a sophisticated narrative describing how God's acts and their aftermath lead to the formation of fully adult, mortal humans to till the earth outside the garden.
Gen 3.1: Both the nakedness of the man and woman as well as the craftiness of the snake are described with the same Hebrew word, "arum", drawing contrast. Snakes were a symbol in the ancient world of wisdom, fertility, and immortality. Only later was the snake in this story seen by interpreters as the devil (see Wis 2.24).
Gen 3.3: Worth noting that the woman's recitation of God's prohibition differs from the actual words, leaving ambiguity as to which tree she is referring to, and though it was initially directed at the man, and not at her, she assumes she is included in the prohibition.
Gen 3.4-5: The snake introduces doubt by contradicting God's word, attributing God's prohibition to God's fear that humans would have their eyes opened so they gain godlike wisdom, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3.6-7: The couple eat from the tree, and gain enlightenment. Such wisdom takes them from the earlier unashamed nakedness (2.25) to clothing, a mark of their first move from childlike/animal-like unashamed nakedness to civilized adulthood.
Gen 3.8-13: The disintegration of the earlier simple bond between God, the man, and the woman is shown by the hiding of the humans from the Lord God and the tendency of the man to blame the woman (and implicitly the Lord God) for his action. Later interpreters of the story have shown a similar tendency to follow the man in blaming the woman (e.g., Sir 25.24; 1 Tim 2.14).
Gen 3.16-19: The man's rule over the woman here is a tragic reflection of the disintegration of original connectedness between them.
Gen 3.20: Eve, resembles the Hebrew word for "living"; because she was the mother of all living.
Gen 3.21: The fashioning of clothing for the man and woman by the Lord God is a form of divine recognition of their complete transition, through gaining wisdom, from childlike innocence to adulthood.
Gen 3.22-23: As elsewhere in the ancient Near East, humans here are depicted as having a brief opportunity for immortality. The Lord God's fear of humans becoming godlike (cf. 1.26-27) recalls the snake's assertions in 3.4-5. The term "us" probably refers to the heavenly court once more. God's speech here clarifies that the humans gaining of knowledge of good and evil would send them from the garden, permanently preventing their immortality, validating the prediction that they will "certainly die" made in 2.17.
Gen 3.24: Cf. Ezek 28.13-16. The last echoes of temple imagery occur here. The cherubim are composite, winged creatures like the half-human, half-lion sphinx of Egypt. Representations of them guarded sanctuaries like the one in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6.23-28,32,35). The gate to the garden of Eden is in the east, like the processional gate to the Temple (Ezek 10.19).
Gen 4.1-16: Cain and Abel. Relational focus on brothers, paralleling the focus on relations between man and woman in the prior chapter.
Gen 4.1: Emphasis on the power of creation that is childbirth; the child is named Cain, derived from a Hebrew word for create, "qanah."
Gen 4.2: The name Abel is the same word translated as "vanity", or "emptiness" in the book of Ecclesiastes: His name anticipates his destiny. The distinction in rpofessions between Cain and Abel implies a further step toward culture.
Gen 4.3-5: Why God has a preference for Abel's sacrifice and Cain's is not well explained; it is likely that the ancient Israelite audience would assume a divine preference for animal sacrifice over that of Cain's vegetable offering, but such an instance of divine preference would be unexplainable for Cain; he could not have known.
Gen 4.7: The first mention of sin in the Bible; sin is somehow linked wih the risk to Cain if he does "not do well" in dealing with his anger.
Gen 4.10-11: Blood is sacred, for it is the seat of life (9.4; Deut 12.23), and blood of unpunished murders pollutes the ground (Num 35.30-34).
Gen 4.13-14: The importance of arable ground in these chapters can be seen in Cain's conclusion that expulsion from the soil means being hidden from the Lord's face.
Gen 4.16: Land of Nod, Nod in hebrew meaning "To wander", or "Wandering". Footnote says to refer to notes on Gen 11.1-9 which mentions the conclusion of the eastward journey of the family that starts with Cain's leave in this verse.
Gen 4.17-26: First overview of generations from creation to flood. Deriving from a different source than 5.1-32, most of the names here are variants of those found there, but not in the same order. Note: the book includes two graphs of the two genealogies, taken from the Yahwistic and Priestly sources respectively.
Gen 4.17: Cain's marriage and fear of others (4.14) presumes the presence of a broader population thus far unmentioned, indicating that the narratives about him were not originally connected with the creation myth—another indication of intertwined myths unless we want to accept incest as the natural conclusion.
Gen 4.18-22: Emphasis on detailing what sons produced what aspects of civilization through their occupations, attributing culture and technology's entrance into the world through Cain's lineage.
Gen 4.23-24: The song Lamech sings (The Song of the Sword, thought to have originated in the now-lost non-canonical text the Book of the Wars of the Lord) in totality functions as a lamentation of the consequence of civilization's expansion: an expansion of the violence with which the family tree began.
Gen 4.25: Adam begets another child, Seth, which the wife named as such because "God [had] appointed" for her another child instead of Abel, the Hebrew verb for "Appointed" resembling the word for "Seth". This verse acts as a parallel to 4.1, introducing the new line of Seth.
Gen 4.26: This Yahwistic tradition locates the beginning of use of the divine name "Yahweh" (Lord) in the primeval period, in contrast to the Priestly tradition, in which the divine name is not used until the time of Moses (Ex 6.2-6).
Gen 5.1-32: Second overview of generations from creation to flood. This priestly genealogy prallels 4.1-26, building from the P creation story (1.1-2.3) to the Priestly strand of the flood narrative. The list of descendants of Adam was evidently a separate source which the Priestly writer drew upon for this chapter and used as a model for later notices (6.9; 10.1 etc.).
Gen 5.1-2: The Priestly writer uses this reprise of 1.26-28 to bind his genealogical source (where "adam" designates a particular person) to 1.1-23 (where "adam" designates humanity as a whole), In other words, purposefully referencing the opening of Genesis in the opening of this chapter that describes Adam's genealogy, thus connecting this lineage to that of the Priestly representation of creation, where Adam (singular) and adam (humanity) can now be interpreted thematically as being one; you can see the legwork the Priestly writer is doing here to bolster their narrative interrelations.
Gen 5.3: The divine likeness detailed in 1.26 is again invoked here, with Adam's son, Seth being described as being born in Adam's likeness, thus being transmitted to succeeding generations.
Gen 5.4-32: Ancient Babylonian lists similarly survey a series of heroes before the flood, each of whom lived fantastically long times. As in those lists, here too ages decline over time, to the 100-200 years of Israel's ancestors. The names in this list resemble those of 4.17-26.
Gen 5.24: Babylonian traditions also report that some individuals—e.g., Emmeduranki (a pre-flood figure), Etana, and Adapa—were taken up into heaven by God. Later Jewish tradition speculated at length on Enoch's travels.
Gen 5.29: The name of Noah, meaning "rest" in Hebrew, anticipates his founding of viticulture (9.20), providing wine that relieves the curse of the ground detailed in 3.17-19. Worth pointing out that Noah's father, Lamech, is apparently prescient of this fact, noting that Noah will bring them relief; how he knows this is an unanswerable question.
Gen 6.1-4: Divine-human reproduction illustrates the breaching of the divine-human boundary that the Lord God feared in 3.22. There the Lord God drove humans away from the tree of life. Here, in an abbreviated narrative often attributed to the Yahwistic primeval history, the Lord limits their life span to one hundred twenty years, the life span of Moses (Deut 34.7) Nothing appears to happen to the sons of God who instigated it all, though this becomes a matter of great speculation in postbiblical literature.
Gen 6.4: The products of divine-human intercourse are the legendary warriors of renown. They are distinguished here from the Nephilim, a race of giants said to exist both prior to and after those times (cf. Num 13.33; Deut 2.10-11).
Gen 6.5-8.19: The great flood. This story describes God's un-creation and re-creation of the world. The biblical version is an interweaving of parallel accounts; the combination of the Yahwistic and Priestly accounts being necessary to avoid describing two consecutive, contradictory floods.
Gen 6.5-8: This introduction links with the non-Priestly material, particularly 2.7 (compare 6.7)
Gen 6.5: Though the biblical account is quite close in many respects to Mesopotamian flood stories found in Atrahasis and Gilgamesh tablet 11, one significant difference is that this text attributes the flood to God's judgement on the wickedness of humankind rather than divine frustration with human overpopulation and noise.
Gen 6.11-13: Here the Priestly writers attribute the flood to corruption of the earth and violence filling it (see 4.8,10,23-24).
Gen 6.14-16: Utnapishtim, hero of the epic of Gilgamesh is likewise told to build a similar houseboat, sealing it with pitch: The description of a three-leveled ark may be based on an ancient idea that the ark reflects the three-part structure of both universe and temple.
Gen 6.18: Covenant, footnote refers to the notes on 9.8-17: Speaks of this being the first explicit mention of a Covenant in the bible, and it encompasses all of humanity as well as that of the animal world.
Gen 6.19-20: Footnote refers to notes on 7.2-3.
Gen 7.1-5: This non-Priestly text parallels P in 6.11-22 and continues the tradition seen in 6.5-8.
Gen 7.2-3: The provision of extra clean animals allows for the sacrifice that will occur in 8.20; if only one pair of each animal were taken, every sacrifice would eliminate a species. The priestly tradition instead presumes that both sacrifice and the distinction between clean and unclean animals (see Lev 11) were not introduced until the revelation at Sinai, therefore only one pair of each species suffices (6.19-20; 7.14-15; cf. 7.9). Example of one of the contradictions arising from the conflation of two flood narratives.
Gen 7.6-16: Noah, his family, and the animals enter the ark twice (7.7-9 || 7.13-16), reflecting the interweaving of the two originally distinct flood accounts. Whereas the non-Priestly account has the flood caused by forty days of rain (7.4,12), the Priestly account attributes the flood to God's opening of the protective dome created in the second day (1.6-8), thus allowing the upper and lower oceans to meet (7.11), reversing P's creation story. (Considered a full un-creation of that Priestly account at Genesis' opening which the mere mention of forty days' worth of rain would not fulfil)
Gen 7.17-24: The P and non-P strands are thoroughly interwoven in this description of the flood itself, including multiple descriptions of the extinction of life outside the ark (7.21-23). Such flood imagery powerfully represents a return to chaos. Though many world traditions speak of floods, there is no geological evidence of a global flood like that described here. Goes without saying really, flashbacks to the Bill Nye–Ken Ham debate on creation being a viable model of origins, good heavens.
Gen 8.1-2: God's wind echoes the first creation (1.2) in the process of starting the re-creation process. The closing of the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens reestablishes the space for life that was first created on the second day (1.6-8).
Gen 8.4: Ararat, a region in Armenia. Worth noting also that in the epic of Gilgamesh the boat also rested on a mountain.
Gen 8.6-12: Again, the sending out of the birds lifted straight from the epic of Gilgamesh.
Gen 8.20-9.17: Divine commitments after the flood. This section features two accounts of God's commitments after the flood (8.20-22 [non-P]; 9.1-17 [P]), both of which include God's promise not to destroy life through such a flood ever again.
Gen 8.20-22: The non-Priestly tradition describes Noah's burnt offerings of clean animals. In the Gilgamesh epic the hero offered sacrifices and "the gods smelled the pleasant gragrance" and repented of their decision to destroy humanity. here the Lord smells the pleasing odor of Noah's offering and resolves never again to curse the ground or destroy all creatures. The Lord does this despite full recognition that human nature has not changed (cf. 6.5-7). The final result of Noah's sacrifice is the Lord's promise to preserve the cycle of agricultural seasons. A central aim of temple sacrifice in Israel and elsewhere was to preserve that cycle, assuring agricultural fertility. The echo of that idea here is yet another way in which the "non-Priestly" primeval history reflects temple concerns (see also the focus on responses to sacrifice in 4.1-8 and notes on 2.8-9,10-14; 3.24).
Gen 9.1-17: The Priestly tradition lacks an account of sacrifice. Instead it focuses on affirmations of some aspects of the creation in 1.1-31 and revisions of others.
Gen 9.1-7: This section begins and ends with a reaffirmation of the fertility blessing (vv. 1,7; cf. 1.28).
Gen 9.2-6: Here God revises the earlier command of vegetarianism (1.29-30). This is a partial concession to the "violence" observed prior to the flood (6.11,13) and an extension of the human dominion over creation described in 1.26-28. At the same time, God limits human rule and regulates pre-flood violence through stipulating that humans may not eat the blood in which life resides (see 4.10-11n.) and that humans, as bearers of God's image (1.26-27), may not be murdered. Since these laws are given to Noah and his sons, the ancestors of all post-flood humanity, they were used in later Jewish tradition as the basis for a set of seven Noachide laws that were seen as binding upon Gentiles as well as Jews (see Acts 15.20; 21.25; b. San. 58b).
Gen 9.8-17: As noted prior, this is the first explicit mention of a Covenant in the Bible; A "Covenant" is a formal agreement, often between a superior and inferior party, the former "making" or "establishing" (vv. 9,11) the bond with the latter, and the superior protecting the weaker party. This agreement is often sealed through ceremonies. In this case, God sets his weapon, the bow (Ps 7.12-13; Hab 3.9-11), in the sky facing away from humanity as a sign of God's commitment not to flood the earth again. Did some googling on this one, traditionally taken to mean a rainbow, the "Bow" referenced here actually has quite a history of interpretation, with early Rabbinic sources imagining it as a war-bow, with the bow turned upwards so that arrows would be shot away from the earth—the Hebrew word used here is unhelpful, literally just meaning "bow" with no indication as to what specific kind might be meant. Modern scholars have theroized on the idea of the bow representing the firmament, the boundary between the primal seas that play into the creation-to-flood narrative. It's worth noting also that the Iliad also has mention of rainbows being a sign from the Gods to man: ...like the rainbows which the son of Kronos has set in heaven as a sign to mortal men.
Gen 9.18-29: Noah and his sons. Aside from P in vv. 18-19 and 28-29, this text is part of the Yahwistic primeval history. It links to the explanation of Noah's name in 5.29 and repeats major themes from the pre-flood period: farming, (nakedness, alienation in the family, curse, and domination). Though this text was once widely misread as describing a "curse of Ham" justifying slavery of African peoples, Noah's curse here is actually directed at Canaan, a figure not seen as an ancestor of African peoples.
Gen 9.22-23: Some speculation over Ham's actions here. Some accuse Ham of incest (described alike in Lev 20.17, though differences in wording make this comparison tenuous), but Shem and Japheth are specifically contrasted as turning away, indicating that Ham's problematic behavior was the fact in and of itself that he did not look away from Noah's nakedness. Such behavior is an example of the breakdown of family relationships seen in ch 3 (see 3.8-13,16-19) and ch 4 (see 4.1-16).
Gen 9.24-27: Many have puzzled over why Canaan is cursed for his father, Ham's, misdeed (9.25-26). An editor may have redirected an earlier curse on Ham toward Canaan, so that the curse could help justify the conquest of the land of Canaan (see 10.16-18a; 14.1-12,13-16n.).
Gen 10.1-32: The table of nations. A largely Priestly survey of the world of the Israelites; national groups depicted in relation to one another through means of kinship—Japhethites, Hamites, and Shemites overlapping precisely in Canaan. I have nothing much to note at this juncture, footnotes detailing whigh descendants correlate to which group. Clear enough that the descendants are a fictional anthropomorphization of their respective ethnicities and nations, existing as they do in order to explain the repopulation of a post-flood world, and there may be some indication that the genealogical groupings could have been political in nature at time of writing.
Gen 11.1-9: The tower of Babel. This narrative (from the non-Priestly Yahwistic primeval history) revisits the theme of preservation of the divine-human boundary. The threat to that boundary, self-reflective speech by the Lord, and act of divine prevention all parallel 3.22-24 and 6.1-4. With 11.2 the human family completes the eastward movement begun in 3.22-24. This story then focuses on a scattering of the human family into different ethnic, linguistic, and territorial groups, and gives background for the table of nations in ch 10, although it was not originally written with that in view.
Gen 11.4: Humans fear being scattered across the earth, so they build a tower. Their intention to stay together contradicts the divine imperative to "fill the earth" now found in Priestly traditions (1.28; 9.1,7).
Gen 11.6: The Lord is described here as fearing the human power that might result from ethnic and linguistic unity (see 3.22).
Gen 11.7: "Us" meaning the divine court.
Gen 11.8-9: The scattering of humanity and the confusing of language is the final step in creation of civilized humanity, the story of the tower of Babel acting as an etiology for cultural maturity in these areas. Each step toward this end has been fraught with conflict and loss. The name "Babel," interpreted here as "confusion" but originally meaning "gate of god" (cf. 28.16-17n), serves as af inal testimony to the result of this process.
Gen 11.20-26: The descendants of Shem. This genealogy from the Priestly tradition closely parallels 5.1-32, though it lacks death notices. It builds a genealogical bridge from Shem to Terah, the father of Abraham. Parts of the genealogy of Shem (10.21-31) are repeated, but now the text focuses on those firstborn male descendants who lead to Abraham, thus setting up Abraham as the firstborn heir of Shem, the eldest of Noah's sons.
Gen 11.27-25.11: The story of Abraham and his family. The bulk of this section is a non-Priestly narrative about Abraham. It builds on a blend of oral traditions around him, including the stories standing behind the present narratives about his descent into Egypt (12.10-20), the Abraham and Lot cycle (13.2-13; 18.1-16; 19.1-28,30-37), a pair of Hagar and Ishmael narratives (16.1-14 and 21.8-10), and the tradition about Abraham's stay in Philistine Gerar (20.1-18; 21.22-34; cf. 26.6-33). Some scholars think that the Abraham stories incorporate two separate written J and E sources, with remnants of J (the Yahwistic source) found primarily in chs 12-19 (along with ch 24) and E (Elohistic source) fragments in chs 20-22. Others suggest that they were composed as a single whole, though building on a range of separate traditions. Scholars generally agree, however, that the story of conquest and covenant in 14.1-15.21 and Priestly materials found in 17.1-27 and elsewhere (see 11.27-32n.; 12.4b-5n. 12.3n. 17.1-27n. 21.3-5n. 25.7-11n) were added later.
Gen 11.27-32: Introduction to the Abraham story.
Gen 11.27: Abram, footnote refers to a note on 17.5 regareding the etymology of Abraham's name. The designation "Abraham" is used here in the annotations as the better-known name of Abra(ha)m. Aside from his birth, nothing is told about the early life of Abraham; this lack is filled in by postbiblical tradition.
Gen 11.29-30: The first appearance of the theme of barrenness of the three most central matriarchs: Sarai/Sarah, Rebekah (25.21), and Rachel (29.31). Their initial barrenness highlights God's power to provide heirs of the promise.
Gen 11.31: Haran, in northwest Mesopotamia was Abraham's ancestral home, according to 24.10.
Gen 12.1-3: The Lord's call and promise to Abraham initiates a new movement in the story of Genesis. The first of three divine speeches in which a patriarch is given directions and promises of a blessing (12.1-3; 26.2-5; 41.1-4; see also 31.3,13). The combination of command and promise implies that the Lord's fulfillment of the promise will follow upon Abraham's fulfillment of the command.
Gen 12.1: This command is likely based on those that appear later, being added later so as to mirror them (31.3,13).
Gen 12.2: The promise of a great nation stemming from Abraham stands in tension with Sarah's barrenness, motivating much of the following narrative.
Gen 12.3: Paul interpreted this passage as meaning the Gentiles of all the world became blessed through Abraham (Gal 3.8), but it is more likely that the original translation means something more akin to by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves, i.e., they will say "may we be like Abraham".
Gen 12.4-9: Abraham's first journey to the land.
Gen 12.6-8: This report of Abraham's journey anticipates Jacob's travels through similar places with similar elements; sacred trees like the oak of Moreh occur elsewhere in Genesis and seem to have played an important role in the religion of the ancient Israelites due to their prevalence.
Gen 12.10-13.1: First story of endangerment of the matriarch (cf. ch 20; 26.6-11). Abraham appears not to trust the promise of protection just offered him. Overall, this story of descent into Egypt because of famine and rescue through plagues anticipates many aspects of the later narrative about Israel's descent into Egypt and exodus from it (Gen 45-Ex 14).
Gen 13.2-18: Split of Abraham and Lot.
Gen 13.2-7: The riches and flocks owned by Abraham at this point testifies to the preliminary fulfillment of the promise of blessing in 12.2-3.
Gen 13.8-13: Story anticipates the narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as the wickedness of their inhabitants.
Gen 13.14-17: Only after Abraham has split from Lot and settled in Canaan does God show him the land. This certifies that Abraham has fulfilled God's command to go to the land that God "will show" him.
Gen 14.1-24: Abraham's rescue of Lot from the eastern kings. This and ch 15 relate to each other (see 15.1n., 15.12-16n.) and link in multiple ways with late layers of the primeval history (see 9.18-27n.; 10.6-18a n.).
Gen 14.1-12: Shemite king Chedorlaomer leads an alliance of eastern kings to crush an uprising within the ranks of their Canaanite subjects; this is a fulfillment of the curse of Noah on Canaan, confirming that his people would be enslaved to Shem—neither this battle (the Battle of Siddim) nor any of the kings are considered historical.
Gen 14.13-16: Divine blessing protects Abraham and his household, likewise his ability to overcome the Shemite conquerors testifies to his status as heir of Shem and his blessing.
Gen 14.17-20: First and only reference to Jerusalem by name in the Torah, "Salem". King Melchizedek blesses Abraham in the name of God Most High (El Elyon), highest God of the pre-Israelite Canaanite pantheon—Melchizedek is identified later as founder of a royal priesthood in psalm 110.4.
Gen 15.1-21: The first covenant with Abraham.
Gen 15.1: The promise to be a shield ("magen" in Hebrew) for Abraham echoes Melchizedek's praise of the god who "delivered" ("miggen" in Hebrew) Abraham, and the reward replaces the goods Abraham refused from the king of Sodom.
Gen 15.2-5: Repitition here indicates the intertwining of sources much like the flood.
Gen 15.7-21: Repeat of the pattern in 15.1-6, has covenant ceremony sealing God's promise to Abraham.
Gen 15.9-17: Ancient israelite practice of making a covenant by proclaiming that they will suffer the fate of the "cut" sacrifice if they disobey the terms of the agreement (see Jer 34.18); the Hebrew for "making" a Covenant is to "cut" a covenant. God passes between the pieces in the form of fire, establishing the covenant.
Gen 15.12-16: Though God promises a return in four generations in verse 16, verse 13 specifies 400 years: it is likely that verse 13 was later edited to 400 years so as to better reflect on Priestly material in Exodus 12.40.
Gen 15.16: The iniquity of the Amorites, see Lev 20.23; Deut 9.4.
Gen 15.18-21: Conclusion of ceremony has God promise to give the land of the Canaanite peoples to Abraham.
Gen 15.18: The boundaries given here are the broadest definition of the promised land in the Bible. They correspond to similarly broad, ideal descriptions of the land in the Deuteronomistic History (e.g., 2 Sam 8.3; 1 Kings 4.21; cf. Deut 1.7; 11.24; Josh 1.4). The phrase river of Egypt occurs only here and may refer to the Nile. But elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., Num 34.5; 2 Kings 24.7; Isa 27.12) and in other sources, the "Wadi of Egypt" is apparently either the Wadi Besor or the Wadi el-Arish, both south of Gaza.
Gen 16.1-16: Hagar's encounter with God and the birth of Ishmael stand at the heart of the Abraham story, enveloped by parallel traditions dealing with covenant (chs 15 and 17), Lot and Abraham (chs 13-14 and 18-19), the endangerment of Sarah (12.10-20 and ch 20), and the promise (12.1-6 and 22.1-19).' Interesting that this story mirrors the later exodus, with an Egyptian fleeing eastward into the wilderness to meet God. There will later in Genesis itself be a doublet of this story, with Gen 21.8-21. Both stories have their origins in ancient traditions surrounding the origin of the Ishmaelites, seen in Genesis as ancestors of the Arab peoples (see Gen 25.12-18).
Gen 16.2: According to ancient surrogate motherhood customs, a wife could give her maid to her husband and claim the child as her own (30.3,9).
Gen 16.7: Here the angel of the Lord is not a heavenly being subordinate to God, but the Lord (Yahweh) in earthly manifestation (cf. 21.17,19; Ex 14.19).
Gen 16.11: Explanation of the name Ishamel: "God hears, for the Lord has given heed to your affliction."
Gen 16.13: El-Roi, "God of seeing," or "God who sees."
Gen 17.1-27: The everlasting covenant and sign of circumcision. This account from the Priestly tradition is parallel to that in 15.1-21 and links to the Priestly covenant with Noah in 9.8-17.
Gen 17.1: The phrase translated as God Almighty (Hebrew: "El Shadday") is variously understood as "God [or "El"], the one of the mountains," "God of the Shadday [deities]," or even "fertile God" (literally, "God with Breasts," see 49.25). Whatever its original meaning, the Priestly tradition understands this epithet to be what the early ancestors of Israel called God before they learned the name Yahweh (Ex 6.2-8).
Gen 17.2-6: In a parallel to 15.1-6 this text includes the promise of offspring in the covenant.
Gen 17.5: A new name signifies a new relationship or status (see 32.28). Abram means "the [divine] ancestor is exalted," as does its dialectical variant here, Abraham. This verse, however, explains the extra syllable ham in Abraham as from the hebrew word, "hamon" (multitude), thus meaning that Abraham will now be ancestor of a multitude. This anticipates nations whose ancestry will be traced to Abraham, such as Edomites and Ishmaelites.' The promise to make Abraham exceedingly numerous and fruitful echoes the broader fertility blessings given to animals and humanity prior, suggesting that Abraham's line is now the recipient of the blessing originally intended for all humanity.
Gen 17.9-14: Notable that circumcision within the covenant pertains only to the household and heirs of Abraham. Circumcision was likely originally a fertility rite (see 34.14-17), elsewhere connected with warding off demons (see Ex 4.24-26).
Gen 18.1-15: The Lord's visit to Abraham and Sarah.
Gen 18.2-8: Secretly divine visitor motif. The narrative shifts between talking of the men as a collective and the Lord as a singular fluidly, confusing matters.
Gen 18.9-15: Sarah's laughter at the promise of a son stresses the incredibility of God's act.
Gen 18.11: Menopause.
Gen 18.12: Issac's name means "he [God] laughs"; other traditions develop the link with laughter as well (17.17-19; 21.6,8; 26.8).
Gen 18.16-33: Abraham's intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah.
Gen 18.20-21: Speech echoes that of Babel; going down and seeing what was going on there.
Gen 18.22-23: Like Moses (e.g., Ex 32.9-14), Abraham negotiates with an angry God, appealing to God's righteousness. Thus, this text appears to be a theoretical reflection on God's righteousness and how many righteous people are required to save a broader group; cf. Ezek 14.12-23.
Gen 19.1-38: The rescue of Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Prominent example of God's total judgement (Deut 29.23; Isa 1.9; Jer 49.18; Am 4.11).
Gen 19.1-11: Secretly divine visitors once more, however the sanctity of hospitality is threatened by the men of the city who wish to rape (know) the guests. Lot's attempt to avert this fate, in offering his own daughters in place of the guests, only angers the men of the city more: Where Abraham was the model of hospitality (Gen 18.1-16), Lot's actions show him to be a bungling, almost heartless imitator who does not deserve to be the heir of the promise to Abraham.
Gen 19.15-23: Lot hesitates at the angel's urging to leave Sodom, contrasting him once more disfavorably to Abraham, who hurried to serve his guests.
Gen 19.24-25: The rain of destruction continues the echoes of the Noah story.
Gen 19.26: The fate of Lot's wife acts as an etiological explanation for pillars of salt (common in the dead sea).
Gen 19.29: Priestly summary of the story. Echoes 8.1 (God remembered). Attributes Lot's rescue to his relation with Abraham.
Gen 19.37-38: Explanation for the origin of the Moabites and Ammonites through incest; Lot's daughters mistaking the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as being the destruction of the totality of humanity. Reminiscent of the story of Noah and his sons (9.20-27).
Gen 20.1-18: The second story of endangerment of the matriarch. Footnote details the discussion surrounding Chs 20-22 as possibly being the first major block of an Elohistic (E) source; not so clear-cut as the Priestly accounts however, as chs 20-22 are understandable only when read following chs 12-19 (Abraham's claim in 20.2 that Sarah is his sister, for instance), indicating that the Elohistic traditions here were written as part of a larger whole that included the preceding narratives, and can thus not be considered a wholly separate, independent source.
Gen 20.3-7: Abimelech's case is far more sympathetic than that of the foreign king in parallel accounts (12.15-19; 26.9-10), though it is worth nothing that God says it was he that kept Abimelech from sinning against him, calling into question free will.
Gen 20.7: First use of the term prophet, and the only designation of Abraham as a prophet in the Torah (but see Ps 105.15).
Gen 20.12: Abraham provides many excuses for his action despite Abimelech's god-proven sincerity in his questioning.
Gen 21.1-21: Issac and Ishmael.
Gen 21.14-17: In these verses Ishmael is a young boy; this is incongruent with the parallel accounts of the Priestly traditions (16.16; 17.25; 21.5) implying the contradiction was borne of later Priestly oversight.
Gen 21.22-34: Abraham's dispute with Abimelech. This text continues the story about Abraham and Abimelech that was begin in ch 20. They are later mirrored by Isaac's sojourn in Gerar in 26.6-33; it is likely they have a common oral background.
Gen 21.33: "El-Olam," everlasting God may be an ancient divine name once associated with the sanctuary at Beer-sheba.
Gen 22.1-19: The testing of Abraham. In general, the Bible suggests that God may control future events, but not that God knows all future events; Abraham's fear of God is not proven until he has reached out his hand to slaughter his son.
Gen 22.1-2: After giving up Ishmael earlier, Abraham must now prepare to give up Issac, his promised heir, as well. Echoing the start of Abraham's story, he is asked to go (Hebrew "lek laka") and sacrifice his future family on a mountain that God will show him, much like he was asked to go (Hebrew "lek laka") from his family of origin and go to a land God would show him. The highlighting of "your only son . . . who you love" presupposes that what is being asked of Abraham is extraordinary and extremely difficult. Though child sacrifice was not commonplace, it was known to happen (see 2 Kings 3.27).
Gen 22.3: Abraham leaves immediately to do as asked without question, much like in 12.4-6.
Gen 22.5: Abraham's promise that he and Isaac will return may suggest a faith that God will work out an alternative sacrifice.
Gen 22.9-13: Christian understanding of Isaac as a prefiguration of Jesus.
Gen 23.1-20: Abraham's purchase of a family burial place. A late priestly tradition.
Gen 23.17-20: As in many ancient cultures, the Israelites believed that burial of ancesors in a plot of land gave their heirs a sacred claim to it.
Gen 24.1-67: Finding a wife for Isaac among kinfolk in Haran.
Gen 24.3: Abraham is concerned about intermarriage with Canaanites that is otherwise seen primarily in late materials from Deuteronomy (Deut 7.3-4).
Gen 24.10-27: Commonplace of well scenes as meeting places for people in the Ancient near east.
Gen 25.1-11: The death of Abraham.
Gen 25.1-6: Keturah, one of Abraham's wives is considered the maternal ancestor of the Arabian tribes.
Gen 25.7-11: Conclusion to the Abraham story taken from the Priestly source.
Gen 25.12-18: Overview of the descendants of Ishmael. As the firstborn son of Abraham, we see Ishmael's descendants before that of Isaac's.
Gen 25.16: Like Israel, the Ishmaelites are said to have twelve tribes.
Gen 25.19-35.29: The story of Jacob and his family. Evokes early traditions of Jacob/Israel, father of the Israelite tribes; though many originated as oral tradition, this written version shows many connections to places that were important in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and thus likely originated there, enriched too as it is by emphasis on Judah, King David's purported ancestor. Added too is the Abrahamic promise to Jacob at Bethel, and fragments of other Priestly materials.
Gen 25.19-28: Introduction of the descendants of Isaac.
Gen 25.22-23: The narrative presupposes an ancient practice of seeking a divine oracle at a local sanctuary.
Gen 25.27-28: Much like Cain and Abel, this narrative plays on the tension between siblings and their respective lifestyles.
Gen 25.29-34: Jacob buys Esau's birthright.
Gen 25.31-34: The birthright refers to the extra rights that normally go to the eldest son: leadership of the family and a double share of the inerhitance (Deut 21.15-17). This caricature of Esau as a dull person, outwitted on an empty stomach, is intended to explain Israel's dominance of Edom (2 Sam 8.9-14; 1 Kings 3.9-12; 8.20-22).
Gen 26.1-33: Interlude on Isaac. Isaac's journey in this chapter clearly parallels that of Abraham's, the two likely influencing eachother; Isaac inherits Abraham's blessing and is thus prepared to pass it on to one of his sons.
Gen 26.32-28.4: The transfer of blessing to Jacob and not Esau.
Gen 27.1-45: Story of Rebekah and Jacob's cunning resembles "trickster" traditions in other cultures.
Gen 27.4: Deathbed blessings (and curses) were important in the life and literature of anceint peoples (e.g., 48.8-20' 49.1-28). It was believed that such blessings irrevocably released a tangible power that determined the character and destiny of the recipient. Ch 27 itself focuses exclusively on Isaac's blessing, but the preceding chapter makes clear that this is Isaac's transfer of a divine blessing first given to Abraham.
Gen 28.1-4: A Priestly parallel to the preceding story where Isaac was not tricked into blessing Jacob, bt intended from the outset to bless him in the process of sending him away to find a proper wife. Much parallels that of Isaac's goal in marrying Rebekah.
Gen 28.5-22: The split between Jacob and Esau occurs twice here, the Priestly version in 28.5-9 and the non-Priestly account in 28.10-22.
Gen 28.12: Jacob's ladder.
Gen 28.13-15: God's appearance here is awkwardly linked to the preceding stairway vision. Many scholars suppose this repetition of the Promise to Jacob was a later addition to an early Bethel narrative that lacked it.
Gen 28.13-14: The promise to Jacob after his split from Esau mirrors that of the promise to Abraham after his split with Lot.
Gen 29.1-30: Jacob's marriages to Laban's daughters.
Gen 29.10: Jacob, the folk hero, has superhuman strength.
Gen 29.23-25: Jacob, the trickster, is himself tricked.
Gen 29.31-30.24: The birth of eleven of Jacob's sons and Dinah.
Gen 30.21: The note about the birth of Dinah is inserted (without a story or explanation of the name) to anticipate the story about her in ch 34.
Gen 30.25-43: The birth of Jacob's flocks; Jackob outwits Laban by putting striped sticks before the female animals' eyes while they were breeding.
Gen 31.1-55: Jacob's departure from Laban's family.
Gen 31.13: Where Jerusalem Zion traditions claimed that the Lord dwells in Zion (Pss 9.12; 135.21), God claims in this text to be "the god of Bethel". This probably reflects the perspective of this originally northern Jacob story in comparison with Jerusalem-oriented traditions that predominate in the Bible.
Gen 31.19-35: Household gods may have been figures representing ancestral deities. Possession of them ensured leadership and legitimated property claims.
Gen 31.43-54: Based on an older tradition regarding a boundary covenant between Arameans and Israelites.
Gen 31.53: Footnotes don't note this, but I noticed that the God of Nahor is mentioned, the only place in the Bible that mentions such a God; theories point to Laban being a polytheist, though this is complicated by his recognition of the dream he recieved a day prior.
Gen 32.1-32: Journey toward Esau.
Gen 32.3-21: Jacob once more devises multiple strategies in order to attain his goals (though this time, his aim is appeasal).
Gen 32.22-31: Jacob wrestles with God. The divine being had to vanish before sunrise, an ancient folkloristic theme marking the antiquity of the tradition on which the story is based. Worth noting that Jacob's immense strength is allowing him the upper hand until the being puts his hip out of joint. Jacob is renamed Israel, "The one who strives with God", and the being notes too that he strives with humans—Esau and Laban. In this way, the community of Israel, as descendants of this god-wrestler, is depicted as a group that successfully strives with God and humans. The story is located at Penuel/Peniel ("face of El"), one of the first capitals of the Northern Kingdom (1 Kinks 12.25); it serves as an etiology for the site's choice.
Gen 33.1-17: Partial reunion with Esau.
Gen 33.10: Like seeing the face of God, who at Penuel also proved to be gracious.
Gen 33.18-35.5: The stay in Shechem and the rape of Dinah.
Gen 33.19: Here and in ch 34 Shechem is a personal name. As elsewhere in Genesis, the story portrays, in the guise of individuals, relations between Israel and non-Israelite groups.
Gen 34.1-31: In its broader context, this story explains why Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob's elder sons, did not receive his highest blessing.
Gen 34.2: May not be rape; some scholars interpret this to mean illicit sexual activity.
Gen 34.8-12: Israelite law stipulates that a man who has sex with an unbetrothed woman msut retroactively marry her by paying her father a marriage price (Ex 22.16-17; Deut 22.28-29). This narrative either does not recgonize this law or assumes that it does not apply outside the people of Israel.
Gen 34.25-26: Simeon and Levi lead the killing; Jacob is concerned less with family honor, and more with his relations with the Canaanites.
Gen 35.6-15: Jacob's return to Bethel.
Gen 35.6-7: Deities often had local manifestations (e.g., on ancient inscriptions we find "Yahweh of Samaria" and "Yahweh of Teman"). Jacob honors the local manifestation of El at Bethel by building an altar there and calling the santuary "El of Bethel".
Gen 35.9-15: Priestly parallel to the non-Priestly naming tradition in 32.28. Reiteration of the blessing of Abraham on Jacob. Another connection of "God Almighty" to passages regarding fertility.
Gen 35.16-21: The birth of Benjamin and death of Rachel. Rachel names the child ominously: "son of my sorrow"; Jacob overrules her decision and renames the child Benjamin.
Gen 35.22-29: Concluding materials on Jacob's sons and Isaac's death and burial.
Gen 36.1-43: Overview of the descendants of Esau and prior inhabitants of Edom/Seir. Once more, the narrative gives an overview of the firstborn son's descendants, Esau, before that of Jacob's.
Gen 36.6-8: Echoes the (non-Priestly) story of Abraham's split from Lot.
Gen 36.9: Repetition of introduction indicates an earlier Priestly source.
Gen 37.1-50.26: The story of Joseph and his family. As indicated in the introduction, this portion of Genesis features an intricate depiction of Joseph's relations with his brothers and father. Starting with a pair of dreams (37.5-11), the narrative follows a trajectory from his brothers' murderous hatred of Joseph to Joseph's eventual testing of and reunion with them (chs 42-45; 50). Joseph was a prominent northern tribe, and like the Jacob storym this narrative has Northern connections, especially with the addition of the story in 48.8-14 of Joseph's special blessing on his son, Ephraim. The first king of the Northern Kingdom, Jeroboam, was a member of the tribe of Ephraim (1 Kings 11.26), and stories like tehse about early Israelite ancestors would have reinforced his claim to rule. Yet over time the story evolved in significance, through additions assuming Judah's destiny to rule (see 49.8-12n.), inserted echoes of the promise theme first introduced in the Abraham story (such as 46.1-4; 48.15-16 and 12.1-3n.), connections leading to the book of Joshua (50.24-25), and a few fragments that may come from the Priestly source (e.g., 37.1-2; 46.8-27; 47.27-28; 48.3-6; 49.29-33).
Gen 37.2-4: Priestly and non-Priestly narratives offer different reasons as to specifically why Joseph's brothers take issue with him.
Gen 37.5-8: Joseph's first dream may be taken to predict the future rule of Jeroboam, a member of the Joseph tribe of Ephraim, over the other tribes of northern Israel.
Gen 37.9-11: Rachel being alive in this story indicates that this episode was likely part of an independent Joseph story that did not originally follow Rachel's death.
Gen 37.12-36: Joseph is sold into slavery.
Gen 37.25-36 Most scholars agree that some combination or modification of traditions has occurred here. Though the brothers decide here to sell Joseph (v.27) and Joseph later says that they did so (45.4-5), this narrative describes the Midianites as drawing him out and selling him to the Ishmaelites (v. 28). Later, both the Midianites (37.36) and the Ishmaleites (39.1; cf. 37.25) are identified as the ones who sold Jospeh to Potiphar.
Gen 37.31-34: Now Jacob is tricked by an article of clothing, contrasting how he himself tricked his father in 27.15.
Gen 37.35: Sheol, the underworld to which everyone went at death—the Hebrew Bible does not recognize a differentiated heaven and hell. Since this afterlife was at best a shadowy existence (see Ps 6.5; Eccl 9.10), Jacob's going to his son further reflects his misery.
Gen 38.1-30: Judah and Tamar. Two elements, the focus on Judah and anticipation of David, link 38.1-30 with a sequence of episodes, starting in 30.21; 34.1-31; 35.22, that prepare for Jacob's blessing of Judah and prediction of the Davidic dynasty in 49.8-12.
Gen 38.8-11: God really doesn't like when you spill your seed for means other than procreation (actually it was Onan's refusal to accord with a brother's obligation in furthering the family line, thus also offending God's desire for man to be fruitful and multiply that lead to God's killing of Onan).
Gen 38.27-30: The final link of this chapter to the David narrative occurs with Perez, firstborn and ancestor of David.
Gen 39.1-23: Joseph's success, temptation, and imprisonment. Includes Joseph's garment as misleading evidence once more, and has echoes of Abraham's blessing. Whole tale parallels that of an Egyptian "Tale of Two Brothers".
Gen 40.1-23: Joseph establishes his expertise as dream interpreter.
Gen 41.1-57: Joseph's elevation as the result of successful dream interpretation.
Gen 41.8: The narrator intends to demonstrate the superiority of Israel's God over Egyptian magic and wisdom, anitcipating the plague narrative in Exodus.
Gen 41.16: Joseph attributes his skill solely to God.
Gen 41.45: Joseph is accepted fully into Egyptian society, and no judgement is attached to his intermarrying with an Egyptian foreigner (see Deut 23.8-9).
Gen 42.1-38: Joseph's brothers' first journey to Egypt.
Gen 43.1-34: Joseph's brother's second journey to Egypt.
Gen 43.1-2: Simeon, left as a hostage in Egypt, is apparently forgotten, for his brothers only return when more grain is needed.
Gen 43.8-10: Judah depicted as hero once more.
Gen 43.34: Joseph favors Benjamin, mirroring the favor Jacob had for himself; this sets the stage for a reprise of his brothers' murderous envy possibly being directed at Benjamin.
Gen 44.1-34: Joseph's final test for his brothers.
Gen 45.1-28: Joseph makes himself known to his brothers and father.
Gen 45.4-13: Joseph reassures his brothers that it was not them that sold him into slavery, but God, so that he might grow prosperous and feed his family.
Gen 45.16-20: Asiatics are frequently attested to living in Egypt, though no Egyptian records refer specifically to the Israelites living there.
Gen 46.1-27: Jacob's migration to Egypt.
Gen 46.1-4: God states that he will fulfill the promise made to Abraham in making a great nation for Israel in Egypt.
Gen 46.28-47.28: Jacob's family settles in Egypt.
Gen 46.34: No nonbiblical evidence supports the assertion that shepherds were considered abhorrent in Egypt.
Gen 47.11: The land of Rameses cannot be identified with certainty. The first Egyptian pharaoh with that name ruled at the beginning of the thirteenth century BCE.
Gen 47.29-49.33: Jacob's preparations for death, including the adoption and blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh. This section is viewed by many scholars as a series of later insertions into the Joseph story, linking it back to the Jacob story and forward to the story of the Israelites in Exodus.
Gen 48.3-6: The division of the house of Joseph into two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, with Jacob adopting Joseph's two children to do so.
Gen 48.8-14: Jacob favors the younger son, Aphraim, over the older, Manasseh, echoing Jacob's ascendancy over Esau, as well as possibly predicting the Ephraimite Jeroboam's ascendancy over the Northern Kingdom.
Gen 48.15-16: Jacob passes onto the tribes of Joseph the special blessing of Abraham and Isaac.
Gen 49.1-28: Jacob's blessing on his twelve sons. Though the poem is depicted as a deathbed blessing by the text following it (49.28; cf. 27.4 and n.), this poem seems to have been originally designed as a prediction of the destines, good and bad, of the tribes of Israel. Many scholars have argued that the poem is ancient on the basis of its language and resemblance to other supposdly ancient tribal poems in Deut 33 and Judg 5. Nevertheless, the present form of the poem appears to have been modified to fit the narrative context in which it has been put. Its first part follows the birth order of 29.31-35 and legitimates rule for Judah and—by extension—the Davidic dynasty. The author of these changes may be responsible for inserting the whole poem into its present context, as well as for the addition to the Jacob-Joseph story of the narratives referred to in 49.3-7 (30.21; 34.1-31; 35.21-22a; cf. 37.36-38.30).
Gen 50.1-26: Burial of Jacob and final days of Joseph.
Gen 50.1-11: This non-Priestly narrative presupposes that the burial and mourning occurred in Transjordan, noat at the ave at Machpelah.
Gen 50.2-3: Jacob is embalmed as an Egyptian with full honors.
And with that rather long reading session, I am finished with Genesis, and in just about seven days, apparently. One thing has become clear to me, and that is that I am eventually going to have to stop taking such extensive notes; a lot of what I've noted down in this record have been direct quotations of footnotes and lots of compressing of others to best condense the information I find interesting—this can't go on through the entire Bible, lest it take me forever to do so; I find myself finishing a page in good time, only to spend minutes upon minutes transcribing information and copying quotes, not to mention the time that goes into the formatting of this record for upload to my website. This breaks my reading flow and already has set me to some apathy.
As such, I've decided that my note-taking will only be as extensive as this throughout the first 5 books of the Bible, the Torah. My reading of the rest of the OT will be much more sparse in terms of notes, likely noting each chapter as I have done thus far, but being strict with myself in not including so much detail so as not to harm my pace. This is absolutely subject to change, assuming later books interest me to the point I can't but help myself, but as it stands, this is the plan. When I reach the NT, we will reassess once more (I have to imagine the footnotes there will be deeply interesting).
As for Genesis itself, I have no wider notes to make, it's about what I expected, as I have read portions of it before in isolation, not to mention the sheer cultural osmosis that exists with the prevalence of these stories, but I am surprised to find that a lot of what I knew of said stories was extrabiblical in nature, with the scripture itself being a lot more scarce on details, details that I imagine church tradition filled in over time. Onto Exodus then.
From Him
Fallen winds
Assume barren lands
The promise of Dust
Embracing countless stars
That warn to take heed
Hither and thither
The lowest cry out
Unto most high
Calling out
To Him
Every vice of my existence
Begs and pleads and asks assistance
From your passions, I truly need this
To contrast is to know
For if there be your divine witness
Let me feel this pervert sickness
Mark my flesh and make me bleed, bliss
To contrast is to know
So when you're through I'll have my distance
From my former goodness, listless
Broken bodied, hear me plead, Miss
To contrast is to know