Galloping Through Genesis
The first 3
chapters of Genesis tell how the universe was created and how human beings came
into existence. Chapters 1-11 are referred to as the "Primeval
History" because they tell the story of human beings (as understood by the
Biblical narrators) up to the point where Abraham, the patriarch of Judaism,
Islam, and Christianity, is called by God to go to a new land, which will
eventually become Israel. In this section we find the story of Cain and Abel
(though we don't learn where Cain's wife came from), the story of Noah and the
flood, the tower of Babel and a good deal more, including a great many genealogies
or "begats."
This story is told from the point of view of the Jewish people and their own
history; it references only nations and cultures with which they were familiar.
Nevertheless, a certain Bishop Ussher felt it could be used to calculate the
date of the world. Here's a little snip and a web reference:
BISHOP USSHER DATES THE WORLD: 4004 BC
James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and
Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin was highly regarded in his day as
a churchman and as a scholar. Of his many works, his treatise on chronology has
proved the most durable. Based on an intricate correlation of Middle Eastern
and Mediterranean histories and Holy writ, it was incorporated into an
authorized version of the Bible printed in 1701, and thus came to be regarded
with almost as much unquestioning reverence as the Bible itself. Having established
the first day of creation as Sunday 23 October 4004 BC, by the arguments set
forth in the passage below, Ussher calculated the dates of other biblical
events, concluding, for example, that Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on
Monday 10 November 4004 BC, and that the ark touched down on Mt Ararat on 5 May
2348 BC `on a Wednesday'.
— Craig, G. Y. and E. J. Jones. A Geological Miscellany. Princeton
University Press, 1982. Pasted
from <http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/ussher.htm>
Starting with chapter 12, we begin to accompany Abraham on his journey of
faith. God promises to make him the father of a great nation if he will believe
in God and do his will. Abraham and his wife Sarah become old and they both
despair of every having a child with which to fulfill this promise. Sarah
finally gives her concubine Hagar to Abraham so that he at least will have a
son, and Ishmael is born of their union. Not surprisingly, conflicts arise
between Hagar, mother of the heir, and Sarah, wife of the patriarch. And then,
miraculously, despite the fact that Sarah is no longer menstruating, she bears
a son as well, who is named Isaac. Conflicts escalate between the two mothers
and finally Hagar is driven into the wilderness with her son where God sees her
thirst and promises that her son will also be father of a great nation. The
Arabs consider Ishmael to be the father of their nation, and in this way Jews
and Arabs are descended from half-brothers; the conflicts among them also go
back to the very origins of their nations.
In the story of Abraham we hear of various times when Abraham chose to act as
though Sarah were his sister rather than his wife to avoid unpleasant
confrontations; as it turns out, she was indeed his half-sister, but he omitted
the additional fact that she was also his wife when convenient. We learn of his cousin Lot, of Sodom
and Gomorrah, of Lot's wife who turns into a pillar of salt, and of God's
demand that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise, on an altar (Gen. 22)
Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob, who are quite opposite in temperament. They
are described as "hairy" and "smooth" respectively. Jacob
is a great trickster and, despite being the younger son, manages to trick the
inheritance to which his elder brother is entitled out of his father. (Gen. 27)
This is an early appearance of a theme which emerges frequently in the Hebrew
Bible, in which the younger son, who is generally given no inheritance by the
custom of primogeniture, ends up inheriting or in some other way coming out on
top after all. We see this with the story Joseph, which is a sort of novella
constituting the end of Genesis (Gen. 37-50). Joseph is the 12th son of Jacob,
who loves him dearly because he is the son of his old age. He gives him a coat
of many colors as a sign of his favor. Not surprisingly, Joseph's brothers
don't much care for this sort of favoritism and sell him into slavery in Egypt.
But then in one of those wonderful reversals which keep coming up in Bible
stories, Joseph ends up become the Grand Vizier of Egypt at a time of
prosperity; he is warned in a dream to save the fruits of this prosperity for
seven years of famime which will follow and, as a result of his foresight, he
is able to save not only the people of Egypt but also his father and brothers
and all of their families from starvation.
The summation of the story is one of my favorites: His brothers are terrified
of what he will do to them (knowing that they fully deserve the worst he could do),
and offer to become his slaves. He
replies:
"Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to
do harm to me, God intended it for good, as he is doing today." (Gen.
50:19b-20)
And so we end Genesis with the Children of Isreal (the descendants of Abraham
and Isaac) in the land of Egypt where they are welcomed and given places to
live and work.
Exodus picks up where Genesis leaves off, but warns that everything is not well
when it declares "Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know
Joseph." (Ex. 1:8) And so the Exodus from Egypt under the leadership of
Moses begins.
A NOTE ON DATES: Unlike Bishop Ussher, most modern scholars do not believe it
is possible to date the history of Genesis very precisely. Without going into a
great deal of detail (and well aware that many long and complex arguments may
arise from my saying this), the description of the society in which Abraham
moved and the kind of life he lived suggests that he may have been active
somewhere in the vicinity of 2200 Before the Common Era (BCE – generally
preferred to "Before Christ" - BC – in recognition that not everyone
divides time in the Christian manner). The Exodus cannot be dated precisely and
arguments have been made for a range of 1450 BCE to 1200 BCE. My best guess is
that the Exodus occurred somewhere around 1250 BCE. Unfortunately, there's
nothing in the Egyptian historical records to substantiate this; indeed, there
are those who argue that the Exodus was a much smaller movement of people out
of Egypt than is recorded in the book of Exodus, such that it might simply not
have been worth noting in the records of that great empire.