Then the men said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city—bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’ So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, ‘Up, get out of this place; for the Lord is about to destroy the city.’ But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be consumed in the punishment of the city.’ But he lingered; so the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, they said, ‘Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.’ And Lot said to them, ‘Oh, no, my lords; your servant has found favour with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die. Look, that city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!’ He said to him, ‘Very well, I grant you this favour too, and will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.’ Therefore the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord; and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and towards all the land of the Plain, and saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of a furnace.

So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had settled.

The interesting part of this story, for me, comes right at the end in verse 29, “God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow…” This is from the Priestly source in the Torah and is a Priestly summary of the story echoing 8:1 and attributing Lot’s rescue to his relationship with Abraham, “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals with him on the ark.”

This is important to keep in mind because while this story is set closer to the beginning of Genesis and therefore is in the recesses of time, the Priestly source in the Torah comes to us from the 6th century during the exile in Babylon. This redaction clearly is meant to remind the Israelites in captivity that God remembers those in relationship with Abraham through the covenant.

While this redaction is from years after the original oral transmission of this story and the first codified writing of this story, it does add something very important. God always remembers his people and will hear their cry. This theme has always been a part of the people of Israel’s story and it was also picked up by Liberation Theologians.

Liberation Theology came to prominence in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Latin America. It proposed that not only does God hear the cry of His people, but that God has a preference for the poor. This lead to clergy and people moving to be with the poor and to advocate on behalf of the poor and marginalized. In the political climate of the day, Liberation Theology was seen as leftist and communist as the United States was still embroiled in the cold war with the USSR.

I would tend to agree that Liberation Theology offered no roadmap out of a capitalistic structure, although it was essential in bringing democracy, while imperfect, to countries like El Salvador. The struggle is where to go from Liberation Theology.

And while these questions hang over the legacy of Liberation Theology, the core premise that God goes to be with His people has a long and storied history back to some of the earliest chapters in Genesis, as we see from our passage today. How that looks is different in each time and each place. In the passage, Angels of the Lord are the ones that bring God’s message and rescue Lot. For El Salvador, the messenger was none other than Oscar Romero. And in many ways, as Romero predicted the night before his assassination, that if he were killed he would go on living in the people of El Salvador.

His face and the many murals become an ever-present reminder that while the church and liberation theology may have failed the people of El Salvador in many ways, God is still with His people. And it is for that reason on October 14, 2018, Oscar Romero became San Romero de America.

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’* And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord * reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Then he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’ He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.’ He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. Then the Lord * said to Abram, ‘Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgement on the nation that they serve, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.’

Making a deal with God can often be a tricky endeavor and truth be told it doesn’t often go well. There will be many more examples of this later on in scripture, but for now let us stay within the confines of Genesis only.

Abram here in Chapter 15 makes a covenant with God surrounding the land, but more importantly surrounding who will rule that land; namely offspring. To this point in Genesis Abram has not had a child. Abram has had no offspring. No descendants to carry on his name. No descendants who will rule over the land to which he is being promised.

Yet God promises Abram that his descendants will be as plentiful as the stars and they will have the land, but first they will suffer in slavery before being brought to the land. In other words, God hears the pleas and prayers of Abram and God answers them, just not in the time and the way that Abram would prefer.

This is often the case with prayer. We assume that because we have not gotten exactly what we wanted immediately that God has not heard our prayer. We have somehow tricked ourselves into believing if we pray hard enough and believe long enough that God will grant us whatever wish we want.

But what this passage highlights for us is that God is not a Genie in a Bottle who if rubbed the right way will grant us wishes.

Instead, we learn that God does indeed answer prayer, just sometimes the answer may be: not yet, maybe later or worse, no. God hears our pleas and God sends to us who and what we need for situations and life, but not necessarily what we want.

This is a hard lesson for us to learn and a hard lesson for Abram. He gets his many descendants, as plentiful as the stars. Yet first they must become slaves and suffer horrible hardships. Lesson, be careful what you pray for.

After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said,
‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
maker of heaven and earth;
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’
And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything. Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.’ But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have sworn to the Lord, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, so that you might not say, “I have made Abram rich.” I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their share.’

This is a very dense yet interestingly revealing passage about the nature of God and our relationship to Him. We are still very early in the Old Testament and the covenant has yet to be made with Abraham and the chosen people have yet to come into the Promised Land and Jerusalem has yet to become the Holy City.

While I have been avoiding cross-referencing passages, we must look at this one though through Hebrews 7:1-3 in hopes of parsing out a translation that will help us glean some insight into this passage from Genesis. My reasoning for allowing cross-referencing on this passage is slowly a language issue, to help us better understand who Melchizedek is, and what importance can be placed upon this High Priest of God.

In Hebrews 7:1-3 the name of this “Melchizedek, King of Salem, which is, King of peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life.” And from Melchizedek Abram accepts blessing.

The significance of this was that Salem meant and would become Jerusalem, and so Abram is linked already with what is to become the Holy City and the center of his peoples’ lives. But furthermore the High Priest and Priests of this city would later in history adapt themselves to the conquering people that would come into their land, the Israelites, and adapt to their faith.

Interesting that long before Christianity adapted cultural and religious norms in mission countries, the Jewish people would also partake of the same practice. Cultural assimilation and cultural blending goes far back into the recess of time and the bible it seems.

But what does it mean that the chosen people will accept as their priest, priest of the order of Melchizedek instead of Levites, or in conjunction with Levites? For Christians today fighting to maintain traditions exactly that have been handed down to us and creating museums of our churches instead of places of worship this passage can utterly undermine those initiatives.

Long ago, in both our common Jewish and Christian distant past there was cultural adaptation and assimilation of new ideas, new traditions and new forms of worship. For us in the Anglican Church this should be a wake up call that it is okay to do worship without the BCP or the BAS, and that God can be found in Fresh Expression of worship.

In fact, one could say it is scripturally based to try new things in hopes of turning the local area we find ourselves in, our Salem, into a Holy City, a Jerusalem; a city and place where we can come to meet and be with God here on earth.

In the days of King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim, these kings made war with King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). All these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea). For twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the Horites in the hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the edge of the wilderness; then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar. Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim with King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of Ellasar, four kings against five. Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. So the enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way; they also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram. When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. Then he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his nephew Lot with his goods, and the women and the people.

This is a difficult text. One this text is the only place in all of the tradition that has Abram (later Abraham) portrayed in such a role, as a military commander. As we will see later on in Genesis (we haven’t quite read that far yet) Abraham is often the lone stranger among the Hittite inhabitants of Kiriatharba.

Secondly the historicity of the 5 petty Palestinian kings being subdued by 4 mighty kings from the east is questionable at best. There simply is no extra biblical evidence to support such an invasion and/or battle.

And thirdly, we must confront the thought that such a small band of 318 men, lead by Abram will defeat the 4 mighty kings who had just crushed a rebellion by 5 kings in Palestine. This seems dubious at best.

So what are we to make of a text that seems completely out of place, that glorifies military victories and battles and whose history seems more likely many pieces of stories redacted into one giant meta-story, much in the same manner that the combination of folk stories go into the creation of urban legend.

This primeval history of the chosen people is of course not meant to be about historicity, as it is meant to be about the founding mythology of the Jewish people. And the founding mythological piece in this story is Abram’s ability to best the 4 mighty kings is a testimony to his status as Shem’s heir and therefore the recipient of Shem’s blessing, received from Noah.

Lineage is very important in biblical literature. Lineage allows the blessings of God to be traced back to the beginning, when the covenant was first formed. In this case, that is the covenant between Noah and God. No longer will God destroy the peoples of the earth and the bow in the sky (the rainbow) will be a sign of that covenant.

This also continues the lineage of the chosen people from Adam, to Noah, to Abram. It helps identify a certain people with a certain God. In this case the chosen people, the Hebrews, with Yahweh, the God of the Jews. The military victory depicted also lends support to a primeval culture asserting the dominance of its God over other gods.

So what is the take away then? What truth does God want us to glim from this passage?

God’s blessing, which has travelled through generations from Noah, to Shem, to Abram. The blessing that will travel through time through the prophets, the judges, the martyrs and through Jesus Christ is the same blessing that we receive in the sacraments of the church.

The covenant is a sign that God will always come for us, much like Abram comes for Lot. That doesn’t mean nothing bad will happen to us. It simply means that through our covenant, in baptism, God journeys with us, remembers us and gives us strength. And I know standing in the vast emptiness of the world and starring up at the sky and looking at a rainbow I am comforted by the knowledge that God is with me. And sometimes that is enough.

So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. He journeyed on by stages from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them living together; for their possessions were so great that they could not live together, and there was strife between the herders of Abram’s livestock and the herders of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land.

Then Abram said to Lot, ‘Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herders and my herders; for we are kindred. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.’ Lot looked about him, and saw that the plain of the Jordan was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar; this was before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastwards; thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the Plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the people of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northwards and southwards and eastwards and westwards; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring for ever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.’ So Abram moved his tent, and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Chapter 13 of Genesis is one of those chapters that makes me say, uh? So to recap where we are so far. Abram is shown the Promised Land. There is a famine in the Promised Land so he packs everything up and travels to Egypt. Once in Egypt he pretends his wife is his sister and Pharaoh takes her as his wife. Not cool.

That mess gets cleared up and Abram leaves with riches, livestock and his wife, Sarai. So he returns to the Promised Land with his nephew Lot. Once in the land, Abram then decides that the Promised Land, which is for him and all his descendants, his family, as numerous as the dust or the stars in the sky, is somehow not big enough for him and his nephew Lot, his family, his livestock and his farm hands. And Abram sends Lot away.

The Promised Land is for all of Abram’s descendants. God even emphasizes that at the end of the passage by having Abram look it over and walk it end to end. But Abram doesn’t seem to get it. He sends his family away. Mine….not yours is Abrams response to God and God’s abundant grace.

If this seems rather greedy, I would agree. And how often do we as a society, as a people and the children of God look at all of God’s abundance, freely given to all and hoard it while our neighbor and fellow human beings go with out?

Nothing reminds me more of that then the constant race to reduce or eliminate the taxes that we pay as a society for services and a higher standard of living for all. The Greatest Generation sacrificed, not just in war, but following World War II to pay higher taxes and by doing so increased the amount of wealth that was shared by all.

Infrastructure, highways, railways, hospitals and such were built. The developed and industrialized country that we enjoy was built from their hard work and willingness to work together and share God’s abundance with one another and with the less fortunate.

This trend though shifted in the 1980’s when the Baby Boomers, probably the most entitled generation, having received all the benefits that the Greatest Generation had worked together to create shifted the focus of our society to a society that is decidedly more greedy, individualistic and places a higher priority upon the wealth of the individual rather then the well-being of society as a whole. This is clearly seen in the growing income gap between the rich and the poor.

And how like Abram does that sound; divisive, individualistic and fracturing the children of God. Hoarding what God has giving to all but for a few. What gives me hope though is when you read this passage you will notice the use of the future verb. God will give. God has not already giving. The promise is there, if unfulfilled at this moment in time.

The gifts from God flow freely and will eventually flow to Abram once he reconciles with Lot, reconstitutes his family and reunites the whole children of God. But until that is done, God has only given a promised to be fulfilled.

And that same promise God has given us. When we see past our greed, our individualism and begin to see that we are a human family as numerous as the stars and we begin to share all that God has given, then we too will walk in the Promised Land. But until then, we will be like Abram, a sojourner, in search of home.

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife”; then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.’ When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.

But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, ‘What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, “She is my sister”, so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and be gone.’ And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had.

Father’s day has just past and I have been reflecting on this passage for sometime now. And it seems appropriate that I write something on the Father of Faith, in light of father’s day.

When was the moment that you realized that your father was human? When did you realize that he couldn’t in fact do anything and everything? Was it when you were 6, challenging some other child in the schoolyard that your daddy can beat up their daddy? Was it when you became a teenager? When did your father stop being superman and become simply a man?

That moment when we discover that our fathers are human, flawed and just like the rest of us is a difficult time. It is the moment when your innocent is lost and is never to be recovered. You have, in many ways, just grown up and there is no going back.

That is how I feel ready this passage. The stories of Abraham, the Father of Faith, who took Isaac up the mountain to offer as sacrifice, fully ready to lose his son, while still being able to keep him. A man, a father, of the most confident faith.

Fear and Trembling is by far one of my favorite books by Kierkegaard, in which he delves deeply into this story. The story of the Knight of Faith, as Kierkegaard calls it, has captured my imagination for years; the kind of faith that few in the world will ever have or experience and even less understand. I have turned those pages over and over again wearing the binding while reflecting on my own journey of faith and ordained ministry.

And reading today that Abraham, or I should say Abram, for he has yet to have his name changed by God, or climb that mountain with Isaac, I am left with a different view of the Father of Faith. A view that is compromised.

A view of a man who is willing to lie for self-protection and personal benefit, of a man willing prostitute his wife and give her to another to take into his house and marry, so that it may go well with him. A view of man who is selfish, uncaring, and unprotecting of his loved one.
And what was her crime, being to pretty.

The Father of Faith is much like any father I guess. To the young they are infallible, but as we grow in our faith, in age and in understanding, they become human and more like us: more fragile, more broken, and more sinful.

This is dangerous for we can become disillusioned in our own faith. Or we can chose instead to remember that even in all his brokenness and human failings God still loved Abram, renewed him as Abraham and brought him home.

In many ways I feel closer to Abraham now instead of the countless hours pouring over Kierkegaard. Abram actions have allowed me to see that even the most devout Abraham is still human, imperfect and flawed. In a strange way, this gives me hope.

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages towards the Negeb.

This passage describes for us the original call of the one who will come to be known as the Father of Faith, Abraham. But before he was Abraham, he was simply Abram. A descendent of Noah, Abram is told by God to go to the land of Canaan. It is this land, Canaan, which God promises to Abram and his descendants in perpetuity.

But first, if we back up a bit, you will remember that Noah cursed Canaan to be the lowest of slaves to his brothers. Noah said, “blessed by the Lord my God be Shem and let Canaan be his slave.” (Gen 9:25-26)

And yes, you guessed it; Abram is a descendent of Shem. And in this passage God repeats the blessing to Abram and to all those that bless Abram. But there is a warning; to all those that curse Abram, God will curse them too.

From this passage and others like it, modern Israel makes an historical claim to the Promised Land, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The justification for an Apartheid style occupation of the land is justified through scripture, as ordained by God. Those within the land that are not the chosen people are second-class citizens, or to use biblical terms, slaves and the descendants of Canaan.

I am always suspicious of a God that curses, imprisons and allows the control of others, the domination of other people and to own other human beings, especially in light that Christ died upon the cross for the forgiveness of all of humanity.

And as you can see I am falling prey myself to reading back into scripture through a Christian lens. So trying to step back, what are we to make of Abrams call? Why are the descendants of Canaan, the Canaanites cursed? What have these descendants of Noah done to anger God in such a way?

The reason I find this passage and others like it troubling is that it is ‘othering’. It creates a dichotomy between the chosen people and those God does not choose, even if they are righteous and blameless before the Lord. It separates instead of bringing together. And following on the heels of the Flood narrative where God eliminated all of humanity save Noah and his descendants, what does this say?

Is humanity that fallen that in a few generations the work that God accomplished can so easily be turned over? I would think not.

This passage is a blending of both P and J. So we could see how P would want to justify their conquering of the land. For J though, it would have been written for a wandering nomadic people coming to settle in a foreign land; almost a precursor to the Exodus. And there again I am getting ahead of myself.

Perhaps it is something as simple as that. God will bless those that are kind to the stranger; the stranger who has just arrived in what will come to be known as the Promised Land. Blessings for those that are kind to the stranger, whether you are a resident of the land or one who is immigrating.

These are the descendants of Shem. When Shem was one hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood; and Shem lived after the birth of Arpachshad for five hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Arpachshad had lived for thirty-five years, he became the father of Shelah; and Arpachshad lived after the birth of Shelah for four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Shelah had lived for thirty years, he became the father of Eber; and Shelah lived after the birth of Eber for four hundred and three years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Eber had lived for thirty-four years, he became the father of Peleg; and Eber lived after the birth of Peleg for four hundred and thirty years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Peleg had lived for thirty years, he became the father of Reu; and Peleg lived after the birth of Reu for two hundred and nine years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Reu had lived for thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug; and Reu lived after the birth of Serug for two hundred and seven years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Serug had lived for thirty years, he became the father of Nahor; and Serug lived after the birth of Nahor for two hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Nahor had lived for twenty-nine years, he became the father of Terah; and Nahor lived after the birth of Terah for one hundred and nineteen years, and had other sons and daughters.

When Terah had lived for seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Descendants of Terah

Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.

The one thing about the book of Genesis is there is a lot of begetting. Chapter 11:10-32 is an excellent example of the begat phenomena, if you will. One is tempting to ask though, who cares? Does it matter that so and so had a child, lived for so many years and died and then the son had so many children and they were who again?

Here we have the descendants of Shem, leading in a line to Abram finally, who will become for us Abraham, the Father of Faith. But we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves there. First, why does it matter who begat who? Are we not all God’s children?

Practically, this passage gives us the lineage of the covenant. God will establish His covenant with Abraham, but before he did he first established a covenant with Noah. The lineage is meant to reflect that those who come after are inheriting the covenant, the obligations but also the benefits. This is key for us as Christians and also key for the author of the Gospel of Matthew, who traces Jesus lineage to Abraham in the same fashion. But once again we are way ahead of ourselves.

This passage is a means of establishing human hierarchy. Remember that Noah blesses Shem, and the descendants of Ham, Canaan, are to be the slaves of his brother and his brother’s descendants. This passage helps to clearly distinguish between the “other” and helps establish the people of God as belonging to a cosmic order already.

In many respects the passage promotes what we would call nationalism today, although a few thousand years ago, that concept wouldn’t make sense, but it would be more akin to tribalism and the concept that some humans are attached to the divine and cosmic orders, while others can be slaves, purchase and are not people of the covenant and cosmic order; not set aside as special.

While lineage does mark one as part of particular community with historical roots and an ancient community which is good, it can also have dangerous effects, like alienating one from the rest of society, in this case from the rest of humanity. It has a separating effect.

The ability to trace a lineage to divine covenants is not particular to the Israelites, in fact we in many ways continue this tradition today in the form of nation states. Germany saw itself as the chosen people, the US sees itself as fulfilling a manifest destiny and I am sure we will continue into the future not building bridges, but erecting barriers. And we must confront that our heritages and lineages while they help define who we are, they also define who is not “us.”

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.’ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Laziness sometimes has it’s own rewards, rarely, but it does sometimes. Or maybe I should say distractions have their rewards. Either way, it has been far to long since I blogged about the bible. Work sometimes consumes one’s life, and then the addition of study and class; moving and a cluster of other distractions and then you noticed you have fallen down on one of your commitments, to blog the bible.

Yet there are times when it is a benefit. Allow me to explain.

Today’s passage is the story of the Tower of Babel. It comes from J’s hand and is a mythological story to explain how and why people have different languages.

In this passage, Yahweh is one god among many. If you notice in verse 7, Yahweh says to the council of other gods, “Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” It was J’s understanding that there were multiple gods throughout the world, yet Yahweh was the ruler, or king or lord of all the other gods; a trait very common throughout the Torah of J and an easy way to discern his penmanship.

I find this passage striking for many reasons, but one of the reasons is fear; fear that God displays about humanity and more specifically about humanity working together. “And the LORD said ‘Look, they are one people, and they all have one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing they propose will now be impossible for them.”

Fear of humanity’s potential drives God to confuse their language so that they no longer understand one another, and then God scatters them abroad, over the entire face of the earth.

While this passage is also the mythological explanation as to why there are many languages if we all descended from Adam and Eve, it also tells us a truth today. It is a truth that is present in any who have power and want to hold their power; they confuse first and then they divide. Machiavelli would be proud.

My distractions have allowed me to come back to this passage now, during the Occupy Wall Street protest that have grown to other cities and other countries, such as Canada, who is all set to begins its Occupy Bay Street protest this coming weekend.

Truly there is a subtle message in here about power dynamics between ruler and ruled. A message that when humanity comes together and unites under one voice, one language and works in unison there is nothing that is impossible.

The Arab Spring has lead to more open democracies in the Middle East, the Western Fall seems to be a time when we as a people are awakening from a long slumber to cast off the systems of oppression and domination that control our lives. For the West, the dictator is not an individual or an oppressive regime, but an economic system that rewards greed and a few people at the expense of the majority. A system that oppresses many and that has been growing in power.

Yet, this system like all tyrants can be confronted, but must be confronted jointly, together and as one voice. In doing so there is nothing that we, as the people of God, cannot do, nothing is impossible for us. But we must be vigilant. The system will attempt to confuse us; separate us into different focus groups and divide and scatter us.

This passage speaks about the mythological understanding of how many languages came to be. But it also speaks about humanity’s potential, a potential that God himself saw and fears. What will we do with this potential?

These are the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; children were born to them after the flood.

The descendants of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The descendants of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim. From these the coastland peoples spread. These are the descendants of Japheth in their lands, with their own language, by their families, in their nations.

The descendants of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush became the father of Nimrod; he was the first on earth to become a mighty warrior. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, ‘Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.’ The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar. From that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. Egypt became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim, and Caphtorim, from which the Philistines come.

Canaan became the father of Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterwards the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon, in the direction of Gerar, as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. These are the descendants of Ham, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. The descendants of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. The descendants of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. Arpachshad became the father of Shelah; and Shelah became the father of Eber. To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan. Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the descendants of Joktan. The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar, the hill country of the east. These are the descendants of Shem, by their families, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

These are the families of Noah’s sons, according to their genealogies, in their nations; and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

The sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japeth, or were they Japeth, Ham and Canaan?

This chapter and the last are very good examples of the editor’s pen at work, cutting and slicing, adding where necessary to make the story move more smoothly. The idea behind all the editorial work is to make sure that the people of Israel do not exist in isolation from the rest of the world.

This is one of our examples of universalism found in the Old Testament. Examples like all of humanity stemming from one man and one woman. The redactor used this material to provide a background of world history, however rudimentary, for the people of Israel, which was to begin, or take its foundational root with Abraham. This becomes more apparent later when Israel’s vocational role is to become a light to lighten the Gentiles. (Isa 49:6) Although we are getting way ahead of ourselves here, after all we are still in Genesis and have not reach Isaiah.

This history of the world and therefore the people of the world is meant to explain how the coastal people came to be and how they are related to Israel. As well it explains who the hill people are and also who are all the tribes that inhabit the land of Canaan, which will eventually become the Promised Land.

This passage also tells another story though, a story of family united, but about to be divided. I refer you to verse 32. These are the families of Noah’s sons, according to their genealogies, in their nations; and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

All the people of the earth are of one family, united together after the flood, building nations and populating the land. A group of humans dedicated to each other and in community. Together they can accomplish anything, they have survived the flood and they have spread to all parts of the earth. But interesting enough, they have different languages. This of course will become of definite interest to us in the next chapter and also shows us how the redactor had insert this into the original material.

There are many ways we can read this passage in a postmodern world. But stepping back from the desire to explain away this passage or read it through the eyes of our time, I think this passage is simply supplying history for the people of Israel. It is simply redacted back into the foundational story so to support the idea that the people of God, Israel, come from a common and single ancestor.

Although, having said that, I would love to hear your opinion on chapter 10.

The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.

Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backwards and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said,
‘Cursed be Canaan;
lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.’
He also said,
‘Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.
May God make space for Japheth,
and let him live in the tents of Shem;
and let Canaan be his slave.’

After the flood Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years. All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

A drunk man falls down and passes out naked in the street, or in his tent. And for his drunkenness he blames his youngest son for embarrassing him in front of his other two children. And then he curses not his son Ham who found him, but his son’s son, Canaan and all his descendants. And from that incident we have the biblical justification for slavery, or at least the first one.

This passage, therefore, has been used by the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa and by American slave owners in the South to justify the Apartheid system and the slave trade respectively throughout the years.

But before even that, this passage allowed for the justification of the Israelites to invade, conquer and take the land of Canaan for themselves from the Canaanites, who they proceeded to enslave. And one wonders how much it still influences the current Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Untangling this passage is difficult. It seems to come from the J source and was redacted later to occur after the flood, instead of appearing before the flood as seems more natural. As well, this passage looks to have been adapted slightly to have Noah the vine grower practice husbandry as the hero from the Gilgamesh epic. In this manner the epic has been converted into Yahwism and eventual finds its place in the Old Testament canon.

This passage therefor comes not only from the J source, but also from Babylonian myths. Something not often spoken about in Christian churches I would imagine. But we have tackled the question of myth already. Let’s turn to other questions that this passage raises.

So what are we to do with a passage that has Noah curse an entire future population to be the slaves of others? Is slavery okay then? It is biblical after all. Is this another caution against sexual perversion? Or is it the ranting’s of a drunkard with a hang over? Where is the kernel of truth in here that God wants us to see?

If you asked me, and I assume you have since you are reading my blog, I think the caution in this passage is to maybe ignore the preacher sometimes. Seriously, I just said that.

Here we have a man speaking on behalf of God, cursing and blessing. Noah, who God said was righteous, was asked to build an ark and save a holy remnant. He was never tasked with the prophetic role for after the flood receded. He was asked to be fruitful and multiply, but not to curse and not to bless.

So do we discount this passage? Well maybe we discount the blessing and curses because they come from a man and not from God. And maybe we learn to be more discerning and have received a warning from God about people who bless and curse in his name. Maybe we see in Noah’s actions, the actions that will lead to evil and we are to learn from them, so as not to repeat them and not follow the path of evil.

The bible, I believe holds up for us examples of what to do, but also what not to do. And this I think is an example of what not to do, which is not take the Lord’s name and act in the place of God. The only one who can bless or curse is after all the one who created us.

God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
God made humankind.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.’

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

For many years the bible has been used to justify all kinds of atrocities. After all if it is in the bible, then that must be the way God intended it. For instance a passage that we will look at next time, Genesis chapter 9:18-28, has traditionally been used to justify slavery in the United States of America before and during the civil war. As well, this same passage was fundamental to the Dutch Reform Church in South Africa in their theological justification of Apartheid.

Our sacred texts have often been used to justify people’s earthly desires through the evoking of God’s holy name and scripture. And it can be hard to argue if your belief of scripture is that it is the inherent accurate word of God. But that also assumes you take each passage separately from the whole and ignore many contradictions. But then again that is the whole purpose of this blog, which is to explore some of these contradictions.

But our passage is one in which I actually wish people would use to help justify a position and that is the environmental position. While God tells Noah and his son that they are to have the plants of the fields to eat as well as the animals, birds and fish, God does something absolutely remarkable here; God makes his covenant with all of creation. Not just with humanity, not just human centric, but with all of creation.

Listen, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.”

This passage is often sited for the “bow in the sky”, the rainbow, as a sign of the covenant. But the covenant itself, I believe, is much more important and striking. The covenant is made between God and all of creation. We are all, human, animal, bird, fish, creepy thing of the earth, we are to all go forward and multiple. And God places the bow in the sky, the rainbow, to remind him of his covenant with not only humanity, but with the all of creation.

God is presenting to us something fundamentally important. We are not to have dominion over the earth and subdue it, as often quoted reason for raping the earth of its natural resources. That command was giving before the flood, at creation and God saw the evil that is humanity and eliminated humanity from the earth, all but Noah and his sons and their wives.

Having seen the type of evil that humanity, unchecked, can produced when they have dominion, God chooses now, to exercise his free will and change his mind, and instead he makes his covenant with everything and not just humanity.

Something to keep in mind the next time you throw your coffee cup out the window of the car I would think.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelt the pleasing odour, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.’

This final passage of chapter 8 demonstrates further some of the problems we have been having with Genesis thus far and also is an excellent example of the two different and distinct sources being blended together into one final text.

In the J source, 2 of every kind of animal, male and female, had gone into the ark. This is so the population of every kind of animal may be renewed after the flood, from 2 shall come all. This is very reminiscent of Adam and Eve being the progenitors of all human beings.

Yet this passage at the end of chapter 8 comes from the P source. Because the first thing that happens after the flood subsides is Noah builds an altar and sacrifices the clean animals to God. Well if there were only two of each then there would be no clean animals left to re-populate the earth and no more sacrifice to be had for God.

This type of revision of the J source was done earlier if you remember, when Noah took two of every kind of animal into the ark and then later the text was amended to say two of every kind of unclean animal and seven pairs of clean animals.

P is concerned about temple practices of sacrifice and revised the holy text so that P’s agenda would be writing into the history and sacred texts of the Jewish people.

Which begs the question, or two or three questions; why would God allow that to happen? How many times has it happened? And how can we know what is the definitive word of God?

Without giving some trite answers, let me say simply this, the bible has been translated many times. The originally meaning has gotten further and further away from us after each new translation, since translations are just interpretations anyway. The meanings of certain terms or words do not transfer from one language to another. Often a joke in one language just sounds strange in another.

For example, the Old Testament is full of puns, puns that we don’t get because we are not Jews or reading Hebrew. And in a rush to claim authority and divine revelation for the bible we have forgotten some fundamental facts, namely we are reading someone else’s interpretation and not the definitive word of God. It has passed through the hands of many a translator.

Does that mean we throw it all out? No. It just means that P interpreted the flood event so that it would make sense in his world. Likewise we are going to have to interpret God’s words and God’s already interpreted words so they make sense in a post-modern secular world that we find ourselves in.

Do we add new words like P did to the sacred texts? Some would argue that tradition, liturgy and ceremony are additions to God’s holy words, especially surrounding the sacraments. So yes I think we do add to the singularity of God’s words with our own words, ceremonies and rites. They help us make sense out of the bible and God’s plan for us. They help us interpret the world around us through religious eyes and to see God’s glory in all things.

So I guess the next time we celebrate the Eucharist or a baptism, we should remind ourselves that each choice we make and each words we use, add or change is an adjustment to what came before, just like P did. P adjusted the sacred texts to fit the style of worship of the people of God at that time. We adjust words as well, with new translations of scripture, new versions of the Lord’s prayer, new authorized Eucharistic prayers, gender inclusive language, etc…

Additions can add to the diversity of our worship, which can be good or bad. Whether P’s additions are good or bad I will leave up to you to decide.

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.

In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God said to Noah, ‘Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.

This part of chapter 8 gets more confusing as the two sources have been comingled again. Both P and J have pieces in this part of the flood story.

Apparently after 150 days the water abated and the ark came to rest upon Mount Ararat.  Okay, sounds good.

But it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, after which Noah sent out a dove to look to see if the flood was over, but it found no place to land so the dove returned.

Noah waits another seven days and again he sends out the dove.  This time the dove returns with a freshly plucked olive tree leaf. But Noah brings the dove back in and waits again another seven days.

Again Noah sends out the dove.  This time it does not return.

At this time Noah removes the cover of the ark and God commands him to leave the ark….after 40 days and nights, plus 14 days of waiting for the waters to subside.

Obviously the math does not calculate properly here. How can Noah leave the ark after 54 days, but the ark has not come to rest upon Mount Ararat, which is due to happen 96 days after the flood began?

So was it 54 days or 150 days?

It may in fact have been both. The reason I say this is there is much archeological evidence to support a great flood that occurred roughly 10 000 years ago. Many of the costal regions flooded, never to return, when the ice caps began to melt and sea levels rose.

This type of cataclysmic event would naturally be documented in the sacred texts of many people, which could explain why the days do not line up.  But just because the days do not line up does not mean there was not a “Great Flood”.

For instance, here is an example of a 10 000 year village in the English Channel. http://www.livescience.com/history/070809_aqua_dig.html

There are also other examples, a 10 000 year old pyramid off the coast of Japan, another temple complex off the coast of India from the same time period. There obviously was a great flood that people interpreted as an act of God.

So does it matter then that the Great Flood may not have happened, at least not according to the biblical version? Does it matter that the flood can be shown to be the melting of the ice caps after the last ice age?

Maybe it matters to some, but not to me. It doesn’t matter to me whether this story is “true” in the historical sense, it still carries with it many truths that God wishes us to know and understand.

Stewardship of the earth is vital, as we learn from this passage, because the earth is a delicate balance. And if we continue down the current path, then we may see another great flood as the ice caps melt from global warming and New York city disappears, along with many costal towns and cities

Looking beyond the history or interpretation of history, it is always important when reading the Torah to remember that God preserved this story not because of its scientific factual-ness, but because within it is a truth that He wishes us to understand.

So let’s sit down and keep reading our way through the Torah and eventually through the rest of the bible.

Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.’ And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

In the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. The rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons, entered the ark, they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind—every bird, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

The flood continued for forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.

We have arrived at the Great Flood in Genesis. This is an intricate story that needs to be broken down to see the various parts, namely the different sources or editors of the text.

The first thing we should notice is that in the previous chapter (6:19) Noah is told by God to bring two of every kind of living animal, male and female. Yet at the beginning of this chapter in verse 2 Noah now is to take seven pairs of the clean animals and only a pair of the animals that are not clean.

This discrepancy is due to the first part of chapter 7 is written by P (the Priestly source), while chapter 6 was written by J (the Yahwist source). And if you remember there was some 5 or 6 centuries between those two sources.

But why add to the story and scripture? Well for the priestly source, which is concerned with their worldview, the Temple and sacrifice at the Temple is central to the worship of God. The extra clean animals would therefore be needed for sacrifices, while the pair of unclean animals was brought on board the Ark to keep them alive. A slight revision.

Something for us to consider then is how does our world and our worldview affect scripture? As language evolves, do we change the meaning of scripture and re-interpret or translated it in new and perhaps misleading ways? Should we only read scripture then in its purest form or translation, like the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) and ignore all copies of the Message (scripture in today’s vernacular?)

There definitely seems to be a longing in humanity to twist scripture to their own ends, as did the Priestly source. If we can add, or alter scripture just enough then the more difficult parts can be removed and it can be sanitized for us. But then it is obviously not the word of God anymore, or at least not entirely.

We are also introduced to the number 40 in this passage. 40 is important because it comes to signal the amount of time required for trial and/or testing. For example the Israelites wondered in the desert with Moses for 40 years, Jesus is tempted in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights and likewise God makes it rain for 40 days and nights, causing the flood.

Perhaps the 40 days and 40 nights as a time of trial and testing for Noah may also be a time of trial and testing for us also. We are after all approaching Lent soon, and using those 40 days that are designed for us to walk with Jesus in the desert would be a good time for us to sit down with scripture and really dive deep into the word of God.

40 days to sit with scripture, whether that is one passage that you have always struggled with, or one chapter each day, the time of trial and testing that we endure, like Noah can help us come to understand what the word of God is truly saying aside from what our own worldviews and desires would prefer.

These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.’ Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

God’s decision to destroy all flesh he created because they were evil and filled with violence should give us pause. Especially as we look around at our world and the amount of violence that occurs each and every day. If this passage doesn’t worry you as a person of faith, then I am not sure any amount of discourse will help.

But as much as it worries, it should also give hope. Noah, who walked with God, is being saved from certain death because he was a righteous man. Now while God took Enoch, who also walked with Him, he decides instead to save Noah and his family and all the innocent animals of the earth.

Noah is to build the ark according to the instructions that he receives from God and when the time is right Noah is to save humanity and indeed all of creation. And for doing this, for obeying God, God promises to establish his covenant with Noah.

This is the first mention in the scriptures of a covenant, let alone “the” covenant. And it comes about because God promises to do something, flood the world and destroy all creation, and Noah promises to do something for God, obey God, build an ark and save what God has created.

The covenant is a joint endeavour and it requires a balance of sorts. It is like an equation, each side must be equal. Now I don’t mean to say that humanity is equal to God. What I am inferring here is that without the equal obligations or promises a covenant cannot exist.

This is the first example of the covenant in scriptures and the recipe is simple. God will protect you and give you life if you but obey. And if you obey, then God must fulfill His obligations.

Theologically this type of thinking has many problems and it is a problem that Paul will address in his letters when he talks about faith and works. But that would be getting way ahead of ourselves I think. We are after all only in Genesis at this point. And what is of interest is the contractual nature of the covenant, the quid pro quo.

This type of legal basis for the covenant will come to dominate the Jewish tradition. This is extremely important for Christians as we will see much later in scripture. But it is best that we keep this tucked away in the back of our mind. What should be noted and filed away in the back of your mind is how a covenant is established and administered.

Two promises fulfilled; one by God, another by Noah. Obey and you shall be saved.

When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My spirit shall not abide in mortals for ever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterwards—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord.

I apologies for taking so long to update. I have been struggling with this passage and what to say about it. The amount of questions that come from reading it just seemed to increase each time that I come back to it. In many ways it felt like I was reading the teaser for a new program on Space.

In this passage we have the sons of God who take human wives and have children. The children born are the heroes of old. Sounds very similar to Hercules and much of ancient Greek mythology. God, the high God has sons who are also divine that wonder the earth and take human sexual partners.

Also The Nephilim were on the earth in those days. The Nephilim are mythical giants. Perhaps similar to the Titans from Greek mythology, but that is nothing but shear speculation on my part.

I feel as though I should be getting my popcorn out and a giant diet Coke, sitting back and getting ready to watch the new screening of The Clash of the Titans. This is followed up with God watching humanity, seeing the wickedness of humans and deciding to blot out all of creation. Except that Noah has found favor with God.

Clearly those in ancient Israel did not see God has omniscient. God did not or could not foresee the wickedness of humanity. But this does explain previous passages where God spoke in the plural. God clearly was referring to his divine sons when speaking in the plural, perhaps even to a divine council of gods over which Yahweh was the supreme ruler.

Obviously this is pre-Christian understanding of the world, but what should be troubling for Christians in this passage is that according to doctrine, Jesus is the only son of God. Except here we have scripture that clearly stipulates to their being many sons of God. Of course this does not change that Jesus Christ is the first born of all creation and the first born of the dead. Those pieces of doctrine are unaffected by this passage.

The next thing we grapple with is that God is sorry that he had made humanity. Sorry implies that God is less than perfect. God made a mistake, or so he seems to be admitting.

Frankly, this passage should trouble Christians greatly because it challenges some of our basic assumptions about God. What it does highlights for us though is the mythological nature of Genesis and the first five books of the bible really. These foundational myths and stories are exactly that, stories. It is difficult for many Christians to accept that maybe God didn’t create the world according to the tales in Genesis. Having said that, that doesn’t preclude God from still being the creator.

Growing to a mature faith in God we come to realize that faith doesn’t provide certainty. Faith still is the confident belief or trust in a person, idea, or thing that is not based on proof. But we need to mix our faith with reason and understanding that within these stories is God’s revealed truth, maybe not literal truth but allegorical, mythological, eschatological and so on.

The sons of God took human wives and giants once roamed the earth. What does this tell us of our world and God’s action in it? To that I have no answer today, but a renewed desire to keep reading scripture in hopes that the answer will soon be found.

This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them ‘Humankind’ when they were created.

When Adam had lived for one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.

When Seth had lived for one hundred and five years, he became the father of Enosh. Seth lived after the birth of Enosh for eight hundred and seven years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.

When Enosh had lived for ninety years, he became the father of Kenan. Enosh lived after the birth of Kenan for eight hundred and fifteen years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.

When Kenan had lived for seventy years, he became the father of Mahalalel. Kenan lived after the birth of Mahalalel for eight hundred and forty years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.

When Mahalalel had lived for sixty-five years, he became the father of Jared. Mahalalel lived after the birth of Jared for eight hundred and thirty years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.

When Jared had lived for one hundred and sixty-two years he became the father of Enoch. Jared lived after the birth of Enoch for eight hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.

When Enoch had lived for sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah for three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.

When Methuselah had lived for one hundred and eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech. Methuselah lived after the birth of Lamech for seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.

When Lamech had lived for one hundred and eighty-two years, he became the father of a son; he named him Noah, saying, ‘Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.’ Lamech lived after the birth of Noah for five hundred and ninety-five years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.

After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

The desire to show that the history of Israel was no human accident, but that from the beginning it had been shaped by the sure and sovereign will of God, Genesis has constructed for us a genealogy. The descendants of Israel begin the telling of their history with the purposeful creation of Adam by God and then trace their genealogy from Adam to Noah, and then from Noah to Abraham.

This long chapter of begatting is P’s (the priestly source) attempts to draw a divine origin for the people of Israel, probably over and against the other surrounding peoples, such as the Babylonians. In such manner Israel becomes the People of God and all other civilizations become the “other” and need not be treated as equal.

For one, this would allow the People of God to justify their entry into the Promised Land as conquerors. So you could see how P would want to re-write divine origins to justify the actions of the nation. In a way it makes perfect sense.

It also allows a people to perform acts of brutality and aggression as the Chosen People of God. It is this same mentality that has lead the United States of America to the belief that their way of life is the best, since they are the new chosen people. Which prompts the desire to impose their way of life upon others in the name of freedom.

Aside from this there are a few other things that I wish to draw your attention to and perhaps this may support the idea that P has revised some of the early tradition and oral sources of J and E. In the previous chapter Cain knew his wife and she bore Enoch. And from Enoch line comes Lamech. But in this chapter we pick up the genealogy from Adam’s third son, Seth.

And from Seth we get a line that leads to, well you guest it, Enoch. Then it leads to Mathuselah and then Lamech, just like the previous chapter.

Is this P blending again, or is this a different genealogy altogether, but wiyj the same names? After all, the people of Israel cannot be descended from Cain; they would have to have a divine ancestry that traced back to Adam through his third son or they would be just like everyone else in the world. So is this revisionist again? Or are there two genealogies wit the same names?

The next thing of course is Enoch himself. Enoch walked with God. Does this mean he was a priest or prophet? Did he somehow know God while others did not? It would seem to be the case to me at least that he did know God in a special way.

And then he is no more because God takes him. Takes him where? Heaven? Since all others die, this seems very important in some way. Later in the tradition there is Elijah, who was taking up bodily into heaven, but others die and then ascend, like Moses. So is this a case of bodily going to heaven? Is it like Elijah’s bodily ascension?

Whatever the answer is, the importance of having a genealogy that has divine origins or divine creation is very important to every culture. As such we should not be surprised to see such a genealogy amongst the Hebrew scriptures, nor surprised that Christians claim this same genealogy.

The question is this though, does one need claim this genealogy to be considered made in the image and likeness of God?

The Beginnings of Civilization

Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city, and named it Enoch after his son Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad; and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael the father of Methushael, and Methushael the father of Lamech. Lamech took two wives; the name of one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the ancestor of those who live in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the ancestor of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah bore Tubal-cain, who made all kinds of bronze and iron tools. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

Lamech said to his wives:
‘Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.’

Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, for she said, ‘God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, because Cain killed him.’ To Seth also a son was born, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to invoke the name of the Lord.

Are you ready for some begat-ing?

The Genesis story takes a very interesting twist here for me. To recap where we are, Adam and Eve have left the Garden of Eden and they had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain attacked Abel and killed him. So now there are three people on earth and Cain decides to leave his mother and father’s side and God’s presence and wanders the earth alone.

During the course of his wonderings he finds, and “knows” his wife. That means sex, in case you didn’t know. Hey, not everyone in the world has known someone. But I digress.

Here is the problem for me and the classic Sunday school question, if there are only three people on the planet, were did Cain’s wife come from?

Seriously, and no arguments from silence either. First there are two creation stories and now we have people appearing so that Cain has a woman to marry and bear him a son.

Another interesting question is this, why is civilization formed from Cain and his descendents. It is only at the very end of the passage that we hear of Adam and Eve having another son, Seth.

We are approaching a point where we must start to ask the question, is Genesis history or is it mythological. It seems to me that it is mythological. These stories are not factual but and this is a big but, that doesn’t mean they are not true.

Let me explain. We have all heard the story of the tortoise and the hare. We know that this story tells us a truth right? Hard work and determination will win the day. Does it matter that a tortoise and a hare never actually raced? The story is still true right?

This seems to be the case with some or much of the Genesis story so far. It isn’t factual in a scientific sense, but it tells us a truth, whether that be a theological, metaphysical, epistemological, eschatological, mythological or normative truth.

In these stories that have been collected and preserved for us is God’s revealed truth. It would be rather presumptuous to think that God’s truth was limited to only science. God can and does reveal His truth to us in a myriad of ways, and story is but one way.
Knowing that God has revealed something to us let us go back to this passage and not worry about the fact there should only be three people on the planet, but let’s look at anew and see what truth it has to reveal to us.

Cain Murders Abel

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.’ Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.’

Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let us go out to the field.’ And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.’ Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.’ And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss,
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger:
But O, what damnèd minutes tells he o’er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!

Long before these famous words where penned by Shakespeare the author of Genesis spoke about jealously. And when that author spoke about jealousy, jealously doesn’t just mock, it kills.

We all try to please those we love and it hurts when we try our best and they choose another over us. This is the case for Cain, whose countenance falls (in other words, you could see the disappointment on his face).

But Cain allows the stain of jealousy to mark him and of course the stain of murder. But it is jealousy that leads Cain to murder. He gives into those dark feelings that all humans possess. He cannot control his dark side.

Cain’s punishment for jealousy and murder is to be a fugitive who wanders the earth; a person with no home. Cain is to be never welcomed by strangers and to always be alone in the world.

But to me the interesting part is this, God did not banish Cain. Cain left voluntarily. Cain went away from the presence of the Lord. And even though Cain walks away from God, God still puts a mark on Cain to protect him.

Jealousy may have gotten the better of Cain, but God advocates for justice out of his abundant love for Cain. Cain must be punished for his sin, but even though he is punished, he is still loved and protected by God.

Image By Bryant Arnold

Growing up in the midst of the feminist revolution didn’t stop this story from being told to me at church and in popular society in a certain sexist manner.

The nobility of man, the servant of the Lord, who always did as he was asked without question was a theme stressed in the recounting of this tale. A noble savage indeed who would to this day, still be tilling the soil in the Garden of Eden if not for that temptress woman, that she-devil.

And woman, well she is a vixen, a creator of sin that convinces man to have at the “apple”. She must have used her feminine charms to seduce poor and noble man into committing the first sin. It was woman who was responsible for the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. She did it, she made us do it.

What an interesting telling of the tale.

And as I reflect upon this story and write this entry I am struck by how stupid, obliviously and without reason man is depicted in the story. Man cannot even think for himself. What an oaf. What a child…pointing to her and telling God like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar that “she made me do it.”

And for centuries women have been blamed for our banishment from Eden. And why? Cause they offered us the forbidden fruit? Nothing is said, at least in popular religious culture that I have experienced, about the male sin. Yes the male sin, man said yes. He agreed.

Sure women offered the forbidden fruit, a sin. But man said yes, also a sin. And because man said yes, and women offered the forbidden fruit they were expelled from paradise. Man was forced to labour and woman was to suffer pain in child-birth.

What a minute…is this story about sex? Uh, who would have thought.

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the LordGod formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
‘This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.’
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

This passage comes from the J source, which is the oldest source in the Pentateuch, dating to approximately 950 BCE.

This is a very interesting passage for many reasons; the most notable is that it offers another account of creation. It doesn’t just pick the story up from where we left off in Genesis 1, where God was resting after speaking creation into existence.

In this passage God had already created the heavens and the earth, and as of yet He hasn’t created any kind of plant, nor has He caused it to rain, since there was little point since there was no one to till the ground. Before plant and before animal the first thing God formed from the dust of the earth was man. This is obviously very different from the first account of creation.

Then the Lord God planted a garden and placed man in it. God made every tree grow out of the ground including the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God then commanded man to till the ground but not to eat of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil.

God then creates the animals for man, but man still needs a partner. So God caused man to fall asleep and then He operates on him, removing a rib and using that rib to create woman.

Aside from this being the second account of creation, notice the differences. First the order of creation is different. Man is created first and not last. Notice also that God doesn’t speak things into existence, He plants, He operates, He breathes. God is depicted as being anthropomorphic.

This is very different from the creator God of Genesis 1. This is a tangible God, a God that walks about in the Garden of Eden. This is a physical God, a God of substance. And I think the type of God that Christ called Abba.

And finally in verse 24 there is a little treaty about how man should cling to his wife after leaving his mother and father. Now this is really out of place. How can man leave his mother and father if there is only one man and one woman? There are no parents to leave yet.

Definitely odd indeed, unless this story is being used to explain the origins of the family unit, of sexuality and of an agrarian lifestyle?

All of that aside, I find this story striking for the obvious reason; there are two different accounts of creation. And since both are part of Holy Scripture and they seem to contradict each other, then perhaps we are not to accept these stories as factual or scientific and instead we are to see them as mythical stories about God that tell us a truth. Now whether that is a theological truth, metaphorical truth, allegorical truth, revelatory truth, etc. requires a lifetime of study, which I would certainly encourage.

But this opens us to an interesting thought and a debate that is hotly contested. Is the bible inherent truth? Is it historical? Is it an accurate account of the creation of the world, science and big bang aside?

We are two pages in, two chapters into our exploration of sacred scripture and already the looming question as presented itself…if some of the bible is just stories that tell a truth, how do we distinguish from factual truth and the other forms of truth?

I wish I had an answer right now, but alas I don’t. Hopefully scripture will glean us an answer as we continue…

Being raised in a scientific age and having attended secular institutions until my formation in seminary I have always struggled with creation Ex nihilo. There was nothing and then God spoke and creation came into existence. A creator God, as depicted here, is a very distant God, one who breathes life into the world and then sits back and watches from a distance. This is definitely Aristotle’s clock maker God, the prime mover; definitely not the close personal God that Christ refers to as Abba.

This passage, also, is from the P source in the Pentateuch and as we will see later it is but the first (really the second, but that is another story) story about creation. In case you are new to biblical studies, much like myself in many ways, there are four sources of material in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible. They are J, E, P and D. Each of the sources are from different time periods, J being the oldest and P the newest.

Scholars generally agree that the reason that this passage was edited into Genesis was to provide scripturally-based reason as to why the Sabbath must be observed. Since during the act of creation, God rested and blessed that day to make it holy, there is scriptural reason for Sabbath observance.

All that being said, there are a few things that strike me on which I want to focus.

In verse 26 when God creates humankind, he does so by saying “let us make humankind…”

Is this a royal we? Or are there others with God? Later in verse 27, God returns to speaking in the singular. Where did they go?

Another point of interest is verse 1 of chapter 1 and verse 1 of chapter 2. In each case heavens is referred to in the plurals. Is there more than 1 heaven or is this a reference to the stars of the sky?

And something I have always struggled with, why would God give dominion over all the earth over to humankind? After all the effort to create, well everything, why relinquish control to humankind? I mean, surely God must have known the ecological disaster that a decision like that would eventually cause? I think as we go through the rest of the bible we will eventually return to this theme of land. Perhaps this is the beginning of the development of a theology of land?

To be honest there is much more in this passage and many more questions, but to ask every question and attempt to answer each would be an endeavour that is well beyond my skill. We have, after all, just begun to scratch the surface and I am sure some of these questions will return to us as we continue through the bible. For now though, this should suffice to whet my appetite.

Have you ever read the bible cover to cover? Many people attempt this and it is easily done in a year. However I am afraid my endeavour will take a little longer than that.

The goal of the exercise is to not only familiarize myself better with the sacred scriptures, but also to get a better understanding of why we can’t touch the dead skin of a pig, or in what type of fish Jonah spent three days.

The bible is filled with many wondrous and bizarre stories. Sometimes comical, sometimes insightful and sometimes downright weird, my reflections on the bible, its stories and characters is one man’s attempt to gain a better understanding into the divine and how and why the divine operates in this world.