Bible Names Flashcards
Book of Genesis: Creation
Seven-day creation (light and darkness, heaven/firmament, earth and foliage, lights in the firmament, animals of sea and sky, beasts of the earth and man in God’s image, rest, in that order)
Genesis: Cain and Abel
Tiller of the ground/shepherd, respectively. Lord appreciates Abel’s offerings more, Cain murders Abel and is driven into the land east of Eden after being marked by God for protection. See Steinbeck’s East of Eden
Genesis: Noah’s Flood
God decides to destroy the wickedness of man
Chooses Noah to collect two and two of all flesh and restart life on earth; rainbow appears after the flood to symbolize a new compact with man
Genesis: Tower of Babel
Builders aspire to the heavens, God curses them with not being able to understand each other and they’re scattered across the earth
Genesis: Abraham and Isaac
Isaac a gift from god to the aging Abe and Sarah; God demands his sacrifice as a burnt offering, but retracts this command at the last minute
Exodus
Moses hidden from Pharaoh, adopted by Egyptian princess, becomes a prince. Sees God in burning bush in the wilderness who helps him convince the Hebrews to follow him. Ten plagues released on Pharaoh for not letting his people go (bloody water, frogs, locusts, fire and brimstone, death of firstborn(origin of Passover)). Hebrews, in escaping, cross the Red Sea parted by Moses.
See also: Aaron (Moses’ brother), the golden calf (idolatry), Mount Sinai, covenant, manna, the Ten Commandments
Samuel and Kings
Son of first Hebrew king Saul, David defeats the Philistine Goliath, composes the Psalms. His son Solomon (by Bathsheba) is a figure of wisdom. His other son Absalom rebels (the subject of Dryden’s poem Absalom and Achitopel and Faulkner’s Absalom! Absalom!)
Job
Satan and God compete to sway Job’s faith; God curses him with poverty and sickness but he remains faithful and has his goods restored to him. “The patience of Job” important.
Daniel
Set in Babylonian captivity. Skilled interpreter of dreams, appointed to high office by King Darius, thrown into a den of lions by jealous court officials. “Writing on the wall” from Daniel’s interpretation of prophecy for King Belshazzar
Jonah
Ordered to go to Nineveh, refuses and tries to escape, swallowed by whale, repents and argues with God. See Moby-Dick
NT/Gospels
Immaculate conception of Jesus, three Magi come to visit, Herod’s massacre of the innocents fails, Christ baptized by John the Baptist, tempted by Satan in the wilderness, performs miracles, convenes the Last Supper with his apostles, Judas betrays him in Gethsemane (for thirty pieces of silver), Jesus is crucified and risen. See also Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20, Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 8:1-15)
Biblical allusion
See Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Faulker’s Absalom! Absalom!, Proust’s Sodom and Gomorrah, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Butler’s The Way of All Flesh, Ibsen’s The Master Builder, etc.
