Genesis 13-50 Flashcards
According to James Usher, when was the world created?
October 23rd, 4004 BC
What was Usher trying to do?
Use the science and resources of his time to find a date in scripture when the world was made. To his credit, he was doing the best with what he had.
How did the church fathers see Genesis?
As presenting literal truth about God. But they didn’t have a literal reading. In other words, they didn’t believe the world was made in 6 days. St. Augustine said that if we gave Genesis that interpretation we would look stupid.
When did Genesis become historical fact?
During the Reformation (the 16th century). They started looking for the Garden of Eden and Noah’s Ark. If they can nail the location, or the boat, then you have historical fact and the book is true. The early church didn’t care about that.
Where was the Garden of Eden thought to be located?
In Iraq. And Noah’s Ark was believed to have landed on Mt. Arrarat in Turkey (?).
What is the difference between the Noahic and Abrahamic covenants?
In contrast to the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant is much more limited in terms of the parties involved. This is a covenant between God and a particular family line, rather than with all of living creation.
What is a covenant? And, what are the different parts of a covenant?
Covenant is the central metaphor used in the Bible to describe the relationship between God and various groups and subgroups of humanity: in fact, we divide the Bible into the Old Covenant (Testament) and the New Covenant.
It is grounded in ancient Near Eastern international treaty forms.
It may be unconditional (promise) or conditional.
Covenants have a similar structure:
Preamble
-This identifies the stronger party who gives the covenant
-Historical prologue
The history that formed the relationship
Often emphasizes the good acts of the giver
-Stipulations
The duties / regulations placed on each party
-Witnesses
In the ANE, gods; in the Bible, God or creation
-Blessings and curses
Blessings for following, curses for breaking
-Provision for periodic public reading
As a reminder, so it will not be forgotten
-Ratification ceremony
What are the four promises in the Abrahamic covenant?
Remember that last week, we saw four main promises to Abram. These form the core of the Abrahamic Covenant:
- Land
- Descendants
- Relationship with God
- Blessing to the nations
Describe the Promise-Threat-Fulfillment Pattern
We saw last week that God made several promises to Abram and his descendants in Genesis 12. As these promises move toward fulfillment, however, there is a repeated pattern of disruption that we will see throughout the Pentateuch.
Promise – God makes a promise
Threat – something intervenes to threaten the fulfillment of the promise
- may be an external circumstance
- may also be a problem internal to the one(s) receiving the promise
Fulfillment – God acts creatively to ensure that the promise is still viable
One of the most well known examples of this pattern is with the inability of Abram and Sarai to have a child to carry on the promises. But, as we will see, this pattern repeats over and over again. In fact, the wait for Isaac is not even the first threat against the promises.
What are some of the threats to the covenant in Genesis 12?
Land-God promises land, but the land is unable to sustain them so they go to Egypt. There is foreshadowing of the Exodus here. There is a lack of viability of the land.
In chapter 13, they came back with Lot. The land still can’t sustain them so they divide the land so that they can both survive.
In chapter 14, there is a battle of 9 kings and Lot gets taken captive.
The Lord enters the scene in chapter 15, Abram believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. The entire rest of the chapter is about the land. Why? Because the land has been under threat for the last 3 chapters. This is leading up to the Abrahamic covenant, which centers around land.
In 16 Sarai still doesn’t have children. She gives Abram her maid, Hagar. That’s Ishmael. And the women have beef.
The overwhelming pattern of 17 is a promise of descendants. It addresses the concerns of chapter 16. The sign of this covenant is circumcision. A connection between circumcision and fertility.
el shaddai
El Shaddai is a name for God that is used primarily in contexts of blessing and, particularly, the increase of descendants (cf. Genesis 28.3; 35.11; 43.14; and 48.3).
Why do we have an Abrahamic covenant in 15 and 17?
There might be 2 different traditions in how it came about. The first has to do with the land, the second has to do with issues of descendants. The final form of Genesis uses both sources to tell the story.
When does God bring in covenants?
When there is a problem in relationships.
Threats to the Land Promise
The first threat against the promises to Abram actually begins later in chapter 12. There is a famine in the land (the promised land!), so Abram goes to Egypt to find food. [Because of the regularity of the flooding of the Nile, Egypt was a very secure source for food in the ancient world.]
So, within just a few verses of the promise of land, not only is Abram not in the land, but he is in Egypt, of all places! Genesis 12.10-20 is the first of the wife-sister stories (cf. Genesis 20.1-16 and Genesis 26.1-33), where Abram tries to pass off Sarai as his sister in order to spare himself problems from the Pharaoh. In a story that foreshadows the Exodus, Egypt is hit by plagues and Abram and Sarai escape with lots of goodies.
The problems of the land aren’t finished yet. In Genesis 13, we see that the land is insufficient to support the families of both Abram and Lot, so they separate in order to find enough pasture.
Genesis 14 brings war to the land. Five kings battle four kings throughout the land. In the battle, Lot gets taken captive, and Abram has to rescue him (how is Abram able to go against armies?).
Threats to the promise of Descendants
Once the land promise is secured by covenant, the story turns immediately to the promise of descendants:
Genesis 16.1: But Sarai, the wife of Abram, had not born (children) for him…
Sarai comes up with a way for her husband to have a son to carry on the promises, have sex with her servant, Hagar. Notice that Abram doesn’t object even a little bit.
Hagar bears a son, but contention builds between Sarai and Hagar to the point that Sarai drives Hagar out (Abram does nothing to stop this).
The plan for a descendant did not work out as planned.
