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Genesis 29: Jacob In Harran

Jacob Arrives In Paddan Aram

Jacobs route from Beersheba to Harran

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

Jacob’s Children

The main supernatural evidence of God so far is his ability to allow or deny conception. You think from antiquity through the Middle Ages. Men used divination, astrology, dreams and signs to find God’s will manifest.

Where does evidence of God’s presence exist today? Does God influence electronics? Conception? The health of a leader? Natural disasters? How does God influence today’s world?

Or is God’s influence over us limited to our minds? Does he speak to us by inspiring us to take this action over that one? Do we open ourselves to his guidance through prayer and meditation and then follow through with our assumption of his divine will?

Do we follow religious commandments with the assumption that living our lives by those principles will, in turn, allow God to operate in the world?

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch

Genesis 28: Jacob’s Dream

Poor Esau, after having been cheated out of Isaac’s blessing, realizes his parents hate his Canaanite wives. In disgust and anger, he goes and gets another one.

Jacob, on his way to Harran to stay with Laban, has a dream of God who makes his promise to him. Upon awakening, Jacob starts bargaining with God.

I think the takeaway from this is, once God has made his commitment to you, he is not going to be deterred by your lousy shortcomings. God’s commitment is absolute.

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch

Genesis 27: Jacob Takes Esau’s Blessing

This is almost a farce… similar to the ridiculous nature of a lot of Genesis and very telling of the humor of religious mythology from Sumer.

God creates a planet filled with life, two creatures in his image, and places them in perfect utopia… then tells them: “I’ve created all this for you, but I’m putting this one tree right in front of you. If you eat from it, you’ll curse the entire planet forever.”

Noah and his sons survive a global cataclysm and are left to repopulate the planet. Noah gets drunk with his bare ass exposed and his son laughs over it. For that he and his entire descendants are cursed into slavery.

Abraham pulls the “She’s not my wife, she’s my sister” scam not once but twice. Then his son pulls the same scam.

Now Jacob and Rebekah pull a scam on his father right out of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’, changing the course of history. Isaac couldn’t have hauled Jacob in and punished him for his deception and rescinded his blessing?

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch

Genesis 26: Isaac and Abimelek

This one-chapter interlude interrupts the story of Jacob and Esau and gives some historical asides about Isaac, his relationship with local tribal rulers, and a treaty he signed with Abimelek after disputes over wells.

2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said,
“Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”

24 That night the Lord appeared to him and said,
“I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”

My question is:
Is Yahweh a personal god, like the household god that Abram and Terah took from Ur? A protector and guide who is who is concerned with my day-to-day life? Is Yahweh an all-powerful creator god like Enki; who runs all from on high but has little regard for the affairs of man?

This is the great reconciliation that Abraham struggled with and it reflects our place in the universe: are we insignificant inhabitants in creation or are we unfathomably important and worthy of God’s constant attention and care? The shift is in our own value as individuals.

In the Sumerian culture from wench Abram came, the household god was a protector and interceded on our behalf with the city gods, who in turn interceded with Enki in a of divine hierarchy.

Abraham and Yahweh, through their covenant, were collapsing that model into a single god. Polytheism was becoming monotheism through their intimate relationship. This required an acceptance of paradoxes, Yahweh becoming larger, detached from a city or place, and Abraham becoming both important and insignificant at the same time.

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch

Genesis 25: The Death of Abraham

The Death of Abraham

Abraham took a second wife after Sarah’s death. He left everything to Isaac. He lived to 175 years old and was buried in Machpelah, in the cave in the field he purchased from Ephron the Hittite king.

Ishmael’s Sons

The sons of Ishmael were twelve tribal rulers who populated the land from present day Iran to Saudi Arabia: the Arabs. They were a problem from the beginning:
His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur. And they lived in hostility toward all the tribe related to them.

Genesis 25:18

Jacob and Esau

Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup.

The word of God:

23 The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch

Genesis 23: The Death of Sarah

Sarah, having been born in Ur, lives to 127.

This is a narrative chapter that establishes that Abraham owns the land where he buries his dead. The negotiation with the Hittite Ephron is a typical Middle Eastern exchange. Had Abraham accepted the land as a gift. it would have been an insult and Ephron would have rescinded the offer.

This is the first land owned by the Israelites in Canaan.

The Cave of Machpelah, now known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, in the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank. Among those buried in the caves are: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, and the 11th Century rabbi Hai Gaon. In Hebrew tradition, Adam and Eve are also buried in the caves.

People:

Sarah, Abraham, Hittites, Ephron

Places:

Hebron, Canaan, Machpelah, Mamre

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch

Genesis 22: Abraham Tested

According to the Zohar, Abraham was tested ten times: the ninth test was sending away Ishmael. The tenth and most severe test was the direction to sacrifice Isaac.

This story questions what are you willing to give up to align with God. Where are you willing to listen to the voice of God and make a leap of faith?

I can think of pivotal moments in my life when I took a leap of faith: leaving everything I knew to travel to Peru when I was eighteen years old. Giving up my entre life and moving to New York City at age twenty-two. And many, many “tests” along the way: for artistic freedom, for career, to join this community, or follow that cause.

Almost all of these were done with the expectation of something in return: opportunity, spiritual advancement, more money, more power. These were compromises, not purely altruistic.

Even when facing a spiritual test, it’s safe to say those things I have done were to gain some new insight or experience; not to merely follow God’s command.

A good purity of action is to perform service for another person, particularly anonymously. Whether it’s a financial donation or contribution in-kind, this removes your ego out of the equation.

When Abraham makes the decision to go through with God’s command, God intervenes with a blessing.

It is notable that offering your first born as an ultimate sacrifice was not uncommon in Sumerian culture. By withholding the requirement from Abraham, God is establishing that he is not one of the old Gods of Sumer.

It’s also notable that the mountain on which this occurred was thenceforth called “The Lord Will Provide” – the ram that Abraham found in the thicket. The mountain was not called “Mount of the Loophole.”

This story is also interpreted that Abraham believed that God would resurrect Isaac:

He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Genesis 22:5

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch

Genesis 21: The Birth of Isaac

From what we know about the Bible’s authors today, the Torah was written by Hebrew scribes in the libraries of Jerusalem under King David.

These were well-educated literary experts who had the traditions of the Israelites, Sumerian cuneiform tablets, possibly Egyptian records. Their attention to polishing their heroes and history legends is also in the tradition of Sumer.

The Hebrew script was new at the time; an adaptation of Arcadian and Phoenician.

The audience for these written histories were sophisticated Hebrews of Jerusalem. They would have know all the literary context that we can only guess at with a lot of archeology and research.

The Hebrews had been a people for almost 1,500 years. The Talmud was the religious law code. This new work, the Torah, was more of a Histories, certainly commissioned by King David. There were certainly other histories that have not survived. This was a particular masterpiece.

The audience would have known full well the cultures of Ur and Babylon, from whence Abraham came.

We know everything from Creation, to Noah and the flood, to the tower of Babel is a retelling of Sumerian mythology. I have read the Epic of Gilgamesh. They use the same traditions and material.

We know that Abraham left Ur with his family’s household deity. Every family in Ur had a personal god to whom they prayed. That personal god was the intermediary to the city god’s who, in turn, were intermediaries to the impersonal, creator deities.

The mystery of Genesis is: did the writer take the fundamentals of Sumerian primeval history: creation and the flood, and merged the impersonal, creator god, Elohim with Abraham’s family god, Yahweh?

In Hebrew, two words are used.

In Genesis 21, we start to see that Yahweh is not exclusive to Abraham any more. In verse 20 “God was with the boy as he grew up.”

The portable family God of Abraham is now spreading. It’s operating independently of the ongoing dialog between Abraham and Yahweh.

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch

Genesis 20: Abraham & Abimelek

The story contains three characters: Abraham, Abimelek, and God.

Abimelek or Abimelach was a pagan king who took in Abraham and Sarah as they wandered through the Negev. His city Gerar is thought to be Tel Haror or Tell Jemmeh (Gama). These were fortified cities of the Middle Bronze-Age II period, around 1800 BCE.

Abimelek takes Sarah as his wife but does not lie with her. In fact, when he took Sarah, a curse was upon his house: his wife and concubines are stricken barren when Abimelek takes Sarah as his wife.

We’ll meet Abimelek again in the story of Isaac when Isaac presents his wife Rebekah as his sister as well.

Abimelek is a polytheistic king who was spoken to by Yahweh. He did the right thing when he realized Sarah was Abraham’s wife: giving Abraham sheep, cattle and slaves, and a thousand shekels of silver to restore Sarah’s honor.

We have Abraham as a deceiver, Abimelek as a pagan who’s tricked, is spoken to by God, then corrects his offense to Sarah. The honor of a man’s wife is very important and Abimelek’s honor is important to. He makes a grand gesture to display his innocence.

In the larger story of Genesis, we have the following:

The Primeval period: from creation to the flood – Genesis 1 through 11
The Patriarchs:
Abraham – Genesis 12 through 20
Isaac – Genesis 21 – 25
Jacob – Genesis 26 through 50

We know the Primeval section comes from Sumerian mythology. Abraham in Israel/Jordan takes place in the Middle Bronze Age.

Pax Hart Bible, Genesis, Pentateuch