Bible class

Some notes on the Bible, Genesis

Scholars tend to think that the first 5 books of the Old Testament (also known as the Pentateuch or the Torah) come from 4 main sources. They are: J or yahwist sources, often discernible by the use of the word God (Yahweh) to refer to Jehovah. E or elohist sources, often using the term The Lord (Elohim) to refer to Jehovah. P or priestly sources, which reinforce priestly powers and duties, and Deuteronomist sources which reinterpret law in light of later reforms, often more insular and nationalistic than earlier interpretations.
There are many ways to look at the Old Testament, divisible chiefly into secular and religious approaches, and ranging from those seeking spiritual guidance to those who are trying to “disprove” scripture, from the most sympathetic and easily convinced of readers to the most skeptical and hostile. Our readings will mostly be with two points of view: as scholars trying to recreate what the original writers were up to and how those intentions and perspectives changed over time, and as textual critics, reading between the lines from a linguistic point of view to see what the text yields above and beyond literal readings.
We began our examination of the text by looking at what appear to be two distinct creation stories, one in the first and one in the second chapter of Genesis. We talked about the introduction of sibling strife as a theme in the story of Cain and Abel, a theme that will recur throughout the books of the Old Testament. The story of Noah and the flood introduced the first of the three main Covenants of the Old Testament: God’s promise to all living things that he will not flood the earth again. The mark of this covenant is the rainbow.
Abram’s name changes when he encounters God, and he becomes Abraham and soon enters into the second covenant. His part is to worship Jehovah and only Jehovah. God’s part is to cause the children of Abraham to multiply beyond all reckoning. The mark of this covenant is circumcision. Exclusive worship and fertility as a gift from God become recurring themes in the Old Testament, too.
In the book, we see the repudiation and disappearance of a few old themes that are never explicitly approved of in the Bible: one is polytheism, the other is human sacrifice. We see in the story of Isaac and Abraham that God is capable of asking for Human sacrifice, but chooses not to follow through. Never again does he ask for such sacrifice. And early on God speaks in the plural and also there is mention of the children of the gods, but tolerance of multiple gods quickly disappears and by the end of the Pentateuch we will see that even the existence of other gods has been repudiated.
A theme that is stronger in Genesis than anywhere else in the Bible is the idea that God is concerned that man might grasp some of His power, as when Adam and Eve eat from the first forbidden tree and when the people of the earth build the tower of Babel.

By the end of the book, we see the Hebrew people happily settled into the land of Goshen in eastern Egypt, a place convenient for the Egyptians since it forms a buffer zone against foreign invaders, and good for the Jews since it provides rich grazing lands.
The books ends with a prophecy for each of the tribes of Israel. This prophecy makes it so that each of the major sorts of biblical writing have been included: Myth, prophecy, law, genealogy, wisdom/poetry, history, and prophecy.