Month: January 2023

Week 1  Genesis 14

I know I’ve got a lot of names to deal with in Genesis and in general the way I tend to mentally manage them is to figure that a) a lot of names might not be too important to me but b) they do connect (in one way or another) to the big story. But then I get to chapter 14.
The first paragraph gives details about two opposing military alliances. For twelve years the five-tribe group of Bera-Birsha-Shinab-Shemeber-Zoar were subjects of the Amraphel-Arioch-Kedorlaomer-Tidal group (led by Kedorlaomer). The Group of Five rebelled against the Group of Four. Kedorlaomer squashed the Five and in the process sacked and looted the towns of Sodom & Gomorrah. Part of that included taking captives. And one of the captives was Lot – Abraham’s nephew.
I had started by asking: what do these tribal leaders have to do with anything? (my preliminary answer was: it looks like they don’t). But actually they do. They captured Lot. So Abraham is forced into action.
So the Nine are there for a reason. Even so…it’s hard not to think of them as almost completely irrelevant in the big picture.
A couple of days ago I was thinking about names and I divided people into two groups: The Main Family group (Abraham & Co.) and the Other Secondary Families group (everyone else). But with chapter 14 I’m thinking about adding another group: the Almost Totally Irrelevant group.
I probably won’t add it officially. But I’ll keep it in mind.

Week 1  Genesis 6

A year ago I read the story of the sons-of-God & daughters-of-men. I didn’t know what to make of it then so just figured I’d let-it-be.
So anyway by pure luck this week I chanced on a reading that sounded like Genesis 6. It’s in The Book of Enoch. Part of it said: and it came to pass, when the sons of men had increased, that in those days there were born to them fair and beautiful daughters. And the Angels, the sons of Heaven, saw them and desired them. And they said to one another: “Come, let us choose for ourselves wives, from the children of men, and let us beget, for ourselves, children”…And they took wives for themselves, and everyone chose for himself, one each. And, they began to go into them, and were promiscuous with them. And they taught them charms, and spells, and they showed them the cutting of roots and trees. And they became pregnant and bore large giants.
At first I really thought I was onto something. Enoch’s view that the sons-of-Heaven were bad angels is a detail that’s a bit fuzzy in Genesis 6. Maybe Enoch’s right. But what about other details? For instance Enoch names 18 bad angels. Is that actually correct?
Managing the bible’s own data is hard enough without adding unknown ingredients to the mix. I figure I’m no farther ahead than I was last year.

Note: quote from The Book of Enoch 6:1-7:6 translated by M. Knibb 1978 (http://www.bookofenoch.org/ENOCH-McCracken2020.pdf)

Week 1  Genesis 5

Enoch caught my attention because he was described a bit differently than the other men in the Adam-to-Noah list.
He also caught my attention because I was reading about him last December – about three weeks ago. The NT letter from Jude said that Enoch said: the Lord is coming with thousands of his holy ones. He will bring the people of the world to judgment. He will convict the ungodly of all the evil things they have done…and of all the insults that godless sinners have spoken against him.
I remember checking for the cross-reference to Jude’s quote and found out that Enoch actually didn’t say this back in Genesis. So I made a mental note of that and since I’m reading about Enoch I spent some time figuring out who Jude was quoting. I had to go outside-the-bible.
Turns out that Jude was quoting Enoch but he wasn’t quoting the OT.
Turns out that Enoch wrote a book called The Book of Enoch and in it he said: and behold! He comes with ten thousand Holy Ones to execute judgement upon them, and to destroy the impious, and to contend with all flesh, concerning everything that the sinners, and the impious, have done and wrought against Him.
So Jude’s version is more an idea-for-idea rendition than a word-for-word quote. Maybe he wrote it from memory.

Note: quotes from Jude 14-15 (NLT) and The Book of Enoch 1:9 translated by M. Knibb 1978 & found today at http://www.bookofenoch.org/ENOCH-McCracken2020.pdf

Week 1  Genesis 5

The chapter begins: this is the written account of Adam’s line. The list of family names takes up the whole chapter and goes from Adam to Noah.
The list covers a long period of time and (likely) skips a lot of people. Only the key players are named: Adam Seth Enosh Kenan Mahalalel Jared Enoch Methuselah Lamech Noah (it seems like the writer is moving us  along toward the big story about Noah).
Adam and Noah are the best known and most famous people on the list but the most interesting one is Enoch: Enoch lived in close fellowship with God…He enjoyed a close relationship with God throughout his life. Then suddenly he disappeared because God took him.
Enoch is interesting because the bible says he had a close relationship with God. The bible doesn’t say that Adam Seth Enosh Kenan Mahalalel Jared Methuselah or Lamech didn’t have a close relationship with God. But it doesn’t say that they did either.
Enoch is also interesting because it says that suddenly he disappeared because God took him. Which makes it seem like he didn’t die a normal death. The bible doesn’t say that about Adam Seth Enosh Kenan Mahalalel Jared Methuselah or Lamech. Just that each one of them died.
So Enoch is unique in this list and I wonder what-all else he did.

Note: quotes from Genesis 5:1 22-24 (NIV).

Week 1  Genesis 4

The sequel to the Cain & Abel story is about Cain and his family. It’s a pretty surprising follow-up. Cain had murdered his brother. He was a fugitive…on-the-lam for years. So why feature him?
But Cain is listed: two wives (Adah & Zillah). Three sons (Jabal & Jubal & Tubal-Cain). One daughter (Naamah).
Even though Cain’s family is important enough to be listed they’re not exactly important in the bible’s story. So why feature them?
What I’m gradually seeing is that Genesis features a) One Main Family (Abraham) and b) Other Secondary Families (everyone else).
I know the writer’s got this in mind because a) I know I’ll have to read a bunch of names and b) they’re not all about Abraham. The writer refers to The Cain Family but he also lists The Ham Family & The Japheth Family & The Ishmael Family & The Lot Family & The Esau Family (I did a quick spot-check).
The writer considers all the candidates. The Other Secondary Families are registered but then get set aside. Only the One Main Family is featured.
I’ve read the name lists in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 and so I know that the One Main Family list in Genesis is going to narrow down during centuries of family life until it gets to The Main Person. The Main Person is the terminal family member of the One Main Family.
It’s something to keep in mind (even if knowing it doesn’t mean I won’t be doing some monotonous reading).

Week 1  Genesis 4

There are a few cases in the bible where a guy kills his brother but the first one is Cain killing Abel.
About three weeks ago I was reading the book of Hebrews and I jotted down a verse reference since I knew I’d soon be reading about Cain & Abel. It said: it was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. God accepted Abel’s offering to show that he was a righteous man. And although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us because of his faith.
It was a bit of a consolation for me because I don’t ever read about Cain & Abel without have a feeling of how unfair things turned out for Abel. But his faith is still speaking. (By contrast Cain is silent…probably because his faith is non-existent.)
So anyway about two weeks after that I was reading Revelation where the seven seals were broken one-by-one. With the fifth seal John saw: the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their witness. They called to the Lord “O Sovereign Lord…when will you avenge our blood against these people?”
It was a bit of a consolation for me because I got a reminder that no matter how long it takes Cain will eventually be called to account for what he did.

Note: quotes from Hebrews 11:4 & Revelation 6:9-10 (NLT)

Week 1  Genesis 1

A couple of years ago I realized that the bible could be divided into two pieces. There’s:
Piece #1 – the first 3 chapters of Genesis (the short piece)
Piece #2 – the other 1186 chapters of the bible (the long piece).
I know that it’s not a very helpful division for a bible-reader since the two pieces are so unbalanced it’s almost like having no division.
On the other hand it’s a useful key to have in mind since Piece #1 tells me what used to be but now isn’t. Then Piece #2 gets the lion’s share of space to explain the situation now – what is.
I read Piece #1 and wondered what’s my most important take-away. I decided it was this: in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Everything expands from there. The void. The darkness. The water. Light heaven earth oceans vegetation sun-moon-stars sea-animals birds land-animals humans. All pretty interesting. All pretty secondarily important. The main things is that: in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Personally I think that I’d still have The Most Important Thing in hand even if the rest of chapter 1 and all of 2 & 3 was lost.

Note: quote from Genesis 1:1 (NASB). Added note: I’m left with a bit of a dilemma: what do I do with Genesis 3? It’d really be too bad to lose it. For now I’ll rank the content of Piece #1 in this order-of-importance: 1) Most Important (Genesis 1:1) then 2) Really Important (Genesis 3) and finally 3) Important (Genesis 1:2-2:25).