Religion 101: The History and Religion of Israel

Pepperdine University Dr. Christopher Heard

Unit 1E

The Patriarchs and the Covenant

ISRAEL THOUGHT OF ITSELF AS ENJOYING A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD SHARED BY NO OTHER nation. The stories in Genesis 1236 lay out the basis for this belief, grounding the nations relationship with God in the special relationship that God established with Israels earliest ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are portrayed in Genesis in ways that one might not expect from the ancestors of Gods chosen people. This preparation guide will help you learn: ! the basic plot of the story of Abraham (Genesis 1225); ! the basic plot of the story of Isaac (Genesis 2526); ! the basic plot of the story of Jacob (Genesis 2536); ! how the family of Abraham fits together; and ! how the three major Western monotheistic religions link themselves to Abraham.

" The Story of Abraham

Abraham (called Abram in Genesis 1116) is one of the most important characters in the Bible. The Israelites looked to Abraham as their first ancestor, the one who started it all. Abrams story begins in Genesis 11:2712:9. The story introduces readers to Abram as he and the rest of his fathers household migrate from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran in northwestern Mesopotamiaa region called Aram-naharaim or Paddan-aram. Most interpreters identify Ur of the Chaldeans with the Ur of Sumer, marked on the map shown here, although some argue that Ur of the Chaldeans was also in northwestern Mesopotamia rather than southeastern Mesopotamia. The familys plan had been to migrate to the land of Canaan, but for some reason they stopped in Haran. God spoke to Abraham and told him to go on to a land I will show you, presumably Canaan itself. Abraham follows Gods instructions, but leaves Canaan almost as soon as he enters it (in narrative sequence), moving farther south and east to Egypt. Please read Genesis 11:2712:20 to get the full story, paying special attention to Abrams relationships with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and the Pharaoh of Egypt with whom he interacts at the end of chapter 12.

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Religion 101: The History and Religion of Israel Unit 1E: The Patriarchs and the Covenant

After leaving Egypt, Abram, Sarai, and Lot return to Canaan. Abrams and Lots herders begin to quarrel over things like water and grazing space, so he sends Lot away, allowing Lot to choose which direction to go. Lot chooses to go east, into the Jordan River plain, but eventually he moves to the city of Sodom (Genesis 13). Genesis 15 sets off a story arc that overshadows the rest of the Abraham story, as Abram and his family wrestle with Gods promise that Abram would have many descendants. In Genesis 15, God again promises Abraham that he will have descendants of his own. Abram and Sarai are both rather old, however, and doubt they will ever have children together. In Genesis 16, Sarai suggests that Abram should try to have children with Sarais Egyptian servant Hagar. Abram agrees to this plan and gets Hagar pregnant, but then Sarai gets jealous and abuses Hagar. Hagar runs away from Sarais abuse, but an angel meets her and sends her back to Abrams household with promises that Hagars baby will survive and thrive. Thereafter, Hagar bears a son and Abram names him Ishmael. Some thirteen years later, as narrated in Genesis 17, God changes Abrams name to Abraham and tells him that Sarai, whose name becomes Sarah, will herself bear a son to be named Isaac. At this time, God also institutes the requirement of circumcision for Abraham and all of his male descendants. Genesis 19 focuses on Lots escape from Sodom just before God destroys the city for some unspecified wickedness. Lot and his daughters are the only survivors. Apparently thinking themselves the only humans left alive, Lots daughters trick him into impregnating them. Their children, Moab and Ben-ammi, become the ancestors of the nations of Moab and Ammon, with whom the later Israelites and Judeans had many (mostly unpleasant) dealings. Please carefully read Genesis 20:121:21 and chapter 22. Compare and contrast Abrahams interactions with Abimelech (chapter 20) with his interactions with Pharaoh (chapter 12). Note carefully the treatment of Hagar and Ishmael in chapter 21, and the reasons for it. The story told in chapter 22, in which Abraham Two relief sculptures of Abraham and Isaac (based on Genesis 22), by Lorenzo Ghiberti (left) almost offers his son Isaac as a and Filippo Brunelleschi (right; both pieces are now in the Bargello in Florence). human sacrifice, is one of the most famous in Genesis, the subject not only of much biblical study but also of philosophical reflection and artistic creativity. When Sarah died, Abraham bought a field not far from Mamre from Ephron, a local landowner. This field contained the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham used as a tomb in which to bury Sarah (Genesis 23). Before Abraham died, he sent his most trusted servant to Aram-naharaim to
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Religion 101: The History and Religion of Israel Unit 1E: The Patriarchs and the Covenant

find a wife for Isaac. The servant was received warmly by Abrahams grandniece Rebekah and her brother Laban (their father was Bethuel, son of Abrahams brother Nahor), and he brought Rebekah back to Caanan to marry Isaac (Genesis 24). Abraham himself also remarried and had six more sons. When Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 25:111).

" The Story of Isaac

Genesis actually gives Isaacs adult life very little notice. In most of the stories that concern Isaac, someone elsehis father Abraham, his wife Rebekah, or his sons Jacob and Esaudraws the most attention. In fact, the stories that focus chiefly on Isaac as an adult are confined to Genesis 26 and seem like reruns of stories about Abraham. In one of these stories, Isaac travels to Gerar and tells king Abimelech that Rebekah is his sisterjust like Abraham had done with Sarah in Genesis 20. The rest of the stories deal with negotiations between Isaac and Abimelech over water rights, echoing similar negotiations between Abraham and Abimelech in Genesis 21.

" The Story of Jacob

Jacob, also called Israel, is the eponymous ancestor of the Israelites (an eponymous ancestor is someone whose own name becomes the group name for his or her descendants). His story thus occupies a central place in the book of Genesis and in Israelite tradition. The Israelites esteemed Abraham as the first recipient of their covenant with God, but took their collective name from Jacob/Israel. Please carefully read Genesis 25:1934, which describes Rebekahs pregnancy with Jacob and Esau, the boys birth, and one early encounter between them as (young?) adults. Then please carefully read Genesis 27:129:30. This section of the text describes Jacobs journey from Canaan to Paddan-aram, including his famous vision at Bethel. Jacob lives for in Paddan-aram with his uncle Laban for twenty years, during which time he marries Labans two daughters, Leah and Rachel. While Jacob was living in Paddan-aram, he had eleven sons and a daughter. First, Leah bore Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Finding herself unable to bear children, Rachel gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob as a third wife. Bilhah bore Dan and Naphtali. Leah also gave her servant, Zilpah, to Jacob as a fourth wife, and Zilpah bore Gad and Asher. Leah herself later bore Issachar, Zebulun, and Jacobs only daughter, Dinah. Finally, Rachel did become pregnant and bore Joseph. After finishing the time he had promised (in Genesis 29:1530) to work for Laban, Jacob wanted to return to Canaan. Laban, however, urged him to stay and oversee Labans flocks. Jacob and Laban agreed that Jacobs wages for this work would be any of the multicolored animals, and Laban separated the multicolored animals from the monocolored animals so that the two popula-

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Religion 101: The History and Religion of Israel Unit 1E: The Patriarchs and the Covenant

tions would not interbreed. Jacob, however, used some sort of mysterious (even quasi-magical) selective breeding technique to manipulate Labans flocks into bearing abnormally colored animals, and his tech- Test Preview niques also caused the monocolored animals to bear The twelve sons of Jacob later become the weaker and weaker young. (You can read all about this in twelve tribes of Israel (with a couple of modifications), and you need to recognize them as Genesis 30:2543 if you wish.) Thus, Jacob enriched such, but on tests you will only be asked to himself at Labans expense. identify or recognize those whose names are Jacob finally did return to Canaan, leaving Paddan- printed in boldface here or in other preparation guides. aram secretly, while Laban was off shearing his sheep. Laban pursued Jacob and confronted him about the secret departureand about Rachels theft of Labans household gods, about which Jacob knew nothingbut in the end the men parted peacefully after making a non-aggression pact or covenant (Genesis 31). Please carefully read Genesis 3233, the account of Jacobs reunion with his brother Esau, who had moved to Edom in the intervening years. Note how Jacobs name is changed to Israel at the end of chapter 32 after a mysterious wrestling match at Peniel on the Jabbok River. Genesis 35 describes Jacobs return to Bethel (as promised in chapter 28) and the death of Rachel while giving birth to Jacobs youngest son Benjamin.

" Abrahams Family Tree

Although it can tax your memory to keep everybody straight, you really do need a sense of how all the main Test Preview The family tree diagram might appear on a characters in Genesis are related to each other, and to Jacob. The family tree diagram on the next page is color- test with some spaces left blank. If so, a space would be left blank only if that persons name coded: males are shaded blue, females pink, and entire appears in boldface in this or another prepapeople groups yellow. The family tree diagram is based ration guide somewhere other than the family on the information in Genesis 11:2730; 16; 19:3038; tree diagram itself. 21:17; 25:1924; 26:3435; 28:69; 29:3130:24; 35:22b26; and 41:45, 5052, which you can use to help explain the diagram if you wish.

" The Abrahamic Religions

Each of the three great western monotheistic religionsJudaism, Christianity, and Islamclaims to be heir to the Abrahamic covenants. For an example of the Jewish claim, please read Psalm 105:1 44. For an example of the Christian claim, please read Galatians 3:1029 (in the New Testament). For an example of the Islamic claim, please read Al-Baqarah 124140 from Muhammad Sarwars translation of the Quran. Follow the hyperlink, then scroll down to the paragraph marked (2:124); read from there until you finish the paragraph marked (2:140).

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Religion 101: The History and Religion of Israel Unit 1E: The Patriarchs and the Covenant

" Covenants in the Lives of the Patriarchs

The book of Genesis includes two important scenes in which God makes covenants or special agreements with Abraham. Please read Genesis 15 and 17 carefully, paying special attention to the language of promises or covenants in these texts. In the stories of Genesis, the patriarchs also make bilaterial human covenants with some of the people they encounter. Please read or review Genesis 21:2234 (Abraham); 26:2633 (Isaac); and 31:4354 (Jacob) for examples.

" Other Biblical covenants

Abraham is not Gods only biblical covenant partner. In Gods covenant stipulations required Abraham and his descendants to circumcise their male children on the eighth fact, God is portrayed as making a variety of covenants day of each boys life, as illustrated in this 1731 woodcut. with different people and groups. For example, Genesis 69 tells the story of Noah and the flood. Angered by human depravity, God decides to wipe out human beings with a flood and start over. God preserves the land-dwelling species, including humans, by telling Noah to build an ark and load it up with representative samples of every kind of animal. The flood wipes out the humans and animals who are not on the ark,

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Religion 101: The History and Religion of Israel Unit 1E: The Patriarchs and the Covenant

and then Noah and his passengers emerge to repopulate the world. At the end of that story, God makes a covenant. Please read about this covenant in Genesis 9:817. During the lifetime of Abrahams grandson Jacob, Jacob and his familythe family that would later become the Israelite people as they had more and more descendantsmigrated to Egypt because of a famine. While they were there, the Egyptians enslaved them. God sent Moses to free the Israelites from that slavery. After Moses led the Israelites out of slavery, God made a covenant with the newly-freed people. Please read Exodus 19:18 to get just a glimpse of the beginnings of this covenant. The book of 2 Samuel, set hundreds of years after the Israelites were freed from their slavery in Egypt, speaks of another covenant between God and a specific person. By this time, the Israelites had settled in Canaan and had become a kingdom. Please read 2 Samuel 7, which describes the making of a coveMichelangelos famous 1501 carving of David, nant between God and one of Israels earliest kings, the famous one of the biblical characters with whom God made a specific covenant. King David.

! Class Session Preview

During the class session, Dr. Heard will: ! lead you through a consideration of the general importance of Gods covenants in the Old Testament and of the specific nature of Gods covenant(s) with Abraham; ! lead you through a consideration of the patriarchs morality and ethics; and ! lecture briefly on the concept of election.

" Test Competency Checklist

Before taking the Unit 1 test, please make sure that you: ! summarize the storylines of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as you know them from this preparation guide and the assigned biblical readings; ! know who Abraham (a.k.a. Abram), Sarah (a.k.a. Sarai), Lot, Pharaoh, Melchizedek, Hagar, Ishmael, Abimelech, Isaac, Ephron, Rebekah, Laban, Jacob (a.k.a. Israel), Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah are (among Jacobs children, focus on those whose names are boldfaced in the preparation ; for anyone in Terahs family tree, know how they relate to each other; for any eponymous ancestors of some later group, know what group descended from them); ! know where to locate Aram-naharaim (a.k.a. Paddan-aram), Haran, Sodom, Mamre, Beersheba, Bethel, Edom, Shechem, and the Jabbok River on a map, and know how they feature in the storyline of Genesis; ! know how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam link themselves to Abraham; and ! know what a covenant is, including the four typical elements in ancient Near Eastern covenants, and which type of divine covenant is most common in the Bible (you do not need to know anything about the characteristics of any specific biblical covenant except for the Abrahamic).

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