Someone summed Genesis up as: “On its own, the book of Genesis reads like a string of epic stories: a semi-tragic saga of a world that just keeps going wrong, despite its Creator’s intentions. But Genesis isn’t a stand-alone book. It’s the first installment in the five-part Torah (or Pentateuch). The Torah is Israel’s origin story: it’s the history of how the nation of Israel got its population, its land, and its religion.”
It’s worth noting that the name Genesis, by which we know the book, is derived from Greek. The original name in Hebrew is Bereshit, taken from the opening words, “In the beginning”.
I’m going to dive right in without additional commentary… reposting from my Twitter feed:
- The creation of the original dichotomies. It’s all “this or that”. Light v Dark, Evening v Morning, Water v Air, Heaven v Earth, Plants v Trees, Day v Night, Sun v Moon, Sea v Flying Creatures, Animals v Humans. It’s a recipe for eternal conflict.
- The word choice for human creation is interesting. Man (“adam”) was “fashioned” from the earth (“adamah”) and life was breathed into him, while woman was “built” from a rib, the same word (“tsela”) used for construction beams. A precursor for a Golem v Robot story!
- “She made me eat it.” “The snake made me.” “You’re all a big disappointment, get off my lawn and go have miserable lives.” What’s this at the end about cherubim and whirling, flaming swords guarding the Tree of Knowledge for all eternity? I see a quest in the offing!
- How did Cain the eternal wanderer go out to find a wife in town, when he was supposedly one of three people alive? Perhaps Adam & Eve were simply the only humans granted access to Eden? A test of character, which they failed, and a template for the future of humanity.
- Adam’s descendants are noted as beginning with Seth, on down to Noah’s kids. Cain’s line, nada. A brief mention of Enoch (Noah’s grandpa) walking with God and simply ceasing to exist rather than dying. Should read the Book of Enoch, apocryphal or not.
- I read the Book of Enoch. Jewish apocalyptic literature, which are basically sacred writings that don’t toe the party line. Interesting difference between Jewish apocalyptic and Christian apocalyptic literature – the former is about revelation, the latter about the end of times.
- So a surprise that Enoch opens with a vision of the end of times – perhaps why it’s been relegated to the scrapheap of apocrypha. It begins God marching across the world, sorting humanity into righteous and wicked, those who will know eternal peace, and those doomed to oblivion.
- Some angels decide that human women are hot, swoop down to earth, screw them, and the women give birth to two-mile tall giants who start destroying the earth. God steps in, puts the fallen angels in a 70-generation time out, gets rid of the giants, and restores the planet.
- The fallen angels hire Enoch as their advocate, and he draws up a petition protesting the 70-generation time out. God, in a fiery throne room, tells Enoch to tell his clients that the time out is now eternal. And suggests Enoch get some more deserving clients, like, humanity.
- God sends Enoch on a road-trip with a couple of angels. He sees where the fallen angels will spend eternity, followed by various locations where people of different levels of wickedness and righteousness will spend time in perpetuity. The road from Hell to Paradise. End scene.
- Enoch shares a travel memoir of what he’s seen. Bad for the wicked, good for the righteous, who the four archangels watching over it all are, and a glimpse of all the places that weather comes from. Yes, weather – wind, rain, snow, clouds, lightning, etc.
- The second parable is all about the “Son of Man”, and goes into great detail about this being, a sort of conduit for God on earth. Later, the Catholic church transforms this parable into a portent of the coming of Jesus. Another reason Judaism considers this book apocryphal.
- Enoch sees the future destruction of the world. Enoch is Noah’s great-grandpa, and he foresees Noah’s story, different from the story we grew up with. He sees Noah creating a wooden building which will be a seed, or DNA, bank from which to restore all plant and animal life.
- The next section of the book is devoted to astronomy. First, a deep dive into the movement of the sun, envisioned as a chariot, and entering and leaving the sky through different portals depending on the season, thus creating differing angles and lengths of time in the sky.
- On to the moon, and in similar fashion, entering and leaving by various portals creates the phases of its image. Then, a discourse on the lunar years, and, for the first time in Judaic history, setting the length of the year at 364 days, and various other related phenomena.
- The angels give Enoch the task of passing on everything he’s seen to humanity, through his son, Methuselah. Yes, that one. He’s got just one year to teach Methuselah everything there is to know about creation, heaven, hell, earth, humanity, angels, and, well, everything else.
- Enoch relates all of the above, plus visions of the future, from Noah to the Exodus, the building of Jerusalem and the Temple, the destruction and rebuilding of both, and the coming of the Messiah. Again, fodder for the Catholic church as a foundational story about Jesus.
- The book finishes with Enoch’s admonition to future generations about their behavior in life and how it will affect their afterlives. He spends a lot of time reproaching those who accumulate wealth and possessions, especially at the expense of others.
- I would guess that much of this is behind the dropping of the book from Christian canonicity in the 5th century CE, as the church gained in power and wealth. And, of course, it would be completely antithetical to the whole of prosperity theology.
- Given that the Book of Enoch was supposedly written down by Enoch himself, it’s not surprising that it doesn’t discuss what happens after the end of his year teaching Methuselah. The Torah and the Talmud tell us that one day, God took him up, and he ceased to exist. Curtain.
- Having tangented to read Enoch it’s interesting to read the same account as history rather than his visions. Angels mating with women, but smaller giants who were heroes, not evil. Global corruption humans’ fault, not the angels’. Plans for Noah’s Ark & animal pairs.
- Emphasizing the spliced nature of the Torah, we have three clashing narratives: the classic 2 of each animal on Noah’s Ark; God’s demand for 14 of each sacrificial animal (he needs his sacrifices); and Enoch’s inclusion of plant seeds, not mentioned here.
- Six months into the storm, God remembers Noah and shuts off the tap. Birds, things dry up, everything off the Ark, Noah builds an altar, sacrifices the extra six pairs of ritually pure animals who just survived the Flood. There’s a Far Side cartoon in there somewhere.
- What did Noah’s son Ham do to drunk, naked Noah in the tent under the rainbow? A scholarly debate, but, wink-wink, we have a pretty good idea. “Oh, I was drunk and didn’t know it was happening.” Does he curse Ham? No. Sins of the father… he curses his lineage.
- A litany of Noah’s descendants. Caught my eye, Nimrod, the mighty founder of the Hunters lineage. In my childhood, “nimrod” meant “moron”. That shift apparently started by Bugs Bunny in the 1940 episode “A Wild Hare”, as an insult to his Hunter nemesis, Elmer Fudd.
- Tired of divisiveness, humans build a tower to symbolize their unity. God’s not having that. Conflict is key to his plan, so he creates new languages & scatters humans across the globe. The Babel story is only 9 sentences, no mention of pride, the Flood, or godhood.
- The stick hasn’t worked when it comes to controlling humanity, so God decides to go for the carrot. “Worship me and you get Israel, eternal blessings for your descendants, and damnation for your enemies. Come on, Abraham, get the ball rolling for me here….”
- Abraham and nephew Lot, as God demanded, take over Israel. When they begin to clash, Abraham politely orders Lot to pack up his clan and leave. Lot heads to the Jordan Valley, which is greener, but the locals are wicked and not friendly. Then again, Lot is an invader.
- Four tribes attack Sodom and defeat the forces there. They take many people as slaves, including Lot & family. Abraham mounts a successful rescue mission, the King of Sodom offers him rewards from the Canaanite god El. Abraham spurns him as not the true God. Setup…?
- Abraham: We’re old, we have no kids, I’m dying and leaving everything to my most loyal servant. God: Oh no you ain’t. Sacrifice some animals to me, I’ll give you kids. Abraham: I don’t buy it, but, done! God: By the way, they’re going to be slaves for four centuries.
- Abraham gets his wife Sara’s servant Hagar pregnant, at Sara’s urging. Sara regrets it, throws Hagar out. God’s messenger tells her to go back and deal with it, be the bigger woman, promising her son Ishmael will be a bit of a handful, but father of a great lineage.
- God: Abraham, you and Sarah, preggers, call him Isaac, create your lineage. Abraham: I’m 100yo, what about Ishmael instead? God: He’s cool, but Isaac’s happening, and he’s my fave. Don’t forget about circumcision, or it’s a deal breaker. Just do it.
- Circumcision done. God and two angels appear to Abraham. Pregnancy promised. Sarah ROFL. Angels head to Sodom, God stops Abraham following so he doesn’t see the city’s destruction. Abraham negotiates for justice for the innocents that might be found among the wicked.
- Angels arrive at Lot’s house. He invites them in. Townsfolk attack. Lot offers his virgin daughters to rape. Angels step in and rescue Lot’s family. Lot’s wife looks, turns to salt. Lot’s virgin daughters get him drunk, rape him, and get pregnant. Twisted fate?
- Abraham and Sarah go to Gerar to live. Afraid of it being another Sodom, they claim to be siblings, so that the king takes Sarah but doesn’t kill Abraham. Wait, aren’t they both 100 years old, why would this even come up? God threatens death and destruction for taking his prophet’s wife. King protests innocence, God says, talk to Abraham. King asks Abraham why. Abraham sputters self-justification, and waits until king has given him land, cattle, slaves, and money to offer forgiveness. God lifts the curse at Abraham’s request. I swear, the rabbis when I was growing up glossed over this stuff.
- Sarah gives birth to Isaac. Still the jealous sort, she demands Abraham throw Hagar & Ishmael out. God says do it. Abraham does. Drama in the wilderness. God tells Hagar, Ishmael will be a great man. Happily ever after. Abraham negotiates water rights with the king.
- Not convinced of Abraham’s loyalty, God orders him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering on the mountain. Without hesitation Abraham goes for it, stopped at last moment by an angel. God promises innumerable descendants and world dominance. Well that didn’t happen.
- Sarah dies. Abraham decries his status as a newcomer, and asks to buy his neighbor Ephron’s cave as a burial site. Ephron offers it free, with the field in front of it. A insists on paying full price. E accepts, ceding the land (Hebron) to A’s lineage in perpetuity.
- Abraham to his loyal servant (him again?), “Grab my balls and swear to bring Isaac a wife from my homeland, he’s not marrying a local heathen girl.” Servant returns to homeland, finds Rebekah, gifts her family lots of loot, brings her back. Isaac marries her. Side note: domesticated camels didn’t exist in the age of the patriarchs, and wouldn’t for many centuries, calling into question when this account was written.
- The story of Abraham ends. He remarried after Sarah, to Keturah, and they had six kids. He sent gifts to “all the sons he’d had via concubines” (how many?) before dying, including Ishmael, whose lineage is listed here. On his death, everything remaining went to Isaac. Isaac and new bride Rebekah have no kids until he’s 60 and she’s 40, at which point, in a repeat of the Abraham and Sarah story, God appears, promises them kids who will lead nations, and Rebekah gives birth to twins, Esau, and Jacob, the latter coming out grasping for more.
- In another repeat, Isaac and Rebekah pretend to be siblings. Same king catches on, asks why, Isaac sputters same justifications as Abraham did. King sends him away, he moves around a bit looking for good land and water, king later approaches and proposes treaty. Side note at end, about Esau, at age 40, taking two wives from outside the community, to the bitter dismay of his parents. And setting up the future we all know is coming, no doubt.
- Rebekah cajoles Jacob into tricking his dying father Isaac to receive his blessing and inheritance, and for the second time, cheating his brother Esau, who threatens Jacob’s death. Why? Rebekah laments over the shame she feels over Esau’s marrying outside the clan.
- Isaac, acquiescing to Rebekah’s entreats, blesses Jacob again and sends him to live with his uncle. Esau, realizing the error of his marriages, takes a third wife, his cousin, Ishmael’s daughter. On the road, Jacob has a dream where God gives him the land where he is. On waking, Jacob not only declares the land his, but declares… IF God gives me everything I dreamed about and want, THEN I’ll believe in him and follow his rules. Patriarch of our faith or not, I’d never realized just what a greedy ingrate Jacob was.
- Jacob arrives at his uncle’s. In short order, he declares intentions to marry his younger cousin, Rachel, the pretty one, in exchange for seven years work. Seven years on, in a revenge moment for his trickery of Isaac, his uncle sends him the older, Leah, in the dark. Pissed off, Jacob nonetheless works another seven years to marry Rachel as well. After marrying her too, he clearly doesn’t ignore Leah, as they have four sons together (Reuben, Simon, Levi, Judah), though Rachel has none.
- Rachel, jealous, begs Jacob for children, and gives her maid to him, who bears sons, and Rachel takes them as her own. Leah, not to be outdone, does the same with her servant, and then has more kids herself. Rachel finally has a son, Joseph. Jacob wants to leave his uncle’s lands. They decide on payment for services rendered via part of Laban’s flock of sheep. Laban hides most of his flock. Jacob figures it out, and in turn, finds a way to take almost the entire flock. Family corruption and disloyalty runs rampant.
- Afraid, Jacob tells Rachel and Leah they are leaving, and explains what their father has done. They gather up their possessions and head out, Rachel also steals all her father’s idols. Laban, egged on by his scheming and jealous sons, pursues and confronts Jacob. With Jacob’s permission under duress, he searches the camp for his idols, with Jacob’s promise to kill whoever stole them. Rachel hides them, he doesn’t find them. They argue over Jacob’s 20 years of service to Laban. They agree on a literal line in the sand neither will cross.
- Jacob approaches his homeland and sends messengers ahead to let his estranged brother Esau know he is coming. Esau doesn’t verbally respond, but sets out with a regiment of soldiers. Jacob, afraid, divides his camp in two, hiding his family and valuables away, again. He sends part of his flock, divided in waves of tribute to Esau, ahead with servants. He spends the night wrestling, literally or in a dream, with a shadowy, supernatural figure who is never identified, and who, exasperated by not beating Jacob, cripples his hip with a touch.
- Esau arrives. Jacob: sorry, have some gifts. Esau: nice family, hey, water under the bridge, it’s all good, come home. Jacob: you go ahead, we’ll follow. Esau: okay. He heads out. Jacob goes elsewhere nearby and settles in. He’s gaming Esau again, I feel it.
- Local boy rapes Jacob’s daughter Dinah. His father asks Jacob for clemency, and son offers to marry her. Jacob agrees on condition that they, and all other local men, get circumcised. They do, but while they’re in pain, disabled, two of Jacob’s sons kill them all.
- God suggests heading elsewhere and creating a shrine to himself. Jacob agrees, has his whole family destroy idols to other gods. They head out. Rachel dies giving birth to Jacob’s twelfth son (via two wives, two maids). God renames Jacob as Israel. Isaac dies at 180.
- Flashback to the other brother. After Jacob left, Esau packed up and left with wives and kids and settled elsewhere, and had more wives and kids. So, since Jacob abandoned the lands he cheated Esau out of, who lived there? Did Jacob do it just for spite, not gain?
- Asked and answered. Jacob returns to his father’s lands, now his. Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son, is a tattletale, constantly informing on his brothers’ activities. And, he has dreams of dominance over his family, which he’s happy to share. Like father, like son. Tired of him, his brothers decide to kill Joseph. Well, throw him in a pit, without food/water. But as he might get out, they sell him to passing slavers, and fake evidence of his death by animal. And, over years of his suffering, not one of them reveals this secret to Jacob.
- Judah, one of the older brothers, takes a local wife, outside the clan, and has three sons – Er, Onan, and Shelah. God says Er is evil and kills him. Onan has a levirate marriage obligation to marry and impregnate Er’s wife, Tamar, to continue his brother’s lineage. Onan, however, isn’t having that, and while his name is connected to masturbation, what he really does is “pull out” rather than impregnate Tamar. God kills him too. Judah asks Tamar to wait for Shelah to grow up and fulfill the obligation, but doesn’t follow through. Pissed off, Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute, seduces Judah and exacts payment in personal items that, now pregnant, she offers as proof of paternity. Judah accepts her as his wife, and she gives birth to twins who reenact the first-born contest of Jacob and Esau.
- Joseph is sold to the Egyptian pharaoh’s chamberlain, Potiphar. Handsome and sharp, he quickly ingratiates himself (with God’s help), and becomes Potiphar’s head servant. Potiphar’s wife takes a shine to Joseph and tries to seduce him repeatedly. He demurs. One day, she finally gets him undressed, and “sees” he’s a Jew. Naked, he flees her chambers. She accuses him of attempted rape. Potiphar sends him to jail. He quickly becomes the favorite of the jailers and they put him in charge of the other prisoners. God still helping out.
- Pharaoh gets angry with his head sommelier and baker and imprisons them, in same cell with Joseph. They have dreams. Joseph interprets the sommelier’s dream to mean he will be restored to his position, and asks that he tell Pharaoh about his own unjust imprisonment. Joseph interprets the baker’s dream to mean he will be executed. Both interpretations come to pass, but the sommelier forgets about Joseph.
- Two years pass. Pharaoh has two dreams, first of seven cannibalistic cows eating seven content cows, and then the same with ears of corn. When no one can interpret the dreams, the sommelier suddenly remembers Joseph. Oops. Pharaoh sends for Joseph from the prison. Joseph interprets the dreams as God granting Egypt seven years of abundance, then seven years of famine, and slyly suggests Pharaoh needs a young, attractive, whip-smart guy who has an in with God. Pharaoh catches his drift and appoints Joseph over all of Egypt’s agriculture. He gives him a home, clothing allowance, and a wife. For seven years, Joseph builds Egypt’s agricultural system and stocks the warehouses. He has kids. And when famine strikes, he’s ready, and opens the warehouses to distribute grain to one and all.
- Back in Canaan, there’s famine. Jacob sends ten of his sons to Egypt, keeping the youngest, Benjamin, at home. They arrive, not recognizing Joseph, though he recognizes them, and ask for food. He accuses them of being spies and puts them in jail for three days. He gives them the provisions they asked for and secretly puts their money back in their bags. He keeps Simeon in jail and demands that they bring Benjamin (his only full brother) to prove they’re not spies. Reuven says, “I told you killing Joseph would come back to haunt us.” They return home, tell Jacob what happened. He laments having lost one son, perhaps about to lose more. Reuven promises to bring Benjamin back or, in what has to be the most insensitive offer to make, Jacob can kill Reuven’s sons, Jacob’s grandsons. Yeah, that’ll fix things.
- Do they rush back with Benjamin to rescue Simeon? No they do not. They stay home until they are again in danger of running out of food. Only then Jacob permits them to return, taking gifts, extra money, and Benjamin. Judah takes on responsibility for Ben’s safety. In Egypt, Joseph orchestrates a performance. His brothers are taken to his home, fearful of being punished, but are assured all is well, and Simeon is returned to them. They are seated at the table by Joseph, in order of age, astonishing them. Amazingly they don’t recognize him. Joseph, overwhelmed and weepy upon seeing Benjamin, runs from the room, but shortly returns, composed, and breaks bread with them. Again surprising them, as Egyptians had a prohibition against eating with Jews. Much drinking ensues, and the emphasis on this is clearly a setup.
- Joseph’s test of his brothers continues. He has his servants fill their bags with food, along with all the money they brought, and add in his personal silver divination goblet to Benjamin’s bag. They are sent on their way, only to be followed and confronted. Protesting their innocence, they open their bags, the cup being found in Benjamin’s bag. They all return to Joseph. He declares that Benjamin must stay as his slave. A test of his brothers loyalty? Judah declares his responsibility for Benjamin, and offers to stay in his place. He asserts that their father, Jacob, would die of heartbreak should Benjamin not return, especially after the death of his brother Joseph (who still, somehow, they have not twigged to) many years ago, the two sons of his favored wife.
- Joseph orders everyone but his brothers out of the room. Hey bros, it’s me, Joseph, who you sold into slavery. But no worries, remember all my dreams about how important I would be to you one day? Well, it was God’s will, to save you and everyone else from famine…Go tell dad, and bring him back here. Ta da! Pharaoh hears about this, agrees, and the brothers head back to tell Jacob (no mention of if they came clean about their role in the slavery thing, I’m guessing not). Jacob perks right up and insists on going to Egypt, now.
- Mostly a listing of everyone Jacob took with him to go see Joseph – the whole family – all 66 of them. God appears to him and promises to keep him safe, there and back. They go. Jacob and Joseph hug and cry. Joseph offers to introduce the family to Pharaoh. But, he admonishes, Egyptians hate shepherds, so don’t mention the sheep, just say you raise livestock and talk about cows. I feel like this is a setup for something to come.
- Joseph tells Pharaoh that his dad and brothers, and cows are here. He brings five of his brothers to meet Pharaoh and the first thing they blurt out is that they’re really shepherds. Jacob meets Pharaoh, who asks him about his life. Jacob opines that his 130yr life has been a series of bad events, but all the same, too short. Pharaoh gives Jacob and sons entire land of Goshen. Famine gets worse. Joseph trades remaining grain stores for everyone’s money, then herds, and then land titles, turning Egypt into a serfdom under his control.
- Jacob is dying and calls Joseph to him with his two sons, offering to bless their birthright. As he’s doing so, Joseph sees his father is blessing the younger grandchild before the older and tries to stop him. Jacob, echoing his own past, says he knows, and continues.
- An ode from Jacob to his twelve sons, the leaders of their respective tribes (the twelve tribes of Israel, i.e., Jacob). Much of it is dark and foreboding. And while he doesn’t outright say it, or curse them, he hints that he knows what the other eleven did to Joseph. He also neglects to mention that he’s reassigned his birthright blessing to Joseph’s sons. Then, with all of them gathered around him to hear his pronouncements, he dies. Way to make an exit!
- Jacob’s body is embalmed and lies in state for 70 days. Then Joseph asks Pharaoh to let him take his father’s body back to Canaan. Pharaoh not only agrees, but sends an official escort with him. They bury him in the cave that Abraham bought so many years before. They return to Egypt. Joseph’s brothers, fearful that he will now take revenge, make up a story about Jacob asking him to forgive them. He sees through it, but says since it all worked out, he’s cool, and if there’s punishment to be given, it’s up to God. They live in harmony for the rest of their lives. Joseph dies at age 110. He requests to be buried in the same cave as their ancestors. But, Genesis ends with him embalmed in a coffin in Egypt, apparently abandoned once again at the end by his remaining brothers.