Tuesday, May 27, 2008

GENESIS 26, or, "GENESIS 20, or, 'GENESIS 12'"

God tells Isaac to move to Gerar; Isaac tries to pull the wool over Abimelech's eyes; Isaac gets booted out of Gerar for being too rich; wells are dug; Esau gets hitched

So far in this little experiment of mine, I've found that the Bible tends to repeat the same kinds of stories over and over again, to the point where you have to wonder - Are these really different stories? Or did they just become different stories as the originals were passed down through the generations by word of mouth?

Case in point: Genesis 26. Isaac settles in the land of Gerar per God's instructions, only to become nervous about the excessive beauty of his wife, and the threat to his safety when the men of Gerar came to notice said excessive beauty. He has a brilliant idea: Tell the townsfolk that Rebekah is not his wife but his sister!

The plan backfires when Abimelech notices Isaac and Rebekah in the midst of some serious PDA, feeling each other up in the middle of town. Abimelech gets the truth out of Isaac and tells the townsfolk to not mess around with Rebekah. She's taken.

Sound familiar? It should, since the same thing happened in Genesis 20 and Genesis 12 with Abraham and Sarah. In fact, in Genesis 20, the story takes place in Gerar, which is still ruled by Abimelech.

Let's do a little side-by-side comparison:

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," because he was afraid to say, "She is my wife." He thought, "The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful." - Gen 26:7

As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you." - Gen 12:11-13

Also, there's all this other stuff about wells and making deals with Abimelech... It smacks of Genesis 21 to me.

Meanwhile, Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. Isaac asked them, "Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?" They answered, "We saw clearly that the LORD was with you; so we said, 'There ought to be a sworn agreement between us'-between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you that you will do us no harm, just as we did not molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD." - Gen 26:26-28

At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do. Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have shown to you. - Gen 21:22-23

Am I right or what?

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Thursday, May 1, 2008

GENESIS 25, or, "This better be the best stew I've ever tasted"

Abraham dies, Isaac becomes the father of warring twins.

I am convinced now that above all else Genesis is about sibling rivalry, though this theme is often overshadowed by stories like that of creation or the binding of Isaac. First there was Cain and Abel, then Isaac and Ishmael, and now Jacob and Esau.

In a "circle of life" type fashion, the chapter where we learn about Abraham's death is the same one where we learn about Isaac fathering two sons - Jacob and Esau. Esau grows up to be a hunter, while Jacob is more of an introverted recluse. For some reason I kind of picture him as the goth kid you knew in high school who stayed in his room all day pumping music into his skull through over-sized headphones.

The major event in this chapter is when Esau, the older brother and chief inheritor to his father's fortune, is duped by Jacob. Esau comes back from hunting one day, starving, and he sells his entire inheritance to Jacob for a bowl of stew. "Look, I am about to die," Esau says, "What good is the birthright to me?"

N.B. Jacob, who will go on to be a major figure in the next several chapters of Genesis and will father the nation of Israel, gains all his money and power through swindling his own brother. I sort of appreciate how the heroes of the Bible are deeply flawed characters.