Wherein Joseph's family takes residence in Goshen, the famine worsens, and Israel prepares to die
After meeting with several members of Jacob's family, Pharoah allows them to move to Goshen. It is the best land in Egypt and they prosper and multiply.
The rest of Egypt is not as fortunate, however. The famine that has been devastating the land for years gets even worse. Each time the people come to Joseph for help, they have less and less to offer in exchange for food. Eventually Joseph has to take possession of their land, and everybody (besides priests) become servants of Pharaoh.
Years pass, and Israel reaches the point where he knows he will soon die. He tells Joseph that he does not want to be buried in Egypt, but instead in the burial place of his fathers.
---
The Lost finale was a few weeks ago, and I, like many of the show's fans, was disappointed. There are a couple reasons for this, but my number one complaint is that the show didn't wrap up enough of its mysteries. What was the point of the Dharma Initiative? What did Walt have to do with anything? What was up with that bird that screamed Hurley's name in that one episode? The list goes on and on.
I guess as I get closer to the end of Genesis, I'm kind of feeling the same way about this book. I want everything that I've read to have mattered in some way. To add up to some greater, important message.
To a large degree, I feel like most of the stories in Genesis have accomplished this. You can draw a clear line all the way from Adam to Joseph and see how we have come to where Genesis has brought us. And themes of faith, family turmoil, searching, and transiency have been explored throughout.
But there certainly have been detours and dead ends as well. Did we really need three wife-sister narratives? What was up with Abraham and Abimelech arguing over that well? Was it that necessary that we know Eber lived thirty-four years and begot Peleg? I'm also starting to wonder if all this famine business is going to add up to anything.
It's probably fruitless to hope that everything in the Bible matters in equal measure. Sometimes it's going to revelatory and mind-expanding, but other times it's going to be boring and extraneous. And I think when you're reading a book of the Bible you hope to reach the final page and have this big "Aha!" moment where everything ties together in a nice tidy bow. But I suspect that I'm just going to end up finding out that the sideways universe was purgatory (so to speak).
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Genesis 46, or, "Who's Joe Daddy"
Wherein Jacob is reunited with Joseph
Jacob has a dream where God tells him to take all of his family to go meet Joseph in Egypt, where a great nation will be made for them.
Jacob complies and gathers his vast family (70 in all, and the Bible lists the name of each and every one of them), and they head to Egypt. When they arrive, there is a joyous reunion between Joseph and Jacob. Joseph tells his family that he will try to get the Pharaoh to allow them to settle in the land of Goshen.
---
I have to remind myself that the Bible isn't just a book of stories. It's a catalog, a reference book, a written record of things which were important to ancient Hebrews.
That's why sometimes it's about as interesting to read as a phone book. Here in Genesis 46, we get another long genealogical list of names. I suppose if you were the one writing Genesis, you'd probably want to write everything down, including all the names of people in important families. But for us modern readers, it is hard to see the possible value in knowing that Eri was a son of Gad. Or the exact names of Baeriah's two sons (Heber and Malchiel). As I'm writing this though, I do find it interesting (although not in the way the Bible intended, I'm guessing) that this chapter only bothers to list the names of Jacob's male descendants.
Also in this chapter is another weird factoid about the ancient world. Here, Joseph tells us that "all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians." Why?
This was the best answer I could find, courtesy of the blog of Marlin and Sally Vis:
Jacob has a dream where God tells him to take all of his family to go meet Joseph in Egypt, where a great nation will be made for them.
Jacob complies and gathers his vast family (70 in all, and the Bible lists the name of each and every one of them), and they head to Egypt. When they arrive, there is a joyous reunion between Joseph and Jacob. Joseph tells his family that he will try to get the Pharaoh to allow them to settle in the land of Goshen.
---
I have to remind myself that the Bible isn't just a book of stories. It's a catalog, a reference book, a written record of things which were important to ancient Hebrews.
That's why sometimes it's about as interesting to read as a phone book. Here in Genesis 46, we get another long genealogical list of names. I suppose if you were the one writing Genesis, you'd probably want to write everything down, including all the names of people in important families. But for us modern readers, it is hard to see the possible value in knowing that Eri was a son of Gad. Or the exact names of Baeriah's two sons (Heber and Malchiel). As I'm writing this though, I do find it interesting (although not in the way the Bible intended, I'm guessing) that this chapter only bothers to list the names of Jacob's male descendants.
Also in this chapter is another weird factoid about the ancient world. Here, Joseph tells us that "all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians." Why?
This was the best answer I could find, courtesy of the blog of Marlin and Sally Vis:
The herdsman’s herd was a threat to a plowman’s field of barley or wheat. Because there was no room for the herdsman’s herd in the cultivated areas of Egypt, the occupation of shepherd became something abhorrent to the Egyptians. So the keepers of cattle had to be separated from the keepers of the crop.Basically, a shepherd's herd could potentially ruin land where crops were being grown. The Egyptians, unlike the Canaanites, didn't trust shepherds to be responsible enough to protect cultivated lands. Goshen was a land north of Egypts cultivated fields, sufficiently separated from them, and so that is where Joseph relocated his family, most of whom were shepherds.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
GENESIS 45, or "Peace out, bro"
Wherein Joseph finally reveals the truth to his brothers
Moved by Judah's pleas, Joseph clears the room of everyone except for his brothers. He then tells them the truth: he is Joseph, the brother that they believed to have been dead (or possibly enslaved).
After that, there's a lot of astonishment, explaining, and hugging. Joseph tells his brothers to go back to Canaan and bring their father to Egypy, where their family will be given the best land of the nation.
The brothers do as Joseph asks, with the chapter concluding with Jacob about to travel to Egypt, hoping to see Joseph before he dies.
---
This is a pretty straightforward chapter, and I'm struggling to think of something further I can say about it. So instead of exploring something relating to the chapter, how about another name of God, hmm?
Since the last time we visited this topic we focused on El Shaddai, a name for God that might have come from the word "destroy," lets focus on the kinder, gentler "Shalom," which is most simply translated as "peace."
Though the word "shalom" occurs many times in the Old Testament, it is only used as a name for God once, in Judges 6:24: "So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites."
More than referring just to peace, "shalom" comes from the Hebrew root "shalam" which means "safe" and "complete." It can also be used as way of saying hello or goodbye. Even though shalom can be used to express all these things, since it is a name of God, one must be careful when and how it is used. For example, uttering a name of God in an unholy place, such as a bathroom, is strictly forbidden under Jewish orthodoxy.
Moved by Judah's pleas, Joseph clears the room of everyone except for his brothers. He then tells them the truth: he is Joseph, the brother that they believed to have been dead (or possibly enslaved).
After that, there's a lot of astonishment, explaining, and hugging. Joseph tells his brothers to go back to Canaan and bring their father to Egypy, where their family will be given the best land of the nation.
The brothers do as Joseph asks, with the chapter concluding with Jacob about to travel to Egypt, hoping to see Joseph before he dies.
---
This is a pretty straightforward chapter, and I'm struggling to think of something further I can say about it. So instead of exploring something relating to the chapter, how about another name of God, hmm?
Since the last time we visited this topic we focused on El Shaddai, a name for God that might have come from the word "destroy," lets focus on the kinder, gentler "Shalom," which is most simply translated as "peace."
Though the word "shalom" occurs many times in the Old Testament, it is only used as a name for God once, in Judges 6:24: "So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites."
More than referring just to peace, "shalom" comes from the Hebrew root "shalam" which means "safe" and "complete." It can also be used as way of saying hello or goodbye. Even though shalom can be used to express all these things, since it is a name of God, one must be careful when and how it is used. For example, uttering a name of God in an unholy place, such as a bathroom, is strictly forbidden under Jewish orthodoxy.
Monday, February 15, 2010
GENESIS 44, or "What the Sheol?"
Last we left Joseph and his brothers, they were together in Egypt with the bros still unaware of Joe's true identity. Now it's time for the brothers to leave again. Before they do, Joe tells one of his servants to plant a small piece of treasure into Benjamin's bag.
The brother's leave, but before they can get too far, Joseph sends some soldiers to catch up with them. The soldiers search their bags, and sure enough, they find the treasure.
The brother's are hauled back to Egypt where they are brought before Joseph, who accuses them of stealing. Judah pleads with Joseph, saying that he will bear Benjamin's punishment for him.
---
One thing that I've been on the lookout for while working my way through Genesis is any mention of Hell. It's such a fundamental Christian concept that you'd think it would be written about somewhere towards the beginning of the Bible.
This hasn't been the case. So far there's been NO mention of Hell.
There have, however, been a few mentions of "Sheol," which up until now hasn't caught my eye - mostly because the NIV translates it as "grave" and only gives footnotes identifying the word more accurately as "Sheol." Here in Gen 44, Judah tells Joseph, "And so, should I come to your servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, since his life is bound to the lad's, when he saw the lad was not with us, he would die, and your servants would bring down the gray head of your servant, our father, in sorrow to Sheol"
So what is Sheol? From what I gather, Sheol doesn't exactly mean grave, nor does it mean hell, nor heaven. It seems to be a conception of the afterlife though, with most sources I found describing it as a place where the dead congregate. The website jewishencyclopedia.com offers that Sheol might come from the Assyro-Babylonian word "Shu'alu," which was also used to describe a place for the dead.
I find it interesting that the Bible has a word for the afterlife that isn't Heaven or Hell. Was Sheol meant to simply be a generalized term that encompasses both Heaven and Hell? Or does it open up the possibility that there is some third kind of afterlife that could await us? Or was Heaven and Hell created sometime after the events in Genesis?
I can only keep reading and hope to find out.
The brother's leave, but before they can get too far, Joseph sends some soldiers to catch up with them. The soldiers search their bags, and sure enough, they find the treasure.
The brother's are hauled back to Egypt where they are brought before Joseph, who accuses them of stealing. Judah pleads with Joseph, saying that he will bear Benjamin's punishment for him.
---
One thing that I've been on the lookout for while working my way through Genesis is any mention of Hell. It's such a fundamental Christian concept that you'd think it would be written about somewhere towards the beginning of the Bible.
This hasn't been the case. So far there's been NO mention of Hell.
There have, however, been a few mentions of "Sheol," which up until now hasn't caught my eye - mostly because the NIV translates it as "grave" and only gives footnotes identifying the word more accurately as "Sheol." Here in Gen 44, Judah tells Joseph, "And so, should I come to your servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, since his life is bound to the lad's, when he saw the lad was not with us, he would die, and your servants would bring down the gray head of your servant, our father, in sorrow to Sheol"
So what is Sheol? From what I gather, Sheol doesn't exactly mean grave, nor does it mean hell, nor heaven. It seems to be a conception of the afterlife though, with most sources I found describing it as a place where the dead congregate. The website jewishencyclopedia.com offers that Sheol might come from the Assyro-Babylonian word "Shu'alu," which was also used to describe a place for the dead.
I find it interesting that the Bible has a word for the afterlife that isn't Heaven or Hell. Was Sheol meant to simply be a generalized term that encompasses both Heaven and Hell? Or does it open up the possibility that there is some third kind of afterlife that could await us? Or was Heaven and Hell created sometime after the events in Genesis?
I can only keep reading and hope to find out.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
GENESIS 43, or "A God by any other name..."
Wherein Joseph's brothers return to Egypt.
Wow, has it really been half a year since I last blogged? At this rate, I'll be done with the Bible by the time I'm as old as Methuselah! (HAHAHAHA... Eh, sorry... Bible humor isn't always the funniest).
Even though my contributions to this blog aren't always frequent, it's never too far from my mind. And this Christmas, the best girlfriend in the world gave me The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (yes, that R. Crumb), which is what I'll be using for the remainder of my Genesis entries. I took it as a not-so-subtle hint from both her and the man upstairs that I should really get around to finishing this darned thing.
Okay, so let's dive in....
With the famine in full swing, Israel requests that his sons return to Egypt so that they can buy more food. The only caveat is that the brothers know that they will not be allowed back unless they bring their youngest brother Benjamin. As was the case in Genesis 42, Israel is not thrilled by this idea. But their situation is dire, and so Israel allows Benjamin to go too.
The brothers head to Egypt where they again meet with Joseph (remember that they don't know recognize him though). Joe is so overwhelmed by the sight of Benjamin that he runs off into his room and cries. Afterward, he regains his composure and treats his brother to food and wine, giving Benjamin five times as much to eat as the others.
---
A couple of interesting things to note here:
1) I always get a kick out of the passages of the Bible that offer some random detail. In Gen 43, Israel tells his sons to bring Joseph "some balm and some honey, gum and ladanum, pistachio nuts and almonds." Evidently these were things that were fit to give one of the most powerful men in Egypt.
What the heck is ladanum? Wikipedia sez:
I think that I've covered this before, so forgive me if I have, but there are in fact many names that God goes by in the Bible. Me personally, I used to just think of "God" as "God", or maybe "The Lord", but I certainly didn't realize that in Hebrew, "God" actually goes by many names, and each of them have a different meaning, and thus, describe a different facet of God's nature.
Some of these names are: YHWH, Elohim, El, Adonai, Ba'ai, Ẓeba'ot, Shalom, and as we've already discussed, El Shaddai. I will hopefully explore all the names of God in future posts, but for the time being let's focus on El Shaddai, since that is the one used in Gen 43.
Simply put, "El" can be translated as "God" and "Shaddai" can be translated as "Almighty", so put together, "El Shaddai" literally means "God Almighty."
But let's dig a little deeper, shall we?
Shaddai is a word that may have derived from several other Hebrew words, the first of which is "shad." In Hebrew, "shad" means "breast", and one can see how this could make sense within the context of God being nourishing and parental. The second word is "sadu", meaning "mountain", suggesting strength, power, and enormous size. There is also at least one more possibility that the word comes from the root verb "shadad", which means to "overpower" or "destroy" - a distinctly different flavor from the kinder, gentler "shad".
Resources:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/misc/name_god.cfm#link2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Shaddai
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=N
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/El/el.html
Wow, has it really been half a year since I last blogged? At this rate, I'll be done with the Bible by the time I'm as old as Methuselah! (HAHAHAHA... Eh, sorry... Bible humor isn't always the funniest).
Even though my contributions to this blog aren't always frequent, it's never too far from my mind. And this Christmas, the best girlfriend in the world gave me The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (yes, that R. Crumb), which is what I'll be using for the remainder of my Genesis entries. I took it as a not-so-subtle hint from both her and the man upstairs that I should really get around to finishing this darned thing.
Okay, so let's dive in....
With the famine in full swing, Israel requests that his sons return to Egypt so that they can buy more food. The only caveat is that the brothers know that they will not be allowed back unless they bring their youngest brother Benjamin. As was the case in Genesis 42, Israel is not thrilled by this idea. But their situation is dire, and so Israel allows Benjamin to go too.
The brothers head to Egypt where they again meet with Joseph (remember that they don't know recognize him though). Joe is so overwhelmed by the sight of Benjamin that he runs off into his room and cries. Afterward, he regains his composure and treats his brother to food and wine, giving Benjamin five times as much to eat as the others.
---
A couple of interesting things to note here:
1) I always get a kick out of the passages of the Bible that offer some random detail. In Gen 43, Israel tells his sons to bring Joseph "some balm and some honey, gum and ladanum, pistachio nuts and almonds." Evidently these were things that were fit to give one of the most powerful men in Egypt.
What the heck is ladanum? Wikipedia sez:
In ancient times, the resin was scraped from the fur of goats and sheep that had grazed on the cistus shrubs. It was collected by the shepherds and sold to coastal traders. The false beards worn by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were actually the labdanum soaked hair of these goats. Later long poles with leather or cloth strips were used to sweep the shrubs and collect the resin which was later extracted. It was used to treat colds, coughs, menstrual problems and rheumatism.2) In his version of Gen 43, R. Crumb has opted to use the phrase "El Shaddai" instead of "God". This is actually much more accurate than using the word "God" - which is how the King James Version of the Bible has it written in Gen 43 - because El Shaddai is how the original Hebrew identifies God in this passage.
I think that I've covered this before, so forgive me if I have, but there are in fact many names that God goes by in the Bible. Me personally, I used to just think of "God" as "God", or maybe "The Lord", but I certainly didn't realize that in Hebrew, "God" actually goes by many names, and each of them have a different meaning, and thus, describe a different facet of God's nature.
Some of these names are: YHWH, Elohim, El, Adonai, Ba'ai, Ẓeba'ot, Shalom, and as we've already discussed, El Shaddai. I will hopefully explore all the names of God in future posts, but for the time being let's focus on El Shaddai, since that is the one used in Gen 43.
Simply put, "El" can be translated as "God" and "Shaddai" can be translated as "Almighty", so put together, "El Shaddai" literally means "God Almighty."
But let's dig a little deeper, shall we?
Shaddai is a word that may have derived from several other Hebrew words, the first of which is "shad." In Hebrew, "shad" means "breast", and one can see how this could make sense within the context of God being nourishing and parental. The second word is "sadu", meaning "mountain", suggesting strength, power, and enormous size. There is also at least one more possibility that the word comes from the root verb "shadad", which means to "overpower" or "destroy" - a distinctly different flavor from the kinder, gentler "shad".
Resources:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/misc/name_god.cfm#link2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Shaddai
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=N
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/El/el.html
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