Hebrew Bible: Ancestors, Part 2

Ancestor History -- Genesis 23-50

09/12/2011

**Note: always look to Blackboard for Homework Assignments!**

Abraham's Death and Sarah's Death (Gen 23 & 25)

• some scholars argue that Sarah died from being so shook up about Abraham nearly sacrificing her only son
• Abraham buys a cave -- the closest fulfillment of God's promise of land thus far. (This also reflects the semi-nomadic lifestyle of people at that time.)
• All Israelites eventually end up in Egypt
• Unresolved Question:  How is the "land and children" promise going to be fulfilled?

Wives!

• Rebekah is married to Isaac (Gen 24)
• Abraham (Isaac's father) sends a servant out to the land of his kindred to find a wife for Isaac (verse 4)
• The importance here is that Isaac's wife could NOT be a Canaanite.
• Rebekah was Laban's sister 
• Leah and Rachel are married to Jacob (Gen 29-30)
• Jacob worked 7 years for Rachel, but he first received Leah as his wife.
• Irony was that Jacob the Trickster was tricked himself.
• He worked another 7 years for Rachel. 
• These women had a competition for berthing children!
• Leah:  7 + 2
• Rachel:  2 + 2

Esau (Gen 25 and 27)

• older twin of Jacob (sons of Isaac)
• lost his birthright to Jacob via deception
• Importance of the relational outcomes:  etiology of Jacob's favor/importance with God
• Esau's descendants were called Edomites, because they were red like him.

Jacob and the Ladder to Heaven (Gen 28)

• Jacob is on his way to Haran in Mesopotamia.
• He uses a stone as a pillow (significance of a "holy stone"!)
• Jacob dreams of a ladder to Heaven
• Angels move up and down
• God speaks with him, continuing his promise/covenant to Jacob and his descendants.
• Afterward, Jacob sets up his pillow stone an altar-memorial to God
• Jacob names the place Bethel, meaning "House of God."

Jacob Wrestles with God (Gen 32)

• Jacob wrestles with either an angel or God, and he won't stop until he is blessed
• Scholarly focus on "Sitz im leben"
• Importance:
• origin of the name "Israel"
• explanation of why Israelites did not eat the thigh muscle (Jacob's hit went out of joint)

Dinah (Gen 34)

• pronounced "Dee-nah" in Hebrew 
• Shechem "seized her and lay with her by force" (verse 2).
• Shechem was from a clan of Hivites, unrelated to Abraham and his promise.
• Shechem quite possibly refers to the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel [(E) source].
• Was Dinah raped or simply involved in extra-marital sex?
• Ultimately, the issue was that she  was not married to Shechem and had sex with him.
• Jacob's sons Levi and Simeon (also Dinah's brothers) suggest that Shechem marries Dinah and that all the Hivites get circumcised in order to be included in the Israelite clan.
• However!  While the men were all sore from circumcision, the brothers went in and murdered all the men.
• [Ambiguous ending] 
• Unresolved Question: What was the significance and meaning of this story?