WEBVTT 00:00.480 --> 00:02.630 Professor Christine Hayes: So last time we 00:02.633 --> 00:04.703 started discussing the historical merits of the 00:04.697 --> 00:07.297 biblical stories of the patriarchs and the matriarchs. 00:07.300 --> 00:10.460 These are contained in Genesis 12 through 50. 00:10.460 --> 00:14.840 Scholarly opinion on this matter is seriously divided; 00:14.840 --> 00:16.890 something you need to know. 00:16.890 --> 00:20.090 Some scholars will point to internal biblical evidence for 00:20.088 --> 00:23.008 the authenticity and the antiquity of the patriarchal 00:23.006 --> 00:24.706 stories. So for example, 00:24.709 --> 00:28.349 Nahum Sarna argues that representing Abraham and Isaac 00:28.345 --> 00:32.315 and Jacob as foreigners and strangers in Canaan is hardly a 00:32.324 --> 00:35.824 convenient tradition for a people who are seeking to 00:35.822 --> 00:38.912 establish their claim to its homeland. 00:38.910 --> 00:42.160 And if this myth of origins were the fabrication of a later 00:42.163 --> 00:45.643 writer, then surely they would have written the story in such a 00:45.640 --> 00:49.230 way as to give their ancestors a less tenuous hold or claim, 00:49.230 --> 00:51.080 connection, to the land. 00:51.080 --> 00:53.780 He also notes that some of the material in the patriarchal 00:53.781 --> 00:56.721 stories would be offensive to later religious sensibilities. 00:56.720 --> 00:59.200 Jacob is married to two sisters simultaneously. 00:59.200 --> 01:01.760 That is something that is explicitly forbidden in the book 01:01.757 --> 01:04.437 of Deuteronomy. Wouldn't a later writer have 01:04.440 --> 01:08.690 cleaned up this ancestral record if this were in fact something 01:08.692 --> 01:10.752 composed at a later period? 01:10.750 --> 01:13.960 Also, he notes that the representation of inter-ethnic 01:13.958 --> 01:17.828 relationships in the patriarchal stories does not accord with the 01:17.833 --> 01:19.653 reality of a later period. 01:19.650 --> 01:22.390 So for example, the Arameans are considered 01:22.391 --> 01:24.351 close kin to the Israelites. 01:24.349 --> 01:27.079 "A wandering Aramean was my father," it says. 01:27.080 --> 01:30.490 And spouses are always chosen--daughters for sons are 01:30.493 --> 01:34.503 always chosen by going back to the Aramean people and choosing 01:34.497 --> 01:36.267 someone from close kin. 01:36.269 --> 01:39.509 But in the period of the monarchy--that's going to be 01:39.507 --> 01:43.367 after 1000--in the period of the monarchy, there were very poor 01:43.367 --> 01:45.357 relations with the Arameans. 01:45.360 --> 01:46.680 They were bitter enemies. 01:46.680 --> 01:50.450 So why, according to scholars like Sarna, would a biblical 01:50.445 --> 01:54.405 author from that period portray the Arameans as close kin, 01:54.410 --> 01:57.760 unless they had some older tradition, established tradition 01:57.760 --> 01:59.320 that reflected that fact? 01:59.319 --> 02:02.759 So Sarna and other scholars hold that the patriarchal 02:02.755 --> 02:06.585 traditions are not entirely fabricated retrojections from a 02:06.586 --> 02:10.406 later period. They contain authentic memories 02:10.409 --> 02:13.369 of an earlier historic situation. 02:13.370 --> 02:15.530 The patriarchs, it's maintained, 02:15.527 --> 02:16.847 were semi-nomads. 02:16.850 --> 02:18.010 They lived in tents. 02:18.009 --> 02:20.269 From time to time, they wandered to Egypt or 02:20.269 --> 02:23.369 Mesopotamia often in search of pasture for their animals. 02:23.370 --> 02:26.520 And various details of their language, their customs, 02:26.515 --> 02:29.025 their laws, their religion, it's argued, 02:29.028 --> 02:32.628 seem to fit well into the period of the Late Bronze Age. 02:32.629 --> 02:36.119 I've given you the periods at the top of the chart: 02:36.122 --> 02:40.062 early Bronze Age; middle Bronze Age from about 02:40.056 --> 02:42.896 2100 to 1550; we date the late Bronze age 02:42.903 --> 02:46.283 from about 1550 until 1200--the introduction of iron and the 02:46.275 --> 02:48.385 beginning of the Iron Age in 1200. 02:48.389 --> 02:49.779 Prior to that, the Bronze Age, 02:49.780 --> 02:51.890 which is divided into these three periods. 02:51.889 --> 02:55.009 So that's on the one hand: scholars who see these stories 02:55.007 --> 02:57.957 as reflecting historical memories and having a certain 02:57.958 --> 02:59.348 authenticity to them. 02:59.349 --> 03:01.889 Then on the other hand, at the other extreme, 03:01.892 --> 03:05.362 you have scholars who see the patriarchal stories as entirely 03:05.358 --> 03:08.188 fabricated retrojections of a much later age. 03:08.189 --> 03:11.419 And they vary significantly as to when they think these stories 03:11.416 --> 03:13.706 were written: anywhere from the period of the 03:13.705 --> 03:16.145 monarchy all the way down to the fourth century, 03:16.151 --> 03:19.191 some of them. Works published in the 1970s by 03:19.193 --> 03:22.243 authors like Thomas Thompson, Jon Van Seters, 03:22.240 --> 03:25.780 take the position that these stories are filled with 03:25.779 --> 03:28.209 anachronisms, their chronologies are 03:28.207 --> 03:30.987 confused. These anachronisms and confused 03:30.987 --> 03:34.797 chronologies in the patriarchal stories are the rule rather than 03:34.802 --> 03:38.782 the exception in their view, and they are evidence of a very 03:38.779 --> 03:40.539 late date of composition. 03:40.539 --> 03:44.019 So you have these two extremes based on the internal evidence 03:44.022 --> 03:45.302 of the Bible itself. 03:45.300 --> 03:49.500 But you also have the same two extreme positions reflected in 03:49.500 --> 03:51.740 the discipline of archaeology. 03:51.740 --> 03:55.540 In the early days, archaeology of the region 03:55.541 --> 03:57.841 tended toward credulity. 03:57.840 --> 04:01.170 And it was explicitly referred to as biblical archaeology--an 04:01.174 --> 04:03.664 interesting name, because it suggests that the 04:03.663 --> 04:06.533 archaeologists were out there searching for evidence that 04:06.531 --> 04:09.041 would verify the details of the biblical text. 04:09.039 --> 04:10.389 We're doing biblical archaeology; 04:10.389 --> 04:13.269 archeology in support of the biblical text. 04:13.270 --> 04:15.190 I mentioned last time William F. 04:15.192 --> 04:17.552 Albright, an American archaeologist. 04:17.550 --> 04:20.640 He believed strongly that archaeological findings were 04:20.635 --> 04:23.895 important external evidence for the basic historicity and 04:23.895 --> 04:25.785 authenticity of, for example, 04:25.789 --> 04:27.309 the patriarchal stories. 04:27.310 --> 04:30.450 And certainly some archaeological findings were 04:30.452 --> 04:31.752 quite remarkable. 04:31.750 --> 04:34.870 Scholars of the Albright school pointed to texts and clay 04:34.874 --> 04:38.114 tablets that were discovered in second millennium sites. 04:38.110 --> 04:40.820 So you see down on the bottom the second millennium BCE, 04:40.815 --> 04:45.335 obviously going down to 1000; first millennium: 1000 to 0. 04:45.339 --> 04:47.809 The second millennium really wasn't longer than the first 04:47.811 --> 04:49.931 millennium, it's just that I ran out of board! 04:49.930 --> 04:53.470 But specifically sites like Nuzi and Mari--I've placed them 04:53.473 --> 04:57.203 in their approximate places on the timeline--Nuzi and Mari are 04:57.200 --> 05:00.740 sites that are near the area that's identified in the Bible 05:00.743 --> 05:04.533 as being the ancestral home of the patriarchs in Mesopotamia or 05:04.531 --> 05:07.221 on the highway from there to Canaan. 05:07.220 --> 05:10.560 These texts and clay tablets were believed to illuminate many 05:10.563 --> 05:12.573 biblical customs and institutions. 05:12.569 --> 05:15.919 So in the Nuzi texts from about the middle of the second 05:15.920 --> 05:19.450 millennium, we learn of the custom of adoption for purposes 05:19.452 --> 05:22.802 of inheritance, particularly the adoption of a 05:22.797 --> 05:25.347 slave in the absence of offspring. 05:25.350 --> 05:27.530 Biblical scholars got very excited about this. 05:27.529 --> 05:30.219 They point to the biblical passage in which Abraham 05:30.219 --> 05:32.639 expresses to God his fear that his servant, 05:32.639 --> 05:36.719 Eliezer, will have to be the one to inherit God's promise 05:36.724 --> 05:38.844 because Abraham has no son. 05:38.839 --> 05:42.099 Also according to the Nuzi texts, if a wife is barren, 05:42.103 --> 05:45.673 she is to provide a maidservant as a substitute to bear her 05:45.673 --> 05:47.093 husband's children. 05:47.089 --> 05:50.189 And this is something that happens with three out of the 05:50.191 --> 05:52.331 four matriarchs, who are afflicted with 05:52.334 --> 05:54.594 infertility: Sarah, Rachel and Leah. 05:54.589 --> 05:58.239 There are other parallels in family and marriage law that 05:58.241 --> 06:00.981 correlate with certain biblical details. 06:00.980 --> 06:04.130 In the eighteenth century, the texts from Mari. 06:04.129 --> 06:08.379 They contain names that correspond to Israelite names: 06:08.383 --> 06:10.553 Benjamin, Laban, Ishmael. 06:10.550 --> 06:15.010 So biblical scholars, buoyed up by these correlations 06:15.008 --> 06:18.008 between the archaeological finds, 06:18.009 --> 06:20.069 the texts found by archaeologists, 06:20.072 --> 06:23.132 and biblical stories, asserted that the patriarchs 06:23.134 --> 06:26.264 were real persons and their customs and their legal 06:26.258 --> 06:29.758 practices and their social institutions could be verified 06:29.758 --> 06:33.448 against the backdrop of the second millennium as revealed by 06:33.445 --> 06:35.565 archaeological findings. 06:35.569 --> 06:39.709 However, it's been argued that some of these ancient sources 06:39.711 --> 06:43.221 have been misread or misinterpreted in an effort to 06:43.221 --> 06:46.451 find parallels with biblical institutions. 06:46.449 --> 06:49.809 A lot of gap-filling is going on to make these texts look as 06:49.811 --> 06:52.661 though they correspond to biblical institutions. 06:52.660 --> 06:55.960 And skeptics like Thomas Thompson and John Van Seters 06:55.959 --> 06:59.259 point out that many of the biblical customs which are 06:59.258 --> 07:02.938 paralleled in Ancient Near Eastern sources were still alive 07:02.938 --> 07:05.728 and well down in the first millennium. 07:05.730 --> 07:09.150 So reference to these customs in the patriarchal stories 07:09.148 --> 07:12.068 really doesn't tell us anything about dating. 07:12.069 --> 07:14.799 They could derive from anywhere in the second or first 07:14.800 --> 07:16.690 millennium. And for other reasons, 07:16.688 --> 07:19.348 they think it is much more reasonable to date the 07:19.347 --> 07:22.447 composition of these stories to the first millennium, 07:22.449 --> 07:24.969 in some cases, quite late first millennium. 07:24.970 --> 07:28.110 Furthermore, over time, many discrepancies 07:28.109 --> 07:32.699 between the archeological record and the biblical text became 07:32.704 --> 07:34.814 apparent. Increasingly, 07:34.809 --> 07:39.329 practitioners of what was now being termed Palestinian 07:39.330 --> 07:41.830 archaeology, or Ancient Near Eastern 07:41.832 --> 07:45.132 archaeology, or archaeology of the Levant, rather than biblical 07:45.126 --> 07:47.516 archaeology--some of these archaeologists grew 07:47.518 --> 07:50.548 disinterested in pointing out the correlations between the 07:50.547 --> 07:53.677 archaeological data and the biblical stories or in trying to 07:53.682 --> 07:56.822 explain away any discrepancies in order to keep the biblical 07:56.817 --> 07:59.897 text intact. They began to focus on the best 07:59.895 --> 08:03.365 possible reconstruction of the history of the region on the 08:03.368 --> 08:06.778 basis of the archaeological evidence regardless of whether 08:06.780 --> 08:09.890 or not those results would confirm the biblical text, 08:09.893 --> 08:11.573 the biblical account. 08:11.569 --> 08:15.349 In fact, this reconstruction often does contradict biblical 08:15.352 --> 08:17.482 claims. We're going to see this quite 08:17.476 --> 08:20.706 clearly in a few weeks when we consider the book of Joshua and 08:20.707 --> 08:24.147 its story of Israel's lighting invasion of the land of Canaan. 08:24.149 --> 08:28.299 The archaeological record just doesn't support such a story. 08:28.300 --> 08:32.820 Still, many people have clung to the idea of the Bible as a 08:32.821 --> 08:37.501 historically accurate document, many times out of ideological 08:37.498 --> 08:39.958 necessity. Many fear that if the 08:39.957 --> 08:42.947 historical information in the Bible isn't true, 08:42.951 --> 08:46.341 then the Bible is unreliable as a source of religious 08:46.336 --> 08:48.416 instruction or inspiration. 08:48.419 --> 08:50.759 And that's something they don't want to give up. 08:50.759 --> 08:55.269 This is all really a very unfortunate and heavy burden to 08:55.269 --> 09:00.179 place on this fascinating little library of writings from late 09:00.182 --> 09:03.242 antiquity. People who equate truth with 09:03.244 --> 09:06.974 historical fact will certainly end up viewing the Bible 09:06.974 --> 09:10.144 dismissively, as a naive and unsophisticated 09:10.135 --> 09:14.245 web of lies, since it is replete with elements that cannot be 09:14.246 --> 09:18.176 literally true. But to view it this way is to 09:18.175 --> 09:20.215 make a genre mistake. 09:20.220 --> 09:24.250 Shakespeare's Hamlet, while set in Denmark, 09:24.247 --> 09:27.697 an actual place, is not historical fact. 09:27.700 --> 09:31.300 But that doesn't make it a naive and unsophisticated web of 09:31.303 --> 09:35.223 lies, because we accept when we read or watch Hamlet that 09:35.217 --> 09:37.637 it is not a work of historiography, 09:37.640 --> 09:39.790 a work of writing about history. 09:39.790 --> 09:41.860 It is a work of literature. 09:41.860 --> 09:45.140 And in deference to that genre and its conventions, 09:45.142 --> 09:48.952 we know and accept that the truths it conveys are not those 09:48.950 --> 09:51.600 of historical fact, but are social, 09:51.600 --> 09:54.640 political, ethical, existential truths. 09:54.639 --> 09:59.209 And the Bible deserves at least the same courteous attention to 09:59.206 --> 10:01.776 its genre. The Bible doesn't pretend to be 10:01.783 --> 10:04.843 and it shouldn't be read as what we would call "objective 10:04.843 --> 10:06.923 history"--and see the scare quotes, 10:06.919 --> 10:10.099 you should be looking up here so you'll see the scare quotes: 10:10.103 --> 10:12.393 "objective history"--in other words perhaps, 10:12.385 --> 10:14.025 a bare narration of events. 10:14.029 --> 10:17.109 To be sure, we do find that some events that are mentioned 10:17.107 --> 10:20.397 in the biblical texts correlate to events that we know of from 10:20.400 --> 10:22.020 sources outside the Bible. 10:22.019 --> 10:25.289 So for example, Pharaoh Shishak's invasion of 10:25.288 --> 10:26.698 Palestine in 924. 10:26.700 --> 10:28.620 This is mentioned in the biblical text, 10:28.621 --> 10:31.301 it's mentioned in the Egyptian sources--there's a nice 10:31.301 --> 10:34.391 correlation. The destruction of the northern 10:34.386 --> 10:38.206 kingdom of Israel in 722, the capture of Jerusalem in 10:38.205 --> 10:40.335 597, the destruction of the temple 10:40.344 --> 10:43.594 in Jerusalem in 586--these are all recorded in the biblical 10:43.594 --> 10:47.184 text and they are in Assyrian and Babylonian records as well; 10:47.179 --> 10:50.329 as well as other events from the period of the monarchy. 10:50.330 --> 10:53.170 So as a result, because of these correlations, 10:53.172 --> 10:56.652 many scholars are willing to accept the general biblical 10:56.646 --> 10:59.486 chronology of the period from the monarchy on: 10:59.488 --> 11:02.578 starting about 1000 on, they accept that general 11:02.580 --> 11:04.660 chronology; the sequence of kings and 11:04.664 --> 11:05.774 battles and so on. 11:05.769 --> 11:07.659 But ultimately, it is a mistake, 11:07.663 --> 11:10.843 I think, to read the Bible as a historical record. 11:10.840 --> 11:12.130 The Bible is literature. 11:12.129 --> 11:16.389 Its composition is influenced and determined by literary 11:16.390 --> 11:18.250 conventions and goals. 11:18.250 --> 11:23.920 Now, of course we all know that there is no such thing as purely 11:23.919 --> 11:26.349 objective history anyway. 11:26.350 --> 11:29.990 We have no direct access to past events. 11:29.990 --> 11:33.150 We only ever have mediated access in material: 11:33.146 --> 11:36.996 archaeological remains that yield information to us only 11:37.004 --> 11:39.674 after a process of interpretation, 11:39.669 --> 11:43.199 or in texts that are themselves already an interpretation of 11:43.204 --> 11:45.904 events and must still be interpreted by us. 11:45.899 --> 11:50.209 The biblical narrative is an interpretation of events that 11:50.209 --> 11:54.519 were held by centuries' long tradition to be meaningful in 11:54.518 --> 11:56.558 the life of the people. 11:56.559 --> 12:00.899 And to the biblical narrators, these events known perhaps from 12:00.904 --> 12:04.754 ancient oral traditions pointed to a divine purpose. 12:04.750 --> 12:08.170 The narrative is told to illustrate that basic 12:08.174 --> 12:11.344 proposition. The biblical narrators are not 12:11.342 --> 12:15.342 trying to write history as a modern historian might try to 12:15.338 --> 12:18.208 write history. They're concerned to show us 12:18.212 --> 12:21.762 what they believed to be the finger of God in the events and 12:21.756 --> 12:24.096 experiences of the Israelite people. 12:24.100 --> 12:25.870 One scholar, Marc Brettler, 12:25.865 --> 12:29.735 whose name I've also put up here, Marc Brettler notes that 12:29.735 --> 12:32.845 in the Bible, the past is refracted through a 12:32.846 --> 12:35.616 theological lens if not a partisan political, 12:35.624 --> 12:36.954 ideological lens . 12:36.950 --> 12:40.170 But then all ancient historical narrative is written that way, 12:40.173 --> 12:42.603 and one could argue all contemporary historical 12:42.603 --> 12:44.403 narrative is written that way. 12:44.399 --> 12:47.279 With due caution, we can still learn things from 12:47.277 --> 12:48.927 texts ancient and modern. 12:48.929 --> 12:51.629 We can still learn things about Israel's history from the 12:51.632 --> 12:53.802 biblical sources, just as classical historians 12:53.804 --> 12:56.414 have learned a great deal about classical history, 12:56.409 --> 12:59.309 Greece and Rome, despite or through the 12:59.307 --> 13:03.647 tendentious, partisan and ideologically motivated writings 13:03.653 --> 13:05.563 of classical writers. 13:05.559 --> 13:08.589 So our discussion of the patriarchal stories is going to 13:08.585 --> 13:10.945 bear all of these considerations in mind. 13:10.950 --> 13:12.880 We're not going to be asking whether these stories are 13:12.884 --> 13:13.764 historically accurate. 13:13.759 --> 13:16.179 I'm going to assume they are not. 13:16.179 --> 13:19.509 And once we rid ourselves of the burden of historicity, 13:19.509 --> 13:22.839 we're free to appreciate the stories for what they are: 13:22.838 --> 13:25.358 powerful, powerful narratives that must 13:25.359 --> 13:28.679 be read against the literary conventions of their time, 13:28.679 --> 13:32.839 and whose truths are social, political, moral and 13:32.837 --> 13:36.597 existential. So what are these truths? 13:36.600 --> 13:39.110 We'll begin to answer this question--begin to answer 13:39.109 --> 13:40.969 this question, you'll spend the rest of your 13:40.970 --> 13:43.480 life finishing the process of answering this question. 13:43.480 --> 13:46.710 But we'll begin by identifying some, by no means all, 13:46.705 --> 13:49.615 of the major themes of Genesis 12 through 50. 13:49.620 --> 13:52.280 And we're going to begin with the story of Terah and his 13:52.275 --> 13:54.695 family. This is a story that's marked 13:54.700 --> 13:58.270 by the themes of divine command and divine promise. 13:58.269 --> 14:01.539 Now, the biblical writer represents the emigration of 14:01.544 --> 14:04.504 Terah's son Abram, whose name will be changed to 14:04.504 --> 14:06.864 Abraham, so sometimes I'll say one and 14:06.860 --> 14:08.020 sometimes the other. 14:08.019 --> 14:11.059 But they represent this emigration as divinely 14:11.059 --> 14:13.199 commanded. It's the first step in a 14:13.195 --> 14:16.175 journey that will lead ultimately to the formation of a 14:16.177 --> 14:17.887 nation in covenant with God. 14:17.889 --> 14:19.779 First we meet our cast of characters. 14:19.779 --> 14:26.049 This is in Genesis 11:27 on through chapter 12:3. 14:26.049 --> 14:29.019 Now these are the generations of Terah: 14:29.017 --> 14:31.577 Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; 14:31.580 --> 14:33.630 and Haran begot Lot. 14:33.629 --> 14:36.519 Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, 14:36.515 --> 14:39.145 in his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans. 14:39.149 --> 14:43.139 And Abram and Nahor took them wives, the name of Abram's wife 14:43.135 --> 14:45.655 being Sarai [who will become Sarah]; 14:45.659 --> 14:47.959 and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah.... 14:47.960 --> 14:50.690 And Sarai was barren; she had no child. 14:50.690 --> 14:53.600 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, 14:53.597 --> 14:56.157 his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter in law, 14:56.156 --> 14:58.946 his son Abram's wife; [getting confused yet?] 14:58.953 --> 15:02.343 and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go 15:02.342 --> 15:05.142 into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, 15:05.139 --> 15:06.009 they settled there. 15:06.009 --> 15:10.239 And the days of Terah were 205 years: then Terah died in Haran. 15:10.240 --> 15:13.640 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your 15:13.637 --> 15:16.977 kindred, and your father's house, to the land that I will 15:16.975 --> 15:19.195 show you." I will make of you a great 15:19.201 --> 15:20.721 nation, And I will bless you; 15:20.720 --> 15:23.720 And make your name great So that you will be a blessing. 15:23.720 --> 15:26.230 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you, 15:26.228 --> 15:28.588 I will curse; and by you all the families of 15:28.593 --> 15:31.813 the earth shall bless themselves [source unknown]. 15:31.809 --> 15:35.969 So Abram is commanded to go forth from his home and family 15:35.971 --> 15:40.571 to a location to be named later, a location that remains for now 15:40.571 --> 15:43.151 unspecified. And this is a fact that has 15:43.154 --> 15:45.884 caused commentators for centuries to praise Abram for 15:45.878 --> 15:48.198 his faith. That is a virtue--faith is a 15:48.199 --> 15:51.709 virtue--that is connected or associated with Abram/Abraham in 15:51.713 --> 15:55.523 other biblical contexts and also in later religious tradition. 15:55.519 --> 15:59.449 He is seen as the paradigm, the paradigmatic exemplar of a 15:59.454 --> 16:01.984 man of faith. The command is coupled with a 16:01.984 --> 16:04.874 promise: "I will make of you," God says, "a great nation, 16:04.871 --> 16:06.161 and I will bless you." 16:06.159 --> 16:10.249 But, we have just learned in chapter 11 that Sarai is barren. 16:10.250 --> 16:15.090 It was a seemingly irrelevant detail, whose import is suddenly 16:15.094 --> 16:18.084 clear. How clever of the narrator to 16:18.080 --> 16:23.110 plant the information we need to realize that Abram has to take 16:23.105 --> 16:26.785 God's word on faith, and how perfectly the narrator 16:26.785 --> 16:30.345 sets up the dramatic tension and the great confusion that is 16:30.354 --> 16:33.384 going to run through the next several chapters, 16:33.379 --> 16:37.099 because Abram doesn't seem to understand that the progeny will 16:37.101 --> 16:39.311 come from Sarai. You have to read these stories 16:39.305 --> 16:40.995 as if you're reading them for the first time. 16:41.000 --> 16:43.230 You have the great disadvantage of knowing the ending. 16:43.230 --> 16:45.320 It's a terrible disadvantage. 16:45.320 --> 16:48.120 You have to discipline yourself to read these stories as if you 16:48.118 --> 16:50.868 don't know what's coming next and put yourself in the position 16:50.872 --> 16:51.822 of the character. 16:51.820 --> 16:54.300 Abram's just been told he's going to be the father of great 16:54.295 --> 16:55.785 nations and he has a barren wife. 16:55.790 --> 16:59.610 16:59.610 --> 17:02.640 He doesn't seem to understand that the progeny is going to 17:02.644 --> 17:05.154 come from Sarai, and why should he think that it 17:05.147 --> 17:06.927 would? God wasn't specific. 17:06.930 --> 17:09.000 He simply says, "I shall make of you a great 17:08.998 --> 17:10.718 nation." He says nothing of Sarai, 17:10.715 --> 17:12.095 and after all she's barren. 17:12.099 --> 17:15.469 So Abram may be forgiven for thinking that perhaps some other 17:15.469 --> 17:18.469 mate awaits him. And so he surrenders her easily 17:18.474 --> 17:21.314 to other men, to Pharaoh of Egypt immediately 17:21.305 --> 17:23.745 following this scene in chapter 11; 17:23.750 --> 17:26.150 immediately after that, in Egypt, he surrenders her. 17:26.150 --> 17:29.510 He willingly accepts Sarai's offer of a handmaid, 17:29.514 --> 17:33.094 Hagar, to bear a child Ishmael, in Sarai's place. 17:33.089 --> 17:37.009 How cleverly the narrator leads us with Abram to pin our hopes 17:37.007 --> 17:39.637 on Ishmael as the child of the promise. 17:39.640 --> 17:43.630 And how cleverly is the carpet pulled out from under our feet 17:43.634 --> 17:45.814 in Genesis 17, when God finally, 17:45.808 --> 17:48.158 perhaps impatiently, talks specifics: 17:48.156 --> 17:51.736 No, I meant that you would father a great nation through 17:51.742 --> 17:53.282 Sarah. And Abraham, 17:53.283 --> 17:55.623 as he's now called, is incredulous: 17:55.616 --> 17:58.426 "She's past the age of bearing, Lord." 17:58.430 --> 18:02.180 And he laughs. And God is silent. 18:02.180 --> 18:05.700 And in that silence I always imagine that this light goes on: 18:05.703 --> 18:08.173 this click, this awful, sickening light. 18:08.170 --> 18:11.320 And Abraham says, O, that Ishmael might live in 18:11.319 --> 18:13.289 your sight! Or something like that. 18:13.290 --> 18:14.380 I think I probably misquoted. 18:14.380 --> 18:16.720 "O, that Ishmael might live by your favor"-- sorry, 18:16.722 --> 18:17.942 that's the actual words. 18:17.940 --> 18:19.500 But God is determined. 18:19.500 --> 18:23.600 Sarah will bear Isaac and with him God will make an everlasting 18:23.602 --> 18:26.242 covenant. All of this drama through the 18:26.240 --> 18:29.340 first five chapters made possible by a seemingly 18:29.335 --> 18:32.895 irrelevant line in 11:30, a sort of throw-away datum in a 18:32.901 --> 18:36.231 family list that one might gloss over: "and Sarai was barren; 18:36.233 --> 18:37.403 she had no child." 18:37.400 --> 18:40.200 And that's the power and beauty of biblical narrative. 18:40.200 --> 18:44.430 You have to get yourself into the mindset to read it that way. 18:44.430 --> 18:47.730 A few verses later, when Abram and his wife Sarai 18:47.728 --> 18:51.648 and his nephew Lot and those traveling with them all reach 18:51.646 --> 18:54.666 Canaan, God makes an additional promise. 18:54.670 --> 18:57.460 He says in verse 7, "I will assign this land to 18:57.458 --> 18:59.818 your offspring." So in just a few short 18:59.822 --> 19:03.292 verses--we've just gone from 12, we've just gone seven verses 19:03.291 --> 19:06.241 now into chapter 12--in just a few short verses, 19:06.240 --> 19:09.230 the writer has established the three-fold promise that 19:09.225 --> 19:12.095 underpins the biblical drama that's about to unfold: 19:12.098 --> 19:16.278 the promise of progeny, of blessing, and of land. 19:16.279 --> 19:19.459 And that establishes a narrative tension for the 19:19.458 --> 19:23.178 stories of the patriarchs, but also for the story of the 19:23.177 --> 19:25.947 nation of Israel in subsequent books. 19:25.950 --> 19:28.820 Because in the patriarchal stories, there is this 19:28.824 --> 19:32.184 suspenseful vacillation between episodes that threaten to 19:32.177 --> 19:35.887 extinguish God's promises and episodes that reaffirm them. 19:35.890 --> 19:40.980 Israelite matriarchs seem to be a singularly infertile group. 19:40.980 --> 19:43.390 The lines of inheritance defy our expectations: 19:43.392 --> 19:46.432 it doesn't seem to go to the person that we think that it's 19:46.433 --> 19:48.953 going to go to. The process by which the 19:48.951 --> 19:52.501 promise is fulfilled is halting and torturous at times. 19:52.500 --> 19:56.960 We're going to look at one example of an episode in which 19:56.956 --> 20:00.136 the promise is affirmed--or confirmed, 20:00.140 --> 20:04.440 reaffirmed--and an example of an episode in which the promise 20:04.444 --> 20:06.314 is supremely threatened. 20:06.309 --> 20:10.419 In Genesis 15, God's promise to Abraham is 20:10.415 --> 20:13.815 formalized in a ritual ceremony. 20:13.819 --> 20:16.799 God and Abraham are said to "cut" a covenant--that's the 20:16.800 --> 20:19.890 verb that's used in making a covenant--and "covenant" is a 20:19.888 --> 20:21.458 central biblical concept. 20:21.460 --> 20:24.280 The Hebrew word for covenant, which I've written over here is 20:24.276 --> 20:26.336 berit. It means vow, 20:26.343 --> 20:31.173 promise, perhaps contract, agreement or pact. 20:31.170 --> 20:34.580 Parallels to the biblical covenant have been pointed out 20:34.579 --> 20:37.989 by many Ancient Near Eastern historians and scholars. 20:37.990 --> 20:40.750 We have in our Ancient Near Eastern texts--and we'll come 20:40.750 --> 20:43.710 back to these in more detail when we get into Exodus--we have 20:43.707 --> 20:45.577 in our Ancient Near Eastern texts, 20:45.579 --> 20:49.019 two types, two main types of covenant: the suzerainty 20:49.022 --> 20:51.342 covenant and the parity covenant. 20:51.339 --> 20:54.379 As you can imagine from the name, a suzerainty covenant is a 20:54.382 --> 20:56.292 covenant in which a superior party, 20:56.289 --> 21:01.229 a suzerain, dictates the terms of a political treaty usually, 21:01.228 --> 21:04.108 and an inferior party obeys them. 21:04.109 --> 21:07.719 The arrangement primarily serves the interest of the 21:07.716 --> 21:10.966 suzerain, and not the vassal or the subject. 21:10.970 --> 21:14.000 In a parity covenant, you have really two equal 21:13.998 --> 21:17.618 parties who both agree to observe the provisions of some 21:17.619 --> 21:20.499 kind of treaty. Now, there are four major 21:20.499 --> 21:22.519 covenants in the Hebrew Bible. 21:22.519 --> 21:27.139 They're initiated by Yahweh as expressions of divine favor and 21:27.135 --> 21:29.665 graciousness. And two of these appear in 21:29.666 --> 21:31.356 Genesis. We've already seen one, 21:31.356 --> 21:34.316 the Noahide covenant; and the Abrahamic covenant, 21:34.321 --> 21:36.201 which we're looking at now. 21:36.200 --> 21:41.800 Now, the Noahide covenant in Genesis 9:1-17 is universal in 21:41.797 --> 21:44.627 scope. It encompasses all life on 21:44.626 --> 21:47.106 earth. It stresses the sanctity of 21:47.113 --> 21:51.053 life and in this covenant, God promises never to destroy 21:51.051 --> 21:53.241 all life again. By contrast, 21:53.242 --> 21:56.932 the Abrahamic covenant is a covenant with a single 21:56.927 --> 21:59.507 individual. So we've gone from a covenant 21:59.513 --> 22:02.003 with all of humanity to a covenant with a single 22:01.999 --> 22:04.629 individual. And it looks very much like an 22:04.631 --> 22:07.281 Ancient Near Eastern suzerainty covenant. 22:07.280 --> 22:08.890 God appears as a suzerain. 22:08.890 --> 22:11.280 He's making a land grant to a favored subject, 22:11.282 --> 22:13.252 which is very often how these work. 22:13.250 --> 22:17.400 And there's an ancient ritual that ratifies the oath. 22:17.400 --> 22:21.080 In general, in this kind of covenant, the parties to the 22:21.080 --> 22:24.890 oath would pass between the split carcass of a sacrificial 22:24.894 --> 22:28.914 animal as if to say that they agree they will suffer the same 22:28.909 --> 22:32.589 fate as this animal if they violate the covenant. 22:32.589 --> 22:35.559 In Genesis 15, Abraham cuts sacrificial 22:35.559 --> 22:38.369 animals in two and God, but only God, 22:38.372 --> 22:41.032 passes between the two halves. 22:41.029 --> 22:45.399 The striking thing about the Abrahamic covenant is its 22:45.402 --> 22:47.302 unilateral character. 22:47.299 --> 22:50.629 Only God seems to be obligated by the covenant, 22:50.630 --> 22:54.250 obligated to fulfill the promise that he's made. 22:54.250 --> 22:57.900 Abraham doesn't appear to have any obligation in return. 22:57.900 --> 23:00.250 And so in this case, it is the subject, 23:00.249 --> 23:03.899 Abraham, and not the suzerain, God, who is benefited by this 23:03.896 --> 23:07.176 covenant, and that's a complete reversal 23:07.183 --> 23:08.843 of our expectation. 23:08.839 --> 23:12.689 Note also that the biblical writer goes out of his way to 23:12.690 --> 23:16.400 provide a moral justification for this grant of land to 23:16.403 --> 23:19.273 Israel. In the biblical writer's view, 23:19.265 --> 23:23.335 God is the owner of the land, and so he is empowered to set 23:23.336 --> 23:27.196 conditions or residency requirements for those who would 23:27.196 --> 23:29.836 reside in it, like a landlord. 23:29.839 --> 23:32.929 The current inhabitants of the land are polluting it, 23:32.926 --> 23:35.356 filling it with bloodshed and idolatry. 23:35.359 --> 23:39.119 And when the land becomes so polluted, completely polluted, 23:39.120 --> 23:41.390 it will spew out its inhabitants. 23:41.390 --> 23:44.000 That process, God says, isn't complete; 23:44.000 --> 23:45.410 so Israel is going to have to wait. 23:45.410 --> 23:47.970 The lease isn't up yet, and the Israelites will have to 23:47.968 --> 23:49.998 wait. He says in Genesis 15:16, 23:50.001 --> 23:53.751 the iniquity of the Amorites will not be fulfilled until 23:53.745 --> 23:56.475 then. So here, and in other places in 23:56.475 --> 24:00.915 the Bible, it's clear that God's covenant with Israel is not due 24:00.917 --> 24:04.577 to any special merit of the Israelites or favoritism: 24:04.583 --> 24:08.323 this is actually said explicitly in Deuteronomy. 24:08.319 --> 24:11.339 Rather, God is seeking replacement tenants who are 24:11.344 --> 24:14.744 going to follow the moral rules of residence that he has 24:14.739 --> 24:16.529 established for his land. 24:16.529 --> 24:20.819 Genesis 17 seems to be a second version of the same covenant. 24:20.819 --> 24:24.439 This time, scholars attribute it to P--the Priestly writer, 24:24.435 --> 24:26.445 the P source. There are some notable 24:26.447 --> 24:29.237 differences, emphasizing themes that were important to the 24:29.239 --> 24:32.409 Priestly writer. God adds to the promises in 24:32.408 --> 24:37.548 Genesis 17 that a line of kings will come forth from Abraham, 24:37.549 --> 24:41.469 and then, that Abraham and his male descendents be circumcised 24:41.474 --> 24:43.924 as a perpetual sign of the covenant. 24:43.920 --> 24:46.690 So here there is some obligation for Abraham. 24:46.690 --> 24:50.100 "Thus shall my covenant be marked in your flesh as an 24:50.102 --> 24:51.482 everlasting pact" . 24:51.480 --> 24:54.130 Failure to circumcise is tantamount to breaking the 24:54.134 --> 24:55.944 covenant, according to the text. 24:55.940 --> 24:58.600 Now, circumcision is known in many of the cultures of the 24:58.599 --> 24:59.549 Ancient Near East. 24:59.549 --> 25:02.309 It's generally a rite of passage that was performed at 25:02.314 --> 25:05.504 the time of puberty rather than a ritual that was performed at 25:05.496 --> 25:07.266 birth, eight days after birth. 25:07.269 --> 25:10.569 So that's unusual in the Israelite context to have it 25:10.568 --> 25:11.898 occur with infants. 25:11.900 --> 25:16.010 But as is the case with so many biblical rituals or institutions 25:16.014 --> 25:20.064 or laws, whatever their original meaning or significance in the 25:20.064 --> 25:22.894 ancient world, whether this was originally a 25:22.888 --> 25:25.558 puberty rite or a fertility rite of some kind, 25:25.559 --> 25:30.889 the ritual has been suffused with a new meaning in our texts. 25:30.890 --> 25:34.520 So circumcision is here infused with a new meaning: 25:34.517 --> 25:38.507 it becomes a sign of God's eternal covenant with Abraham 25:38.506 --> 25:41.296 and his seed. These texts are typical of 25:41.295 --> 25:43.145 affirmations of God's promise. 25:43.150 --> 25:45.690 But despite them, the patriarchal episodes or 25:45.694 --> 25:48.354 stories are peppered with episodes in which the 25:48.354 --> 25:51.944 realization of the promise and the blessing is threatened. 25:51.940 --> 25:54.620 In chapter 12, Abram surrenders his wife Sarai 25:54.619 --> 25:57.719 to Pharaoh in order to advance his position among the 25:57.716 --> 26:00.226 Egyptians, plausibly not knowing that it 26:00.231 --> 26:03.771 is Sarai who is supposed to bear the child of God's promise. 26:03.769 --> 26:06.329 As I said, that's left unclear until chapter 17, 26:06.331 --> 26:08.731 when God says: No, no, no, you misunderstood. 26:08.729 --> 26:10.979 I meant Sarai. God intervenes, 26:10.976 --> 26:14.266 however, and returns Sarai to Abraham. 26:14.269 --> 26:17.939 Sarai's barren state really casts a shadow over the promise 26:17.936 --> 26:21.726 from the very beginning of the story of Abraham and Sarah. 26:21.730 --> 26:24.890 Desperate, Sarah takes advantage of the custom that is 26:24.891 --> 26:28.711 attested in the ancient world of giving her Egyptian handmaid, 26:28.710 --> 26:32.210 Hagar, to Abraham to bear a child in her stead. 26:32.210 --> 26:35.590 But Hagar apparently lords this over her mistress, 26:35.591 --> 26:39.181 and an embittered Sarah forces her from the house. 26:39.180 --> 26:43.040 Hagar and her child Ishmael cry out to God in the wilderness and 26:43.038 --> 26:46.668 God assures Hagar that Ishmael, who's regarded by Muslims as 26:46.670 --> 26:50.010 the ancestor of the Arabs and the inheritor of the blessing 26:50.007 --> 26:53.037 and the promise, that Ishmael shall become a 26:53.044 --> 26:54.344 great nation too. 26:54.339 --> 26:58.959 But really the greatest threat to the promise comes from God 26:58.955 --> 27:03.725 himself, and that is in Genesis 22 when God tests Abraham with 27:03.728 --> 27:06.308 the most horrible of demands. 27:06.309 --> 27:08.889 The child of the promise, Isaac, who was born 27:08.894 --> 27:12.424 miraculously to Sarah when she was no longer of child-bearing 27:12.420 --> 27:15.630 age, is to be sacrificed to God by 27:15.630 --> 27:17.520 Abraham's own hand. 27:17.519 --> 27:21.019 And the story of the binding of Isaac is one of the most 27:21.016 --> 27:24.826 powerful, most riveting stories not only in the Bible but, 27:24.829 --> 27:27.729 some have claimed, in all of world literature. 27:27.730 --> 27:31.970 The story is a marvelous exemplar of the biblical 27:31.969 --> 27:35.589 narrator's literary skill and artistry. 27:35.589 --> 27:38.299 This week's assigned reading includes selections from Robert 27:38.297 --> 27:39.897 Alter's book, The Art of Biblical 27:39.903 --> 27:42.683 Narrative, which I heartily recommend to 27:42.680 --> 27:44.160 read in its entirety. 27:44.160 --> 27:47.710 Alter describes the extreme economy of biblical narrative, 27:47.711 --> 27:51.451 economy in the description of physical settings and character 27:51.449 --> 27:52.819 as well as speech. 27:52.819 --> 27:56.359 Rarely does the narrator comment on or explain a 27:56.355 --> 27:59.735 character's actions or thoughts or motives. 27:59.740 --> 28:02.740 There's only the barest minimum of dialogue. 28:02.740 --> 28:05.770 And on the few occasions that the Bible will violate this 28:05.773 --> 28:08.863 principle of verbal economy--for example if two characters 28:08.861 --> 28:11.951 converse at length--you can be sure it's significant. 28:11.950 --> 28:13.790 You'll want to pay extra attention. 28:13.789 --> 28:17.729 The biblical narrator's concealing of details and the 28:17.729 --> 28:21.879 motives of the characters, God and Abraham and Isaac, 28:21.875 --> 28:25.455 leads to ambiguity, and the possibility of very 28:25.460 --> 28:27.330 many interpretations. 28:27.329 --> 28:30.489 And that is a striking characteristic of biblical 28:30.491 --> 28:33.321 prose: its suppression of detail, its terse, 28:33.324 --> 28:36.074 laconic style. That makes the little that 28:36.069 --> 28:39.609 is given so powerful, so "fraught with background" to 28:39.609 --> 28:43.839 use the phrase of Eric Auerbach, whose article you are also to 28:43.843 --> 28:47.193 read this week. Auerbach contrasts the literary 28:47.187 --> 28:51.517 style of Homer with the biblical writer's style specifically in 28:51.523 --> 28:54.533 connection with the story of Genesis 22. 28:54.529 --> 28:58.429 The ambiguities and the indeterminacy of this story make 28:58.426 --> 29:02.036 it one of the most interpreted texts of all time. 29:02.040 --> 29:04.700 Why is God testing Abraham? 29:04.700 --> 29:07.970 Does God really desire such a sacrifice? 29:07.970 --> 29:12.150 What is Abraham thinking and feeling as he walks--for three 29:12.147 --> 29:16.327 days, already--walks with his son, bearing the wood and the 29:16.325 --> 29:18.265 fire for the sacrifice? 29:18.269 --> 29:20.879 Does he fully intend to obey this command, 29:20.879 --> 29:24.189 to annul the covenantal promise with his own hand? 29:24.190 --> 29:26.360 Or does he trust in God to intervene? 29:26.360 --> 29:28.270 Or is this a paradox of faith? 29:28.269 --> 29:31.819 Does Abraham intend faithfully to obey, all the while trusting 29:31.821 --> 29:35.491 faithfully that God's promise will nevertheless be fulfilled? 29:35.490 --> 29:37.230 What's Isaac thinking? 29:37.230 --> 29:39.110 Does he understand what is happening? 29:39.110 --> 29:41.780 How old is he? Is this a little boy or a grown 29:41.779 --> 29:43.969 man? Is he prepared to obey? 29:43.970 --> 29:47.260 He sees the wood and the firestone in his father's hand. 29:47.260 --> 29:48.620 Clearly a sacrifice is planned. 29:48.619 --> 29:50.799 He's got three days to figure that out. 29:50.799 --> 29:53.159 He asks his father: Where is the sheep for the 29:53.158 --> 29:55.958 burnt offering? Does he know the answer even as 29:55.964 --> 29:58.004 he asks? Does he hear the double 29:58.000 --> 30:01.540 entendre in his father's very simple and solemn reply, 30:01.539 --> 30:04.869 which in the unpunctuated Hebrew might be read, 30:04.867 --> 30:08.407 "The lord will provide the sheep for the offering: 30:08.411 --> 30:10.751 my son." Does he struggle when he's 30:10.745 --> 30:13.125 bound? Does he acquiesce? 30:13.130 --> 30:17.160 The beauty of the narrative is its sheer economy. 30:17.160 --> 30:21.020 It offers so little that we as readers are forced to imagine 30:21.017 --> 30:23.107 the innumerable possibilities. 30:23.109 --> 30:25.209 We play out the drama in countless ways, 30:25.210 --> 30:28.550 with an Abraham who's reluctant and an Isaac who's ignorant. 30:28.549 --> 30:31.979 Or an Abraham who's eager to serve his God to the point of 30:31.982 --> 30:34.992 sacrificing his own son, and an Isaac who willingly 30:34.993 --> 30:36.923 bares his neck to the knife. 30:36.920 --> 30:40.060 Read the story one verse, one phrase, one word at a time. 30:40.059 --> 30:43.729 There are so few words that you can be sure that they were 30:43.727 --> 30:44.947 chosen with care. 30:44.950 --> 30:47.990 You'll be looking at Genesis 22 closely in your section 30:47.991 --> 30:50.431 discussions. And as you read the story, 30:50.430 --> 30:54.050 remember its larger context: God's promise to make Abraham 30:54.048 --> 30:56.838 the father of a great people through his son, 30:56.841 --> 30:59.241 Isaac. It's this context, 30:59.242 --> 31:02.742 this promise, that gives the story its 31:02.741 --> 31:05.391 special power and pathos. 31:05.390 --> 31:08.910 But of course the story can be contextualized in a number of 31:08.914 --> 31:10.644 different ways. For example, 31:10.643 --> 31:13.973 one can read the story in its historical context of child 31:13.971 --> 31:16.231 sacrifice in the Ancient Near East. 31:16.230 --> 31:20.500 Although child sacrifice was adamantly condemned in various 31:20.499 --> 31:24.299 later layers of the Bible, there's plenty of evidence that 31:24.296 --> 31:27.486 it was probably practiced in different quarters throughout 31:27.489 --> 31:29.169 the period of the monarchy. 31:29.170 --> 31:33.700 Does Genesis 22 assume or reject the practice of child 31:33.695 --> 31:36.925 sacrifice? Some scholars argue that a core 31:36.928 --> 31:41.268 story promoting child sacrifice has been edited so as to serve 31:41.273 --> 31:45.693 as a polemic against child sacrifice now in its final form. 31:45.690 --> 31:48.060 Do you think so? Can you see the seams and feel 31:48.063 --> 31:50.873 the narrative tensions that would support such a claim? 31:50.869 --> 31:54.439 Does the story pull in more than one direction? 31:54.440 --> 31:58.310 Or we can read the story in its immediate literary context. 31:58.309 --> 32:02.409 Abraham has just permitted the expulsion of Ishmael, 32:02.414 --> 32:04.994 the only beloved son of Hagar. 32:04.990 --> 32:09.230 And now God demands that he sacrifice his beloved son. 32:09.230 --> 32:11.150 What might he be trying to teach Abraham? 32:11.150 --> 32:15.610 Is this a trial in the sense of a test or a trial in the sense 32:15.613 --> 32:19.023 of a punishment? The Hebrew term can tolerate 32:19.020 --> 32:21.790 both meanings. Or Genesis 22 can be 32:21.785 --> 32:24.085 contextualized another way. 32:24.089 --> 32:25.959 And at this point, we need to backtrack a little 32:25.964 --> 32:27.604 bit to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, 32:27.599 --> 32:33.049 which is in Genesis 18 and 19, to contextualize the story a 32:33.045 --> 32:38.485 little bit, in terms of Abraham's character development. 32:38.490 --> 32:42.630 In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 18 and 19, 32:42.631 --> 32:46.851 Yahweh tells Abraham of his plan to investigate reports of 32:46.847 --> 32:51.097 the wickedness of the city, the Canaanite city of 32:51.095 --> 32:55.655 Sodom--its violence, its cruelty to strangers--and 32:55.657 --> 32:59.317 to destroy it. And Abraham's reaction comes as 32:59.321 --> 33:01.001 something of a surprise. 33:01.000 --> 33:04.180 He objects to the plan, and he starts to argue with 33:04.178 --> 33:05.778 God. "Will you sweep away the 33:05.777 --> 33:07.397 innocent along with the guilty? 33:07.400 --> 33:09.200 Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?" 33:09.200 --> 33:12.320 That's in Genesis 18:23-25. 33:12.319 --> 33:14.939 The question is of course rhetorical. 33:14.940 --> 33:18.840 Abraham is evidently quite confident that God would not act 33:18.844 --> 33:23.224 unjustly, would not destroy the innocent along with the wicked. 33:23.220 --> 33:26.450 Indeed, Abraham is banking on the fact that God is merciful 33:26.450 --> 33:29.960 and will overlook evil for the sake of righteous individuals. 33:29.960 --> 33:33.330 And so Abraham haggles with God for the lives of the innocent: 33:33.329 --> 33:35.909 "...Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" 33:35.910 --> 33:38.850 And the Lord answered, "If I find within the city of 33:38.845 --> 33:42.065 Sodom fifty innocent ones, I will forgive the whole place 33:42.068 --> 33:44.278 for their sake." Abraham spoke up, 33:44.276 --> 33:46.946 saying, "Here I venture to speak to my Lord, 33:46.947 --> 33:50.297 I who am but dust and ashes: What if the fifty innocent 33:50.303 --> 33:51.673 should lack five? 33:51.670 --> 33:54.920 Will You destroy the whole city for want of the five?" 33:54.920 --> 33:58.130 And He answered, "I will not destroy if I find 33:58.125 --> 33:59.545 forty-five there." 33:59.549 --> 34:02.679 But he spoke to Him again, and said, "What if forty should 34:02.681 --> 34:04.531 be found there?" And He answered, 34:04.528 --> 34:07.048 "I will not do it, for the sake of the forty." 34:07.049 --> 34:09.069 And he said, "Let not my Lord be angry if I 34:09.065 --> 34:11.605 go on: What if thirty should be found there?" 34:11.610 --> 34:14.600 And in this way, Abraham manages to whittle the 34:14.603 --> 34:16.953 number down to ten: "And God answers, 34:16.946 --> 34:20.196 'I will not destroy for the sake of the ten.'" 34:20.199 --> 34:23.199 But ten innocent men are not found. 34:23.199 --> 34:25.189 The narrator makes that very clear. 34:25.190 --> 34:28.820 He takes pains to point out that the mob that comes to abuse 34:28.822 --> 34:32.702 the two divine visitors includes all the people to the last man: 34:32.700 --> 34:34.240 very clear statement. 34:34.239 --> 34:37.499 So Sodom and its four sister cities of the plain, 34:37.498 --> 34:40.008 around the Dead Sea, are destroyed. 34:40.010 --> 34:44.720 But out of consideration for Abraham, Abraham's nephew Lot is 34:44.721 --> 34:46.421 saved. Genesis 19:29: 34:46.416 --> 34:50.986 "God was mindful of Abraham and removed Lot from the midst of 34:50.985 --> 34:53.655 the upheaval." Now, this text is often 34:53.659 --> 34:57.259 identified as the source for the doctrine of the merit of the 34:57.260 --> 34:58.040 righteous, 34:58.040 --> 35:08.650 35:08.650 --> 35:12.980 which is the idea that someone who is not righteous is spared 35:12.980 --> 35:15.730 for the sake of, or on account of, 35:15.727 --> 35:19.387 the accrued merit of one who is righteous. 35:19.389 --> 35:23.809 So Lot himself is no prize, but he is spared on Abraham's 35:23.810 --> 35:26.910 account. This is an idea that will have 35:26.911 --> 35:30.071 repercussions in later biblical thought. 35:30.070 --> 35:32.640 In this story, we see Abraham rising to the 35:32.643 --> 35:36.083 defense of a thoroughly wicked and reprehensible group of 35:36.075 --> 35:38.375 people, arguing quite pointedly that 35:38.375 --> 35:41.215 the innocent should never be wantonly destroyed. 35:41.219 --> 35:45.189 Can this be the same Abraham who a few chapters later, 35:45.192 --> 35:48.042 when told to slaughter his only son, 35:48.039 --> 35:51.989 his perfectly innocent and presumably deeply loved son, 35:51.987 --> 35:56.107 not only makes no objection, but rises early in the morning 35:56.110 --> 35:59.970 to get started on the long journey to the sacrificial site? 35:59.969 --> 36:03.449 What are we to make of the juxtaposition of these two 36:03.450 --> 36:07.740 stories? Which represents behavior more 36:07.738 --> 36:09.908 desirable to God? 36:09.909 --> 36:13.039 Before leaving this story, I just want to make two quick 36:13.043 --> 36:15.343 comments. First, I've included in your 36:15.342 --> 36:17.672 reading packet, and it's uploaded on the 36:17.672 --> 36:20.332 website, a very interesting article by a 36:20.330 --> 36:24.140 writer who relates her efforts since childhood to understand 36:24.136 --> 36:28.136 why Lot's wife should have been turned into a pillar of salt as 36:28.137 --> 36:32.457 punishment for looking back as she fled from her burning home. 36:32.460 --> 36:35.790 It's not a biblical scholar, but someone who's simply 36:35.788 --> 36:37.258 reacting to the text. 36:37.260 --> 36:39.750 Was this, in fact, a punishment, 36:39.752 --> 36:41.362 or was it a mercy? 36:41.360 --> 36:46.230 Second, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah has often been cited as 36:46.231 --> 36:49.611 a biblical condemnation of homosexuality, 36:49.610 --> 36:53.020 as if the Sodomites were condemned to destruction because 36:53.018 --> 36:54.538 of homosexual behavior. 36:54.539 --> 36:58.669 In fact the very terms "sodomy" and "sodomize" represent this 36:58.669 --> 37:01.289 interpretation. But the idea that the 37:01.290 --> 37:05.020 fundamental sin of Sodom was homosexual behavior is not 37:05.019 --> 37:07.159 present in the Hebrew Bible. 37:07.159 --> 37:09.359 It appears only in later documents. 37:09.360 --> 37:12.970 It's found in the Christian New Testament, in the book of Jude 37:12.974 --> 37:16.214 7:2; the book of Peter 2:6-10; 37:16.210 --> 37:18.690 and subsequent interpretations. 37:18.690 --> 37:21.030 The Sodomites, like the generation of the 37:21.026 --> 37:24.176 Flood, stand condemned by the "outcry against them," 37:24.179 --> 37:27.059 a particular Hebrew word that's used to refer to outcry. 37:27.059 --> 37:30.919 It's a term that's generally associated with the appeal of 37:30.916 --> 37:34.566 victims of violent oppression, bloodshed, injustice. 37:34.570 --> 37:38.490 God hears this outcry of victims, against the Sodomites: 37:38.491 --> 37:42.341 the Sodomites' violation of the unwritten desert law of 37:42.342 --> 37:45.982 hospitality to strangers, their violent desire to abuse 37:45.980 --> 37:48.850 and gang rape the strangers that they should have been 37:48.851 --> 37:51.301 sheltering. This is merely one instance of 37:51.298 --> 37:53.098 a pattern of violent brutality. 37:53.100 --> 37:59.090 37:59.090 --> 38:02.610 Now, Isaac, who is the child of God's promise to Abraham, 38:02.612 --> 38:06.392 is often described as the most invisible of the patriarchs or 38:06.386 --> 38:08.836 the most passive of the patriarchs. 38:08.840 --> 38:12.020 Perhaps his passive acceptance of his father's effort to 38:12.021 --> 38:15.321 sacrifice him serves as the key to the biblical narrator's 38:15.318 --> 38:17.168 perception of his character. 38:17.170 --> 38:19.770 By contrast, his wife Rebekah is often 38:19.774 --> 38:24.494 described as the most determined and energetic of the matriarchs. 38:24.489 --> 38:27.819 She runs to extend hospitality to a stranger. 38:27.820 --> 38:29.810 She quickly draws water for him. 38:29.809 --> 38:33.609 She quickly draws water for his camels and waters them all. 38:33.610 --> 38:36.910 She seems to run everywhere, and she does all this not 38:36.906 --> 38:40.636 knowing that the man she greets is the servant of Abraham who 38:40.637 --> 38:43.367 has come to seek a wife for his master's son, 38:43.373 --> 38:45.583 Isaac. Rebekah herself personally, 38:45.580 --> 38:48.830 accepts the offer of an unknown bridegroom in a far away land 38:48.825 --> 38:52.225 and overrides the urgings of her mother and her brother to delay 38:52.232 --> 38:54.832 her departure. No, she says, I'm ready to go. 38:54.830 --> 38:57.430 I'll go now. There's a very moving 38:57.429 --> 38:59.629 conclusion to the betrothal story. 38:59.630 --> 39:04.240 We read in Genesis 24:67 that Isaac brought Rebekah "into the 39:04.235 --> 39:08.145 tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his 39:08.149 --> 39:10.639 wife. Isaac loved her and thus found 39:10.635 --> 39:12.725 comfort after his mother's death." 39:12.730 --> 39:16.330 But like the other matriarchs, Rebekah is barren. 39:16.329 --> 39:19.689 So Isaac pleads with the lord for a child on her behalf. 39:19.690 --> 39:22.410 And Rebekah becomes pregnant with twins. 39:22.409 --> 39:26.019 The older child is Esau--Esau will be the father of the 39:26.019 --> 39:30.029 Edomites--and the younger is Jacob, who will be the father of 39:30.030 --> 39:33.580 the Israelites. Now, Jacob is the most fully 39:33.580 --> 39:38.060 developed, the most colorful and the most complex of the 39:38.059 --> 39:41.349 patriarchs. Jacob has long been identified 39:41.353 --> 39:45.663 by commentators as the classic trickster, a type that we know 39:45.659 --> 39:48.619 from folklore. Marc Brettler has described the 39:48.616 --> 39:50.856 Jacob stories as a kind of morality tale, 39:50.858 --> 39:53.718 the main message of which is "trick and you shall be 39:53.715 --> 39:56.585 tricked". Jacob tricks his brother out of 39:56.588 --> 39:59.548 his birthright, and in turn is tricked by his 39:59.553 --> 40:02.323 brother-in-law, his wife and later his own 40:02.316 --> 40:05.516 sons. How much of Jacob's trickery is 40:05.520 --> 40:06.990 really necessary? 40:06.989 --> 40:10.069 After all, Rebekah, who suffers tremendous pain 40:10.065 --> 40:13.405 during her pregnancy, is told by God that the twins 40:13.407 --> 40:17.417 who are fighting and struggling for priority in her womb will 40:17.418 --> 40:20.968 become two nations, the older of which will serve 40:20.974 --> 40:24.534 the younger. That happens in Genesis 25:23. 40:24.530 --> 40:27.730 "Two nations are in your womb; two separate peoples shall 40:27.727 --> 40:30.347 issue from your body; one people shall be mightier 40:30.350 --> 40:33.080 than the other; and the older shall serve the 40:33.080 --> 40:35.390 younger." And indeed, the real life 40:35.390 --> 40:39.390 nations of Israel and Edom were long-time enemies--Esau is the 40:39.393 --> 40:43.593 father of the Edomites according to the biblical texts--and for a 40:43.593 --> 40:46.413 time, Edom was subjugated by Israel, 40:46.409 --> 40:50.079 according to the biblical texts, under King David. 40:50.079 --> 40:52.879 Some scholars, like Nahum Sarna have argued 40:52.880 --> 40:56.410 that this announcement, that the older shall serve the 40:56.413 --> 41:00.683 younger is the narrator's way of establishing for the reader that 41:00.679 --> 41:04.239 the younger child, Jacob, is the son who will 41:04.235 --> 41:08.215 inherit the divine blessing, and that that then raises 41:08.223 --> 41:12.593 serious questions about Rebekah and Jacob's morally dubious 41:12.586 --> 41:17.096 efforts to wrest the blessing and birthright from Esau. 41:17.099 --> 41:20.649 Are we supposed to be comforted by the fact that they are 41:20.648 --> 41:22.358 fulfilling a divine plan? 41:22.360 --> 41:25.270 Are we supposed to conclude that it's alright to fulfill a 41:25.273 --> 41:27.373 divine plan by any means, fair or foul? 41:27.369 --> 41:30.199 Or are we to conclude, as Sarna and others suggest, 41:30.196 --> 41:33.526 that Jacob's possession of the birthright was predetermined, 41:33.531 --> 41:36.641 it was disengaged from all of his acts of trickery? 41:36.639 --> 41:41.549 And if so, then Jacob's efforts are indicative of a deceitful 41:41.545 --> 41:44.075 and narcissistic personality? 41:44.079 --> 41:47.819 He takes advantage of Esau's hunger, offering him a pot of 41:47.824 --> 41:50.784 lentil stew in exchange for the birthright. 41:50.780 --> 41:54.530 He and Rebekah plot to deceive Isaac in his dotage into 41:54.528 --> 41:58.558 bestowing the blessing of the firstborn on Jacob instead of 41:58.555 --> 42:01.215 Esau. So perhaps by informing us that 42:01.221 --> 42:05.111 Jacob had been chosen from the womb, the narrator is able to 42:05.106 --> 42:08.596 paint a portrait of Jacob at this stage in his life as 42:08.596 --> 42:11.626 grasping and faithless: a great contrast to his 42:11.626 --> 42:13.466 grandfather, Abraham. 42:13.469 --> 42:16.939 Now, Jacob's poor treatment of his brother, Esau, 42:16.943 --> 42:20.853 earns him Esau's enmity and Jacob finds it expedient to 42:20.851 --> 42:25.121 leave Canaan and remain at the home of his mother's brother, 42:25.121 --> 42:27.331 Laban. On his way east, 42:27.331 --> 42:31.691 back to Mesopotamia from Canaan, where Laban resides, 42:31.692 --> 42:35.222 in Mesopotamia, Jacob has an encounter with 42:35.215 --> 42:38.205 God. At a place called Luz, 42:38.212 --> 42:43.822 Jacob lies down to sleep, resting his head on a stone. 42:43.820 --> 42:47.150 And he has a dream in which he sees a ladder. 42:47.150 --> 42:50.470 The ladder's feet are on the earth, it reaches to heaven and 42:50.473 --> 42:53.743 there are angels ascending and descending on the ladder. 42:53.739 --> 42:56.899 In the dream, God appears to Jacob and 42:56.895 --> 43:01.155 reaffirms the Abrahamic or patriarchal covenant. 43:01.159 --> 43:04.089 He promises land, posterity and in addition, 43:04.086 --> 43:07.346 Jacob's own safety, his own personal safety until 43:07.352 --> 43:09.872 he returns to the land of Israel. 43:09.869 --> 43:13.099 Jacob is stunned: we read in Genesis 28:16-17: 43:13.099 --> 43:17.329 "Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the Lord is in 43:17.333 --> 43:19.683 this place; and I did not know it.' 43:19.679 --> 43:22.159 / Shaken, he said, 'How awesome is this place! 43:22.159 --> 43:24.379 This is none other than the abode of God, 43:24.375 --> 43:26.475 and that is the gateway to heaven.'" 43:26.480 --> 43:30.340 The stone that served as his pillow, he then sets up as a 43:30.339 --> 43:33.439 cultic pillar, some sort of memorial stone. 43:33.440 --> 43:37.010 He sanctifies the stone with oil and he renames the site 43:37.005 --> 43:40.565 Bethel, Beyt El, which means the house of God. 43:40.570 --> 43:45.060 But it's significant that despite this direct vision, 43:45.061 --> 43:49.731 Jacob, so unlike Abraham, is still reluctant to rely on 43:49.726 --> 43:51.796 God and his promise. 43:51.800 --> 43:55.610 And he makes a conditional vow: If God remains with me, 43:55.610 --> 43:58.840 if He protects me on this journey that I am making, 43:58.840 --> 44:01.990 and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 44:01.992 --> 44:05.832 and if I return safe to my father's house--the Lord shall 44:05.830 --> 44:07.570 be my God. And this stone, 44:07.565 --> 44:10.405 which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God's abode; 44:10.409 --> 44:13.319 and of all that You give me, I will set aside a tithe for 44:13.317 --> 44:15.617 You. So where once God had tested 44:15.619 --> 44:18.979 Abraham, it seems now that Jacob is almost testing God. 44:18.980 --> 44:22.330 If you can do all this, fine: you can be my God. 44:22.329 --> 44:26.479 Well, Jacob spends some 14 years in the household of his 44:26.484 --> 44:29.284 uncle, his mother's brother, Laban. 44:29.280 --> 44:32.190 And Jacob meets Laban's two daughters: Leah is the elder 44:32.185 --> 44:34.135 daughter and Rachel is the younger. 44:34.140 --> 44:36.800 And he soon loves Rachel. 44:36.800 --> 44:40.150 He agrees to serve Laban for seven years for the hand of the 44:40.152 --> 44:41.632 younger daughter Rachel. 44:41.630 --> 44:45.580 When the seven years pass, Laban deceives Jacob and gives 44:45.582 --> 44:47.772 him the elder daughter, Leah. 44:47.769 --> 44:51.019 Jacob, the trickster, is furious at having been 44:51.020 --> 44:54.130 tricked himself, and in much the same way--an 44:54.129 --> 44:58.029 older and a younger sibling, one disguised as the other or 44:58.033 --> 45:01.213 wearing the covering of the other, just as he tricked his 45:01.206 --> 45:04.066 own father. But he is willing to give seven 45:04.074 --> 45:06.154 years more service for Rachel. 45:06.150 --> 45:09.060 Rachel, Leah, and their two handmaidens will 45:09.062 --> 45:13.132 conceive one daughter and 12 sons, from whom will come the 12 45:13.127 --> 45:14.547 tribes of Israel. 45:14.550 --> 45:17.810 But it's the two sons of Rachel, the beloved wife, 45:17.810 --> 45:20.670 the two sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin, 45:20.671 --> 45:23.201 who are the most beloved to Jacob. 45:23.199 --> 45:27.039 Jacob determines finally to leave Laban and return to 45:27.044 --> 45:29.654 Canaan. There's one final remarkable 45:29.647 --> 45:33.797 incident in Jacob's life that occurs on his return journey. 45:33.800 --> 45:36.400 It's an incident that most readers associate with a 45:36.398 --> 45:38.788 significant transformation in his character, 45:38.789 --> 45:42.419 and that is Jacob's nighttime struggle with a mysterious 45:42.416 --> 45:45.776 figure, who in some way is representative of God. 45:45.780 --> 45:49.660 This struggle occurs as he is about to cross the river Jabbok 45:49.655 --> 45:53.075 and reconcile himself with his former rival and enemy, 45:53.078 --> 45:55.208 Esau. Jacob has sent everyone on 45:55.205 --> 45:56.985 ahead: his wives, his children, 45:56.988 --> 45:59.008 his household, his possessions. 45:59.010 --> 46:01.370 He's standing alone at the river. 46:01.370 --> 46:07.990 And we read, Genesis 32:25-33.: … a man wrestled with 46:07.989 --> 46:09.259 him until the break of dawn. 46:09.260 --> 46:11.460 When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, 46:11.462 --> 46:13.262 he wrenched Jacob's hip at its socket, 46:13.260 --> 46:16.320 so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with 46:16.319 --> 46:17.269 him. Then he said, 46:17.269 --> 46:19.019 "Let me go, for dawn is breaking." 46:19.019 --> 46:20.729 But he answered, "I will not let you go, 46:20.730 --> 46:21.740 unless you bless me." 46:21.739 --> 46:23.269 Said the other, "What is your name?" 46:23.270 --> 46:24.640 He replied, "Jacob." 46:24.639 --> 46:27.499 Said he, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, 46:27.501 --> 46:30.691 but Israel, for you have striven with God and men, 46:30.688 --> 46:32.248 and have prevailed." 46:32.250 --> 46:34.290 Jacob asked, "Pray tell me your name." 46:34.289 --> 46:36.009 But he said, "You must not ask my name!" 46:36.010 --> 46:37.380 And he took leave of him there. 46:37.380 --> 46:39.670 So Jacob named the place Peniel, meaning, 46:39.669 --> 46:41.959 "I have seen a divine being face to face, 46:41.959 --> 46:44.019 yet my life has been preserved." 46:44.019 --> 46:47.119 The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, 46:47.119 --> 46:50.059 limping on his hip. Many scholars, 46:50.061 --> 46:53.671 Michael Coogan and others, see this story as an Israelite 46:53.666 --> 46:57.586 adaptation of popular stories of river gods who threaten those 46:57.594 --> 47:01.604 who wish to cross a river, or trolls or ogres who guard 47:01.596 --> 47:06.036 rivers and have to be defeated by a hero, making the river safe 47:06.039 --> 47:08.619 to cross. In its Israelite version, 47:08.621 --> 47:11.171 however, this story is historicized. 47:11.170 --> 47:13.140 It serves an etiological function. 47:13.139 --> 47:16.199 It's associated with one particular character at a 47:16.201 --> 47:19.831 historical time and it serves to explain why the Israelites 47:19.826 --> 47:23.326 abstained from eating the sciatic nerve of an animal even 47:23.325 --> 47:26.285 to this day. We also learn how Peniel gets 47:26.286 --> 47:28.876 its name. We learn how Israel gets his 47:28.880 --> 47:31.650 name. Names are an important theme of 47:31.650 --> 47:34.240 this story. In the biblical context, 47:34.236 --> 47:37.516 names encapsulate the essence of their bearer. 47:37.519 --> 47:40.879 Naming something or knowing the name of something gives one 47:40.878 --> 47:42.438 control over, or power over, 47:42.441 --> 47:44.591 that thing. And that's why the stranger 47:44.585 --> 47:46.235 will not reveal his name to Jacob. 47:46.239 --> 47:48.069 It would give Jacob power over him. 47:48.070 --> 47:51.660 Jacob's own name is the occasion for some punning in 47:51.663 --> 47:54.733 this story. His name is built on this root 47:54.727 --> 47:58.877 Y.'.Q.B: Ya-'a-qov It means to supplant or uproot. 47:58.880 --> 48:02.470 He emerges from the womb grasping his brother's heel. 48:02.469 --> 48:06.099 'aqev here, the word for "heel," is based 48:06.101 --> 48:08.541 on that root. It's part of his effort to 48:08.543 --> 48:11.503 supplant Esau right at birth, and he continues that effort at 48:11.504 --> 48:13.384 supplanting through his early life. 48:13.380 --> 48:17.070 The writer makes that explicit in Genesis 27:36 when Esau cries 48:17.074 --> 48:20.114 out, "Was he then named Ya'aqov that he might 48:20.113 --> 48:22.083 supplant me these two times?" 48:22.080 --> 48:24.640 Yes. And in this chapter, 48:24.642 --> 48:26.212 Jacob wrestles. 48:26.210 --> 48:29.300 The word for wrestle is built on this root, 48:29.297 --> 48:31.427 just switching two letters. 48:31.429 --> 48:34.919 He wrestles with the mysterious, divine being at the 48:34.922 --> 48:38.262 Jabbok river. So you see all of this punning 48:38.263 --> 48:41.213 with the name. Jacob's very name hints at and 48:41.212 --> 48:43.662 foreshadows the struggling, the wrestling, 48:43.662 --> 48:46.892 the trickery that are the major themes of his life. 48:46.889 --> 48:50.049 But his striving has reached a climax here. 48:50.050 --> 48:53.080 And so the angel names him Yisra'el, Israel, 48:53.082 --> 48:55.632 which means he who has striven with God. 48:55.630 --> 48:58.530 Because as the stranger says, he has striven and wrestled all 48:58.528 --> 49:00.608 his life with men, particularly his brother, 49:00.605 --> 49:01.615 and now with God. 49:01.620 --> 49:03.140 El means god. 49:03.139 --> 49:06.499 It's the name of the chief god of the pantheon of Canaan. 49:06.500 --> 49:08.780 Yisra'el, he who has struggled with God. 49:08.780 --> 49:11.980 We'll talk about the way in which the change of name means a 49:11.982 --> 49:14.432 change of character, change of essence for the 49:14.425 --> 49:15.995 patriarch when we return.