Pro Tip: Don’t get hung up in all the genealogies. It’s important to scholars; less so to us.
A lot of fascinating stuff happening in these 7 reading days! Drop me a line if you have any questions or want to discuss.
NOTE: The version we are reading is also available on the Kindle and in audio format from Audible. Many have found these more portable reading forms to be helpful. Print versions are available from all the usual sources.
Blessings,
Steve
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We are reading The One Year Chronological Bible (New Living Translation). The best way is with your own copy of this Bible translation. Or, copy and paste this link to the daily reading schedule:
http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan/oneyearchronologicalbiblereadingplan.pdf
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Before we dive in, let’s take a quick look back at Noah. How do you recall that story? One of our readers recalled that Noah’s neighbor’s were openly disparaging of Noah’s building of the ark, made fun of him for preaching that God intended to send a flood to destroy the wicked, resisted Noah’s entreaty for them to repent.
None of that appears in the Genesis account of Noah and the flood.
Which makes me wonder: where did we get these ideas? Likely Sunday school. But where did they get them? A little something for which we need to keep watch as we read through, this year; how the “story” sometimes differs from the actual scripture.
This week's highlights:
Another sweep of history. But things have slowed down considerably. Most of this week is about Jacob; his stealing of his twin's blessing, fleeing to live with distant relatives, marrying Leah and Rachel, and fathering the twelve sons who will (mostly) become the tribes of Israel. The week wraps up with the opening scenes of Joseph's life: slavery and imprisonment.
1. January 8th: Genesis 25 - If you’re keeping score, Abraham had one son by Sarah, One son by Hagar, and six sons by Keturah. That’s eight sons we know of; daughters are also likely, but were not identified.
2. January 10th: Genesis 28 - God repeats for Jacob the promise He made to Abraham that “all the families of the Earth will be blessed” by their descendants. Consider reading The Gift of the Jews by Thomas Cahill for just an inkling of how this has come true. Here is a link you can copy and paste if you want to check it out: https://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Jews-Changed-Everyone-History/dp/0385482493/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1546384993&sr=1-1&keywords=the+gift+of+the+jews+by+thomas+cahill
3. January 14th: Genesis 38 - There is one side-tour into the life of Jacob's son, Judah, and his relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar. And it is definitely worth your consideration since Tamar is one of only five women listed in the genealogy of Jesus!
About Job
A lot of you have questions about the book of Job. The big one: "When should we read it, chronologically?" No one knows when Job occurred. Some argue it is a pre-flood story. Others think it falls into the exile years (that's a lot later in our reading).
In the version we are using, Job is placed right after the death of Joseph; which means we will be reading it from January 19 through 31. There are good reasons to believe Job occurred sometime before the establishment of the nation of Israel —names used, locations referenced, the way wealth is recognized, the making of sacrifices by Job, daughters participating equally in Job's wealth, etc. All seem to point to this period just prior to or during the Egyptian captivity of Jacob's descendants.
If you are unfamiliar with the book, you might find it useful to read the brief summary located at this website (copy and paste): http://biblehub.com/summary/job/1.htm.
QUESTION & ANSWERS
A question arose about Cain's wife; mainly, "Where did she come from?" Some scholars take the position that the earlier scripture in Genesis that says God created man, male and female, implies he created a group of people to populate what we now call "the fertile crescent" (the area along the Mediterranean Sea currently occupied by Egypt, Israel, and nearby countries — you can Google this to see a map of the area). These scholars believe the creation of Adam and Eve was a special situation; that God created Adam later for the specific purpose of maintaining the Garden of Eden, and that Eve was created to be his mate and partner in this. The idea is that being ousted from the Garden forced Adam and Eve out into the populated world. If that speculation is true, then Cain's wife would have come from this other group of humans.
On the other hand, there are scholars that believe Adam and Eve were the very first humans and that all humans descended from them. In that scenario, we would have to believe that the Bible only records the births of Cain, Abel, and Seth while ignoring the birth of other children who grew up, moved off, and started their own families. There is plenty of evidence for this approach. The Bible does, in fact, often leave out the births (and entire lives) of people who are not central to the story being told: in this case, the story of Adam, Cain, and Cain's descendants. Secondly, these people lived very long lives, hundreds of years. It would be no problem for Adam & Eve to have had several other children who grew to adulthood, married, had children of their own, and formed entire communities away from Adam & Eve. So, it's not crazy to think that everyone alive at the time of Cain's expulsion were his relatives.
Either of these theories works to explain how Cain could move away, take a wife, and have children. Since the Bible is silent on the matter, and since there is no other record to research, we are left with a mystery.
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