GenesisGenesis

Comunicación y Gerencia

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God Creates World• First Creation Story:

• “In the Beginning… ‘Let there be light’…

• Six days of creation: God rests on 7th: Sabbath

• All creation is GOOD, ONE GOD creates ALL

• Mankind given DOMINION (care, not domination)

• Man and woman made IN GOD’S IMAGE AND LIKENESS (EVERYONE has dignity)

• Mankind is the LAST thing created

God Creates World Part II

• Second creation story stars Adam and Eve• Rather than God being transcendent (a voice

from beyond), he is imminent (walking in the garden).

• Man is first thing created, then animals, then woman

• All is good, man and woman are “one flesh”• Only rule given to them: Do not eat the fruit

of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

The Fall of Man• The serpent (Satan) convinces Eve eating the

fruit will make them like God. Eve and then Adam eat.

• They hide from God because they are naked.• God punishes:

– Snake crawls on its belly, eats dust, hated by man– Woman has painful childbirth, ruled by husband– Man must work to eat the fruits of the land– Mortality

• Sin causes conflict with self, neighbor, nature, and God

Feminism in the Creation Accounts?

• In Gen. 1, male AND FEMALE are created in God’s image.– (Even though we almost exclusively speak of

and think of God in male terms.)

Protoevangelium (Gen. 3:15)

• Christians see this as the first foreshadowing of the Messiah (Jesus).

Cain Murders Abel

• Jealous that God prefers Abel’s sacrifice, Cain kills him

• Cain is worried that “anyone who meets me may kill me.” (Odd since his parents are the only two other people on earth)

• Cain gets married (Odd since there is no mention of a sister, or other people to be her parents).

• People in this time are living to 900+. God then limits the lifespan to 120.

The Flood• Evil spreads, God regrets creating humans

• Only Noah and his family please God. He is told to build an arc.

– Noah is 600 when flood comes.

– If real, arc would have been largest boat EVER, until 1884.

– Story repeats, as if two versions of it are cut and pasted together. (i.e. One pair of each animal vs. seven, two promises not to do it again.)

Flood and history?

• MANY cultures have a flood story, including the Babylonians – Gilgamesh.

• Great similarities: was there a great flood in history?

• Science suggests a worldwide flood would be impossible.

• There are strong theories of a local flood (Black Sea, Persian Gulf, T-E)

Tower of Babel

• People’s pride causes them to build a tower to conquer heaven

• God creates multiple languages to confuse them

Before We Start

• Before Abraham is prehistory, and not considered factual by Catholics. Abraham and Sarah are seen as the first historical figures in the Old Testament.

• They come from a VERY different society with VERY different values from ours.

• God’s revelation is GRADUAL, and we should try not to judge them by our standards.

• Stories in the Old Testament, especially in Genesis, may make you cringe. It reads like a very incestuous soap opera.

(In Genesis, they have not yet received THE LAW.)

Abraham and Sarah

• God calls Abram and Sarai to leave their homeland and go where God lead–God will make of them a great nation

–God will bless his friends, curse his enemies

–Abram is 75, Sarai 65, and their nephew, Lot comes with them

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

• A famine causes A. & S. to go to Egypt, where A. fears for his life because of S.’s great beauty.

• A. tells S. to tell people she is his sister, so he is not killed.

• S. is taken into Pharaoh’s harem; A. is well paid for this.

• Pharaoh’s household stricken w/ plagues

• Pharaoh finds out, furiously casts them out.

Abram and Lot• Abram and Lot separate

• Lot is captured. Abram and several other “kings” help rescue him.

• One of them, King Melchizedek, is a priest of “God Most High”, and offers bread and wine.

–Melchizedek is mentioned in Mass, at consecration.

Covenant

• God promises that Abram will have descendents as numerous as the stars.

• God predicts the enslavement of Abram’s descendents in a foreign land, and their rescue.

Descendents? But How?

• Sarai was old, and barren. So she offered Abram her slave-girl, Hagar, to have a child with.

• Hagar “looks with contempt” on Sarai after getting pregnant.

• Sarai mistreats her and Hagar runs away.• An angel appears to Hagar, promises her

countless descendents, she returns to them.• Ishmael is born.

Another Covenant

• Ancestor of a multitude of nations.

• Name changed to Abraham, and Sarah.

• Land promised to them again.

• Circumcision

• Sarah will give birth

• At this time, Abraham is 99, Sarah is 89

God Makes Another Promise

• God appears to A & S as three men

• They are told she will give birth the next year.

• Sarah laughs upon hearing this. Isaac means “they laughed”.

Sodom and Gomorrah

• God tells A. He will destroy S. & G. for their great evil.

• A. begs God to spare the city if 50 innocent people can be found. (Then 40, 30, 20, 10)

• Two angels enter the city of Sodom, and everyone wants to rape them.

• God tells Lot to take his family and leave the city.

• Fire and sulfur rain down from the heavens, and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed.

Not the Best Husband

• At Gerar, Abraham again passes Sarah off as his sister.

• Before King Abimelech can sleep with Sarah, God intervenes, informing him she is married.

• Abraham is again paid off for this: sheep, oxen, slaves, 1,000 pieces of silver, etc.

It’s a Boy!

• When Abraham is 100, Isaac is born.

• Sarah is jealous to see Ishmael play with Isaac, so Hagar is sent away.– God protects Hagar and Ishmael, promises to

make of him a great nation.

Not the best

father, either

Test time!

• God tests Abraham, asking that he kill Isaac, his 8-year-old son, as a sacrifice.

• Human sacrifice was VERY common in ancient pagan religions.

• Abraham is willing to sacrifice Isaac, but is told not to as the knife is about to fall.

• Reward: countless descendents, who will prevail against enemies, and through whom all nations will gain blessings.

Eligible Bachelor

• Sarah dies, at the age of 127.

• Abraham marries Keturah, who bears six children, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

• He dies at the age of 175.