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Patriarchal narratives concerning the primordial history

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Patriarchal narratives concerning the primordial history

The book of Genesis features the fathers of faith, especially in chapters 12-50. The underlying theology depicts God as who he is and how he describes himself to human beings. These stories are relevant, and chapter 12-50 focus on rather a different perspective as compared to 1-11. These chapters focus on how God tries to come into terms with the human beings after the failure of man in the Garden of Eden. These narratives closely associate with the first created human being, which is the primordial history (Gertz 5). The stories such as the account of Abraham, the rescue of Lot and family, circumcision of Abraham, all show how God was trying to resolve with the world he had created but had fallen into sinful after the eating of the forbidden fruit and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Blenkinsopp 225-241). The story of Exodus is mainly built up in the migration of the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan (Murphy 387-410). From the account of Abraham in Genesis, God promises Abraham that his descendants were to be enslaved in a foreign country, but God would free them after the suffering and take them to the Promised Land (Lewis 16-19). It is the most manifest stage setting made by Genesis narratives for Exodus narratives. These stories answer the common question about how the creation of God from Eden transformed into a totally different and highly sinful world.

The dates given by archeologists overlap with the biblical creation stories. In the Iron Age, the major stories feature through the book of Kings, the story of Solomon, Rehoboam and Jeroboam, David, and the prophets. However, in the Genesis narratives, we are given the story of a man called Tubal-Cain who worked in bronze and iron (Genesis 4:22). Other relationships include the Canaanites having chariots made of iron, (Joshua 17:16). Abraham is a figure best known for his faith and obedience (Podmore 70-90). Thus he is the father of faith. Isaac appears when he is taken by Abraham to be offered as a burnt offering. The role of Isaac is one who gave himself for our sins. Women in these narratives are playing as helpers to man. When Eve was created, she was made submissive to Adam and also his helper (Sanders 1-24). Women also play the role of comforters to men. When Isaac’s mother died, he took up Rebekah whom he felt was his comfort (Luger 124).

Suzerainty Treaties concerning covenants with YHWH

The Ancient Near East was characterized by kings who had boundaries to govern. Often these kings hand to enter into signing treaties to keep and honor each other’s territories, assist each other’s lands’ growth by maintaining trades and returning the slaves who often ran away from the kingdoms. Their treaties’ conditions were written on stone tablets and preserved for future reference. Other agreements kept this way were those between lords and servants, father and son or greater king and lesser king (Phillimore 12-41). The conventions included requirements from each party, consequences of breaking the agreement, and witnesses (21-32). The covenant of Noah contains the curse for disobeying the covenant, which is death, and the witness is the rainbow (Genesis 9:12-17).

Abraham’s covenant with God comes with many promises, including many descendants, which is a blessing of honoring the agreement, and then the witness is the circumcision of all male members of Abraham’s generation. The consequence of this covenant is being cut off from the people in the promise. The Sinai covenant comes third with parties being God and the children of Israel (Exodus 19:36). Just like the suzerain treaties, this covenant has the consequence as punishment by death or excommunication. (Exodus 31:14). The Josiah covenant, where people gathered in the house of Lord and Josiah went up and read from the book of the agreement which was found in the house of God, all people listening to the words. The king Josiah standing by the pillar and makes a covenant to walk after the Lord, and keep his commandments in his heart and soul, to do the words of the bond and all the people entered the agreement, (2 Kings 23). The overall relationship between these covenants between humans and YHWH is to set guidelines for human beings to follow. There are rewards for following these covenants and punishments for disobedience as well, similar to the suzerainty treaties in which kings joined to help promote peace and development. Josiah’s act of entering a public covenant because he felt all the people should come back to God wholeheartedly. It relates that the political situation was not right in Judah at around that time. The Judahite polity was in the inclusion of chaos in Israel that is why YHWH fought against it.

Biblical Genres of Law and Wisdom

Books of Law were concerned with how civilians were governed (Seed 50-71). They include Exodus and also known as the Torah. Law books, concerned with public order, the books hold the ten commandments, ceremonial laws and general laws for how people should relate with each other and the code of Holiness. The books of Wisdom feature advisor sayings, how to uphold morals as an individual and to the rest of the society. They include Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom can be said to be directing persons on what is the correct law. For instance, it is by law that all Christians obey the law and the ten commandments. However, it usually is not easy for a typical human being who is sinful by nature. A wise man can know where to follow the law and where the code is invalid. It is the depiction of using wisdom to detect a valid law (VanDrenen 153-168).

In the process of Exodus, Jethro shows wisdom he advises Moses to elect helpers for the work of administering the people due to the growing demands and population this where law and knowledge meet. Another instance is when apostles needed to appoint assistants to help in spreading the gospel. On the other side, law and wisdom contrast when Eve disobeyed the law to gain wisdom by eating the forbidden fruit, (Genesis 3:6). When Pharaoh was to look for a man with knowledge and put him in authority over Israel is another instance of the law matching wisdom. King Solomon, on the other hand, was wise and was placed in the king position, (1 Kings 3:11, 28). In general, these law books contrast and argument so much against each other despite a few similarities here and there. But their overall goal is to show Christians how to apply the laws wisely and not being a blind follower of the commandments.

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