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By tduvally, October 12, 2011 12:42 pm

Genesis 11

This starts out with the a story of man spreading out, but having one language, which makes sense since they are all directly descended from 6 people! These industrious people decided to build a city.  Ok, that sounds good.

Then they decided to build a tower.  And not just ANY tower, but one that reaches to the heavens. Their reasoning was apparently to “make a name for themselves” and to all stay together.  God seems to think this a bad idea.  He doesn’t want them to actually accomplish what they plan.  So he says to someone else in heaven Gen 11:7 that they should make it impossible to achieve their goals.  He does this by making them all speak different languages and scattered them.

Now, we could assume that He did this by clan, since in Gen 10 it states that each clan had it’s own language. Gen 10:5, Gen 10:20, Gen 10:31.  It doesn’t say so, but it makes sense, despite the narrative being bass-ackward.

This just seems like a little ad-hocary to explain why people have so many different languages.  Not the first, and I doubt the last.

But, wait, there’s more: lineage! *cheering!*

Really, more lineage.  The only significant difference is the mention of both sons AND daughters.  You’ve come a long way, baby!

Shem has Arphaxad who has *snore….

8 generation later we get a little story about Terah.  One of his 3 sons dies, Haran, but had a son.  He takes that grandson, one of his boys, Abram, and Abram’s barren wife to Canaan, but never get there.  Instead they just stopped in Canaan and plopped down there.

Oh, and these people are still living hundreds of years.

Note: These people apparently ran out of names for things a lot, because they are naming cites and kids after each other with alarming regularity.  It gets confusing.

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By tduvally, October 12, 2011 12:14 pm

Genesis 10

Lineage blah blah lineage blah blah.

A couple things of note though:

• Not a single daughter is mentioned
• Canaan’s clans

I mention the first because, well, the earth is empty.  How are all these sons (a LOT of them) going to multiply on  the earth without some cousins to screw?

The other thing doesn’t mention Canaan’s curse, but mentions his sons and their clans, which scatter. A bit of a plot hole, if you ask me.

Other than that, this chapter is a snoozefest.  Let’s move on.

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By tduvally, February 22, 2011 1:54 pm

Genesis 5

There really isn’t much to talk about in this chapter.  It’s just a listing of the male lineage from Adam to Noah’s 3 sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

There really are only 3 things notable about this narrative:

1. There is no mention of Cain or Able.  I understand not mentioning Able, since he didn’t have children.  Cain did get a big mention in the last chapter, so I guess he’s covered, but it’s all so inconsistent.
2. Only sons seem deserve mentioning.  And only the first born.  ”other sons and daughters” is repeated for most in the lineage, but the only names named are sons.
3. The people lived very long lives.  I’m very curious where this longevity claim originates.  I highly doubt anyone actually lived 900+ years, so why would they be attributed that way.  A couple simple conjectures come to mind, such as glorifying of venerated figures or wanting to show how much better people must have been so close to creation.

In any event, this is a boring chapter.  The only thing that might be good to take away is the number of generations and maybe the supposed time that has passed.  The age of the universe since creation is often quoted as 6,000-10,000 years.  That number comes, in part, from the ages of the people mention in this chapter.  I calculate that at the end of this chapter the universe is 1557 years old over 12 generation.  Adam would have been alive to see Methuseluh born, his Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great grandson.  I think I got that right.