The word “seed” is used six times in Genesis 1, twice each in verses 11, 12, and 29. None of these refers to a human being. The first use of the word for a human being comes in 3:15, which is the next time the word is used after chapter 1. Again the word is doubled: . . . . Continue Reading »
Citing the Oresteia , Kass points to the “tragic” character of sibling relations in heroic societies. Though he does not mean the word “tragic” in this sense, it seems that this is bound up with the essentially backward-looking character of brotherhood. Cain and . . . . Continue Reading »
In his meditation on the births of Cain and Abel ( The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis ) , Leon Kass notes the difference between male/female and brother/brother relations. Man and woman “are defined relative to each other, and their relationship is incited by desire seeking . . . . Continue Reading »
Chee-Chiew Lee has an interesting article on the phrase “company of nations” in Genesis 35:11. She links the promise that Jacob will become a company of nations to the promise that Abraham would be a father of many nations in Genesis 17:4-5. But 35:11 adds an important gloss . . . . Continue Reading »
Paul Niskanen has an insightful analysis of Genesis 1:27 in the latest JBL . He starts with the question of whether Barth’s view that the image of God is found in relationality and specifically in sexual difference has any exegetical support. He reviews the current discussion, and . . . . Continue Reading »
When Rebekah sends her younger son to her husband, she clothes him in goat skins (Genesis 27:15-16). To this point in Genesis, the only other people to be clothed were Adam and Eve, clothed with skins as they left Eden (3:21). Rebekah stands in the place of Yahweh to “invest” her son. . . . . Continue Reading »
“When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.” That’s Genesis 25:24, and it’s talking about Rebekah pregnant with Jacob and Esau. “It came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb.” . . . . Continue Reading »
In Genesis 9:11, Yahweh promises not to “cut off flesh” by water. That is the covenant with Noah. A few chapters later, Yahweh tells Abram that he must cut off the flesh of all male children of Israel, not by water but by a knife. That means that Abram’s children receive the . . . . Continue Reading »
Abraham’s story moves from a priestly phase (setting up altars in the land) through a kingly phase (conquering the kings) to a prophetic phase (arguing with Yahweh and interceding for Abimelech). His life previews the history of Israel. At each transition, there is an exodus, a thwarted . . . . Continue Reading »
In an elder meeting this week, Doug Wilson pointed to the promise at Noah’s birth that he would bring rest from work and from the toil arising from the cursed ground (Genesis 6:29). Doug made the interesting point that Noah embodies a reconciliation of herder and farmer, of Cain and Abel: He . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
