Chapter 1, “Reading the Bible”:
If literature is the written expression of the human spirit, then the Hebrew Bible is the written expression of the Divine spirit. The Infinite constrained his wisdom, so to speak, in the shape and form of the Bible. An ancient Jewish teaching holds that the script of the Bible – from the first letter “bet” of the book of Genesis to the final letter “lamed” in the book of Deuteronomy – is one long name of God. The entire corpus of the Five Books of Moses are an interrelated whole, containing the essence of Divine wisdom and counsel for mankind.
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The Bible concludes the account of creation of the world with the creation of Man on the sixth day. The Bible is very explicit in using the Hebrew verb bara (created), as opposed to the other verbs used in the Biblical creation narrative, such as yatzar (formed) or asa (made). This term is also used to describe the first animal life in the fifth day account as noted above, as well as the radical creation of Heaven and Earth in the very first verse of the Bible. When man is created, he is heralded as a new being, unprecedented in prior creation. Unlike the other creations both inanimate an animate, only man is created in the image of God….
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Chapter 4, “Brother’s Keeper”:
The theme of man’s estrangement from this fellow continues into the next major episode of Genesis. Upon banishment from the blissful material life in the Garden of Eden, Adam begets twins and the earth is divided into two. Cain becomes a farmer, tilling the soil, and his brother Abel becomes a shepherd. Both seek to offer of their possessions a thanksgiving to God, a gesture of obeisance, gratitudes, yet one brother’s offering is flawed…
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Chapter 5, “Noah and the Deluge”:
The story of Noah and the flood can be seen as the prime example of collective Man sinning against his brother, a crime so grave in the eyes of God, that it compromises the entire world’s right to existence. The Bible uses distinct language to pain the extent of the moral depravity which had pervaded Noah’s society. “Corruption” (Hebrew shachat), has the connotation of decadences, perversions, destruction, and damage, especially used to denote sexual immorality and idolatry. “Crime” (Hebrew chamas) refers to more violent forms of action, characterized by oppression, cruelty, and outrage. The consequences were inevitable; society could not persist. In a poignant passage, God anthropomorphically “regretted that the had made Man on earth and was pained to his very core” (Genesis 6:6). The creation which God referred to on the sixth day as “very good” had now been perverted by man, the supposed “crown” of his work.
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Chapter 6, “The Tower of Babel: Falling Apart”:
In this brief fourth and final narrative prior to the emergence of Abraham, mankind is united in a perverse unity. Man bands together in challenging God, intending to build a tower “whose top shall reach the sky” (Genesis 11:5). In a massive biblical understatement, the text does not explain the exact nature of the sin of this generation. It does not have to. This perverse project of Man’s self-aggrandizement needs no further elaboration. The society that arise in Shinar resembled Communism, though predating it by thousands of years. “Man” collectively became the object of self-worship. Each individual had no value; only the “project” mattered. Traditional biblical commentators, in describing the building of the tower, relate that if a single brick fell, the workers would lament the loss of time and productivity. However, if a worker fell to his death, no one would care. The individual man was irrelevant and worthless compared to the deified collective Man.
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Chapter 7, “The Noahide Laws: Universal Law of Humanity”
Put very simply, Man’s responsibility as the child of God is to lead his life properly; to give an accounting to God and his fellow man, both as an individual and as a member of society. This entails accepting the notion which ultimately became the bedrock for the society which would come to dominate the world; that is, to acknowledge that “all men are created equal,” in God’s image. As such, Man has a responsibility to himself, to his fellow, and to society as a whole.
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Chapter 8, “The Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”:
In a primitive tribal world, where every individual is identified with his home, Abraham is told to leave everything behind and chart a bold new course for himself. He is told that in so doing, he will become a source of blessing for all humankind. While Abraham was not the first monotheist, he was indeed the first to realize the ethical implications that knowledge of the Creator implied. If there is a Creator of heaven and earth, then that Creator must desire something from the created. This was, as the Bible describes, Abraham’s distinction….
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Reviewing the lives of the patriarchs, we will concern ourselves with selected incidents in their lives that speak of the universal theme of their mission to spread ethical monotheism to the remainder of humanity. Undoubtedly all the Biblical stories have many ethical and moral lessons for us today. However the accounts of the patriarchs dazzle with their particular poignancy – as people having stature, character and nobility and at the same time human, with all too human failings. Their greatness lies in their sensitivity to the Divine calling within, their capacity for change and growth, which continue to inspire and inform us today.
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