A Brief History of Israel
Session 1
Abram to Joseph
Opening Prayer
“For how you hope”
by Walter Brueggemann
Brueggemann, Walter. Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003.
Introduction
 This
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class is for you if…
You are intimidated by the Old Testament
You have forgotten the Bible stories you heard
in Sunday School
You remember the stories, but don’t know if
Daniel came before Dan
• Or think Dan is just Daniel’s nickname
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You think the “old, angry god” of the Old
Testament doesn’t have anything to do with
your Christian faith
Introduction
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This class is not designed…
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To do historical critical analysis
• But if you want to know about the documentary hypothesis…
• Read Who Wrote the Bible? By Richard Elliott Friedman,
Harper Collins.
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To do interpretation…with some caveats
• Choice and order of stories is an interpretive move
• Abbreviated version of story will necessarily involve some
interpretation
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To survey the entire Hebrew Bible; will be omitting
• Psalms
• Proverbs
• Most of what the prophets had to say
Introduction

The Text is always better than the class
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Find a Bible that works for you!
2 translations most widely used
• NIV (TNIV)
• RSV (NRSV)

Other translations exist
• Get a translation, not a paraphrase

If you want to better understand biblical culture,
archaeology & current scholarship

Subscribe to BAR (Biblical Archaeology Review)

http://www.bib-arch.org/bswbSubscribe.html
Let’s Begin
 Old
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Testament, or Hebrew Bible, or Tanak
Torah
• Means instruction
• Contains
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Hagadah - story
Halakah – walk (“law”)
Nevi’im
• Prophets
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Kethuvim
• Writings
God makes a covenant with Abraham
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Abram / Abraham
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Sarai / Sarah
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Genesis 12:10-20
Genesis 18:1-15
Lot
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Genesis 11:31 – 25:11
Genesis 13:5-13
Genesis 19:1-22
Hagar
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Genesis 16
Genesis 21:1-21
Abraham has sons
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Ishmael
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Isaac
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Genesis 24
Genesis 27:1-40
Esau
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Genesis 22:1-19
Genesis 25:19-28:9
Genesis 35:27-28
Rebekah
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Genesis 21:1-21
Genesis 25:27-34
Genesis 27:1-40
Jacob / Israel
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Genesis 27:1-
Origins of the 12 tribes
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Rachel
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Genesis 29:1-30:24
Joseph
Benjamin
Bilhah – Rachel’s maid
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Dan
Naphtali
Leah
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Genesis 29:21-30:24
Reuben
Simeon
Levi
Judah
Issachar
Zebulun
Dinah
Zilpah – Leah’s maid
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Gad
Asher
Jacob and his sons go to Egypt
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Joseph
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Genesis 37:1-36
Genesis
Bibliography
 Tanakh:
The Holy Scriptures. New York:
The Jewish Publication Society, 1985.
 The HarperCollins Study Bible: New
Revised Standard Version. New York:
HarperCollins, Publishers, Inc., 1993.
 The Holy Bible: Today’s New International
Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007.