Bible 101 – The Books of the
Law
Genesis
In the Beginning…
Bible 101
Books of History
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Joshua
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Judges
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Subject: book I - Story of Samuel and Saul becoming King/Book II - King David
Time period: 94 yrs / 33 yrs
Author: Samuel – though he dies in vs.25 of 1 Samuel, possibly Nathan, Gad or another unnamed
prophet finished it.
1&2 Kings
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Bible 101
Subject: The Kinsman redeemer
Time period: 12 yrs, sometime during the events of the book of Judges
Author: unknown
1&2 Samuel
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Subject: Seven distinct cycles of sin to salvation
Time period: 350yrs
Author: Anonymous, but most suspect is was Samuel
Ruth
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Subject: Conquest and settlement of Canaan
Time period: 15 yrs, 1 month
Author is Joshua
Subject: history of the United kingdom (Solomon) / Divided kingdom / deported nation in captivity
Time period: 130 yrs + 286 yrs – 416 yrs total.
Author: unknown, tradition says Jeremiah the Prophet, last 2 chapters of 2 kings by someone who
survived to return from Babylon
Books of History, page 2
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1&2 Chronicles
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Subject: retelling of the events of 2 Samuel – 2 Kings
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Subject: Restoration of the Temple / Reformation of the people
Time period: 23 yrs
Author: Ezra the priest
Nehemiah
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Time period: 33yrs / 433 yrs
Author: tradition - Ezra the priest
Ezra
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Subject: Reconstruction of the Wall (Jerusalem) / Revival of the people
Time period: 19 yrs
Author: Ezra wrote from Nehemiah’s memoirs
Esther – very cool book
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Subject: triumph of the Jews over a genocide attempt
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Bible 101
Book 1 – David’s reign
Book 2 – Solomon’s reign and the Kings after him
Almost wasn’t included in the canon
God is never mentioned
Happens in the capitol city of the Persian empire
Time period:10 years
Author: unknown, but had to have been written in Persia
12 books
~960 yrs of history- Entrance into the land – return from exile in Babylon.
415 pages (in my Bible)
Cain and Abel
Gen 4:1-2
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Adam knew Eve… nuf said?
Cain is born
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First children born
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Realize that Eve had no experience, no mother, no mid-wife…
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Cain= possessed or acquired,
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After a few years of “raising Cain” she learned he probably wasn’t the messiah…
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Abel = emptiness or vanity
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Probably when he turned two and threw fits, after his first lie… after she realized he was fallen like she was
Realized Cain wasn’t the Messiah
First post-partum… I dunno
Interesting theory about the boys being more alike than twins
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Adam and Eve may have had the same DNA, she was made from him – first clone?
The boys may have been more identical than twins…
» Lends to another interesting idea – both had the exact same “foundation” and one was righteous and the
other wicked.
Vs 2. Professions
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Bible 101
TLB says it means “I have created”
» Some suggest she is bragging “God made a man and I have made a man”
» None of the other English language translations imply that
Fulfillment of the prophecy? (3:15) – God is keeping His promise, Cain will get us back into the Garden
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Adam… Girl what is up with that belly?
By the Lord is a better translation, can also be “even the Lord”…
Names meant something…
Cain – farmer - food
Abel – shepherd – NOT for food, Milk? Skins? Wool?
Worship in Exile
Gen 4:3-8
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Offerings (How did they worship God?)
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God holds you accountable for what you know, not what you don’t
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Notice in vs. 3 there was:
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a time (it cam to pass) for worship
A place (Cain brought) for worship
A ritual (coming before the Lord with something) for worship
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Vs. 3 Cain – fruit of the ground
Vs. 4 Abel – fatty portions from the firstborn of his flock
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Vs 4- One accepted and one rejected?
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Bible 101
What did Adam know about covering sin and coming before God?
Later reading read Leviticus 1-5 (offerings)
How did they know?
» Did fire come down from heaven? Elijah, Gideon, Samson’s Parents and others…
Abel was coming in obedience to what they knew
» Offered the blood sacrifice (try not to think about Indiana Jones here)
» Came by faith (Heb 11:4) – he believed that the sacrifice covered his sin What was Cain was offering?
» NOT that he brought Grain… later in the law that is part of the peace and fellowship offerings…
» His own way – not in obedience to what they had been shown
» Without faith – my works, my best will save me, first example of works vs. grace (faith)
Jude 11 the way of Cain (faithlessness and disobedience) links him to
» Balaam (disobedience for profit)
» Korah (discontentment with the place/position God had for them)
Cain was:
» Angry
» His countenance fell (hope left him, faith grants hope…)
» Why? Rejection – his best was not good enough for God.
God confronts Cain
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God Confronted Cain… (vs.6)
• Why? (asking those loaded questions again)
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Notice the gentleness of God…
» Gives Cain a chance to repent (Adam in 3:9,11)
» Gives him hope of acceptance (what should Cain have done?)
• Vs. 7 Warns him of sin, its desire for him.
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We don’t need deliverance, we need repentance.
I know there is deliverance… my friend was delivered from drugs when he got saved
Sad thing about deliverance ministries is that it puts the blame for your sin on
something else.
Vs. 8 First Murder
• Cain lures his brother out into the field
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Syrian text and the Latin Vulgate add
» Let us go out to the field, implying he led Abel out there.
Cain would not be talked out of his Sin – danger of anger…
» Consequences of anger are often more than we can bear.
• Cain kills Abel, but why?
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Bible 101
Abel exposed his disobedience (1 John 3:12)
Cain’s judgment
Gen 4:9-15
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The big Question? (vs. 9) Where is Abel?
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Lies to God
Smarts off God (bold? stupid? angry still?)
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Weirdness – Abel’s blood cried out (vs.10)
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Gen 9:4-6 – life is in the blood, capitol punishment
Num 35: 33-34 – blood defiles the land
Deut 21:1-9 – cleansing the land of the guilt of innocent blood
Lev 17: 10-12 – not eating blood
Heb 12:24 – Jesus blood (forgiveness) speaks better things than Abel’s blood (murder)
Vs. 11-12 The punishment
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The ground was cursed (from the blood)
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You shall be a fugitive (runs from home) and a vagabond (without a home)
My punishment (iniquity) is more than I can bear
What Cain couldn’t bear
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Was this curse for Cain only?
Couldn’t grow food
Hidden from God’s face
Because he is a fugitive, he will be killed (avenger of blood?)
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God promises Cain he won’t be hunted down
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God Mark’s Cain
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Bible 101
Why did God ask – chance to confess
The person who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven-fold.
What was the mark?
The mark was to save him, not punish him.
Cain’s Descendents
Gen 4:16-18
• Cain’s family
– Dwelt in Nod, east of Eden
• Why was everything east of Eden?
– Enoch to Lamech
• No ages – we will see in Seth’s line later
• Enoch is not the same Enoch from Seth’s line
– The only thing said about this Enoch was that a city
was named after him (City was destroyed in the
flood)
Bible 101
Lamech
Gen 4:19-22
• Lamech was 7th from Adam through Cain’s family
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The Righteous Enoch was 7th through Seth’s line.
Some suggest it’s possible they were contemporaries.
• Polygamy – first guy to take 2 wives
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Adah – beauty
• Jabal – father of shepherds
• Jubal – father of musicians
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Zillah – in the shadow of (Adah’s Beauty)
• Tubal-Cain – instructor of metal smiths
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Interesting that bronze and iron were used
Many other alloys that have been found in ancient digs that cannot be explained
Imagine how good you could get at a trade if you had 900 years to perfect it?
• Sister Naamah – its significant when women are mentioned in genealogies
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Bible 101
Nothing is recorded in the Bible about her, but tradition holds she was the wife of one
of Noah’s sons…
Lamech’s Poem
Gen 4:23-24
• Lamech’s poem
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Issue - he killed a man in self defense
• May not have been necessary, he was only wounded
• The killing was not necessarily on purpose, possibly not pre-meditated.
• He figured that if Cain was avenged 7 times for pre-meditated murder, then
Lamech would be avenged 77 times for “self defense”
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Shows us a snapshot of Cain’s society in the city of Enoch?
• Affluent
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Animals to care for (possibly eat – according to Missler)
Music to entertain
Technology that would take until the time of Joshua to duplicate (after the flood)
Laws (some argue his “boasting” was actually a self-defense plea for a later trial
• Rebellious
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Bible 101
Polygamy
Indulgent
Violent (boasting about murder)
Dead - This record is the end of Cain’s line – they ALL died in the flood.
Next week
• Pick up with Seth’s line next week
• Read Genesis 5-6
– Not sure how far we will get through
the Genealogy
• Memorize the names of the first
17 Books of the OT
Bible 101