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First Creation Story:
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“In the Beginning… ‘Let there be light’…
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Six days of creation: God rests on 7th: Sabbath
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All creation is GOOD, ONE GOD creates ALL
• Man and woman made IN GOD’S IMAGE AND
LIKENESS
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Mankind is the LAST thing created
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Second creation story (Adam and Eve)
• Rather than God being transcendent (a voice from
beyond), he is imminent (walking in the garden).
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Man is first thing created, then animals, then woman
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All is good, man and woman are “one flesh”
• Only rule given to them: Do not eat the fruit of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil
• A third time, God promises Abraham will be the
ancestor of a multitude of nations, names changed to
Abraham and Sarah, land promised to them again, Sarah
will give birth.
• For his part, Abraham and all Jews thereafter had ot
be circumcised.
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At this time, Abraham is 99, Sarah is 89
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God appears to A & S as three men
• They are told she will give birth the next year.Sarah
laughs upon hearing this.
• God tells A. He will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for
their great evil.
• Surprisingly, Abraham can negotiate with God,
begging Him to spare the city if 50 innocent people can be
found. (Then 40, 30, 20, 10)
• Fire and sulfur rain down from the heavens, and the
cities are destroyed, but God saves Lot and his family
• The serpent (Satan) convinces Eve eating the fruit will
make them like God. Eve and then Adam eat.
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Sin causes conflict with self, neighbor, nature, and God
• Sarah is jealous to see Ishmael play with Isaac, so
Hagar is sent away.God protects Hagar and Ishmael.
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Jealous that God prefers Abel’s sacrifice, Cain kills him
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Evil spreads, God regrets creating humans
• Only Noah and his family please God. He is told to
build an ark.
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Noah is 600 when flood comes.
When Abraham is 100, Isaac is born.
• God tests Abraham, asking that he kill Isaac, his 8year-old son, as a sacrifice. (Human sacrifice was VERY
common in ancient pagan religions.)
• Abraham is willing to sacrifice Isaac, but is told not to
as the knife is about to fall.
• God sets a rainbow in the sky as a sign He will never
again destroy the world…by a flood.
• Reward: countless descendents, who will prevail
against enemies, and through whom all nations will gain
blessings.
• People’s pride causes them to build a tower to
conquer heaven;God creates multiple languages to
confuse them
• Sarah dies at the age of 127, Abraham marries
Keturah, who bears six children, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan,
Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah, and he dies at the age of 175.
• God calls Abram and Sarai to leave their homeland
and go where God leads them.
• Isaac marries Rebekah, and she gives birth to twin
boys, Esau and Jacob.Esau is born first, and is the favorite
of Isaac. Jacob is the favorite of Rebekah.
• God will make of them a great nation, bless his
friends, curse his enemies
• God promises that Abram will have descendents as
numerous as the stars.
• Sarai was old, and barren. So she offered Abram her
slave-girl, Hagar, to have a child with.
• An angel appears to Hagar, promises her countless
descendents, she returns to them. Ishmael is born.
• One day, Esau returns from hunting, tired and hungry.
He asks Jacob for a bowl of stew. Jacob says he can have it,
if he gives Jacob his birthright.
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Esau AGREES.
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Jacob still thinks his blessing will go do Esau.
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So Rebekah plans to trick Isaac. Esau is the hairy one.
• Isaac, old and blind, sends Esau out to hunt, asking
him to make him a meal, and he will then receive a
blessing.
• Rebekah then cooks a meal for Isaac and covers Jacob
with the skin of the lambs she has cooked, so his hairiness
resembles that of his brother.
• Isaac blesses Jacob, sending Esau into a murderous
rage. Rebekah sends Jacob to her brother, Laban, for
safety.
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Jacob falls in love with Rachel while staying with Laban
• Jacob agrees to work for Laban seven years for
Rachel’s hand in marriage
• Jacob THINKS he marries Rachel, but winds up
marrying Leah instead.
• So Jacob then marries Rachel, then works ANOTHER
seven years in Laban’s service.
• Jacob has four sons through Leah, two through
Rachel’s slave girl, Bilhah, two through Leah’s slave girl,
Zilpah, two more through Leah (her total: 6 sons and a
daughter) and finally two through Rachel.
• Of Jacob’s Twelve sons, since Joseph was the oldest
son of Rachel, his love, he favored him BLATANTLY.
• Jacob gave Joseph a multi-colored coat, the height of
fashion in 1700 BC.
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Joseph also flaunted it.
• Joseph had a dream: Your sheaves bowed down to
worship my sheaf. Sun, moon, eleven stars bow down to
worship ME!
• Brothers HATED THIS, plan to kill him. Reuben says to
throw him in a cistern instead (so as to not “kill him
outright” – Reuben’s plan was to later save him).
• Judah suggests selling him into slavery instead, to
profit from it. They fake his death, tell Jacob a wild beast
killed him.
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Joseph sold into slavery in Egypt, to Potiphar.
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He is raised to the highest position a slave can hold.
• Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, Joseph turns
her down, she accuses him of trying to sleep with her. He
is sent to jail.
• The pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer were imprisoned
with him, and each had a dream.
• Cupbearer: Vine w/ three branches, which blossomed,
and I fed them to pharaoh.
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Joseph’s Interpretation: Freed in 3 days.
• Baker: 3 cake baskets on my head, birds ate from
them.
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Joseph: Executed in 3 days, birds will eat your body.
• Pharaoh’s dream: 7 fat cows eaten by 7 skinny cows, 7
plump ears of grain eaten by 7 thin, blighted ones
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Joseph: 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine
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This saves Egypt from famine, Joseph is promoted:
• “Since God has shown you all this, there is no one so
discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house,
and all my people shall order themselves as you command;
only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you.”
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10 of them go to Joseph to buy food (Ben stays home).
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Joseph recognizes them; they don’t recognize him.
• He accuses them of being foreign spies. They tell of
their father and bro. He keeps them in jail, says one can go
home to get Benjamin. (After three days, changes this to 1
in jail, Simeon, and 9 go home.)
• Joseph holds a feast for them, and gives them bags of
food.
• He has his servant put a silver cup, only to falsely
accuse him.
• Judah begs for Benjamin’s release, for the sake of their
father, offering himself as a slave in Benjamin’s place.
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Joseph reveals himself to them.
• Jacob is brought to Egypt; all Jews live there for
centuries, till Moses.