History Hound Travels

I’m up to page 90 in our book. Are you reading along with me? After Jacob married Laban’s daughters for 14 years of labor, he worked still for Laban. He finally broke with Laban and returned home. He met his brother Esau peacefully, and the two parted ways amicably. Jacob did see his father Isaac again, though. Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born, and he lived to be 180 years old, quite an accomplishment for a man who thought he was ready to die at least 20 years earlier. Doing the math leads us to know that Isaac lived for 105 years after his father Abraham died, so his death would have been about 2,286 years after creation, a bit over 30 lifetimes.

Those who are familiar with the Bible will know that Jacob came to be called Israel, and that his son Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt. This is how the Jewish nation came to be in Egypt. We’ll discuss this more on Wednesday.

Technorati Tags: Laban, Esau, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph

I did not get as much read as I had planned. I’ve been busy as I posted. We don’t hear very much more about Isaac at all, but his wife Rebekah is an interesting study. She was apparently a very beautiful woman, but she was also deceptive. We’ll see the fruit of that in her son, Jacob.

Rebekah helped her favorite, Jacob, deceive Isaac and gain the blessing due the first-born son, which his brother Esau should have had. As a result of this, Esau vowed to kill Jacob and so he was sent away. Rebekah never saw him again. Esau had already traded his birthright to Jacob for food, so again we see a case of the younger son taking the place of the older. We’ll see that at least once more in Joseph’s sons. This is important in a historical context because it was typically the oldest son who led a family.

It’s worth noting that the deceiving Jacob was in turn deceived by Laban, his father in law. He bargained for one wife and was given another instead.

We’ll get to that on Friday

Technorati Tags: Rebekah, Jacob, Isaac, Esau, Laban

The Book of God begins with the story of Abraham. As you will recall, Abraham was born at about the same time that Noah died. He was 75 when God appeared to him and promised him an heir, and his wife Sarah was 65.

While they waited for God to fulfill His promise, they took matters into their own hands, and Abraham fathered a child, Ishmael, but the Egyptian maid Hagar. Abraham was 86 when this first son was born. And 100 when Isaac, the promised child, was born.

Ishmael had 12 sons, and they were wild fighting men, dwelling in the Wilderness of Paran, between Egypt and the Holy land. Does this area sound familiar to anyone? Yep, thought so. We’ll talk more of Isaac and his sons later, beginning with our next lesson.

Abraham lived the rest of his life as a nomad. Sarah died at the age of 127. Abraham lived to 175. That’s more than 2 of our lifetimes, and brings up to 2181 years after creation.

The next time we talk about The Book of God, we’ll talk about Rebekah and Jacob. I’ll be reading up to Joseph, but I don’t know if we’ll get all that material covered in one post.

Technorati Tags: Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, Ishmael

Chapter 17 discusses the gods and goddesses that the people now began (continued) to worship. Stories of Tammuz were similar to the ones that had been spread around about Nimrod after his death, while Ishtar’s legends were like those Nimrod’s wife Semiramis had out out about herself. Cuneiform writing was birthed at this time, as men struggled to cope with writing in their new languages. It is easy to see how history became so confused since old writings could no longer be read by most of the people, and so new histories must be written.

It is worth noting the story of Ham’s son Menes. He was also known as Mizraim, and we will hear much of him later. As a foretaste, he diverted the Nile River to reclaim the marshland and built the city of Memphis. Ham’s other descendants included Casluhim and Caphtorim who settled on Crete, and Sidon, as well as those who lived on the Sinai Peninsula. Japheth’s descendants were the Hellenists and the Medes. Abraham was a descendant of Shem.

Noah died at 950 years old, about the same time Abraham was born, about 2006 years after the world was created, 350 years after the flood, almost 27 lifetimes into the history of mankind. We’re a quarter of the way to now!

Since The Book of God starts with Abraham, we will stop here with Adam and His Kin. Do read the last chapter, but our discussion will pick up Monday with part one, chapter one of The Book of God.

Technorati Tags: Ham, Menes, Crete, Sidon, Japheth, Shem, Noah, Abraham

It won’t take us much longer to get through with Adam and His Kin, so if you are reading along with me (or want to start) it’s time to shop for our next book. I’ll be reading and talking about The Book of God by Walter Wangerin, Jr. next.

Please understand that when I pick a book for this site, I am not recommending it for it’s theology, but for it’s value in learning history. I won’t steer you in the direction of anything that is way off base theologically, and I will point out any problems I see as we go along, but the merit is in the historocity. Basically, in matters of faith consult the Bible. For more detailed study of history and culture than the Bible provides, choose an author who loves his/her subject.

I’ll be reading The Lives of Rachel by Joel Gross to go along with this part of our study, but will probably not discuss it in depth.

Technorati Tags: Adam and His Kin, The Book of God, Walter Wangerin, Jr, The Lives of Rachel, Joel Gross