01 - Genesis

Chapters 1-2

The creation story of genesis is unique among creation stories because all other stories involve a god or gods creating the world out of violence, destruction, sex or desire for having slaves to do the work or entertain them.

Differently, the Hebrew word used in Genesis to talk about the creation is “Bara”, which means create out of nothing.

Why did God create us?
To share in his perfect and good divine nature, “to share in his blessed life” as the Catechism puts it. We do that by labor (working as God has worked to create us), leisure (as God rested after work), and love (as God loves us and is infinite love).

Genesis also establishes where we get our dignity from. It is not from our strength, power, beauty, wisdom or a government. We get our dignity from the fact that every human being - male and female - is made in God’s image and likeness.

A little poem about the creation of Eve and male/female equality in dignity:

“When God took Eve from Adam,
He did not take her from his head to Lord over him,
Nor from his foot to be walked upon by him.
He took her from his side, to walk with him;
From beneath his arms to be guarded by him;
And from near his heart to be loved by him.”

—A little bit cheesy, but I like it!

Chapter 3-4

The snake doesn’t dismiss God’s existence or even his authority. The snake questions the Lord’s trustworthiness.

Sin is the fallacy that we can make our own moral rules, different from the divine objective moral law.

We are limited and fallible beings, without the capacity of fully understanding the consequences of our actions. When we try to deviate from objective morality made by the perfect and infinitely good God, we are inviting suffering into our lives.

The challenge is not whether you believe in God. It is if you belong to him, or will you make yourself your own god. You belong to God when you obey him because you know He loves you.

The pain and suffering of Adam and Eve are not curses. They are remedies. Because they failed to choose love, they have to learn that love always involves sacrifice.

Love requires sacrifice. For Eve to love her husband and bring forth a family, she’ll have to endure a lot of pain in childbearing. For Adam to love his wife and his family, to protect and provide for them, he will have to endure physical pain of labor. In these ways, they will learn that to love requires sacrifice.

How do we know God is not just punishing them? Because he guards the tree of life (Gen 3:22) and clothed them (Gen 3:21).

He guards the tree of life because if they eat the fruit of the tree of life, they will live forever. And God seeing their brokenness in that state, can’t allow they living forever that way.

God clothing them is the sign that even in this state of sin, God still cares for them and continues to provide for them.

God clothes them in leather skins (Gen 3:21), which means that something had to die for God to love them. Again, this connection between love and sacrifice.

After the Fall, things escalate quickly, with fratricide happening (Gen 4:8) soon after. Again demonstrating how disastrous the consequences of our sins can be.

Why Abel’s offering was accepted, but Cain’s not? It is unknowable, but one hypothesis would be that Abel offered the “first fruits” (Gen 4:4), while Cain offered “whatever”.

Love requires sacrifice, and to love God we also need to sacrifice something. This is clear when we pray: we are sacrificing our time to love God.

When we pray are we offering our best time, our “first fruits”? Or are we just offering “whatever”, what’s left in our day, thus making our sacrifice meaningless?

But God, in his infinite mercy, will forgive our bad offerings and accept us again if we do good (Gen 4:7). And even with all the temptation, we do not have to sin. Not only that, but we need to learn how to control ourselves, master our emotions and choose to not to sin.

Questions:

1. Did God lie? Because they didn’t die when they ate the fruit.
   1. Their death was spiritual. They committed a mortal sin, losing their holiness and separating themselves from God.
2. Why God says that Adam and Eve have become like them? (Gen 3:22)
   1. Before eating the fruit, Adam and Eve had a childlike innocence, and after eating they gained a knowledge about good and evil, which made them more similar to God in this aspect. But this came at the cost of the loss of innocence and the introduction of sin into their lives.
   2. It could also be a somewhat ironic statement. In their quest to become like God, they separated themselves further away from God, achieving the opposite consequence and bringing brokenness into their lives.
3. Who is Cain’s wife?
   1. It seems that there were other humans, because incest is contrary to natural law.
   2. It can’t be other humans because all humans are descendants of Adam and Eve. Furthermore, if there were other humans, they wouldn’t be stained by the original sin.
   3. Thus, it has to be that Cain’s wife was a sister or niece or grandniece. And that, by some unknown factor, incest was not a biological or moral problem in that specific circumstance.

Chapter 5-6

Questions:

1. What these long lifetimes mean?
2. Did Enoch go to heaven? How if Jesus didn’t pay the price for us to go to heaven yet?
3. Why does the Bible emphasize genealogies so much?
4. Nephilim is translated as “giants” in Portuguese, but naphal is the Hebrew word for “to fall”.
5. How the biblical flood story differs from other flood stories?

Genesis chapter 4 and chapter 5 present two descendent lines of Adam & Eve. The Seth’s line and Cain’s line.

Noah’s Genealogy, taken from “Was Noah and/or his family fully or partially descendant from Cain?”

When Seth’s line is presented, it is presented by first pointing out that Seth was made in the image and likeness of Adam (alluding to the passage that Adam was made in the image and likeness of God).

Seth’s line has righteous men like Enoch, that “walked with God” (Gen 5:24) and Noah, the one that “shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” (Gen 5:29).

When Cain’s line is presented, we are presented with Lamech, a polygamist (Gen 4:19) and murderer (Gen 4:23).

And why does Lamech says “If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” (Gen 4:24)?

He is referring to the promise God made to protect Cain in Gen 4:15, but God put the mark in Cain and not on his descendants as well. Thus, this is a claim Lamech is making himself. This seems to describe a progression on the effects of sin of the world.

The greater degree of vengeance might describe a progression of violence (with the crime committed being worse), a culture of retribution or Lamech’s bragging about his dominance, which emphasizes his and society’s moral decay.

Who are the sons of God and daughters of men?

Given the clear distinction of the Seth’s and Cain’s line previously, it would make sense that “sons of God” refers to the Seth’s line, specially giving the description that Seth was made in the image and likeness of Adam. Thus the daughters of men would be the Cain’s line.

If this interpretation is correct, the story seems to be about the progressive degradation of the “righteous” line, with the intermarriage symbolizing the adoption of morally evil practices of the other line, one of them polygamy (Gen 6:2), which is previously associated with violence (Lamech’s narrative).

Earth is now fully corrupted and full of violence (Gen 6:11-12). But in amidst all this chaos, there is one righteous man, Noah, that walks with God, and is blameless in his generation (Gen 6:9).

Chapter 7-9

The flood and Noah’s ark is one the best-known narratives in the Bible. What usually is not known is that there are many other flood narratives that were written in the region of Ancient Mesopotamia. But similarly to the creation story, the Bible’s Flood narrative is unique.

In the Babylonian story, known as Antra-Hasis, gods make humans to be used as labor force, and when these humans start to overpopulate earth, the gods decide to send plagues and famines to control the population. Ultimately, the gods decide to erase humanity with a flood.

First of all, God didn’t create humanity to be used as a labor pool. On the contrary, humans are the high point of creation and are loved by God.

God chooses the flood because of the deep moral problems that plague humanity. God’s purpose is to wash away the violence and bloodshed among humanity.

Although Earth is filled with corruption and violence, there’s one righteous man that is “blameless in his generation” (Gen 6:9), and God chooses Noah and his family to start over.

Noah after leaving the Ark makes a sacrifice to God, and this sacrifice is well received (Gen 8:20). Then, we get a preview of the covenant God will make with Noah: no more destruction. God chooses mercy over judgment, even in light of human sinfulness and the effects of original sin: “for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen 9:21).

In Genesis 9, the story of re-creation continues, with a lot of similarities with The Creation story. God blesses Noah’s family and tells them to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 9:2).

Then, God establishes his covenant with Noah (Gen 9:1-11), the second covenant God makes with humanity. It first establishes some new permissions (like eating animals) and some rules, with the most important one being not killing (Gen 9:5-6).

Again, it is demonstrated where human dignity comes from: every human is made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 9:6), and because of that, human life is sacred and worthy of respect and dignity.

After establishing the new rules, God makes the promise of the covenant, that he will preserve humanity and the waters will never become flood to destroy all flesh again (Gen 9:11). The rainbow is the sign of covenant, the visible sign of God’s bow in the clouds (Gen 9:13–5), which also demonstrates that God will not use his “bow” to destroy life on earth.

After the establishment of the covenant, the re-creation story continues. Now, in a tragic twist, the Fall again.

Noah takes the fruit (similarly Gen 3:6) from the vineyard and drank the wine, becoming drunk (sin of intemperance; gluttony) and lays naked (similarly Gen 3:7) in his tent (Gen 9:20-21).

Right after, a tragedy happens:

“And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.” - Genesis 9:22

Now to the mindblowing part. With no further context, it’s difficult to understand what wrong did Ham do here, why would seeing his father naked (maybe even accidentally) be so terrible for Noah to curse Ham’s unborn son (Canaan)? (Gen 9:25)

But seeing or uncovering “the nakedness of his father” is an idiomatic expression for sleeping with his father’s wife.

This become clearer when we see the same expression being used in Leviticus:

• “The man who lies with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.” - Leviticus 20:11
• “None of you shall approach any one near of kin to him to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord.” - Leviticus 18:6
• “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness.” - Leviticus 18:7

And this was not just an act of lust, it was probably an act of rebellion, and attempt of domination and humiliation.

Noah was the leader of the family, and positions of authority such as kingship and priesthood usually passed down from father to the firstborn son. Ham may have been trying to steal the role of head of the family by dominating and humiliating his father.

This attempt is congruent with other narratives inside and outside of the Bible that follow a similar template:

• Greek mythology where one god usurps power and legitimizes his rule by sleeping with the previous god’s wives.
• Absalom, King David’s son, sleeps with David’s concubines to solidify his claim to the throne (2 Sm 16:21-22).

Knowing what happened, Noah’s other sons, Shem and Japheth, honored their father and mother and covered their mother, without looking at her (Gen 9:23).

This explanation also sheds light on why Noah curses Canaan. Why curse an unborn son of Ham? And why this one instead of another one?

Because Canaan is the fruit of the rape and incest Ham did. (But why not curse Ham instead? Some say it is because God had already blessed Ham, so Noah couldn’t curse him)

This also explains why Canaan is mentioned in the chapter, two times, actually. The first in the beginning of the story (Gen 9:18), and the other right when the “uncovering of the nakedness” (i.e. the rape and incest) occurs (Gen 9:22).

The explanation of what happened also makes sense in the broader context on what will happen in the following chapters. Canaan is the ascendant of several tribes and nations that collectively are known as the Canaanites, which inhabit the region of Canaan.

The Canaanites are known for their sexual immorality and perversity, and the rules against incest given in Leviticus 18:6-7 are the first rules (and warnings) God gives to the Israelites before they enter the land of Canaan (Lv 18:1-5).

Yet again, as seen with the Creation story, we see how sin leads to the breaking of families and leads to a cycle that leaves humanity in a bad shape with great moral depravity.

But there might be hope. Shem, Noah’s faithful and honoring firstborn is blessed (Gen 9:26) by Noah.

Chapters 10-11

Genesis 10-11 are narratives that tell the story of how nations and languages in earth came to be. In Genesis 10, we have a long genealogy of the sons of Noah. As seen with the genealogy of Adam & Eve, the genealogy of the sons of Noah allows us to keep track on what nations and people are faithful to God (Shem’s line) and the wicked ones (Ham’s line).

From Ham’s line, we have the descendants of Canaan: the Canaanites, Amorites and Jebusites, which will oppose Israel conquer of the Promised Land. Apart from Canaan, there are also other descendants of Ham, which includes Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, which will become places for slavery and exile of the Israeli people. In summary, Ham’s descendants are the traditional enemies of Israel.

In Genesis 11, we get the story of the Tower of Babel. Babel is ancient Babylon. Historically, the Tower of Babel might be a tower offered to other gods. The name Babel is associated with the Akkadian (language spoken in ancient Babylon) word “Bab-ilu”, which means “Gate of God”. The word Babel, in hebrew, is also associated in the text with the verb “balal” which means “to confuse”, which later on is important when God confused their languages. Already in the language there is this tension: for the humans, it’s the “Gate of God”, for God, it’s just confusion.

The main building project of the city of Babel was the Tower of Babel, a tower that they intended to be so big it reached its top in Heaven (Gen 11:4). The city at this time was led by Nimrod, one of Ham’s descendants described as “the first on earth to be a mighty man” (Gen 10:8). He founded Babel as the start of his kingdom (Gen 10:10).

Until now, we have seen how sin creates division, but now we can see how sin can unite people. A unity in idolatry and pride, that puts men and worldly affairs in the center of worship.

The Tower of Babel, with its intended “top in heaven” can be seen as a attempt at a forced entry into heaven or to create an artificial heaven-on-earth based on strength, power, and wealth.

The quest to be great and do great things is not a bad thing — after all, there is a universal call to holiness (CCC 2013) and to do great works. The problem with the builders of the Tower of Babel had a disordered ambition. The construction of the tower was a purposeful act of rebellion against God and his commandments.

In both covenants God made with humans, he gave the commandment of “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (with Adam & Eve: Gen 1:28; with Noah: Gen 9:1). The builders of the tower directly challenged this commandment when they built the tower to not fill the earth: “lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Gen 11:4).

It is also said the they wanted the tower with its top in heavens to “make a name for themselves” (Gen 11:4). This signals an intention to achieve divine status through wealth and power. Similarly, the snake offered to Adam & Eve the allure of divine status through knowledge (Gen 3:5).

Also, the word “name” in Hebrew is “shem”, which is also the name of Noah’s firstborn (Shem) that received the family blessing, passing down family authority, which included kingship and priesthood. By “making a [shem] for themselves”, they’re rebelling against rightful authority they weren’t entitled to, just like Ham did.

The Tower of Babel narrative is preceded and succeeded by the genealogy of Shem. This narrative of Nimrod and the Babel people trying to make a “shem” for themselves “sandwhiched” by the genealogy of the real Shem tells us that they weren’t successful in doing so. Indeed, the Shemites (or Semites) will continue to hold the rightful authority and will be the ones that will bring forth the great patriarchs and eventually, the Messiah.

Further on, God comes down to see the city and the tower (Gen 11:5). This not just a description that God is in Heaven and needs to come down to earth. This mocks the rebellious people attempt to force their way to heaven, as it was so futile that God needs to “come down” to even “see” what they’re attempting. Once again, God intervenes in their wickedness, judging Babel by confusing people’s language. Their sin and rebellion have resulted in further division and exile.

All-in-all, the Tower of Babel tells a narrative on the power and potential of human unity and cooperation, but it highlights the tendency of pride and self-glorification.

Questions:

• Was everyone at Babel under the kingdom of Nimrod when this narrative happened?
• Why does God says:
  • “they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them” (Gen 11:6)
  • Maybe signals human potential when united.
• Why does God says:
  • “let us go down” (Gen 11:7)
  • Why the first person in the plural (‘us’)? Maybe trinitarian explanation (the three persons of the trinity)?

A friend of mine asked on what is the ‘Catholic interpretation of the Tower of Babel’, and it would be nice to write some words about it. The Catholic Church does not teach the necessity of a literal interpretation of the events in Genesis. There are those who hold to a more traditional view, interpreting the stories from Genesis as strict literal history like we write today, but I would most theologians today hold a more symbolic interpretation of the narratives told here.

Many catholic biblical scholars use the historical-critical method, which uses historical context, literary forms, and intended messages of the biblical texts.

Nonetheless, everything in Sacred Scripture is true and holds profound significance. But we should be mindful that the people that originally wrote these histories had a very different understanding of how history should be recorded and transmitted.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words.

110 In order to discover the sacred authors’ intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. “For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression.”

• Catechism of The Catholic Church

Thus, it is important to understand that Sacred Scripture is God-inspired and conveys important spiritual and moral truths. Sacred Scripture includes a wide range of literary genres such as historical narratives, poetry, prophecy and laws. Therefore, the truths conveyed in Scripture can include historical facts, theological insights, moral teachings, and spiritual meanings, all of which must be understood in the context of the literary forms and cultural context of the time.

Unlike what muslims believe about the Quran, we don’t believe that every word was written directly by God. Sacred Scripture is inspired by God, but written by humans, and humans from different times and eras. And we should strive to understand the truths that these humans are transmitting, and not judging the texts like 21st century historical pieces.

Chapters 12-13

In Genesis, we enter the patriarch era, where we are introduced to Abram and Sa’rai (which will become the patriarch Abraham and his wife Sara).

1. God sends Abram to a new land and makes him three promises: through Abram, God will make a (1) great nation, (2) a great name, (3) and all the families of the earth will be blessed.
2. Abram does as God said, and with his wife Sar’ai and his nephew Lot, starts his journey. When Abram is in Canaan, he makes an altar to the Lord, and He promises to give this land to him.
3. Because of a famine in the land of Canaan, Abram is forced to go to Egypt. But, he is worried that the Egyptians will kill him to take his wife, as Sar’ai is a very beautiful woman. Thus, he says to the Egyptians that Sar’ai is his sister.
4. The Egyptians see Sar’ai, and the Pharaoh makes Sar’ai his wife and takes her into his home. Because of her, the Pharaoh gives Abram many riches, including animals and servants.
5. God afflicts the Pharaoh with plagues because of Sar’ai, leading the Pharaoh to return Abram his wife, and sending him on his way out of Egypt with all his newly acquired possessions.
6. Abram and Lot return to Canaan, to the same place where he had built the altar.
7. But now they had so many possessions, so many animals, that the land couldn’t support both of them together, thus they need to move apart from each other.
8. Abram lets Lot choose where he wants to be, and Lot chooses to be near the city of Sodom, and the people of Sodom were “wicked”, great sinners.
9. God reiterates the promise to Abram that He will give him all this land. This is part of the larger promise of making a great nation.

The elephant in the room: What? Did Abram really got “cucked” by the Pharaoh? Not only the Pharaoh took Sar’ai as his wife, this was planned by Abram?

I won’t go here on the historicity of the patriarchs’ story, but one thing that strikes me deeply is how different these stories are from what one would expect a creation myth to be. Instead of a flawless hero, we have an imperfect man like Abram. Instead of assertions that this land was always an Israelite land and thus they can claim that land, the narrative tells us that there are already other people living there, and that God will give this land to Abram.

Even with God’s promise, Abram doesn’t trust that God will care for him when he enters Egypt. He sins by not trusting the Divine Providence and his sin leads to brokenness in his family (the Pharaoh taking his wife). And it seems that he also shouldn’t have brought Lot to the journey, as God asks him to leave his country and kindred (family).

But Abram was faithful to God in leaving his original land and country and not even knowing where he was going to. He also is faithful in prayer by building an altar and making sacrifices. He also trusts in the providence when he says to Lot that he can choose the land that Lot thinks it’s best, knowing that wherever he is, God will take care of him.

Lot sees that the Jordan valley is a fertile region and moves in the direction of Sodom, a city of “great sinners”. Gen 13:10 says that the Jordan valley was well watered like the “garden of the LORD”. I think this is reference to The Fall, with the garden of the Lord being a reference to Eden. Lot goes towards a place of sin (Sodom) because of attractive features he sees in that region. Similarly to how Eve sees attractive features in the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:6).

Questions:

1. If the Pharaoh know that God existed and His power, why did he and the Egyptians worshipped false gods?

Chapter 14

1. The kings of Sodom, Gomor’rah, Admah, Zebo’im, Be’la (or Zo’ar) used to serve (were vassals to) Chedorlao’mer, the king of E’lam (in Mesopotamia), for twelve years, but in the thirteenth year, they rebelled.
2. Chedorlao’mer then builds an alliance with loyal kings from Shi’nar, Ella’sar, and Goi’im to fight the rebellion. On their way to fight the five rebel kings, they subdue and plunder the kingdoms and people in-between.
3. The rebel five kings join forces to fight Chedorlao’mer’s forces in the Valley of Siddim. The rebels lose, and Chedorlao’mer plunders the cities, taking their resources, and capturing Lot, who was living IN Sodom (as opposed to near Sodom as before), and his goods.
4. Abram comes to know about Lot’s captivity and assembles a group of 318 allied men to rescue him. Abram then pursues Chedorlao’mer’s forces, and using “guerrilla’ tactics, is able to rescue Lot and the spoils of people and property taken by the Mesopotamian armies.
5. Melchiz’edek, king of Salem, priest, brings bread and wine and blesses Abram and blesses God for delivering the enemies into Abram’s hand.
6. Abram pays tithe (a tenth of everything, “dízimo”) to Melchiz’edek.
7. The king of Sodom offers all his properties to Abram, but he declines it, saying that he promised to God that he wouldn’t take anything that the king of Sodom has.

The first thing that pops into my mind is the Eucharistic reference in Melchizedek, a “priest of God Most High”, bringing bread and wine (Gen 14:18), and blessing Abram and God. In the New Testament, Christ is described as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb 7).

The tithe payed by Abram prefigures the Levitic law, where the other tribes have to pay a tenth of their earnings to the Levite tribe.

Again, we see how sin leads to brokenness and destruction. Lot, decided to go towards Sodom, and ends up living inside it, a city of wicked man and great sinners (Gen 13:13). His actions leads to his captivity, which brings Abram to enter the war to save him. By Divine Providence (Gen 14:20), Abram is able to conquer the Mesopotamian forces and rescue the captured people and properties.

Chapter 15

1. God appears to Abram in a vision and promises him, currently in an old age and childless, that he’ll have many descendants, as many as stars in the sky. And Abram believes him.
2. God asks Abram to bring some animals and he brings them and cut them in two.
3. As the sun was going down, God says to Abram that his descendants will be slaves and oppressed in a land that it isn’t theirs for 400 years, but God will judge those nations and his descendants will have great possessions.
4. After sunset, when it was dark, God, appearing as a fire pot and a flaming torch passes through the animals’ pieces, making a covenant with Abram, that he will give the land to his descendants.

The process of passing through a hallway of splitten animals was the sign of making a Covenant in the old times. It signified that if someone broke the agreement, they can be broken like the animals they’re passing through are. Interestingly, God is the one who passes through the covenant. Probably because He knew that Abram and his descendants would break the covenant many times.

Chapter 16

1. Sarai, troubled by her infertility, decides to have children through her maid.
2. Abram listens and has relations with Hagar, Sar’ai’s Egyptian maid.
3. Hagar conceives and treats Sarai with contempt.
4. Sarai retaliates, dealing harshly with Hagar for her behavior and she flees.
5. Hagar tries to go back to Egypt, but in the route, an angel appears to her and says to her to go back and submit to her mistress. The angel also promises to greatly multiply her descendants and says that he will be a “wild donkey”.
6. Hagar gives birth to a son and Abram names him “Ish’mael”

Sar’ai’s actions are in accordance with ancient Near East practice of surrogate motherhood through servants or concubines. Childless couples resorted to this to produce an heir. There are historical evidence of this practice in the Nuzi tables and the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi.

“Abram listened”: might be a reference to Adam listening to Eve in the garden (Gen 3:17) and maybe explains the name Ish’mael. The Hebrew word for “listened” (yishma’) is the verbal root for the name Ish’mael (yishma’e’l).

I know sexual ethics in that times are radically different from what we are used to in our Christian societies, and polygamy was way more prevalent in those times. Still, this idea by Sar’ai comes from a place of complete desperation. One can empathize with the frustration of wanting, and having been promised (by God!), to have a child and still not being able to conceive.

Still, this sin, of not trusting God’s plan, of wanting to have God’s way in our own terms, leads to more destruction. As the sin breads tension and retaliation. And ultimately, brings forth a “wild donkey” (aggressive) man into the world.

The oppression of Hagar will also backfire when the Joseph, Sar’ai’s great grandson (Joseph) is taken as a slave in Egypt by the “Ishmael-ites” (Gen 39:1) and the family of Israel that follows him there is “oppressed” by the Egyptians (Ex 1:12, foretold in Gen 15:13).

Chapter 17

1. God elevate the previous promise of making Abram the father of a multitude of nations to a Covenant.
2. God changes his name from Abram (“exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”).
3. The sign of the covenant will be circumcision of all males. Any male who is not circumcised is breaking the covenant and shall be cut off from his people.
4. God changes Sar’ai’s name to Sarah.
5. God reiterates his promise of giving a descendant to Abraham, but makes it more specific that it will be Isaac, and not Ish’mael, he’ll come from Sarah and not Hagar, and it will be next year.
6. Still, Abraham doubts God’s promises of a descendant through Sarah, as they both are very old.
7. Ish’mael is blessed and God will make him fruitful and multiply him, but He will establish His covenant with Isaac.
8. Abraham circumcises all males in his household in the same day, as he was told.

It is unclear on my brief research why circumcision was chosen as the sign of the covenant. It was practiced in other Near East cultures, so maybe God is elevating a known practice by Abraham as the sign of the covenant.

Circumcision becomes, then, the rite of initiation of the liturgical life in Israel. Circumcision of the flesh points inward to the circumcision of the heart: remove the fallen works so that you can follow the Lord’s ways blamelessly (Gen 17:1).

Circumcision prefigures Baptism, the rite of initiation of the New Covenant. But Baptismal grace, which is administered for both males and females, effects the interior circumcision of the heart, which the circumcision of the flesh merely signified.

This also an interesting argument for pedobaptism (baptism of the children) instead of credobaptism (baptism of adult believers). If Baptism is the rite of initiation in Christian life just as circumcision was the rite of initiation in the Old Covenant, it also makes sense to initiate children just as they did.

Chapters 18-19

1. God and two angels appear to Abraham passing in front of his tent.
2. Abraham, as a model of hospitality, arranges water, rest and food for the visitors.
3. God reaffirms the promise that Sarah will get pregnant.
4. Sarah, listening behind the door, laughs and disbelieves the promise, and when confronted about it by God, she lies about having done so.
5. God reveals that he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, and sends his angels to the Valley.
6. Abraham intercedes, asking God to not destroy the cities if there are righteous people there, and God accepts his intercession.
7. Lot, who was living in Sodom, sees the angels and receives them with good hospitality as well.
8. The men of Sodom, everyone of them, surround the house, calling Lot, for they wanted to abuse the visitors, in a sexually, perverted, and homossexual way.
9. Lot, trying to protect the visitors, offers his daughters, who were virgins to the crowd, so they could do what they pleased the them.
10. The crowd rejects the offer, and intimidate Lot by saying that they will do worse to Lot that they would do with the visitors.
11. The angels then bring Lot inside the house and judge the men, blinding them.
12. The angels tell Lot about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and tell him to grab his family and escape the city.
13. Lot’s sons-in-law ignore his message, and Lot himself lingers in the city.
14. The angels, demonstrating mercy, grab Lot, his wife, and his daughters by the hand and brought them forth outside the city. The angels tell Lot to escape hastily and don’t look back, because if they do, they’ll be consumed.
15. Lot asks to escape to a small city instead of the hills, and the angels promise to not destroy the city he’s going to.
16. Lot and his family start escaping, while the angels start destroying the cities.
17. Lot’s wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt.
18. God remembered Abraham, and protected Lot from the destruction.
19. Lot becomes afraid to stay in Zoar (the small city) and goes to the hills with his two daughters.
20. The daughters seem to think the whole world is being destroyed, and the first-born suggest to the youngest that they make their father drink wine so they can sleep with him so that they can have descendants.
21. They execute their plan of raping his father while he is drunk and unconscious.
22. The first-born’s son is called Moab, and he is the origin of the Moabites. The younger’s son is called Ben-ammi and is the origin of the Ammonites.

God’s question to Sarah (Gen 18:14): “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” resembles the Annunciation story where Archangel Gabriel says to Mary (Gen 1:37): “For with God nothing will be impossible”. But differently from Mary, Sarah doesn’t believe God’s word because of her old age, while Mary makes a beautiful act of faith and believes the Angel’s word, even as she was a virgin and intended to remain a virgin for her entire life.

Abraham intercession is a clear example on the Catholic doctrine intercession of the Saints. Lot and his daughters are saved by Abraham’s plead to God to save the righteous people among the wicked.

An inversion dynamic happens with Lot and his daughters. He offers them to be raped by the crowd to protect the angels, but in the end, he is the one that gets raped by them.

The Origin of the Moabites and Ammonites story (Gen 19:30-38) repeats the pattern seen in the Origin of the Canaanites (Gen 9:18-29). By getting drunk through wine, the father of the family allows sexual sin, rape and incest, to occur, generating people that will be the ascendants of peoples that will be enemies of Israel (Canaanites, Moabites and Ammonites).

The Sodomites’ sexual sin is not only sexual depravity and perversion because of the abuse they were about to commit, but also because of homosexuality. The rejection of the offer to take Lot’s daughters demonstrate the disordered preference, by the men of Sodom, for men over women.

Chapters 20

1. Abraham goes to Gerar, a territory in southern Palestine, near Gaza.
2. There, he tells the same lie to the King of Gerar, Abimelech, that he told to the Pharaoh: that Sarah is his sister, and not his wife. Later, we discover that this is a “half-truth”. Abraham is Sarah’s half-sister, they have the same father but different mothers.
3. The King takes Sarah as his wife, but God appears to him in a dream, saying that He kept him from sinning, and that if he doesn’t return Sarah, he’ll be punished.
4. Abimelech then restores Sarah to Abraham and gives him animals and slaves.
5. God restores fertility in the house of the king after having had “closed all the wombs”.

Allegorical:

• By protecting Sara’s purity, God protects the Messianic line, which is essential to God’s covenant. In allegory, God intervenes so that the Church is infallible in matters of faith and moral, so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church.

Moral sense:

• Lies, deception and unfaithfulness to God can put our covenant in jeopardy.
• God intervenes in the world, even in the lives of non-believers, giving us the grace to be protected from sinning.
• Pray to God to be brave and moral in the face of fear and to be protected from sinning.

Chapters 21

1. Sarah conceives and gives birth to Isaac, as the Lord had promised, and he was circumcised when his was eight days old. Isaac means “he laughs”.
2. Sarah tells Abraham to expel Hagar and Ish’mael. God says to do what Sarah says, and not to worry, as God will make a great nation out of Ish’mael.
3. Abraham and Abimelech make a covenant (a friendship covenant?).

One minor note is that it seems that Genesis is very concerned with explaining the names and the origin of people, places and nations.

Allegorical sense:

• Miraculous pregnancy and birth (old and sterile woman) of Isaac that fulfills a covenant points to the miraculous pregnancy and birth of the New Covenant.
• God takes care of Ish’mael, even though he’s outside the Covenant. God still takes care of the gentiles and those outside the Church.

Moral sense:

• Blessed are those who trust in God’s promises. Always be thankful for their fulfillment.

Chapters 22-23

God tests Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his only-begotten son Isaac. Abraham binds Isaac in the altar, and when he was about to immolate the sacrificial offering (Isaac), an angel of the Lord stops him and provides a ram (lamb) to be burnt instead. God makes an oath to bless Abraham and bless all nations through Abraham offspring.

Nahor, Abraham’s brother, had children with his wife (Milcah) and his concubine (Reumah). Nahor is the father of Bethuel, the father of Rebekah (future wife of Isaac).

Sarah dies, and Abraham buys a plot of land to bury her from the Hittites, the descendants of Heth, one of the ten tribes that occupied Canaan.

Notes:

1. It is unlikely that Abraham bound Isaac by force. Abraham is an old man at this point and Isaac is an adult (this is demonstrated by his capacity to carry the wood for the burn offering, something a child couldn’t do).
2. Abraham trusted that God would do something about Isaac, as God made a covenant with him that He would multiply his descendants through Isaac.
3. God is testing here Abraham’s obedience, faithfulness and priorities: where does Abraham puts his heart? the Creator or the creatures the Creator gave him?

Allegorical sense:

1. The sacrifice of Isaac is a prefiguration of the sacrifice of Jesus:
   1. Isaac is the only-begotten son of Abraham. Jesus is the only-begotten son of God.
   2. Isaac carries the wood to be used in the sacrifice on his back just as Jesus carries the cross.
2. God stops the sacrifice of Isaac and provides a lamb instead, which also points to Christ, as Christ is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Moral sense:

1. Despite his previous faults, Abraham is the father of the faith because of his excellent obedience and fear of God.

Chapter 24

Abraham sends a servant to his old nation to find a wife for Isaac. During the trip, the servant is pious and prays to God for aid and thanksgiving. The servant finds Rebekah in a well of water and, guided by Divine Providence and the servant’s prayers, she is identified as the woman the servant should take back. The servant gives gifts to Rebekah and meets her family. Finally, Rebekah consents to going back with the servant and marrying Isaac.

Allegorical sense:

1. If in Genesis 22 Isaac in the context of the Sacrifice was identified as a prefiguration of Christ, Rebekah could be seen as a prefiguration of the Church, the bride of Christ, who leaves everything behind to join Christ (Isaac), who, in turn, takes and loves her.

Moral sense:

1. Even though we are guided by Divine Providence, we are called to keep praying to God to illuminate our paths. We should also pray to thanks God when we collect the fruits we were asking for.

Chapter 25

In Genesis 25 we are presented with a lot of genealogies: Abraham took another wife (Keturah) and had children with her, Ish’mael had twelve sons (the twelve princes, spread across Arabia; Ish’mael is considered the father of the Arabs), and Isaac had trouble having children as Rebekah was barren. Isaac prays (he is a powerful intercessor just like Abraham), and they have twins (Esau and Jacob).

Abraham gave all he had to Isaac and sent he other descendants away with their concubines along with gifts, just as he did with Hagar and Ish’mael. Abraham died and was buried with Sarah by Isaac and Ish’mael.

Esau is the first-born, but he ends up selling his birthright to Jacob for food, in a moment of need. This is a somewhat replay of Isaac and Ish’mael, as the youngest (Isaac, Jacob) gets the blessing and carries the covenant God made with Abraham.

Notes:

1. Kinda shady that Jacob “forces” Esau to sell his birthright because his life was in danger.
   1. At the same time, the Lord said to Rebekah that “the elder shall serve the younger”
   2. There is a reference to this story in St Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom 9:10-13), but I don’t have the time to figure it out. But it does seem to have a connection with God’s Election and sovereignty.
   3. This also shows that biological/natural descendancy is not enough for the blessings.
2. TODO: Why God chose Jacob instead of Esau?

Chapter 26

Just like it happened with Abraham, a famine happens in Canaan. But God says to Isaac to go to Gerar instead of Egypt, and renewals the covenant made with Abraham to multiply his descendants, give those lands to his descendants, and that all nations bless themselves through his descendants. God is renewing this promise because Abraham kept His commandments.

Isaac also denies that Rebekah is his wife in front of Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. Seems that it was very dangerous to travel with a beautiful wife. But Abimelech notices that Rebekah is Isaac’s wife and reprimands him for doing so, and prohibits any of his servants of taking her as wife.

In the first year, the Lord blessed Issac, and he had an extraordinary harvest and became very rich. The Philistines envied him and Abimelech asked him to go away.

Isaac found a place where there were no disputes on who owned the water and established his residence there, and built an altar, continuing the priestly legacy of his father Abraham.

Abimelech goes to Isaac to make a peace covenant with him, because he saw how blessed Isaac was by the Lord.

Esau takes two Hittites (Judith, Basemath) as wives, which made life “bitter”, “miserable” for Isaac and Rebekah.

Notes:

1. Esau’s wife made his parents (Isaac, Rebekah) life bitter because he married Canaanites, who are under the curse of Noah, probably without parental consent or advise.

Chapters 27-28

Isaac is now old and almost dying, and cannot see anything. He then calls Esau and asks him to prepare a meal for him, so that Esau may be blessed before he dies. Rebekah listens to the conversation and makes Jacob make and deliver the food first so he might be the one blessed. They use deception (Esau’s clothing) and lies (Jacob says multiple times he is Esau) to usurp the blessing of Esau. Isaac has doubts, but nonetheless is fooled and gives the blessing to Jacob.

Esau then enters the room with the prepared food and Isaac understands and says what happened, but he does not revoke the blessing. Esau is bitter about the situation and asks for another blessing, but Isaac cannot give the same, and thus gives a different blessing. But Jacob now is Esau’s and his brothers’ lord.

Because of Esau’s hate, he plans to kill Jacob after Isaac’s death. Rebekah is told about it and says to Jacob to go away to her brother’s Laban until Esau’s fury passes.

Rebekah talks with Isaac about her fears the Hittite women (whom Esau married), and then Isaac forbids Jacob to marry a Hittite woman, and he should marry a Semitic woman, just as Abraham forbade and instruct Isaac. Isaac reiterates the blessing and passes the three-fold blessing/covenant of God to Jacob.

After Jacob left the house to take a wife in Laban’s house, Esau married a daughter of Ish’mael, as he saw the Canaanite women didn’t please their parents.

Jacob is visited by God in a dream, where God make the same three-fold promise He made to Abraham and Isaac to him. He wakes up and is amazed by God’s presence, and builds a pillar (a monument) for God in that place.

In Jacob’s dream, he envisions a ladder (not like our modern ladder with rungs, but a stairway) from Earth to Heaven where Angels are descending and ascending.

Perhaps Jacob is skeptical of God’s promises, because he says in Gen 28:20 “If” God keeps his promises, the Lord will be his God, and the pillar he built will be God’s house, and he will give a tenth of everything he gains to God.

Notes:

1. The narrative does not condone Rebekah and Jacob’s ways, on the contrary, Esau is portrayed as the victim and pitied.
2. Esau’s plan to kill Jacob mimics Cain and Abel, Cain and Esau are the first-born, and both Abel and Jacob are the ones who receive God’s blessing.
3. God reiterating his promises confirms Jacob as the chosen one.
4. The ladder reaching the heavens recalls the plans for the Tower of Babel.

Questions:

1. 😯😯😯🤯🤯🤯
2. What’s the difference between birthright and blessing?
3. Was somehow the deception justified?
4. Was Isaac wrong to go against the oracle that Rebekah received?

Allegorical sense:

1. The irrevocable blessing of Isaac to Jacob foreshadows the irrevocability of the sacraments, where the effects of sacraments such as Baptism cannot be undone.
2. Jacob’s ladder is a prophetic image of Christ, who bridges the gap between the earth and the heavens by the union of his divine and human natures. The angels ascending and descending can be seen as mediation, which Christ is the perfect mediator. The angels descending are thus an image of Christ’s incarnation and the ascending are thus an image of Christ ascension.
   1. Further passages to study related to this:
      1. (John 1:51) Jesus referencing this passage
      2. (1 Timothy 2:5) Christ as the perfect mediator

Chapters 29-30

Jacob arrives at his uncle (Rebekah’s brother) Laban’s land. He meets his two daughters, Leah (the oldest) and Rachel (the youngest). He meets Rachel first, while out in the fields, and falls in love with her, because she was beautiful, like the other matriarchs Sarah and Rebekah.

Laban then makes a deal with Jacob: after he serves him for seven years, he will get to marry Rachel. He works for the seven years, but when it came around to the wedding, Laban deceives Jacob and gives Leah instead of Rachel, and Jacob only notices it in the morning after.

Jacob asks Laban why he did that, and he says that in their country they don’t give the younger before the firstborn. But Laban gives Rachel for marriage after the marriage festivities of Leah, in return for additional seven years of labor.

Laban gives Zilpah as maid to Leah and Bilhah to Rachel.

Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, and Leah feels unloved. The sisters then fight for Jacob attention, specially using sex. Leah initially is fertile while Rachel is not, because God barred Rachel’s womb when He saw Jacob’s favoritism.

Jacob’s children:

1. By Leah:
   1. Reuben
   2. Simeon
   3. Levi
   4. Judah
2. By Bilhah:
   1. Dan
   2. Naphtali
3. By Zilpah:
   1. Gad
   2. Asher
4. By Leah, again:
   1. Issachar
   2. Zebulun
   3. Dinah (daughter)
5. By Rachel:
   1. Joseph

The names all have meanings. The wives deliver their maids to Jacob to have children through them, just as Sarah did with Hagar, conceiving Ish’mael.

After Rachel bore Joseph, Jacob asks Laban to return to Canaan, and they make a deal for Jacob to take some of the flock, but Laban is dishonest, but Jacob is able to get the upper hand in the end, using his natural intelligence. He prospers, having large flocks, servants, camels and donkeys.

Notes: We have a nice little arc of divine providence (meeting Rachel) and divine justice (getting deceived because of his deception) for Jacob.

Fertility is seen as a great sign of God’s favor.

Verses: So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her Gen 29:20

“When the Lord saw that Leah was hated” Gen 29:31. Hated is used here not as we use, but as “less favored and loved”

Chapters 31-32

Jacob feels distrust and hostility from Laban and his sons, and the Lord said to Jacob to return to Canaan. He tells his wives (Leah and Rachel) that their father has cheated him, but the Lord helped him by giving him instructions on how to breed the selected animals so that Jacob could have a large flock. Jacob flees Laban house without telling him, and Rachel steals household Gods, showing an attachment to paganism.

Laban and his kinsmen go out to find Jacob, but the Lord came to Laban through a dream saying to not confront (“say not a word” Gen 31:24) Jacob. Laban finds Jacob and confronts on why he left without telling nobody, because Laban would make a feast for him. He also confronts why Jacob stole his gods, and they don’t know that it was Rachel. So he allows Laban to search the tents, but Rachel has hidden them and lies so that her father doesn’t find the household gods.

Jacob and Laban end up making a covenant.

Returning to Canaan, Jacob sees a vision of angels, just as he saw a vision when leaving Canaan 20 years before.

Jacob sends a message to Esau saying that Esau is Jacob’s lord, to appease Esau’s anger. The messenger returns saying that Esau is coming with 400 men. Jacob prays, and then prepared for an invasion, divided his camps, and sent an unusually large present to Esau.

In a night, Job “wrestled” with a nameless angel for the whole night. He ends up “winning”, and gets a blessing that changes his name to Israel, but injures his thigh.

Allegorical sense:

1. TODO: St Augustin: the angel is a type of Christ, and the defeat points to the Passion of Christ, where simultaneously some are blessed and some are crippled by unbelief.

Moral sense:

1. TODO: St Ambrose: wrestle with God is struggle for virtue.

Chapters 33-34

To the surprise of absolutely everyone, the reencounter of Esau and Jacob is warm and friendly, and the brothers are reconciled.

Shechem, the son of Hamor, a Hivite, rapes Dinah, son of Jacob. After that, Shechem wanted to make Dinah a maid of his wife, so Hamor tries to make a peaceful deal between the Hivites and Israel by intermarriage.

The brothers of Dinah lie, saying that they accept it, on the condition that Hamor gets all the men of the city to be circumcised, and Hamor convinces them.

Simeon and Levi (also daughters of Leah, as Dinah), while the men of the city were wounded by circumcision, revenge Dinah’s rape by attacking the city and killing Hamor and Shechem. They recover their sister and plunder the city’s resources. Jacob is fearful of reprisals by the Canaanites.

Notes: Sometimes, it seems that there is a fusion between individuals and nations, such as Shechem is the name of a person, but also of the city.

How could just two men slay all of a city?

Chapters 35-36

Jacob gets rid of the idols (the household gods) and amulets that were with his family and servants, and builds an altar to God when He requested.

God appears to Jacob changing his name to Israel and reaffirming the blessing of Abraham and Isaac.

Rachel dies while she was giving birth to Benjamin.

Reuben lays with Bilhah, Rachel’s maid and Jacob/Israel’s concubine, and Israel knows about this. (Gen 35:22).

Isaac dies, and Jacob and Esau buries him. Probably did not happen chronologically here, as Isaac was already in his deathbed 20 years before this (when Jacob left Canaan).

Esau’s descendants are shown: the Edomites and the Horites.

Esau and Jacob separate themselves because their possessions were too much for the land (Gen 36:6-8), just as happened with Abraham and Lot. Jacob stays in the promised land, just like Abraham, and Esau leaves, just as Lot did. (Gen 13:8-12)

Notes: Gen 35:22 (Reuben laying with Bilhah) reminds of Gen 9:22, where Ham tried to assert authority by laying with Noah’s wife (his mother).

Chapter 37

Jacob loved Joseph more than this other children, and gave him a long robe with sleeves. Joseph’s brothers hated him because he was favored, and they became resentful.

Joseph has two dreams, that indicated that he would reign over his family, and his brothers hate him more because of this.

Jacob sends Joseph to where their brothers were pasturing the flock. The brothers start plotting to kill him, but Reuben says to not kill him, and instead, throw him in a pit. After this, some Ishmaelite/Midianite traders were passing by and Judah suggests selling him as a slave to the traders, and they sell him.

The brothers tear his clothes apart and dip them in goat blood, and deliver the robe to Jacob, deceitfully, not telling what happened.

Chapter 38

What a mess…

Judah marries a Canaanite woman (unnamed), daughter of Shua. They had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er married Tamar. But Er was wicked and the Lord slew him. Then, Judah ordered Onan to go into Tamar, so that Er and Tamar shall have offspring.

But Onan went into Tamar, but spilled his seed on the ground, and that was wicked in the sight of the Lord and He slew him also.

Judah sends Tamar to her father’s house to be a widow, and promised to give Shelah in marriage when he grows up. But, later, after the death of Judah’s wife, Shelah has grown up, but he is not given in marriage to Tamar.

So Tamar covers herself as a “harlot” (a prostitute) and stands by at the road side waiting for Judah to pass by. Judah goes into Tamar, without knowing it was his daughter-in-law.

Judah recognizes that what she has done was wicked, but says that she is more righteous than him, as he didn’t gave Shelah to her. Tamar gives birth to twins: Perez and Zerah. Zerah put out his hand first, but Perez left out the womb completely first.

Notes: Perez is the genealogical ancestor to David, and ultimately to Jesus the Messiah. God can indeed make a good thing out of a mess.

Moral sense: Onan’s sin is twofold:

1. The intention (why)
2. The act (how) The levirate custom (the brother-in-law marriage) was not a capital offense in the law of Moses (to be declared later). Onan could refuse the levirate marriage, but it was considered shameful.

Since God slew Onan for his offense, it makes much more sense that Onan’s sin was also a sexual transgression, on par with sexual sins that have the death penalty in biblical law.

Onanism is the sin of separating the unitive and procreative ends of the marital act, covering contraception and masturbation.

Chapters 39-40

Key theme: Joseph suffers great injustices, but God was with him through everything, and he was blessed in the midst of the suffering.

Joseph is sold into the house of Potiphar, a high ranking official of the Pharaoh. He is a worthy servant and his lord prosper because of him, and his lord puts all that he has under Joseph’s rule.

Potiphar’s wife repeatedly asks for Joseph to lie with her, because he was good-looking, and probably because he was smart and capable. Joseph denies and runs every time, as it would be unfair to his master and a great sin to God. But the wife sets up a trap, when the house was empty, she asked again and grabbed his clothes. Joseph runs away, but afterwards, the wife lies to the other servants and to her husband saying that Joseph tried to lie with her.

Joseph is sent to prison, but God was with him, and he ends up taking care of the prison. The chief butler and baker of the Pharaoh are sent to prison, and they have dreams. Joseph, through God-given knowledge, interprets their dreams and predicts their fates.

Worthy passages:

1. Gen 39:21 “But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy”
2. Gen 40:8 “Do not interpretations belong to God?”
   1. God’s revelation is not of personal interpretation.

Allegorical sense: OT Joseph is a hard-worker and chaste, just like Saint Joseph.

Moral sense:

1. God is with us at all times, not only in the prosperity, when it is easy to see.
2. Do your best work even when you’re in unfair circumstances.
3. Don’t negotiate with lust, run away.

Chapters 41-42

Key themes:

1. Joseph is brought out of prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, as he did with the chief butler and baker: Egypt will have 7 years of great prosperity and 7 years of famine. Pharaoh, then, appoints Joseph to be the ruler of the land.
2. Joseph marries with an Egyptian high-class woman, Potiphera, and has two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim.
3. Jacob sends his sons to go to Egypt to buy food, as there were famine in Canaan. Joseph recognizes them, but they don’t recognize Joseph. Joseph says that they can only return if they bring Benjamin to him. He locks Simeon in prison.
4. Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies to gather information about his family and Benjamin and to father his family in Egypt.

Key passages:

1. Gen 41:55 “Ite ad Joseph”

Moral sense:

1. Go to St Joseph, the patron saint of the Church for help in moments of need.

Chapters 43-44

Key themes: The brothers return to Egypt, after Judah’s oath of protection of Benjamin to Israel. Joseph orders his servant to put his silver cup in Benjamin’s bag along with the food. Afterwards, he sends a servant to accuse the brothers of stealing the silver cup. Judah begs Joseph to not arrest Benjamin, and to offers himself in his place.

Literal sense: Joseph stages this theft to test their brother’s love for Benjamin, bringing his brother Judah’s change to the spotlight: He was the one that first suggested selling Joseph as a slave, and now, he begs for Joseph’s mercy and protects his brother with everything he has.

Allegorical sense: Benjamin is served five times more bread than the other brothers. In John, the multiplication of bread occurs over 5 pieces of bread and 2 pieces of fish.

Chapters 45-46

Joseph finally cries and reveals himself to his brothers. Joseph has forgiven his brothers, and sees Divine Providence (Gen 45:5) through his hardship and his brothers’ mistreatment of him. He sees that all his hardship allowed him to preserve the life of his family.

When the Pharaoh heard the news about Joseph’s brothers, he commanded them to go to Canaan and bring their entire family, and that the Pharaoh would give them land in Egypt. Joseph sends his brothers with food for the trip and gifts for Israel.

God speaks to Israel, reiterating his promise of making a great nation out of him. He says that he will bring back the nation to Canaan. This is the final appearance of God until Moses.

Israel in Egypt is constituted of 70 people.

Chapters 47-48

Key themes:

1. Pharaoh gives “the best land” to Israel.
2. The famine is severe, and the people sell have to sell everything they have to buy food, all their animals and then their land and then theirselves as slaves.
3. All Egyptian land, except for the land of the priests, is Pharaoh’s.
4. Israel is old and almost dying, makes Joseph promise to bury him with his father Isaac.
5. Israel blesses Joseph and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh.

A repeat of the Jacob-Esau blessing happens here, but without deception. Manasseh is the first-born, but Jacob/Israel, who is blind, purposefully, blessed Ephraim.

Anagogical sense

1. Gen 47:9 “The days of my sojourning are …“. Men are just pilgrims passing through this life. Our final destination is heaven, and after that the final bodily resurrection.

Chapters 49-50

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Reference

Genesis 9:22 “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.”