Chapter 2 – Beginnings: Stories of God’s Creation and Promises

1. Chapter 2 – Beginnings:Stories of God’s Creation and Promises 1 - Genesis was put into its current form toward the end of the Jews exile in Babylon (around 600 BCE) and then finalized after their return to Canaan (Judah) 2 - The eleven chapters of Genesis contain: How the goodness of Creation came from the one God How sin entered the world: Adam & Eve and the Fall Cain & Abel; Noah & the Flood; how the evil of sin spread the Tower of Babel: how humanity, in terrible condition, was unable to save itself from its own sinfulness) 3 - The rest of Genesis tells of how one man, Abraham, and his descendents, down to Joseph became that Chosen People, the Israelites

2. 4 - The eternal questions facing mankind: why are we here, are we supposed to be happy, what is sin, is there a hell and on and on are also asked in Genesis 5 - Contrasted with the fear and misery preached by many polytheistic religions, the Jews saw a beautiful world created out of chaos by one God (monotheism) 6 - Other religions created monsters of all types on land, in the sea and in the sea while Judaism saw all creation as good and put at the disposal of mankind. “God saw everything that He had created, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen 1:1-31 and 2:1-4)

3. 7 - In Genesis God created a day for Himself after His labors: if God rested on the 7th day who were His Chosen People not do the same? 8 - Jews celebrate Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown on Saturday. Christians celebrate Sabbath on Sunday because that is the day we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus 9 - No contradiction exists between the Christian view of creation and Darwin’s theory of evolution. 10 - Genesis is a document of faith – you cannot apply modern standards of mathematics, science, cosmology and astrophysics to a document written for an audience whose understanding of reality is that of over 3,000 years ago!

4. 11 - Sabbath is a gift from God – not to be turned down 12 - Genesis tells two somewhat different stories of God’s creation of man and woman. But in both cases man and woman sin by trying to be equal to God. 13 - “Original Sin” is the first sin of humankind 14 - “Sin” essentially is the refusal to acknowledge God as God and ourselves as dependent on Him 15 – In Catholic Tradition, all suffering – even that from natural disasters, illness, and death – stems from the sin of Adam and Eve, not from God. As Adam and Eve learned, we don’t have to be tricked by our own desires, we chose to be!

5. 16 - Cain and Abel were sons of Adam and Eve. As in most families, jealousy arises and the all too familiar response of one as to the location of the other echoes down the ages to us today: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 17 - Sin spreads until God can find only one just man: Noah. He tells Noah to build an arc to protect himself, his family and some animal pairs from the forthcoming flood.(There are many ancient tales of floods wiping out most if not all of mankind) 18 – After the flood, Noah offers sacrifice and God rewards Noah’s faithfulness with a covenant (see Genesis chapters 6 to 8 and 9:1-17)

6. 19 - All the flood stories focus on teaching the powerful truth that whoever hears and obeys God’s word will be saved and whoever does not, will be lost. The authors’ were not interested in figuring out the historical or geological causes of the flood, if indeed such a flood occurred. 20 - Devout people are not necessarily saved from disaster. Even those who Jesus says will live forever are not saved from calamity in this life. 21 - A rainbow: a sign of God’s love for every creature on the earth and a promise that the world will never again be destroyed by a flood.

7. 22 - The Tower of Babel symbolizes the presumption of nations that they can wield authority on Earth just as God Himself would do 23 - Semite -- refers to a number of ancient peoples of the Near East from whom the Israelites descended 24 - How did Abraham come to terms with God’s call that he move his family to a new land. It had to be a struggle. The call from God probably came the way that God’s call comes to anyone: silently, subtly, and during the search for answers that we call prayer. 25 – Abraham’s wife is barren so he has a son, Ishmael, by Sara’s maid Hagar.

8. 26 - Monogamy – a man has one wife Polygamy – a man can have many wives Concubines – mistresses who are not married 27 - Circumcision – the removal of the foreskin of the penis – the sign of the covenant between God and his chosen people 28 – God finds only one good man, Lot, in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and God elects to save only Lot and his family from His wrath. 28 – Abraham is visited by 3 strangers who later turn out to be angels. The strangers promise that Sarah will have a child and indeed later she does and names him Isaac

9. 29 – Isaac will become the leader of the Jewish people after Abraham dies 30 – Ishmael becomes the father of the Arab peoples. Muslims claim Abraham as their father in faith through the line of Ishmael. 31 – Abraham is considered the ancestor of all three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. 32 – God tested Abraham’s trust by ordering him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Although stopped by an angel, Abraham passed the test. 33 – Abraham and Sarah are today buried side-by-side in a common building: Abraham on the synagogue side and Sarah on the mosque side.

10. 34 – Isaac marries a beautiful wife Rebekah and she bears him twins born seconds apart. By tradition the elder twin, Esau, should become the leader upon Isaac’s death. But Rebekah has a dream that the younger twin, Jacob, should take over. She contrives, and succeeds, to have Isaac confer his blessing on Jacob by trickery. A blessing once given cannot be withdrawn so Esau is now out of the picture. 35 – To escape Esau’s fury Jacob and is family flee only to return many years later to make peace. 36 – Jealousy exists in every family. Joseph, a favorite son of a later generation, is sold into slavery into Egypt. He earns Pharos’s trust and is put in chare of preparing for a future famine.

11. 37 - To escape the famine plaguing their own land Joseph’s brothers must go to Egypt to seek help. And unknown to them the official they must deal with is Joseph – the one they sold into slavery. 38 – After prolonged discussions the family is reunited and reconciled. 39 – Genesis must have had a very uplifting effect on the Jews held captive in Babylon: God worked with simple, flawed human beings to bring about His Promise! *** End of PowerPoint ***