Isaac's dysfunctional family

Genesis 25

Genesis 25 begins with another round of genealogy, in regards to the children Abraham has with a new wife, Keturah, who is also referred to as a concubine in this same chapter. It really has me wondering who Keturah is, this woman who is barely mentioned in the Bible, but manages to occupy the role of both concubine and wife to the same man.

Keturah is described by many rabbis as being a woman of virtue. In Judaism, it is explained that the name “Keturah” is based on her acts, which were “pleasant like frankincense”. Some rabbinical scholars hold the belief that Keturah and Hagar are the same person. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9293-keturah

Abraham did not treat Hagar and Ishmael very well. Likewise, he sends all of Keturah’s children away so that they would not live in the same vicinity of his precious son, Issac, who inherited everything. Abraham wants Isaac to be considered his rightful heir without being threatened by any of his half-brothers. This favoritism is apparently okay in the Abraham family tree.

The descendents of one of Abraham’s sons by Keturah, Midian, will feature in later stories. Joseph was sold by his brother to the Midianites, and the Israelites will attack the town of Midian in later years. There is no archaeological or historical record for a Midian tribe, all anecdotes in regards to Midianites comes from the Torah and Qur’an.

At the time of Abraham’s death, Isaac lived near Beer-Lahai-Roi. This is the same well where God found Hagar after she fled into the desert.

We learn the names of Ishmael’s twelve sons, who will supposedly become the twelve tribal rulers that God proclaimed they would be. There is a very different translation in the NIV compared to the JPS Torah to describe Ismael’s sons.

Genesis 25: 17-18, NIV Altogether, Ishmael lived 137 years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people. His descendents settled in the are from Havilah to Shur, near the border of Egypt, as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.

Genesis 25:17-18, JPS These were the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years; then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kin. They dwelt from Havilah, by Shur, which is close to Egypt, all the way to Asshur; they camped alongside their kinsmen.

Why is this important? Because today’s Jewish people are supposedly the descendants of Isaac, just like today’s Arab Muslims are supposedly the descendants of Ishmael. And, some people on this planet like to claim that these two ethnic groups will always be at war with each other, because the Bible says so. The Christian Bible is the book that uses the word hostility, while the Torah makes no such implication. Take, for example, this earlier verse:

Genesis 16:12, NIV “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

Genesis 16:12, JPS “He shall be a wild ass of a man; His hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he shall dwell alongside all of his kinsmen.”

Granted, in both translations, Ishmael is not portrayed as the nicest of folks, and is very different from the Ishmael found in the Qu’ran. But, it is only the Christian Bible that claims he and his descendants will be hostile towards their extended family.

Rebekah was from Northwest Mesopotamia, Abraham’s place of birth, and in this chapter we learn she was also associated with Arameans:

Genesis 25:19-20, NIV This is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

So apparently, Rebekah was from Ur, since Eliezer was sent to Abraham’s place of birth to find a wife for Isaac, the town of Nahor (Gen 24:10), and is also an Aramean. This is starting to get confusing!

According to more scientific, non-biblical sources, the Arameans (or Aramaean) were a confederacy of tribes that spoke a northern Semitic language (Aramaic) and, between the 11^th and 8^th century BCE, occupied Aram, a large area in northern Syria. Some of these tribes also conquered large regions in Mesopotamia during the same time period.

Isaac and Rebekah also struggled with infertility, like Isaac’s parents, and relied on God’s interference in order to have a child. Rebekah eventually became pregnant with twins, and readers once again have pre-destination thrown at them. Before Rebekah’s twins are even born, God dooms the elder one (Esau) in favor of the younger twin (Jacob).

Genesis 25:23, NIV The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

The boys were born, Esau and Jacob. Esau was named for his red hair, and Jacob for the fact that he was holding Esau’s heel when he emerged from the womb. The name Jacob literally means “heel holder”, and in later times also came to mean “supplanter”. Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah favored Jacob. Once again, the choosing of favorites is perfectly fine! It’s nice to see that dysfunctional families have such a long, storied history.

This chapter ends with yet another confusing tale. Esau, the hunter, returns “from the open country”, starving. Jacob just so happens to be cooking some stew (I thought that would be a job for the slaves?). Instead of being a nice brother, and offering Esau a meal with no strings attached, Jacob decides to take advantage of the situation. He bribes Esau, demanding that he forego his birthright, before he will give him any food. Esau (did I mention that he was starving), consents. Jacob is a jerk.

The Death of Sarah

The Cave of Machpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs), the supposed resting place
of Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca, and Leah. 

Genesis 23

Genesis 23:1-2, NIV Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.

In the last chapter, we learn that Abraham settles in Beersheba after he is tested by God. So why do the husband and wife pair live apart, with Sarah residing in Hebron? It is unclear as to if they ever reunited after Abraham took Isaac away to offer him as a sacrifice. I could definitely see how that action might result in a marital rift.

Ironically, most of this chapter is spent on the bartering that took place between Abraham and the Hittites, rather than any particular grief over Sarah’s death. Abraham negotiates to buy a tomb for her, and the sidebar in my NIV Student Bible describes the scenario aptly:

“This may be the oldest recorded business deal. The elaborate politeness sounds very much like bargaining in the Middle East today. Underneath the smooth words, shrewd negotiating is going on.”

What is interesting to note here, is the reference to Hittites. The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who established a kingdom in what is now Turkey and northern Syria, in the 18^th BCE. This would be long after Abraham is presumed to have lived, if the story is based on a real person. The very first indication of their existence in ancient texts occurs around 1900 BCE. Either the Hittites of the Torah are a different group of people, or it is another contradiction in Genesis of how Biblical stories don’t line up with the historical and archaeological record.

This chapter also contains both the first account of a burial in the Bible, and the first commercial transaction.

Herod the Great is the one to have built the large, rectangular enclosure pictured above over the caves that are presumed to be the final resting place of both Sarah and Abraham, as well as some of their descendants. 

The plight of Lot amidst destruction in Sodom and Gomorrah

Genesis 19

The men of Sodom, young and old, are an unruly, brutish lot. This chapter also contains the story cited most often by conservative Christians as their proof that homosexuality is a sin, and this story is an outright condemnation of LGBT relationships. Genesis 19 recounts a story of attempted gang rape of two outsiders.

Genesis 19:4-5, JPS They had not yet lain down, when the townspeople, the men of Sodom, young and old—all the people to the last man—gathered about the house. And they shouted to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may be intimate with them.”

Trying to appease the angry mob, Lot offers his virgin daughters to the crown as an alternative. Awww, what a swell dad. I am not sure why this reprehensible act gets swept so quickly under the rug.

What is left unsaid by conservative Christians, is the many different ways this passage can be interpreted. Where does it specify that the sin is homosexuality, or that the townspeople are all gay? In the ancient Near East, same-sex rape was used as a way to assert power and control over captured enemies. It was a war tactic, and it sounds more like that is what is going on in this chapter, not an angry, gay mob out to have joyful sex with anyone and everyone. The sin identified here could very easily be the act of rape and sexual assault, not being gay. The motivation of the Sodomites to degrade, humiliate, and sexually assault those they perceive as their enemies may be the motivation and underlying reason for the destruction of Sodom. Mob violence, not homosexual desire is at the root of Sodom’s demise.

Pillar of salt near the Dead Sea.

Lot’s wife

Genesis 19:26, NIV But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Not only is Lot’s wife left nameless (like so many other wives in the Old Testament), but her death is brushed aside in one sentence. She had to leave behind family, her home, and for just one second made a mistake. And becomes a pillar of salt, doomed for eternity as a symbol of indecision. In contrast, Lot so recently offered up his daughters to be raped, a much worse action in my opinion, and he gets off scot free.

There are a myriad number of myths and legends that sprouted up around the shores of the Dead Sea, and this appears to be one of them. The Dead Sea is one of the oldest lakes on earth. The eastern side includes mineral and hot springs, some of them with sulfurous odors. The shores of the Dead Sea contain layers upon layers of salt, and salt pillars have popped up from time to time, like this one:

In this rather magical environment, it is no surprise that legends would pop up to explain the strange geological occurrences in the region. The idea of humans being transformed into boulders and other natural objects also appears in numerous mythologies around the world. For example, Ovid’s tale about Baucis and Philemon contains many parallels to the story of Lot in Genesis 19.

In the Cave

Eventually, Lot and his daughters leave the small town of Zoar, and go to the mountains, living in a cave. If you thought the story was weird before this, be prepared for a whole new level of creepy. The daughter’s get their father drunk, sleep with him (he is unaware of this happening, apparently), and each conceive and give birth to a son. The eldest daughter’s son was the father of the Moabites, the youngest daughter’s son was the father of Ammonites.

This makes absolutely no sense, until you take a look at the archaeological record. The Kingdom of Moab existed along a mountainous strip of land in Jordan. During Biblical times, the nation was often in conflict with its Israelite neighbors, which could explain why an ancient Israelite text portrays Moabites as the result of an incestuous union. Ancient propaganda at its finest! Ammon could be connected to Amman, in Jordan. In the 13^th century BC, Amman was called Rabbath Ammon by the Ammonites, before it was conquered by the Assyrians.

The Covenant of Circumcision

Genesis 17

This chapter continues the story of Abram, whose name has now been changed to Abraham. Sarai is changed to Sarah, and Jewish men are doomed to circumcision.

God once again reiterates the “father of nations” covenant, he’s starting to sound like a trickster full of empty promises. This time, he asks something in return:

Genesis 17:10-14, NIV “This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep; Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

God does not condone slavery in this passage, instead he goes one step further. He instructs Abraham to circumcise not only himself and his son Ishmael, but the male slaves in his household as well. If this is divinely inspired by God, not only was he cool with slaves, but he wanted to enforce painful body modification on them as well. OR…..the original authors were not divinely inspired, but lived in a society where slavery was A-OK, and you could do whatever you wanted to your slaves without a second thought.

The last line of that verse also stands out. Why the harshness, casting out uncircumcised men from his tribe? Why is he asking every.single.Jewish.male to go through something traumatic to prove his love to God? God seems very much like a bully in this chapter.

Rendering of an ancient Egyptian carved
scene of circumcision from the tomb
of Ank-Mahor at Saqqara, Sixth Dynasty,Teti,
c. 2340 BC.

According to the archaeological record, circumcision did not originate with the ancient Israelites. The first recorded evidence of circumcision is actually in Egypt. The earliest mummies were circumcised (circa 1300 BCE), but wall paintings in Egypt show that it was customary several thousand years prior to that, going back to the Sixth Dynasty (2345-2181 BCE).

Circumcision in boys on the 8^th day after birth is an ongoing tradition in Jewish families, known as the Brit milah, or bris. Both Muslims and Jews still participate in the covenant of circumcision, Christianity is the only Abrahamic religion that doesn’t. I couldn’t find a definitive answer why, but I believe it has something to with Paul, who postulated that faith in Jesus was the only requirement for salvation, and circumcision wasn’t necessary. Paul also seems to be the one responsible for early Christians to stop following the 613 Commandments, or mitzvot, from the Old Testament. For a time in the 4^th Century, circumcision actually became illegal for Christians in the Roman Empire.

Commandment 2/613 Laws in the Torah: To circumcise all males on the 8^th day after their birth.

And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days. (Gen 17:12, JPS)

New words:

El Shaddai (Gen 17:1, JPS I am El Shaddai) – one of the Judaic names of God. Its etymology comes from the influence of the Ugaritic religion upon modern Judaism. Shaddai was one of the many Gods in Canaanite religion, the God of the Mountain. Shaddai was worshipped in the Amorite city of Shaddai in northern Syria. In the Bible, it is conventionally translated as God Almighty. Just another tidbit that lends credence to the idea that ancient Israelites were polytheistic.