The Book of Genesis
Overview
About
![On Reading the Book of Genesis](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L01.jpg)
01: On Reading the Book of Genesis
This lecture introduces the course's ground rules—a holistic (rather than separate-source) treatment that approaches the text as literature, history, and theological treatise that must be read with, and understood from, the world-view of its original readers.
![Genesis 1, The First Creation Story](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L02.jpg)
02: Genesis 1, The First Creation Story
We plunge immediately into the biblical text, with the goal of learning how to read the literature of ancient Israel, so greatly removed from our own world in both time and place.
![Genesis 2–3, The Second Creation Story](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L03.jpg)
03: Genesis 2–3, The Second Creation Story
This lecture highlights the four major differences between the first and second creation accounts and discusses the main reason why Genesis, and hence the Bible, begins with two divergent narratives.
![An Overview of Ancient Israelite History](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L04.jpg)
04: An Overview of Ancient Israelite History
This lecture presents historical background necessary for any study of the Bible, including the history of ancient Israel from Abraham, c. 1400 B.C.E., to the conquest of Alexander the Great, c. 330 B.C.E., and the development of the biblical canon.
![The Ancient Near East](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L05.jpg)
05: The Ancient Near East
We survey the broad context of ancient Israel and its world - the ancient Near East divided into the three major geographical regions of Egypt, Canaan, and Mesopotamia.
![The JEDP Theory and Alternative Approaches](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L06.jpg)
06: The JEDP Theory and Alternative Approaches
The unified approach to the two creation accounts presented in Lecture 3 is one most scholars debate, citing many contradictions. This lecture introduces their four-source hypothesis, and discusses its good points and its problems.
![Genesis 6–8, The Flood Story](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L07.jpg)
07: Genesis 6–8, The Flood Story
We compare the Bible's account of the flood to the story incorporated in the "Epic of Gilgamesh," the literary classic of ancient Mesopotamia, and also use the biblical version as a way of comparing the contrasting methods of the JEDP and unified-whole theories.
![Genesis 9, Covenant](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L08.jpg)
08: Genesis 9, Covenant
This lecture focuses on a crucial concept in biblical studies and how this idea of a bond between God and humanity, in general, and the people of Israel, in particular, distinguished ancient Israel from other cultures and religions of the ancient Near East.
![Genesis 12–22, The Abraham Story](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L09.jpg)
09: Genesis 12–22, The Abraham Story
This lecture presents an overview of the Abraham narrative, focusing on the interrelated themes of God granting the land of Canaan to Abraham and Abraham's quest for an heir.
![When and Where Did Abraham Live?](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L10.jpg)
10: When and Where Did Abraham Live?
This question gives rise to considerable scholarly debate. We examine the arguments and also discuss the insights into Genesis provided by the archives and epic compositions, respectively, of two ancient cities.
![Genesis 21–22, Abraham Put to the Test](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L11.jpg)
11: Genesis 21–22, Abraham Put to the Test
We look in detail at the last two chapters of Abraham's story (including the "Aqedah," or binding, of Isaac) giving a close reading to the text that focuses on the different literary techniques used by the author.
![Women in the Bible—Sarah and Hagar](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L12.jpg)
12: Women in the Bible—Sarah and Hagar
A relatively new avenue of biblical scholarship is an increased awareness of the many important female characters in the story. We illustrate the point by examining the roles of Sarah and Hagar in the Abraham narrative.
![Genesis 24, A Bride for Isaac](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L13.jpg)
13: Genesis 24, A Bride for Isaac
We look at the longest prose narrative in the Torah (made so by the unusual method of its literary construction) and also explore the reasons for its focus on a minor, and anonymous, character.
![The Barren Woman and the Younger Son](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L14.jpg)
14: The Barren Woman and the Younger Son
This lecture looks at the literary and theological reasons for the persistence of two key themes throughout Genesis - the woman unable to bear a child and the superseding of an older brother by a younger one.
![The Literary Structure of Genesis](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L15.jpg)
15: The Literary Structure of Genesis
In this lecture we look systematically at the way individual stories are assembled to create a literary whole. We look at literary and theological reasons for mirroring structures within the stories of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, as well as parallel structures within the creation stories.
![Different Bible Translations](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L16.jpg)
16: Different Bible Translations
We pause from our close reading of Genesis to examine the issue of different translations of the Bible (including the possible approaches and the reasons for them) illustrating the differences with several passages.
![Genesis 27, Jacob and Esau](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L17.jpg)
17: Genesis 27, Jacob and Esau
The well-known story of Jacob and Esau allows us to see the literary device of repetition at work, as well as Rebekah's role as instigator of the deception of Isaac and the punishment she receives for her actions.
![Genesis 29, Jacob and Rachel](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L18.jpg)
18: Genesis 29, Jacob and Rachel
We discuss several literary devices available to ancient Israelite writers, including the use of "typescene" (the repeated narration of a theme or story using different characters or circumstances) in the tale of Jacob and Rachel meeting at the well.
![The Date of the Book of Genesis](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L19.jpg)
19: The Date of the Book of Genesis
When was Genesis written? Previous lectures have dated it, in passing, to the 10th century. This lecture defends that conclusion, starting with the tendency of many authors to reveal and reflect the present when writing about the past.
![Genesis 37, Joseph and His Brothers](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L20.jpg)
20: Genesis 37, Joseph and His Brothers
This lecture focuses on the final main section of the Book of Genesis (the Joseph narrative) including a look at the difficult question of who actually transported Joseph to Egypt and the author's reasons for making this question so difficult.
![Genesis 38, The Story of Judah and Tamar](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L21.jpg)
21: Genesis 38, The Story of Judah and Tamar
We look at the links of theme and vocabulary between the stories of Judah and Tamar, and Joseph being taken to Egypt, and we explore the moral lesson Tamar's story was meant to convey to ancient Israelite readers.
![Genesis 39, The Story of Potiphar’s Wife](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L22.jpg)
22: Genesis 39, The Story of Potiphar’s Wife
This lecture examines a motif also present in ancient Greek and Egyptian texts - the handsome young man resisting seduction by his master's wife. We discuss the similarities and differences.
![The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L23.jpg)
23: The Egyptian Background of the Joseph Story
There are many points of contact between the Joseph story and ancient Egypt. They show the author's intimate knowledge of Egyptian culture and his expectations that his Israelite audience would absorb many of the details.
![One Last Text—and the Text as a Whole](https://secureimages.teach12.com/tgc/images/m2/wondrium/courses/6234/6234-L24.jpg)
24: One Last Text—and the Text as a Whole
The concluding lecture offers an opportunity to look ahead to the succeeding Book of Exodus, re-examines a key part of Genesis in light of what we discover, and reaches a major conclusion concerning what the Book of Genesis is really about.