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Three Strange Things You May Not Have Noticed in Genesis
The first Book of the Bible is also one of the Strangest and most Complex
Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is also one of the most interesting. Most people have at least a passing familiarity with its contents. The first eleven chapters comprise the Bible’s mythic cycle: an explanation of the creation of the world, along with other etiological stories explaining how human beings came to till soil and speak different languages, and it’s rounded out by a Flood narrative that is remarkably similar to that of other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Following that are the tales of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are chosen by God and who have a series of dramatic adventures which include the destruction of cities, the betrayal of brothers, and the near sacrifice of a child. Eventually, Joseph, the son of Jacob, ends up in Egypt, setting the stage for the next dramatic chapter in Exodus.
Genesis is a massive written compendium of ancestral stories that were probably once passed down orally. The stories are very old, and very important to the culture in which they belong. The act of writing them down, maybe for the first time, must have been a nerve-wracking endeavor, and different takes on these events are attested by the evidence of multiple authors and editors in…