A PATRIARCHAL FAMILY SYSTEM STUDY FROM GENESIS

Priscilla Papers, 2011

Self, 2022

After the judgment of the flood, a triad of patriarch/monarchy/slavery was the organizing social foundation of all advanced human civilization. This was not the original plan in Genesis where male and female became one as foundational social structure upon which to build a race of humans that would reflect the very one's of God in the "image of God. The patriarchal stories reveal a process of divine teaching and discipline for a small group of people over a period of four generations. In the first two generations brothers had to be separated in order to prevent one from killing the other. In the third generation and similar thing happened, but under God's miraculous providence, brothers were separated and then reconciled such that the clan would be ruled by elders in fellowship from than one dominant patriarch. The significance of the female in a marriage was also elevated. Abraham and Sarah learned that God's promise had been for a couple, and not just any woman could be used for reproductive purpose. In the next generation God spoke to the wife, but the husband found it impossible to believe that God would speak to the woman and caused great suffering when he refused to believe what his wife told him had come from God. Four hundred years later God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt under Moses' leadership. Moses had a social vision for a nation that would be known as a nation of priests rather than a nation of powerful warriors. His vision was incomprehensible to his contemporaries, and none of the prophets and holy men of later centuries ever commented on what Moses had suggested. Jesus, however, established the nation of priests based upon Moses' social vision. After both Peter and John had studied with Jesus and served the cause of Jesus for a lifetime, both of them wrote about a nation or people of the holy priesthood in the closing books of the New Testament. Jesus said his message would spread in the world like yeast fermenting in bread or seeds scattered in a field worldwide. During his ministry he taught, healed, and brought hope to the poor. Over the centuries his true followers established schools, institutions of healing, and worked predominately about the poor. Today these institutions are accepted as human rights throughout the world. The Aristotelian model of the Roman family was eventually transformed by the influence of Christian teaching that achieved a much higher degree of equity among sexes and social groups. Genesis 1 introduces male and female as being the visible image of who and what the invisible God is. Genesis 2 brings the two together as one. While "the fall" shattered this image like a broken mirror, Jesus restored the image to wholeness as Hebrews 1 describes. The story of redemption reaches its climax with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19. The Father is the Father in the depth of the Son. The Son is the Son in the depth of the Father, And the Holy Spirit is the love that binds them. (According to the late Jesuit Father, Yves Raquin) Likewise, God created male and female to be God's image, so that The man is the man in the heart of the woman, And the woman is the woman in the heart of the man, And the vows of marriage in the presence of God are what bind them in love.

Within the general context of the so-called “Primeval History” of the world that makes up the first eleven chapters of Genesis, “the toledoth of the sons of Noah” recorded in chapter 10 is unique. After the grand universal scope of the first creation narrative (Gen 1:1–2:3) and the more “down-to-earth” second creation and Eden story (2:4–3:24), after the tale of social origins in chapter 4, the linear genealogy of chapter 5, and the elaborate and complex flood narrative of chapters 6–9 comes the no-less complex and elaborate genealogy of the descendants of Noah, often dubbed “The Table of the Nations.” This “table” presents all the peoples of the earth as an extended family group, a collection of mishpahot. The purpose of this paper, respectfully presented to my teacher Professor Aaron Skaist, is to offer some insight as to the background, genre, and purpose of this chapter within the preliminary chapters of the book of Genesis.

Presbyterion, 2023

From Isaac to Jesus, numerous key Biblical figures have interesting birth stories. Through miraculous events fortunes are reversed, adverse situations such as barrenness are overcome, mothers bear sons, and those sons go on to play essential roles as the story unfolds. The moments when Biblical narratives slow down to recount the details of specific births are especially significant. It is also notable that, in an ancient culture in which men tended to have more education and influence, much attention is given to the mothers of these children. Such stories are especially concentrated in the book of Genesis, as we read of the mothers of the Israelites, many of whom are also ancestresses of Christ. Through God’s sovereign intervention in their lives, they bear children who are links in the historical chain of the fulfillment of His promises. This paper will argue that these childbearing narratives are an integral part of salvation history, as God preserves the lines of seed and covenant through these mothers. The crucial role that they play can be seen by examining three redemptive-historical themes—promise, preparation, and peripety—as they occur in the stories of five ancestresses of Christ in Genesis—Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Tamar.

2019

We watch the news, we read biographies, we read magazines, we enjoy heated discussions with friends (and not-friends!). Yet, the single most formative influence on our worldviews and behaviors is 'story.' We hear stories as children that shape how we see the world. We embrace stories as adults that move our lives in particular directions. Stories profoundly impact our lives, and the stories we tell impact the lives of others. If we want to change someone's life, we would do better to tell a story than launch a philosophical argument or set up an academic proof. This paper is an edited excerpt from a doctoral dissertation: Jon A Herrin, "Genesis 1-12: Foundations for a Biblical Worldview." PhD diss., Edinburg Theological Seminary, 2018.

An analysis of Bible stories about the patriarchs’ treatment of their children reveals pathological family patterns, which reoccur in subsequent generations. The outcome of parental favoritism and of unhealthy coalitions is sibling rivalry, leading to hatred and to violence among the children. The transgenerational chain of pathologies is traced back to God’s differential treatment of Cain and Abel and to the resultant murder. The legitimization of family pathologies by the biblical stories is discussed.

Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 2009

In this chapter I offer one, or a small set of, possible interpretation(s) of the basic story of the Bible. I suggest that the symbolic meaning of the story derives in large part from conceptual structures and conceptual mechanisms that are shared by a large number of speakers of English and other languages belonging to the European cultural sphere. My claim is that a large part of the dominant features of Christianity can be understood on the basis of people's everyday conceptual system and that the understanding of these features does not require an entirely independently existing conceptual apparatus that is somehow unique to the interpretation of the sacred.