Kierkegaard on Abraham

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a brilliant philosopher who was critical of Romanticism’s emphasis on naturalism and Empiricism’s claim that moral judgment must be based on reason and verifiable data. He believed that the basis for forming moral judgment is always subjective and that it requires surrender to God.

Although the term “existentialism” never appears in Kierkegaard’s writings, he is regarded as the founder of this philosophical approach. Kierkegaard believed that the value of philosophers’ thoughts should be judged by their lives rather than by their intellectual conceptions because ultimately, the individual’s life is the basis upon which he is judged by God. As important as a writer's work is to his existence, it is his life as a whole that ultimately matters to God. This is why Kierkegaard was attracted to the lives of saintly figures, especially biblical Abraham, who he called a “knight of faith.”

Kierkegaard and Nietzsche shared the realization that anything decided to be meaningful must come from within the individual. It is the human race itself that attributes meaning. In Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and in Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals, each philosopher sets out to discover the importance of subjective human emotion, and the role of human freedom in the universe.

While Nietzsche’s immoral Superman is the embodiment of his philosophy, Abraham is the embodiment of Kierkegaard’s existentialist philosophy. For Kierkegaard, true individuality comes through surrendering one’s individuality. Abraham discovers his meaning in the cosmos through losing himself in God, but when one tries to explain this to another person, the explanation seems absurd.

Kierkegaard recognizes an existential duty to a Creator whose moral authority outranks all social norms. He views Abraham's near sacrifice of his son as a consequence of a “teleological suspension of the ethical” rather than as an expression of obedience to social norms (this assumes that child sacrifice was practiced among Abraham’s people). From Kierkegaard's perspective, the distinction between good and evil is dependent exclusively on God. Therefore it is possible for Abraham to live and act beyond the prescribed norms of his day to fulfill a spiritual destiny that he alone could fulfill.

In Kierkegaard's scheme it makes little difference whether the son bound was Isaac (as Jews claim) or Ishmael (as Muslims claim). The story is not about recognition of the first-born son (a social norm), but about the surrender of Abraham's very being in an existential sacrifice that by faith overcomes despair.

Ethical cases such as Abraham's are problematic since we have no public policy to guide our decision about whether Abraham is obeying God's command or is delusional. For this reason Kierkegaard’s existential philosophy can’t be used to formulate specific ethical guidelines for society. It is simply too personal and too subjective. However, for Christians it is extremely relevant because it points to the necessity of spiritual ascent, divine enlightenment, and a deepening of communion with God.

Kierkegaard found inspiration in both Abraham and in the lives of the saints, especially the sixth-century monk, John Climacus, who spent his days in solitude, prayer and fasting at the monastery on Mount Sinai. Climacus wrote “The Ladder of Divine Ascent,” a work arranged into thirty chapters or “steps.” Each step details the vices that the individual must conquer and the virtues that the individual must perfect in order to ascend the spiritual “ladder” to the Kingdom of Heaven. Here are some of his famous sayings:

Step 1: A Christian is one who imitated Christ in thought, word and deed. A lover of God is one who lives in communion with all that is natural and sinless.

Step 5: Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent inflicts his own punishment upon himself.

Step 9: If you forgive quickly, you, too, will be quickly forgiven.

Step 15: Purity is putting on the nature of angels. It is the longed-for house of Christ and the earthly heaven of the heart.

Step 17: He who has tasted the things on high easily despises what is below. He who has not, only finds joy in possessions.

Step 25: Humility is a divine shelter which prevents us from seeing our achievements.

Step 50: There remain three virtues that bind and secure the union of all: Faith, Hope and Love--- and the greatest of these is Love.

Kierkegaard published Philosophical Fragments using the name “John Climacus”. In this work, he poses 3 questions:

What is the relationship between history (temporal existence) and human consciousness (eternal existence)?

Is there any purpose or meaning to events in our temporal existence other than historical interest?

Is it possible to base eternal happiness upon historical knowledge?

Kierkegaard’s solution was to find a link between the historical/temporal and the eternal/non-temporal. He does that by explaining knowledge as miraculous. He agrees with the Socratic-Platonic view that there is no learning, since one can’t learn what one already knows. Drawing on John Climacus’ understanding of spiritual enlightenment, Kierkegaard argues that learning involves a mysterious change that takes place in the learner at a specific moment of his existence - a moment of enlightenment. In this moment, the learner is absolutely certain that he/she has grasped eternal knowledge. Kierkegaard maintains that this is miraculous and supernatural because it can only be initiated by God through a series of historical/temporal events. This learning (or enlightenment) is individual, subjective and unique for every learner.

Kierkegaard argues further that individuals are unable to know anything that is certain except through this supernatural intervention in history. In this sense, Kierkegaard is a Skeptic who doubts that humans are able of our own faculties to learn or know anything.

So what makes learning or enlightenment possible? Kierkegaard recognizes that human existence involves suffering, anguish, pain, sickness and death. That being our plight, we naturally desire an escape. This desire is very powerful. It is a yearning for the eternal that leads us to “leap into absurdity”.

What is the absurdity? For Kierkegaard, it is the supernatural intervention of the divine Person Jesus Christ entering history, making it possible for us to know that God exists. The existence of God can’t be proved by reason, by experimentation, by logic or through observation. Only by faith in this divine intervention can one hope to escape the suffering of this life and move from ignorance to enlightenment. Here we see how Kierkegaard’s “supernaturalism” is clearly the opposite of the naturalism of Nietzsche and the Romantics.

Whereas Nietzsche rejected the prevailing morality in favor of his unique brand of “immoralism”, Kierkegaard presents social norms as "the universal" measure of service to the community. Even human sacrifice is justified in terms of how it serves the community, so when Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia he is performing a tragic sacrifice in order that the Greek expedition to Troy may succeed. Were Abraham’s intention in sacrificing Isaac to gain worldly success, he would simply be another tragic hero like Agamemnon. But as Kierkegaard understands the story of Mount Moriah, it is Abraham’s absolute surrender to God that makes possible his receiving back his offering and much more. Kierkegaard explains, “Infinite resignation is the last stage before faith …for only in infinite resignation do I become conscious of my external validity, and only then can one speak of grasping existence by virtue of faith.”

Genesis and Israel's Land Claim

David Noel Freedman died on April 26, 2008. His breadth of knowledge of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek New Testament is astonishing. He dedicated his adult life to rigorous study of the Bible, and edited all 55 volumes of the Anchor Bible Series.

Dr. Freedman saw Genesis as a critical part of the Jewish claim to Palestine. In an interview with Biblical Archaeology Review, he said, "This is really a quasi-legal brief on behalf of Israel and its claim to the land. The contention is that even though the original grant of land to them was conditional—provisional—and they failed to maintain the conditions—they didn’t fulfill the requirements of the covenant and they lost the land—nevertheless, over-riding this historical truth is the original commitment made by God to Abraham in Genesis 15 (and repeated elsewhere to Abraham and his descendants). There it’s spelled out. God committed himself by oath to give the land to Abraham and his descendants. According to their understanding, even if they deserved to lose it and lost it, they still have this claim because the original commitment was unconditional, irrevocable—'To your offspring, I give this land' [Genesis 15:18]—and there’s no way it can be reversed."

So does Genesis establish a legal basis for Jews to claim exclusive right to the west bank of the Jordan? Only if we interpret "descendents" to mean only Isaac's offspring by Rebecca. But what if Isaac already had a half-sister wife dwelling in Beersheba, as the text hints by having Abraham's servant bring Rebecca to Beersheba instead of to Hebron?

And what about Abraham's other sons and daughters?

The promise of the land is to Abraham's descendents and Genesis counts Abraham's descendents through 8 sons: Ishmael (by Hagar), Isaac (by Sarah) and Joktan, Midian, Zimram, Medan, Ishbak and Shuah (by Keturah). The Joktanite tribes today dwell in southern Arabia and their habitation of this region has been largely uninterrupted throughout the centurires.

Genesis 10: 26 tells us that Joktan had 13 sons. If Joktan followed the pattern of his fathers, his 2 wives would have maintained separate households on a north-south axis (just as Abraham maintained Sarah in Hebron and Keturah in Beersheba). We have every reason to believe that the Joktanites followed the kinship pattern of Abraham and his ancestors because Joktan's bride, a daughter of Sheba, named their first-born son "Sheba" after her father. This is the pattern already in evidence in Genesis 4 where we read that Lamech had a daughter named Namaah. Then in Genesis 5 we discover that Namaah married her patrilineal parallel cousin, Methuselah, and named their first-born son "Lamech" after her father.

The fact that the descendents of Ishmael, Isaac and Joktan intermarried makes it impossible to apply the term "descendents" to the Jews alone. Genesis doesn't support this claim. Instead it speaks of strife between brothers who God would have live together in peace.

David Noel Freedman on the Old Testament

"The Hebrew Bible is the one artifact from antiquity that not only maintained its integrity but continues to have a vital, powerful effect thousands of years later.

I believe that, in its present form, the Hebrew Bible is a product of a very carefully worked-out plan to achieve symmetry, totality, even perfection. There’s a deliberate effort made to pool together all the heterogeneous elements in the Jewish tradition and make a single whole. This book was intended to reflect what they believed about the perfection of God, more especially about the importance of his word. It was to reflect in written form the activity of God in the world and the link between members committed to this word. Just as God created the universe and rules the universe and directs history through the word spoken, here in the Bible is the word written. It’s the equivalent of the word spoken. This makes the Bible something even more special, not just another relic from antiquity. It has a unique quality.

My brother, who is a professed atheist, says the Bible is the richest source that he knows for human experience."

Source: Biblical Archaeology Review

For more on the perfection and symmetry of the Scriptures, go here.

Such a God as This

Ethical Reflection on the Biblical Stories of Joseph and Moses

Alice C. Linsley


The parallel lives of Joseph and Moses present ethical questions about God’s dealing with those He has destined to His purposes. Joseph and Moses are both destined to be leaders. Joseph’s destiny is wrapped up with his gift of dreams, while Moses’ destiny hinges on the strange circumstances surrounding his birth.

Like his father Jacob, Joseph is a dreamer. His dreams foretell his future and secure him a place in Pharaoh’s court. His brothers resent him because he is favored by their father, and because he is spoiled and self-absorbed. Jacob is tolerant of Joseph’s youth and inflated ego. Perhaps he remembers how he was at that age and hopes that Joseph won't have to learn humility as he did, through sweaty toil and betrayal in a foreign land.

Moses is hidden for 3 days in the river rushes until he is received by Pharaoh’s daughter as a gift from the Nile. Both Joseph and Moses are separated from their families at an early age. As adults, both gain new families through marriage into priestly households.

Joseph goes from being a pampered son to a slave, and then a prisoner. Moses goes from being a prince of Egypt to a fugitive. Both men are brought low before God elevates them to positions of leadership. Both are distinguished by God-given powers to perform signs (magic arts), dream numinous dreams, and see visions.

Both men begin their time of testing at wells. Joseph is thrown into a dry well by his brothers before he is sold into slavery. Moses fights the Egyptian raiders at the well in the wilderness where he meets his future wife.

Joseph is given divine help in interpreting the dreams of his fellow prisoners and the recurring dream of the Pharaoh. His God-given wisdom is such that when he proposes a plan to save Egypt from famine, Pharaoh appoints him to a high office and orders him to implement the plan. As befits Joseph’s new status, he is given as wife the daughter of a priest of the shrine at On (Heliopolis). Joseph’s status in Egypt makes him semi-divine in the eyes of the Egyptians.

Likewise, Moses achieves his position by coming before Pharaoh with Yahweh’s plan. Exodus 7:1 tells us that Yahweh makes Moses “as a god to Pharaoh.” Moses also marries a wife befitting his new rank. He marries Zipporah, daughter of the priest of Midian.

Both men have 2 sons. Both are destined to deliver their Hebrew families from great harm. Both die outside the Promised Land; Joseph at age 110 and Moses at age 120.

The stages of Joseph and Moses’ lives are parallel in so many ways that we must ask what God is trying to teach us about divine destiny. What conclusions are we to draw about the nature of God’s dealing with those He has called according to His purpose?

The destiny motif in these stories raises significant ethical questions, and by focusing these questions, we will be able to draw some conclusions. Here are some questions we should ask:

How can we regard Moses as a righteous leader when he murdered a man and fled from justice?

Likewise, shouldn’t Joseph, the spoiled tattle-tale who rubbed his brothers’ faces in his grandiosity share some responsibility for what happened to him?

Do Moses’ years of toil in the wilderness atone for the murder he committed?

Aren’t enslavement and imprisonment of a young boy a stiff price to pay for youthful self-obsession?

Is Joseph playing God in hiding the diving cup and so terrorizing his brothers that they are speechless at the prospect of returning to Egypt? Does God play “cat and mouse” with us to terrorize us into repentance?

Moses was very reluctant to step up to his destiny. He begged God to send another. Where does human freedom come into play?

Was Joseph justified to excuse God’s treatment of him on the grounds that everything turned out for the good in the end? Are we to excuse God when things don’t turn out well?

Focusing these questions doesn’t help us to answer them, but it does help us to draw conclusions about God’s dealing with those He has destined to lead.

It appears that God overlooks grievous sins and youthful faults if He has designs on our lives.

It also appears that God is not willing to accept a “No” from those He has destined to lead.

It appears that years of toil, exile, and suffering are necessary to bring us to our destiny.

It appears that God terrorizes us into surrendering to, or complying with, His purposes.

And finally, regardless of how things turn out, God is to be excused for treating us this way.

The final ethical question is this: Does such a God as this deserve our worship?

The answer to that question is also present in the stories of Joseph and Moses.

The Origins of Written Communications

Alphabetic writing involves symbols, each representing a single sound. These symbols can be combined to form words. Alphabetic writing replaced ideographic systems such as Egyptian hieroglyphics and the cuneiform developed by Sumerians, both involving hundreds of signifers.

The Sumerians used cuneiform until about 1400 B.C. They are generally credited with the invention of writing around 3200 B.C., but alphabetic writing found in Egypt suggests a different scenario, with the origins of alphabetic writing in Africa. The alphabetic inscriptions from Wadi El-Hol in Egypt are extremely important, as they provide some of the earliest evidence for the development of the Canaanite alphabet.

The first experiments with alphabetic writing appear to be the work of Semites living in Egypt between 1800 and 2000 BC. Concerning the alphabetic writing that he discovered in 1999 at Wadi el-Hol, Dr. John Coleman Darnell, Egyptologist at Yale University, has stated, “These are the earliest alphabetic inscriptions, considerably earlier than anyone had thought likely."

The forms of the Egyptian characters in the alphabetic inscriptions offer evidence for the date of the script. "Looking at the feet of the seated-human signs and the way the head is made point to around 2000 B.C.," says Darnell. The water sign, usually horizontal, appears vertical. "The Egyptians only wrote that way in the early Middle Kingdom, so the alphabet may have existed for two or three centuries before these inscriptions were made."

Darnell said that the Eyptians didn't need an alphabetic system because their hieroglyphic system was sufficiently nuanced to serve their needs. This discovery suggests that an alphabetic system was in use in Egypt before the flowering of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The question is who was using it? The Wadi el-Hol inscriptions are several hundred years older than the Serabit el-Khadim inscriptions that were discovered about 100 years ago. This evidence coming from Egypt rather than Canaan or Phoenicia presents a fascinating mystery.

Professor Frederick Dobbs-Allsopp, Associate Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and a Visiting Professor of Ugaritic at the University of Pennsylvania, is the official epigrapher of the archaeological expedition to Wadi El-Hol. He is responsibile for deciphering and publishing the Old Canaanite alphabetic inscriptions from Wadi El-Hol. He believes that these inscriptions may provide a clue to understanding the origins of alphabetic writing in the Middle East and ultimately the origins of the Greek and later Latin alphabets.

For the New York Times coverage of Darnell's discovery, go here.

Found near the Wadi el-Hol discovery, are 19th-century BC inscriptions inside the carving of a ship's sail . These refer to a "General of the Asiatics" by the name of Bebi. It is believed that he commanded a band of Bedouin mercenaries who may have been conscripted into the Egyptian army. The text also mentions a "Scribe of the Asiatics" and one wonders what system of writing this scribe would have used. It is possible that the term "Asiatics" here applies collectively to peoples in the west Semitic or Canaanite group.

Before alphabetic and pictographic writing, there probably existed a geometric and numerological system by which metaphysical ideas were communicated, accounts kept, and oaths and oracles recorded. This system would have been dependent upon and closely related to oral tradition of tribal lore, primitive cosmologies and genealogies.

The Genesis Creation Stories

Alice C. Linsley

The Genesis creation and origin stories have an African cultural context. In this context they are not so much about the origin of humans as about the Creator and the expectation of restoration of pure communion with the Creator.

African origin stories can't be forced into an evolutionary mold. The idea that humans evolved from apes is considered an insult. Dr Mathole Motshekga, Executive Director: Kara Heritage Institute (IKS), has written: "The Custodians of African heritage, the Amakhosi and Izinyaka do not know or accept that humanity and Africans in particular descended from the baboons of Maropeng (Sterksfontein), they regard this as an insult visited on them by archeologists and paleontologists. They want the same amount of resources given to these so-called experts to be given to IKS researchers and custodians to research and document the African Genesis (i.e. the true story of our origins)." So an evolutionary interpretation of Genesis is contrary to the context of the people from whom we receive these stories.

While the creation stories of Genesis are often likened to the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, they clearly have closer affinity to the creation stories of Africa, especially those of Nilotic peoples. This is to be expected since Abraham's ancestors came from this region. Since Genesis reflects their view of the world, we would expect to find the closest parallels to the Genesis creation and origin stories in this region. Here are some examples:

The Shilluk of the southern Sudan call the Creator Jo-Uk. Jo-Uk made white people out of white sand and the Shilluk of out black dirt. When he came to Egypt, he made the people there out of the Nile mud which is why the Egyptians are red-brown.

Here we find the motif of the Creator making humans from the dirt of the earth (Gen. 2:7).

Jo-Uk brought forth his only begotten son, Kola, by the Sacred White Cow. Kola was the father of Uk-wa who had two wives. One of Uk-wa's son's was Nyakang who became the first ruler.

Here we find the idea of the Creator having an only begotten son. We also find the practice of the ruler having two wives. The sacred cow is a very ancient motif and in Egypt/Nubia she was called Hat-Hor, the mother of Horus who was called "son of God." A shrine along the Nile held an image of Hathor holding her new born son in a manger.

This is evident that the motifs and theological details of the Genesis creation and origins stories are closer to the Shilluk stories than to the Gilgamesh Epic.

Consider the motif of the generative Word of God whereby all things came into being.

Genesis 1:3 states "God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." This is the uncreated light that means God is present. It is not the light of day since the sun is not yet created. The Word of God is understood to be generative by virtue of God's presence.

The bards of the Bambara Komo Society of Uganda recite this praise of the Word:

The word is total:

it cuts, excoriates

forms, modulates

perturbs, maddens

cures or directly kills

amplifies or reduces

According to intention

It excites or calms souls.

The very phrase "In the beginning was God" is not found in Babylonian sacred prose, but it is found in Africa. The following is a song of the BaMbuti Pygmies:

In the beginning was God

Today is God,

Tomorrow will be God.

Who can make an image of God?

He has no body.

He is as a word which comes out from your mouth,

That word! It is no more,

It is past and still it lives!

So is God.

We find the idea of the beginning and a triune Deity in West Africa. Consider this story in which God creates by blowing and declares His work good:

At the beginning of Things, when there was nothing, neither man, nor animals, nor plants, nor heaven, nor earth, nothing, nothing, God was and He was called Nzame. The three who are Nzame, we call them Nzame, Mebere and Nkwa. At the beginning Nzame made the heaven and the earth and He reserved the heaven for Himself. Then He blew on the earth and the earth and water were created each on its side.

Nzame made everything: heaven, earth, sun, moon, stars, animals, plants; everythng. When He had finished everything that we see today, He called Mbere and Nkwa and showed them His work. "This is my work. It is good."

The Akan of Ghana also have a creation story with the words "In the beginning..."

In the beginning the heavens were closer to the earth. First man and first woman had to be careful while cultivating and grinding grain so that their hoes and pestles would not strike God, who lived in the sky. Death had not yet entered the world and God provided enough for them. But first woman became greedy and tried to pound more grain than she was allotted. To do this, she had to use a longer pestle. When she raised it up, it hit the sky and God became angry and retreated far into the heavens. Since then there has been disease and death and it is not easy to reach God.

The motif of first man and first woman is very common in African sacred story. According to the Yoruba of Nigeria, the Supreme God, Olorun, molded the first man and first woman and breathed into them life and sent them forth to settle the earth. They say that the center of this creative activity was Ife, the dwelling place of the first humans.

One of the most remarkable creation stories is that of the precolonial Kikuyu of Kenya. This story contains many of the motifs found in the Genesis creation stories. There is a first Man and Woman. There is a Tree of Life. And the story involves the birth of nine daughters (interesting since the Afro-Asiatic number system was base nine.) As with all the African stories, this one is clearly intended for oral transmission from generation to generation.

There was wind and rain. And there was also thunder and terrible lightening. The earth and the forest around Mount Kerinyaga shook. The animals in the forest whom the Creator had recently put there were afraid. There was no sunlight. This went on for many days so that the whole land was in darkness. Because the animals could not move, they sat and moaned with the wind. The plants and trees remained dumb.

It was, our elders tell us, all dead except for the thunder, a violence that seemed to strangle life. It was this dark night whose depth you could not measure, not you nor I can conceive of its solid blackness, which would not let the sun pierce through it.

But in the darkness, at the foot of Mount Kerinyaga, a tree rose. At first it was a small tree and it grew up, finding a way even through the darkness. It wanted to reach the light and the sun. This tree had Life. It went up, sending forth the rich warmth of a blossoming tree - you know, a holy tree in the dark night of thunder and moaning. This was Mukuyu, God's tree.

Now you know that at the beginning of things there was only one man (Kikuyu) and one woman (Mumbi). It was under this Mukuyu that He first put them. And immediately the sun rose and the dark night melted away. The sun shone with a warmth that gave life and activity to all things. The wind and the lightening and thunder stopped. The animals stopped moaning and moved, giving homage to the Creator and to Kikuyu and Mumbi. And the Creator, who is also called Murungu, took Kikuyu and Mumbi from his holy mountain to the country of the ridges near Siriana and there stood them on a big ridge. The He took them to Mukuruwe wa Gathanga about which you have heard so much. But He had shown them all the land - yes, children, God showed Kikuyu and Mumbi all the land and told them: "This land I hand over to you, O Man and Woman. It is yours to rule and to till in serenity, sacrificing only to me, your God, under my sacred tree.

Theologically the African stories of the creation of Man are closer to the Genesis stories. God formed Adam and breathed into him life. Contrast this to the Babylonian myth:

Ea said: 'I will join blood to blood and that blood to bone. I will create my own being to adore me. His name is Man.' But he said, 'I will need one life for my creation.' The other gods chose Kingu, the rebel leader, Tiamet's captain. They held him down and bound him and cut open all his veins. With the blood that flowed out of Kingu's veins Ea created Man, to be his servant and to worship him.

This brief comparison of mythologies suggests that the Genesis creation accounts emerge out of an African cultural context, which is what we would expect, seeing that Abraham's ancestors came from Africa.


Related reading:  The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Afro-Asiatic Kingdom Builders; The Tree of Life; Downloadable Book of Common Prayer in Kikuyu

Jacob's Blood and Betrayal

Alice C. Linsley

The burial of Jacob, who is called "Israel," poses a fascinating suggestion of thematic bracketing in Genesis. This becomes evident as we explore the two different accounts of Jacob’s burial. One places his grave in the cave at Machpelah (Gen. 23) near Hebron, and the other places it at Goren-ha-Atad (“threshing-floor of the brambles) near Shechem (Gen. 50). Because Jacob was embalmed and buried according to Egyptian custom, the local inhabitants called the place where he was grieved and buried “Abel-mizraim,” meaning the meadow (or field) of the Egyptians.

Clearly two tribal areas are competing for the right to be known as Jacob’s final resting place. One is Hebron, in the kingdom of Judah, and the other is Shechem, in the kingdom of Israel. So we have evidence of competition between tribes. But is this the meaning intended by the author of Genesis? Are we to take away from this discrepancy simply an acknowledgement of competing tribal claims or is there a deeper story?

In Genesis, conflicts between tribes or clans are conflicts between brothers. We see this in the conflict between Abraham and Lot, his brother's son, between Ishmael and Isaac, and between Jacob and Esau. The archetypical conflict is between Cain and Abel, which results in bloodshed.

To discover the intent of the author, we must pay attention to the etymology of the word “abel,” which means field or meadow. We first encounter “abel” in Genesis 4 in the story of Cain and Abel. Cain killed his brother in a field or meadow. From that field Abel’s blood cries out to God (verse 10). Abel is betrayed by his brother and God sees the betrayal and imposes judgment on Cain. Divine judgment involves Cain's having to leave the very land that is marked by Abel's blood.

The fact that the author of Genesis mentions “abel” again at the very end of the Genesis narrative suggests thematic bracketing. Abel is betrayed by Cain; likewise Jacob or Israel is betrayed by Mizraim or Egypt. This implies that those who ruled Egypt were blood relatives to Jacob and his people. It also implies an expectation that God will vindicate Israel and impose judgment on Egypt. There is further evidence for this idea of thematic bracketing in the account of the Egyptians’ journey to Goren ha-Atad. The burial procession corresponds to the route of Israel’s exodus under Moses’ leadership.

Different Burial Practices
According to Genesis 50, Jacob was embalmed and the process took at least 40 days to complete. More typically the process took 70 days. Genesis says, “It required forty days, for such is the full period of embalming. The Egyptians bewailed him seventy days.”

The Egyptians practiced embalming for thousands of years, yet no Egyptian embalmer recorded the process. It remained a secret until the Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt around 450 B.C. Herodotus described the embalming process as follows:

As much of the brain as possible is extracted through the nostrils with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach is dissolved with drugs. Next the flank is slit open with a sharp Ethiopian stone and the entire contents of the abdomen removed. The cavity is then thoroughly cleansed and washed out, first with palm wine and again with a solution of pounded spices. Then it is filled with pure crushed myrrh, cassia, and all other aromatic substances, except frankincense.

The incision is sewn up and then the body is placed in natron, covered for 70 days, never longer. When this period, which may not be longer, is over, the body is washed and then wrapped from head to feet in linen which has been cut into strips and smeared on the underside with gum, which is commonly used by the Egyptians as glue. In this condition the body is returned to the family....

This elaborate embalming process does not represent the oldest burial practices of the Egyptians, however. Before 3400 BC, Egyptians were buried intact. Because of a lack of cultivatable land, the early Egyptians buried their dead in desert pit-graves where the heat and dryness of the sand produced natural mummification. This natural process produced remarkably well preserved bodies. Later tombs for nobility were brick lined burial chambers that didn’t provide the same conditions that led to natural mummification in the desert graves. To artificially preserve the bodies, embalming became the norm. The preserved bodies of men were often covered in red ochre and the bodies of women in yellow ochre.

The burial practices of Abraham’s people do not include embalming. Instead the body was to be buried in such a way that it would “return to the ground” from which God first formed humanity (Gen. 3:19). The blood of Abraham marked the ground where he was buried near Hebron, but since Jacob’s blood was removed as part of the embalming process in Egypt, his blood did not mark the ground near Shechem.

Returning to the first Abel’s blood (Gen. 4) we understand that his blood shed in the field marked that place. The absence of Jacob’s blood in Shechem suggests that Israel does not call out to God for vindication from Shechem, but from Egypt where Jacob’s blood would have been ritually disposed.

Replica (Almost) of Noah's Ark

There is a great deal of speculation about how Noah's Ark was constructed.  That is taken up in this essay on Answers to High Schooler's Questions About the Flood.  A Norwegian boat builder ignored key biblical information when he built a replica.

Johan Huibers, a contractor by trade, built what he believes is a replica of Noah's ark. He used these dimensions: 150 cubits long (225 feet), 30 cubits high (45 feet) and 20 cubits wide (30 feet). That's two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

Johan Huibers

Huibers' ark is constructed of cedar and pine. Noah's boat was built of "gofer" wood, probably reeds. Genesis 6:14 says: "Make yourself an ark of gofer wood, with reeds make the ark, and cover it within and without with a covering of pitch."

The biblical dimensions given in Genesis are 300 cubits long (450 feet), 30 cubits high (45 feet), and 50 cubits wide (75 feet). Huibers' boat took 2 years to built. The biblical narrative doesn't say how long it took Noah to build his boat.

Huibers did most of the work with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son after school. He had dreamed of the project for 14 years before beginning work in May 2005. He worked from 8 to 5, six days a week.

The exhibit opened in Schagen, Holland about 30 miles north of Amsterdam on April 28, 2007. Visitors on the first day were stunned by the life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals in the main hold.

Huibers also plans a petting zoo, with baby lambs, chickens and goats, and a camel on the open top deck.

"It's past comprehension, " said Mary Louise Starosciak, who was on vacation with her husband when they saw the ark looming over the local landscape. "I knew the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big."

There is space near the keel for a 50-seat film theater where children can watch a video that tells the story of Noah and the ark. Huibers said he hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands, where church attendance has fallen dramatically in the past 50 years.  (For more photos go here.)


Related reading:  Africa in the Days of Noah; The Extent of Noah's Flood

Circumcision Among Abraham's People

Alice C. Linsley

Circumcision of both males and females appears to originate among Nilotic tribes such as the Samburu. Among the Samburu circumcision of boys marks the initiation to moran (warrior) status and for girls it signifies becoming a woman. Once circumcised, a girl can be married and start her own family. However, not all Nilotic tribes practice circumcision. The principal initiation rite of the Luo involves removing six front teeth.

Since Abraham's ancestors came out of the Upper Nile region and the rulers of his people were kin to the rulers of Egypt, so we should not be surprised that circumcision was practiced among his Horite people.  Circumcision originated among the Kushites and Egyptians and the Horites (called "Horim" by the Jews) were ethnically Kushite.

Found at Tel Gezer (dated 12th to mid-11th century BC)
The Egyptian word for phallus was khenen (hnn) related to khenty, meaning before or in front of 

Genesis on Circumcision

The practice of circumcision is first mentioned in Genesis 17 in relationship to a covenant and an heir born to the elderly Abraham and Sarah. Here there is a natural relationship between the gift of fertility and the rite of circumcision. At this point in the narrative Abraham's only first-born son is Ishmael and it is he who is circumcised. Later we are told that Abraham had all the males of his household circumcised. This suggests that all Abraham's sons were to be regarded as priests, since it was generally only priests and rulers who were circumcised among the ancient Nilotic peoples. Likely, this is what stands behind the scripture (II Sam. 18:8) which calls David's sons ruler-priests.

Source critics claim that this section of Genesis is the work of the Priestly source. That would make sense seeing that circumcision was apparently performed among priests in Egypt and required of their slaves also. This suggests that circumcision has to do with ritual purity. Even today uncircumcised women are regarded as ritually unclean and unsuitable as wives among peoples throughout Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and in Chad and parts of Nigeria.

Circumcision was also required of Egyptian rulers, as evidenced by circumcised royal mummies. This would indicate that Abraham and his sons were nobles, as is suggested also by their being listed among the Horite rulers in Genesis 4, 5 and 11:10-32.

In Genesis 17:11 we read that God told the elderly Abraham to "circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that will be the sign of the covenant between myself and you." The divine instructions said to circumcise all males of his household on the 8th day after birth, but Ishmael was circumcised at age 13 (Gen. 17:25). The instructions also include the circumcision of slaves.

Genesis doesn't say much else about circumcision, although it is likely that Joseph, as a ruler in Egypt and husband to the daughter of the high priest of On, was circumcised. Nothing is said about female circumcision, but this doesn't mean that it wasn't practiced.

It is clear that Abraham's people practiced circumcision, but it is not likely that circumcision originated with Abraham. In fact, there is a suggestion of another origin in Exodus.

Exodus on Circumcision

In Exodus 4, we find another reference to circumcision. This also is connected to the first-born son. The story of Zipporah circumcising her first-born son has as its backdrop these words to Pharaoh: "Thus says the Lord: Israel is My first-born son. I have said to you, 'Let my son go, that he may worship Me,' yet you refuse to let him go. Now I will slay your first-born son." (Ex. 4:22-23)

The Exodus narrative speaks of a more primitive view of circumcision as a warding off of evil and death, just as the blood of the Passover lamb warded off death. Using a ritual flint knife like the high saline flint knives found at al-Badar, Zipporah cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' "legs" (genitals?) with it, saying "You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!... A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision."

Two ideas are consistent between the Genesis and Exodus narratives. First, circumcision is a blood rite connected to fertility and most especially with the hope of male heirs. Second, circumcision in itself did not guarantee protection from divine judgment.

Circumcision in Egypt

In ancient Egypt the circumcised penis was a fertility symbol. According to Egyptologist, E. A. Budge (The Gods of the Egyptians, Dover Publications), an early deity of Egypt was a god of circumcision who maintained the fertility of the Nile banks. Early Egyptian mythology also includes the belief that the universe was created by the blood that was shed when God circumcised himself. Here we find the recurring theme of "life in the blood."

Circumcision and Metal Workers

Whatever the origin of circumcision, it is most certain that it comes out of Africa. Even today in many parts of central Africa, when a boy is to be circumcised, the metal worker is called to perform the rite. This may explain why Zipporah circumcised Moses' first-born son. Zipporah was a Midianite and the Midianties were itinerant metal workers. Moses, having been raised in the palace in Egypt, was not qualified to circumcise his own son.

Does this suggest that Abraham, a descendent of the smithy Tubal-Cain, was also a metal worker? It is certainly a good possibility. Even today in central Africa metal working chiefs maintain 2 wives in separate households and intinerate between those homesteads. This is one of the fascinating discoveries of fellow Kentuckian, Michael Kirtley, who traveled through Niger hoping to meet a renowned metal worker named Ahoudan. Michael was told, "You'll be lucky to find him. He has two homes and two wives, in Abardokh and Tabelot." (The Inadan: Artisans of the Sahara, National Geographic, August 1979)

Abraham also had 2 wives and maintained them in separate households. He itinerated between those locations, which led to the idea of Abraham as a "wandering Aramean." If his route was between Hebron (Sarah) and Beersheba (Keturah), we can well understand one of his sources of wealth. His business brought him into contact with merchants who traveled the ancient caravan routes between Heliopolis, a shrine city on the Nile, to Mesopotamia. There is a reference in the Rig Veda (9.112.2) to itinerant metal-smiths who made arrows of metal to sell to wealthy customers, so the itinerant life of metal workers must have extended even to the Indus River Valley.

Abraham refers to himself as an resident alien in Genesis 23:4, but significantly, the people living in the land regarded him as a "great prince of God" living among them (verse 5).

Related reading:  Abraham's Kushite Ancestors; Circumcision and Binary Distinctions; The Importance of Binary Distinctions; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; Zipporah's Flint Knife; Circumcised Phallus an Egyptian Hieroglyph

Decline of Afro-Asiatic Dominion

A study of sea level fluctuations, which was supported by the National Science Foundation, was published online June 15, 2008, in the journal Nature. Reporting on that NSF study, Diane Banegas, writes: “According to the study, changes in ocean environments related to sea level drive extinctions and generally determine the composition of life in the oceans."

"The expansions and contractions of those environments have pretty profound effects on life on Earth," said Shanan Peters, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of geology and geophysics and leader of the study.

Peters measured two main types of marine shelf environments preserved in the rock record, one where sediments are derived from land erosion and the other composed primarily of calcium carbonate, which is produced in-place by shelled organisms and by chemical processes. The differences between the two areas in sediment stability, temperature and the availability of nutrients and sunlight have important biological consequences, according to Peters.

Arnold I. Miller, a paleobiologist and professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati, says the new study is striking because it establishes a clear relationship between the tempo of mass extinction events and changes in sea level and sediment. "Over the years, researchers have become fairly dismissive of the idea that marine mass extinctions like the great extinction of the Late Permian might be linked to sea-level declines, even though these declines are known to have occurred many times throughout the history of life. The clear relationship this study documents will motivate many to rethink their previous views."

Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, the world's oceans have expanded and contracted in response to the Earth's shifting tectonic plates and climate changes. During some periods, vast areas of the continents were flooded by shallow seas such as the shark- and mosasaur-infested seaway that neatly split North America during the age of the dinosaurs.

As those flooded areas drained back into the sea, animals that swam in them went extinct; conditions on the marine shelves that once supported a vast diversity of life also changed.

That's not to say volcanic eruptions, killer asteroids, or disease and competition among species could not have played a role, Peters said. But the new study provides a common link to mass extinction events over a significant stretch of Earth's history and suggests that few of them were controlled by just one environmental influence.”

Between volcanism, earthquakes, tsunamis, climate changes, and the expansion and contraction of the seas, this fragile earth, our island home, is constantly changing. This study is important because it shows the effects of sea levels on plant and animals species, many of which became extinct because of the changing sea levels. It is important also as further evidence of the changing environment of ancient civilizations.

About 150,000 years ago there was a major uplift of the Angolan ridge in the area of the equator. The upper Nile receives its chief supply of water from this mountainous region. From there streams pour eastward into Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake (over 26,000 square miles), and to the west and north into Lake Edward and Lake Albert. The waters of the Nile flow northward, but around 12,000 years ago all of the region between Lake Chad and the Nile was very wet. This is the time of Noah's flood.

The story of Noah’s flood speaks of the effects of tectonic and climate change over a vast area from central Africa to the Indus River Valley. Noah lived during a period of wetness in Africa in the area called Bor-Nu (Land of Noah) near Lake Chad. This period(the late Halocene) was followed by declining water levels. Since Noah and other Afro-Asiatic kingdom builders controlled the major water systems, this decline signaled the end of their control. The gradual breakdown of the socio-political fabric of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion, whose chiefs controlled the waterways, is likely due to these changes.

For more on Noah's flood, read this.