What are we to make of Genesis 22, God’s demand to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only child? In Essential Torah, George Robinson describes Genesis 22 as “the most terrifying narrative passage in the entire Torah [the first five books of the Bible].” The Lord told Abraham: “Go get Isaac, your only son, the one […]
Genesis 17 is one of the most provocative chapters of the Bible—God’s instruction to Abraham to circumcise himself and his people as a promise of faithfulness. The Bible account relates that the Lord appeared to Abraham and said: “You and all future members of your family must promise to obey me. As the sign that […]
Genesis 5:1-2 states that “God created men and women to be like himself. He gave them his blessing and called them human beings. This is a list of the descendants of Adam, the first man.” (CEV) This comes after Genesis chapters 2 and 3, where God creates man (2:7), then the Fall happens with the […]
Genesis 3:16 records one of the critical consequences of the Fall—the domination of the masculine over the feminine which laid the patriarchal foundation for what we call civilization, and which underpins the whole of Christianity: “Then the Lord said to the woman, ‘You will suffer terribly when you give birth. But you will still desire […]
I’ve never heard anyone preach on the topic of Genesis 1-2. As a historical account of creation, it has little to offer the modern world. Yet behind this frozen façade, these verses reveal one of God’s most fundamental and ever-present laws—the Law of 7. Wikipedia notes that “the authors of Genesis 1 were concerned not […]
It’s that simple, folks. Original sin is generational trauma; destructive patterns of behaviour inherited at birth (conception, actually) which originated at the Fall. The whole theology boils down to three simple equations: The Fall = Neolithic decline Original sin = generational trauma New Testament = trauma resolution manual When understood as generational trauma, the entire […]
The second instalment of this New Earth 101 series is about the need to be uncompromising. We all struggle with change. At the same time, we often want change or at least recognise the need for it. Things have become stale. Or a situation that we have long tolerated becomes intolerable. We know we must […]
On Easter Sunday I heard a sermon that included a recapitulation of Genesis chapters 2 and 3: Adam and Eve, temptation and Fall. The preacher phrased this as Adam and Eve making the wrong choice, a mistake for which humanity has been paying ever since. This is a superficial reading of the text, but it […]
The structure of the Bible bears a specific resemblance to a blockbuster Hollywood film. Blockbusters start by presenting us with a problem to be solved. They introduce a hero or heroes, and at the end of the film we discover if or how the problem is solved. The Bible varies from conventional Hollywood film structure […]
The first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch—contain 613 commands [1]. Rules were necessary to bond tribes together against outsiders, to stop tribes weakening themselves through infighting, and to normalise the taboos on all things feminine that arose from environmental stress: Reward togetherness: “You will get more and more cattle, sheep, silver, gold, and other possessions.” […]
