Opening Israel's Scriptures by Dr. Ellen Davis Quizlet

What are key aspects of Genesis 1:1-2:3

- Prose poem not to be used in evolutionary debates; primeval history

- Runs counter Babylonian narrative where earth and humans are afterthought/meant to only be slaves of gods

What is the image of God Genesis 1:1-2:3 cont.

- Bible does not say much; we focus on it more than it does

- Signals equality and dignity; all are made in the image

- Means we represent God and use power He gives to create, preserve, "convert jungle into garden

- We are to be God's representatives on earth (erets-earth and erets-Canaan)

What do we do with nature? "subdue/conquer" with skillful mastery? Genesis 1:1-2:3 cont.

- Must be understood in light of being God's representatives (in His image)

- "Conquer" points/juxtaposed with Canaan conquest means we are to uphold God's interests in land we are called to "conquer/subdue"

- Skillful mastery reinforces prior blessing and creates world where all things flourish as God intended

What's Sabbath Got to Do With It? Genesis 1:1-2:3 cont.

- Indication of God's intention to love us just because; desires intimate contact/family

- Sets tone for whole Bible; most repeated command

- God blesses all He made on 7th day, blesses/acknowledges goodness; wants pleasure in our company

What is Complementarity? Genesis 2:4-11:32

- Finding truth between textual differences (Gen 1-2); ex: Sudanese Christians oral trad

- Multiple traditions brought together to get montage of truth; full picture over non-contradictory picture; full picture leads to perfection

- Midrash, by Rabbis, use intertexuality (Proverbs for why Man was made/ Eve's mistake); differences/tensions are invitations to understand

- Truth lies in the complimentary/unified not uniform

What is the key pattern that also sets plotline for all Scripture? Genesis 2:4-11:32 (end of Primeval History)

1. God creates

2. Humans rupture

3. Divine Judgement/Suffering/Punishment (hurts more than rupturers; all creation affected)

- Judgement= brings to completion (externally) what humans with sin already did (internally)

4. God recreates/reconciles

- Noah; Covenant like a sea wall protects against waves of our own wrongdoing

God has continued commitment to creation; hope becomes braver with each renewal; God always chooses us we are His original intention for creation.

What is Blessing/Cursing in Bible? Genesis 12-50

- Never fully defined; but major divine intiative brings multiple blessings

- Act of acknowledging inherent goodness of the other's being

- Cursing does not terminate existence of other but marks existence as troubled

What of Abraham and Blessing? Genesis 12-50

- Commanded to be a blessing; conduit for global blessing

- Very flawed; has to grow into the blessing he bears; must grow capacity to be conduit for global blessing

- Growth into blessing examples (bargaining w God over Sodom and Gomorrah/Isaac episode); must be selfless and have heartfelt trust in God

What of Blessing and Sacrifice? Genesis 12-50

- Rebekah willing to be cursed and loses Jacob so he may be blessed (courage akin to Abraham and Isaac Gen 22); forfeits personal desires

- Jacob wrestles with God sacrifices for blessing

- Blessing is not reward for good character but rather transforms character

What of Blessing and Transformation? Genesis 12-50

- Jacob sacrifices to receive blessing (Peniel episode/dies on foreign soil); transforms him into completley different person worthy of name "Israel;" blessing transforms; even blesses Pharaoh (blessing to all nations)

- Judah's morally blind eyes opened through Tamar who brings "self-recognition "; blessing brought to him through eye opening

- Joseph once never gave God credit for interpreting dreams but then does so before Pharaoh after all his trials; blessing transforms through suffering

- Joseph becomes vessel through which Abrahamic blessing of all nations can happen; blessings transformation brings restoration

What are the key aspects of Exodus?

- Focuses on how human beings (especially Israel) come to know Who the Lord really is and how they ought exist in relation to Him; must grow into the blessing/covenant

- Evenly divided between narrative and law; Egypt de-created for oppression (1-18) and Israel through covenant is being created (tabernacle etc shows God's creational intentions/reconciliation)

- Sinai covenant is centerpiece (1-18 shows why God should be their king 19-40 shows what Israel must do since He is)

What of Divine Self-Revelation? Exodus 1-15

- Moses and Pharaoh show two different responses to revelation; Moses accepts comes to know God intimately and brings life, Pharaoh rejects to know God and destroys himself and those around him

- Moses and God have divine-human partnership (bush call to share burden of suffering

- Plagues serve to show Egypt Who God is, to persuade them to know not punish

Pharaoh ultimately responsible for his heart which in hardening he brings about the external results (God's doing) of internal choices (first his own); happens bc he rejects divine-self-revelation; rejection brings destruction

What do we learn from Manna (Exodus 16)? Exodus 16-40

- All provision comes from God;

- No more than one can eat (sufficiency not excess) blesses whole covenant community;

- No collection on Sabbath most repeated commandment at Sinai; teaches Israel the kind of people they are to be

Complete opposite of Egypt

What of Sinai for Modern Reader (Exodus 19)? Exodus 16-40

- First covenant where God demands reciprocity

- For modern readers shows :

- Divine sovereignty (suzerain treaty; power on both sides; royal possession over Israel asserts authority)

- Divine dangerousness (serving God does not mean safety; His holiness that can harm the unworthy)

- Affirmation of goodness of creation (sabbath contemplation of God and the harmony w all creation He demands; covenant means blessed community and God is in charge)

- Problem of slavery (doesn't eliminate it but never comfortable with it; God makes provision ex sabbath even for the enslaved to rest as He rested (linguistic detail)

What does this have to do w Humans cont? Exodus 16-40

- Invites us into and shows us an embodied theology/spirituality

- Forms understandings of God and what attitudes humans are to have to each other and world as God's creation

What of the Tabernacle (25-31)? Exodus 16-40

- Exact same length as Exodus

- Helps with reconciliation after calf-gate (mimics Genesis reconciliatory pattern Creation--disruption--punishment-restoration/recreation)

- Contrasts Egypt as a godly and humane space facilitating divine human interaction; event of recreation and reconciliation

The sanctuary is a microocosm of divine created order emerging out of "formless void" of Egypt/Israel's idolatry; undoing of Egypt and its spectre