Wisdom in Genesis by an heir of its promises

kw: book reviews, commentaries, bible, genesis

I realize I have ignored this blog for two weeks. Along with many others my wife and I have been self-isolating for several weeks. While I could have journaled here, I chose to keep it to its purpose, primarily recording reviews and thoughts on books I read. This book is a Lulu!

I learned of The Rational Bible by Dennis Prager a year ago. Strategically, I decided to obtain the volumes so far published as e-Books so I could read on my phone and keep notes on a Gdoc, and also so I didn't have to carry a big book around, but could imbibe at odd moments in addition to the times I spend reading at home. In the order published, I first bought The Rational Bible: Exodus: God, Slavery, and Freedom. I read it through, in parallel with other books I was reading, over a period of a few months. Then I bought The Rational Bible: Genesis: God, Creation, and Destruction, and read it in similar fashion. At first reading for both books I kept a few notes. I let things gel for a month or two, then I began reading the Genesis volume again. This time I kept many more notes.

Seeing this abundance of notes, I realized that I could not get by with any ordinary book review. Nor can I comment on everything of note without producing a volume of similar size! I'll stick to a few very significant themes.

Dennis Prager has a mission, as a very observant Jew, a member of a people with a mission. As he notes in an essay on Genesis 11:6 (in which the Lord declares He will confound the people's language), "The Torah never calls for all the world's people to unite as Jews—only as followers of the Torah's God," and commenting on Genesis 18:18 (in which the Lord states that in Abraham all nations will be blessed), he writes that the purpose of the chosen people is to practice and to teach ethical monotheism.

"Ethical monotheism" may be unfamiliar, but the term has been around for a century and a half, and the concept originated with the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. This leads to another great theme. God must be one for there to be a unique morality, and the concept of a moral God is a great innovation of the Torah. All previous religious writing is of multiple gods that are capricious and typically grossly immoral. All religions that originated after the writing of the Torah that posit a unique God can be traced back to the Torah and the God of the Torah.

I made note of these things that are unique to the Torah:

• Holy time, the Sabbath.
• God is not part of nature; God created nature.
• Love of the stranger. This is a very big deal!
• Humane treatment of animals.
• The Table of Nations in Genesis 10.
• Circumcision as a sign of a covenant.
• God is moral.
• God's people can argue with him, and are encouraged to do so ("Israel" means "struggles with God."). In other religions, people get "zapped" for having the temerity to argue with a deity.
• God is immaterial.
• Although God is usually referred to in male terms, God is sexless, unlike the licentious gods and goddesses of, for example, Greek, Roman and Norse mythologies, or the Vedas.

In particular, this is quite amazing: In giving the Sabbath, God indicates not only that His people should have rest, but so should "the stranger and sojourner" and the domestic animals. God is displeased if His people should work their oxen to death, let alone their servants or themselves.

In this PC generation, people pretend offense at referring to God in male terms. In a lengthy essay, Dr. Prager addresses this, and points out, "We have too many absent fathers on earth to even entertain the thought of having no Father in Heaven." The "heavenly Father" did not originate with Jesus and the "Our Father" prayer, after all. In Deuteronomy 32:18-19, for example, the Lord is called the one who "bore you" (Israel), where "bore" means "fathered", and he calls His people His "sons and daughters." Dr. Prager states that every culture understands the use of male terms and male pronouns as being inclusive; only in the past generation or so have a small number of vocal "perpetually offended people" [my term] tried to change this.

Furthermore, God is not always depicted in a male fashion. In Isaiah God is likened to an eagle caring for her chicks, and elsewhere, to a mother crying out in labor to give birth. Also, Genesis 1:27, "…male and female He created them," indicates that the image of God is seen in both male and female. One term for God, usually translated "Almighty God" or "God the Almighty" is "El Shaddai". For some reason, Dr. Prager goes to some lengths in parts of two essays to set aside the notion that "shad" is derived from Hebrew for "breast". But in Genesis 49:23, Jacob blesses Joseph with "Blessings of Shaddai…blessings of the breast and of the womb." The Bible teacher I follow most closely, Witness Lee, likes to refer to "El Shaddai" as "The God with an udder," emphasizing that "shad" refers to the nourishing aspect of the breast, not any erotic function.

It is stated frequently in The Rational Bible that morality is not conditional, but is God-given. It is significant that Abram, for example, preparing to sojourn in Egypt, says, "There is no fear of God in this place." Critics of religion deride phenomena like the Crusades as evidence of the evils of religion. The Crusades were a misuse of religion, and any tool misused can do great harm. In my workroom I have a hammer and a saw. I use the one for driving nails and the other for cutting wood. However, suppose I used the hammer to kill someone and the saw to dismember the body? Does that make those tools evil? No. The Crusades and other "religious wars" were expressions of religion misused for political purposes. God is entirely apolitical! The great mass murders of the Twentieth Century, for example, were all perpetrated by atheists, and the list includes:

• The "Holocaust", called by the Nazis the "Final Solution": more than 12 million killed, half of them Jews.
• Slaughter of 20-30 million in the USSR, by the Communists as they consolidated power.
• One-third of Cambodia's population was destroyed by Pol Pot on the "killing fields".
• The Russians starved 4-6 million Ukrainians.
• Mao's "policies" starved 60-100 million Chinese.
• One million Hutus were killed in Rwanda, also as a move to consolidate power.

In the face of all that, what does God command, more than almost anything else? Love of the stranger. In the New Testament we read that the "great commandments", both found in Deuteronomy, are "Love God with all your being" and "Love your neighbor as yourself."

There is an interesting discussion, based on Genesis 6:4 and other verses about "giants", a translation of "nephilim" (which the translation used in the book has) and "rephaim". He does not discuss their source, but shows the principle of a story told in stages, in several parts of the Tanach (the Old Testament), and showing the unity of the entire Bible. This story finally seems to have ended during the reign of King David. A commentator whom Dr. Prager quotes calls Goliath "the most famous (and last?) of them." With a little looking we find four other Nephilim mentioned who were killed off, one by one, by David's mighty men. At least one of them is called a brother of Goliath, and by implication all four are, which may be why David took five stones from the brook when he went to kill Goliath. It was not from uncertainty as to his aim, but rather, if need be, he was prepared to take on the whole family!

Dr. Prager's essays are full of insight and contain many pithy statements. Some of my favorites:

• "If escaping poverty made people better, the rich would be the kindest and most honest people in the world." (Gen. 8:21)
• "…peace is maintained only so long as the decent are stronger than the indecent." (Gen. 14:14)
• "…if we are disposed to seeing God in the world, we are more likely to see miracles when we encounter them; and if we are disposed not to see God in the world, we will not recognize miracles even when they occur before our eyes."
• "Decent people often think they are worse than they are, and indecent people almost always think they are better than they are.…few people have as high self-esteem as do violent criminals."

A number of times I have read various opinions about whether the Torah or the Tanach teach an afterlife. I had wondered about this for a long time. Dr. Prager makes very clear, in numerous places, that it does indeed. The simplest bit of evidence is the phrase "gathered to his people", spoken of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, and Moses, for example. As the phrase appears before burial is mentioned, it does not refer to being buried in the family burial plot; no, it refers to joining our deceased family in the afterlife. Thus, though the Torah is emphatically involved with the Israelites as an earthly people, with earthly blessings and an earthly promised land, it does imply that God's people can look forward to an afterlife.

Various notes are also made that indicate the antiquity of the Torah. One significant matter, also used by Josephus in his apologia to a first-century Emperor, is that the text is so frequently critical of the people of Israel and their forebears. In the phrase I like, God's book writes about God's people as they are, warts and all. Their spiritual growth is shown not by their perfection, but by their reaction to evidence of imperfection.

Thus Judah, who was weak and lustful as a younger man, even after he had grown sons, grew into a leader of his brothers, expressing considerable nobility in his dealing with Joseph about the threatened bereavement of his father should tragedy befall Benjamin. He must have been very old when, at age 147, his father blessed him with the leadership of all Israel. And indeed, all the legitimate kings of Israel were of the tribe of Judah. This does not stand alone, however. His three older brothers each forfeited their primacy over him. Reuben for committing adultery with his stepmother, Simeon and Levi for their rapacity at Shechem. However, a full birthright has three parts: the ruling authority, which Judah was awarded; the religious leadership, which was awarded to Levi in the book of Numbers when they redeemed their earlier sin by slaying the adulterers; and the double portion of the estate, which was awarded to Joseph when he saved the family from famine, and acted nobly in the face of adversity greater than anyone living is likely to have suffered. The two sons of Joseph became full tribes in his place.

Also, the Patriarchs are found to have done a number of things that are contrary to the Levitical laws, such as Abraham serving curds and meat together, or Esau being sent to hunt game. If the Torah were written in the time of Samuel, for example, we could not expect the writer to depict the honored forefathers violating the laws and prejudices of that generation.

There are sundry omissions I found puzzling. I am pretty sure these are not just because I am accustomed to Christian commentaries. I do not expect a Jewish expositor to present Christian typology! However, let's consider a few items.

In Genesis 3:21, after the Lord God judged Adam and Eve regarding their sin, He "made garments of skins" for them to clothe them. The commentary simply discusses why humans are clothed, and animals not, as one of several divine distinctions. However, what was the source of the skins? Some animals, no doubt, unless they were special creations. This implies a substitutionary sacrifice, as a basis for forgiving their sin. Such an aspect is not mentioned.

If this stood alone, maybe that's OK. But in Genesis 4, Abel is a keeper of sheep, and Cain is a farmer. Sheep were not eaten until after the Deluge, so why keep sheep? Perhaps for their wool. But they were also for sacrifice, and Abel does sacrifice a lamb. When Cain sacrifices vegetables, why is God displeased? The matter of blood is not mentioned in the commentary. Yet we find Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you to make expiation for your souls on the altar, for it is the blood, by reason of the life, that makes expiation." (ESV) This is a divine principle that predated the Law. It's a pity that this commentary has missed that also; it isn't just a Christian interpretation based on Hebrews 9:22, which was written to Jews. Jewish friends of mine understand this principle, that blood is required for atonement.

Finally, I do wonder about the statement made, at least twice that I noticed, that Abraham was "the first Jew." That's very puzzling to me. There were no Jews until there was a tribe of Judah. That's where the name comes from. The word "Jew" never appears in the Torah. In fact, the word "Jews" does not appear until 2 Kings 16:6, during the reign of Ahaz, father of Hezekiah. This was no more than a few years before Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, leaving only the kingdom of Judah as a "lamp to David". By that time the Israelites of the kingdom of Judah, including the Levites and the Benjaminites who were among them, were called Jews.

This brings to mind a side matter about the "lost tribes of Israel." The ten tribes of the northern kingdom were mostly transported all over the Assyrian empire, and others brought in. By the time Hezekiah reigned in Judah, this had been accomplished. As recorded in 2 Chronicles 30, Hezekiah accomplished cleansing Judah and Jerusalem of idols, and then proclaimed a great Passover. He sent letters to invite all of Judah, and Israel, and Manasseh and Ephraim, to come to Jerusalem. As a result, "since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem." (2 Chr 30:26) Then in 2 Chronicles 35, after another few generations of neglect, king Josiah had the city and temple restored, and proclaimed a great Passover. This was even more true to the Law: "No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet." (2 Chr 35:18)

In each case, some of the visitors remained. When the kingdom of Judah was taken by Babylon in 606 BC and most of the people transported to Chaldea in 586 BC, while most of the captives were of the tribe of Judah, every tribe was represented. They were all called Jews, after the dominant tribe. When some returned to Jerusalem seventy years later, most were of Judah, but every tribe was represented. These are the ancestors of all the Jews today: primarily of Judah, but including every tribe of Israel. We don't know how many Jews were living in Babylon during the time of return, but about 45,000 returned. The rest are indeed lost to history, but we trust that the Lord God knows who are His.

All this (except the prior two paragraphs) is a tiny fraction of the riches to be found in The Rational Bible: Genesis. I am indebted to Dr. Prager and his sources for many insights that are as meaningful to a Christian as they are to Jews. I now plan to re-read the Exodus volume, and I anticipate the future three volumes of The Rational Bible. May Dennis Prager live long and write well, and complete this great work!