Hey all, I've come across some interesting facts thru the reading of Genesis, and would like to post them here for any who are interested. It's not about any deep principles in particular, just some nuggets of information I found interesting.
1. (Gen 9:26) The Caananites, came from Canaan, the son of Ham, the son of Noah. Ham received a curse from his father, set upon Canaan, which set Shem's descendants above them. Hence, the fulfillment of the curse, where the Israelites, (Or Semites, basically, the descendants of Shem), would conquer the Canaanites.
Incidentally, this is also where we get the term, anti-semitism from. Always wondered why the Jews were called the Semites. XD
2. Gen 16 shows the consequence of lack of faith in God. Abram and Sarah, not trusting God to deliver on his promise of children to them even in their old age, had children by a surrogate, Hagar, Sarah's maid. Subsequently despised by Sarah and banished for a time, Hagar and Ishmael, Hagar's son, would eventually go on to found the Arabic people, who would be a thorn in the Israelites' side.
What's interesting is that in the current Middle East conflicts, between the Arabs and Israelites, you can trace this all the way back to Gen 16. In essence, it's basically a long-standing family feud, when you trace their ancestry, Ishmael's descendants vs Isaac's.
Hmm that was long. More to come :)
Terence
Thursday, January 17, 2008
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4 comments:
Interesting.. I read in Gen 35.. further down.. that Jacob set up a pillar for Rachel and to THIS day, it's still Rachel's tomb.. Does that mean, we can go see it?
No.. to this day means to the day 500 years later when Moses was writing Genesis. So it was still visible in Moses' day, but it's not visible today.
Awww... Wasted..
I think so too! There are a lot of places in the OT historical books that say "... to this day" and I've wondered whether it means our today or the writers' day. Wouldn't it be cool if some of them were still around? Anyone want to do some internet searches on archaeological discoveries in Biblical lands? Do share if you do.
Good job Terence! Very interesting thoughts. Look forward to more ...
WW
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