Genesis

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Introduction

The more we move on in life the more interested we become in tracing our roots: where did our ancestors live? How did our parents come to know each other? Who influenced us in our first decisions? All people likewise have tried to reconstruct their past. No doubt they want to save it from oblivion, but more especially they hope to find in the past a confirmation of what they themselves believed. Relating their history surrounding them has a way of affirming their own identity among the many nations, both great and small.

That is what we find in Genesis—a book that was gradually formed through several centuries. It finally took a definitive form in the fifth century B.C. when the Jewish people, having returned from the Babylonian captivity fixed forever the expression of their faith.

Genesis means beginning. We will not look so much at it as a document on the origins of the universe or of a sin committed by our first ancestors. Rather, from the first pages, we shall find through images all that is important for us.

The book has three parts. Chapters 1–11 attempt to span vast periods of time from the beginning of creation up to the first “ancestors of the faith” whose names have been remembered, the first of whom is Abraham.

The second part recalls the life of the nomadic clans who believed in a God who was near and compassionate, the “God of their ancestors.” This history (or these stories) takes place in the land of Canaan at a time in which the Israelite people did not yet exist (between the 18th and 15th century before Christ). It shows how faith in God’s promises—promises he never fails to fulfill—is the soul of all our religious quest and is the subject of Chapters 12–38.

A third part, the history of Joseph, throws the first light on the meaning of our life and the tragedies that are the threads in the weaving of human existence. Human beings need a Savior and salvation comes first through those whom they have persecuted and rejected.

 

Who Wrote the Book of Genesis?

There was not one author, but several. The people of Israel were formed through time by the gathering of nomadic tribes, which neither knew how to read nor write. They brought along with them the memories of their forbears and the signs God realized among them; these memories were verbally transmitted.

When these tribes settled in Palestine, they slowly entered into a new culture of writing. Scribes surrounding the king wrote the laws and the beliefs of the nation. During Solomon’s reign (tenth century B.C.) an unknown writer often called “the Yahwist” wrote the first history of God’s people. In doing so, he freely used Babylonian literature and its poetry about the first couple and the Flood. The author used a part but deeply transformed them, so that these stories, as comparisons, would express God’s plans for his creation. Later this old account was supplemented with others coming from different traditions. As a result, we sometimes find repetitions.

Much later, when the Jews returned from Exile in Babylon (5th century before Christ), their priests added many paragraphs, which are indicated in italics. The priests were the authors of the poem about creation in seven days, where Genesis and the Bible itself begin. Priestly texts are also found in the other books of Pentateuch.

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1.1 We have to make an effort to look at this first page without prejudice. For the past hundred and fifty years, there have been too many debates on the theme “creation according to the Scriptures and according to science.” This problem, poorly presented and resolved in an even worse way, usually leaves us dissatisfied. We are not looking here for historical or scientific data: those who wrote this chapter had many other things to tell us and God had the right to endorse their work even if they saw the sky as a blue ceiling on which someone attached the stars. Therefore, we have a word of God here, but we do not read them as if they were “the” last word on the understanding of the universe. Just as all ancient religions have their own account of the origin of the world so has the Scriptures; but it has more to say and says it where many do not look: in the New Testament. For the revelation of the mystery of God-Creator it was necessary to wait for the coming of Christ: see John 1 and Ephesians 1.

This rhythmic account, with its repetitions and its liturgical form, is like a preface, the overture of the first nucleus of the Scriptures produced in the fifth century before Christ as the Jews came back from their captivity in Babylon.

But what does it mean? That God made everything? Of course. God, one God, different from the universe and who exists before it. However, what matters for the author is to show that God is beyond this creation which may either amaze or crush us, beyond a nature so rich and dominating that we are overwhelmed by its beauty.

The spirit of God hovered over the waters (v. 2). We have to know that in Hebrew, it is the word “breath” or “wind” which signifies “spirit” (see Jn 3:18). Here we have the spirit of God, as breath, named just before the word. Word and spirit are like the two hands of God the creator. This is precisely what we profess in the Creed: The Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets.

God works through his word, the bearer of his will. From that moment, the word, called in other places the wisdom, organizes the universe, but not as a foreign land which God would look from on high; it is a place He will visit one day.

God said (v. 3). This is like a divider put between God and his creatures. The world is not God and is not a Face of God; it did not come out from God as from an Infinite which lets its riches slip away without knowing nor dominating them. Somehow the world is in God, but God is outside the world and does not depend upon it. We should not forget that when later the New Testament speaks of communion with God, such communion can only occur if God personally calls us.

God creates—this means, first of all, that God puts order. First day… second day… seventh day. Not all creatures are of the same level. First, a material universe where life will appear later on, with its thousands of realizations, diversified and ordered. The Hebrews divided the world into three regions: the sky, earth, and water. We discover this order: days 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6. Everything comes at its appointed hour.

God organizes the world and gives meaning to our existence. See how the sun and moon are not there only to give light: in measuring the time they provide the basis of a calendar. There is no human life, no family life without feasts, without discipline and regularity in rising and going to bed, in hours for work and hours for meals.

God saw that it was good (v. 12). There is nothing bad in all that God created even though the author does not deny the existence of evil forces in the world: to the Israelites, the sea and the night were evil forces. But now, all these forces are contained: the sea has its limits and night gives way to light every day. However, we will have to raise the question: Who put evil in the world? (See Gen 3; Wis 1:14; James 1:17.)

God’s work is completed with the creation of humanity. The text provides us with three decisive statements which are at the root of the Christian concept of humankind. In time these convictions brought about modernity and they gained credence well beyond the Christian world.

– God created man in his image (v. 27). Here we have one of the most important statements of the Scripture: human beings are not hopelessly confined to the world of their fantasies and illusions; they are not prisoners of their own categories and structures, instead, they are created for the Truth. God can communicate essential things to them in human language and through human experiences: we are not condemned to doubt forever. We are created in God’s image and, of course, to respond to God.

– Male and female he created them (v. 27). Where the Scripture states that God created man, it does not speak of man nor of woman alone, but of the couple. The image of God is not that of an individual prisoner in his solitude and his sufficiency, but of the couple.

So we avoid simplistic images of materialist theories: the division of the sexes would be nothing more than the product of chance in the transformation of chromosomes, and also by chance love would follow from the division of the sexes. But love has first place in God’s plan and the long evolution of sexuality has been its preparation.

– Let them rule… (v. 26). This is not intended for human beings to be tyrannical or domineering, endangering human existence on a garbage-can planet. God gives them the entire universe. Human beings will use everything, even life itself, to grow, to mature and to bring the human adventure to completion before returning to God.

Be fruitful and increase in number (v. 28). God blesses them. It would be wrong to use this blessing to preach procreation without responsibility (see Wis 4:11 praising families whose children are well educated, useful and good before God). However, on many occasions, the Scriptures will show that a people who no longer has children has lost the road of divine blessings.

I have given you every seed-bearing plant (v. 29). With these words, the author expresses the ideal of a non-violent world in which not even animals would be killed. But later, a concession is made (Gen 9:3) because God takes into consideration the true condition of sinful humanity.

God rested on the seventh day (2:2). Respect for this seventh day, called “Sabbath” in Hebrew, that is to say, “rest,” is one of the pillars of Israelite and Christian practice. It is a holy day, that is to say, a day entirely different from the other days, a day which makes us holy and different from others. Thanks to that day, people escape from their enslavement to work and they are available for an encounter with God, with others and with themselves (see Ex 20:8 and the promises expressed in Is 56:4; 58:13).

 

CREATION AND MODERN HUMANKIND

When the Scriptures say that God creates everything and is before all things, it exalts man who comes from God and is no longer a product of chance.

The Scriptures free people from anguish. Primitive people thought they were dependent on the caprice of their gods; even the Greeks, so proud of freedom, accepted the weight of a destiny from which no one could escape. Their aim to dominate nature was blocked by fear of offending these gods, their masters.

The Scriptures, on the other hand, present believers not afraid of the hidden power of the stars (they are “lamps” at God’s service), nor of any curse in their destiny when they look for the secrets of the universe; it is no accident that the great thrust of civilization originated in the Christianized West.

 

A PROPHETIC MESSAGE

This first page of the Scripture lays the foundation of a Christian view of life. But we also say that it has a prophetic value in the sense that if we reread it now after having received the Gospel, these ancient words let new truths show through. Here are a few examples:

Genesis says: In the beginning, speaking of creation which appears outside of God in time, but John will tell us more clearly about that beginning (Jn 1:1) which does not cease for God. Because God is not subject to time: God lives in that permanent fullness which we call eternity and in which there is no before or after, no duration, no fatigue, and no boredom. In the beginning, God projects himself in his Son who is both the image of God and his Word (Col 1:15; Heb 1:3). Yet in this same beginning, God creates the world outside of himself in order to place in it the richness that he contemplates in his Son. It is at that point that the universe and spirits, space and time do begin.

This universe, which defies our imagination by its dimensions and its duration, is then an expression of God’s profound mystery. All human history that will take place there will be “sacred history” where God will fulfill an eternal desire: his will to love us, to lead us to maturity and unite us in Christ.

Rule over…. Despite their frailty, human beings have been chosen by God to be the link between God and the universe. From the first moment of creation God planned that his Son would become man (Eph 1:1-14); to him refer the words of Psalm 8: What is man that you be mindful of him?… You crowned him with glory and honor and gave him the works of your hands. (See 1 Cor 15:24.)

On the seventh day, God rested (2:2). This rest of God doesn’t mean that since then God regards his creation from afar (Jn 5:17). We should rather understand that God’s creation and even the work of humans lead to the endless day when we shall rest in God and share his happiness. (See Heb 4:1-10.)

 

2.4 Following the “creation of the universe” that takes up the first chapter of Genesis, the Scripture presents a much older account: man and woman in the garden of Eden. For us, it is like a dream of lost happiness, but this is not the way its author intended it. In those days people did not ask: Where are we going? They thought only in terms of the past: in the beginning, God or the gods had established all things as they ought to be and then everything worked well. Therefore this story of the first couple was like a mirror in which people rediscovered existing human beings, their choices and their future.

Consequently, we should not think of a first man Tarzan-like Adam whose sin brought all its trials to humanity. Some of the “Fathers of the Church,” like Saint Irenaeus, had a better perspective when they considered that human history was directed by the pedagogy of God whose sole ambition was to foster the growth of “Adam,” namely, humankind, and to bring it to maturity (Eph 4:13).

The Lord, the Holy God, is pictured as the owner of a marvelous garden (Eden means delights) where he likes to take a walk after the heat of the day (3:8). We need not imagine a huge stage: all we have here are two trees, man and his companion. Animals pass by to be subject to Adam (that is the meaning of naming them in v. 20). But no matter how small the Eden of the human couple is, what takes place there will, in the end, determine the lot of the entire earth. Thus, at the beginning, the small fountain of Eden is seen as feeding the great rivers of the world, especially the Euphrates and the Gihon which are thousands of kilometers apart.

Should we speak of Adam or of man? In Hebrew, Adam means any human being. When the word is used as a proper name without the article (as in 5:1; 5:3), we say Adam. Here, however, the Scripture says “the” Adam, that is man, the human one. In this regard, let us recall the words of Origen, the great biblicist who, living in the 3rd century, wrote: “As to Adam and his sin, only those who know that in Hebrew Adam means man, will really understand the profound meaning of this story. In those passages presented as the story of Adam, Moses gives his teaching about human nature.”

Notice how the Lord, the good craftsman, and artist that he is, works the clay with his own hands, looking at the one who is still unable to know him and preparing him to receive from his “blowing” both breath and life. About breath of life, or the human soul, see paragraph 83 in the index: Biblical Teaching.

Humankind in harmony with the created universe: in Eden, Adam is like in an oasis in the middle of the desert. And with the human couple united, all of nature is in order.

Adam is placed in the garden to cultivate it: humanity will be built up at the same time as it takes possession of the world. It will have to toil for many centuries to develop, to know itself, and to know what it can do.

God withdrew, but humans live through the grace of God whose breath constantly awakens them so that they will not fall asleep or fall back to where they came from. Should the Spirit abandon the human race, within a few minutes, or generations, Adam would return to dust: Adam, that is, you and me; as well as families, and societies. Some may say that God is dead, but in fact, men and women without God are the ones who die with all their works.

What is the meaning of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (v. 9)? Good and evil mean this: what is good and useful and what is not. So this tree is the tree of wisdom, of the art of living and of being happy. God opens up a road of wisdom before humankind, but human beings are free. Will they refuse to travel that road, not to be the ones who know and decide authoritatively what will be good for them?

It is not good for man to be alone (v. 18). God, who does not know solitude, created both sexes, not as a necessary means to communicate life, but so that the two might be united in love, the gift of self and shared happiness.

He did not find among them a helper like himself (v. 20). The parade of animals prepares us to discover the unique value of Woman: she is his companion and not his servant.

Adam fell asleep (v. 21) so that God might work out a transmutation in him: he would become one in two persons, and this will be a new birth for each one of them.

She shall be called woman (v. 23). In Hebrew, the words man and woman begin with the same syllable, a symbol of their profound kinship. On this subject, see Malachi 2:15; 1 Corinthians 7:4, 10; Ephesians 5:31.

That is why man leaves his father and mother (v. 24). Jewish custom required a woman to leave her family to enter her husband’s clan. Yet, people recalled that in ancient times, it was the opposite: the husband was the one who entered into the woman’s clan. In fact, both are running the risk of separating themselves from the family milieu to establish a new social unity.

They become one flesh: in Hebrew, it means that they form one single being. This union of the couple is part of their mission. It is not a provisional agreement to enjoy each other, but the union of a family in which God’s work is accomplished. Therefore the family will be fruitful and the two will give back to the large human family the treasure of humanity which they received from it.

We cannot reread this phrase without recalling the way it will be taken up in the Gospel (Mt 19:5). Jesus’ words on marriage are among his least understood words.

Yet the will of God was clear in this ancient text: the years of common life, the efforts to listen to each other, to understand and make decisions together, the capacity to forgive and persevere in fidelity, the shared risk in giving birth and educating a family: those are the means which, little by little, transform the man and the woman, enabling them to gain maturity and a sense of their responsibility. And it is precisely that which God wishes to find in them at the end of their life when he will be all for all.

They were naked and were not ashamed (v. 25). In Hebraic culture, nakedness leaves us defenseless. Thus here, we should understand that the man and the woman accept each other as they are without taking advantage of their respective weaknesses.

 

SCRIPTURE AND EVOLUTION

We already know that this account does not, in any way, claim to describe the emergence of the human race and so it cannot be in conflict with science. If we ask today: What was the pre-history of the human race? How is the race connected to other forms of animal life? These are questions that people did not ask and the word of God provides no answer on the subject. God lets us look for ourselves and this, in fact, is what scientists do.

Some people are shocked that humankind should be drawn from mud; yet in the literature of the ancient East, all the gods created living beings from mud. The author of this narrative followed the folklore of his time and drawing on old legends, gave them a new meaning.

Other people are so impressed by materialistic theories—already quite outdated—and their use of evolution, that we have to say something about it here.

When Christians think they see an opposition between faith and the vision of a world in evolution, it usually comes from the fact that they are confusing three very different questions:

1. Is there an evolution of the entire universe and in particular of living beings? Can we say that all the present or extinct species are part of the same family and come one from the other? Today all who have studied the facts reply affirmatively.
2. What are the causes of such an evolution? The causes of some small evolutions are known, but so far it has been absolutely impossible to explain the most important evolution. From that is deduced the answer to the third question.
3. Are the theories of evolution opposed to faith? These theories are not science but philosophy or imagination, even if they have been formulated by eminent scientists. A believer or a materialist would have full liberty to support an opposing point of view.

One final observation. What is amazing for us is that everyone receives from God the spirit which makes a person in the image of God. It is not so important that we owe our body to human parents while the first humans inherited theirs from animal ancestors. God is the one who gives the impulse and orientation to the whole evolution of living beings so that Man would appear in the end, the human one who, in fact, is first in God’s plan.

 

A PROPHETIC MESSAGE

As we mentioned in the first chapter, in these ancient texts the New Testament will discover all that will become clear “in Christ.” If Adam represents the whole human race, one in its origin and also in its destiny, then Christ is the authentic Adam. From the beginning of creation, God has blessed this race where each one has his/her own unique characteristics and yet is inseparable from the whole (Eph 1:1). Our first human ancestor deserves a charitable remembrance, but it is another who counts, who is “Man,” he who gives us the Spirit (1 Cor 15:45-49).

As for the human couple, they are presented as the authentic image of a God who is eternal communion. By creating the couple, God allows us to understand something of the mystery of Christ who presents himself to all of humanity as the “Bridegroom” (Mk 2:19). From the side of Adam asleep, Eve was born; from the side of Christ, dead on the cross, blood and water flowed (Jn 19:34) which means the birth of a church cleansed through the water of baptism and the blood of Christ (Eph 5:26, 31).

 

3.1 The second part of the Eden story shows us the second aspect of human destiny. After Chapter 2 which presented God’s plan, what he wants for us, Chapter 3 gives the reality, the actual human condition, and it asks the question: whose fault is it?

The serpent was the craftiest. In the literature of the Middle East, a snake was an evil creature but also endowed with divine powers. Evil does not come from God, nor from another God rival of the first, but from an important character of the higher world, like Satan in the Book of Job (Wis 2:24; Jn 8:44).

Temptation will hide itself in the conquest of wisdom. Let us recall that at the time the verb to eat was used to indicate learning by heart, through repetition, some words from the wise: we eat the fruits of wisdom (Pro 9:5; Sir 24:26). The tree of knowledge is the art of living and wealth (see 1 K 3:11) and freedom is seen as the open gate to good and evil, life and death (Dt 30:15). Thus God placed human beings in a conflictive situation when he set wisdom within their reach while telling them: You are not to touch it. They will first have to forgo trying to seize it.

The account distinguishes three moments: temptation, sin, and judgment.

Temptation. The serpent repeats to humans what is true: nothing is too great for them. At the same time, he leads them to doubt God.

Then comes sin. How strange this conversation of three! It is the woman’s wish, and it is man who commits the real sin. The woman temptress—isn’t this the reality, especially in a world where she is relegated to an inferior state? Perhaps the author in this remote age witnessed the exploitation of women and the art of exploited people to manage their masters. Seeing that suffering was unevenly shared he concluded that the woman was the first to be unfaithful. God will not accept man’s excuses.

Two details ironically express the sinner’s disappointment. Your eyes will be opened (v. 5): and they knew they were naked. You will know good and evil (v. 5): and they did not go beyond evil.

They hid… from God (v. 8). The fear of God appears as a consequence of the sin.

Other biblical texts dealing with these themes:

The ancient serpent: Wisdom 2:24; John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:17.

The false concept of an envious God: Micah 6:7; Job 10:13; Matthew 25:24.

Rebellion against God: Isaiah 14:14; Ezekiel 28:2; Daniel 11:36; Luke 15:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:4.

Temptation: Matthew 4; 6:13; Sirach 15:11; Romans 7:8; 1 Corinthians 10:13; James 1:13.

 

ADAM AND THE PRODIGAL SON

This sin of Adam opening up sacred history must be re-examined in the light of the Gospel, and more specifically, in the story of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11). This parable is much more than a reminder of God’s infinite mercy for the sinner who turns to him: it tells us what the human adventure is in the eyes of God, that of a prodigal son. While in Genesis, Adam stays with the discovery of his sin, in the parable he discovers he is a son.

Jesus is the Son and he makes us sons and daughters: he frees us in this way.

 

14. God’s judgment is a way of saying what our condition is… Adam lives his life away from God in suffering and contradiction. His disgrace will defile the better part of his existence:

– giving birth and educating children;

– the relationship between husband and wife, with the stronger one dominating the other;

– work becomes a burden.

Be cursed… God curses the serpent but not humankind. God’s original plan cannot fail: happiness and peace are at the end, but we will only reach this through a history that is disconcerting and often seems a failure (1 Cor 1:21): that will be redemption with Jesus and by Jesus.

He will crush your head (v. 15). The biblical author was thinking of the slow victory of God’s people over evil: the woman’s descendants always wounded but led by God to new hope. The hope of a definitive victory over evil gives life to all biblical history and it is that which keeps us alert in today’s world where all is programmed to drug us until the day death adjusts everything.

Adam gives a name to his wife, the promise of a new starting point but also a sign of authority. On the other hand, God inaugurates the long series of his “blessings,” to speak as Scripture does. And so, God gives Adam and Eve the fig leaves now necessary for their dignity. But this is the time to recall that we have to invert the apparent order of the account: the beginning of history, paradise, pictured the end for which God created us, and now the mortality of Adam expresses our reality on earth. So Adam’s weakness and his death are part of God’s plan of salvation. Our lives will be an ongoing ascent from Adam’s life—animal and mortal—toward sanctity and the incorruptibility of another Adam, Christ (1 Cor 15:45).

 

DO NOT TAKE EVERYTHING LITERALLY

We have already mentioned that the author of these pages took some characters from ancient tales, for example, the serpent. He also preserved some strange expressions, like the following: the man has now become like one of us… (v. 22) in which it would seem that God is afraid of human competition. The author did not feel it necessary to clarify these ambiguous expressions which came directly from the pagan legend. The same goes for the cherubim and a flaming sword (v. 24) which referred to certain figures posted at the entrance of cities to keep the evil spirits away. Here, these figures show that humankind is under the wrath of God (Eph 2:3): that is to say that humankind is expecting to be reconciled with God.

 

ORIGINAL SIN

Adam and his sin will not be mentioned again in any Old Testament book except for a brief reference in Wisdom 10:1 (Sir 25:24 is not to be taken literally). But what this story teaches is that all of us, some more some less, are unfaithful to God in a thousand ways. We see Israel, chosen by God, making a golden calf for its god (Ex 32); we see Moses, the great Moses, who doubts God and does not respond to him (Num 20); we see David, God’s chosen one, a murderer and an adulterer (2 S 11); we see the kingdom of Israel breaking up after it barely began (1 K 12). And each time we reach the same conclusion: God keeps his promises, but the whole future is to be marked by suffering and death.

So the sin of Adam is not just another sin, older than our own rebellion, to be added—without our wanting it—to our own offenses; it is rather another way of looking at the sin of our race. Here is what the author has understood in pondering the events of Israel’s past: our sins are neither isolated nor individual. Each one of us from birth, and even before birth, has been immersed in a world of violence and ignorance of God (Ps 51:7): our relatives, our culture, our first experiences have taught us to sin. “Adam” is made of all this interconnectedness.

Not a word about Adam and his sin in the Gospels: just a hint to the evil murderer in John 8:44 and nothing in all of the New Testament—other than Paul’s letter to the Christians of Rome. There, however, this story takes center stage again. See the commentary of Romans 5:12.

This important text of Paul (Rom 5) is at the root of Christian statements on the “sin of the human race” which later would be called “original sin.” The statement is twofold: on one hand, all of us together are involved in a rebellion against God that leaves its imprint from age to age; on the other hand, not one of us is a child of God by nature: we are all in need of reconciliation. God takes the first step and saves us through Christ.

All that goes far beyond what was said in Genesis 3: it is a way of re-reading the text in the eyes of people believing in Christ and faith in the salvation he brings to the world. Even so, the intuitions of Genesis have not been abandoned. The author of this story like ourselves is trying to reply to the question: “Why is there evil in the world?” and “Why are the children of Adam sinners?” He replies by saying that evil comes from disobedience to God, but he also clearly states that evil has come from a very important person in creation. We already meet in the first pages of the Scripture an affirmation which today is a subject of ridicule for many Christians: the world is under the control of Satan, devil or demon—the one John calls “the governor of this world” (Jn 12:31; 14:30) who is, in fact, a spiritual superpower associated with God Creator.

Was Paul mistaken when he affirmed that God’s plan with the coming of his Son-made-man—human, earthly, about to be tortured—was a scandal to every creature, beginning with both the occult and luminous powers that govern this world (1 Cor 1:8; Col 2:15)? This gave rise to the ancient catechetical texts, now fairly dusty, after so many years, affirming the “sin of the angels”—a durable affirmation in Jewish tradition. There had been a revolt of the greatest of the spiritual beings knowing that God would circumvent him by coming and establishing himself at the lowest point of the universe and from there to “draw all to himself” (Jn 12:32).

 

THE WOMAN—THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

In speaking of the woman’s offspring, the author was thinking of people who struggle against evil and are constantly wounded but are victorious in the end.

But, later biblical writers referred more and more to a conqueror, the Son of Man, the protagonist of the decisive battle.

The Woman is humankind, giving birth to the Savior, to its Savior, and made fruitful through the grace of God (Is 45:8). Revelation 12 will also speak of the Woman. This figure refers to Mary as well as to the Church since both Mary and the Church have entered into the divine marriage: Jesus was born of Mary. In its turn, the Church is the mother of all those who are born of water and of the Spirit, and who become members of the Body of Christ, which gradually extends to all people.

In art, Mary is represented as crushing the head of the serpent to express that God preserved her from the evil affecting our race. Even more: in her case, God did not want the lapse of time when human freedom is blind between the first instant of her conception and the first manifestation of God the Father. So, from the beginning, he prepared her with the fullness of his grace so that her entire life would be established and develop in a perfect filial spirit. This privilege of Mary is why we call her Immaculate Conception.

Mary is the perfect creature, inseparable from the Son of the Woman, Jesus Christ. God placed her amidst a multitude of sinners whom she was to help. A Woman (Jn 2:4; 19:26) is the model of all those who would be saved. Mary is the new Eve and the Mother of the disciples of Jesus (Jn 19:26).

 

4.1 The story of Cain, a religious story, like the story of earthly Paradise, teaches us the depth of the human condition, by way of comparison. It shows violence as a decisive factor in our history, with its roots deep in the human heart (v. 7) and its first victims those who, like Abel, are pleasing to God (v. 4). Abel’s spilled blood cries out to God (v. 10) who does justice in his way, not as we would with vengeance and violence (v. 15).

Originally Cain’s story had nothing to do with the story of Adam and Eve and their descendants. The biblical author, who took the story and placed it here, related it to the previous one by fictitiously making Cain Adam’s son. (There is, therefore, no room for questions about whom Cain and Abel married: the Scripture does not intend to relate the beginnings of the human race.)

This is like the national history of the tribe of the Cainites (or Kenites: Jdg 1:16; 4:17) who became part of Israel. As often related in ancient legends, Cain, the founder of the tribe, had killed his brother, who could become his rival, since that was the only way to establish political authority. Later, a society with different functions saw the light (vv. 19-22); then Lamech would become the spokesperson of national pride (v. 23); the people would learn how to get even with aggressors.

In borrowing this legend the biblical author gave it another meaning and inserted a dialogue between God and Cain as a judgment on violence: “You pretended to act justly: wrong! You have committed a crime.” It is like us saying: “You who pretend to serve the sacred interests of the nation, how long will you eliminate and expel those who do not agree with you?”

In the Scriptures, Abel is the first and the model of innocent victims who are murdered. This and other passages suggest that some people are eliminated because they are just people (Mt 23:35; Heb 11:4; Jn 8:44; 1 Jn 3:12).

 

•  17. The sacred authors inserted between the origins of the world and the beginning of their own history (the call to Abraham) what they knew about the past of humankind. They knew it in their own way through traditions and legends.

 

 5.25 Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years! (v. 27) It was absolutely essential to give the idea of a long stretch of time from the beginning of the world up to the ancestors of the people of God, and names could not be multiplied. Just as the Babylonians before the flood had placed eleven kings with a fabulous life duration, the Israelites needed many Methuselahs. Besides they held that their distant ancestors had been better than themselves and for that reason had been rewarded with a very long life.

In this legendary list of the ancestors of humankind appears the name of Enoch the just one, whom God took up to heaven just as he did with Elijah (2 K 2).

 

6.1 Here we have a popular belief of the Israelites. In the Hebrew language, sons of God means “divine beings.” At the beginning they were gods, but in Israel, they became heavenly servants of God. In these first pages of the Scripture, we find the tradition of testing the celestial beings at the beginning of the world, with the fall of many among them (Mt 25:41; Rev 12:4; 12:7).

We must remember that, while we believe that humanity improves and progresses, ancient people thought that their ancestors were stronger and better formed than themselves. When they spoke of the pride of a person who intends to compete with God, they thought that it had been their ancestors’ sin. To us, this arrogance seems more characteristic of our contemporaries, who are conceited over technological development. The lesson, however, is clear: a superman—even if he believes himself to be the ruler of heaven—does not know the ways of God.

 

5. Today, especially, we may feel uneasy when we see an increase of certain evils, be it drugs, or the total absence of moral formation in a great number of young people to whom their elders have taught nothing other than the enjoyment of life. History shows that crises happen at times to purify through destruction and elimination. Have no fear. A remnant will always escape the storm and build anew. But whole sections of our culture that are deeply tainted will collapse so that the self-sufficiency stamped in our humanism may disappear: we must recognize our need for a savior.

According to Noah’s story, this is God’s intention with the Flood, except that God does not destroy everything. He saves Noah, the just one, so that a holy race may spring from him. Throughout sacred history, God will bring the worst disasters on his unfaithful people, but he will always preserve a Remnant (Is 4:2-6; 6:13).

This is how God chose Noah from all the sons of Adam; later he will choose Abraham from among Noah’s descendants; then David from Abraham’s sons and, finally, one of David’s sons, Christ, the representative and Savior of all humanity. Scripture brings out this contrast: while the sin present in our roots extends to all people and frustrates the progress of civilization, God focuses all his attention on a single people, a single family, and a single man who will save everyone (Rom 5).

Like Noah, the believer is a person who willingly enters into God’s plans and cooperates with him in the salvation of the world. It is not enough to say: “I have my faith.” Will this faith of mine lead me to sacrifice myself to change the world? Unlike the negligent, the lazy and the corrupt, Noah, the man of faith, begins to work and does not doubt or become discouraged while building his ridiculous and apparently useless boat.

The time comes when God eliminates the unprepared, those who preferred to enjoy life now rather than work for a future God pointed out to them (Mic 3:9-12; Zep 2:1-3; Mt 24:38).

Noah’s story has its source in very old legends. It was put in writing for the first time in the days of King Solomon. At a much later date, the Jewish priests added the paragraphs indicated in the text by smaller italics.

The story of the flood is recalled in several places in the New Testament (see 1 P 3:20 and 2 P 2:5). This story teaches us that God wants to renew our sinful world. For that to be accomplished, we need a process of purification, and we need to look at not only our evil habits but also the very roots of our culture. To begin with, we must let go of our pride and admit that we need a Savior.

In some way, the Church is this Ark, which we enter through faith and baptism and where we are welcomed by Christ, the new Noah. It would obviously be wrong to lock ourselves in the Church as in a refuge of the saved and from there to condemn everything taking place in the world, forgetting that our mission is to save the world (Jn 3:17). Yet, we must not forget that the Church is the only hope of the world and nothing can enter the kingdom without passing through purifying and destroying waters.

Never again will I curse the earth because of man (8:21). With these words, the Scripture assures us that human errors and crimes cannot lead to chaos. Not only will the sun give its warmth and the earth its bread, but also in every century, humankind will find a solution to its problems.

 

9.1 God’s blessing on Noah and his children (that is on all humankind) serves as a commentary on the previous promise. Let us note the following points:

Man is confirmed in his role as steward of creation (v. 2).

He may eat the flesh of animals (v. 3), but not their blood (compare with 1:29) because for the Hebrews blood was thought to contain the soul, that is the life of a living being. Thus, to eat the flesh of animals without first draining the blood was considered as profaning the very sacredness of life (see Lev 17:10-14).

The Covenant of God with humankind (v. 8) and with everything that came from the Ark, means that God is interested in everything that people create: their culture, inventions, as well as their legitimate ambitions. God is not only the God of believers, he is also the God of everyone. God does not want merely to save souls: through human creativity, God enables people to grow in awareness and responsibility and he prepares them for divine union through the Holy Spirit.

God has not made himself known to all human groups as he has done for Israel and later for Christians. But to every human in every country, he gives signs of his providence and his goodness through daily events: this is what he expresses when he invites Noah’s descendants to see in the rainbow a reminder of his Covenant with them (v. 12).

I set my bow in the clouds (v. 13). Hanging up one’s bow was, at that time, making peace. The rainbow then is the sign of reconciliation between God and humankind.

 

•  18. In primitive cultures, those seeking supernatural experiences turned drunkenness into a sacred ritual. They believed there were vital forces in wine which would permit them to escape from the passage of time. The Scripture accepts these concerns and prefers to honor Noah rather than to condemn him.

 

10.1 Noah’s three sons symbolically represent the three human groups which the Israelites believed formed humankind:

– Their group, blessed by God, the Semites (including Arabs, among others). They called their ancestor Shem, meaning “the Name,” the one who knows and keeps the Name, that is to say, the Presence of God.

– Another group, Japheth, including the people of Europe, who were to form the Greek and Roman empires.

– The other group was that of the African people, especially Mizraim or Egypt and Cush or Ethiopia and also the Canaanites who occupied the Holy Land before its conquest by the Israelites. Since sexual immorality was quite frequent among the Canaanites, a lack of modesty is attributed to their ancestor Ham.

In this list of forefathers, names of legendary heroes are mixed with lists of people and cities as “sons” of this or that race. For example, all those mentioned in verses 2-6 are people and tribes, not individuals.

 

11.1 It would be easy to show that the Tower of Babel story, reproduces in part, legends about Babel, or Babylon, the most famous capital of the time, with its brick buildings and its strange, unfinished-looking towers. In verse 7 the biblical author retains an ambiguous expression from these pagan legends: the gods were afraid of the arrogance of humans who were threatening them in their celestial dwellings.

God has given us the mission to occupy the land and make it fruitful. People often prefer their own security to being creative.

The great projects for which the legitimate rights of millions of slaves have been lightly sacrificed remain unfinished. Resentment and oppression have contributed to irreparable divisions for the following generations or the next century.

God alone can bring us together: the first promise to Abraham was that he would gather all the nations around his offspring (Gen 12:3). When the Holy Spirit would come into the hearts of believers on Pentecost (Acts 2), he would enable them to understand one another in the unique language of love. One people: this will be the Church. While the sinful work alone and develop an oppressive and sterile male-centered culture, the believer builds through intercommunication and communion in the same Spirit (Eph 2:14-22).

The diversity of human languages aroused interest at the time, as did the diversity of cultures. Today it is accepted that people have spoken for several tens of thousands of years; but language is continually in evolution, more so when there is no writing. At a time when fewer human groups, scattered over the continents, lived with little contact with one another, a few generations sufficed for languages to multiply infinitely.

 

•  26. Terah became the father of Abram. Abraham was at first called Abram. We must understand that the account of Abraham is not historical in every detail. It is like a faith book in which we are shown the most typical stages and trials which any believer goes through at one time or another in his life. We see these played out by Abraham.

On a map, we can see the crescent formed by the fertile valleys of Mesopotamia and the plains of Canaan. Inside this fertile crescent were tablelands and deserts where half-starved, nomadic tribes traveled, looking for pastures for their sheep and donkeys.

 

12.1 Abram was already old. Around him, many groups journeyed South, toward Canaan, in search of better lands. Why should he follow them? His life would be over soon (cf v. 4) and, he had no children. Could he start his life over again?

God was calling him: “Leave; there is something awaiting you!” And Abraham left. In our own day, economic necessity forces so many immigrants to leave their country without knowing where to go or how their lives will be affected.

Leave… for the land I will show you. Abraham only knew that God wanted to give him what he had longed for during his entire life and he welcomed this promise. In spite of his age, he was still able to hope for the impossible and this heartfelt readiness, or this ability for rebirth, was more pleasing to God than any good works.

Leave your country, your family and your father’s house. Here we have one of God’s first words in Sacred Scripture. This call to Abraham is still part of the legend, like the chapters of Genesis that precede, yet it is also the beginning of a true history which will go on for centuries and which is far from being over: the history of Israel and of the Christian people. We rightly call Abraham the father of believers since the call that he received and his leaving for unknown lands is precisely what happens to us when we begin to believe.

 

FAITH

Leave your country, your family and your father’s house. To many of us, God is more likely to say: “Let go of your own wisdom.” If God is speaking to us, it is not to tell us what we already know. God is testing us, he knocks on our hearts to see what the echo will be: will we be able to let go of our own wisdom and enter into his plan? We thought we knew our own worth and where we are to go but—what if God already had plans for us; what if God already knew us better than we know ourselves?

It was not Abraham’s initiative to leave. God called him and by doing that, God liberated him. On account of sin, every person is born and lives as if he or she were in a foreign land. Our own reality is hidden from us as long as we are not rooted in God and in communion with him. Our religions and ideologies, products of our culture, do not permit us to go beyond the limits of a world we make to suit ourselves. To become aware of our vocation we need God’s call and we need to be willing to get out of this vicious circle.

Faith will never occur without separation, which is why God foresaw it in each one’s life: leaving our parents’ house, beginning to work, getting married…. Faith prepares us to face even more painful separations that will place us entirely at the service of God. As believers, we can never think that we have arrived. Until the end of our lives, we are pilgrims, drawn by an ideal never quite reached and always attentive to God’s signs to see where God is waiting for us.

Abraham rightly responded to the call of God who made beautiful promises to him: therein lies all of faith and Chapter 15 of Genesis will again express the same thing. In the Scriptures, we find founders and religious reformers like Moses. We find the wise and wisdom books. Yet, they are all women and men able to respond when God calls them. The promises that God made to Abraham are equally valid for all believers: thanks to them God’s salvation becomes a reality for the world. This is what Scripture says: in you, all peoples of the earth will be blessed.

In a divided world in which everyone defends their own turf, God has chosen a man who does not have his own land to begin the kingdom in which he will gather all people. From then, God chooses the poor and those whose lives are not secure in order to save the world. To them, as to Abraham, God promises the final City (Heb 11:8).

Abraham’s children: see Matthew 3:7; John 8:33; Acts 3:25; 13:26; Romans 4:13; Galatians 3:8.

Abram and Abraham: Genesis 17:5.

 

•  10. Say that you are my sister, so that they treat me well on account of you (v. 13). Some people are shocked at the low level of morality in those times, and in Abraham himself. When God called Abraham to make him his friend, he did not change him all at once. This moral change in his chosen people was to be accomplished over centuries: God is patient. Everything in its own time: we would do well to ponder this since we tend to judge quickly and prematurely.

It is not by chance that this incident is related here: stories tell us important things. God has promised Abraham land. He knows neither where or how it will be given: God never gave much explanation. His first idea is to go and see in the direction of Egypt a rich land with its irrigated valley in contrast with the arid hills of Palestine. There he even surrenders his wife to Pharaoh to save his life. Giving his wife is like making an alliance with Pharaoh, with Egypt—and the Israelites will later learn to their detriment that things do not prosper when instead of counting on the Covenant with God, they lean on Egypt. Sarah, moreover, is his true wife, the “free woman” who in God’s plan will give birth to Abraham’s heir. Abraham nearly lost everything. God’s blessing will not reach Abraham in the land of the rich: for his descendants, Egypt will be nothing more than the land of slavery.

 

13.5 A quarrel occurs between Abraham’s servants and those of Lot. Abraham values peace above his own interests so he allows Lot to choose his land.

If you go to the left, I will go to the right (v. 9). Abraham already has the insight of faith. He still does not know that the land he is going to select is only an image of the mysterious land which is the kingdom of God within us. Yet, instead of being the one to choose, he allows Lot to have the first option. He acts out of love without realizing it. Without trying, he discovered the true land, the human heart, which is where the kingdom of God is realized. On the surface, Lot chooses the better part, but in fact, he loses it.

All the land you see I will give to you and your descendants forever (v. 15). This is the land of Canaan, today’s Palestine. Abraham, however, will not yet own it himself: God only promises him that the land will be his. At the time it is still occupied by the Canaanites.

It would be worthwhile to see why, for centuries, God formed people with the promise of a land they would have to conquer. It is because people cannot discover their dignity as children of God if they are not given specific hopes such as land and a home. The human personality cannot develop unless a person has something to care for and to defend, something to fight for.

 

14.14 What is the origin of the legend in this chapter, a legend which was inserted much later into the history of Abraham? Did it come from the desire to add to Abraham’s glory by attributing a military feat to him?

In any case, God, the author of the Scriptures, wanted this apparently unimportant story to convey two things:

Melchizedek was a priest of God Most High (v. 18). He had not received the word of God, as Abraham had; yet, in his own way he knew the one who had called Abraham and he also recognized Abraham. Those whom God calls are never isolated because they always meet other friends of God. Abraham paid the tenth part but went away richer with the joy of having heard from the lips of this stranger words which confirmed God’s blessing on him (see Lk 1:39).

Melchizedek brought bread and wine (v. 18). What a strange person Melchizedek is! In Israel, kings were not priests nor did they offer bread and wine in their sacrifices. But Psalm 110 and then the letter to the Hebrews (5:6 and Chap. 7) see Melchizedek as a figure of Christ, the only Priest. Abraham, despite his greatness, only prepared for the coming of the one who would obtain the blessing promised by God for all nations. Here Christ is foretold in a veiled form as the priest and king who consecrates the bread and the wine.

Not one… or anything that is yours, would I take (v. 23). Abraham will take nothing from the inhabitants of Canaan, but only the blessing that Melchizedek gives him, who is, according to the story, king of Salem the future Jerusalem, the Holy City.

 

15.1 My Lord God, I am still childless (v. 2). At a certain age, we begin to worry about what will remain of our life: our marriage, our children, our years of work. At that precise moment, Abraham proves his faith by believing in promises which are seemingly unattainable. Abraham’s Covenant with God is the beginning of a reciprocal friendship.

Because of this the Lord held him to be an upright man (v. 6). “Not because you are a very good person or because you have helped your neighbor, or because you have served me for many years… but because I told you: ‘Do not be afraid’ and you have placed all your concerns in my hands.”

On that day the Lord made a Covenant with Abram (v. 18). Throughout Scripture much is written about the Covenant. What is the meaning of God making a Covenant with humans?

God loves all women and men, and wants to save all even when they do not know him. But he also wants to bring the human race to maturity. For this to come about, at least a minority of people in the world must have encountered God in a personal way since this meeting is the beginning of the most valuable experiences.

This is how, throughout history, God calls those whom he has chosen according to his plan and eternal selection. In making a pact or a Covenant with them, he gives them the opportunity to enter into a life of faithfulness. They will know God as a living person and will deal with him as such.

Therefore in beginning his work of salvation in human history, God wants at least one person to share his secret and to know the depth of his designs: Abram believed the Lord (v. 6).

Through such faith, God’s eternal decree lodges in the heart and mind of one believer and this is worth more than many good works. From that moment, mysterious complicity will unite Abraham and God forever: this is the Covenant.

God makes a Covenant with Abraham according to the customs of that time. When signing a pact, both parties pass between the two halves of a sacrificed animal (see Jer 34:18). Abraham follows this ritual and then there passes a fire which represents God. It is God who commits himself and who makes the promise.

Faith makes us friends of God: Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 4:2; Galatians 3:6; Hebrews 11:11.

 

16.1 Abraham is concerned that God’s promise is not being fulfilled. This son whom God has promised to the old man, could he not perhaps have it with Hagar, his other wife? For the child to be considered a son of Sarai, would it not be enough for her to adopt him according to the customs of those days? God remains silent and lets Abraham solve these problems in the way his still primitive conscience tells him.

But Abraham’s plan fails: the heir that God promised him will not be a son conceived and born “according to the flesh,” that is, by human means, but the son of a miracle. In this, we see the freedom of God who prefers to fulfill his promises at the very time when they appear most impossible to achieve.

 

VISIONS AND ANGELS

What are we to think of these appearances of angels? Did they really happen or are these passages merely a way of speaking? Let us clarify the following:

– We must not confuse angels and the angel of the Lord. Only in the last books of the Old Testament (and naturally in the New Testament) are angels mentioned with the meaning that we give them: spiritual creatures who have their place in the ordering of the world and in the salvation of humans as in Zechariah 1 and 2 and also in Daniel 9:21 and 10:12-21. Ancient Israelites did, however, sometimes speak of the angel of the Lord or a Messenger of the Lord to express things which they could not explain but which indicated an intervention by God.

When an epidemic providentially destroyed the Assyrian army, it was attributed to the angel of the Lord: see Isaiah 37:36 and also 2 Samuel 24:16. Since they knew that no one could see God when someone had a vision, they spoke of the angel of the Lord: see Judges 6:11.

– All of Scripture shows that God reveals himself in many different ways to those who seek him. He speaks through events; he enlightens the hearts of those who read his Word; he speaks through our intuition and our dreams; he speaks through visions or words, and sometimes, as in the case of the prophets, in a more direct manner, intimately and spiritually.

– We cannot, however, take literally all that is said about visions or words received from God because ancient people did not express themselves the way we do. When a person was reflecting or was tempted by evil, they sometimes expressed this inner meditation as a dialogue with different characters and would say that the devil or God dialogued with this person: see Joshua 7:10 and 1 Kings 3:4.

– It is quite possible that God did not act with ancient biblical people in the same way that he acts in our days. Now, after the coming of Christ, we have everything in him and in his church and we have no need for visions and appearances. God usually reserves them for those he leads on a special path. However, in the first centuries of biblical times, God revealed himself much more through those more visible but inferior ways.

 

•  7. Go back to your mistress (v. 9). This is a word of the Lord for so many people who suffer injustice, for girls who, in a liberal, class-conscious society, must accept humiliating tasks in order not to die of hunger with their parents; for the young people who, after a university education, realize that, except for a select few, modern society needs only sweepers and laborers.

Humbly submit yourself to her (v. 9), not because her tyranny is just but because you, too, need to be freed from your arrogance. You are right in thinking that you are worth more than what society offers you, but if, through circumstances, the Lord humiliates you, trust in him and think that this humiliation prepares you for a greater mission than the one you were thinking about. If you remain conscious that God calls you to be a free person and one who frees others, he will give you the opportunity to do it.

Beer-lahai-roi (v. 14) could be translated as the one who lives and sees. Of course, it is a popular etymology, but the text uses it to underline an important experience of Hagar: to have seen that God lives and sees us is enough to give us wings.

 

17.1 Abram means venerated father, and Abraham: father of a multitude. In changing the name of his servant, God enables him to begin a new life and to really become what his new name expresses. Jesus will proceed in the same way with the first leader of his church (Jn 1:42).

 

•  9. Circumcision, cutting of the skin called “foreskin” of the male organ, was an ancient custom of Oriental people. It was one of those “initiation rites” which, among some people, mark the passage of an adolescent into adult society. Circumcision was a religious rite intended to ensure fertility.

Circumcision took on a new meaning for Israel: it was considered the distinct sign of their belonging to the chosen people. A foreigner could enter the religious community of Israel only by being circumcised.

My Covenant will be written in your flesh (v. 13). A married woman wears the ring her husband puts on her finger. Something similar happens to people who enter into a community: they need a symbol of their membership in the community. Similarly, every male descendant of Abraham must have an indelible sign of his belonging to the chosen race; this sign is circumcision.

Yet, the prophets teach that the circumcision of the flesh is worth nothing without the circumcision “of the heart,” which means getting rid of one’s vices. The external rite is worthless if one does not live what the sign expresses. See Jeremiah 9:24; Deuteronomy 10:16; Galatians 5:4; Philippians 3:3; Romans 2:25.

For Christians “being circumcised or not” is irrelevant: Acts 11:3-15; 1 Corinthians 7:18; Galatians 6:15. This particular obligation, as well as obligations regarding the Sabbath, abstention from pork, the temple sacrifices and rituals were only valid until the coming of Christ and only for the Jewish people: Colossians 2:11 and 2:16-22.

There is little meaning in baptizing children or receiving ashes when those doing so are indifferent to their faith.

 

18.1 God’s promises were meant for the descendants of Abraham; he, himself, would never see their fulfillment. But God gave his friend a proof of what he was going to accomplish: Isaac was born in miraculous circumstances. It was logical to fear that Abraham’s descendants would feel superior to other people and would think they were saved simply by belonging to his race (Lk 3:8). Indeed God acknowledged as heirs of Abraham only the direct descendants of Isaac: the son of a miracle, Sarah’s son and not the sons born of slave women. In this, we are taught that no one has any claim on God simply because of being born into a particular family. God’s promises will be fulfilled for us to the extent that we imitate Abraham in his faith (Gal 4:21-31; Rom 4:13-17).

We marvel at this simple story: God, showing human traits, comes to ask for his friend’s hospitality before he showers him with his favors. Commentators will not dare say whether it happened that way or it was merely a way of speaking, but the believer knows that this is the way God acts.

God does not appear alone but with two angels as if to dispel the image of a solitary God, common among those who still do not know about the mystery of the Three Divine Persons.

Why did Sarah laugh? (v. 13) Sarah’s laughing is another one of those popular explanations which the Scripture supplies about names of places and of people; her son will be called Isaac, a name which sounds like “laughed” in Hebrew.

Is there anything that is impossible for God? (v. 14) See Luke 1:37; 18:27; Mark 11:22.

 

•  16. Can I conceal from Abraham what I am about to do? When God makes us his friends he gives us responsibility for the world. Just as with friendship between people, friendship with God means sharing everything. God teaches us to think as he does and to act with him and he invites us to make requests.

We should not think that if we persist in prayer, we will get whatever we ask for. If what we ask for is not good for us, God will not grant it. But God is pleased when we know how to struggle and to insist in order to obtain what he, himself, wants to give us in his mercy. He does not want to merely impose this but to grant it to those capable of wishing for it in the same way that he does. “I do not wish the wicked to die, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezk 33:11).

I know I am very bold to speak like this to my Lord (v. 27). The boldness of Abraham who begins to bargain discreetly and firmly demonstrates his faith. The old man converses with God just as he would with a friend in making a deal. Note how Abraham remains seated while the Lord is standing in front of him. This candid approach may appear as a lack of respect to those who read the Scripture later; thus they changed the phrase: Abraham was standing to speak with the Lord who was seated. Jesus said that he would wait on his faithful servants as a servant on his masters (Lk 12:37).

 

19.1 The salt of the Red Sea and the ruins of two cities destroyed by earthquakes: Sodom and Gomorrah—perhaps gave food for thought. We must remember that in those days people looked upon catastrophes as punishments from God and upon prosperity as a blessing from God. Such was the origin of this story which teaches us some truths:

– respect for guests who must be welcomed as angels of the Lord;

– the horror of homosexuality.

Sodom and Gomorrah will remain tragic names in sacred history, and serve as proof that we must not make fun of God’s judgments nor take them lightly. The prophets will recall this catastrophe when they threaten those who refuse to be converted (see Is 1:9; Ezk 16:49) and so will Jesus (Mt 10:15; Lk 17:29).

The present story does not fail to emphasize—in Lot’s case—that God never forgets a single one of his children, even when they are isolated in the midst of wickedness.

Lot’s answer (v. 8) seems incredible to us, but it coincides with the ideas of those distant days when women were not considered as human persons. It seemed normal to sacrifice a daughter to save a friend. See something similar in Judges 19.

 

•  26. We should remember that these are legendary traditions of the Israelites through which they attempted to explain the origins of different people and their connection with them. Since an age-old hatred separated the Israelites from the Ammonites and the Moabites, the present explanation was not meant to praise them.

 

20.1 The Israelites remembered the conflicts between their wandering ancestors and the people among whom they lived. The present event is related in three different parts of Genesis with different people as protagonists and in different circumstances (see 12:14 and 26:7).

 

21.1 The Lord was kind to Sarah as he had said. And so, after some years, God fulfills his promise to Abraham (see Chap. 18). Isaac is the son of the promise because he was born contrary to all human hope and to fulfill God’s promise (see Gal 4:22 and Rom 9:7).

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age (v. 2). In Scripture, we find some births which occur outside of the normal laws of nature: Samuel, Samson, John the Baptist… all are saviors. These births announce and prefigure the virginal birth of the Savior, Jesus.

 

•  8. It is easy to guess that this account is a different version of what is given in Chapter 16. But in Chapter 16 God is given the name Yahweh, and a well in the southern desert is mentioned which suggests that the story has come from the tribes of the south (territory of Judah) whereas the one in Chapter 21 comes from the tribes of Israel, in the north.

There are problems in Abraham’s family as in any other family, and God uses them to carry out his plan. It is good for Hagar to leave with her son so that Isaac may receive all of his father’s care. Isaac will inherit, not something material for himself, but God’s promises to his children. God steadfastly realizes his plans, but does not trample on anyone: see how compassionate he is with Hagar.

Abraham had several wives, as important men in his community usually did. The Israelites kept on considering this custom as normal for many years. It was only gradually that God led them to discover the demands of marriage.

“The son of the slave girl will not inherit with the son of the free woman” (Gal 4:28; 2 Cor 6:14).

 

22.1 The account of the sacrifice of Isaac shocks us: how could God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? Doubtless in order to understand this text it should be understood from two different points of view. The text is first a formal condemnation of human sacrifices. We must not forget that at the time this account was drawn up the sacrifice of children was practiced by the Canaanites: many Israelites following the example of the Canaanites thought that such sacrifice was pleasing to God. The prophets strongly opposed this kind of sacrifice (see Jer 19:5).

In a first instance, Abraham sees the immolation of his son Isaac as the will of God but the end of the account clearly states that God prevents him from carrying it out. In a first reading, the text also justifies the ransom of firstborn children. All firstfruits belong to God; but unlike the firstborn of animals, which are immolated, children are redeemed (Ex 13:13).

The text of Genesis, however, invites us to read in this the example of unfailing faith of the patriarch: God tests his friends in order to increase their faith. God saves his best gifts for those who remain faithful during times when he takes all hope away from them. In the course of his life, Abraham had trusted in God’s promises for his son. Now, would Abraham be willing to sacrifice his son and the promises? God has placed him on a road. What will Abraham do when the road appears closed?

After the test, Abraham would know that he loves his son in the same way God loves because he chose God over his son. We know without a doubt that God approves our dedication to a particular task if on some occasion we have shown that we are willing to let go even of that task, if God wills it so.

Likewise, when our hope in God’s promises seems to fall to pieces, only true love can keep us faithful.

But no explanation can soothe our wounded sensibilities on seeing how God imposes on Abraham the most costly sacrifice for a father. Is there no other way to bring us to perfect love? Though Abraham is a believer and God’s friend, he is also a sinful man and only “surgery” can purify his heart. Here, it is Abraham who dies, not Isaac; and yet through his sacrifice, Abraham achieves life (see Lk 17:33; Rom 4:17; Heb 11:19).

The Christian tradition has seen in this account of Abraham sacrificing his son a prefigurement of God the Father giving his own Son to save sinners. Though the terms sacrifice, suffering, love have not the same meaning for God as for ourselves, we should not think that an indifferent and pitiless God asks of us sacrifices of which he has no experience (Rom 5:8; 8:32).

 

23.1 Abraham travels throughout Palestine without ever having a place of his own (Heb 7:9); he holds everything as a promise. Sarah’s death, however, gives Abraham the opportunity, at least, to buy a place for her burial.

 

24.1 You will not choose a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom we live (v. 3). Isaac is the “son of the promise,” and faithfulness to this promise is Abraham’s great concern. The marriage of his son to a Canaanite woman, whose people are accustomed to pagan worship, would endanger this faithfulness.

To belong to Abraham’s family and to become the mother of the chosen people, Rebekah must also give up her home and her land.

Let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac (v. 14). God guides those who seek to do his will, above all when they choose to marry; he will enable them to meet the person best suited to help them realize this desire. Such will also be the subject of the Book of Tobit.

 

25.1 Medan, Midian, Sheba, Dedan: these are names of tribes and people of Arabia. Since the Israelites considered them their relatives by race and language, they wanted them to also be Abraham’s descendants.

 

•  21. We may be astonished that the Israelites called themselves the sons of Israel (or sons of Jacob) rather than the sons of Abraham.

Let us remember first what has been said in the Introduction: the sequence Abraham, father of Isaac, father of Jacob is only a construction of the history of these first fathers of the people of God. These three names were kept in the early traditions of different regions, and the corresponding persons had not lived at the same time. Abraham would have lived in the 18th century before Jesus, Isaac doubtless a little later, but in another corner of Southern Palestine, at Gerar, and Jacob in the 16th or 15th century. If the name of Abraham has been eclipsed by that of Jacob the reason is without a doubt the following.

Abraham was, in fact, the great patriarch of the south of Palestine, he had settled in Mamre, near Hebron; he was taken to be the ancestor of David. Did David not reign in Hebron? Popular traditions recounted in Scripture come from the tribes established in central Palestine, where the powerful kingdom of Israel would be established after the schism. Then it seems that in this northern kingdom the figure of Abraham was “demoted” with the first place given to Israel–Jacob; then they had the twelve tribes descending from the “twelve sons” of Jacob.

Two nations are in your womb (v. 23). We must not forget that, in this story, each character represents a group of people bearing the same name. Just as Jacob–Israel was considered the ancestor of the Israelites, so Esau or Edom (25:31) was considered the ancestor of the Edomites, neighbors and rivals of the Israelites.

These chapters show the freedom of God who chooses the Israelites rather than the Edomites to be the instrument of his salvation; even among the Israelites, God chooses whom he wants to be put in charge of a more or less transcendent mission.

In this chapter we are given three reasons for the rejection of Esau:

– A passage in Chapter 25 shows Esau to be guilty: he himself scorned his sacred rights as the eldest son.

– Another passage, 26:34, mentions his marriage to foreign women.

– A third passage (in Chap. 27) shows how God takes advantage of one of Jacob’s tricks to achieve his goals. The Israelites were not very scrupulous about lying. For them, Jacob’s trick only showed that he was determined to get God’s promises by any means, and in so doing, he becomes deserving of these promises.

In Hebrews 12:16 Esau will be mentioned as an example of a godless person, one who sells God’s blessing for a meal. How many lost opportunities in our own life: stupid things in life have bewitched us and caused us to miss what alone is worth keeping!

 

26.1 About verses 7-11, see 20:2.

In Chapters 12–33 we become acquainted with two realities in the lives of the patriarchs: they are nomads who live in tents; they roam in search of water and dig wells (see 21:21-34).

They live in camping tents (v. 25), that is to say, as transients without a permanent home. Scripture appreciates the work of people who build something lasting in this world. Those who found a home, plant a vineyard or build a house are praised (Dt 20:5-7) since all of this is connected with the creative mission of men and women. Yet, the Scripture also remembers the nomadic life of Israel’s forefathers as an ideal which should not be lost (Jer 35). The believer does not become attached to anything in this world… to family, homeland or lifestyle. He pitches his tent wherever he can but does not settle in any one place. Living as a stranger in this world, it will be easier for him to encounter God who also passes as a stranger among us (in Jn 1:14 the exact translation should be: the Word pitched his tent among us). See Exodus 33:7; 40:34; 2 Samuel 7:7; Sirach 24:8; 2 Corinthians 5:1-4; 1 Peter 2:11.

The patriarchs dig wells (v. 25). They do not find fountains of spring water in the desert, instead, they must painfully dig wells which make the desert fertile and provide drink for their flocks. At times the water runs out; at other times, the Philistines plug up their wells with dirt. All of this symbolizes human effort to find wisdom; people are often left thirsty and there are always those who muddy the fountains of wisdom. People will run from one well to another until Christ gives them the spring water springing from the Rock which is himself. See Exodus 17:1; John 4:5-10; 7:38; 1 Corinthians 10:4; Jeremiah 2:13.

 

28.10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and set out for Haran. Jacob goes to the land of his ancestors in search of work and a wife. On the road, he has a vision in which God renews his Covenant with him.

Unlike Abraham, whom God called when he was already old and who knew the value of life, Jacob is a young man who becomes aware of his vocation gradually. First, he buys the rights of the firstborn from Esau whom he has judged and considered irresponsible; but he still does not know the price of God’s blessing to his fathers. Then, his mother has to give him courage so that he can take the risk of stealing the blessing. He lets her persuade him and only afterward does he understand the consequences of his action: he has to escape in order to save his life.

But just when Jacob has to face the hazardous life of a foreigner and a fugitive, he meets God and for the first time he becomes conscious of his own responsibility: he is the bearer of God’s promises to the world. People become responsible when they realize that they are accountable to others and must answer for their actions. Jacob understands that he will be accountable to the God who has chosen him.

The Lord was in this place! (v. 16) Jacob, alone and defenseless, goes to sleep near a city inhabited by strangers. But God renews with him the promises made to his fathers and assures him of his protection: some day this land will be his.

This is the Gate to Heaven (v. 17). Jacob has seen the heavens open and the angels of God forming a living bridge between heaven and earth: this is an image of the communion with God which people seek in vain with their various religions. These may give us some external knowledge of God and satisfy our religious instincts. Even if we interiorize our search for God, we are sinful people who cannot find his inner presence without being called by him.

The only bridge between God and humankind is Christ: Son of God become man, both God and human. Later, in referring to this text (Jn 1:51) Jesus will declare that he is the Gate to heaven because, in him, God has embraced humanity.

He named that place Bethel (v. 19). Here, as in previous chapters, we find popular legends. Bethel means the house of God and the biblical author attributes to Jacob this naming of the place as well as the custom of paying a tithe to the temple of Bethel. This had been built many centuries before Jacob.

 

DREAMS

All of us are impressed by dreams and we try to interpret them. Most of the time they do not foretell anything but simply reveal what is going on within us, in our subconscious, and disclose something of what we cannot know clearly about our own spirit. Psychologists may use dreams to discover significant experiences or wounds suffered in the past.          

Dreams may also indicate and express premonitions and intuitions. Scripture shows us God (or his angels) using dreams to communicate with us. In this, God takes people as they are with their own way of thinking.

When God intervenes through a dream, we know it by its consequences. Jesus says, “The tree is known by its fruits.” In such cases, it is God himself who gives the interpretation: we do not need to resort to anyone and God fills us with a sense of complete peace.

People whose faith has been purified and formed cannot attribute to dreams the same importance given to them by the primitive people of biblical times. We also know that the Spirit of Darkness can disguise himself as an angel (2 Cor 11:14). When, in our days, large segments of humankind tend to lead their lives according to dreams, it has little to do with faith. In the very Scripture itself, besides the condemnations of Deuteronomy 18:10, we can also read in Jeremiah 29:8 his attack directed against those who induce the dreams they wish to have (see also Sir 24:1).

 

29.1 Chapters 29–31 present Jacob as a cunning and enterprising worker always trusting in God’s promises. In the end, he succeeds, less because of his own efforts than because of the blessing of the God of his father. This expression God of his father should be noted (31:5, 42, 53). It was customary with the Amorites (as were Jacob and Abraham) for the chief of the clan to attach himself to the “God of his father,” the one his father had chosen to protect his family.

 

30.1 We have already mentioned how ancient traditions explain by means of questionable etymology the meaning of personal names or places. Such is the case for the sons of Jacob: Reuben: “he saw my humiliation.” Simeon: “he heard.” Levi: “he will be attached.” Judah: “I will celebrate the Lord.” Dan: “he has given me justice.” Naphtali: “I have fought.” Gad: “happiness has come.” Asher: “for my delight.” Issachar: “he made a wager.” Zebulun: “he has given me a beautiful gift.” Joseph: “he has added,” and later, Benjamin: “the son of my right.”

 

32.1 God’s blessings are with the fugitive Jacob. He works untiringly and after twenty years he has two wives, many children, and countless possessions. It is at this time that he returns to his homeland and gets ready to face Esau, his brother and rival. Jacob was full of fear and distressed. In his anguish, Jacob prays to God, precisely to remind him of his promise and his “faithfulness,” that is to say, all that God has done for him and his fathers. God responds to him in his own mysterious way in the vision at night.

 

•  22. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak (v. 24). It is a struggle between God and Jacob. At the end, God confirms his blessing on Jacob.

Occasionally we discover ourselves better in sleep than when we are awake. This is what happens with Jacob in his night struggle with God. He understands that his labors and trials have been more than a confrontation with society and men; they have been wrestling with God. God promises success but will not grant it until Jacob exhausts all his strength.

Because Jacob understands better the reason for so many trials and delays, he personally addresses the one who blocks his way and who, alone, can change Esau’s disposition. Jacob becomes strong against God; he does not ask for a favor, a little help, but instead, he demands that he keep his promises: I will not let you go until you have given me your blessing (v. 26).

Jacob’s prayer does not show the resigned attitude characteristic of a believer, according to some. Praying does not consist only in accepting God’s will as a thing written in advance in heaven, or in asking for the strength to accept it: praying consists also in putting pressure on God, confident in his promises and knowing that he listens to us. If we could not have some part in the divine decisions concerning us and the governing of the world, the Covenant would be a fraud.

At the crossroads of life, pressed between the possibilities of becoming stagnant or surpassing himself, the believer knows that God will bring him beyond himself if he asks for it with faith.

He dislocated his hip (v. 25). Jacob faces God when, after a long exile, he wants to force his entrance into the Promised Land. In fact, to enter this Land is simply to enter into the mystery of God who wants to share his life with us, and this is impossible for the person who feels strong, sure of himself and of his own ways. Therefore, when we are about to enter, God tests us. Whatever blow, or misfortune or crisis we may be going through, it leaves us wounded and like strangers in this world. Jacob enters the Promised Land with a limp as Jesus also keeps the Land for those who weep, those who thirst for justice, those who are not violent.

Here again, as in many other ancient narratives of the Scripture, modern discoveries throw fresh light on the text which allows us perhaps to have a different reading, apparently more earthy, and yet just as rich in a spiritual way. Recent excavations in this territory show us that the God of Penuel was responsible for putting people on the right road, and that his prophet Balaam (see Num 23:25) made known his threats. In fact, the more ancient stories of Jacob lead us to believe that God had corrected him (Hos 12:4): the meaning of his name Ishrael was given: “corrected by God.” But later this name changed to Israel, for in central Palestine people had difficulty in pronouncing the sound “sh” (see Jdg 12:6). The interpretation “strong against God” was much more satisfactory for national pride. It may be assumed that in the primitive tradition, when Jacob returned, proud of his wives, of his sons and of all he had acquired in a more or less honest way, God stopped him, threatened him and wounded him. He needed to be humbled to receive the blessings promised to his ancestors.

After Jacob’s victory, events must be subject to God’s plans. Esau does not oppose Jacob’s return to the land of his ancestors.

 

35.1 One cannot live one’s faith in isolation; thus Jacob begins to form a community by first requiring that his people get rid of their idols. When they take this concrete and visible step, which is a great sacrifice for them, they become the first community capable of giving witness to the world, of faith in the one God.

 

•  22. We mentioned that Scripture preserves some memories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in legends (see 11:26). Outside of those three, it has been proven that the other names such as Reuben, Simeon, Judah… do not refer to real people. Wandering tribes had their own way of recording the events of the past. They created stories in which each tribe was represented by a person of the same name. So, for example, if twelve tribes had merged into a single people: they would express that by saying that 12 ancestors with the names of those tribes were the sons of only one father, Jacob-Israel! Moreover, as four of those tribes, those of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah had formed a different group from the tribes of Joseph and Benjamin, the members of the first group were considered to be the sons of Leah, one of Jacob’s wives and the others, sons of Jacob’s other wife, Rachel. Likewise, the sons of the slave girls were the figures of second rate tribes: Naphtali, Zebulun…

The events in Chapter 34 refers to a violent episode when the tribes of Simeon and Levi were in conflict with the people of Shechem. (Shechem is a city, not a person). We must interpret what is said of “Laban, the Aramean” (Chap. 31) and of Judah and his sons (26:30 and 36:1) in a similar way.

This explains why, ever since ancient times, biblical experts have considered many things in the history of the patriarchs as symbolic.

Twelve tribes made up the people of Israel and they always wanted to remember this number which was considered sacred (see Chap. 48). Jesus will later remember this ancient structure of the people of God when he establishes his church as the new people of God and chooses twelve apostles to lead it.

 

37.2 The story of Joseph begins here and continues until the end of Genesis as a kind of transition between the Patriarchs and the events of the Exodus which follow.

Joseph, next to the last of Jacob’s sons, is shown as the most important of the twelve brothers. The dreams of the young Joseph tell us that what will happen to him will not be pure coincidence, but rather will serve God’s plans: through him, God will save the whole family from hunger.

The long, moving story of Joseph, sold by his brothers, and who later would become their savior is a work of art of competent writers at the time of Solomon, but it draws support from the more ancient traditions, and it is also inspired by Egyptian books. But were they aware of the fact that they were expressing the whole plan of redemption: God saves us through the trials of a just person persecuted by his brethren?

Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other children, for he was the son of his old age (v. 3). The son most loved and also the most delicate. Among his crude and unscrupulous brothers, Joseph shows nobility: from his youth, this child of shepherds reveals that a great future awaits him.

Two of the twelve tribes stood out: the tribe of Judah and that of Joseph. See the commentary on Joshua 13 on this subject. That is why the traditions about the “patriarchs,” or ancestors, mention especially these two sons of Jacob.

 

•  12. Envy in brothers reaches levels of madness and crime. God accepts that the brothers follow opposite paths, some good, others evil but that does not mean that those who are “good” abandon and forget those following “evil” ways. Joseph will save his brothers.

This story invites us to recognize that trials bring us to a more spiritual life, which, in turn, makes our family life and our life in society more fruitful.

 

38.1 Placed here is an opinion relating to Judah which interrupts the story of Joseph. We must not forget that two of the twelve tribes were to dominate the others: the tribes of Judah and Joseph. Ancient traditions rarely mention other than these two tribes.

During this age of primitive customs and morality, Scripture does not insist on certain aspects of sexual morality. What is important is the transmission of promises made to Jacob which are to benefit the descendants of Judah (Gen 49:10).

Onan’s sin consists in having refused to father a son who, later, would not belong to him (see Ru 3:12 about the obligation to give a child to the widow of one’s brother).

Tamar’s nobility lies in her determination, by all means, to have a son who would bear the name of her first husband, Er, and who would, therefore be Judah’s heir. With this stratagem, she merited to be included in the list of women praised in Scripture (Ru 4:12).

Tamar appears in the list of the ancestors of Jesus (Mt 1:3).

 

39.1 After his misfortune Joseph behaves as a model of honesty, faithfulness, and perseverance. In Scripture, he is the first of the humiliated, just ones who look to God for their reward.

In Scripture, there were many liberators and saviors before the coming of the Son of God, the Savior. They were all tested before succeeding and many were despised by their people.

The story about Joseph and Potiphar’s wife is a lesson in genuine manliness. Scripture views faithfulness and respect for marriage as one of the virtues of authentic persons.

 

41.1 These dreams and the events accompanying them give us a vivid picture of the situation in Egypt with rains, irrigation, and droughts. Hebrew tradition credits Joseph with organizing the storage of surplus grain in Egypt in anticipation of the drought. Joseph’s faithfulness and the fact that God never failed him are emphasized. In those days, believers knew little of the beyond which is why it was important for them to show how the just Joseph was rewarded for his perseverance in this life.

 

42.1 This is the beginning of the long story of Joseph’s meeting with his brothers.

Note how Joseph, the savior of his brothers, forces his brothers to atone for the crime they had committed. One of them must sacrifice himself before his brother Joseph will reveal who he is. Forgiveness does not cancel out the necessity of making amends for the evil we have done.

 

43.1 We shall note in these chapters the soldering of two different traditions which gives rise to repetitions. Just as in Chapter 37, Reuben and Judah make the same effort to save Joseph, here Judah appears on the scene after Reuben.

 

46.1 Here, the adventures of Joseph have important consequences: Jacob comes to Egypt with his entire family. The Hebrews settle in Egypt and seem to forget the land of Canaan through which Abraham and Jacob had traveled with their flocks and which God had promised to them. They will remain in Egypt for several centuries until Moses leads them back to the land of promise. This long delay was part of God’s plan.

 

47.13 In Egypt, the land belonged to the Pharaoh: a very strict administration allowed him to acquire part of the crop from all the farmers. Here this administration is attributed to Joseph.

 

48.1 The twelve tribes of Israel were actually thirteen, with the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, together, called the tribes of Joseph. This is how they arrived at the number twelve. The present chapter explains this: Ephraim and Manasseh will be considered as two sons of Jacob to replace Joseph. Jacob’s blessing, like the blessing of Isaac, his father, goes to the younger son and not to the elder. God favors whom he wishes, and is not bound to regard the right of succession, or the parents’ wishes.

 

49.1 Jacob’s blessings do not go to his sons but to the twelve tribes bearing their names. The future destiny of these tribes will vary greatly. Jacob’s blessing is a way of saying that these destinies were known to God beforehand and that they were part of his plan of salvation which benefits everyone, but does not give the same gift to everyone.

The two tribes of Judah and Joseph dominate. This ancient prophecy seems to say that Judah would live apart from others until the coming of “the one the people would obey.” This text, however, is not clear in the original manuscripts. Did they wish only to celebrate the coming of King David, or was it the announcement of a great destiny for the kingdom of Judah, or was it the expectation of a savior-king? Actually, the kings of the people of God and Jesus after them were to come from this tribe. Judah here is considered as the heir of the promises made to Abraham and Jacob.

 

50.15 Note how Jacob and Joseph die: believers of ancient times were still ignorant of the resurrection of the dead. They lived the lives God gave them on this earth to the fullest; they were guided by the conviction that in their faithfulness to their mission, they were laboring for a better world which their children would see. The long and happy years that God had given them after their trials led them to understand that God was just and generous with all people.

Yet, while they did not hope for a life beyond, they were lacking a great deal to be fulfilled persons. They thought that when a person died, part of the spirit went to live below the earth next to his fathers in a place from which God was absent as were the cares of the living. They thought God their friend and faithful defender would allow them to be lost forever! They must have had to repress their longing and silence their doubts to convince themselves that such a thing was just and good.

Their efforts to be resigned made them serious, conscientious people, subject to the mysterious will of God: but in exchange, they were not given the happiness and spontaneity of children and a passionate love for their Savior. In that, they were not very different from good atheists or people of good faith though poorly informed, who live without faith in the resurrection.