Deacon D

Genesis - Chapter 11           Verse 1 starts right away by letting us know that everyone was in the same place and had the same language. Rashi and Radak both state this language was Hebrew, and as a matter of fact most scholars agree with them that that's what it was! Verse 2 pretty much lets us know that they were living as nomads, bringing their goats wherever grazing was good. Radak tell us that the Shinar valley was likely the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris River. This would have been a very fertile area AND we're told in Genesis 10:10 this would have been the stronghold for King Nimrod as well.       Verse 2 also tells us that once they got to that region, and remember they're all moving together, they stopped and decided to set up a city for all of them there. GOD had told them to spread out back in Genesis 9:7, and here's man , a few generations after the flood wanting to do their own thing! In fact, Verse 3 shows them wanti...

 Genesis 10      In verse 1 we see Shem, Japeth and Ham start to have sons, just as GOD commanded them to do in Genesis 9:7. Notice that it says the children were born AFTER the flood. There's a reason for this, according to the rabbinic scholars, sexual intercourse was forbidden on the ark, and only permitted as of Genesis 9:7.  One other thing to note, as we go along you'll see that sometimes the sons are mentioned as having children of their own, and sometimes not. According to Chizkuni, this is because those that are mentioned founded a nation, those that aren't did not found a nation.      In verse 2 were told that Japeth had seven sons, remember the number seven means perfect in this day and age! At least three of his sons are said to have founded nations on their own.   Tiras is said, by Rashi , to have founded Persia (modern day Iran ), however, other scholars say he founded Thrace or Etruscans. Even though they don't agree on sp...

Genesis - Chapter 9      A little preface before we get into this chapter , first.  Many Rabbinic scholars believe that during the flood, GOD also removed the Garden of Eden from the world, and because of this, stopped dwelling among us.  Because of this GOD was no longer among us, but rather "up there" in the heavens. Now, as you see in later chapters, he's said to "walk" with certain people, in fact, later on he said to walk between a sacrifice and make a vow with one particular person. I'm pointing this out, that GOD no longer dwelled with us, so that later on when you hear that someone is going to be called "GOD with us" you'll understand why it was such a big deal at the time!      The first thing we see, in Chapter 1 is GOD giving the same blessing to Noah that he gave to Adam.  I'm going to remind you that this was written during the Exodus, when the ancient Israelis would have encountered Canaanites , and their belief system, as par...

 Genesis 8     In verse 1 we see almost a retelling of Genesis , verse 1, GOD's name reverts back to Elohim, just like it was in Genesis 1, and the word for "wind" is "ruach" which can means wind or spirit, and it's the same word used in Genesis 1 where we read that his SPIRIT hovered over the water.   Where it says the waters subsided, the word used for "subsided" is the Hebrew word "shakak" (pronounced "Shaw-kak") , and it does mean abate. Most of the rabbinic scholars seem to think this means "Abate " in a general sense, however, Chizkuni seems to think that the waters were boiling hot and by "abating" the water, it means that GOD cooled down the water.   He takes this meaning from Esther 7:10 where she abated a king's anger.      Verse 2 is pretty much a retelling of Genesis 6. There was already light, so GOD didn't need to create the light , but as he's removed the firmament between Heaven an...

Walk in the Bible - Genesis, Chapter 7      In Verse 1 we see a  change right away, GOD's name is different. In the original Hebrew, prior to this portion of Genesis (since the start of Verse 7) GOD had been referred to as "Elohim", which DOEs mean "Lord" but it also means "Judge".  At this point his name changes to the proper name of GOD, "Yahweh".  Also notice that now, instead of Noah and his immediate family being saved, GOD is telling Noah that his whole household (immediate family and servants) would be saved because he was found to be righteous in GOD's eyes. This is because the sins of the father , at that point, were passed down to the children.         Ezekiel  (Ezekiel 18:2 ) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:29) both refer to this.  Now because it's true that the children would carry the weight of sin passed down from their parents, the reverse would also be true, if the parents were righteous, then they too would be c...

Genesis - Chapter 6      Chapter 6 starts by focusing on the general population at the time, then it zooms in to Noah. The first thing that it tells us is that as the population increased, the judges of the land, those that were supposed to keep law and order were actually subverting it by taking any woman as their own, whether they were married or not didn't matter to them.    Now, some of the rabbinical scholars argue that verse 2 refers to the judges as angels, others point out the word used to designate them ,"Elohim", is used for both THE LORD and Lord (not a divine being). Rabineu Bachya, for example argues as much in his commentary on Genesis 6, as does Rabineu Chananel. Radak does this as well, with the same explanation. It's also understood that angels don't have physical forms and humans do, so it would have been impossible for any angel to mate with a human. Only God and the Holy Spirit (as Luke states, later on in the Bible) can do that.  ...

  Genesis 5      Right off, I bet your wondering why this chapter should be included , right?  It just a bunch of  "X begat Y", "A begat B" and so on, so what?  What's important about that  ?   Remember on the previous  post I mentioned that each generation was looking for the person who would fulfill GOD's curse to satan that an offspring of Eve would crush Satan's head .  Each generation was looking for that person and would at least note the name of their son, just in case he WAS that person.            We're reminded, in Verses 1 - 2 that GOD made us, and named us, therefore HE owns us, HE's in  charge, not us.  We're also reminded that we're made in GOD's image.  Now , that word "image" is  the Hebrew word "Tselem", and it doesn't mean any kind of physical image at all. The closest word  we have to it would be "a shade" or an ethereal image. More...