these are the generations of shem: shem was an hundred years old, and begat arphaxad two years after the flood . . . and arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat salah: . . . and salah lived thirty years, and begat eber: . . . and eber lived four and thirty years, and begat peleg: . . . and peleg lived thirty years, and begat reu: . . . and reu lived two and thirty years, and begat serug:. . . and serug lived thirty years, and begat nahor: . . . and nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat terah: . . . and terah lived seventy years, and begat abram, nahor, and haran. now these are the generations of terah: terah begat abram, nahor, and haran; and haran begat lot. and haran died before his father terah in the land of his nativity, in ur of the chaldees.
and abram and nahor took them wives: the name of abrams wife was sarai; and the name of nahors wife, milcah, the daughter of haran, the father of milcah, and the father of iscah.
but sarai was barren; she had no child.
and terah took abram his son, and lot the son of haran his sons son, and sarai his daughter in law, his son abrams wife; and they went forth with them from ur of the chaldees, to go into the land of canaan; and they came unto haran, and dwelt there.
and the days of terah were two hundred and five years: and terah died in haran.
with this list of begats, the generations of shem, the story moves from the overture, mostly made up of legend and myth, often of significant retelling of myths common to the near east, to what is more firmly history. with abraham and sarah, introduced to us as abram and sarai, what we often call salvation history begins.
few before the german historicists, with perhaps the exception of bishop ussher, considered the first eleven chapters of genesis as history. but these chapters do, i believe, tell us how the biblical writers look at history, and they have given us clues about how we might interpet what we read.
in many ways the overture is full of unresolved chords and inverted melodies. the story of the tower of babel is typical in that way. sent out to fill the world, people cluster around their latest invention. so, in what seems like punishment, god "goes to" to send them forth.
there is much more to be gleaned in these chapters than i can begin to explore. think, for instance, of adam's search for a help meet for him, and the image of the church as the bride of christ. the image of husband and wife will become one of the most important of all, as we will find the the book of revelation. look at sarai's barrenness and the stories of hannah and elizabeth and of course, most importantly of mary, where the barrenness of the crone is replaced by the fecundity of the maiden. think of . . . well, you get the idea.
but particulary notice that many of the images and stories of these first chapters drop into deep background until we reach the new testament. in the first chapter of genesis, after each part of creation, god says that "it was good." after the creation of man, that is not said. the rabbis known to us in the new testament as pharisees say this is because man was not finished. the orthodox christian readers of genesis make much of the "image and likeness" of this first story, saying that although god made man in his image, the likeness was never developed, because of the fall, until the new man, jesus, reveals it.
jesus after his resurrection will tell his friends on the road to emmaus that all scripture is about him. this is the story on which the curtain rises, a great operatic production whose overture ends as abraham comes on stage.
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