Abraham

o First of the 3 biblical patriarchs, husband of Sarah, father of

Isaac
o Levenson reading:
In Judaism, Abraham is the first Jew, biological father of
most Jews
In Christianity, Abraham is "the father of all that believe"
Abrahamic Faiths
o Judaism, Christianity, Islam
o Lecture slides:
"Without Abraham, a major block in the foundations of
both Judaism and Christianity is lost"
Adam
o The first human, according to the creation myth of the
Abrahamic religions
o Along with Eve, associated with the fall of man from Garden of
Eden
o Lecture slides:
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one
man, and death came through sin, and so death spread
to all because all have sinned" (Romans 5:12)
Allegory
o A story which uses symbolic figures and representations to
express religious truths
o Example: the snake in the Garden of Eden may represent
Satan in Christianity
Ammon & Moab
o Genesis 19: Lot's incest with his two daughters
The older daughter bore him Moab (the ancestor of
Moabites)
The younger daughter bore him Ben-Ammi (the ancestor
of Ammonites)
Anthropocentricism
o The belief that human beings are the central species on the
planet
o Some Christian proponents of anthropocentricism draw their
beliefs from Genesis 1:26
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth." (Gen 1:26)
Saint Augustine
o Christian theologian and philosopher, whose writings
influenced the development of Western Christianity and
philosophy

o Wrote "Confessions" (autobiography)

Quote of the day #1 from mycourses: discusses the
nature of sin in humans, even during infancy
Baptism
o Christian sacrament of admission and adoption into the
Christian Church (through use of water)
Bible Moralisee, "Lot's Family" (13th century illuminated manuscript)
o Modern interpretation of biblical study
o Painting of the story of Lot and his daughters
Shows the daughters' sins after bearing a child (devil)
Shows hospitality (bottom left)
Shows the angels saving Lot and his family (top left)
Shows daughters helping their father to safety (bottom
right)
Binding/Sacrifice of Isaac
o Genesis 22: Shows ethical dilemma of a father and his
willingness to kill his son for God
o Illustrates Abraham's attempt to follow a universal ethic
(follow the commandments of God), but he simultaneously
ends up violating another universal ethical code (infanticide is
wrong)
Canaanites
o People of Canaan
o In the Bible, said to be driven away by the Israelites under the
rule of Joshua
o The Lord promised the Israelites their "original" land after
fleeing Egypt
Cherubim
o A winged angelic being, considered to attend on the
Abrahamic God in biblical tradition
o Appear throughout the Hebrew Bible
o First appearance: In Genesis, appears to guard the way to the
Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:14)
Comedy VS. Tragedy
o Comedy: Built on a U-shape structure. Situation is presented,
developed, darkened, shifted (plot), and moves towards a
happy ending
Example: The story of Joseph (Genesis 37-50). Joseph
begins as Jacob's favorite child, is sold into slavery, is
incarcerated in an Egyptian prison, acquires the ability
to interpret dreams, rises to power second to Pharaoh,
and ultimately is reunited with his family in Egypt
o Tragedy: Begins with the hero in prosperity, but ends
unhappily (usually death)
Example: The story of Samson (Judges 13-16). Samson
is born in a miraculous birth and is gifted with super-

human strength, but reveals his source of strength to

Delilah; eventually dies weak and blind
Concupiscence (Lust)
o Lust entered the Garden with the Fall
o Lust led to bondage of will
o Lust does not pertain only to sexuality, but also to power
o Before the Fall, lust did not "move members"; humans had
control over sexual organs
Copenhagen School
o Lemche, Thompson, and Davies
o Movement in biblical scholarship with two claims:
The Bible cannot be considered a reliable source of
evidence about what happened in ancient Israel
"Israel" itself is a problematic subject for historical study
o Slides:
"Israel" did not exist as a social entity before the 6th
century BC
The Torah was written by an elite group of priests and
scribes
Cosmos (Geocentric; Ptolemaic)
o Geocentric Model: Description of the cosmos where Earth is at
the orbital centre of all celestial bodies
Served as basis for systems of Ptolemy
Cosmos (Heliocentric, Copernican)
o Heliocentric Model: Astronomical model in which the Earth and
planets revolve around the Sun at the centre of the Solar
System
Served as basis for systems of Copernicus
Covenant
o An agreement between God and his people, in which God
makes promises to his people and requires certain conduct
from them
o Example: Abrahamic Covenant found in Genesis 12-17
Gen 12 and 15: God grants Abraham land and
descendants, unconditionally
Gen 17: Covenant of circumcision
Creation Story (Priestly)
o Parts of Genesis thought to have been written by a priestly
source in 550 BC)
o Explains some of the misalignments in the story
o Possibly written by multiple priests
o Most likely wrote the Primeval History (Creation,
Fall/Expulsion, Flood)
Creation Story (Yahwist)
o One of the sources of the Pentateuch
o Most likely wrote the Patriarchal History, and the stories

pertaining to the bloodline of Abraham

Curse of Ham/Canaan
o Genesis 9
o Ham is the son of Noah and the father of Canaan
o Noah planted a vineyard and drank the wine, became drunk,
and lay naked in a tent
o Ham saw Noah's nakedness but did not cover him
o Noah awoke knowing what Ham had done to him and said,
"Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall be to his brothers"
o Story's original objective was to justify he subjection of
Canaanites to Israelites, but later interpreted by some as an
explanation for black skin
Desperate Housewives Credits
o
Documentary Hypothesis
o Hypothesis that proposes that the Torah (first five books of the
Bible) was derived from originally independent narratives
Jahwist: 950 BC (Yahweh is the Hebrew name for God)
Elohist: 850 BC (Elohim also means God)
Deuteronomist: 630 BC
Priestly: 550 BC
Dominion
o Genesis 1:26
o "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over... all
the earth"
o Could be basis of anthropocentricity
o Dominion re-sought through technology and modernity
o Dominion through regaining of Adam's knowledge and for
good of mankind
o Timeline of interpretation of "dominion":
Allegorical/Spiritual: 1 CE ~ 1980 CE
Intellectual/Spiritual: 1200 CE ~ 1980 CE
Literal/Physical: 1600 CE ~ Present day
Literal/Moral: 1980 CE ~ Present day
Ecology
o By definition, the study of interactions among organisms and
their environment
o Creation of ecology described in Genesis chapter 1 (Six days
of creation and the Sabbath
o Day, night, the sky, earth, the seas, vegetation, beasts, and
man
Eden
o Biblical garden of God, described in Genesis chapters 2-3
o May signify the real Jerusalem/the Promised Land
o "Lord planted a garden in Eden in the east" (Gen 2)

Eve
o The first woman, expelled from the Garden of Eden along with
Adam due to her disobedience towards God's orders (not to
eat from the Tree of Knowledge)
o Mary often considered the 2nd Eve (restores what was lost)
o An example of Fall/Resurrection
Exile/Restoration
o The Garden of Eden symbolizes land of Israel (the Promised
Land)
o Free, independent world VS. Wilderness (Egypt/Babylon; ie.
exiled to Babylon)
o There was a return; not to the Garden itself, but rather to a
state like the Garden
Fall/Resurrection
o Fall: Adam and Eve rejected God's rule over them; their
rebellious choice coined "the Fall"
o Resurrection: the second Adam (Christ) and second Eve (Mary)
in the New Testament save mankind from their predecessors'
sins (the Sin of Adam and Eve)
Feminism
o Feminism can be incorporated into different interpretations of
the story of Adam and Eve
o Concept of Eve frequently used in contemporary times (ex.
advertisements, etc.); feminists may argue about the
inappropriate usages, overt sex appeal and the connections
drawn between females and sin, etc.
Flood
o At least 68 religious groups have their own stories about the
biblical Flood
o Flood stories as separators between:
Fall/Recovery
Generations
Prehistory/History
Myth/History
o Noah, Gilgamesh, Atrahasis are all Flood story heroes
Geology
o
Growth Model
o
"Highway 61" (Bob Dylan)
o Lyrics describe God's command to Abraham to sacrifice his
son, Isaac
Holy Mountain of God
o Also known as "Mount Sinai" or "Mount Horeb"
o In Exodus 3, God calls out to Moses on the Holy Mountain in
the form of a burning bush; appoints Moses to lead the

Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan

Homosexuality VS. Hospitality
o In the story of Sodom & Gomorrah, two angels show up at
Lot's house
o Men of Lot's town demand to get to "know" the angels, and
Lot offers his daughters' virginities instead
o The crime of the people of Sodom have come to be connected
with the sins of homosexuality and/or failure to be
inhospitality
Hospitality of Abraham
o Scene from Exodus: When three angels appear before
Abraham and he takes them in
o This was the first time when it was believed that the Holy
Trinity appeared (Father, Son, Holy Spirit); alternatively, can
be interpreted as the first time that Jesus appeared
Human Being as Microcosm
o Opposite of anthropocentricism; sees man as a small being in
the cosmos
King of Tyre (Ezek 8:11-19)
o The pride of King of Tyre compared to the pride of Satan
o In no sense could an earthly king claim to be "in Eden"/"the
anointed cherub who covers"/"on the Holy Mountain of God"
o Some speculate that the King of Tyre was possessed by Satan
Lot Complex
o Opposite to the Oedipus Complex
o When a younger woman (ie. daughter) lusts after or has
sexual relations with an older/more powerful man (ie. her
father)
o Comes from the text where Lot's daughters have sex with him
order to continue the lineage of man
Lot's Daughters
o In the belief that the surrounding world was destroyed just as
their home in Sodom had been, Lot's daughters have sex with
their father in order to continue the lineage of man
o They have one son each, both of whom become the heads of
the tribes of Arron and Moab, respectively
o Incest relationships can be interpreted as feminine desires to
use sur-patriarchal power and the male desire for the female
The story of Lot justifies the action of his daughters
Consider Lot, a man of age who fails to launch (does
nothing at home) and then his daughters who take the
initiative to do what needs to be done
Myth
o A narrative that is told to support a specific ideology
o Or, used to explain a natural phenomenon
o Every time that one presents facts, one is shaping the

narrative
o Ehrman (reading) definition of myth:
"A story about God or the gods and their activities,
which tries to make sense of the world and our place in
it"
Nature
o
Noah
o Name itself is a play on words which mean "bringer of belief"
o God asks Noah to preserve the goodness from creation, and
Noah builds an ark (Genesis chapters 6-9)
o The story of the Flood is the 3rd creation story
Pentateuch
o The first 5 books of the Bible:
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
o Foundational set of sacred scriptures for many religions
o Thought to have been written by Moses
Post-feminism (Backlash)
o Backlash against second-wave feminism
o
Post-feminism (Traditionalist)
o
Recovery Narratives
o
Sabbath
o Seventh day of the Hebrew calendar week
o According to Exodus 20:8, the Sabbath is to be kept as a holy
day of rest, as God rested from creation
Science
o
Sodom & Gomorrah
o Two biblical cities that were apparently filled with sin
o Destroyed in the story of Lot
o Often associated with homosexuality (ie. sodomy)
Stewardship
Watchers
o Angelic creatures depicted in the 2014 film "Noah"
o They tried to help the humans, but God punished them by
turning them to stone