Abraham – A Paradigm of Faith in God. THE STRUCTURE OF GENESIS, I. THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE AND HUMAN BEINGS 1.1 – 2.3, II. WHAT IT IS TO BE HUMAN AND THE BEGINNING OF SIN 2.4 – 4.26, The generations of the heavens and the earth 2.4, III. FROM ADAM TO THE JUDGEMENT OF THE WORLD 5.1 – 9.29, The generations of Adam 5.1 – 6.8 Noah 6.9 – 9.29, IV. ABRAHAM AND HIS SONS 10.1 – 25.11, The generations of the sons of Noah 10.1 Shem 11.10 Terah 11.27, V. ISAAC AND HIS SONS 25.12 – 35.29, The generations of Ishmael 25.12 Isaac 25.19, VI. JACOB AND HIS SONS 36.1 – 50.26., The generations of Esau 36.1 Jacob 37.2, ABRAHAM AND HIS SONS 10.1 – 25.11, 1. Nimrod and the foundation of cities: Babel, Erech, Accad, Calneh, Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, Resen (10.9-12). The city, tower and ideology of Babel; the judgement of God on Babel and the scattering of the nations linguistically and geographically (11.1-9)., 2. The call of Abram. God's promise to him of nationhood carrying universal blessing: in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (12.1-3; 1.:18; 22.18)., 3. The 'promised seed' (12.7; 15.1-6; 18.10-18): the birth (21.1-7), sacrifice (22.1-19) and marriage (ch. 24) of Isaac., The covenant made with Abram and his seed regarding inheritance (15.7-21), the covenant of circumcision (17.1-27)., AM Plenary/SUN, 2, THE STAGES IN THE LIFE OF A MAN OF FAITH, SECTION 1 12-15 God's call and promise: justification by faith, SECTION 2. 16-19 Faith in God's promise or personal effort?, SECTION 3. 20-24 The search for security: a bride for the son, Genesis gives not only an account of the temporal beginnings of the universe, the earth and life on it but also a biblical anthropology in the original sense of that word – a logos (account) of anthropos (man). Leon Kass suggests that the stories are powerful precisely because they present human life in all its moral ambiguity – they present to us not simply what once happened in a particular time and place with particular people but in a very real sense they throw light on what always happens and hence act as a mirror in which the complexity of our own lives is reflected., That is, Genesis shows us not only what is first in time but also what is first in importance when it comes to understanding fundamental things – God, the universe, life, language, morality, relationships sin, death, …, The first half of the book reveals to us first of all what the world once was in all its glory with human beings made in the image of God as the pinnacle of God's creation with all their wonderful capacities. It then traces the devastation wrought by the misuse of those capacities – the banishing from Eden, the trials of life and the increasing violence of human behaviour that leads to capital judgement that is survived by Noah and his family alone., In the second half of the book God makes a new beginning – this time by calling out a particular person, Abram, from a particular tribe to form a new nation that would be taught God's way and witness to him in the world. We learn here about the complexities of the path back to God that gives...
