ENGL 340
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Genesis 1-23

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. The narrative in Genesis isn’t linear.  It doesn’t move neatly from point to point in chronological order.  Instead, it starts to tell a story and then suddenly starts it over again (e.g., why does the story of Noah’s ark begin and then start over?), tells a story once and then tells it again later (e.g., why does Abraham use the trick of passing Sarah off as his sister twice?), tells two or more stories that cover the same ground but don’t correlate to one another (e.g., how many times is Abraham promised descendants and a homeland?), and contradicts itself over small details (e.g., how many pairs of animals went into Noah’s ark?).  Choose a story that gets repeated, that covers the same ground as another story, or that starts and restarts several times.  Why doesn’t the story just proceed chronologically?  What effect does the repetition have?  Is the repetition exactly like the original?  If not, how does the repetition vary from the original?  What do we learn from the repetition and variation?  What does the repetition tell us about how Genesis might have been composed?
2. The lists of generations of descendants is often a very dull part of Genesis for today’s readers.  But Biblical scholars have found these lists to be very significant.  The idea of nation-hood in the Ancient Near East was conceived in terms of descent from a common ancestor.  The Hebrew people are defined as the descendants of Abraham (through his son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob).  The ancient Hebrews were a nomadic, tribal people -- a people who based their identity and their relations to other peoples on their tribal, family relationships.  What do we learn about the Hebrews’ relations with neighboring peoples from the stories of their genesis in Genesis?  What kinds of people descend from cursed men like Cain, Ham, and Ishmael?  What kinds of people descend from blessed men like Adam, Noah, and Isaac?  How might the stories of Cain and Abel, Noah and Ham, and Isaac and Ishmael be a way for the Hebrew people to define themselves and situate their nation among its neighbors?
3. How are women portrayed in today’s reading assignment?  What role do women have in the stories?  What defines a woman’s place?  What defines a good woman or a bad woman?  For what is a woman valued?  What does the portrayal of women suggest about ancient Hebrew attitudes toward women?
4. Why do some people not receive God’s favor?  Why are people like Cain (as opposed to Abel) and Lot (as opposed to Abraham) cursed with misfortune?  Even before Cain kills Abel, for example, Cain is not favored by God.  Why not?  Why is Lot not favored in the same way that Abraham is?  What is it about the choices that Cain and Lot make that set them apart from Abel and Abraham?

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