CTS New Catholic Bible Extract

THE CTS NEW CATHOLIC

BIBLE

catholic truth societypublishers to the holy see

Bible Addenda final.indd 1 5/9/07 15:51:58

The CTS New Catholic Bible

This Edition first published 2007 by The Incorporated Catholic Truth Society, 40-46 Harleyford Road, London, SE11 5AY. Copyright © 2007 The The Incorporated Catholic Truth Society, save as otherwise indicated.

Nihil Obstat: The Reverend Canon John Redford S.T.L., L.S.S., D.D.

Imprimatur: The Most Reverend Kevin McDonald B.A., S.T.L., S.T.D., Archbishop of Southwark, 31 July 2007.

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are a declaration that a publication is considered to be free from doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.

The publishers are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material. All biblical text excluding the Psalms © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd and Doubleday & Company, Inc. Nihil Obstat: Lionel Swain S.T.L., L.S.S. Imprimatur: ✙ John Cardinal Heenan, Westminster, 4 July 1966.The texts of the Grail Psalms © The Grail (England) 1963, published by HarperCollins Publisher. Used by permission.Imprimatur: ✙ William Cardinal Godfrey, Westminster, 25 March 1962.

ISBN 978 1 86082 466 1 (Compact Hardbound Edition)

ISBN 978 1 86082 468 5 (Compact Travel Edition)

ISBN 978 1 86082 467 8 (Standard Hardbound Edition)

ISBN 978 1 86082 469 2 (Presentation Edition)

Layout by The Bible Society, Swindon, UK. Printed by L.E.G.O. S.p.A., Milan, Italy.


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FOREWORDThis edition of the Bible is intended to partner the use of the Bible in the liturgy, enabling public and private readers to prepare and follow up the liturgical readings. For this reason the translations used are those familiar from the books used in the Roman Catholic liturgy, the Jerusalem Bible and the Grail Psalter. The introductions to each Book and the explanatory notes are entirely fresh, written for this edition, though some use has been made of the notes to the New Jerusalem Bible. It is hoped that they will also prove a useful aid to private study of the Bible. Since the presumption has been that the text to be commented is that used in the liturgy, only in the rarest of cases has reference been made in the notes to alternative texts or manuscript readings.

The biblical text is preceded by a resumé of the Constitution of Vatican II on the Bible, which sums up the Church’s view of the part played by the scriptures in the life of a Christian. The biblical text is followed not only by a brief conspectus of the usual biblical apparatus, but also by an Index to the Notes, a Table of the passages prescribed for reading at the Eucharist and an explanation of this arrangement, a list of the Psalms and Canticles used in the four-week cycle of Roman Breviary, a list of scriptural passages prescribed by the Church or suggested for use in various ritual celebrations and a note on Lectio Divina. Finally the maps of the New Jerusalem Bible have been included, with grateful acknowledgement to Darton, Longman & Todd. I am deeply grateful also to Bernard Robinson and Ian Boxall, who worked through the Notes respectively to the Old and New Testaments, and made many valuable suggestions. I am also grateful to my hosts and students at Holy Trinity Institute, Tafara, where a good deal of the work was done.

Henry Wansbrough

Ampleforth Abbey

Holy Trinity Institute, Tafara, Zimbabwe


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CONTENTSScripture in the Life of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .viPreface to the Biblical Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

THE OLD TESTAMENTTHE PENTATEUCH

THE HISTORICAL BOOKS

THE WISDOM BOOKS

THE PROPHETS

THE NEW TESTAMENTTHE GOSPELS AND ACTS

Genesis (Gn). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Exodus (Ex) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Leviticus (Lv) . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

Numbers (Nb). . . . . . . . . . . . .189Deuteronomy (Dt) . . . . . . . . .250

Joshua (Jos). . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305Judges (Jg). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .344Ruth (Rt). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3841-2 Samuel (1-2 S) . . . . .390, 4371-2 Kings (1-2 K) . . . . . .477, 5231-2 Chronicles (1-2 Ch) . 567, 610

Ezra (Ez) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .659Nehemiah (Ne). . . . . . . . . . . .675Tobit (Tb) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .696Judith (Jdt) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .716Esther (Est) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7391-2 Maccabees (1-2 M) . .757, 802

Job (Jb) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .837Psalms (Ps) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .892Proverbs (Pr). . . . . . . . . . . . .1049Ecclesiastes/Qoheleth (Qo) . .1097

Song of Songs (Sg) . . . . . . . .1110Wisdom (Ws) . . . . . . . . . . . .1123Ecclesiasticus/Ben Sira (Si) . .1155

Isaiah (Is) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1238Jeremiah (Jr) . . . . . . . . . . . . .1358Lamentations (Lm). . . . . . . .1460Baruch (Ba). . . . . . . . . . . . . .1473Ezekiel (Ezk) . . . . . . . . . . . . .1484Daniel (Dn) . . . . . . . . . . . . .1556Hosea (Ho) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1589Joel (Jl) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1609Amos (Am) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1618

Obadiah (Ob) . . . . . . . . . . . .1634Jonah (Jon). . . . . . . . . . . . . .1638Micah (Mi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1642Nahum (Na) . . . . . . . . . . . . .1654Habakkuk (Hab) . . . . . . . . . .1660Zephaniah (Zp). . . . . . . . . . .1667Haggai (Hg) . . . . . . . . . . . . .1675Zechariah (Zc) . . . . . . . . . . .1679Malachi (Ml). . . . . . . . . . . . .1695

Matthew (Mt) . . . . . . . . . . . .1700Mark (Mk) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1761

Luke (Lk) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1799John (Jn). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1860

Acts of the Apostles (Ac) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1914


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THE PAULINE LETTERS

LETTERS TO ALL CHRISTIANS & REVELATION

TABLES AND NOTES

1. Historical Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2185

2. Weights, Measures & Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2187

3. Index to the Notes in the Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2188

SCRIPTURE AND CATHOLIC LITURGY

4. The Sunday and Weekday Lectionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2199

A. The Pattern of the Readings at Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2199

B. Scripture Readings for Sunday Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2201

C. Scripture Readings for Weekday Mass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2206

D. Scripture Readings for Mass in Biblical Order . . . . . . . . . . . . 2215

5. The Liturgy of the Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2232

A. The Cycles of Readings for the Liturgy of Hours . . . . . . . . . . 2232

B. Psalms and Canticles used in the 4-week Breviary Cycle . . . . 2234

C. Office of Readings – 1 Year Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2236

D. Office of Readings – 2 Year Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2239

SCRIPTURE, PRAYER AND SACRAMENTS

6. Praying with the Bible: Lectio Divina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2245

7. Scripture for celebrating the Sacraments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2246

8. Scripture and praying the Holy Rosary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2247

MAPS

9. Index to the Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2247

Romans (Rm) . . . . . . . . . . . .19721 Corinthians (1 Co) . . . . . .20002 Corinthians (2 Co) . . . . . .2024Galatians (Ga) . . . . . . . . . . .2039Ephesians (Ep) . . . . . . . . . . .2049Philippians (Ph) . . . . . . . . . .2058Colossians (Col) . . . . . . . . . .2065

1 Thessalonians (1 Th). . . . .20722 Thessalonians (2 Th). . . . .20781 Timothy (1 Tm). . . . . . . . .20812 Timothy (2 Tm). . . . . . . . .2089Titus (Ti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2094Philemon (Phm). . . . . . . . . .2097Letter to the Hebrews (He). .2100

James (Jm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21201 Peter (1 P) . . . . . . . . . . . . .21282 Peter (2 P) . . . . . . . . . . . . .21361 John (1 Jn). . . . . . . . . . . . .2141

2 John (2 Jn). . . . . . . . . . . . .21523 John (3 Jn). . . . . . . . . . . . .2154Jude (Jude) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2155Book of Revelation (Rv) . . . .2158


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SCRIPTURE IN THELIFE OF THE CHURCH

A Resumé of The Dogmatic Constitution on Revelation (Die Verbum, 1965, Vatican II)

Chapter One: Revelation

2. In his love God chose to reveal himself in order to invite us into his friendship. The plan of salvation is expressed both in God’s deeds throughout the history of salvation and in the words which make clear the mystery contained in them.

3. He already showed himself to the first human beings, and, though they fell, aroused in them the hope of being saved. He called Abraham and made of him a great nation. Through the patriarchs, Moses and the prophets, he prepared the way for the gospel.

4. Finally he sent his Son, the eternal Word, to tell us the deepest realities of God. Christ completed this revelation by his words and deeds, but especially through his death and resurrection and by sending the Spirit of truth.

5. By the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to respond to this revelation with the obedience of faith, which moves the heart and opens the eyes of the mind.

6. Although God can be known with certainty by the light of human reason, by revelation God shares with us those divine treasures which transcend human understanding.

Chapter Two: The Transmission of Revelation

7. God ensured that his revelation would be handed on to all generations. So Christ commissioned the apostles to hand on by oral preaching and example the gospel which they had received from him. The same commission was also fulfilled by those apostles and apostolic men who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, committed this message to writing. In order to keep the gospel whole and alive the apostles handed over their own teaching role to bishops as their successors.


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8. With the help of the Holy Spirit there is a growth in the under-standing of the message handed down, through the contemplation and study made by believers, and by the preaching of those who have received through episcopal succession the sure gift of truth.

9. Sacred scripture, written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the word of God. By the light of the same Holy Spirit the successors of the apostles preserve, explain and spread this word of God. Therefore tradition and scripture are to be honoured with the same reverence.

10. Tradition and scripture form one deposit of the word of God, interpreted by the teaching office of the Church, which serves the word of God by listening to it, guarding it and explaining it faithfully. Tradition, scripture and the teaching authority of the Church cannot stand one without the others.

Chapter Three: Inspiration and the Interpretation of Scripture

11. Since the revealed realities presented in scripture were written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and every part of all the books of Old and New Testament is sacred and normative. They teach faithfully and without error everything that God wanted put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation. Since the authors of scripture made use of their powers and abilities in consigning to writing what God wanted, they are true authors.

12. Therefore the interpreter must carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers intended, and especially the literary form used, since truth is expressed differently in history, prophecy, poetry and other forms of speech. Due attention must be paid to contemporary conventions of writing and expression. At the same time, however, attention must be given to the unity of scripture and to the living tradition of the Church. The task of exegetes is to work towards a better understanding of scripture, so that through this preliminary study the judgement of the Church may mature.

13. The words of God are expressed in human language just as the Word of God took to himself frail human nature.

Chapter Four: The Old Testament

14. In his love of all humanity, God chose for himself a people to whom he revealed himself in such a way that Israel came to experience more and more deeply the ways of God with men and women. This plan of salvation gives the Old Testament permanent value.


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15. The principal purpose of this plan of salvation was, however, to prepare for the coming of Christ and the messianic kingdom, and to announce it by prophecy and various types. The Old Testament offers a lively sense of God, noble teachings about God, sound wisdom about human life and a wonderful treasury of prayers.

16. The books of the Old Testament attain their full meaning in the New Testament and in turn shed light upon it and explain it.

Chapter Five: The New Testament

17. The word of God is supremely set forth in the New Testament, for the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ established the Kingdom of God on earth and completed his work by his death, resurrection and ascension, and by sending the Holy Spirit. The writings of the New Testament witness to this.

18. Among the writings of the New Testament the gospels have first place as principal witness to the life and teaching of Jesus. What the apostles preached at Christ’s command they and other apostolic men wrote down under the inspiration of the Spirit.

19. The Church insists on the historical character of the gospels. The gospel-writers handed on the truth of what Jesus had said and done, with the clearer understanding gained from the resurrection and the gift of the Spirit of truth. They selected from the tradition they had received by word of mouth or in writing, synthesising and applying it to the situation of their churches, but always reliably telling the truth about Jesus.

20. The letters of Paul and the other apostolic writings express more and more fully the truth about Jesus, the saving power of his work, the beginnings and growth of the Church and its destined completion.

Chapter Six: Scripture in the Life of the Church

21. The Church venerates the scripture as it does the body of the Lord, being nourished equally by both, especially in the liturgy. In the sacred books the heavenly Father meets his children with great love and speaks with them, providing power and energy for the Church, for ‘the word of God is alive and active’.

22. Easy access to the scripture should be available to all. The Church ensures that accurate translations are made from the original texts. If, with due approval of Church authority, these translations are made in co-operation with other believers, they will be available to all Christians.


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23. The Church is concerned continually to reach a deeper understanding of the scriptures, and encourages Catholic exegetes and other students of theology, under the guidance of the teaching office of the Church, to an exploration and exposition of the Bible, so that the ministers of the word may be able to nourish the people of God by the scriptures.

24. Study of the sacred text is the soul of theology, and must enrich all Christian preaching and instruction, especially the liturgical homily.

25. All priests, clergy and other ministers of the word should persevere in reading and study of the Bible. All Christians, especially religious, should learn the knowledge of Jesus Christ by frequent reading of the Bible and by taking advantage of available instruction. They should remember that prayer should accompany the reading of scripture, making possible a conversation with God. It devolves on bishops to provide instruction on the right use of the Bible, and translations equipped with explanations adequate to furthering familiarity with the Bible and its spirit. Editions of the Bible with suitable comments should also be provided for the use of non-Christians.

26. In this way the treasure of revelation should increasingly fill human hearts. As the life of the Church flourishes by participation in the Eucharist, so we may hope for a new surge of vitality from increased veneration of God’s word.


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PREFACE TO THE BIBLICAL TEXT

The Hebrew and Greek Bibles

The canon of the Hebrew Bible was fixed by the Palestinian Jews in the second century AD and contains only the Hebrew books. The Greek Bible, the Septuagint (LXX), supposedly translated by 70 people in 70 days, includes also Jdt, Tb, 1-2 M, Ws, Si, Bar, and certain passages in Est (printed in italics) and in Dn (3.24-90; chs 13-14). These books, commonly termed ‘Deuterocanonical’, formed part of the earliest Christian canon. In the fifth century, however, St Jerome insisted that only those books written in Hebrew were part of the canon. He was followed by Luther and much of the Protestant tradition, which does not regard the books written in Greek as canonical. Some Eastern Orthodox traditions accept one or two other books (e.g. Henoch) as canonical.

The translation

The Jerusalem Bible is a translation made from the French Bible de Jérusalem by a distinguished team under the leadership of Alexander Jones, and first published by Darton, Longman & Todd in 1966. This text follows the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. For the Old Testament the Hebrew and Aramaic text is that established by Jewish scholars in the ninth century AD. Only when this text presents insuperable difficulties have other versions, notably the LXX, been used. For the Greek books of the LXX and the New Testament the text established by scholars in modern times has been used. For the Psalms the Grail translation has been used. It should be noted that this follows the numbering used in the Greek and Latin (Vulgate) versions, not the Hebrew; the Hebrew number of the Psalm is given in brackets.

Verse-numbering

When the Latin (Vulgate) numbering differs from the Hebrew or Greek numbering, the Latin number is given in smaller type.


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Italics

Italics normally indicate a quotation from another book of the Bible. In Est and Dn, however, they indicate passages of the LXX which do not exist in the Hebrew Bible.

Marginal References

The source of an italicised quotation in the text is always given first. References within the same book are given before those in other books of the Bible.

Introductions and Notes

It is assumed that a reader consulting the Notes will have already read the Introduction to the Book. Material given in the Introductions is not normally repeated in the Notes. In the synoptic Gospels the priority of Mk is assumed as a working hypothesis, and notes given to a passage in Mk are not repeated in the parallel passages of Mt or Lk. Where a passage is paralleled in Mt and Lk, notes given in Mt are not repeated in Lk.

Abbreviations

(Abbreviations for titles of books of the Bible are given on pp. iv-v)

Ch. Chapter

Gk Greek

Hebr. Hebrew

LXX The Greek translation of the Hebrew OT, made at Alexandria during the last two centuries BC, but according to legend by 70 translators in 70 days.

MS, MSS Manuscript(s)

NT New Testament

OT Old Testament

Past The Pastoral Letters, 1-2 Tm, Ti

v., vv. verse, verses

+ indicates further marginal references given at the reference so marked.

= parallel passage within the same book

// parallel passage in another book

‡ passage later used or quoted at the reference given


THEOLD TESTAMENT

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GENESIS

THE PENTATEUCHIntroduction to the PentateuchThe name ‘Pentateuch’ means ‘fivefold’ in Greek, because the five Books whichcompose it were written on five different scrolls of roughly equal length. It is thebasic Torah, ‘Law’ or more exactly ‘Instruction’ of Israel, the foundation of allIsrael’s life. It contains the stories which express the relationship of the world toGod, the singling out of a family and then a tribe as God’s Chosen People, andthe instructions of how they must live to be God’s very own.

A living TraditionThese written works evolved and developed over many centuries, in the way thatthe traditions of any people do, a tradition living and vibrant, learning from andadapting to varying circumstances and needs. Already in the eighteenth centurya sharp-eyed medical doctor noticed that different sources contribute to thestory, each with its own definable characteristics (sketched in the Introductionto the Book of Genesis). The nomenclature and emphases are different. There areoccasional clashes of detail, typical of oral tradition, which make the overallagreement stand out as all the more remarkable.

The foundations of the BibleFor Jews the Pentateuch is the basic part of the Bible, for Samaritans the onlypart, for Christians the foundation of all that is to follow. The first eleven chap-ters of Genesis set the scene for all biblical history with a series of deeply theo-logical stories. These stories lay out the fundamental dependence on a lovingCreator of all things, the interrelationship of man and woman, human dignityand fallibility. The inbuilt human attraction to evil is balanced by the divine will-ingness to forgive and to heal. Once this basic situation is established we begin tofollow the history of the Chosen People, from God’s choice of Abraham in Gene-sis to the establishment of a people and its wanderings and murmurings in thedesert before the settlement in the land of promise (Exodus). Then the way of lifeof those who would be God’s own people is set out in detail, partly in the form oflegislation, partly in the form of stories (Leviticus and Numbers). Finally theBook of Deuteronomy emphasizes that the relationship between God and hispeople is one of love, the filial love of the people responding to the parental loveof a faithful and forgiving God.



GENESISIntroduction

The book of beginningsGenesis is the book of beginnings. The first 11 chapters relate in historical formthe biblical view of certain universal truths, the dependence of the universe on acreator, the place of human beings within this universe, their special relation-ship to the creator, their special dignity, their ineradicable tendency to failureand the repeated need of the creator to succour and forgive. The stories make useof imagery and language common to the Near Eastern (especially Babylonian)religious poetry, but use these pictures to convey a quite different analysis of thestructure of reality. In the Babylonian world-picture human beings are merepuppets, dancing to a tune set by the gods. In the Bible they are God’s representa-tives on earth, the object of constant divine love and concern.

God’s promisesAfter these chapters we are introduced to the epic heroes who stand at the start-ing-point of Israel’s history. The first hero of the book is Abraham. God calls himto leave his homeland and set out into the unknown, promising him protection,numerous descendants and a land. Two other heroes, Isaac, an elusive charac-ter, and the trickster Jacob, succeed to the promise. The story of these three iscompounded of family adventures, feuds and frustrations, heroic and unheroicepisodes, and incidents explaining names, places and customs which were felt todate from the dawn of the people’s history. Through them all runs the thread ofthe promise of a land by their own protector, the God of the Fathers. Finally thenext stage of the history is reached in a brilliantly polished and literary story ofthe move, under Joseph’s patronage, of the whole clan into Egypt. Once there,they are ready for the decisive moment of the Exodus.

How the Book came to be writtenThe traditions here gathered are obviously drawn from a variety of sources.There are occasional clashes and contradictions and widespread evidence of par-ticular interests and concerns. During most of the 20th century scholars thoughtto discern four separate traditions, each with its own agenda:

• The Yahwist (who calls God ‘YAHWEH’, and presents an awesome, butfamiliar and caring anthropomorphic deity). This was considered theoldest stream of tradition, preserved in Abraham’s country around histomb in the southern city of Hebron.

• The Elohist (who initially calls God ‘Elohim’, and is less bewitching as astory-teller but morally more sophisticated). These were traditionsbrought from the northern part of Israel by the exiles from Samaria in721 B.C.

• The Deuteronomist (strongly aware of the disastrous later history ofIsrael). This stratum, stronger in the later books of the Pentateuch thanin Genesis, was often associated with Josiah’s reform in 622 B.C.

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• The Priestly writer (whose interests are in genealogies, ages and the latersacred institutions of the people). Such matters became all-important inthe Judaism of the Exile. A perfect example is Genesis 1.

Colour-coded editions were even published, attributing single verses to differenttraditions. Though these distinct interests cannot be denied, and add spice to thereading, recent scholarship has doubted that there is sufficient coherence tospeak of four separate traditions.

Dating GenesisAnother question has been the date of composition. There is little doubt that thebook reached its final form at or after the end of the Babylonian exile. Particularlythe stress on the promise of a land accords with the longing of the exiles in Baby-lon to return to their own land. When did the traditions begin? Oral traditions ofa people can be handed down accurately for centuries. Abraham has commonlybeen placed against a background of Near Eastern laws and customs of c. 1850B.C., but such laws and customs obtained for many centuries. It is strange thatthe later tradition does not mention Abraham till the period of the Exile, andJacob scarcely does better. It would be reasonable to suppose, therefore, that thetraditions about the patriarchs remained shadowy until the Exile and reachedtheir present elaboration only then. Only in an alien country, when they hadlost the land, the Temple and the monarchy, did the children of Israel realise thevalue of their heritage and of the divine promises sufficiently to preserve the tra-ditions for posterity in written form.

Plan of the BookI The Origin of the World and of the Human Race 1 — 11

A. The Creation and the Fall 1.1 — 6.4B. The Flood 6.5 — 9.17C. From the Flood to Abraham 9.18 — 11.32

II The Story of Abraham 12.1 — 25.18III The Story of Isaac and Jacob 25.19 — 37.1IV The Story of Joseph 37.2 — 50.26

Liturgical NoteThe Book of Genesis gives the biblical and therefore the Church’s view of manyquestions asked by people today: the origin of the world, the psychological andspiritual make-up of each member of the human race, our frailty and ourdependence on God, and how God deals with sin in the world. So at the high-point of the liturgical year, the Easter Vigil, we begin with two readings fromGenesis, the first on the creation, the second on the beginning of Israel’s sacrifi-cial worship in Genesis 22. The first 11 chapters of Genesis, the pre-history, areread in Weeks 5 and 6 of Year 1 in the Lectionary for Mass. As an analysis in his-torical form of human relationships to God, good and bad, it helps to set thescene for the liturgical year. The story of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacoband Joseph, comes in Weeks 12-14. The marriage liturgy also contains a readingfrom Genesis which illustrates the relationship of man and woman finding itsfulfillment in worship of God and in procreation.

GENESIS 5



I. THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD ANDOF THE HUMAN RACE

A. THE CREATION AND THE FALLThe creation of the worlda

1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now theearth was a formless void,b there was darkness over the deep, and

God’s spirit hovered over the water.3God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. 4God saw that

light was good, and God divided light from darkness. 5God called light‘day’, and darkness he called ‘night’. Evening came and morning came:the first day.

6God said, ‘Let there be a vaultc in the waters to divide the waters intwo’. And so it was. 7God made the vault, and it divided the watersabove the vault from the waters under the vault. 8God called the vault‘heaven’. Evening came and morning came: the second day.

9God said, ‘Let the waters under heaven come together into a singlemass, and let dry land appear’. And so it was. 10God called the dry land‘earth’ and the mass of waters ‘seas’, and God saw that it was good.

11God said, ‘Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants,and fruit trees bearing fruit with their seed inside, on the earth’. And soit was. 12The earth produced vegetation: plants bearing seed in theirseveral kinds, and trees bearing fruit with their seed inside in their sev-eral kinds. God saw that it was good. 13Evening came and morningcame: the third day.

14God said, ‘Let there be lightsd in the vault of heaven to divide dayfrom night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years. 15Let thembe lights in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth.’ And so it was.16God made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, thesmaller light to govern the night, and the stars. 17God set them in thevault of heaven to shine on the earth, 18to govern the day and the nightand to divide light from darkness. God saw that it was good. 19Eveningcame and morning came: the fourth day.

20God said, ‘Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birdsfly above the earth within the vault of heaven’. And so it was. 21Godcreated great sea-serpents and every kind of living creature with whichthe waters teem, and every kind of winged creature. God saw that it wasgood. 22God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the

6 GENESIS 1

1 a. This first account of the creation, 1.1-2.4a, seeks to present the relationship bet-ween the known world and God. It is not aday-by-day historical account, but the orderis logical. (framework, vv. 3-10, immovableobjects, vv. 11-13, movable objects, vv. 14-31). The climax is the creation of humanbeings. It also seeks, with the emphasis ofthe priestly tradition, to show that the sev-enth-day rest on the Sabbath is part of thestructure of reality.

b. The Hebr. is tohu and bohu. It is not cre-ation out of nothingness, a formula which

first occurs in 2 M 7.28, but a sense of bringingorder out of chaos, or shape and form to thatwhich had none. Not to have shape or formamounts to non-existence.

c. The seeming dome of heaven is con-ceived as holding back the monstrous massof waters lest they engulf and destroy theworld.

d. To the neighbouring peoples these weredeities, but in this analysis they do not evenhave names, but simply serve to mark out fes-tivals.

2.4b-25i;Ps 8;

Pr 8.22;�Jn 1.1;�Col 1.15



waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply upon the earth’. 23Eveningcame and morning came: the fifth day.

24God said, ‘Let the earth produce every kind of living creature: cat-tle, reptiles, and every kind of wild beast’. And so it was. 25God madeevery kind of wild beast, every kind of cattle, and every kind of landreptile. God saw that it was good.

26God said, ‘Let use make man in our own image, in the likenessf ofourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds ofheaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawlupon the earth’.

27 God created man in the image of himself,in the image of God he created him,male and female he created them.

28God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill theearth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds ofheaven and all living animals on the earth.’ 29God said, ‘See, I give youall the seed-bearing plants that are upon the whole earth, and all thetrees with seed-bearing fruit; this shall be your food. 30To all wildbeasts, all birds of heaven and all living reptiles on the earth I give allthe foliage of plants for food.’g And so it was. 31God saw all he hadmade, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came:the sixth day.

2Thus heaven and earth were completed with all their array. 2On theseventh day God completed the work he had been doing. He rested

on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing. 3God blessedthe seventh day and made it holy,a because on that day he had restedafter all his work of creating.

4Such were the originsb of heaven and earth when they werecreated.

The origin of human beingsc

At the time when the LORD God made earth and heaven 5there wasas yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up,for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any manto till the soil. 6However, a flood was rising from the earth and wateringall the surface of the soil. 7The LORD God fashioned man of dust fromthe soil.d Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thusman became a living being.

GENESIS 2 7

e. Creation of human beings is distin-guished by 1) being the final climax of cre-ation, 2) a seeming consultation in heaven,3) the poetry of v. 27, 4) the image of God,5) explicit mention of sexual differentiation.

f. The human couple share not only inGod’s authority over creation but in divinecare for the world and in his work of creation.

g. The vegetarian diet marks perfect peace,even among predators. The situation changes at9.3.2 a. Although the institution is part of thecreated order, the word ‘Sabbath’ is not to be

used till the Law is given, Ex 16.23.b. The Hebr. word means ‘lineage’, ‘history

of a line’, 6.9; 25.19, etc. It implies that thestory of creation is an earthly story, not heav-enly as in creation-myths of the neighbouringnations.

c. An account of the origin of the humancouple, its ideal state and the loss of thatstate, of human dignity and misery. Thestory is full of lively and endearing anthro-pomorphisms.

d. A typical Hebr. pun: ‘man’=adam,‘soil’=adamah.

�Mk 10.6par;�1 Co 11.7

�Heb 4.4

1.1-2.4a

7E:\PROJECTS\JB CTS\FINAL\01_GENJBCTS_FINAL.vpFriday, August 24, 2007 8:35:55 AM


8The LORD God planted a garden in Edene which is in the east, andthere he put the man he had fashioned. 9The LORD God caused tospring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and goodto eat, with the tree of lifef and the tree of the knowledge of good andevil in the middle of the garden. 10A river flowed from Eden to waterthe garden, and from there it divided to make four streams.g 11The firstis named the Pishon, and this encircles the whole land of Havilahwhere there is gold. 12The gold of this land is pure; bdellium and onyxstone are found there. 13The second river is named the Gihon, and thisencircles the whole land of Cush. 14The third river is named the Tigris,and this flows to the east of Ashur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.15The LORD God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden tocultivate and take care of it. 16Then the LORD God gave the man thisadmonition, ‘You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. 17Nev-ertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evilh you are not toeat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die.’

18The LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone.I will make him a helpmate.’i 19So from the soil the LORD God fash-ioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he broughtto the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear thename the man would give it. 20The man gave names to all the cattle,j allthe birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable forman was found for him. 21So the LORD God made the man fall into adeep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it inflesh.k 22The LORD God built the rib he had taken from the man into awoman, and brought her to the man. 23The man exclaimed:

‘This at last is bone from my bones,and flesh from my flesh!This is to be called woman,l

for this was taken from man.’24This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself

to his wife, and they become one body.25Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt

no shame in front of each other.

8 GENESIS 2

e. Eden is an unknown, mythical geo-graphical name. From its similarity to theHebr. word ‘dn=‘delight’, it was understoodin that sense.

f. A tree of life appears frequently in NearEastern myths, the fruit of which is usuallyunattainable to human beings.

g. Cush=Ethiopia; the Rivers Tigris andEuphrates border Mesopotamia, but the othernames are unknown. The great rivers of theworld have their origin in paradise.

h. Eating from this tree means usurping thedivine privilege of deciding what is good andwhat is evil; the temptation is to proud inde-pendence, questioning God’s judgment ofgood and evil.

i. Note the LORD’s tender care throughoutthis story. He sews up Adam’s wound, v. 21,comes to see how they are getting on, acts asdress-maker, etc.

j. By giving them names Adam completestheir creation, already acting in the image ofthe LORD.

k. In its primary sense flesh is ‘meat’. It isalso what binds a group of human beingstogether, a family, Gn 29.14, or ‘all flesh’, Gn6.17, 19. In Hebr. thought there is no Platonicidea of a body inhabited by a soul, Ws 8.20,but a person is an enlivened body. It can alsostand for what is frail or perishable in human-ity, Gn 6.3; Is 40.6. See also Ga 5.16d.

l. Pun: ish=‘man’, ishah=‘woman’.

Is 51.3;Ezk 28.13;

31.9

�1 Co 6.16



The Fall

3The serpenta was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that the LORDGod had made. It asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you were

not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’ b 2The woman answeredthe serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. 3But of thefruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, “You must not eatit, nor touch it, under pain of death”.’ 4Then the serpent said to thewoman, ‘No! You will not die! 5God knows in fact that on the day youeat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing goodand evil.’ 6The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing tothe eye, and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give.So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her hus-band who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of themwere opened and they realised that they were naked.c So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.

8The man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking inthe garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD Godamong the trees of the garden. 9But the LORD God called to the man.‘Where are you?’ he asked. 10‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ 11‘Who told youthat you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I for-bade you to eat?’ 12The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put withme; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it’. 13Then the LORD God asked thewoman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The ser-pent tempted me and I ate’.

14Then the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have donethis,

‘Be accursed beyond all cattle,all wild beasts.You shall crawl on your belly and eat dustevery day of your life.

15 I will make you enemies of each other:you and the woman,your offspring and her offspring.It will crush your headand you will strike its heel.’d

16To the woman he said:e

‘I will multiply your pains in childbearing,you shall give birth to your children in pain.

GENESIS 3 9

1 K 19.13

3 a. In Hebr. ‘snake’ and ‘dragon’ are the sameword; the dragon will lose its proud stance andbecome wormlike. The snake is a symbol oftemptation common in Mesopotamian myth.It is often used as a phallic symbol.

b. Part of the snake’s cleverness is to over-state its case.

c. The awareness is not so much of sexualityas of need for protection once innocence hasbeen lost.

d. The Gk has a masculine pronoun (‘he’,not ‘it’), which suggests a particular personrather than her progeny in general. This is thebasis of the messianic interpretation of theChurch Fathers.

e. There is an etiological element in all ofthese: why the snake has no legs, why child-birth is painful, why men dominate women,why work is toilsome. All are the result of dis-order, the loss of harmony and innocence.



Your yearning shall be for your husband,yet he will lord it over you.’

17To the man he said, ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wifeand ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,

‘Accursed be the soil because of you.With suffering shall you get your food from itevery day of your life.

18 It shall yield you brambles and thistles,and you shall eat wild plants.

19 With sweat on your browshall you eat your bread,until you return to the soil,as you were taken from it.For dust you areand to dust you shall return.’

20The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of allthose who live.f 21The LORD God made clothes out of skins for the manand his wife, and they put them on. 22Then the LORD God said, ‘See, theman has become like one of us, with his knowledge of good and evil.He must not be allowed to stretch his hand out next and pick from thetree of life also, and eat some and live for ever.’ 23So the LORD Godexpelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which hehad been taken. 24He banished the man, and in front of the garden ofEden he posted the cherubs,g and the flame of a flashing sword, toguard the way to the tree of life.

Cain and Abela

4The man had intercourse with his wife Eve, and she conceived andgave birth to Cain. ‘I have acquired a man with the help of the

LORD’b she said. 2She gave birth to a second child, Abel, the brother ofCain. Now Abel became a shepherd and kept flocks, while Cain tilledthe soil. 3Time passed and Cain brought some of the produce of the soilas an offering for the LORD, 4while Abel for his part brought the first-born of his flock and some of their fat as well. The LORD looked withfavour on Abel and his offering. 5But he did not look with favour onCain and his offering, and Cain was very angry and downcast. 6TheLORD asked Cain, ‘Why are you angry and downcast? 7If you are welldisposed, ought you not to lift up your head? But if you are ill disposed,is not sin at the door like a crouching beast hungering for you, whichyou must master?’ 8Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let us go out’; andwhile they were in the open country, Cain set on his brother Abel andkilled him.

10 GENESIS 4

f. Pun: the name Eve, hawah, is explainedby hayah=‘live’.

g. Modelled on the karibu, winged creatureswho guard Babylonian temples, Ezk 1.5d.4 a. Another story of the origin of evil, ascrib-ing evil to jealousy, aggravated by siblingrivalry, violence, lying and denial of familysolidarity. It also explains how the nomadic

way of life came about. It is also the firstappearance of a theme frequent in Gn, God’spreference for the younger over the elder, thedivine rejection of human values: Isaac, ch.21; Jacob, 25.23; Rachel 29.17; also David,1 S 16.1a.

b. Pun: Cain (qain) is explained byqanah=‘acquire’.



9The LORD asked Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I do notknow’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s guardian?’ 10‘What have youdone?’ The LORD asked. ‘Listen to the sound of your brother’s blood,crying out to me from the ground. 11Now be accursed and driven fromthe ground that has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s bloodat your hands. 12When you till the ground it shall no longer yield youany of its produce. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer over theearth.’ 13Then Cain said to the LORD, ‘My punishment is greater than Ican bear. 14See! Today you drive me from this ground. I must hide fromyou, and be a fugitive and a wanderer over the earth. Why, whoevercomes across me will kill me!’ 15‘Very well, then,’c The LORD replied ‘ifanyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance shall be taken for him.’ So theLORD put a mark on Cain, to prevent whoever might come across himfrom striking him down. 16Cain left the presence of the LORD and set-tled in the land of Nod,d east of Eden.

The descendants of Caine

17Cain had intercourse with his wife, and she conceived and gavebirth to Enoch. He became builder of a town, and he gave the town thename of his son Enoch. 18Enoch had a son, Irad, and Irad became thefather of Mehujael; Mehujael became the father of Methushael, andMethushael became the father of Lamech. 19Lamech married twowomen: the name of the first was Adah and the name of the second wasZillah. 20Adah gave birth to Jabal: he was the ancestor of the tent-dwell-ers and owners of livestock. 21His brother’s name was Jubal: he was theancestor of all who play the lyre and the flute. 22As for Zillah, she gavebirth to Tubal-cain: he was the ancestor of all metalworkers, in bronzeor iron. Tubal-cain’s sister was Naamah.

23Lamech said to his wives:

‘Adah and Zillah, hear my voice,Lamech’s wives, listen to what I say:I killed a man for wounding me,a boy for striking me.

24 Sevenfold vengeance is taken for Cain,but seventy-sevenfold for Lamech.’f

Seth and his descendantsg

25Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she gave birth to a sonwhom she named Seth, ‘because God has granted me other offspring’she said ‘in place of Abel, since Cain has killed him’. 26A son was alsoborn to Seth, and he named him Enosh. This man was the first toinvoke the name of the LORD.

GENESIS 4 11

c. Anthropomorphically, God changes hismind out of pity for Cain, cf. 6.6.

d. Nod (nod) is ‘a land of wandering’ (nud),not a geographical location.

e. Cain, condemned to a wandering life,curiously becomes the ancestor of all city life.The names indicate activities: Jabal suggestsyabal=‘to lead’; Jubal suggests yobel=‘trumpet’;

Naamah suggests naawah= ‘pretty’ (so possiblycity-prostitution). Tubal is a mining region.

f. This aggressive triumph-song marks adramatic increase in violence.

g. Names: Seth is linked to sith=‘to place’,Enosh to enosh=‘man’. The first invocation ofthe name of the LORD contradicts Ex 3.14 andshows use of a different source.



The patriarchs before the flooda

5This is the roll of Adam’s descendants:On the day God created Adam he made him in the likeness of God.

2Male and female he created them. He blessed them and gave them thename ‘Man’ on the day they were created.

3When Adam was a hundred and thirty years old he became thefather of a son, in his likeness, as his image, and he called him Seth.4Adam lived for eight hundred years after the birth of Seth and hebecame the father of sons and daughters. 5In all, Adam lived for ninehundred and thirty years; then he died.

6When Seth was a hundred and five years old he became the fatherof Enosh. 7After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived for eight hundred andseven years, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 8In all,Seth lived for nine hundred and twelve years; then he died.

9When Enosh was ninety years old he became the father of Kenan.10After the birth of Kenan, Enosh lived for eight hundred and fifteenyears and he became the father of sons and daughters. 11In all, Enoshlived for nine hundred and five years; then he died.

12When Kenan was seventy years old he became the father ofMahalalel. 13After the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan lived for eight hun-dred and forty years and he became the father of sons and daughters.14In all, Kenan lived for nine hundred and ten years; then he died.

15When Mahalalel was sixty-five years old he became the father ofJared. 16After the birth of Jared, Mahalalel lived for eight hundred andthirty years and he became the father of sons and daughters. 17In all,Mahalalel lived for eight hundred and ninety-five years; then he died.

18When Jared was a hundred and sixty-two years old he became thefather of Enoch. 19After the birth of Enoch, Jared lived for eight hun-dred years and he became the father of sons and daughters. 20In all,Jared lived for nine hundred and sixty-two years; then he died.

21When Enoch was sixty-five years old he became the father ofMethuselah. 22Enoch walked with God. After the birth of Methuselahhe lived for three hundred years and he became the father of sonsand daughters. 23In all, Enoch lived for three hundred and sixty-fiveyears. 24Enoch walked with God. Then he vanished because God tookhim.b

25When Methuselah was a hundred and eighty-seven years old hebecame the father of Lamech. 26After the birth of Lamech, Methuselahlived for seven hundred and eighty-two years and he became the fatherof sons and daughters. 27In all, Methuselah lived for nine hundred andsixty-nine years; then he died.

28When Lamech was a hundred and eighty-two years old he becamethe father of a son. 29He gave him the name Noah because, he said,‘Here is one who will give us, in the midst of our toil and the labouringof our hands, a consolation derived from the ground that the LORD

12 GENESIS 5

5 a. These genealogies differ from and havea different source to those of 4.17-26. Thelong age-spans are not to be taken literally:long life is a divine blessing, and the grad-ual decrease corresponds to the increase ofevil.

b. A year of years, i.e. 365 years, makesEnoch’s age complete. His mysterious disap-pearance made him in later Judaism a modelof piety, Si 44.16, and the revealer of secrets,Jude 14. He is a central figure in the apocalyp-tic literature of Judaism.



cursed’.c 30After the birth of Noah, Lamech lived for five hundred andninety-five years and became the father of sons and daughters. 31In all,Lamech lived for seven hundred and seventy-seven years; then he died.

32When Noah was five hundred years old he became the father ofShem, Ham and Japheth.

Sons of God and daughters of mena

6When men had begun to be plentiful on the earth, and daughtershad been born to them, 2the sons of God, looking at the daughters

of men, saw they were pleasing, so they married as many as they chose.3The LORD said, ‘My spirit must not for ever be disgraced in man, for heis but flesh; his life shall last no more than a hundred and twentyyears’. 4The Nephilimb were on the earth at that time (and even after-wards) when the sons of God resorted to the daughters of man, and hadchildren by them. These are the heroes of days gone by, the famousmen.

B. THE FLOODc

The corruption of the human race5The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth,

and that the thoughts in his heart fashioned nothing but wickednessall day long. 6The LORD regretted having made man on the earth, andhis heart grieved. 7‘I will rid the earth’s face of man, my own creation,’the LORD said ‘and of animals also, reptiles too, and the birds ofheaven; for I regret having made them.’ 8But Noah had found favourwith the LORD.

9This is the story of Noah:Noah was a good man, a man of integrity among his contempor-

aries, and he walked with God. 10Noah became the father of three sons,Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11The earth grew corrupt in God’s sight, andfilled with violence. 12God contemplated the earth: it was corrupt, forcorrupt were the ways of all flesh on the earth.

Preparations for the flood13God said to Noah, ‘The end has come for all things of flesh; I have

decided this, because the earth is full of violence of man’s making, andI will efface them from the earth. 14Make yourself an arkd out of resin-ous wood. Make it with reeds and line it with pitch inside and out.

GENESIS 6 13

c. A doubtful etymology of Noah, derivingit from nhm=‘console’. The Gk is more plausi-ble, deriving it from nwh=‘give rest’.6 a. A strange fragment, deriving from somemyth about the increase of population threat-ening the gods, or another human attempt togain immortality by marriage. The ‘sons ofGod’ have traditionally been understood asangels. In the sequence as it stands, it is thefinal straw which persuades the LORD to wipeout corrupt humanity.

b. Often identified with the Anakim as a

prehistoric race of giants in Canaan.c. Stories of a disastrous flood occur in

many cultures, and this story has manysimilarities to Babylonian accounts, which,though similar, lack any integration into alarger theological frame. Here two accounts(different numbers of animals: 6.19 and 7.2;variation in length and source of the flood)have been spliced together. God is presentedin an endearingly human way.

d. From an Egyptian word meaning ‘box’. Itoccurs only here and Ex 2.5.



15This is how to make it: the length of the ark is to be three hundredcubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16Make aroof for the ark... put the door of the ark high up in the side, and make afirst, second and third deck.

17‘For my part I mean to bring a flood, and send the waters over theearth, to destroy all flesh on it, every living creature under heaven;everything on earth shall perish. 18But I will establish my Covenantwith you, and you must go on board the ark, yourself, your sons, yourwife, and your sons’ wives along with you. 19From all living creatures,from all flesh, you must take two of each kind aboard the ark, to savetheir lives with yours; they must be a male and a female. 20Of everykind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of reptile on theground, two must go with you so that their lives may be saved. 21Foryour part provide yourself with eatables of all kinds, and lay in a storeof them, to serve as food for yourself and them.’ 22Noah did this; he didall that God had ordered him.

7The LORD said to Noah, ‘Go aboard the ark, you and all your house-hold, for you alone among this generation do I see as a good man in

my judgement. 2Of all the clean animals you must take seven of eachkind, both male and female; of the unclean animals you must take two,a male and its female 3(and of the birds of heaven also, seven of eachkind, both male and female), to propagate their kind over the wholeearth. 4For in seven days’ time I mean to make it rain on the earth forforty days and nights, and I will rid the earth of every living thing thatI made.’ 5Noah did all that the LORD ordered.

6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters appearedon the earth.

7Noah with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives boarded the ark toescape the waters of the flood. 8(Of the clean animals and the animalsthat are not clean, of the birds and all that crawls on the ground, 9twoof each kind boarded the ark with Noah, a male and a female, accord-ing to the order God gave Noah.) 10Seven days later the waters of theflood appeared on the earth.

11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month,and on the seventeenth day of that month, that very day all the springsof the great deep broke through, and the sluices of heaven opened. 12Itrained on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

13That very day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth boardedthe ark, with Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons, 14and withthem wild beasts of every kind, cattle of every kind, reptiles of everykind that crawls on the earth, birds of every kind, all that flies, every-thing with wings. 15One pair of all that is flesh and has the breath of lifeboarded the ark with Noah; 16and so there went in a male and a femaleof every creature that is flesh, just as God had ordered him.

And the LORD closed the door behind Noah.

The flood17The flood lasted forty days on the earth. The waters swelled, lift-

ing the ark until it was raised above the earth. 18The waters rose andswelled greatly on the earth, and the ark sailed on the waters. 19Thewaters rose more and more on the earth so that all the highest moun-

14 GENESIS 7

�2 P 2.5



tains under the whole of heaven were submerged. 20The waters rose fif-teen cubits higher, submerging the mountains. 21And so all things offlesh perished that moved on the earth, birds, cattle, wild beasts, every-thing that swarms on the earth, and every man. 22Everything with thebreath of life in its nostrils died, everything on dry land. 23The LORDdestroyed every living thing on the face of the earth, man and animals,reptiles, and the birds of heaven. He rid the earth of them, so that onlyNoah was left, and those with him in the ark. 24The waters rose on theearth for a hundred and fifty days.

The flood subsides

8But God had Noah in mind, and all the wild beasts and all the cattlethat were with him in the ark. God sent a wind across the earth and

the waters subsided. 2The springs of the deep and the sluices of heavenwere stopped. Rain ceased to fall from heaven; 3the waters graduallyebbed from the earth. 4After a hundred and fifty days the waters fell,and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of that month, theark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.a 5The waters gradually felluntil the tenth month when, on the first day of the tenth month, themountain peaks appeared.

6At the end of forty days Noah opened the porthole he had made inthe ark and he sent out the raven. 7This went off, and flew back andforth until the waters dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out thedove, to see whether the waters were receding from the surface of theearth. 9The dove, finding nowhere to perch, returned to him in the ark,for there was water over the whole surface of the earth; putting out hishand he took hold of it and brought it back into the ark with him.10After waiting seven more days, again he sent out the dove from theark. 11In the evening, the dove came back to him and there it was with anew olive-branch in its beak. So Noah realised that the waters werereceding from the earth. 12After waiting seven more days he sent outthe dove, and now it returned to him no more.

13It was in the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the firstmonth and on the first of the month, that the water dried up from theearth. Noah lifted back the hatch of the ark and looked out. The surfaceof the ground was dry!

14In the second month and on the twenty-seventh day of themonth the earth was dry.

They disembark15Then God said to Noah, 16‘Come out of the ark, you yourself, your

wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17As for all the animalswith you, all things of flesh, whether birds or animals or reptiles thatcrawl on the earth, bring them out with you. Let them swarm on theearth; let them be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ 18So Noah wentout with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 19And all the wild

GENESIS 8 15

8 a. A mountain in Armenia, 2 K 19.37. In the Babylonian flood epic also the ark lands on amountain and raven and dove, plus a swallow, are sent out. The anthropomorphism of v. 21 isalso typical of those stories.



beasts, all the cattle, all the birds and all the reptiles that crawl on theearth went out from the ark, one kind after another.

20Noah built an altar for the LORD, and choosing from all the cleananimals and all the clean birds he offered burnt offerings on the altar.21The LORD smelt the appeasing fragrance and said to himself, ‘Neveragain will I curse the earth because of man, because his heart contrivesevil from his infancy. Never again will I strike down every living thingas I have done.

22 ‘As long as earth lasts,sowing and reaping,cold and heat,summer and winter,day and nightshall cease no more.’

The new world order

9God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multi-ply and fill the earth. 2Be the terror and the dread of all the wild

beasts and all the birds of heaven, of everything that crawls on theground and all the fish of the sea;a they are handed over to you. 3Everyliving and crawling thing shall provide food for you, no less than thefoliage of plants. I give you everything, 4with this exception: you mustnot eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it. 5I will demand anaccount of your life-blood. I will demand an account from every beastand from man. I will demand an account of every man’s life from hisfellow men.

6 ‘He who sheds man’s blood,shall have his blood shed by man,for in the image of Godman was made.

7‘As for you, be fruitful, multiply, teem over the earth and be lord of it.’8God spoke to Noah and his sons, 9‘See, I establish my Covenantb

with you, and with your descendants after you; 10also with every livingcreature to be found with you, birds, cattle and every wild beast withyou: everything that came out of the ark, everything that lives on theearth. 11I establish my Covenant with you: no thing of flesh shall beswept away again by the waters of the flood. There shall be no flood todestroy the earth again.’

12God said, ‘Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myselfand you and every living creature with you for all generations: 13I setmy bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between meand the earth. 14When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bowappears in the clouds, 15I will recall the Covenant between myself andyou and every living creature of every kind. And so the waters shall

16 GENESIS 9

9 a. In the renewed world, peace has beenfinally shattered. This is marked by permis-sion to eat meat. However, blood, the symbolof life, Lv 1.5f, belongs to God and may not beconsumed. This is the beginning of ritualfood-laws. Human life, being in the image of

God, may not be taken.b. Unlike the covenants with Abraham and

Moses, this first covenant extends to allhumanity. Rainbows are explained as a sign ofthe covenant.

1.26e

�Is 54.9



never again become a flood to destroy all things of flesh. 16When thebow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the lasting Covenantbetween God and every living creature of every kind that is found onthe earth.’

17God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the Covenant I have estab-lished between myself and every living thing that is found on theearth’.

C. FROM THE FLOOD TO ABRAHAM

Noah and his sons18The sons of Noah who went out from the ark were Shem, Ham

and Japheth; Ham is the ancestor of the Canaanites. 19These three wereNoah’s sons, and from these the whole earth was peopled.

20Noah, a tiller of the soil, was the first to plant the vine. 21He dranksome of the wine, and while he was drunk he uncovered himself insidehis tent. 22Ham, Canaan’s ancestor, saw his father’s nakedness, andtold his two brothers outside. 23Shem and Japheth took a cloak andthey both put it over their shoulders, and walking backwards, coveredtheir father’s nakedness; they kept their faces turned away, and did notsee their father’s nakedness. 24When Noah awoke from his stupor helearned what his youngest son had done to him. 25And he said:

‘Accursed be Canaan.c

He shall be his brothers’meanest slave.’

26He added:

‘Blessed be the LORD, God of Shem,let Canaan be his slave!

27 May God extend Japheth,d

may he live in the tents of Shem,and may Canaan be his slave!’

28After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years. 29In all,Noah’s life lasted nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.

The peopling of the eartha

10These are the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham andJapheth, to whom sons were born after the flood:

2Japheth’s sons: Gomer, Magog, the Medes, Javan, Tubal, Meshech,Tiras. 3Gomer’s sons: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah. 4Javan’s sons:Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, the Dananites. 5From these came the dis-persal to the islands of the nations.

GENESIS 10 17

c. These two curses on Canaan, father of theCanaanite inhabitants of Palestine whom theIsraelites dominated, are not originally con-nected with Noah’s drunkenness. The sin wasHam’s not Canaan’s.

d. Word-play of the name yaphet andyapht=‘make space’.

10 a. The peoples of the known world aredivided up geographically and historicallyrather than by racial affiliation. The authorreveals concern for the whole world. Severalsources overlap, e.g. Assyria (Asshur) occurstwice, in vv.11 and 22.



These were Japheth’s sons, according to their countries and each oftheir languages, according to their tribes and their nations.

6Ham’s sons: Cush, Misraim, Put, Canaan. 7 Cush’s sons: Se-ba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca. Raamah’s sons: Sheba, De-dan.

8Cush became the father of Nimrod who was the first potentate onearth. 9He was a mighty hunter in the eyes of the LORD, hence the say-ing, ‘Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the eyes of the LORD’. 10First tobe included in his empire were Babel, Erech and Accad, all of them inthe land of Shinar. 11From this country came Ashur, the builder ofNineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, 12and Resen between Nineveh and Calah(this is the great city).

13Misraim became the father of the people of Lud, of Anam, Lehab,Naphtuh, 14Pathros, Cusluh and Caphtor, from which the Philistinescame.

15Canaan became the father of Sidon, his first-born, then Heth,16and the Jebusites, the Amorites, Girgashites, 17Hivites, Arkites,Sinites, 18Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites; later the Canaanite tribesscattered. 19The Canaanite frontier stretched from Sidon in the direc-tion of Gerar and as far as Gaza, then in the direction of Sodom,Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, and as far as Lesha.

20These were Ham’s sons, according to their tribes and languages,according to their countries and nations.

21Shem also was the father of children, the ancestor of all the sonsof Eber and the elder brother of Japheth.

22Shem’s sons: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram. 23Aram’ssons: Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash.

24Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and Shelah became thefather of Eber. 25To Eber were born two sons: the first was called Peleg,because it was in his time that the earth was divided, and his brotherwas called Joktan. 26Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph,Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28Obal, Abima-el, She-ba, 29Ophir, Havilah, Jobab; all these are sons of Joktan. 30They occu-pied a stretch of country from Mesha in the direction of Sephar, theeastern mountain range.

31These were Shem’s sons, according to their tribes and languages,and according to their countries and nations.

32These were the tribes of Noah’s sons, according to their descend-ants and their nations. From these came the dispersal of the nationsover the earth, after the flood.

The tower of Babela

11Throughout the earth men spoke the same language, with thesame vocabulary. 2Now as they moved eastwards they found a

plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. 3They said to one

18 GENESIS 11

11 a. Another story of human pride andambition to reach God unaided, using thegreat stepped tower-temples of Mesopotamiaas a holy mountain. It also explains why thereis a babble of different languages (pun on

Babel and balel=‘confuse’, v. 9). It ends withthe scattering of the nations. This is the onlystory in Gn 1-11 which ends without an act ofdivine mercy; this will be repaired by the storyof Abraham.

�Ac 2.4c



another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire’.—Forstoneb they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen.— 4‘Come,’they said ‘let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reachingheaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scat-tered about the whole earth.’

5Now the LORD came down to see the town and the tower that thesons of man had built. 6‘So they are all a single people with a single lan-guage!’ said the LORD. ‘This is but the start of their undertakings! Therewill be nothing too hard for them to do. 7Come, let us go down andconfuse their language on the spot so that they can no longer under-stand one another.’ 8The LORD scattered them thence over the wholeface of the earth, and they stopped building the town. 9It was namedBabel therefore, because there the LORD confused the language of thewhole earth. It was from there that the LORD scattered them over thewhole face of the earth.

The patriarchs after the floodc

10These are Shem’s descendants:When Shem was a hundred years old he became the father of Arpach-

shad, two years after the flood. 11After the birth of Arpachshad,Shem lived five hundred years and became the father of sons and daugh-ters.

12When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old he became thefather of Shelah. 13After the birth of Shelah, Arpachshad livedfour hundred and three years and became the father of sons and daugh-ters.

14When Shelah was thirty years old he became the father of Eber.15After the birth of Eber, Shelah lived four hundred and three years andbecame the father of sons and daughters.

16When Eber was thirty-four years old he became the father ofPeleg. 17After the birth of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirtyyears and became the father of sons and daughters.

18When Peleg was thirty years old he became the father of Reu.19After the birth of Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years andbecame the father of sons and daughters.

20When Reu was thirty-two years old he became the father of Serug.21After the birth of Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years andbecame the father of sons and daughters.

22When Serug was thirty years old he became the father of Nahor.23After the birth of Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and becamethe father of sons and daughters.

24When Nahor was twenty-nine years old he became the father ofTerah. 25After the birth of Terah, Nahor lived a hundred and nineteenyears and became the father of sons and daughters.

26When Terah was seventy years old he became the father ofAbram, Nahor and Haran.

GENESIS 11 19

b. Stone and mortar are plentiful in Pales-tine; in Mesopotamia the building materialsare brick and bitumen.

c. The genealogies now begin to narrow, tofocus on Abraham.



The descendants of Terah27These are Terah’s descendants:Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran

became the father of Lot. 28Haran died in the presence of his fatherTerah in his native land, Ur of the Chaldaeans.d 29Abram and Nahorboth married: Abram’s wife was called Sarai, Nahor’s wife was calledMilcah, the daughter of Haran, father of Milcah and Iscah. 30Sarai wasbarren, having no child.

31Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, andhis daughter-in-law the wife of Abram, and made them leave Ur of theChaldaeans to go to the land of Canaan. But on arrival in Haran theysettled there.

32Terah’s life lasted two hundred and five years; then he died atHaran.

II. THE STORY OF ABRAHAM

The call of Abrahama

12The LORD said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family andyour father’s house, for the land I will show you. 2I will make

you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous thatit will be used as a blessing.

3 ‘I will bless those who bless you:I will curse those who slight you.All the tribes of the earthshall bless themselves by you.’b

4So Abram went as the LORD told him, and Lot went with him.Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5Abram took hiswife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed andthe people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land ofCanaan, and arrived there.

6Abram passed through the land as far as Shechem’s holy place,the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7TheLORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘It is to your descendants that I willgive this land’. So Abram built there an altar for the LORD who hadappeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the mountainousdistrict east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to thewest and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and invokedthe name of the LORD. 9Then Abram made his way stage by stage tothe Negeb.

20 GENESIS 12

d. ‘Chaldaeans’, i.e. Babylonians, is ana-chronistic. The name does not occur beforethe 8th century BC.12 a. The story of Israel begins with Abra-ham’s act of faith and the blessing given toAbraham, a double blessing of many descen-dants, v. 3, and a blessing of a land to the des-

cendants, v. 7; the latter is fulfilled only afterthe Exodus.

b The formula may be understood in twoways, either (as v. 2 and 48.20) that the clanswill say, ‘May you be blessed as Abraham was’,or (with Si 44.21 and LXX) ‘In you all nationswill be blessed’.

�Ac 3.25;�Heb 11.8

�Jr 4.2;�Ga 3.8



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