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Abram - original name for Abraham
Abraham - The originating ancestor of Jews and Arabs in Genesis. God called him from his home region in Ur to travel to Canaan, which would become the homeland of his descendents. |
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| A place where Genesis says the people tried to build a tower to heaven. God responds by multiplying the languages the people speak so they are not able to understand one another. Thus, they must abandon the project. |
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| One of the traditions that came together to form the Pentateuch. This source advocates that if the nation is faithful, God will bless them; if they worship other gods, God will punish them for violating their covenant (agreement) with God. Most of the book of Deuteronomy comes from this source, as do the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings. |
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| Theory that holds that the book of Pentateuch (or Hexateuch) were composed from sources written earlier (J, E, D, and P). |
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| One of the traditions that came together to form the Pentatuech. Its name derives from the characteristic way it refers to God; it calls God Elohim. Much of Exodus and Numbers come from this source. |
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| One of the many ways the Hebrew Bible refers to God. This name for God is the plural of the Hebrew word El (god). |
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| A twelfth-century (or earlier) B.C.E. Babylonian text that gives an account of the creation of the earth by many gods. |
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| A document composed around 2000 B.C.E. in Sumerian that includes a story of Gilgamesh building an ark in which he and the animals survive worldwide flood. |
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| Oldest son of Isaac who is excluded from the central promises to Abraham through the machinations of his younger brother, Jacob, and his marriage to a Canaanite. |
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| a narrative that describes the origin of something |
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| Christian name for the story in Genesis of the first human sin. That sin results in the ejection of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and in the introduction of the things that make life difficult. |
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| The ideal place where the first humans resided, according to Genesis. |
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| The long awaited son of Abraham, who was to fulfill the promise that Abraham would have many descendents. In the Genesis story, Jews are the branch of Abraham's family that are descendants of Isaac. |
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| One of the traditions that editors brought together to form the Pentateuch. It refers to God by God's name, Yahweh (or Jehovah in earlier renderings). Much of Genesis comes from this source. |
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| Younger son of Isaac who is the ancestor of Jews in Genesis. Even though he is an underhanded and unlikeable character, he is the one God chooses to work through in the Genesis narrative. |
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| The transliteration (that is, transferring the letters from one language to another of the name of God into English that is found in older translations. This English form of the Name was influenced by the transliteration of the Name into German. |
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| (1) In Genesis, Joseph is one of the twelve sons of Jacob who are the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel. (2) In the New Testament, Joseph is the husband of Mary. |
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| Father of Rachel and Leah, father-in-law of Jacob. In Laban, Jacob had nearly met his match in deception and trickery. |
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| Jacob's first wife, Laban's oldest daughter, and sister of Rachel. |
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| A literary form in which a narrative of earlier times is used to define a group's identity and place in the world, as well as to ground their morality. |
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| Powerful and violent beings who are the offspring of human women and beings from the heavens. (Genesis 6) |
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| Probably the latest of the traditions that came together to form the Pentateuch. It has a priestly outlook that produced Leviticus and the first chapter of Genesis, among other parts of the various books. |
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| Second and favored wife of Jacob. She was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. |
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| Wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau. Her favoritism toward Jacob helped him attain the blessing of Isaac that was supposed to go to the firstborn, Esau. |
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| The originating female ancestor of Jews. She was the wife (and half sister) of Abraham and the mother of Isaac. |
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| Cities Genesis identifies as particularly wicked. Because of their wickedness, particularly their unjust treatment of the powerless, God destroys them. |
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| A distinctive way of reasoning that is appropriate within a particular way of analyzing and reasoning about a particular matter. Differing universes will understand things differently and allow different types of evidence. For example, the universe of scientific discourse uses evidence and some types of reasoning and evaluation that are not useful or appropriate in the universe of music composition. |
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| German biblical scholar (1844-1918). His hypothesis about multiple sources used to write the Pentateuch, called the Documentary of Hypothesis (see above), had a great impact on the understanding of the Hebrew Bible. |
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| The name of God as it appears in the Hebrew Bible. It is the most important name for God in the Hebrew Bible, the name revealed to Moses in the burning bush episode. |
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