Genesis 32 - The Name of God

The story of Jacob is full of many astounding events. Jacob wrestling the angel, who stands for God, is probably greatest among them. But what I found most interesting about this episode is what happens after. For once the wrestling match is over, Jacob asks the man (whom he knows to be God), "Tell me by what name art thou called?" (Genesis 32:29). But God does not give an answer. Again I allude to the metaphor of the puzzle. Obviously this is one piece of the puzzle that God does not yet want to reveal. It is not until Exodus 6:3 ("...my name ADONAI I did not show them.") that God points us to Himself in a more specific way, by means of His Sacred Name. Throughout Genesis we know that there is One Supreme God Who is worshipped by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and others. But we also know that most people worshipped many other gods. The One True God, to most people living in the days chronicled in Genesis, was just one of many gods. Very few understood Him to be the only God. When we start to learn clues as to the name of the One True God, we see a definite elucidation of monotheism. The issue of God's name has always fascinated me. I'm sure I'll be writing more on it as I go.

Genesis 32 - Guardians of the Provinces

When reading Scripture, we often get glimpses of what our world is like beyond that which we can see. When Jacob finally leaves the eastern lands of Laban, of Mesopotamia where he has been living for many years, and enters into the land of his fathers, Chanaan, he is greeted by glorious angels. He called the place where he saw the majestic beings "the camps of God" (Genesis 32:2). It is apparently understood that every region here on earth, every province, every land and its people, is given an angel who acts as its guardian; as each of us as individuals has a guardian angel, so each country on earth has its own guardian angel. It is specifically revealed that the angel Michael is given special charge over the land of Chanaan and its people: "...at that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people" (Daniel 12:1). Even in the New Testament, St. Paul is greeted by one of these heavenly sentinels standing guard over a country of the earth: "And a vision was shown to Paul in the night: A man of Macedonia standing, and beseeching him, and saying: Pass over into Macedonia, and help us" (Acts 16:9). How awesome to think of these great angelic warriors protecting our homelands from on high!

Genesis 29-30 - Rachel and Leah

These chapters cover a lot -- Jacob's marriages, the births of nearly all of his numerous children, the drama that results from his complex network of wives, his method of escaping the employ of Laban to return to his homeland, and so on. But what caught my attention was the interesting relationship between Jacob and his wives Rachel and Leah. My commentary makes mention of yet another symbolic representation going on here: the synagogue is Leah and the Church of Christ is Rachel. It is written in Genesis 29:30 that Jacob (as a figure of Christ) "preferred the love of the latter (Rachel) before the former (Leah)." As in the case of Isaac blessing the younger Jacob rather than the older Esau, a pattern seems to be developing, wherein the newcomer seems to "win out" over the more established figure.

Genesis 28

Jacob's vision! A great ladder connecting the heavens to the earth, with angels upon it ascending and descending! Again I have stumbled upon some profound connections. As I said in my preface, as one advances through Scripture, it seems God keeps adding pieces to a puzzle. In Genesis 22 we saw Isaac clearly representing the self-sacrifice that Jesus Christ would one day endure for us. And now in Genesis 28 we see God granting Jacob a vision of something terribly mysterious. A ladder? What could be the purpose of that? Well, several theories have been put forth, but the one that is most common and with which I agree, is that the ladder represents the Son of God, the Great Mediator. Now, Jacob doesn't seem to see the ladder and immediately think, "The Son of God!" But perhaps the vision wasn't only for Jacob.

We know that it is through the line of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob, through their posterity, that Jesus would be born. Therefore it is pertinent that God would give Jacob this vision of a ladder, a gateway to Heaven, to show that the Way is to come through Jacob's line. The specific verse in Genesis (28:12) is as follows:

"[Jacob] saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven: the angels also of God ascending and descending by it."

In a very interesting connection, Jesus, thousands of years later, speaks in very similar terms: "Amen, amen, I say to you, you shall see the heaven opened, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). On another occasion, Jesus again speaks in terms of a "way," a "passage," a "mediation" of sorts between the Father and the Son: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Jesus clearly is the ladder that connects heaven and earth, God and us. Jacob's vision may have been multi-dimensional, with the more complete meaning meant to be revealed at a much later time.

Further Musings on Genesis 1-27

Some more thoughts on these first chapters before I move forward.

To Biblical scholars and other experts of Scripture (and probably to a great many who don't fit into those categories) this may seem like an obvious point. But it was just made clear to me that Isaac seems to prefigure Christ in more ways than one. In fact, the entire patriarchal triumvirate of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob can be seen as a microcosm of God's infinite design. Abraham's fatherhood is stressed as much as Isaac's sonship is. The account of Esau and Jacob foreshadows the split which results in Jews and Christians parting ways. Jacob's twelve sons, the twelve tribes of Israel (cf. the twelve Apostles), spread out and go forth. But what I want to focus on is Genesis 22, the famous chapter in which Abraham is instructed to sacrifice his beloved son. The parallels to Christ throughout this chapter are so unconcealed that I couldn't believe it was only dawning on me now. There are a couple key elements to this story that I was heretofore ignorant of: one is the fact that Isaac carried his own wood up the hill where he was to be sacrificed, and the other is that Isaac was actually much older than I had ever imagined. Most artistic depictions of this event show a very young Isaac, some even portraying him as an infant child. But the fact is that Isaac was much older, probably around 25 years of age. Whereas I had always imagined that Abraham never told his son what he was about to do, I now see that Isaac had to have known full well what was about to happen to him.... and Isaac voluntarily went through with it anyway! This is an amazing change of perspective for me. If Isaac was a strapping 25-year-old, and Abraham a feeble old man of over 100, then the son could have easily resisted his father and ran from this horrifying thing that was about to happen. But he didn't. He laid down upon the wood and willfully offered himself up for the sake of his father! (See what I mean about unconcealed parallels?!) The other tidbit of information that previously eluded me was the fact that Isaac carried the means of his death to the place of his death, exactly as Christ would do thousands of years later -- before they went up to the place of sacrifice, "[Abraham] took the wood for the holocaust, and laid it upon Isaac his son" (Genesis 22:6). Isaac carried the wood to his death, just as Christ carried the cross. Abraham allowed this to happen to his son, just as God the Father allowed His beloved Son to be sacrificed.

Genesis 1-27

I read the first twenty-seven chapters of Genesis over the course of the last six months (from the autumn of 2008 to the spring of 2009). Obviously, I took my time with it. I'm hoping to pick up the pace from here on out.

I've always enjoyed reading Genesis. It contains some of the Bible's most memorable accounts. To me, it's the utter mystery of the stories contained in Genesis that is the most captivating. I'm enthralled by the epic and dramatic narratives describing God's earliest dealings with His people. Of all the books of the Bible, it is probably Genesis that is the most enigmatic; it is steeped in the most mystery. For instance, the account of Adam and Eve really only hints at what happened in those first days. We are given a few tantalizing bits of information, and the rest is left in the fog of history. But the bits we are given provide a world of intriguing possibilities -- God references the institution of marriage; He speaks of a woman and her seed (Mary and Jesus); He is thought by some even to have appeared to Adam and Eve, after their fall, in the Garden in the form of the Second Person of the Trinity (this may sound crazy, but remember Jesus's words, "Before Abraham was made, I am" (John 8:58). What occurred in those "ante lapsum" days in the Garden of Eden? I can't think of a more intriguing thing to ponder.

It's interesting to read about the different covenants God makes with each successive figure (Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc.). It's as if He keeps adding pieces to a puzzle, and we see an increasingly clearer picture as we read. By the time we reach the story of Abraham, we start to see the beginnings of God's design. And I think that's one of the most fascinating aspects of Genesis. (Of course the picture won't come near to completion until the Redeemer makes the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.)

The Book

The Bible I will be using for this undertaking is the Haydock version of the Douay-Rheims. The Douay-Rheims is of course one of the oldest English translations of the Bible (and my personal preference -- though I readily admit it is not the only good translation in existence). In the early 19th century, an English priest by the name of George Leo Haydock decided to compile an extensive number of renowned Biblical commentators and assemble an edition of the Douay-Rheims that would be an invaluable resource to all English-speaking Christians. His work is quite laudable. He went directly to the writings of the early Church Fathers, as well as Christianity's best Biblical scholars over the centuries (and even some non-Christian historians and commentators) and painstakingly compiled his comprehensive commentary. The Haydock version was further enhanced in later years by other Biblical scholars. The copy I own happens to be an exact replica of an 1852 edition.
In all, Father Haydock referenced over 200 commentators. It's quite an impressive assembly, too. The diverse company of scholars includes (and this is a minute sampling) Richard Bristow, Epiphanius of Salamis, John Ernest Grabe, Juda Hakkad, Thomas Aquinas, Jacobus Pamelius, Louis-Sebastien Le Nain de Tillemont, Michael Servetus, Bernard of Clairvaux, Theodore Beza, Augustine of Hippo, Antoine Augustin Calmet, Desiderius Erasmus, Pierre Daniel Huet, Denis Petau, Anselm of Canterbury, Isidore of Seville, Cyril of Alexandria, John of Damascus, Charles Francois Houbigant, Pope Leo I, John Chrysostom, etc., etc., etc.

The commentary often takes up more space on the page than the actual Biblical text. It will make for laborious reading, but the constant edification I'll be receiving will likely be motivation enough. Reading what such learned minds throughout the centuries had to say about Sacred Scripture will doubtless prove to be an enlightening endeavor.

I now embark!

Forward

A note on spelling.

Since the Bible I'll be using is the very old and very traditional Douay-Rheims, you'll notice many of the names and places are spelled in an archaic fashion. I've decided I won't modernize the spellings when I post my thoughts. In most cases, the spelling differences are very minor (e.g., Chanaan instead of Canaan). Other examples include Noe instead of Noah, and Josue instead of Joshua. When a spelling difference is drastically antiquated, I will be sure to make a mention of it. At any rate, this issue of spelling really only pertains to the oldest books of the Old Testament.

Preface

To read the Bible front to back. That is the quest at hand.

St. Peter tells us, "[be] always ready to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you" (1 Peter 3:15).  When it comes to Sacred Scripture, its defense comes with an especial urgency today, as its attackers are many and fierce.  But having never read (and studied) the Bible from beginning to end, Peter's dictum is sure to be more difficult to fulfill.  This realization has motivated me to remedy the issue. 

I've read a good amount of Scripture, especially from the New Testament.  But reading the Bible in its entirety as one continuous text is a daunting task. I've had many failed attempts. I can remember being a little boy and trying several times to get through just the Book of Genesis. I can remember vividly the accounts of Adam and Eve, Noah, and Abraham. But I never made it much farther than that. I tried again as a teenager, but, again, I ran out of steam. My most earnest attempt came in 2004 at the age of 25. In April of that year (during Holy Week to be exact) I sat down to read the entire Bible with a passionate determination. And over the course of a couple months I made it to the First Book of Samuel. But then distractions began to creep up and get in the way. Soon a year went by and I hadn't read a word of the Bible. There were a few attempts here and there over the next few years to pick it back up from where I had left off, but they always came up short. I could try to justify my failed attempts over the years by saying that life just got in the way, but really there is no excuse -- it doesn't take much to simply sit down and open a book, no matter how hectic life gets.

And so here I am today, 21 April 2009, at the age of 30. I somehow feel, for whatever reason, that this time I will finally make it. As a wedding present last summer my brother Gabe gave my wife and me an extremely nice Bible -- the Haydock version of the Douay-Rheims. It includes profound and detailed commentary from some of Christianity's most notable Biblical commentators. Receiving such an awesome gift made me realize what I had been neglecting all these years. I knew I must resume my task of reading the entire Bible. During the autumn of 2008 I slowly began re-reading Genesis. I decided that, now that I had the nicest Bible I'd ever owned, I wanted to start over and read every word of commentary along with each word of Scripture. I knew that by doing it this way I would be moving at a much slower pace, but I wanted to do it as thoroughly as possible. And after several months of indeed moving at a glacial pace, I decided to accompany my reading with a blog. I thought maybe this would help to ensure that this time I would stick to it to the very end. And I am determined to do just that.

I will be posting thoughts as I go. Since I technically began this task roughly six months ago, I will be starting from Genesis 28 (when Jacob journeys to Mesopotamia).  I pray God sees me through this endeavor.


-Michael Vincent Pitassi