The "Begats"

Some of you may be familiar with the King James Version of the Bible, which occasionally uses language that is not quite right for the 2020s. 

If you heard, or read, a lot of that Bible, you probably remember the begats, long lists  of who parented (almost always who fathered) whom, often with little or no comment on the individuals in such lists. Here's a sample, from 1 Chronicles chapter 1:

1:1 Chronicles 1:10 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be mighty upon the earth. 11 And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

13 And Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn, and Heth,

18 And Arphaxad begat Shelah, and Shelah begat Eber.

20 And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

34 And Abraham begat Isaac. The sons of Isaac; Esau and Israel.

The Bible search web page that I use says that there are 139 instances of the word, begat, in the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament. That doesn't count different forms of the word, including a begotten in John 3:16. We don't use the word, begat, under ordinary circumstances. But, if used over and over again, as the King James does, it is likely to stick in our minds.

What lessons can we learn from the many begats in the Bible? One lesson is that the Bible accommodated the paternal society of the ancient Hebrews. It also has non-paternal features, such as the matter of the daughters of Zelophehad getting property - see Numbers 26-27, 36, Joshua 17:3, 1 Chronicles 7:15; the spiritual leadership of Moses's sister Miriam; the leadership of Deborah (Judges 4-5); Jesus respecting his mother in association with his first recorded miracle; the teaching ministry of Priscilla;  and the spiritual leadership of Samson's mother. God uses both paternal and maternal features. in the unfolding story of the Bible. God allowed the paternal structure of ancient societies -- He adapts His messages to His audiences.

Another lesson is that everyone is important to God. All those names were of people who were important to themselves, and important in relationships with others. They had parents, children, other relatives, and co-workers and friends. The Bible will  endure, and, at least by name, so will the Ludim and Heth and the others.

Another lesson is that God dealt with families, such as the Levites, or the descendants of David, or the Rechabites.

Another lesson is that God is not in a hurry. Presumably, He could have used a condensed list of people, making, say, Shelah and Hazarmaveth unnecessary. But He didn't.

Thanks for reading!

Women of the Bible: Martha

Luke 10:38 As they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me.”

41 Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

John 11: 11 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. 2 It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. 3 The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6 When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.”

8 The disciples asked him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you. Are you going there again?”

9 Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.” 11 He said these things, and after that, he said to them, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.”

12 The disciples therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”

13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep. 14 So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead. 15 I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.”

16 Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go also, that we may die with him.”

17 So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia[b] away. 19 Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. 20 Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house. 21 Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26 Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”*

28 When she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here and is calling you.”

29 When she heard this, she arose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him. 31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.” 32 Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”

33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.”

35 Jesus wept.

36 The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!” 37 Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?”

38 Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?”

41 So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me. 42 I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44 He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth.

Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”

45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him.

John 12:12 Then six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. 2 So they made him a supper there. Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him. 3 Therefore Mary took a pound[a] of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed Jesus’s feet and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.

*This may have been the first statement of belief in the adult Christ -- there were other statements about his status near the time He was born -- as Son of God. Peter made a similar statement, but I don't know whether he, or Martha, was first, or if the first such influenced the other. (See Matthew16:16, Mark 8:29, Luke 9:20, John 4:42.)

 

The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11 by Thomas Watson. Excerpt 71

Watson closes his book with three final warnings. Here is the second part of the second of these:
By living in an evil family, we are liable to incur their punishment: “pour out thy wrath upon the families that call not upon thy name. (Jer. 10. 25) For want of pouring out of prayer, the wrath of God was ready to be poured out. It is dangerous living in the tents of Kedar. When God sends his flying roll, written within and without with curses, it enters into the house of the thief and the perjurer, “and consumes the timber and the stones thereof.” (Ze. 5. 4) Is it not of sad consequence to live in a profane perjured family, when the sin of the governor pulls his house about his ears? If the stones and timber be destroyed, how shall the servant escape? And suppose God send not a temporal roll of curses in the family, there is a “spiritual roll, and that is worse.” (Pr. 3. 33) Be not content to live where religion dies. “Salute the brethren, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.” (Col. 4. 15) The house of the godly is a little church, the house of the wicked a little hell. (Pr.7. 27) Oh, incorporate yourselves into a religious family; the house of a good man is perfumed with a blessing. (Pr. 3. 33) When the holy oil of grace is poured on the head, the savour of this ointment sweetly diffuseth itself, and the virtue of it runs down upon the skirts of the family. Pious examples are very magnetical and forcible. Seneca said to his sister, though I leave you not wealth, yet I leave you a good example. Let us ingraft ourselves among the saints; by being often among the spices, we come to smell of them.

Thomas Watson lived from 1620-1686, in England. He wrote several books which survive. This blog, God willing, will post excerpts from his The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11, over a number of weeks, on Sundays.

My source for the text is here, and I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this text (and many others) available. The previous excerpt is here.
  
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. (World English Bible, public domain.)  

Does the Bible really say that? excerpt from my book, 11

[Continuing the topic of family headship, as shown in the Bible.] 

Much of the spiritual leadership in the Old Testament was exercised by the husband. Abraham, Jacob, and other fathers and husbands exercised spiritual leadership. Clearly Abraham, and Jonadab, (Jeremiah 35) showed spiritual leadership that lasted even after their death. But there are cases, even in the male-dominated Old Testament, where a wife took a leading role, at least for a short time.

Exodus 2:1 A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife. 2 The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. 4 His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him. 5 Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her servant to get it. 6 She opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”

8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.”

The maiden went and called the child’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.”

The woman took the child, and nursed it.

Except for “a man” in verse 1, There is no mention of Amram, the father of Moses, in this passage. These verses tell us that it was Jochebed, Amram’s wife, who took action to save Moses from the death that Pharaoh desired for all male Hebrew babies. Perhaps Amram had died. Perhaps he worked so hard all day, serving the Egyptians, that he couldn’t play a role in these events. We don’t know.

There is another passage that tells us that Moses, himself, the man who had recently talked with his God, in the form of a burning bush, didn’t take spiritual leadership, while Zipporah, his wife, who was not even a Hebrew, did so:

Exodus 4:20 Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand. 21 Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. 22 You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Yahweh says, Israel is my son, my firstborn, 23 and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”; and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’”

24 On the way at a lodging place, Yahweh met Moses and wanted to kill him. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”

For some reason, Moses hadn’t seen to it that his sons were circumcised. Surely he must have known about this ritual, because it was part of the covenant between Abraham and God, described in Genesis 17. Zipporah, like Jochebed, took action, and there seems to be no doubt that Moses could have, but didn’t. At least in this episode, she took spiritual leadership, when her believing husband did not.

The above is an excerpt from my recently published e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which may be obtained free of charge, or purchased from Amazon for $0.99, which is the lowest price Amazon lets an author set. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, public domain.

The previous post in this series is here. The next post, God willing, will consider the same topic.

Thanks for reading!

Does the Bible Really Say That? Excerpt from my book, 10

[Continuing the topic of family headship, as shown in the Bible.]

Priscilla and other New Testament women

There are only two examples of New Testament married couples, whose life together is described at all. One of these is Mary and Joseph, but there’s not much about their interaction together. God did reveal some things to Joseph, namely that he should not reject Mary (Matthew 1:19-24), that they should go to Egypt (Matthew 2:13), and that they should return (Matthew 2:19-23), and he acted on those promptings, and was spiritual leader in those cases. Mary may have been the spiritual leader when she reprimanded Jesus:

Luke 2:43b the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Joseph and his mother didn’t know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the company, they went a day’s journey, and they looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances. 45 When they didn’t find him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the middle of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. 47 All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you.”

But perhaps she was just more vocal.

Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned seven times in the Bible, always as a couple. Here are most of those, from Acts 18:

1 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. 2 He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them, 3 and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.

11 He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. . . .

18a Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, [text note – may be translated “brothers and sisters”] and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow. 19 He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Verse 19 uses “Priscilla and Aquila,” rather than “them” in some versions. There are three other references, in Romans 16:3, 1 Corinthians 16:19, and 2 Timothy 4:19, all of them greetings to the couple. 1 Corinthians 16:19 does not mention the couple by name in all translations.

If there is significance to the order given, the order puts Priscilla first more often that her husband, in all of the versions that I have checked. Perhaps the most critical verse is Acts 18:26. That is usually, but not always, translated so that Priscilla is named first, indicating that she may have been more important in instructing Apollos spiritually than Aquila was.

Another bit of evidence about spiritual headship in Acts is the matter of Lydia.

Acts 16: 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down, and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and stay.” So she persuaded us.

Lydia was a businesswoman. Acts 16 reads as if she gave spiritual (and probably other) leadership to her household. However, this case may not be relevant, as there is no mention of a husband. She may have been single, widowed, or perhaps divorced. We don’t know. But at least she did exercise some spiritual leadership. Dorcas is also a woman who showed some spiritual leadership, but there is no mention of a household or a husband. (Acts 9.)

In 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul refers to Timothy’s mother and grandmother, as having been spiritual influences on Timothy. But it is not clear what their marital status was, or if Timothy’s father was a believer.

The above is an excerpt from my recently published e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which may be obtained free of charge, or purchased from Amazon for $0.99, which is the lowest price Amazon lets an author set. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, public domain.

The previous post in this series is here. The next post, God willing, will consider the same topic.

Thanks for reading!