01. PATRIARCH.
How the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, called the Patriarch Cycles, function as within the larger story of the Torah. Why scribes collected local traditions of forefathers and unified them into a single lineage in the ancient Israelite national epic. What the two most influential scholarly theories on the historicity of the Patriarch Cycles, and more importantly, how these stories painted a new future for Israel's self-definition.
02. ABRAHAM.
How to read the stories of Abraham like an ancient to have faith like a modern. We unpack the stories individually and in the context of the Torah and teach you to read them like a scholar, all in under twenty minutes. Learn the one question you can ask to make sense of every story we have about the Father of Israel.
03. ISAAC.
How the Isaac Cycle functions as a narrative and an archetype for Israel living at peace in the land. Why the Isaac stories seem to derive from the Abraham and Jacob stories-- like they seem to just swap out characters and story details in some cases. What the Isaac Cycle has to say that gets overlooked about Israel's destiny and faith that matters.
04. JACOB.
How the Jacob Cycle functions archetypally (not a word) for the exile and restoration of ancient Israel. This is a deep dive not into how to read texts about the patriarchs with some fun stories about everyone’s favorite trickster. The Jacob Cycle is a window into the exile, restoration, and who to be on the other side. We wrap asking why the second born inherits the blessing.
05. JOSEPH.
The Joseph story is a novella, or short story, grafted into the larger story of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. In fact, you could take out Genesis 37-50, save from chapter 38, and Genesis would still work. But it would not be brilliant. The way the Joseph story has been put to work in the larger story of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) is high fantastic literature and more importantly, character forming.
06. BONUS.
The quick and dirty overview of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, or what scholars call the "Primeval History." How two creation myths, a farmer and herder type scene, the story of technology, heroes, and giants, and a flood motif were stitched together as a prologue to the Torah to generate a vision for an exilic or post-exilic community. Cheers.
BONUS.
WHO SAID WHAT?
2000 YEARS OF SCHOLARSHIP ON GENESIS THROUGH DEUTERONOMY… IN FOUR, SHORT ARTICLES. JOIN ME, MARK SHAFFER, FOR A DEEP DIVE INTO WHO SAID WHAT ABOUT THE BIBLE IN JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TRADITION.
AUDIO EPISODES.
TEXT AND ROCK BONUS AUDIO EPISODES ON THE ORIGINS AND CULTURE OF ANCIENT ISRAEL. JOIN ME, MARK SHAFFER, TO DISCOVER WHERE ANCIENT ISRAEL CAME FROM, HOW THEY PRACTICED RELIGION, AND THE SETTING OF THE PATRIARCH CYCLES.
