Ishmael and Isaac

Ishmael and Isaac were both sons of Abraham. Ishmael is the ancestor of the Arab people, and Isaac is the ancestor of the Jewish people. The story of Ishmael is found in the Old Testament Book of Genesis, chapters 16-21. Hagar was Sarah’s Egyptian maidservant. Because Sarah was unable to conceive after many years of […]

Ur, Abraham’s Hometown

Would you, at 75 years old, leave your home with a fireplace to live in tents on mountains for the rest of your life, enduring cold winters and wind? When God asked Abraham to do this, he obeyed. He took his family and left his homeland for a foreign place, never to return. Abraham’s hometown […]

King David (Part I)

King David is considered the “ideal king” of Israel and the ancestor of the “future Messiah.” He was a brave and wise conqueror, and because of his skill at playing the harp, he was known as the “psalmist of Israel,” with 75 psalms attributed to him. As a young boy, David became famous by killing […]

Abraham

Abraham (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם), originally named Abram, was a descendant of Noah’s son Shem. He is the common ancestor of the ancient Hebrew (Israelite) and Arab peoples. When Abram was 99 years old, God changed his name to Abraham, which means “father of many nations.” His wife, Sarai, was also renamed Sarah by God, which means […]

Noah’s Ark

Noah’s Ark (Hebrew: תֵּיבַת נֹחַ, Teyvat Noaḥ) was the large vessel built by Noah. The Ark was a huge, rectangular vessel constructed according to God’s instructions. Its purpose was to shelter Noah, his family, and all the world’s land-dwelling creatures from a great flood that God sent to destroy a human race that had become […]

The Tower of Babel

The story of the Tower of Babel is recorded in Genesis chapter 11. According to Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 4, Verse 113, it was Nimrod who incited the people to build the tower. Nimrod was the great-grandson of Noah and the grandson of Ham, described in Genesis as “the first on […]

The original sin

The story of Adam and Eve comes from the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. Adam and Eve were the first humans. Adam was created first, then Eve. After God created the heavens and the earth and all living things, on the seventh day He rested from all His work. On the sixth day, […]

Background and Introduction to the Book of Genesis

The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is “Bereishit” (בְּרֵאשִׁית), while the English name “Genesis” comes from the Greek word ‘énesis’ (γένεσις) in the Septuagint, meaning “origin.” Genesis is the first book of the “Pentateuch,” a name derived from Greek words meaning “five scrolls” or “a book […]

Azazel (The Scapegoat)

The word “Azazel” (עֲזָאזֵל) is a combination of two Hebrew words: ez (עֵז), meaning “goat,” and azal (אָזַל), meaning “to go away” or “to remove.” The original Hebrew meaning is “to completely remove.” It is sometimes transliterated as “Azazel” and other times translated as “scapegoat.” The Bible uses this term to signify the “removal of […]

Old Testament Survey (Part II)

The books of the Bible have a time and space context. When we read the Scriptures, we must take these two aspects into account and understand when and where God said these things. The Old Testament basically covers two thousand years of history before the birth of Christ, but Genesis 1–11 records the pre-historical portion […]