Beginning with Blessing—Genesis 12–50

Abstract

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY BEGINS with Genesis, and blessing is one of its core concepts. For modern Westerners, blessing might be an offhand response to a sneeze, but the Bible views it as the main thoroughfare for traffic between God and the creatures, both human and nonhuman. Accordingly, the story of Israel’s first ancestors reads like a primer on the complex dynamics of blessing, which prove to be both messy and transformative for human lives....