What is the central theme of the Jacob and Joseph narratives (see textbooks for identification and discussion of this theme) and how does it relate to God’s covenant with Abraham?

Promise and Obedience in the Stories of Abraham and His Descendants
Read
Genesis in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (NISB) and its
interpretative notes for chapters and passages referenced below. Read
chapters on Genesis in The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary
Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, The Pentateuch, and A Theological
Introduction to the Old Testament. Also read the entries on “Genesis,”
“Abraham,” “names of God in the Hebrew Bible,” and “covenant” in
HarperCollins Bible Dictionary.
1.
Genesis provides two accounts of God establishing a covenant with
Abraham (Genesis 15 and 17). What does each account reveal about the
nature of this covenant? Consult the notes for 15:6 and 17:9 in NISB.
2.
How is the character of God’s covenant with Abraham rooted in Abraham’s
encounters with God before it (Genesis 12-14) and what do Abraham’s
encounters with God which follow (Genesis 18-22) reveal about this
covenant relationship?
3. What is the central theme of the Jacob and
Joseph narratives (see textbooks for identification and discussion of
this theme) and how does it relate to God’s covenant with Abraham? Note
where and how this theme comes to expression in these two narrative
sections of Genesis.
4. How is God’s covenant with Abraham linked to
acts of God recounted in Genesis 1-11? How do the genealogies in
Genesis signal connections? See “Excursus: The Priestly View of
History” and the note for 17:1 in NISB.
Integrate your answers to these questions in an essay on the topic,

Margins are to be one inch on
all four sides of each page. All pages should be numbered either in the
upper right-hand corner or bottom center. (Note: If syllabus requires
different guidelines, please follow syllabus)
State the questions at
the beginning of your answers. (Note: If syllabus requires different
guidelines, please follow syllabus)
FOOTNOTES should be provided for
references or quoted materials. These should be in this order: Author,
title (underlined), city, publisher, and date (in parentheses), and page
number. Example: Fox & Morris, Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say
So, Nashville, (1981), pp 28-30.
All work should represent your own
work, except where credit is given. Plagiariam Defined “You plagiarize
when, intentionally or not, you use someone’s words or ideas but fail
to credit that person. You plagiarize even when you do credit the
author but use his exact words without so indicating with quotation
marks or block indentations. You also plagiarize when you use words so
close to those in your source, that if your work were placed next to the
source, it would be obvious that you could not have written what you
did without the source at your elbow.” From page 167 of the Craft of
Research by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams,
published in 1995 by the University of Chicago Press in Chicago.

•
The New Interpreter’s Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version with
the Apocrypha. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003. ISBN-13: 978-0687278329.
Students may read other versions of the Bible along with NISB, but not
in place of it!

•
Coogan, Michael D. The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary
Introduction. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN-13:
978-0199946617. Earlier editions of the Coogan textbook may be used, but
reading assignments refer to page numbers in the 3rd edition.
•
Fretheim, Terence E. The Pentateuch: Interpreting Biblical Texts Series.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996. ISBN-13: 978-0687008421.

• Powell, Mark Allan, ed. HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. New York: HarperOne, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-0-06-146906-0.

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