In class on Tuesday we talked about Judaism. Christianity stems from Judaism and even shares some of the same texts. A good part of this I learned at USF in some theology classes but some of the information was new. I had learned that Abraham was married to Sarah and Hagar was just their servant. In Genesis 16:1-3 it say:
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her”. (NIV)
It was interesting to hear that Abraham was actually married to her and that out of Abraham’s two wives came a huge debate thousands of years later over land. Out of Sarah and Isaac came Christianity and out of Hagar and Ishmael came Islam.
Another interesting fact was about Noah’s animals. In Genesis 16:19-20 it reads:
You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. (NIV)
Later on in Genesis it explains where the number 7 comes from:
Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. (Genesis 7:2-3, NIV)
I think it is interesting that details in the stories we tell our children are not fully accurate, when it explains it clearly in scripture.
Do these details really matter, or are they key in understanding our past? How big of a deal should we make of little details? I have to guess that I am not the only one who, for the first time, heard about there being 7 instead of 2 of each kind of animal. I was told Bible stories when I was little and I have been studying theology for 2 years and I have never heard the number 7 when referring to Noah’s Arc.