Genesis 12

Religious Prattle

My fist post.

Genesis 12

My country has a subversive obsession with Israel. In a recent interview with podcaster Tucker Carleson, Texas Senator Ted Cruz declared that he had a personal and spiritual duty to support the modern state of Israel, citing the Bible as the source of this instruction and crudely (and incorrectly) citing the passage. He couldn’t remember the book or chapter, and when reminded by Tucker, didn’t seem terribly interested in going over the context of that chapter. But Genesis 12 is curious for more than the verse Ted incorrectly cited, and in reality may be a can of worms foolish people like Ted should not have opened.

Let’s take a look. Genesis is obviously the first book of the Bible, and Chapter 12 is pretty early on. So, background: what happened before this?

Genesis 11 tells the story of the “Tower of Babel”, and then the Geneology of Abram from Shem, and then it tells about Abram’s family. We are introduced to some important characters here - Terah the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Terah
├── (Unknown Wife 1)
│   └── Haran
│       ├── Milcah (married Nahor)
│       ├── Iscah
│       └── Lot
├── (Unknown Wife 2)
│   └── Abram (later Abraham)
│       ├── (Sarai, his half-sister and wife, later Sarah)
│       │   └── Isaac (born later, Genesis 21)
│       └── (Hagar, his wife, Egyptian slave, Genesis 16:3)
│           └── Ishmael (born Genesis 16:15)
└── (Unknown Wife 3, possibly same as Wife 2)
    └── Nahor
        └── (Milcah, his niece and wife)
            ├── Uz
            ├── Buz
            ├── Kemuel
            ├── Kesed
            ├── Hazo
            ├── Pildash
            ├── Jidlaph
            └── Bethuel
                ├── Rebekah (born later, Genesis 22)
                └── Laban (born later, Genesis 24)

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