Questions about the details

It cannot be doubted that the history recorded in the Old Testament is concerned with the history of the nation of Israel. Within the Pentateuch, this is clearly the focus of the history recounted from Genesis, chapter 12, through the end of Deuteronomy. Although the Pentateuch occasionally makes mention of other peoples or nations, it touches on their history only when that history intersects, or somehow relates to, the history of Israel, which appears to be its central focus.

The Pentateuch deals with the lives of Israel's patriarchs, the bondage of the Israelites in, and exodus from, Egypt, the Giving of the Law to Israel, events of importance that occurred during their forty years of travel in the Sinai desert, and the conquest of part of the Trans-Jordan. The story of the Pentateuch ends with the death of Moses, which occurred in the Trans-Jordan, as the Israelites were preparing to cross the Jordan River to begin their conquest of the Land of Israel. The time period covered by this history is several hundred years, with the bulk of the history in the Pentateuch focussed on less than about 50 years - from late in the Egyptian bondage until the end of the desert stay.

But if the focus of the history in the Pentateuch is on chronicling the early days of the nation of Israel, why give an extremely brief account of close to 2000 years of mankind's history prior to the birth of Abraham? Would the history of Israel described by the Pentateuch be any less comprehensible or compelling if these early stories were not included in it? Of course, these stories are absolutely interesting and quite dramatic. But who cares? In what way do they contribute to our understanding of anything at all?

The brevity with which the Pentateuch disposes of close to 2000 years of human history and the meticulous attention it lavishes on a few hundred years of Israel's early development is also rather puzzling. Indeed, the amount of space alloted to the 2000 years of early human history is less than the space allotted to the events of less than one year in the history of Israel covered in the first eighteen chapters of the Book of Numbers. A rather startling imbalance.

Cain and Abel
Included in the brief history of mankind is the story of the murder of Abel by Cain. Why is this story told? Neither Cain nor Abel served as ancestors of Israel. Neither they nor their offspring are ever mentioned again in the Pentateuch, or for that matter anywhere in the Old Testament. Abel seems to have left no progeny; the Pentateuch makes no mention that he had children before he was murdered. Genesis does speak about Cain's descendants. But the names of the nations that stemmed from him are never stated anywhere in the Pentateuch. There certainly is no indication whatsoever in any part of the Bible that Israel ever encountered any progeny of Cain.

In fact, according to the Bible's own account, the Israelites never could have met the progeny of Cain. In the account of the great Deluge that engulfed the world during the times of Noah, Genesis declares that all mankind, save Noah and his family, was destroyed. Chapter 10 of Genesis implies that all the nations of the world descended from Noah and came into being only after the Flood. Since the nation of Israel only began centuries after the Deluge, and since Noah did not descend from Cain, but from his brother Seth, the third son of Adam, Israel could never have encountered peoples who traced their ancestry back to Cain.

Tower of Babel
Similar questions can be posed regarding the event briefly described in chapter 11 - the building of the Tower of Babel. Surely, an interesting touch. But what is the point of this story? How does it relate, if at all, to the history of Israel? Why include such an event in the Pentateuch, the most sacred and important book of the nation of Israel?

The Deluge
Even the inclusion of the story of the Deluge (chapters 6-9) can be called into question. How does this story contribute to our understanding of the subsequent history of Israel or the pupose of the Bible?

Discovering the answer to these questions is going to change the way you look at the Bible in general and the Pentateuch in particular. But that requires a more careful examination of the events in Genesis 1-11.