God visits Abraham in this episode and tells him to chop up some animals for him. That night a burning lamp magically appeared between the pieces of dead animals. Then God appeared in a dream and promised to give Abraham and his descendants all the land between the Euphrates and Nile rivers.

But Sarah was still barren, so she gave Abraham her Egyptian slave girl, Hagar, as a wife. After Abraham had sex with Hagar, she became pregnant and ran away after being mistreated by Sarah. But an angel appeared, telling her to return to her mistress.

Hagar returned and Abraham's first son, Ishmael, was born. Abraham was 86 years old at the time.

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#3 plus - A few more words about the curse of Canaan

The story about Noah's drunkenness, the sin of Ham, and the curse of Canaan has troubled everyone who has read it.  

What exactly did Ham do that was so awful to deserve such a severe punishment?

It all takes place in just eight verses (Genesis 9:20-27) and it was covered in our last episode. But we didn't have time to discuss the various theories that have been proposed about the sin of Ham. 

So if you've ever wondered what Ham did in this Bible story, this episode is for you. In it you'll find the answer.

The text for each episode can be found at the Skeptic's Annotated Bible website, where we encourage you to read along with us.

Text and notes for this episode can be found here.

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Abraham, Sarah, and Lot travel to the land of Canaan. When they arrive a famine is going on, so they do the usual biblical thing and go to Egypt. Before arriving, Abraham tells Sarah to lie for him by saying she is his sister. She does so, and the Pharaoh takes the 65 year-old Sarah as his concubine.

God sends plagues on Egypt to punish the Pharaoh for believing their lie. Then the Pharaoh makes Abraham a rich man by giving him livestock and slaves and sends him on his way. When they arrive back in Canaan, Abraham and Lot split up because they had too much stuff to live together. Lot went to Sodom, while Abraham and Sarah went to Canaan.

Then a war broke out between the kingdoms of Sodom and Gomorrah and some other local kingdoms. Abraham and 318 servants came to the rescue and defeat the anti-sodomites. Melchizedek said a prayer and was given one-tenth of the booty.

The text and notes for this episode can be found here: https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/fewer-words/3b.html

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After Noah sacrificed the clean animals to God, he plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk, and lies around naked in his tent.

When his son Ham sees him in this condition, he curses, not Ham, but Ham's youngest son Canaan, saying that he and his descendants will be slaves forever.

Sometime later, everyone on earth gathered in one place to build a tower up to heaven. God was worried that they'd succeed, so he came down and confused their language - which is where all the different languages come from today.

The text and notes for this episode can be found here: https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/fewer-words/3b.html

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In this episode, the sons of God have sex with the daughters of men, producing a race of giants.

This upsets God so much that he reduced the human life span to 120 years and decided to drown every living thing on earth in a flood - except for Noah, his family, and two (or seven) or each animal species.

After the flood, Noah sacrificed the clean animals for God. God smelled a sweet savor and said to himself that he'd never kill every living thing again.

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This episode has a lot of firsts: the first sex in the Bible, the first animal sacrifice, the first murder, the first city, and the first bigamist.

It also has the mark of Cain, which has often been used to justify racism and slavery.

We are also introduced to Noah, who had his first children when he was 500 years old. (Three sons)

The text and notes for this episode can be found here: https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/fewer-words/2a.html

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After drowning every living thing in the flood, God repented and promised not to do it again. He even put the rainbow in the sky as a sign of his promise.

The first thing Noah did after leaving the ark was sacrifice some endangered species to God. Then he planted a vineyard, got drunk, and lay naked in his tent. When his son, Ham, happened to see him in this condition, Noah cursed not Ham, but Ham's son Canaan and all of his descendants with slavery.

Sometime later, everyone on earth came together to build the Tower of Babel. This disturbed God so much that he confounded their language so they couldn't complete it. That's where all the languages on earth came from.

This episode also introduces Abram and Sarai (aka Abraham and Sarah) , along with Abraham's nephew Lot. The three of them travel from Mesopotamia to Canaan. Later Abraham and Sarah go to Egypt where they enrich themselves by telling Pharaoh that they are siblings.

Lot moves to Sodom, where a war breaks out. Lot is captured, so Abraham and his slaves join the Sodomites in the battle of Sodom and Gomorrah. After the slaughter and Lot's release, Melchizedek praises God for delivering Abraham's enemies into his hand.

The text for each episode can be found at the Skeptic's Annotated Bible website, where we encourage you to read along with us.

Text and notes for this episode can be found here.

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This episode features two trees, a talking serpent, and a fearful God.

The text and notes for this episode can be found here.

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In this episode, we learn about Adam and Eve's family values. Their first son, Cain, killed their second son, Abel, and later, when Adam was 130 years old, they had a third son, Seth. Then sometime in the next 800 years, Adam and Eve had some daughters.

After Cain killed Abel, God put a mark on him so no one (his parents?) would kill him for killing Abel. Then Cain got married, moved to the land of Nod, and built a city that he named after his son, Enoch.

About this time, the sons of God had sex with the daughters of men and produced a race of giants. This upset God so much that he decided to drown everything on earth - except for a man named Noah and his nameless wife, his three sons and their wives, and two (or seven) of each kind of animal.

Text and notes for this episode can be found here: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/fewer-words/2.html.

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The Bible's two contradictory creation stories are presented in this episode.

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