Prenatal Development

Prenatal Development

How can a drug cause devastating effects at one point in prenatal development but not at others?

During the earliest period of prenatal development –the stage of development from conception to birth—the fertilized egg divides, embarking on the process that will transform it in just nine months from a one-celled organism into a complex human being.

The dividing cells form a hollow ball, which implants itself in the wall of the uterus. Two weeks after conception the cells begin to specialize: Some will form the baby’s internal organs; others will form muscles and bones; and still others will form the skin and the nervous system. No longer an undifferentiated mass of cells, the developing organism is now called an embryo.

The embryo stage ends three months after conception, when the stage of the fetus begins. At this point, although it is only 1 inch long, the fetus roughly resembles a human being, with arms and legs, a large head, and a heart that is beating and pumping blood through tiny arteries and veins.

The embryo and the fetus are nourished by an organ called the placenta. Within the placenta the mother’s blood vessels transmit substances to the embryo or fetus and carry waste products away from it. Although the mother’s blood never actually mingles with that of her unborn child, almost anything she eats, drinks, or inhales is capable of being transmitted through the placenta. If she develops an infection such as syphilis, rubella (German measles), HIV, the microorganisms involved can cross the placenta and infect the fetus, often with disastrous results. If she inhales nicotine, drinks alcohol, or uses other drugs during pregnancy, these too can cross the placenta, compromising the baby’s development (Harris and Liebert, 1991)

Even seemingly harmless over-the-counter drugs may have adverse effects on a developing embryo or fetus. For instance, a pregnant woman who takes an aspirin to alleviate a headache runs the risk of causing bleeding in her fetus. More potent drugs can do even greater harm, as we learned in the 1950’s when a drug called thalidomide, sometimes used to combat morning sickness, was found to inhibit development of an embryo’s arms and legs. More recently, the use of cocaine has taught a similar lesson. Babies whose mothers take cocaine are often born addicted, and they are often smaller and thinner than normal, prone to serious respiratory troubles and sometimes even seizures, and likely to suffer cognitive and social difficulties in childhood. (Lewis and Bendersky, 1995)

Alcohol is the drug most often abused by pregnant women, and with devastating consequences (Steinhausen, Willms, and Spohr,1993) Pregnant women who consume large amounts of alcohol risk giving birth to a child with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a condition characterized by facial deformities, heart defects, stunted growth, and congnitive impairments. Even smaller amounts of alcohol can be harmful (Hunt et al., 1995) Taking just two drinks a day during pregnancy is associated with having a child who functions more poorly than others both mentally and behaviorally (Shriver and Piersel, 1994) To be safest, pregnant women and those who are trying to become pregnant should not drink alcohol.


Please come back to read more on this subject in my next article thank you. I hope this helps you understand that drinking, drugs, smoking etc… affects not only your health but the health of your unborn child. Thank you.

Keep Your Distance W

Keep Your Distance When Danger Threatens
FEW people are more sensitive to danger than are sailors. They must keep a wary eye on the weather, the tides, and their ship’s proximity to the coast. When both tides and winds combine to drive the ship toward the shore, sailors face hard work and danger.
Under these conditions—known as a lee shore—a sailor keeps considerable sea room between his boat and the coast, especially if the craft is propelled only by sail. A sailing manual explains that ‘to be caught in a gale on a lee shore is perhaps the worst plight’ in which a sailor can find himself. The recommended solution? ‘Never allow your vessel to be found in such a predicament.’ The safe way to avoid foundering on a sandbank or a rocky shore is to keep a good distance from danger.
Christians must be sensitive to dangers that could shipwreck their faith. (1 Timothy 1:19) Nowadays, conditions are by no means ideal for keeping a steady course. Just as a boat can be driven off course by winds and tides, so our dedicated lives can lose direction because of the constant tug of our imperfect flesh and relentless buffeting by the spirit of the world—now almost gale force in intensity.
A Man Who Lived Dangerously
How easy it is to venture unwittingly into dangerous spiritual waters!
Consider an example that occurred near a landlocked body of water, the Dead Sea. We refer to the example of Lot. His decision to live in Sodom brought him many problems and no little sorrow. After a quarrel between their respective herdsmen, Abraham and Lot agreed to live in different areas. Lot, we are told, chose the District of the Jordan and pitched his tent among the cities of the District. Later, he decided to live in Sodom, even though the life-style of the Sodomites distressed him.—Genesis 13:5-13; 2 Peter 2:8.
Why did Lot continue to live in a notoriously immoral city that offended Jehovah deeply and even caused a public outcry from people living nearby? Sodom was prosperous, and Lot’s wife doubtless enjoyed the material benefits of city life. (Ezekiel 16:49, 50) Perhaps even Lot was attracted by Sodom’s vibrant economy. Whatever his reason for living there, he should have left sooner than he did. Only at the urgent insistence of Jehovah’s angels did Lot’s family finally abandon the danger area.
The Genesis account says: “When the dawn ascended, then the angels became urgent with Lot, saying: ‘Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are found here, for fear you may be swept away in the error of the city!’” But even after that pressing warning, Lot “kept lingering.” The angels finally “seized hold of his hand and of the hand of his wife and of the hands of his two daughters and they proceeded to bring him out and to station him outside the city.”—Genesis 19:15, 16.
On the outskirts of the city, the angels gave Lot’s family some final instructions: “Escape for your soul! Do not look behind you and do not stand still in all the District! Escape to the mountainous region for fear you may be swept away!” (Genesis 19:17) Even then, Lot begged for permission to go to the nearby city of Zoar rather than abandon the region entirely. (Genesis 19:18-22) Clearly, Lot was reluctant to distance himself as far as possible from danger.
On the way to Zoar, Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom, apparently yearning for the things she had left behind. Because of ignoring the angels’ instructions, she lost her life. Lot—a righteous man—survived the city’s destruction along with his two daughters. But what a price he paid for choosing to live close to danger!—Genesis 19:18-26; 2 Peter 2:7.
Steering Clear of Danger
Lot’s bitter experience shows what can happen if we come close to or tarry in a dangerous environment. Wisdom would dictate that, like good sailors, we never allow ourselves to get into such a predicament. What are some hazardous areas we should steer clear of? Some Christians have gone astray by getting too involved in business activities, by cultivating close friendships with worldly associates, or by becoming emotionally attached to someone of the opposite sex when they are not free to marry.
The wise course, in each case, is to keep our distance from danger. For example, are we alert to the spiritual dangers a so-called golden business opportunity could bring? Some brothers have immersed themselves in commercial enterprises at the cost of their families, their health, and their theocratic responsibilities. Sometimes the lure is the more comfortable life-style that money can bring. At other times it is the challenge of proving the mettle of their business acumen. Some might reason that their motive is to provide work for other brothers or to be able to contribute more generously in behalf of the worldwide work. Perhaps they think that when the business is functioning well, they will have much more time to devote to Kingdom interests.
What are some of the pitfalls? The uncertain economic climate and “unforeseen occurrence” can sink the best-planned business venture. (Ecclesiastes 9:11) Struggling with a heavy debt can bring anguish and may crowd out spiritual matters. And even when a business is booming, it will likely absorb much time and mental energy, and it may require considerable worldly association.
A Christian elder in Spain was in severe financial difficulties when an insurance company made him a tempting offer. Although there were prospects of making a lot of money as a free-lance insurance agent, he eventually turned the offer down. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but I am glad I said no,” he explains. “For one thing, I was reluctant to make money—even indirectly—through my theocratic contacts. And although I liked the idea of being my own boss, I would have had to travel a lot and spend long hours on the job. It would inevitably have meant neglecting my family and the congregation. Above all, I am convinced that if I had accepted that offer, I would have lost control of my life.”
No Christian can afford to lose control of his life. Jesus showed the tragic results of such a course by relating the illustration of a man who accumulated more and more wealth in order to retire and take life easy. But on the very night he decided that he had finally amassed enough money, he died. “So it goes with the man that lays up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God,” Jesus warned.—Luke 12:16-21; compare James 4:13-17.
We must also be on guard against extended association with worldly people. Perhaps it is a neighbor, a school friend, a workmate, or a business associate. We may reason, ‘He respects the Witnesses, he leads a clean life, and we do talk about the truth occasionally.’ Yet, the experience of others proves that in time we may even find ourselves preferring such worldly company to that of a spiritual brother or sister. What are some of the dangers of such a friendship?
We could begin to minimize the urgency of the times we live in or take a growing interest in material rather than spiritual things. Perhaps, because of a fear of displeasing our worldly friend, we would even desire to be accepted by the world. (Compare 1 Peter 4:3-7.) The psalmist David, on the other hand, preferred to associate with people who loved Jehovah. “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the middle of the congregation I shall praise you,” he wrote. (Psalm 22:22) We will be safeguarded if we imitate David’s example, seeking friendship that can build us up spiritually.
Another perilous course is that of getting emotionally entangled with a person of the opposite sex when one is not free to marry. The danger might arise when one is drawn to someone who is attractive, whose conversation is stimulating, and who even has the same outlook and sense of humor. One might enjoy his or her company, reasoning, ‘I know how far to go. We are just friends.’ Nevertheless, feelings once aroused are not easy to control.
Mary, a young married sister, enjoyed Michael’s company. He was a nice brother but found it hard to make friends. They had many things in common, and they found they could joke together. Mary was flattered to think that a single brother wanted to confide in her. Before long, what seemed an innocent friendship became a deep emotional attachment. They spent more and more time together and eventually committed immorality. “I should have realized the danger at the beginning,” Mary sighs. “Once the friendship blossomed, it became like quicksand sucking us in ever deeper.”
We must never forget the Bible’s warning: “The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Our treacherous heart, like the tide that drives the sailboat against the rocks, can drive us into a disastrous emotional relationship. The solution? If you are not free to marry, deliberately work to keep your distance emotionally from someone you find attractive.—Proverbs 10:23.
Breaking Free and Keeping Free From Danger
What if we already find ourselves in spiritual danger? Sailors, when being driven toward a rocky shore by wind and tide, desperately work their ships seaward, or claw off, until they reach safer waters. Similarly, we must struggle to free ourselves. By heeding Scriptural counsel, praying earnestly for Jehovah’s help, and seeking assistance from mature Christian brothers, we can get back on a safe course. We will be blessed once more with peace of mind and heart.—1 Thessalonians 5:17.
Whatever our circumstances, we are wise to keep clear of the “things belonging to the world.” (Galatians 4:3) In contrast with Lot, Abraham chose to live apart from the worldly Canaanites, even though it meant dwelling in tents for many years. Perhaps he lacked some material comforts, but his simple life-style protected him spiritually. Rather than suffer a shipwreck of his faith, he became “the father of all those having faith.”—Romans 4:11.
Surrounded as we are by a self-indulgent world whose “spirit” is ever stronger, we need to follow Abraham’s example. (Ephesians 2:2) If we accept Jehovah’s guidance in all matters, we will be blessed by experiencing firsthand his loving protection. We will feel as David did: “My soul he refreshes. He leads me in the tracks of righteousness for his name’s sake. Surely goodness and loving-kindness themselves will pursue me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of Jehovah to the length of days.” No doubt about it, moving along “the tracks of righteousness,” rather than veering toward the paths of danger, will bring eternal blessings.—Psalm 23:3, 6.

Gehenna

Gehenna

GEHENNA, or the Valley of Hinnom, is mentioned twelve times in the
Christian Greek Scriptures. In the days of Jesus Christ on earth it was a fiery place and, being a valley outside the walls of Jerusalem, it was on earth. It became a symbol of the worst punishment that could befall a person. For instance, in Matthew 5:22, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: “Everyone who continues wrathful with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice; but whoever addresses his brother with an unspeakable word of contempt [Raca] will be accountable to the Supreme Court; whereas whoever says, ‘You despicable fool!’ will be liable to the fiery Gehenna.” Thus Jesus grades the “fiery Gehenna” as third and worst. Why? Because the one who called another a despicable fool and who was sentenced to the fiery Gehenna is put to death and not given a burial. His corpse is burned up in the fires of Gehenna and the ashes are never collected for preserving in an urn. So he was pictured as not going to Ha´des.
2 A few verses later on in the same Sermon on the Mount Jesus shows that the sinner’s corpse is thrown into Gehenna as a crematory. In Matthew 5:29, 30 Jesus says:
3 “If, now, that right eye of yours is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial to you for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to be pitched into Gehenna. Also, if your right hand is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you [not, torment it]. For it is more beneficial for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to land in Gehenna.”
4 From this language we see that Jesus used in a symbolical manner the ancient Gehenna that was located outside the walls of Jerusalem. Jesus did not mean that his followers should pluck out a literal eye or chop off a literal right hand. Rather, Jesus was talking about something precious that causes us to sin with the right eye or the right hand. Accordingly, then, as the eye and right hand were spoken of symbolically, Gehenna must also have been spoken of in a symbolical way, not literally.
5 Notice how Jesus contrasts one’s being thrown into Gehenna with one’s entering into life. This indicates that the symbolical Gehenna is a place of no life at all. In Matthew 18:8, 9 Jesus said: “If, then, your hand or your foot is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you; it is finer for you to enter into life maimed or lame than to be thrown with two hands or two feet into the everlasting fire. Also, if your eye is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you [not, torment it]; it is finer for you to enter one-eyed into life than to be thrown with two eyes into the fiery Gehenna.” In this “fiery Gehenna” is where the “everlasting fire” burns, symbolically speaking.
6 Jesus reminds us that in the Gehenna outside Jerusalem there were also worms or maggots, not, of course, in the fire, but on decaying organic matter near the fire. These are, of course, not earthworms such as crawl through the ground and feed on human bodies buried in graves. They are like the worms from which King Herod Agrippa I died, according to these words of Acts 12:23: “Instantly the angel of Jehovah struck him, because he did not give the glory to God; and he became eaten up with worms and expired.” Using this same Greek word (skólex), Jesus said:
7 “If ever your hand makes you stumble, cut it off; it is finer for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go off into Gehenna, into the fire that cannot be put out. And if your foot makes you stumble, cut it off; it is finer for you to enter into life lame than with two feet to be pitched into Gehenna. And if your eye makes you stumble, throw it away; it is finer for you to enter one-eyed into the kingdom of God than with two eyes to be pitched into Gehenna, where their maggot [skólex] does not die and the fire is not put out.”—Mark 9:43-48; Isa. 66:24.
8 So, if the dead body pitched into the Gehenna outside Jerusalem did not land in the fire mingled with sulphur, it would be consumed anyhow. How? By the maggots from the eggs that flies would lay in the decaying corpse. Gehenna was thus a place of total destruction or consumption, into which the dead bodies of those persons who were considered unworthy of being buried in a marked grave or memorial tomb were pitched. Concerning Gehenna, page 764 of Volume 3 of the Cyclopædia by M’Clintock and Strong says:
In consequence of these abominations the valley was polluted by Josiah (2 Kings 23:10); subsequently to which it became the common lay-stall of the city, where the dead bodies of criminals, and the carcasses of animals, and every other kind of filth was cast, and, according to late and somewhat questionable authorities, the combustible portion consumed with fire. From the depth and narrowness of the gorge, and, perhaps, its ever-burning fires, as well as from its being the receptacle of all sorts of putrefying matter, and all that defiled the holy city, it became in later times the image of the place of everlasting punishment, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched;” in which the Talmudists placed the mouth of Hell: “There are two palm-trees in the valley of Hinnom, between which a smoke ariseth . . . and this is the door of Gehenna.”
WHAT IT SYMBOLIZES
9 Regardless of what any reference authorities have to say regarding Gehenna, what did Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have to say about it? What did it mean for the person sentenced by God the Almighty to the symbolical Gehenna? Jesus plainly answered when he sent his twelve apostles out on missionary work and said: “And do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matt. 10:28) On another occasion Jesus said to a crowd of thousands: “Moreover, I say to you, my friends, Do not fear those who kill the body and after this are not able to do anything more. But I will indicate to you whom to fear: Fear him who after killing has authority to throw into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear this One.” (Luke 12:4, 5) When Almighty God destroys both body and soul of a human creature, what is left? There is complete destruction; and, because this destruction is everlasting, such destruction of human body and soul is an everlasting punishment. There is no resurrection out of such destruction.
10 Jesus thus used Gehenna as a symbol of complete, endless destruction, just as fire is destructive. Because the destruction is everlasting, the fire of the symbolic Gehenna is said to be “everlasting fire.” This means that such a Gehenna will always exist; it will never give up those in it; it will never be emptied, never be wiped out as Adamic death and Ha´des will be. (Rev. 20:13) Figuratively speaking, the symbolic Gehenna always burns and will always be available for executing any who rebel against God throughout everlasting time, all eternity.
11 Since the symbolic Gehenna is the place of everlasting destruction, Jesus correctly set a person’s entering into Gehenna as the opposite of one’s entering into life. Hence if anyone enters into the symbolic Gehenna, in which God destroys both body and soul, how can anyone have a resurrection to an opportunity for everlasting life in God’s heavenly kingdom or in Paradise restored here on earth under God’s kingdom? There is no resurrection from the symbolic Gehenna.
12 Because fiery Gehenna is destructive, the disciple James ties it in with the uncontrolled human tongue, in these words: “Well, [like the little fire setting aflame a great woodland] the tongue is a fire. The tongue is constituted a world of unrighteousness among our members, for it spots up all the body and sets the wheel of natural life aflame and it is set aflame by Gehenna.”—Jas. 3:6.
13 Hence, all the world of mankind, not one particular person, has to watch the tongue, for an the world is born in unrighteousness. The tongue, by its propaganda that spreads from tongue to tongue, can inflame a whole world of people and incite them to unrighteousness. It spots up not just the mouth in which it wags, but all the human body; so that, if one has a beautiful body but an uncontrolled tongue, it takes away from the fine impression made by the attractive body. This is especially so before God, because, as Jesus tells us, by our words we shall be declared righteous and by our words we shall be condemned. (Matt. 12:37) Like Gehenna, the tongue can cause destruction that is beyond repair.
14 One’s whole round of living can be affected by fiery words that defile the speaker’s body, inflaming it to destructive action. James 3:8 well says: “But the tongue, not one of mankind can get it tamed. An unruly injurious thing, it is full of death-dealing poison.” The tongue, when “set aflame by Gehenna,” can cause the user to be sentenced by God to go to the symbolic Gehenna, as it denotes a bad heart condition.—See Psalm 5:9; Romans 3:13.
THE “LAND OF NO RETURN”
15 In the last book of the Bible, A Revelation to John, the word “Gehenna” does not occur. However, what Gehenna stands for is there symbolized by “the fiery lake that burns with sulphur,” or, “the lake of fire and sulphur, “the lake of fire,” “the lake that burns with fire and sulphur.” (Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8) We know what the effect of fire mingled with sulphur is upon combustible things. In the days of Abraham and his nephew Lot, as Genesis 19:24 tells us, “then Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah.” How this affected Sodom and Gomorrah Jesus tells us, saying: “On the day that Lot came out of Sodom it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed them all.”—Luke 17:29.
16 Moreover, Sodom was close to the Dead Sea or Sea of Salt. This is a big inland lake in which nothing alive exists; which fact adds to the thought of the complete deadness caused by the literal fire and sulphur that rained down upon the cities of that district. Thus, too, as in Revelation, we have a deadly lake associated with fire and sulphur (brimstone). The people upon whom the fire and sulphur rained may have been tormented for the time that they continued conscious, but the final effect of the fire and sulphur together was to destroy them. This destruction preceded by torment is the thought conveyed in Revelation 14:10, 11, and also in Psalm 11:5, 6, where fire and sulphur are mentioned together, evidently in a symbolic sense.
17 Among the destructive forces that God will pour down upon the army of Gog of the land of Magog when it attacks Jehovah’s restored people, “fire and sulphur” are included, in Ezekiel 38:22. While these elements may torment and agonize the army of Gog for a while, they at last destroy the enemy army, killing them off. That this is the case is shown in the next chapter, in Ezekiel 39:11-20, which describes how the dead bodies of the army of Gog of Magog are disposed of down to the very last bone.
18 From all the foregoing it is unmistakably evident that Ha´des or Sheol is different from Gehenna and the “lake that burns with fire and sulphur.” Otherwise, how could Revelation 20:14 state: “Death and Ha´des were hurled into the lake of fire”? This verse also shows the meaning of the “lake of fire,” saying: “This means the second death, the lake of fire.”
19 Thus the death that spread to all men by birth from Adam will be put to death in the “second death.” Death will be destroyed in the “second death” and will not be tormented there forever. Neither will Ha´des be forever tormented in the “second death,” but it will be destroyed forever in this symbolic “lake of fire.” This “lake of fire” or “second death” never delivers up “death and Ha´des” that are hurled into it. Hence Gehenna or the lake that burns with fire and sulphur is a Bible picture of eternal or absolute destruction from which there is no resurrection. That is why resurrected persons who have been given up by inherited death and by Ha´des can later be “hurled into the lake of fire” and undergo the “second death,” because they do not get their names written on the scroll of life.—Rev. 20:15.
20 According to Revelation 19:20, the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are to be “hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur” during the coming “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” This occurs just before the Devil, Satan, and his demons are bound and cast into the abyss for the thousand years of Christ’s reign. At the end of the thousand years the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are still in that symbolic “lake of fire and sulphur” and are not released from it even when Satan and his demons are released from the abyss to try to mislead mankind. The symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are never released from that place of destruction, “the second death,” but they are still there when they are joined by all those who are later on hurled into the “lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:10, 15) Thus in the coming “war of the great day” at Armageddon the symbolic “wild beast” and the “false prophet” are to be destroyed for all time, with no hope of resurrection ever.
21 At the end of the thousand years of Christ’s successful rule over redeemed mankind, Satan and his demons will be released from the abyss. Thus, in effect, that abyss will cease to exist, being emptied of them. During their little time of freedom they try to mislead into destruction as many of the earthly subjects of God’s kingdom as they can. After that they are hurled into the “second death,” where the “wild beast” and the “false prophet” have been all this time. (Rev. 20:1-3, 7-10) In this way it is that Jehovah God works out his glorious purpose through his self-sacrificing Son Jesus Christ, “that through his death he might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil.” (Heb. 2:14) This punishment of “everlasting destruction” is what is symbolized by the “everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels,” to which also the cursed goatish people of the earth will be sent at Armageddon, according to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-33, 41, 46.
UNDESERVING OF RESURRECTION
22 Nineteen centuries ago, in his days as a man on earth, Jesus Christ warned the Jews of that generation of the danger of their going into everlasting destruction symbolized by Gehenna. He told the hypocritical religious leaders of the Jews that they made the Gentile people whom they proselytized a “subject for Gehenna twice as much so as yourselves.” He called the hypocritical Jewish scribes and Pharisees serpents and offspring of vipers, thus identifying them as children of Satan the Devil the “original Serpent.” Then he asked how they could “flee from the judgment of Gehenna” when they willfully kept on opposing God’s kingdom and the preachers of that kingdom. (Matt. 23:13-15, 29-36) They kept on in the lying, murderous deeds of their “father the Devil.” (John 8:44) And just before they killed Stephen, “a man full of faith and holy spirit,” he said to the Jewish judges in the courtroom:
23 “Obstinate men and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you are always resisting the holy spirit; as your forefathers did, so you do. Which one of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? Yes, they killed those who made announcement in advance concerning the coming of the righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, you who received the Law as transmitted by angels but have not kept it.”—Acts 6:5; 7:51-60.
24 Any of such Jewish religious leaders as did not repent of this course of resisting the holy spirit and of opposing God’s Messianic kingdom and of persecuting the Kingdom preachers did not “flee from the judgment of Gehenna.” At their death, whenever this occurred, they went into Gehenna. For this reason they will have no resurrection on earth under God’s kingdom. They may have been honored with solemn funeral rites but they did not go to Ha´des or Sheol. From God they suffered the “judgment of Gehenna.” They were “blind guides,” and the religiously blinded Jews and proselytes who followed these hypocritical blind guides in such a course ended up with them in Gehenna. Both guides and guided ones “will fall into the pit,” said Jesus in Matthew 15:12-14. They go into “second death,” and Christ’s sacrifice does not procure for them a resurrection from the dead. He did not die for those who go to Gehenna.—Matt. 23:16, 17, 19, 24, 26.
25 What about that generation of Jews as a whole, scattered throughout the then known inhabited earth, in that first century of our Common Era? Because of not becoming Christians with a heavenly hope, did they all come under a Jewish community responsibility that doomed them to Gehenna at death, making them all undeserving of a resurrection? To help us to the right answer, Jesus made a comparison of that Jewish generation with others and referred to the prophet Jonah and the queen of Sheba, saying:
26 “A wicked and adulterous generation keeps on seeking for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Men of Nineveh will rise up [anastesontai] in the judgment [krisis] with this generation and will condemn it; because they repented at what Jonah preached, but, look! something more than Jonah is here. The queen of the south will be raised up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but, look! something more than Solomon is here.”—Matt. 12:39-42; Luke 11:29-32.
27 For the “men of Nineveh” to rise up or come forward in the judgment as witnesses it will be necessary for them to have a resurrection from the dead. Nineveh was the royal capital of ancient Assyria. We remember that Ezekiel 32:21, 22 reveals to us that it is in Sheol or Ha´des “where Assyria and all her congregation are. His burial places are round about him.” Inasmuch as Ha´des or Sheol will give up all the dead people in it on the day of judgment (Rev. 20:11-15), we can appreciate that this will mean a resurrection of the dead Ninevites from their burial places on earth during the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ.
28 Examining the language of Jesus, we note that he said that the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment “with this generation,” not against this generation. This indicates that not all the Jews of that generation in the days of Jesus and his apostles were sentenced with the “judgment of Gehenna” at their death. Under God’s mercy they went to Ha´des or Sheol, despite the fact that they did not die Christian converts. They will be resurrected the same as the Assyrians and Ninevites will be, to stand alongside one another in the judgment before the “great white throne.” Then by their mere conduct long ago in Jonah’s day those Ninevites of the eighth century before our Common Era will condemn those Jews of Jesus’ day. Why? Because the Assyrian Ninevites repented at the preaching by Jehovah’s prophet Jonah, although they did not become Jewish proselytes, whereas the Jews did not repent at the preaching of Jesus Christ, who was far greater and more important than Jonah.
29 The Ninevites will thus condemn the Jews of that generation for their unbelief and hardheartedness, but they will not sentence such Jews to Gehenna. Only the heavenly Judge, Jehovah God, and his Deputy Jesus Christ, can do that. By what the Jews of that condemned generation do on earth during the remaining years of the millennial reign of Christ, they will prove one of two things. What? Whether they deserve to be sentenced to Gehenna or the “lake of fire,” “the second death,” or deserve to have their names entered on the “scroll of life.” They will thus have to prove whether they came forth from Ha´des or Sheol to a resurrection of life or to a resurrection of adverse judgment.—John 5:28, 29.
30 Similar condemnation of those Jews of Jesus’ day will come from another quarter besides that of the men of Assyrian Nineveh, namely, from the “queen of the south.” According to 1 Kings 10:1-10 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-9, she was the queen of Sheba. Her country, Sheba or the land of the Sabaeans, lay over a thousand miles to the south of Jerusalem, in southwest Arabia, probably in the eastern area of what is today known as Yemen. Her land or people is not named in Ezekiel, chapters 31 and 32, among those nations whose dead are declared to be in Sheol or Ha´des, but her land was in that general land area. This queen of the south or of Sheba will “be raised up in the judgment with [not, against] this generation.” This will require a resurrection of her, and it is not reasonable to think that she will be the only one of her people to rise up in that judgment before the “great white throne” during the thousand years of Christ’s reign. Like those others whom Ezekiel named, the queen of the south and her people are in Sheol or Ha´des and will therefore have a resurrection.
31 Among her resurrected people the queen in particular will condemn the Jewish generation of Jesus’ day, by her conduct a thousand years before Jesus’ day. She came all that distance by the transportation of that time to hear the wisdom of King Solomon and to behold his works at Jerusalem; and as a result she acknowledged the God of King Solomon. But Jesus Christ was far greater and more important than King Solomon; and yet the Jewish generation of Jesus’ day, for the most part, would not listen to his heavenly wisdom. So, on the judgment day during Christ’s reign, the contrast between them and the queen of the south will be something additional to humiliate them. This ought to help them to be obedient to the millennial kingdom of the Greater Solomon.
32 The queen of Sheba will be favored with a resurrection from Sheol or Ha´des, but what about King Solomon whom she visited? His father David is mentioned in Hebrews 11:32 as being among the approved ancient witnesses of Jehovah, but Solomon, the wisest king of ancient times and the writer of three Bible books, is not mentioned there. Some time after the queen of Sheba visited him, he yielded to the influence of his hundreds of wives and concubines and fell away to the foolish worship of pagan idols. (1 Ki. 11:1-8; Neh. 13:25, 26; Rom. 1:25) However, both 1 Kings 11:43 and 2 Chronicles 9:31 say that “Solomon lay down with his forefathers” and was buried “in the city of David his father.” So, since Solomon lay down to sleep in death with his forefathers, including David, that puts him in Sheol or Ha´des, with the prospect of being brought forth therefrom under the kingdom of the Greater Solomon.—Compare Deuteronomy 31:16; 2 Samuel 7:12; 1 Kings 1:21; 2 Kings 20:21.
[Footnotes]
On page 18 of the Alphabetical Appendix to the New Testament of The Emphatic Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson we read:
“GEHENNA, the Greek word translated hell in the common version, occurs 12 times. It is the Grecian mode of spelling the Hebrew words which are translated, ‘The valley of Hinnom.’ This valley was also called Tophet, a detestation, an abomination. Into this place were cast all kinds of filth, with the carcasses of beasts, and the unburied bodies of criminals who had been executed. Continual fires were kept to consume these. . . . Gehenna, then, as occurring in the New Testament, symbolizes death and utter destruction, but in no place signifies a place of eternal torment.”
Under HINNOM the Cyclopædia by M’Clintock and Strong says:
“We learn from Josephus that the last terrible struggle between the Jews and Romans took place here (War, VI, 8, 5), and here, too, it appears the dead bodies were thrown out of the city after the siege (V, 12, 7). . . . Most commentators follow Buxtorf, Lightfoot, and others, in asserting that perpetual fires were kept up for the consumption of the bodies of criminals, carcasses of animals, and whatever else was combustible; but the combined authorities usually brought forward in support of this idea appear insufficient. . . . ”—Volume 4 (edition of 1891), page 266.
Since the elements making up the human body are over 90 percent water, it would require a fire with volcanic heat, a fire reaching a temperature of from 3000 to 5000 degrees Fahrenheit, to destroy it. Thus we can appreciate why sulphur (brimstone) was added to the fires burning in the Gehenna outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem in order to speed up and effect as far as possible the total destruction of the dead bodies pitched into it.
Dr. Wilton Krogman, professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has said that he has watched a body in a crematorium burn at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit for more than eight hours, burning under the best possible conditions as regards heat and combustion, everything being controlled; but at the end of that time he saw scarcely a bone that was not still present and altogether recognizable as a human bone. True, it was calcined, but it had not become an ash or powder. It was only at more than 3000 degrees Fahrenheit that he saw a bone turn liquid and run and become volatile.—See the article “The Baffling Burning Death,” by Allan W. Eckert, in the magazine entitled “True The Man’s Magazine,” as of May 1964, pages 33, 105-112.

GOMORRAH

GOMORRAH
(Go·mor´rah).
One of “the cities of the District” probably located near the southern end of the Dead Sea. (Ge 13:12) Sodom and Gomorrah were apparently the chief of these cities. Their ruins are believed by many scholars to be presently submerged under the waters of the Dead Sea, though some others recently have claimed that the ruins of the cities may be identified with sites along wadis to the E and SE of the Dead Sea. In Abraham’s time the region was described as “well-watered . . . like the garden of Jehovah.” (Ge 13:10; see DISTRICT OF THE JORDAN.) During the time that Lot, Abraham’s nephew, resided in this fertile District, King Birsha of Gomorrah along with the kings of four other cities of the District rebelled against the domination of Chedorlaomer of Elam and three other allied kings. They were attacked and fled, some of their soldiers falling into the numerous bitumen pits in the area. Sodom and Gomorrah were sacked by the Eastern kings, who took Lot captive.—Ge 14:1-12.
More than 14 years later, the outcry of complaint about the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah became so great that Jehovah sent angels to inspect the situation and then to destroy the cities by a rain of fire and sulfur.—Ge 18:20, 21; 19:24, 28.
The thoroughness of the destruction of these cities was afterward used as a symbol of complete and everlasting annihilation. (De 29:22, 23; Isa 1:9; 13:19; Jer 49:18) Jehovah figuratively expressed the depth of wickedness to which the rulers and people of Judah and Jerusalem had sunk when he addressed them through the prophet Isaiah: “Hear the word of Jehovah, you dictators of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.”—Isa 1:1, 10; Jer 23:14.
The apostle Peter said that by reducing Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, God condemned them, “setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come.” (2Pe 2:6) This mention by Peter and references by Jesus Christ and Jude prove that Jesus and his disciples acknowledged that these cities of the District had actually existed and that they accepted the Biblical account of them as true. Though the cities underwent “the judicial punishment of everlasting fire” (Jude 7), Jesus indicated that people of Sodom and Gomorrah would experience a resurrection to stand for judgment. He contrasted them with a city that rejected his disciples in their preaching of the Kingdom good news, saying: “It will be more endurable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on Judgment Day than for that city.”—Mt 10:7, 14, 15; see SODOM.

Judgment DayJust a Joke

Judgment Day—Just a Joke?
People in Noah’s day thought it was a joke. Citizens of Sodom in Lots day thought it was a joke. Jesus indicated that people today would think it a joke. Where do you stand?
MOST churchgoers make only a feeble attempt, if any, to explain the “judgment day.” They usually speak of it with a joke or some weird phrase such as “doomsday,” “the day the earth ends” or “the day when time will be no more.” Even the clergy seldom offer a more intelligent explanation. To them certain questions are a jigsaw puzzle that they cannot fit together to make a correct, comprehensive picture: What is the judgment day? When is it? Who does the judging? What is the result? Are we in a judgment day now?
The judgment day sounds like a joke to many people because they have been blinded by false religion. They have been taught that the literal earth will come to an end. Indeed, this is an absurd teaching. For God’s own Word confidently declares: “The earth abideth for ever.” So when the clergy teach that the earth will end, people cannot help laughing, because it is so unreasonable and so unscriptural.—Eccl. 1:4.
There is no doubt that a judgment day has been decreed by Almighty God. Says the Bible: “Jehovah is our judge.” “He has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness.” But just what is meant by the term “judgment day”? It refers to that time when the supreme court in heaven renders righteous judgment. Judgment, Scripturally used, means the determining of what is conformable to the law of God. To do this great work Jehovah God has appointed an associate Judge, one whom he raised up from the dead, namely, his own beloved Son, Christ Jesus. Concerning his appointment as Judge, Christ Jesus said: “The Father judges no one at all, but he has committed all the judging to the Son, . . . the judgment that I render is righteous, because I seek not my own will but the will of him that sent me.” Increased appreciation of the Son’s judging appointment can be gained from the words of the apostle Peter: “He ordered us to preach to the people and to give a thorough witness that this is the One decreed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”—Isa. 33:22, AS; Acts 17:31; John 5:22, 30; Acts 10:42, NW.
THE THOUSAND-YEAR JUDGMENT DAY
The day in which Christ Jesus judges “the living and the dead” cannot be a twenty-four-hour day. For the Scriptural rule is: “One day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” And so the day that Jehovah has set for Christ to exercise his judicial appointment is one that lasts for a thousand years. This Judge is also a King. So he is a King-Judge. His thousand-year reign begins after the universal war of Armageddon, a war destined to come upon this generation, a war in which Almighty God destroys this present system of things on the earth. It is the symbolic earth of Satan’s world, then, that undergoes destruction at Armageddon, not the literal earth. The symbolic heavens, Satan and his organization of demons, is also dissolved at Armageddon; for Jehovah uses his Son to abyss the Devil: “And he seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he hurled him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, that he might not mislead the nations any more until the thousand years were ended.”—2 Pet. 3:8; Rev. 20:2, 3, NW.
Though this whole present wicked system of things will feel the full fury of Jehovah’s “decree of destruction,” a great number of people, those who love righteousness and who have dedicated themselves to the true God, will survive Armageddon and be in line for the benefits of the thousand-year judgment day. During this judgment day Christ Jesus will resurrect the dead who are in the memory of God. Jesus told us not to be astonished by this fact: “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.”—Isa. 28:22, AS; John 5:28, NW.
When these millions of people come forth out of their tombs, how will they be judged? By their past record? No, they will be given a clean slate. They will be judged by their future works. If they were to be judged by their past works, they could be judged while in their graves. Then there would need to be only a “resurrection of life.” But Jesus, the Judge, has promised a “resurrection of judgment” and that those so resurrected will be judged by their future deeds on an earth free from the influence of the Devil. Says the prophecy: “And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Hades gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds.” Each one will be given the opportunity to prove by his deeds that he loves righteousness. Few are the nations today that offer justice for all, and even those that do cannot live up to their promise because of man’s imperfection. Then, too, the poor man has little hope for full justice; only the rich can afford to appeal to the highest courts. How unlike the present time the thousand-year judgment day will be! Then all will have an equal standing. There will be no prejudice against those who were formerly poor: “He will not judge by that which his eyes see, nor decide by that which his ears hear; but with justice will he judge the needy, and with fairness decide for the poor of the land.”—Rev. 20:13, NW; Isa. 11:3, 4, AT.
FINAL TEST APPLIED
What happens at the end of the thousand-year judgment day? Christ Jesus, having brought the human race back to perfection, turns the kingdom over to his Father that Jehovah may be all things to everyone: “Next, the accomplished end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed all government and all authority and power.” Then Jehovah God uses Jesus to release the Devil: “Now as soon as the thousand years have been ended, Satan will be let loose out of his prison.” Why is the Devil released from his thousand-year state of deathlike detention? Because a final test must be made to determine who is worthy of receiving from the hands of Jehovah God the right to live on this earth forever.—1 Cor. 15:24; Rev. 20:7, NW.
Do not think it strange that the Devil is released. We must remember that the perfect man Adam was tested by God. Jehovah used the “tree of the knowledge of good and bad.” But during the final test, after the thousand years have ended, the supreme Judge uses no tree but rather the Devil to apply a test on which he can base his judgment. Some of perfected mankind will allow themselves, like Adam in the garden of Eden, to be misled by the Devil. The result: these willfully wicked, deluded ones, symbolically called Gog and Magog, prepare to wage war against those who remain faithful to Jehovah. God does not allow things to get out of control, for when the Devil-led rebels make their all-out assault against the loyal inhabitants of the new world, Jehovah steps in: “Fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. And the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur.” This time God does not abyss the Devil but hurls him into the lake of fire, a symbol of the second death or state of everlasting annihilation. All the rebels who perish with the Devil suffer the same fate.—Gen. 2:17; Rev. 20:9, 10, NW.
JUDGMENT PERIODS UPON HUMAN SOCIETY
Since the thousand-year judgment day and the judgment period at the end of that day are still in the future, can one do as he pleases now and ignore the good news of God’s kingdom? The Bible answer is, No. If nations, communities, families and individuals were not to be held accountable for their actions, then there would be no vital purpose served by the world-wide preaching work that Christ Jesus foretold: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” (Matt. 24:14, NW) To ignore this message of God’s new world and the end of this system of things is a mistake, a deadly mistake. For even though the thousand-year judgment day has not yet begun, do not think that there has not been or is not now a judgment period upon human society.
How serious is a judgment period? Divine condemnation always results in everlasting destruction. This was true during the Edenic judgment day when God passed judgment upon Adam. Another judgment period fell upon human society in Noah’s day. God determined to exterminate earth’s inhabitants because of their wickedness. He sounded the warning through a preacher of righteousness, Noah. But to the wicked people Noah was just a fanatic. Many must have been the jokes based on Noah’s preaching and his building a boat! When we read the Bible account we can visualize the preflood people pointing with scorn and roaring with laughter at this man so engrossed in preaching and boatbuilding. But, as the Bible says, that judgment period was no joke; for God “did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people.” All those “ungodly people” who perished will never have a resurrection, because Jehovah’s judgments are final: “I, Jehovah, change not.”—2 Pet. 2:5, NW; Mal. 3:6, AS.
The judgment day for Sodom and Gomorrah was another destiny-making time. Jehovah’s angels appeared to Lot, informed him of God’s judgment to destroy the cities and warned him to flee for his life. Before fleeing, Lot was told to sound the warning to his relatives. This God-fearing man lost no time in dashing to his sons-in-law with the city-shaking news: “Lot went on out and began to speak to his sons-in-law who had taken his daughters, and he kept on saying: ‘Get up! Get out of this place, because Jehovah is destroying the city!’ But in the eyes of his sons-in-law he seemed like a man who was joking.”—Gen. 19:14, NW.
They thought Lot was joking! And yet cannot we hear the urgency in his voice as he kept on saying: “Get out of this place”? But his hard-laughing relatives thought it so incredible that the God of heaven would destroy their city that they did not even investigate Lot’s warning. So the sons-in-law abandoned themselves to their self-chosen destiny of everlasting destruction. For “Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah.” Scoffing laughter ceased forever in Sodom; its judgment day had been no joke.—Gen. 19:24, NW.
The fate of all the people who failed to flee Sodom was alike, whether it was men, women or children. They paid the penalty of everlasting destruction, because it was a judgment day. Sodom and Gomorrah, says the Bible writer Jude, “are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.”—Jude 7, NW.
JUDGMENT DAY SINCE 1918
What does all this mean? The apostle Peter answers: “By reducing the cities Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them, setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come.” So Sodom’s judgment day pictured the judgment day that would come upon the peoples of the nations in the “last days,” where we now are. Since 1918 the enthroned King Christ Jesus has been judging the peoples of the nations. Jesus does not have to be on the earth to do this, but he does it invisibly from heaven as he foretold: “When the Son of man arrives in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another.” Upon what does Jesus base his judgment? Upon peoples’ response to the preaching of the good news of the established kingdom by Jehovah’s witnesses. Jesus foretold that this world-wide witness work would be done during his second presence: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.”—2 Pet. 2:6; Matt. 25:31, 32; 24:14, NW.
“The accomplished end” means the culmination of this judgment period, the war of Armageddon. Then Jehovah enforces his judgment of condemnation by “the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings due punishment upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will pay the penalty of everlasting destruction.” So those who die at Armageddon will pay the same penalty as the people of Sodom did; that is, they will not have a “resurrection of judgment” during the 1,000-year judgment day, but they will stay dead forever.—2 Thess. 1:7-9, NW.
To survive Armageddon and to enter the 1,000-year judgment day, during which mankind will be brought back to perfection, will be an incomparable blessing. It is a blessing open to all, no matter what their past life, if they heed the warning message now and worship Jehovah in obedient service. Most people, though, will take the indifferent attitude, which places them in the goat class. The Master foretold this mental attitude. “Just as it occurred in the days of Noah,” and “just as it occurred in the days of Lot,” declared Jesus, “the same way it will be on that day when the Son of man is to be revealed.” The people in Noah’s day were too busy to listen to Noah; if they did they scoffed. In Lot’s time some of Sodom’s citizens thought that their judgment day was just a joke. They had a good laugh but it was cut short by their everlasting destruction. So Jesus tells us not to act in the same oblivious, noninvestigating manner. Peter does also: “In the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule.” What will be the object of their laughter? The preaching of the news that Christ has taken up his Kingdom power and is now judging the peoples of the nations. This, together with the urgent warning of Armageddon, the masses think farfetched, just a joke.—Luke 17:26, 28, 30; 2 Pet. 3:3, NW.
But Jehovah’s witnesses are not joking. They would not, year after year, day after day, preach unceasingly from house to house, in the people’s homes and on the public streets if their message were a joke. So earnestly serious are they that to sound the warning of Armageddon’s nearness, they spent, in 1954, a monumental 80,814,996 hours. Avail yourself of the opportunity to hear this most urgent of all messages thoroughly. Carefully investigate it by using your Bible. Your destiny is at stake. So remember Sodom’s laughing citizens and their fate. Remember Jesus’ warning comparison of that time with today. Benefit now by knowing that this present judgment day is for a certainty not a joke.

EDEN
FLOOD
SODOM AND GOMORRAH
SINCE 1918
1,000-YEAR JUDGMENT

Lesson of Infamous C

LESSONS FROM INFAMOUS CITIES

Lesson of Infamous Cities
THEY were thriving cities, each with its own king. Suddenly, in one day, they were destroyed by fire and never rebuilt. This happened about 3,900 years ago.
Nevertheless, one of these infamous twin cities had a name that to this day is preserved in a number of languages by a word that bespeaks depravity—Sodom. The other city was Gomorrah.
So complete was the destruction of these cities that not even a pile of ruins can be pointed to as marking their respective sites. The New Encyclopædia Britannica says about the two cities: “Probably now covered in the shallow waters south of al-Lisān, a peninsula near the southern end of the Dead Sea in Israel.” It may be noteworthy, therefore, that divers exploring this part of the sea reportedly found what appeared to be a wall. To understand more fully what happened to these cities of ill repute, we must go back to the time that they were flourishing.
Conditions in Sodom
One evening, two strangers entered Sodom. The prosperous men of the city saw them, but no native extended a welcome. Finally, Lot, a God-fearing man who had settled in the area, arrived. Catching sight of them, he insisted on their staying in his home for the night. Before Lot and his visitors were ready to retire, the house was surrounded by a mob. The depraved people of Sodom, from boy to old man, demanded that the visitors be turned over to them. Why? They wanted to rape them.
Yes, Sodom was a place where any visitor might be sexually assaulted. The inhabitants had no regard for the rights of others and were bent on satisfying their selfish desires and passions. Surrounding peoples were greatly distressed about the serious violations of human decency. This resulted in a general outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible states that the complaint was not overlooked by “the Judge of all the earth,” Jehovah God.—Gen. 18:20, 21, 25.
The presence of the two strangers in Sodom was not a mere coincidence. According to the Bible record, they were angels who had been sent there to warn Lot and his family to get out of the city before its destruction. Lot and his two daughters did escape, but his wife perished because of failing to heed angelic direction for a successful flight.—Gen. 19:1-26.
The Biblical account fits the available archaeological testimony. During the period in which the Scriptures place the residence of Lot in Sodom, the area was fertile, with “freshwater flowing into the Dead Sea in sufficient amounts to sustain agriculture.” (Encyclopædia Britannica) The Bible says: “All of it was a well-watered region before Jehovah brought Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin.”—Gen. 13:10.
Moreover, the Ammonites and Moabites, the descendants of Lot’s daughters, settled territory near the Dead Sea, and this, too, is confirmed by archaeological evidence. Hence, we are not dealing with a myth but with an event of history.
Lessons for Us
This history contains important lessons for us. About 2,000 years after the infamous cities ceased to exist, the Christian disciple Jude wrote: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, after they in the same manner as the foregoing ones had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.”—Jude 7.
News reports leave no question about the fact that ours is a time when the deeds of Sodom not only are increasing in alarming proportions but are gaining ever greater acceptance. This, too, can be a warning lesson for us. The people of Sodom were proud, well-off materially and felt that they were in no danger of a day of reckoning. They were callous, having no regard for the poor and afflicted. (Ezek. 16:49, 50) Does not this describe many today who lead a life of sexual debauchery?
Lot’s prospective sons-in-law treated the announcement regarding the imminent destruction of Sodom as a joke. (Gen. 19:14) But it was no joke when they themselves perished in the destructive fire.
The Most High simply will not tolerate wickedness to time indefinite. He has set a day of reckoning for all the nations. (Acts 17:31) This day of reckoning is drawing perilously close. As Lot and his daughters had to flee from Sodom, all who desire to escape the destruction coming upon this entire godless system must avail themselves of God’s arrangement for salvation or deliverance.—Luke 17:28-32.
This arrangement is outlined in the Scriptures and is open to all persons, regardless of their present moral standing, if they desire to bring their lives into harmony with Jehovah’s ways. Jehovah’s Witnesses in your area will be pleased to share this important information with you by means of free home Bible discussions.

SODOM

SODOM
(Sod´om).
A city situated along the SE boundary of Canaan. (Ge 10:19; 13:12) Often mentioned along with Gomorrah, Sodom seems to have been the most prominent of five cities, all of which were apparently located at the Low Plain of Siddim. (Ge 14:2, 3) Many scholars believe that the original sites of Sodom and the other “cities of the District” now lie submerged beneath the waters of the Dead Sea, though some others recently have claimed that the ruins of the cities may be identified with sites along wadis to the E and SE of the Dead Sea.—Ge 13:12; see SALT SEA.
When Abraham and Lot decided to move farther apart, to avoid disputes among their herdsmen, Lot went eastward into the well-watered District of the Jordan and pitched his tent near Sodom. There he found that “the men of Sodom were bad and were gross sinners against Jehovah,” much to Lot’s distress. (Ge 13:5-13; 2Pe 2:7, 8) Sometime later, after a 12-year subjection to Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, the inhabitants of Sodom and the other four cities rebelled. In the following year, Chedorlaomer and his allies defeated Bera, the king of Sodom, and his confederates. Besides seizing possessions and foodstuffs, the victors took Lot and others captive.—Ge 14:1-12.
Abraham’s forces overtook Chedorlaomer and recovered the captives and booty, including Lot and his household. The king of Sodom insisted that Abraham keep the recovered material goods, but Abraham refused, lest Bera should say, “It was I who made Abram rich.”—Ge 14:13-24.
Everlasting Destruction. Sodom, however, persisted in a course in defiance of Jehovah, becoming known for such immoral practices as homosexuality. “The cry of complaint about Sodom and Gomorrah,” Jehovah declared, “yes, it is loud, and their sin, yes, it is very heavy.” God therefore sent his angels to destroy Sodom, with the assurance to Abraham that if ten righteous persons could be found in the place, the whole city would be spared.—Ge 18:16, 20-33.
The city showed it deserved destruction, for a vile mob of residents of Sodom, including boys and old men, surrounded Lot’s house, attempting to rape his angelic guests. The next day, after Lot, along with his wife and two daughters, left the city, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by sulfur and fire. (Ge 19:1-29; Lu 17:28, 29) Thereafter Sodom and Gomorrah became a proverbial figure of utter destruction from God Almighty (De 29:23; Isa 1:9; 13:19; Jer 49:18; 50:40; La 4:6; Am 4:11; Zep 2:9; Ro 9:29) and of extreme wickedness.—De 32:32; Isa 1:10; 3:9; Jer 23:14; Eze 16:46-56; see GOMORRAH.
Jude mentions that “Sodom and Gomorrah . . . are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.” This would not conflict with Jesus’ statement about a Jewish city that would reject the good news: “It will be more endurable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on Judgment Day than for that city.” Sodom and Gomorrah were everlastingly destroyed as cities, but this would not preclude a resurrection for people of those cities.—Jude 7; Mt 10:15; compare Lu 11:32; 2Pe 2:6.
“In a Spiritual Sense.” Revelation 11:3, 8 says that the corpses of God’s “two witnesses” lay in the broad way of the great city ‘called in a spiritual sense Sodom and Egypt.’ Isaiah’s prophecy (1:8-10) likens Zion or Jerusalem to Sodom and calls her rulers “dictators of Sodom.” However, about 96 C.E. when John was given the Revelation vision of events to occur in the future, the typical city of Jerusalem had been destroyed long before, in 70 C.E. The reference therefore must be to a “great city” or organization, an antitypical Jerusalem, pictured by unfaithful Jerusalem of old.

Bible Book Number 1G

Bible Book Number 1—Genesis
Writer: Moses
Place Written: Wilderness
Writing Completed: 1513 B.C.E.
Time Covered: “In the beginning” to 1657 B.C.E.
IMAGINE picking up a book of only 50 short chapters and finding in the first page or two the only accurate account of the earliest history of man and a record showing the relationship of man to God, his Creator, as well as to the earth with its myriads of creatures! In those few pages, you gain, too, a deep insight into God’s purpose in putting man on earth. Reading a little farther, you discover why man dies and the reason for his present troubled condition, and you are enlightened regarding the real basis for faith and for hope, even regarding identifying God’s instrument for deliverance—the Seed of promise. The remarkable book that contains all these things is Genesis, the first of the 66 books of the Bible.
2 “Genesis” means “Origin; Birth,” the name being taken from the Greek Septuagint translation of the book. In the Hebrew manuscripts, the title is the opening word, Bere´·shith´, “in the beginning” (Greek, en ar·khei´). Genesis is the first book of the Pentateuch (an Anglicized Greek word meaning “five rolls” or “fivefold volume”). Evidently this was originally one book called the Torah (Law) or “the book of the law of Moses” but was later divided into the five rolls for easier handling.—Josh. 23:6; Ezra 6:18.
3 Jehovah God is the Author of the Bible, but he inspired Moses to write the book of Genesis. From where did Moses get the information he recorded in Genesis? Some could have been received directly by divine revelation and some, under the direction of holy spirit, through oral transmission. It is also possible that Moses possessed written documents preserved by his forefathers as precious, valuable records of the origins of mankind.
4 It was possibly in the wilderness of Sinai in 1513 B.C.E. that Moses, under inspiration, completed his writing. (2 Tim. 3:16; John 5:39, 46, 47) Where did Moses obtain the information for the last part of Genesis? Since his great-grandfather Levi was the half brother of Joseph, these details would be accurately known within his own family. Levi’s life may even have overlapped that of Moses’ father, Amram. Further, Jehovah’s spirit would again assure the correct recording of this portion of the Scriptures.—Ex. 6:16, 18, 20; Num. 26:59.
5 There is no question as to who wrote Genesis. “The book of the law of Moses” and similar references to the first five books of the Bible, of which Genesis is one, are to be found often from the time of Moses’ successor, Joshua, onward. In fact, there are some 200 references to Moses in 27 of the later Bible books. Moses’ writership has never been questioned by the Jews. The Christian Greek Scriptures make frequent mention of Moses as the writer of “the law,” the crowning testimony being that of Jesus Christ. Moses wrote at Jehovah’s direct command and under His inspiration.—Ex. 17:14; 34:27; Josh. 8:31; Dan. 9:13; Luke 24:27, 44.
6 Some skeptics have asked, But how were Moses and his predecessors able to write? Was not writing a later human development? Writing evidently had its start early in human history, perhaps before the Deluge of Noah’s day, which occurred in 2370 B.C.E. Is there any evidence of man’s early ability to write? While it is true that archaeologists have assigned dates earlier than 2370 B.C.E. to certain clay tablets that they have excavated, such dates are merely conjectural. However, it should be noted that the Bible clearly shows that the building of cities, the development of musical instruments, and the forging of metal tools had their start long before the Deluge. (Gen. 4:17, 21, 22) Reasonably, then, men would have had little difficulty in developing a method of writing.
7 In many other respects, Genesis has proved to be amazingly consistent with proved facts. It is only Genesis that gives a true and factual account of the Flood and its survivors, though accounts of a deluge and survival by humans (in many cases as a result of being preserved in a vessel) are found in the legends of many branches of the human family. The Genesis account also locates the beginnings of the dwellings of the different branches of mankind, stemming from the three sons of Noah—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Says Dr. Melvin G. Kyle, of Xenia Theological Seminary, Missouri, U.S.A.: “That from a central point, somewhere in Mesopotamia, the Hamitic branch of the race migrated to the south-west, the Japhetic branch to the north-west, and the Semitic branch ‘eastward’ toward the ‘land of Shinar’ is indisputable.”
8 The authenticity of Genesis as part of the divine record is shown also by its internal harmony, as well as by its complete agreement with the remainder of the inspired Scriptures. Its candor reflects a writer who feared Jehovah and loved truth and who unhesitatingly wrote of the sins of both the nation and those prominent in Israel. Above all, the unswerving accuracy with which its prophecies have come to fulfillment, as will be shown toward the end of this chapter, marks Genesis as an outstanding example of a writing inspired by Jehovah God.—Gen. 9:20-23; 37:18-35; Gal. 3:8, 16.
CONTENTS OF GENESIS
9 Creation of the heavens and the earth, and the preparation of the earth for human habitation (1:1–2:25). Reaching back evidently through billions of years of time, Genesis opens with impressive simplicity: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Significantly, this opening sentence identifies God as the Creator and his material creation as the heavens and the earth. In majestic, well-chosen words, the first chapter continues on to give a general account of the creative work relative to the earth. This is accomplished in six time periods called days, each beginning with an evening, when the creative work for that period is undefined, and ending in the brightness of a morning, as the glory of the creative work becomes clearly manifest. On successive “days” appear the light; the expanse of the atmosphere; dry land and vegetation; the luminaries to divide day and night; fish and fowl; and land animals and finally man. God here makes known his law governing kinds, the impassable barrier making it impossible for one kind to evolve into another. Having made man in His own image, God announces His threefold purpose for man on earth: to fill it with righteous offspring, to subdue it, and to have in subjection the animal creation. The seventh “day” is blessed and pronounced sacred by Jehovah, who now proceeds ‘to rest from all his work that he has made.’ The account next gives a close-up, or magnified view, of God’s creative work as regards man. It describes the garden of Eden and its location, states God’s law of the forbidden tree, relates Adam’s naming of the animals, and then gives the account of Jehovah’s arranging the first marriage by forming a wife from Adam’s own body and bringing her to Adam.
10 Sin and death enter the world; “seed” foretold as deliverer (3:1–5:5). The woman eats the forbidden fruit and persuades her husband to join her in rebellion, and so Eden becomes defiled through disobedience. God immediately points to the means by which his purpose will be accomplished: “And Jehovah God proceeded to say to the serpent [Satan, the invisible instigator of the rebellion]: ‘ . . . And I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.’” (3:14, 15) Man is expelled from the garden, to live in pain and sweatful toil among thorns and thistles. Finally, he must die and return to the ground from which he had been taken. Only his offspring may hope in the promised Seed.
11 The ravages of sin continue outside Eden. Cain, the first man-child born, becomes the murderer of his brother Abel, a faithful servant of Jehovah. Jehovah banishes Cain to the land of Fugitiveness, where he brings forth offspring later wiped out by the Deluge. Adam now has another son, Seth, who becomes father to Enosh; at this time men begin to call on the name of Jehovah in hypocrisy. Adam dies at 930 years of age.
12 Wicked men and angels ruin the earth; God brings the Deluge (5:6–11:9). The genealogy through Seth is here given. Outstanding among these descendants of Seth is Enoch, who sanctifies Jehovah’s name by “walking with the true God.” (5:22) The next man of notable faith is Enoch’s great-grandson Noah, born 1,056 years after Adam’s creation. During this time something occurs to increase the violence in the earth. Angels of God forsake their heavenly habitation to marry the good-looking daughters of men. This unauthorized cohabitation produces a hybrid race of giants known as the Nephilim (meaning “Fellers”), who make a name, not for God, but for themselves. Jehovah therefore announces to Noah that He is going to wipe out man and beast because of the continuing badness of mankind. Only Noah finds favor with Jehovah.
13 Noah becomes father to Shem, Ham, and Japheth. As violence and ruination continue in the earth, Jehovah reveals to Noah that He is about to sanctify His name by means of a great flood, and He commands Noah to build an ark of preservation, giving him detailed building plans. Noah promptly obeys and gathers his family of eight persons, together with beasts and birds; then, in the 600th year of his life (2370 B.C.E.), the Flood begins. The downpour continues for 40 days, until even the tall mountains are covered by as much as 15 cubits (c. 22 ft) of water. When, after one year, Noah is finally able to lead his family out of the ark, his first act is to offer a great sacrifice of thanksgiving to Jehovah.
14 Jehovah now blesses Noah and his family and commands them to fill the earth with their offspring. God’s decree gives permission to eat meat but demands abstinence from blood, which is the soul, or life, of the flesh, and requires the execution of a murderer. God’s covenant nevermore to bring a deluge upon the earth is confirmed by the appearance of the rainbow in the heavens. Later, Ham shows disrespect for Jehovah’s prophet Noah. Learning of this, Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan, but he adds a blessing showing that Shem will be specially favored and that Japheth also will be blessed. Noah dies at 950 years of age.
15 Noah’s three sons carry out God’s command to multiply, producing 70 families, the progenitors of the present human race. Nimrod, grandson of Ham, is not counted in, evidently because he becomes “a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” (10:9) He sets up a kingdom and starts to build cities. At this time all the earth has one language. Instead of scattering over the earth to populate and cultivate it, men decide to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that they can make a celebrated name for themselves. However, Jehovah thwarts their intention by confusing their language, and so scatters them. The city is called Babel (meaning “Confusion”).
16 God’s dealings with Abraham (11:10–25:26). The important line of descent from Shem to Terah’s son Abram is traced, supplying also the chronological links. Instead of seeking a name for himself, Abram exercises faith in God. He leaves the Chaldean city of Ur at God’s command and, at 75 years of age, crosses the Euphrates on his way to the land of Canaan, calling on the name of Jehovah. Because of his faith and obedience, he comes to be called “Jehovah’s friend [lover],” and God establishes his covenant with him. (Jas. 2:23; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8) God protects Abram and his wife during a brief stay in Egypt. Back in Canaan, Abram shows his generosity and peaceableness by allowing his nephew and fellow worshiper, Lot, to select the best part of the land. Later, he rescues Lot from four kings who have captured him. Then, returning from the fight, Abram meets Melchizedek, king of Salem, who as priest of God blesses Abram, and to whom Abram pays tithes.
17 God later appears to Abram, announcing that He is Abram’s shield and enlarging on the covenant promise by revealing that Abram’s seed will become as the stars of heaven for number. Abram is told that his seed will suffer affliction for 400 years but will be delivered by God, with judgment upon the afflicting nation. When Abram is 85 years old, Sarai his wife, still childless, gives him her Egyptian maidservant Hagar that he may have a child by her. Ishmael is born and is viewed as the possible heir. However, Jehovah purposes differently. When Abram is 99 years old, Jehovah changes his name to Abraham, changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, and promises that Sarah will bear a son. The covenant of circumcision is given to Abraham, and he immediately has his household circumcised.
18 God now announces to His friend Abraham His determination to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their heavy sin. Angels of Jehovah warn Lot and help him to flee from Sodom with his wife and two daughters. However, his wife, lingering to look at the things behind, becomes a pillar of salt. In order to procure offspring, Lot’s daughters get their father intoxicated with wine, and through intercourse with him, they bear two sons, who become the fathers of the nations of Moab and Ammon.
19 God protects Sarah from contamination by Abimelech of the Philistines. The promised heir, Isaac, is born when Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah about 90. Some five years after this, the 19-year-old Ishmael pokes fun at Isaac, the heir, resulting in the dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael, with God’s approval. Some years later, God tests Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac on one of the mountains of Moriah. Abraham’s great faith in Jehovah does not waver. He attempts to offer up his son and heir but is stopped by Jehovah, who provides a ram as a substitute sacrifice. Jehovah again confirms His promise to Abraham, saying that He will multiply Abraham’s seed like the stars of heaven and the grains of sand that are on the seashore. He shows that this seed will take possession of the gate of his enemies and that all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves by means of the Seed.
20 Sarah dies at the age of 127 and is buried in a field that Abraham buys from the sons of Heth. Abraham now sends his chief household servant to obtain a wife for Isaac from the country of his relatives. Jehovah guides the servant to the family of Nahor’s son Bethuel, and arrangements are made for Rebekah to return with him. Rebekah goes willingly, with her family’s blessing, and becomes the bride of Isaac. Abraham, on his part, takes another wife, Keturah, who bears him six sons. However, he gives these gifts and sends them away and makes Isaac his sole heir. Then, at the age of 175, Abraham dies.
21 As Jehovah had foretold, Isaac’s half brother Ishmael becomes the head of a great nation, founded upon his 12 chieftain-sons. For 20 years Rebekah remains barren, but Isaac keeps on entreating Jehovah, and she gives birth to twins, Esau and Jacob, of whom Jehovah had told her the older would serve the younger. Isaac is now 60 years old.
22 Jacob and his 12 sons (25:27–37:1). Esau becomes a lover of hunting. Failing to appreciate the covenant with Abraham, he returns from the hunt one day and sells his birthright to Jacob for a mere swallow of stew. He also marries two Hittite women (and later an Ishmaelite), who become a source of bitterness to his parents. With his mother’s assistance, Jacob disguises himself as Esau in order to obtain the firstborn’s blessing. Esau, who had not revealed to Isaac that he had sold the birthright, now plans to kill Jacob when he learns of what Jacob has done, so Rebekah advises that Jacob flee to Haran to her brother Laban. Before Jacob leaves, Isaac blesses him again and instructs him to take as a wife, not a pagan, but someone from his mother’s household. At Bethel, on his way to Haran, in a dream he sees Jehovah, who reassures him and confirms the covenant promise toward him.
23 At Haran, Jacob works for Laban, marrying his two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Though this polygamous marriage is brought on him by a trick of Laban, God blesses it by giving Jacob 12 sons and a daughter through the wives and their two maidservants, Zilpah and Bilhah. God sees to it that the flocks of Jacob increase greatly and then instructs him to return to the land of his forefathers. He is pursued by Laban, but they make a covenant at the place called Galeed and The Watchtower (Hebrew, ham·Mits·pah´). Resuming the journey, Jacob is reassured by angels and grapples at night with an angel, who finally blesses him and changes his name from Jacob to Israel. Jacob peacefully negotiates a meeting with Esau and travels on to Shechem. Here his daughter, Dinah, is violated by the Hivite chieftain’s son. Her brothers Simeon and Levi take revenge by slaughtering the men of Shechem. This displeases Jacob because it gives him, as a representative of Jehovah, a bad name in the land. God tells him to go to Bethel to make an altar there. On the trek out of Bethel, Rachel dies while bearing to Jacob his 12th son, Benjamin. Reuben violates Rachel’s maidservant, Bilhah, the mother of two of Jacob’s sons, and for this he forfeits the birthright. Soon afterward Isaac dies, at 180 years of age, and Esau and Jacob bury him.
24 Esau and his household move to the mountainous region of Seir, the accumulated wealth of Esau and Jacob being too great to permit their dwelling together any longer. The lists of Esau’s offspring as well as the sheiks and the kings of Edom are given. Jacob continues dwelling in Canaan.
25 To Egypt for the preservation of life (37:2–50:26). Because of Jehovah’s favor and some dreams that he causes Joseph to have, the older brothers come to hate Joseph. They scheme to kill him but instead sell him to some passing Ishmaelite merchants. Dipping Joseph’s striped garment in the blood of a goat, they present it to Jacob as evidence that the young lad of 17 has been killed by a wild beast. Joseph is taken to Egypt and sold to Potiphar, the chief of Pharaoh’s bodyguard.
26 Chapter 38 digresses momentarily to give the account of the birth of Perez to Tamar, who, by strategy, causes Judah her father-in-law to perform the marriage due toward her that should have been performed by his son. This account again underlines the extreme care with which the Scriptures record each development leading to the production of the Seed of promise. Judah’s son Perez becomes one of the ancestors of Jesus.—Luke 3:23, 33.
27 Meanwhile, Jehovah blesses Joseph in Egypt, and Joseph becomes great in Potiphar’s household. However, difficulty pursues him when he refuses to reproach God’s name by fornication with Potiphar’s wife, so he is falsely accused and thrown into prison. There he is used by Jehovah in interpreting the dreams of two fellow prisoners, Pharaoh’s cupbearer and his baker. Later, when Pharaoh has a dream that greatly worries him, Joseph’s ability is called to his attention, so that he is quickly brought to Pharaoh from his prison hole. Giving the credit to God, Joseph interprets the dream as forecasting seven years of plenty, to be followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh recognizes “the spirit of God” upon Joseph and appoints him prime minister to handle the situation. (Gen. 41:38) Now 30 years of age, Joseph administers wisely by storing up foodstuffs during the seven years of plenty. Then during the worldwide famine that follows, he sells the grain to the people of Egypt and of other nations who come to Egypt for food.
28 Eventually Jacob sends his ten older sons to Egypt for grain. Joseph recognizes them, but they do not recognize him. Holding Simeon as hostage, he demands that they bring their youngest brother back with them on the next trip for grain. When the nine sons return with Benjamin, Joseph reveals himself, expresses forgiveness toward the ten guilty ones, and instructs them to get Jacob and move to Egypt for their welfare during the famine. Accordingly, Jacob, with 66 of his offspring, moves down to Egypt. Pharaoh gives them the best of the land, the land of Goshen, in which to dwell.
29 As Jacob draws close to death, he blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, and then calls his own 12 sons together to tell them what will happen to them “in the final part of the days.” (49:1) He now gives in detail a series of prophecies, all of which have since come to remarkable fulfillment. Here he foretells that the scepter of rulership will remain in the tribe of Judah until the coming of Shiloh (meaning “He Whose It Is; He to Whom It Belongs”), the promised Seed. After thus blessing the heads of the 12 tribes and giving commands concerning his own future burial in the Land of Promise, Jacob dies at the age of 147 years. Joseph continues to care for his brothers and their households until his own death at 110 years of age, at which time he expresses his faith that God will again bring Israel into their land and requests that his bones too be taken to that Land of Promise.
WHY BENEFICIAL
30 As the beginning of the inspired Word of God, Genesis is of inestimable benefit in introducing the glorious purposes of Jehovah God. What a basis it provides for understanding the later Bible books! Within its broad scope, it describes the beginning and end of the righteous world in Eden, the development and disastrous flushing out of the first world of ungodly people, and the rise of the present evil world. Outstandingly, it sets the theme for the entire Bible, namely, the vindication of Jehovah through the Kingdom ruled by the promised “seed.” It shows why man dies. From Genesis 3:15 forward—and especially in the record of God’s dealings with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—it holds forth the hope of life in the new world under the Kingdom of the Seed. It is beneficial in pointing out the proper objective for all mankind—to be integrity keepers and sanctifiers of Jehovah’s name.—Rom. 5:12, 18; Heb. 11:3-22, 39, 40; 12:1; Matt. 22:31, 32.
31 The Christian Greek Scriptures make reference to every prominent event and person recorded in the book of Genesis. Moreover, as shown throughout the Scriptures, the prophecies recorded in Genesis have been unerringly fulfilled. One of these, the “four hundred years” of affliction on Abraham’s seed, commenced when Ishmael mocked Isaac in 1913 B.C.E. and ended with the deliverance from Egypt in 1513 B.C.E. (Gen. 15:13) Examples of other meaningful prophecies and their fulfillment are shown in the accompanying chart. Also of immense benefit in building faith and understanding are the divine principles first stated in Genesis. The prophets of old, as well as Jesus and his disciples, frequently referred to and applied passages from the book of Genesis. We will do well to follow their example, and a study of the accompanying chart should assist in this.
32 Genesis very clearly reveals God’s will and purpose concerning marriage, the proper relationship of husband and wife, and the principles of headship and family training. Jesus himself drew on this information, quoting both the first and second chapters of Genesis in his one statement: “Did you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’?” (Matt. 19:4, 5; Gen. 1:27; 2:24) The record in Genesis is essential in providing the genealogy of the human family and also in calculating the time that man has been on this earth.—Gen., chaps. 5, 7, 10, 11.
33 Also of real benefit to the student of the Scriptures is the study of patriarchal society that Genesis affords. Patriarchal society was the community form of family government that operated among God’s people from Noah’s day until the Law was given at Mount Sinai. Many of the details incorporated in the Law covenant were already being practiced in patriarchal society. Such principles as community merit (18:32), community responsibility (19:15), capital punishment as well as sanctity of blood and of life (9:4-6), and God’s hatred of the glorifying of men (11:4-8) have affected mankind throughout history. Many legal practices and terms throw light on later events, even down to the days of Jesus. Patriarchal law governing the custody of persons and property (Gen. 31:38, 39; 37:29-33; John 10:11, 15; 17:12; 18:9) and the manner of conveying property (Gen. 23:3-18), as well as the law governing the inheritance of one who received the right of the firstborn (48:22), must be known if we are to have the background needed to gain a clear understanding of the Bible. Other practices of patriarchal society incorporated in the Law were sacrifices, circumcision (given first to Abraham), the making of covenants, brother-in-law marriage (38:8, 11, 26), and the use of oaths to confirm a matter.—22:16; 24:3.
34 Genesis, the opening book of the Bible, provides many lessons in integrity, faith, faithfulness, obedience, respect, good manners, and courage. Here are a few examples: Enoch’s faith and courage in walking with God in the face of violent enemies; Noah’s righteousness, faultlessness, and implicit obedience; Abraham’s faith, his determination, and his endurance, his sense of responsibility as a family head and teacher of God’s commands to his children, his generosity, and his love; Sarah’s submissiveness to her husband-head and her industriousness; Jacob’s mildness of temper and his concern for the promise of God; Joseph’s obedience to his father, his moral uprightness, his courage, his good conduct in prison, his respect for superior authorities, his humility in giving glory to God, and his merciful forgiveness of his brothers; the consuming desire of all these men to sanctify Jehovah’s name. These exemplary traits stand out in the lives of those who walked with God during the long period of 2,369 years from the creation of Adam to the death of Joseph, as covered in the book of Genesis.
35 Truly, the account in Genesis is beneficial in building up faith, presenting as it does such magnificent examples of faith, that tested quality of faith that reaches out for the city of God’s building and creation, his Kingdom government that he long ago began to prepare through his Seed of promise, the leading sanctifier of Jehovah’s great name.—Heb. 11:8, 10, 16.