Genesis has a series of rather mysterious meetings between key characters and... well, that's exactly the question.

Genesis 18 and 19

We start with the most complicated: Genesis 18 and 19 and Abraham's 'three visitors'. Stay with me here, and particularly notice the words used to describe who is speaking and acting...

The chapter is introduced with "the Lord appeared to Abraham". Abraham then "saw three men standing near him" and addresses the men as "my lord". They ask where Sarah is, then "one [of the men]" says that Sarah will have a son when he returns in a year's time. The Lord asks Abraham why Sarah laughed and then says, using exactly the same words as the man, "I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah will have a son."

The "men" set out for Sodom with Abraham. The Lord tells Abraham what he is thinking about Sodom. Next, "the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord" and Abraham pleads with the Lord for the city. At the end of the chapter "the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place."

Chapter 19 begins with "the two angels" arriving in Sodom, who the men of Sodom descirbe as "men". The angels tell him that "we are about to destroy this place", then Lot tells his relatives that "the Lord is about to destroy the city". The angels are descibed as "men" when they lead Lot's family out of Sodom and finally "the Lord" destroys the cities.

Mysterious, don't you agree? The implication seems to be that Abraham's three visitors are themselves the Lord and the two angels. It's fascinating to try to follow the agency in the descriptions.

Genesis 22

Next comes Genesis 22, where God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. The text uses the word "God" all the way up to the point when Abraham is holding the knife, then "the angel of the Lord" stops him. "The angel of the Lord" says to him "I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me", and then blesses him, beginning "By myself I have sworn, says the Lord".

This is certainly not as mysterious as Genesis 18 and 19 but it's still interesting to note how at first God speaks directly to Abraham but later it's the angel of Lord speaking for him.

Genesis 32

Finally there's Genesis 32, where Jacob wrestles the person who first renames him 'Israel'. The text introduces this person as a 'man', but Jacob afterwards says that he has 'seen God face-to-face'. The plot thickens further in Hosea, who says that Jacob 'struggled with an angel' (Hosea 12).

I'm not trying to make a point here, other than to notice the ambiguity in the language used and to wonder aloud what's going on. It made it hard to condense these chapters to tweet-length as I had to decide whether to preserve the different voices, or interpret them as the same character. I wonder if there's anything interesting going on in the Hebrew here. I shall have to talk about it with persons more learned than myself...

25 chapters in... halfway through Genesis... three-and-a-half weeks into the three-and-a-half years!

A few notes and reflections...

I'm really enjoying writing the summaries each morning (good job, hey!) November 2013 seems a long way away, but each day I’m very motivated by what I'm going to write tomorrow.

It’s been great interacting with all kinds of people via Twitter and the website. It's really encouraging to hear what people make of the project. Do feel free to add your comments to the posts and chapter summaries!

UCB are broadcasting recordings of a week's worth of summaries five times a day every day. I don't think they play at set times but the recordings are great so it's worth listening out for them.

And I've just noticed that Soul Survivor are starting a 'Bible in One Year' programme today. It's very exciting to see such a major initiative engaging with the Bible. (Although I have to admit I'm a little jealous that they'll be finished so soon!)

File this under ‘light-hearted’...

A few people have asked me what my ‘secret’ is for getting so much media coverage for Bible Summary.

The answer?  I sent an 80-word press release to my local newspaper, and that’s pretty much it!  I’m sure 999 times out of 1000 that wouldn’t lead to an interview on CNN. It just snowballed!

But with my 15 minutes surely almost over and the three-and-a-half years of the project still ahead, here are a few semi-serious reflections on what contributed to these very strange and exciting few days...

The official Bible Summary Recipe for Media Interest*

* greatly enhanced if taken with a pinch of salt

1. Find a subject that a lot of people can relate to: religion
2. Bring it together with something trendy: Twitter
3. Take on a marathon task: summarising the Bible one chapter per day
4. Make it even harder: 140 characters per chapter
5. Have a concrete measure of the scale of it: I’ll be going till November 2013
6. Send a press release when there’s not much else going on: in August
7. Await results: articles around the world, 12,000 followers

So there it is – I hope it works for you too!

A fully-serious final note

It’s amazing (truly!) that so many people have heard about Bible Summary, but I didn't set out to get that kind of publicity. The main motivation in starting the project was engaging more deeply with Scripture myself.

Now that Bible Summary has become popular my biggest hope is that others will be inspired to engage with the Bible too.

So join me reading Genesis 17...