{"id":110278,"date":"2025-05-10T22:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T04:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=110278"},"modified":"2025-05-10T22:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T04:30:09","slug":"who-is-the-most-important-character-in-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/05\/who-is-the-most-important-character-in-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Who is the most important character in the Bible?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Exterior<\/a>
The N. Eldon Tanner Building at Brigham Young University, where today\u2019s conference was held<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although I can\u2019t honestly recommend the presentation that began at 1:35 PM this afternoon, I\u2019ll make this overall comment otherwise: \u00a0If you didn\u2019t come to the Tanner Building at BYU today and you didn\u2019t listen online, you missed some really interesting material. \u00a0Here is the program for today\u2019s second and concluding session \u2014 Saturday, 10 May 2025: Saturday Session 2 \u2014 of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s conference on \u201cAbraham and His Family:\u00a0In Scripture, History, and Tradition\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Keynote Session Chair: John W. Welch<\/a> (Scripture Central and BYU, retired) <\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8:30<\/td>\nWelcome and Opening Prayer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8:45<\/td>\nGary A. Rendsburg<\/a> (Rutgers University, Jewish Studies)\n

Echoes of the Temple and Jerusalem in the Abraham Story<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

9:45<\/td>\nBreak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Morning Session Chair: Jeffrey M. Bradshaw<\/a> (Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Senior Research Scientist) <\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10:00<\/td>\nJohn Gee<\/a> (BYU, Humanities)\n

The Redeemer and the Redeemed<\/em><\/a> (remote presentation)<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

10:35<\/td>\nJennifer C. Lane<\/a> (BYU\u2013Hawaii professor emerita, Religious Education)\n

\u1e24esed and the Redemption of Abraham<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

11:10<\/td>\nMatthew L. Bowen<\/a> (BYU\u2013Hawaii, Religious Education)\n

\u201cI Will Bless Thee and Make Thy Name Great\u201d: Sacralizing Names and Spaces as a Function of Etiology in the Abrahamic Narrative<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

11:45<\/td>\nLunch<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Afternoon Session Chair: Matthew L. Bowen<\/a> (BYU\u2013Hawaii, Religious Education)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1:00<\/td>\nNoel B. Reynolds<\/a> (BYU, retired)\n

\u201cAnd They Shall Write It\u201d: The Literacy and Scribalism of Abraham\u2019s Josephite Descendants<\/em><\/a>(remote presentation)<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

1:35<\/td>\nDaniel C. Peterson<\/a> (Interpreter Foundation, President and BYU, retired)\n

The Qur\u2019anic view of Abraham<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\nSamuel Zinner (discussant) <\/a>(Independent Scholar)\n

Esoteric Traditions on Abraham: Rabbinic and Kabbalistic Sources, the New Testament, and the Qur\u02be\u0101n<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

2:30<\/td>\nSpencer Kraus<\/a> (Scripture Central) and Allen Hansen<\/a> (Independent Scholar)\n

Abraham: Man of Perfect Faith<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

3:05<\/td>\nBreak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3:20<\/td>\nJeffrey M. Bradshaw<\/a> (Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Senior Research Scientist)\n

Abram Meets Melchizedek, with Joseph Smith at the Reader\u2019s Side<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

3:55<\/td>\nPanel Discussion and Audience Questions (Jeffrey M. Bradshaw<\/a>, Daniel C. Peterson<\/a>, Jennifer C. Lane<\/a>, Gary A. Rendsburg<\/a>, and John W. Welch<\/a>)\n

Personal Views on Abraham and His Family<\/em><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Valley of Dotan or Dothan in modern Israel (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gary Rendsburg told an amusing anecdote during our concluding panel discussion today. \u00a0It went roughly as follows:<\/p>\n

A professor \u2014 I can\u2019t recall who it was; the professor and the students were, I think, all Jewish \u2014 asked his class to name the most important figure in the Bible. \u00a0 \u00a0The answers were pretty much what you would expect. \u00a0Some suggested Abraham. \u00a0Some suggested Moses. \u00a0Had it been a class full of Christians, of course, Jesus would have been the choice as the most important biblical character.<\/p>\n

But the professor said that no, it was none of those. \u00a0Instead, he identified an unnamed man in Genesis 37, a chapter that tells part of the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob or Israel, and his brothers. \u00a0I\u2019ll give you the relevant verses, so that you can understand:<\/p>\n

12\u00a0<\/sup>And his brethren went to feed their father\u2019s flock in Shechem.<\/span><\/p>\n

13\u00a0<\/sup>And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.<\/span><\/p>\n

14\u00a0<\/sup>And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.<\/span><\/p>\n

15\u00a0<\/sup>And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?<\/span><\/p>\n

16\u00a0<\/sup>And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

17\u00a0<\/sup>And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As you will recall, Joseph\u2019s brothers were deeply envious of him because he was Daddy\u2019s favorite. \u00a0So, when he found them in Dothan (far away from their father, out in the middle of nowhere), they conspired to kill him. \u00a0The brothers threw Joseph into a pit. \u00a0But then \u201ca company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt,\u201d and the brothers decided to sell him into slavery, instead.<\/p>\n

Had the unnamed man not told Joseph that his brothers were in Dothan, Joseph would have returned to Jacob\/Israel and simply said \u201cSorry, but I couldn\u2019t find them.\u201d \u00a0They wouldn\u2019t have sold him to a caravan of Egypt-bound Ishmaelites or Midianites. \u00a0He wouldn\u2019t have become a servant in the house of Potiphar, or been imprisoned upon false charges, or interpreted the dreams of the butler and the baker, or attracted the attention of Pharaoh. \u00a0Later, when famine struck Palestine and his brothers came to Egypt seeking food, Joseph wouldn\u2019t have been there in a position of power within the royal court and, thus, able to help them. \u00a0He would not have invited them to settle in the land of Goshen (in the eastern portion of the Nile Delta) in Egypt. \u00a0Consequently, the Israelite captivity in Egypt would not have occurred. \u00a0And, if the Israelite captivity in Egypt had not occurred, the Lord would not have needed to liberate them through Moses. \u00a0There would then have been no Passover, and no Exodus from Egyptian bondage.<\/p>\n

But the story of Passover and the Exodus is central to Jewish identity, and \u2014 a Christian might add \u2014 Jesus\u2019s Last \u00a0Supper was a Passover seder<\/em> and he was crucified on the eve of the Passover holiday. \u00a0He atoned for our sins as a Passover sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Rashi (ca. AD 1040 \u2013 1105), a great medieval French rabbi who authored important commentaries on the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, considered the role played by the anonymous informant in Genesis 37:15-17 so vitally important that he speculated that the man might actually have been an angel. \u00a0Professor Rendsburg takes the story a bit differently: \u00a0The man who provided directions to Joseph was an ordinary mortal. \u00a0But he serves to illustrate the principle that nobody is insignificant in God\u2019s plan for the world, that everyone has a role to play.<\/p>\n

\"Samoan<\/a>
A sunset in Samoa, where there is lots of water. \u00a0Unfortunately, the water is overwhelmingly salty. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I admit that I feel some pangs of guilt about ruining a beautiful weekend \u2014 it\u2019s been beautiful here in Utah thus far, anyway \u2014 with accounts of the aggressive impositions of theism on innocent people who\u2019re only trying to mind their own business. \u00a0But, alas, the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122 is a demanding taskmaster. \u00a0So here are three links:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church of Jesus Christ Brings Clean Water to Samoa and Papua New Guinea Villages\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cChurch donations bless thousands throughout Guatemala:\u00a0\u2018Now we can learn more about technology and use it to study and grow,\u2019 student says\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Church collaborates to bring water to remote community in Bolivia:\u00a0A recent collaboration brought clean, safe water to young students\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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