Bible Journaling - Genesis 48

Genesis 48 is a rather important chapter, even though it may seem odd and inconsequential at face value. The whole chapter is devoted to the fact that Jacob blesses Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.  Two things happen make this an important chapter to take note of. Joseph is effectively supplanted by his two sons. There will not be a tribe called Joseph among the twelve tribes of Israel. Instead, there will be Ephraim and Manasseh and ten more tribes, plus the Levites. And later the tribe of Simeon disappears altogether (as Jacob predicts in the next chapter), bringing the number back to twelve. It is rather interesting to take note of the composition of the tribes in the nation of Israel as you work your way through the Old Testament. The other thing that is worth taking note of, is the fact that Jacob bestows the blessing of the firstborn son, on the second born son. That is why the names Ephraim and Manasseh always appear in reverse order. In fact, Manasseh was the eldest and should have been mentioned first. These things were considered very important at that time in History and in this particular culture. I opt to depict these reversed blessings as two reversed coffee cups in today's Bible Journal entry. However, they are only half a cup each, as together these two, Ephraim and Manasseh, would form the tribe of Joseph.

Genesis 48 looks like this in the Inspire Praise Bible.

I coat the pages with Zellen Clear Gesso before I start. I have since been given two bottles of Clear Gesso to pretest, before marketing and manufacturing, which are much superior products, but I am not yet at liberty to disclose more on this topic, though I would advise you to keep your eyes peeled in future blogs, as I am very impressed with the results from one of these test samples.

When I start my journal entry, my pages look like this.

I draw two reversed coffee cups in pencil on the two pages of my Bible. The hearts indicate blessings, and the fact that the two brothers were adopted into Jacob's family. Coffee is considered a blessing by me, which made this rather fitting. I also opt to draw the cups incomplete, as these two brothers together form the whole tribe of Joseph. As mentioned before, the cups are mirror images of each other, to represent the fact that Jacob had chosen to bless the brothers in reversed order.

I will paint these pages with Derwent Inktense Blocks, using an Aqua Brush by Pentel.

I do not use a lot of colour on these pages and I also do not colour anything fully. I rather enjoy this more monochromatic and simple colour scheme for a change. The hearts are coloured bright red, which is in sharp contrast to the rest of the page. This helps to put the focus on the hearts.

I then mix some dark brown ink on a plastic palette.

I dip the bottom of my coffee mug in this ink.

I then use the mug as a stamp to stamp some coffee rings on the page.

Then I wet my brush with the same dark brown ink and splatter the ink all over my page in a fine mist.

This is what my layout looks like when I am done.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/mIjarDOO_kA

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

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