Last time, we learned that there is a clear separation between the lines of Seth and Cain. At least the separation was clear until:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Genesis 6:1-2

When the Godly line of Seth intermingled with the ungodly line of Cain, which side influenced the other? The Godly did not influence the ungodly for good. The ungodly dragged the Godly down into sin. This happens even today whenever Christians become participants with, instead of witnesses to, the lost.

The majority of commentators disagree with me, but I believe that the “sons of God” in these Verses were men, not fallen angels. Angels do not procreate.

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.

Genesis 4:25-26

There is a clear distinction between men who called upon the Lord – and were known for doing so – and those who began to be “mighty” in their own eyes, and began to make light of their need to call upon the Lord. Lamech is a good example. Their was a “Seth-Lamech” and a “Cain-Lamech.” Seth’s Lamech called his son Noah, and believed in the promise of God that a redeemer would come and reverse the curse. But look at Cain’s Lamech:

And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

Genesis 4:23

He was the first bigamist, and probably the author and performer of the first poem or song. The “and” in Genesis 4:23 does not denote two separate killings. It is an example of Hebrew parallelism. A modern English example would be: “I went to the store, and I went with my shoes on.” That does not mean I went to the store twice. The “and” in Genesis 4:23 is the same kind of “and” that connects Genesis 1:1 and 1:2: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Emphasis added.) There has only been one world-wide flood (Noah’s) There was not a “flood of Lucifer” during a “gap” between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.

Lamech not only celebrated his killing with a little ditty, but he made a mockery of God’s mercy to Cain:

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Genesis 4:24

Several centuries later Jesus would make a mockery of Lamech, though, when He said that we are not to avenge seventy times seven; we are to forgive seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:21-22)

So, in Genesis 6 the sons of God mixed with the daughters of men, and the remnant of Godly descendants of Seth started becoming corrupted. The devil wins converts by forming relationships.

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5

In just a few generations man became completely deteriorated. (See Romans 1 and II Corinthians 10:5.)

And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Genesis 6:6

God does not repent from sin, because He can not sin, but He has feelings, including grief and the excitement of fellowship with His creatures.

And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Genesis 6:7-8

We do not praise Noah for being found righteous. We praise God for making Noah righteous.

These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Genesis 6:9

Noah was not perfectly sinless, but he was without blame in his complete devotion to God, in comparison with everyone else. Noah lived his life in the awareness of being in God’s presence.

And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Genesis 6:10-13

And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

II Peter 2:5

For 120 years Noah and his sons built and preached. They preached righteousness: Get right with God. And they preached truth. The devil’s way is to defile by forming relationships, but God’s way is to cleanse by preaching righteousness and truth

1. Noah built: He built the ark.
2. Noah believed: He believed the Word of God.
3. Noah brought: He brought his family into the Ark.

Jesus did the same with His redeemed family, and we are to do likewise:

1. We are to build His church.
2. We are to believe His Word.
3. We are to bring a spiritual family into the safety of the Body of Christ.

We can be sure that the flood of Noah’s time was indeed a world-wide flood.

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Genesis 6:17 (emphasis added)

That is God’s Word – not Noah’s or Moses’s viewpoint. It was God’s Word then – and it is His Word now.

And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

Genesis 7:21-23 (emphasis added)

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Genesis 7:11 (emphasis added)

This was more than just rain. It was an event of cataclysmic, geological changes – changes like the formation of the Grand Canyon. Possibly a water or vapor canopy fell from around the other – which would help to explain why men and animals lived so long prior to the flood. God really shook the whole earth. If not for God’s mercy, no one would be alive today to make up false “scientific” theories to refute it.

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

II Peter 3:3-10

Talk about a “big bang!” Men have a problem with a God who destroyed the earth, but Heaven has a problem with a God who would save one man and his family – knowing that his descendants would later mock and deny the event. Heaven solved this problem in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Filed in:

Junk Drawer

ABC news brightens my day:

Drinking lots of coffee and tea every day — even decaf — might keep diabetes away, new research shows.

I am happy to add Diabetes to the list of things I am being protected against.

Alzheimer’s (HuffPo / CBS)

Cancer – Full of Antioxidants (MSNBC)

However…. it seems that the giant pool of evidence, the internets, is divided as to whether it is good for heart health or not.

And of course, let us not forget who we have to thank for coffee:

¹¹And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. ¹²The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. (Gen 1.11-13)

We have read the first three chapters of Genesis, the book of beginnings. It is the beginning of the Torah, of the Hebrew Scriptures, of the Old Testament, of the Christian Bible, of faith and its adventure. Can we capture what these chapters are saying in sum?

Humanity

In the beginning (at the beginning of all these beginnings) is humanity.

The first narrative is simply not understandable without noting its climax in the creation of “male and female,” the unique responsibility given to them. Nor can it be understood without recognizing that it places worship at the center of the human potential to achieve success in fulfilling this responsibility. Called to live in sacred space and time (to be Dominus in and for all created things) human beings are gifted with Sabbath. This gift is reminder and re-creative energy for their task.

This narrative is far from being about the creation of the cosmos in six twenty-four hour periods; nor is it about the development of various life forms, nor galaxies and star systems. It is about human beings, what they are, and what they can become.

This is not to say that it is claiming humans as the center of creation, that it represents some sort of anthropocentric arrogance. It is simply saying that within creation humans have this particular role and function. A Scripture written by dolphins may have a different perspective. For now, this is the Scripture we have to deal with!

From this perspective, also, it is worth emphasizing that many of the differences, often cited as inconsistencies, in the second narrative fade away as being of profound significance. Here too we read of the centrality of the two human beings. Adam is the namer of creation, giving identity to all things; he is given unique responsibility in the garden (tilling) and together with Eve is deceived by the serpent.

What is the nature of this deception and what is its consequence?

The nature of the deception is to think that “being like God”, that is, fulfilling the Dominus function, can be done by methods other than YHWH’s. Their failing (nowhere in this narrative described as “sin” or a “Fall”) is not utterly to reject YHWH’s plan for their life, but rather to think that this plan excludes how it is to be fulfilled.

In both narratives the How lies near the center: in the first narrative through the positive gift of Sabbath, and in the second through the negative rejection of restrictions on human desire and ingenuity.

Thus, the second narrative speaks of consequence.

In a nutshell it is simply this: life is hard. Farming is tough and risky, as childbirth is painful and risky.

So each narrative asks a specific question:

The first: what is a human being? What makes a human truly human? Answer: living in sacred space and time.

The second: why is life so hard? Answer: we make it so when we think we are wiser than YHWH.

Thus, the entire biblical adventure, the scope of its drama has been sketched out.

What lies ahead?

More soon.

I don’t really want to say a whole lot about this chapter because I hope to review Frank Viola’s “From Eternity To Here” before too long and this is basically just a shortened version of that. I did discuss some of the themes in this chapter in my post Are You Genesis 1 or Genesis 3. That post will give you the essence of what Viola is talking about in this chapter. I really need to read the book about this (From Eternity To Here) because he sort of lost me on a few points that I’m sure he will clarify in the other book.

Viola still seems to be advocating for a kind of communalism that leaves me confused. I’m not sure where to draw the line between individualism and community because the kind of communalism that Viola advocates is the same kind that is used to keep people in the institutional church. I hope further reading will clarify for me how an “organic” church (using Viola’s terminology, not the way I use it) isn’t just a smaller institution with less structure. When I use the term “organic church”, I tend to use it as meaning that we are individuals who are part of a universal body (I’m sure Viola would call that individualism) and that we are a community in a larger sense then that we necessarily meet together. I’m basically saying that there is not a local church (just local expression), just a universal Church (it seems that Frank disagrees). I see this in the Judaism of the Old Testament as well. They saw themselves as one people, one family, but did not join (or form) smaller groups within that family. Although the practice of their faith would have been done locally (in their own homes, cities, etc) they never saw themselves as members of a local religious community under the family of Abraham (they may have seen themselves as members of their synagogue but I think this should be frowned upon rather than encouraged and has not Scriptural merit).

I can’t wait to read “From Eternity To Here”.

Consistent Hyper-Preterist Norman Voss writes:

 

“You are still throwing the whole science boogey man out there even when I have demonstrated biblical arguments alongside ancient literature to backup a historical Hebrew approach that demonstrates the symbolical understanding of Day not meaning literally 24hrs. This is exactly what we do in Covenant eschatology to demonstrate that the Parousia has already happened. We use scripture and we use other literature such as Josephus to help confirm our position.“

Jason Bradfield responds:

“When i use Clark, i use Clark to support the same exact beliefs and arguments that i believe. Clark’s views, at these specific points, are preserved as he intended them.

“You, however, are using quotes from Augustine to argue something Augustine wasn’t arguing.”

Norm Voss:

No Jason you are not serious because you are a professional straw-man builder.

That is youre forte and you will milk that dry cow all day long.

In Texas we call your approach as “all Hat and no cows”.

So Jason youre saying Augustine wasn’t arguing for a metaporical application of Genesis 1 in the quote I presented. You need to go back and read it again Jason as you are simply misrepresenting what I presented.

You see if you really don’t pay attention Jason you end up making errant statements like you just did concerning my usage of Augustine.

Jason Bradfield:

Norm, in TN we call your approach, “all chips from covenantal cows.”

Problem is, i have read Augustine.

Where did Augustine say that old covenant started in Genesis 1?

Norman Voss:

Jason I’ll let the readers decide for themselves whether Augustine is presenting a form of Covenant continuity from Gen 1.1 until Christ in the following statement of his. Since you obviously can’t discern that Augustine is presenting a covenant connection from the clear implications of his six ages of Genesis 1then we will bypass your lack of examination.Matthew 1:17 the sixth, from John the Baptist to the end of the world. Moreover, God made man after His own image on the sixth day, because in this sixth age is manifested the renewing of our mind through the gospel, after the image of Him who created us; Colossians 3:10 and the water is turned into wine, that we may taste of Christ, now manifested in the law and the prophets.

Readers notice that Augustine place the begining of the Law from Gen 1 starting with Adam. It’s a similar recognition that Paul presents about the reign of the covenant from Adam to Christ.

6. But observe what Himself says, The things which were written in the law, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.

AND WE KNOW THAT THE LAW EXTENDS FROM THE TIME OF WHICH WE HAVE RECORD, THAT IS, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD: IN THE BEGINNING GOD MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH. GENESIS 1:1 THENCE DOWN TO THE TIME IN WHICH WE ARE NOW LIVING ARE SIX AGES,

this being the sixth, as you have often heard and know. The first age is reckoned from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; and, as Matthew the evangelist duly follows and distinguishes, the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the carrying away into Babylon; the fifth, from the carrying away into Babylon to John the Baptist;

Here is the link to the Augustine quote. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701009.htm

Jason Bradfield:

The word “law” is not the same thing as the words “old covenant”.

I’m looking right at the quote and it does NOT say that the “old covenant extends from the time of which we have record, that is, from the beginning of the world…”

but, if you say so Norm…

Norman Voss:

Yes Jason I realize we have to spell it out for you. As I said this was for the benifit of those who you might have been confused with you gamemanship.
Hos 6:7 But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant:
Isa 43:27 Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.

I don’t know what covenant you want to apply to the Law that Augusitine was presenting but maybe these verses will help you.

I believe Paul makes it pretty clear that the Law, Death and Sin is tied to Adam from the beginning. Trying to disconnect the two is playing havoc with Paul’s understanding of the two Adam concept and would disrupt the idea of any continuity of the corporate Covenant body of Death.

Rom 5:12 because of this, even as through one man the sin did enter into the world, and through the sin the death; and thus to all men the death did pass through, for that all did sin;1Co 15:22 for even as in Adam all die, so also in the Christ all shall be made alive,

1Co 15:56 and the sting of the death is the sin, and the power of the sin the law;

Let’s be clear here though that there were different covenants under Adam’s covenant of sin and death as the Law was added to Adam’s transgression to increase the trespass of the covenant people. We need to keep in focus that Eve was the mother of the Living (Israel) which is the lineage of the covenant people. There were two Heavnes and Earths, the first beginning with Adam and the second through the Parousia of Christ. Two overriding main covenants of Adamic death and Christ Grace, it’s really pretty simple.

http://preterismdebate.ning.com/profiles/blogs/right-yom-jason?id=4171784%3ABlogPost%3A5781&page=-1#comments

The following is a laughable attempt by Hyper-Preterist Jason Bradfield to bat down a possible ‘covenantal’ reading of the Genetic creation account. While all Hyper-Preterists believe that the “heavens and earth” of 2 Peter 3 are mere ‘metaphors’ for the Mosaic economy, some staunchly oppose a metaphorical reading of Genesis 1.  Folks, who is being more consistent in this dialogue?  Joe Vincent or Jay Bradfield?? 

 Joseph Vincent writes:

 

“I’m still not sure where I stand on this, but I’m not so sure that it’s very important to fully know. The fact is, God created it all, and here we are. That is the theological point being made in the Genesis account. 2,000 years of history pass by in the course of just a few chapters in the book of Genesis…it’s hardly an attempt to give a scientific explanation of creation and beginning of the world.”"I was a literal 24 hr. guy for many years, and was a huge fan of “Answers in Genesis” with Ken Ham. I still like that ministry, and I have no axe to grind with that view, but are we supposed to believe that the “days” in Genesis were literal 24 hr. days, even before the sun and moon were in the sky? 24 hr. days are based on the earth’s rotation in relationship to the sun’s light. How could the “days” be referring to 24 hour days when the time in which the creation event took place didn’t include these celestial bodies? I am more in favor of the construction view, which believes in a literal creation by God, but does not believe that the “days” are a reference to literal time, but events in order. The same type of creation accounts are given in pseudo religions with same construction (7 days or steps of creation) and this was a known construction of the time the account would have been written. Furthermore, even if it is a literal reference to time, the “day” prior to the creation of the sun and moon could have been millions of years long since the physical reference to “days” would not have been in relation to those physical bodies.

Jason Bradfield Responds:

“Joe, you say you don’t have an axe to grind and that you’re not sure…then you say that Genesis 1 is “hardly an attempt to give a scientific explanation of creation and beginning of the world.”

Which is it? Looks like you have your mind made up. ( :

Also, i would never say that is not “very important to know.” It’s there for a reason. And i think God intends for us to get more than just “God created it all”.

Where does Ge 1 say that that the day is based on the earth’s rotation in relation to the sun?”

Joe Vincent responds:

“Jason,

What I’m saying is that I think either explanation is feasible, but I lean towards the “construction” side of the fence. You said: “Where does Ge 1 say that that the day is based on the earth’s rotation in relation to the sun?” My Response: Exactly! Where does it say that? That’s my whole point. It if doesn’t say that the “day” is based on the relationship to the earth and the sun, then why are so many Christians hell bent on proving that “day” is a 24 hr. period? How was a “day” a 24 hour period when the sun and moon weren’t even created yet? The sun and moon didn’t even begin to give their light until a few days into the process…so what was a “day” prior to a modern “day” in cosmological terms? All I’m saying is that the Hebrew construction of the creation account isn’t a scientific account (although it may be scientific in some ways), and it also wasn’t intended to give “all the answers” on the how or when or exact details of creation. If God wanted us to know the details, we would have been given them.”

Jason Bradfield replies:

“Joe, can you provide one reference where any of us said that Genesis 1 is written to explain “all the answers”? I never said that.

I could turn the question around: why are you guys so hell bent on insisting that we are attempting to provide “all the answers” from Genesis 1? Ward, Tim and Jeff, Norm….they have all accused us of the same thing, yet I don’t know of a single preterist, who affirms 24hr days, that has said that. Sam, in his Ge commentary at RCM, has said the exact opposite. We understand that Ge 1 was not meant to give us all the details. However, that doesn’t force me to then treat “evening and morning, first day” as some sort of vague, indefinite time period.

Also, if Moses did speak of “evening and morning, first day” apart from modern cosmological terms, then wouldn’t that imply that you need to rethink your modern cosmological terms? Did Moses not ever think of “day” in terms of an approx. 24 hour period? Sure he did. So why in the world would i think differently in Ge 1? What reasons do i have? The only one you have provided so far is that such an interpretation would not fit modern cosmological terms….but who said it had too? Thus, my question to you.”

El Bandido saith:

Did not the prophets ever speak in cosmological terms when Isaiah wrote:

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon  the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner” (Isaiah 51: 6).

Heheheheh…. 

Want to read Chapter 1 of the Bible?

I am starting a new series of posts that I have dubbed, quite simply, “The Bible Project”, inspired by something my mom is doing. My mom started posting chapters of the Bible, one at a time, on her own via her social network pages. She basically tries to post a new entry (which she types out on her own) every day.

In addition to being a nice way to slowly go through the Bible and learn it’s words by typing it out, she is also hoping that people may be more likely to read the words if they are posted one chapter at a time.

So I thought I’d start posting them here, to give this Bible Project a wider viewing audience and more exposure.

Below is entry #1, Genesis Chapter 1.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said,”Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.

And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day.

And God said,”Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening , and there was morning -the third day.

And God said,”Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning-the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning-the sixth day.

The sixth day of the creating process bring the narrative to a climax. but not its end nor its purpose.

Humans are created (male and female simultaneously) as the last, final, act of the Creator. They are separated from all other created things through the bestowal of a special purpose and responsibility: to have dominion, that is, to be dominus (Lord) in and for all creation.

To achieve this a helpful device has been set-up for them: Time. In day three’s work the planetary bodies are established for the purpose of giving light in some sense, but since day one’s sole and uniquely Word-driven creation of Light has already occurred, this light giving of the planetary bodies is secondary. Their real functions, we noted, is to be “for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” They establish the solar-lunar cycle which is our basis of Time –telling. It is a calendar.

The full implications and working out of this will become much clearer in following Old Testament narratives (setting up the great Festivals) but for now an immediate implication can be discerned.

• Human alone have calendars; they tell, keep, measure time.
• Human beings alone have the dominus responsibility.

Put these two together and we can understand that the Creator wants human beings to care for all Creation by constantly living in scared space and time. The concepts of “here” and “now” are not neutral; they are God’s arena for the working out of human purpose; to care for all Creation as and for God; to journey from image to likeness.

• Every place is sacred; as Hebrew would later adopt the word Ha-makom, the place, as a name for God.
• Every time is sacred; each moment measured in relation to other special moments, of which the most regularly recurring is the seventh day.

“God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all work.”

The word translated “and hallowed” is vayiqadeš, containing the tri-literal root q-d-š, which as a noun is rendered qadoš, usually translated “holy.” Beneath it lies the linguistic motion of “being separate from .. different … peculiar …. distinct”  ….  or in slang terms, weird. This being distinct or weird will become a major concern of God’s people in the generations ahead. We have noted that creation in this narrative is carried forward through a dynamic of separating. This, then, at the conclusion and as climax, is the most dramatic and significant of all acts of separating. An entire day is set aside to be distinct.

(In digression note that linguistically this corresponds to the New testament Greek hagios, which in the plural is hagioi, the word Paul uses in addressing his various epistles, “To the saints in such and such a place.” We could translate, “To God’s weirdoes in such and such a place.”)

Much more will be made of this Sabbath reality in later narratives (as any reader will know) but for now it must simply be noted that the seventh day becomes the grand punctuation mark of the week which in totality, for humans, is a summons to live in sacred space and time: to be God in and for the world.

In summary, two key points:

First, this being God in and for the world is not a being instead of God. God remains God. Indeed, this is what energizes the entire notion of accountability and responsibility. It is, of course, the biblical root of all notions of stewardship (made so much of in Jesus’ teaching on material possessions and what use we make of our lives, of which more in due course.) Nowhere do we get a hint that in creating humans God was declaring his distance, disregard, uninvolvement, or absence.

Second, read in its own terms and not imposing any later agenda on it, either from St. Paul, or Christian doctrine, or the current evolution-creation debate, this narrative does not in any way strike me as a description of how the world began. To note its omission of elements that we now know about through scientific advance (Why are there no dinosaurs mentioned?) is specious and misses the point. Read as suggested in these posts the narrrative is not answering that question at all. Its interest lies elsewhere.

So, in summary what is it asking?

• What is a human being?

Its answer?

• The one created thing made in the image of God with a unique responsibility to live in sacred space and time through constantly caring for all Creation as and for the Creator God. To achieve this task help is provided through the institution of the Sabbath day. This day is to be hallowed; devoted to remembering what human life is for. Do this and you shall live, God says, and achieve my likeness.

More soon.

I was taught that the entire universe was created in six 24 hour days about 6,000-10,000 years ago. While this may be true, the Scriptures do not say this. We must go through the first chapter in Genesis in detail to arrive at what the Scriptures are trying to show us.

“in the beginning” – I was always taught that this referred to the beginning of time but the Scriptures do not say this. It is assumed. It is more likely that this indicates the beginning of the story because time is nowhere indicated as starting at this point. Also, time only exists if the earth exists or light exists to measure it. It is earthly and human. Time is indicated by a measurement of the movement of the earth in it’s orbit and how it turns on its axis or on the speed of light (outside of the earth). Something must exist before it can be measured. This is to say that the beginning must refer to the beginning of the story and we will see that there may have been pre-existing material.

“created” – This does not mean “made from nothing” it just means made or formed. Their could have been pre-existing material or it could have been from nothing. We don’t know.

“heavens and the earth” – This does not mean “the universe and the planet Earth” it means “the sky and the land”. The ancient people did not know that the earth was a planet. They believed in what is called the geocentric model of the universe. They believed that the Earth was flat and all of the stars and other heavenly objects were connected to the sky (the heavens). They did not know that our planet was just one of many. The word translated “earth” in Genesis most often means “dirt” or “land” and cannot refer to a planet in a solar system (because they didn’t know this existed).

At this point, all the Scriptures have told us is that “in the beginning of the story God made the sky and the land”. Let’s go on.

“the earth was” – The earth cannot be described if it didn’t exist as in the traditional view. The meaning here is “the land was” meaning that the land did exist before the 1st day in the creation sequence.

“formless and void” – This can be tricky because many read “formless” and say “it couldn’t exist because it had no form” but we must use logic and conclude that nothing can be described that truly has no form (unless it is spiritual which seems unlikely here). We must realize that formless indicates that the land was in such disarray as to not have any usable form. No places for humans to dwell. If you imagine a molten area that no human could ever live in, you probably have the right picture. The Scriptures tell us also that the place was empty. This could either indicate that it was once full or that it never was. The Scriptures do not say.

“over the waters” – This also indicates that their was water here before the 1st day in the creation sequence. This is contrary to the traditional position.

The next part of Scripture is called “the creation hymn” because it is in an ancient form of Hebrew poetry. The part before this is not in poetry. This is why it is italicized in most modern Bibles. The fact that this is poetry tells us something about it: that it shouldn’t be read as straight history. It is also a very specific type of poetry. It is called a 7-day creation myth. These were common in the ancient world and many different cultures had them. The Jews would have been familiar with these coming out of the Egyptian culture. The point here isn’t that God created the world for people in 6 days but that He created it. The 7 days are not to be taken literally but act as a literary device like verses in a song. The days just separate literary points. The original audience of this book would not have thought that these were literal days.

“let there be light” – We shouldn’t think that God is creating light at this point but we should read it as “let there be light on the land”. There must have been light before the reconfiguration of the Earth because other celestial objects give it off. It is likely that the planet Earth has some light at this point but that it is simply too dark to support human life. Here, God directs that light to the Earth in order to provide the right balance between day and night.

“evening and morning” – It is the ancient Jewish way to count the evening as before the morning in a day. When the sun went down, they considered the day over and the next one to have begun. All Jewish festivals also start at sundown (not like our current way of thinking that considers morning to be the start of the day)

“sky” – We shouldn’t think that God made the sky in verse 1 and here. That doesn’t make sense. It is more accurate to say that He separated the water above (the atmosphere) from the water below (the oceans). The planet Earth had a sky above the land before this but it did not have the right mixture to support human life. God is making the sky exactly right and the water exactly right but we know that they both existed before in verses 1 and 2.

“let dry ground appear” – The word “appear” is very important. God is not making the ground, He is making it appear. This means that He was saying where there should be water and where their should be land. Verse 2 says the land was “formless” so God is giving it the correct form. The land would come up from the water where God wanted it (showing that it already existed).

“lights in the sky” – To the ancient people, the lights (sun, moon, and stars) were connected to the sky. We know today that this is not true. Their view is called the geocentric view and ours the heliocentric view. It is still true (and this is the only thing the text actually says) that God created all of these things for us to use for the measurement of time. Only in the traditional view would anyone be confused about light being made in Day 1 and the lights being made here. There was already light in Day 1 but it wasn’t on the Earth as it should have been. There we already lights in the sky at this point but were not set for the way we would measure time until this point.

“the seventh day” – The days do not have to be literal in order for God to make the seventh day (the Sabbath) a holy day for His people. God chose to teach them the story of creation this way so it makes sense that He would also remind them of the creation in the same way. The Sabbath laws have much to do with honoring the creation. By having the seventh day, the seventh year, and having a Jubilee year the year after the 49th year as Sabbaths, they are honoring the creation (people and everything else) by letting it rest. The seven days do not have to be literal for this to be the way that God wanted to teach the people.

(More on Reimagining Church soon)

So, human beings are different from all other created things. In addition to the “horizontality” imperative in common with others in Creation, humans are set in the position of accountability or care (dominion, to be God in and for the world.)

Rudolf Otto, in Das Heilege, The Idea of the Holy, a classic of twentieth century theology, drew a distinction between what he called the senses of Geschaffenheit and Geschöpflichkeit. The former can be translated “createdness” and humans have this sense. But additionally, humans (Otto suggested) have the sense of “creaturehood.” The distinction is an awareness of being a product of a merely natural process (createdness) being transcended by an awareness of being in personal relation (accountable) to the Creator. Creaturehood is an extension of the theistic as distinct from a deistic understanding of the Creator.

Thus, two questions:

• Can humans fail in this Creator given task (being God in and for all things)?
• How can they accomplish it?

“Image and likeness”

The creation of humans in God’s image is much discussed.  There is nothing wrong with this discussion, but it often fails to take account of the “missing likeness,” as I call it. Let me bring out what I mean.

In verse 26 we read: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Then in verse 27: “God created man in his image; ion the divine image he created him; male and female he created them”

Where in verse 27 is verse 26’s “likeness?” It may well be that the occurrence in verse 26 is the common Hebrew writing technique of parallelism which says the same thing in two ways. Perhaps. But perhaps (probably) not. If the omission of the “likeness” in the product (male and female humans) is intentional, then what might it mean?

An early church theologian, Origen, suggested that the image is our created state while the likeness is our potential. If it is our potential then in the terms I have been developing, the “likeness” is what we are to become. Created in the image we are given a task, to have dominion. Doing this is our potential. Achieving that is the likeness.

By definition, a potential is perilous. An acorn can but might not become an oak tree. Created in the image we might not attain the likeness. But attaining the likeness of God will mean we are “good, very good;” we will be what God intends us to be.

Thus, the issue of how to attain it is of paramount importance. As God’s creatures with such a responsibility are we to experiment, make it up, find our own way, stumble on the means?

Living as God in and for creation is a summons to live always in sacred space and time. Wherever we are and whenever that is, we are God in and for creation. sacredness is inescapable. But it is not irresistible! (Of which more to come.) So, the Creator himself offers help, a means of encouraging our realizing our potential.

Genesis 2: 1, 2 & 3 The Sabbath

On the seventh day Creation was finished and so God “rested.” The Hebrew shabbat is “to rest.” He thus provides the means for humans to become what he wants them to be. How is this supposed to help?

More soon.

“Be fruitful and multiply”

This is the Bible’s first command.(Not the “first commandment;” that is something else and we will come to it in due course.) But, God’s first imperative is this: “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Note: God speaks imperatives. There are two frameworks for belief or reliance on a supernatural power.

One, Deism, recognizes an impersonal supernatural power. Star Wars’ “The Force” is a perfect illustration. There is nothing personal about The Force. Hard to imagine a chit-chat over the corn flakes with it. Hard to imagine prayer at all, let alone worship. Can’t imagine The Force expressing a preference. Indeed, its bias or lack thereof towards good and/or evil is the very ambiguity which creates the tension in the Star Wars drama.

The other, Theism, recognizes, acknowledges, and worships a personal supernatural power. What constitutes the appropriateness of the term “personal” applied to the supernatural power? There are many facets to this, and indeed this will be a major theme as biblical theology develops and unfolds. For now, note this: to articulate an imperative entails will and will entails personality.

Note also that in being issued this command humanity is being placed under the same obligation as animal life. A wonderful Jewish commentator on Genesis, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, has called this humanity’s “horizontality.” Like the animals we are to swarm and extend, to fill and expand. (This points towards the migrant nature of human expansion, by the way, and raises profound ethical issues. What peoples, after all, live now where they always have been? It also indicates that sex is of interest to God! More on that to come.)

For humanity, however, this is more than a spatial command. They after all have the calendar, as we noted last time. So human beings are willed (by God) to thrive in the spatial-temporal world. This is, after all, “very good,” the way God wants it to be.  (Remember?)

But humanity is singled out.

“Have dominion over ….  all.”

How this text has been misunderstood and twisted. It is not license to exploit the environment and destroy the ecology. Such interpretative moves are pure nonsense, serving another agenda than biblical interpretation,  and should be discarded as unworthy of the text.

The Latin dominus means “Lord” used of God. To have “dominion” is to be given the role of God. It is to act as God: over “all” creation?

Humanity, and humanity alone, is given the unique task of treating the world as God would, of being God in and for the world.

What makes human beings distinct (remember the separating and making distinct nature of this entire narrative?) is precisely, exactly, and only this. Humans are not the thinking animal, the social animal, the poetic animal, the speaking animal. Humans are the animal (creature) that is accountable. Given a unique task and thus a unique responsibility. Indeed, humans have responsibility. Does a tiger or a zucchini, a sunset or a tidal wave? No. Responsibility is a human reality.

Humans are selected (elected if you will) for a purpose that transcends their own welfare.

Immediately some questions spring to mind:

• Does their true welfare perhaps in some way depend on fulfilling this responsibility?
• How are they to accomplish this Dominus-like caring?
• Does this in any way tie in with the six or seven day structure of the narrative as whole?
• What about being created in God’s “image and likeness?”

Oh yes: and by the way: note that male and female are created simultaneously on the sixth day. We shall need to return to this later.

The bulk of chapter 1 will be dealt with over the next several posts. Today we take a first pass through these verses and seek to note several important features.

“And God said.”

The entire chapter reads like a carefully constructed hymnic poem with repetition, alliteration (in Hebrew), and a mood of mounting purpose. The phrase we are looking at, “And God said,” occurs several times, each time in relation to other recurring phrases, most especially, “And God saw  that it was good.”

The first phrase is a very common pattern in biblical Hebrew narrative style. Seminary students are introduced to this device in Hebrew 100. It is called the vav consecutive. Vav is a letter in the Hebrew alphabet, usually translated in Genesis 1 as “and.” It has a much broader range of meaning than this simple word, though, with its connotations of connecting, as in “Bob and Joe went hunting today.” It carries a note of consequence missing in the English “and.” It can mean, “so .. then… when  … thus”  and more.

Most English translations try and capture this more complex sense when translating the final vav as it introduces the work of the sixth day, the creation of human beings,  by offering, “Then God said,” suggesting a climax and completion.

For now I want to focus on the fist vav in verse 3. If, as I have suggested, verses 1 & 2 are a prologue or introduction, then verse 3 really is the start of the narrative itself. Therefore, having introduced the major themes we noted in the last post, I would translate the beginning of verse 3, as:

“Thus, God said …” meaning, “Thus the Creator God, the one who created the All-else, said and continued …”

“God separated”

Throughout this chapter the activity of separating predominates. God makes by separating. That is to say, creation is to be full of distinct entities, each its own diverse self: waters from waters, firmament from waters, dry land from waters, and so on.

In an earlier post the case was made for viewing creation as a drama of potential, of becoming. The first step on this path is for a given entity to be separated from that which is distinct from it. Becoming what an entity is meant to be means not-being another entity. There is no value judgment in this; rather it belongs to the realm of creation as a whole. Each distinctive testifies to the wonder of diversity. God did not create trees, but oaks, and maples, and elms, and sumac, and on and on.An entity’s distinctiveness is to be itself.

That being said, God did make trees and fish and creeping things and flying things and on and on. The creeping things, each creeping things distinct from other creeping things, have more in common with creeping things than trees, for example. Creation, therefore, offers a rich nexus of interrelated and overlapping relationships.

We encountered the theme of relating last time. Is it possible that the relationship to the Creator is to be found within that nexus for it seems the Creator-God is relating through and within it?

“There was evening and there was morning (another) day.”

There is little need to remark that we are in the realm of poetic expression: evening and morning before the creation of the sun and moon and stars; three days before those bodies are created also.  Whatever it is meant to signify it cannot be to mark the complicated inter-relationship of sun and moon and planet earth which is what “24 hours” or “day” means to us.

Clearly the word “day” is a symbol. For what? We will need to make sure we have answered this question before we leave Genesis 1.

More tomorrow.

Books today tend to follow certain formats. A non-fiction or theology book, for example, will often carry a preface as well as an introduction from the author, thanking people and also offering a general overview of what is to come. This was not the case in the days of Old Testament manuscript creation. Expense was one huge reason. By the time we encounter the books of Luke in the New Testament, both his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, the available resources allowed him to provide each with brief introductory dedications, to “Theophilus.”

I want to invite you to look at the first two verses of Genesis as serving this introductory function. They are, if you like, preface to all that follows, not just Genesis 1 or even Genesis, but the entire Bible. The drama of creation proper will begin in verse 3, with the events of the “first day.” This pattern of days and related events and “products” will continue throughout a six day period, with the seventh “day of rest.” Verses 1 and 2 stand outside and before all that.

As preface then what have they told us? Four things:

First, they introduce the main theme.

The main theme, in all that is to come, is not how or when the world came into being, but the fundamental relationship between the world and God. The relationship is clear; creation to Creator. There is no speculative attempt at proving the existence of God. Rather, God is assumed. This assumption is of no theoretical or wholly indifferent god, but of a God who relates.

Therefore a question arises: why does God relate? What is the intention behind the relationship? Does it have a purpose? Answers are not provided in these introductory verses.

Readers will have to be on the look out for more detail. Like all good introductions, this one is a teaser.

Second, as creation, the world is the All-else. Not God, in other words.

This causes a paradoxical tension. If God the Creator relates by creating the All-else, how can that to which he relates remain All-else, wholly different from God? Does a relationship not involve connection of some kind? If not, how can it be described as a relationship?

What then might be the contours and content of this relationship? Will it depend on the Creator alone or does the creation have some role to play in making it real?

Readers will have to be alert for help with this also.

Third,  the “spirit of God” is introduced as the power or energy of creation.

“The deep” is a symbol for raw being, existence without the Creator’s power or energy applied to its shaping. To overcome chaos, power is needed. This power is the spirit of God. Time after time when the spirit of God is encountered in Scripture, readers will be able to note its role as the agent of creation and re-creation. Without God’s power applied (the spirit) creation and re-creation simply does not happen. (Theologians would call this the prolegomenon of pneumatology.)

Fourth, creation is a process of becoming, not a done deal.

God the Creator does not bring into being without chaos needing to be ordered, the ‘formless and void” needing to be shaped. Potential is built in to the fabric of the creating process. Indeed, creation is a becoming.

What becomes and how? These questions will occupy us in our next posts.

More tomorrow.

When I was much younger, most if not all of the product labels read “Made in America”.  Not so today.  We have labels from all over the globe.  Embarrassingly, on some items I don’t even recognize the country on its label.  Countries such as Liechtenstein and the Grenadines.

My family likes to visit various dollar stores.  Last month I searched a dollar store in hopes of finding a product or two with “Made in America” on its label.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch. 

That’s okay.  I still bought a few dollar items, but that got me thinking.  What does my “label” read and how about your “label”?  Made in America?  Made in Africa?  Made in Asia?  Where? 

If you really think about it, we weren’t made in America, Africa, Asia or elsewhere. We were made by God with heavenly hands and placed here on earth. The Bible says in Genesis 1…..”He created us in His image.”  That’s our “label”.

I have heard and read that some claim to be self made.  Sort of a Clint Eastwood attitude.  You almost can hear Dirty Harry in his own words saying that he got up early, pulled up his boots, dusted off his hat, worked the land, did things his way on his terms, no need for help, don’t depend on anyone, just “git r done”. 

Honestly, that couldn’t be farther from the truth for my “label”.  My “label” has many people’s influence, impartation, teaching and guiding, opportunities, smiles and words of encouragement, times and places where they chased me down and were instrumental in turning me back on the right track, loved me, graced me, mercied me, and – well you get the picture.

I am not self made.  Very far from it.  If I had a “label”, it would read:   Made by God.  Developed and improved by many others from around the globe.

What does your “label” read?

Darwin had a ridiculous beard but a brilliant mind. Was he right? Was he wrong? Come join us on the 28th November between 4 and 5 pm to watch a fascinating documentary on The Voyage That Shook the World. Click any image to link to the source.

The greatest story ever told kicks off with the line,

About 7,000 years later (no guesses for where I stand) Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. His Theory of Evolution profoundly rocked the way that the human world perceives its place in the universe. Now, 150 years later, with the benefit of hindsight and scientific insight, a one-hour HD documentary, The Voyage That Shook the World, traces Darwin’s journey to the Galápagos Islands and investigates some of the ramifications and foundations that his works rests on.

So, if you’re a member, a regular visitor or just interested to find out what Darwin actually said and where we stand as a church on evolution, creation and everything in between please come and join us on Saturday, 28th November between 4 and 5 pm.

The spender and beauty of the Galápagos Islands is brought to life in High Definition in this one-hour documentary billed by Dr Ted Baehr from movieguide.org as “Fascinating and profound insights… one of the best produced documentaries ever made.” Click any image to link to the source.

The documentary will be shown at Midrand Chapel, 151 Pitzer Road, Glen Austin, 1685 on Saturday, 28th November between 4 and 5 pm. Wanna find it:

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Watched the movie yet? What did you think? Want more information? Go and check out http://thevoyage.tv/trailer.aspx.

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]]> http://unscriptedscripture.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/5-genesis-1-continued-2/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:44:09 +0000 cuimrich http://unscriptedscripture.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/5-genesis-1-continued-2/

Verse 2

The doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) has a complex history. Scholars are not at all unanimous about its origins! It is but one of various creation theories. The science of the twentieth century, moreover, is sometimes thought to have complicated matters with its talk about “singularities” and the “Big Bang.” About all this we ought to keep in mind two things.

First, what was said in our posts on verse 1 about time, namely that it is created, it is part of the All-else. The logic of nihilo entails some notion of “before” since “now” there is not-nihilo, which we call “something.”  But, this before-now nexus is time which itself is something. It is not beyond doubt that as the Bible develops and its doctrine of Creation gets more filled out this issue of creation out of nothing arises. But, it need not detain our discussion of Genesis 1. Throughout we shall have to note the role that time plays in the entire chapter. That role precisely depends on it (time) being part of the All-else.

Second, verse 2, as we shall see, by-passes the issue any way. So  …. “the earth  ….  without form and void  ….  darkness  ….  waters.”

This is a scene of chaos. The Hebrew phrase tohu vabohu (here translated “without form and void”) carries this suggestion and the “darkness” emphasizes the mood. Even the “waters” hints at this. The children of Israel were originally desert people and the ocean always was a reminder of the depths of all that threatens life, just as the desert would represent its wide embrace to sea-faring peoples. Yet all this chaos is part of the All-else; it is not the raw material out of which God must create. Chaos here is a positive symbol of potential not a negative one of denial and destruction.

Thus, verse two simply sets the stage. Creation is not complete at the end of verse 1. It will be a developmental process. (Dare I say, an evolution?) What was noted above about time implies this.

Then we come to “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Two things must be noted:

A) The Hebrew word translated “Spirit” is ruach. Translators do their best to dismiss their own presuppositions and agendas from their work, but they always creep in somehow. The presence of that capital “s” , Spirit, is a perfect illustration for it allows Christians to read the phrase with Trinitarian thoughts in mind. This would be wrong, at least to the mind of the one/s who wrote the sentence originally. (We will return to Trinitarian thoughts much later in these posts as we wrestle with new testament passages.)

• There are no capital letters in Hebrew.

Ruach means many things: breath, wind,  and spirit. (The Greek pneuma works the same way, as we shall see in future posts.) Given this range of meaning and the general sense of scene 1 as I have sought to capture it, ruach ought to be translated, “the wind of God hovered.”

B) This ruach of God is “hovering.” The entire mood here is of something about to happen, of power waiting to be unleashed, of energy about to be poured on. (As these posts continue we will come to understand the Holy Spirit as just this: the power of God applied to life.) The power of God is actualizing energy; it makes things become, not simply be; creation is the arena not simply of existence, but of potential. Things are about to happen.

And what things!

More soon.

Verse 1 again

In the beginning God created “the heavens and the earth.”

What on earth (!) does this phrase, “the heavens and the earth,” refer to? “What if there are little green men on a planet far, far away?” This question can be framed in another vocabulary. The Hubble space telescope has revealed stars, planets, and galaxies unimagined prior to its launch; it has led to an expansion of our grasp of the size of the cosmos that blows, if not the mind, the lid off all previous estimates; it has caught a glimpse, as other devises have an echo, of the very beginning moments of the birth of the universe. At the other extreme of size, but not scope, those who study the sub-atomic world open up a vastness only comparable to the vastness of space. Surely all this is “beyond” what this verse’s quaint phrase “the heavens and the earth” is talking about?

Right?

Wrong.

Why should this neatly ambiguous but profoundly inclusive phrase not embrace all that? God’s creating activity is not subject to quantitative measure. That’s the point. Neither space nor of time are categories that can be applied as limiting factors to the notion of creation. Indeed, some would argue that they are part of what is meant by “heavens and earth,” i.e., they are created too. (Immanuel Kant, the great philosopher, cautioned against jumping to quick conclusions regarding space and time, demonstrating that they are categories of the human mind imposed on externalities.) An expanding and extremely old cosmos may be measured and such measurements may impact our understanding of the creation itself, but only indirectly of the Creator.

Indirectly? The act of creating leaves something of the creator in that which is created. Were I to give ten people recipes for apple pie and they were to bake them, there is little doubts that the result would be ten very different pies. Each would somehow carry the mark of the baker: the size of the apple slices, the amount that a “pinch of cinnamon” or “about a quarter cup” means, the shaping of the dough, the degree of done-ness, etc. Thus, the pie carries traces within it of the baker. So too do “the heavens and the earth.” This is what Paul talks about in Romans 1. These traces are the basis for what is called “natural theology” and/or general revelation (about which we will talk further in some future posts.)

God’s creating activity is not a quantitative but a qualitative notion. Here’s what this means: Genesis 1:1’s opening words are saying that there is God and there is all else, the not-God. The All-Else is not God for it is created. (In future posts we will have occasion to examine the Bible’s horror of idolatry. It is rooted in this notion of Creation, for to worship [latrein the Greek for worship] an idol is to take the All-else, or any part of it, to be God for you.) Creation is a qualitative notion. Thus it claims:

• as we saw last time, that we know, at least, that relating is “of the essence” of God, and

• there is God and the All-else, and thus that

• the All-else is not God.

Enough for today. Good grief! Three posts on Genesis 1 and we just got out of the first verse! Patience. This stuff is important; it is laying the groundwork for everything that comes after “the beginning.”

More next time.

Verse 1

“In the beginning God created  ….  ”

These words are so familiar that their impact may slip by. Not all religions affirm belief in a creator god. Indeed it can be argued that some Christian theology sets aside this notion. Later when we come to look at some of what Paul wrote, it will be necessary to review Gnosticism, e. g., which is an example of an anti-creator-god theism that claims to be Christian. Such a tendency is not uncommon in some current theological circles which, in effect, want to “get rid of God, the last expression of an out-dated mythology.”  We will be able to deal with such fluff in due course. For now, let’s pause and see what these words are really saying. Remember: read with the expectation of surprise!

The Hebrew word for God in this verse is elohim. (It will be my custom to italicize a foreign word the first time it occurs in these posts.) Here, in Genesis 1 verse 1, the fourth word we encounter is “God.” What did the author/s of Genesis have in mind? To what/whom were they referring? Did their audience/readers know what/whom they were talking about? Let’s note three things, for now.

First, Elohim is a noun in plural form.

The Hebrew word el means “the divine.” It is found in many other Hebrew words, Bethel for example, which means “the house of God.” In Hebrew the “im” indicates plurality. (There is also a rarer “a-im” which indicates duality for nouns which naturally occur in pairs, eyes and the like.) For example, one seraph, many seraphim; one cherub, many cherubim. (How grating it is to hear some refer to “seraphims.” Ugh!)

A fundamental rule of grammar is that noun and verb must agree in number: singular noun, singular verb; plural with plural. In our verse the verb that goes with elohim is bara, “created.” Bara is the 3rd person singular. The grammatical plural, elohim, is not numerical! It cannot, therefore, mean to the original writer/s and their readers, as is sometimes said by a certain type of Christian, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity will have to be founded elsewhere. What then does it mean?

Elohim is a plural of intensity or majesty. Kings and Queens were wont to speak like this: “We are not amused” meaning, “I found that joke offensive.”

Later in this chapter this majestic plural is found in the oft-repeated “Let us” do this and that  …. on which more in due course. There is no need to infer a “heavenly council,” although that might well have been the case. This inference just is not necessary to make sense of the language. (See in a later post a charming rabbinic suggestion about this “let us.”)

Thus, elohim means “God.” What or who God is remains to be learned!

Two, God “created,” as we have seen through the use of the otherwise rare verb, bara.

Theologians speculate, or have done in the past, about the issue of God “needing.” To need is to suggest, it is surmised, imperfection. A perfect God thus cannot need. Entailed in this, however, is a notion of perfection that is hard to find within the pages of Scripture. It may well be the case that some of the classically formulated theological notions are biblical, but it should not be allowed that external notions control, govern, or limit what the Bible seeks to express. Inter-relating with other cultures is, of course, an inevitable part of the Bible story’s people as it is of all people. This interaction surely bring influence in its trail. Nevertheless, in Genesis 1:1 such interaction is not needed to make sense of what is written.

God created. Moreover, he did so “in the beginning.” Whatever else this “beginning” may refer to, and we shall see more of this in due course, it certainly includes now, at the beginning of our reading. As we begin, then, we read that God created.

I do not believe it is too far-fetched to see in this simple utterance the declaration that God relates. Relating is of God. To create is to bring into being that which is not the creator. Thus, the creator relates to that which is not the creator.

God relates.

Third (and enough for today), “God created.”

It would seem natural to English readers that this points to a past event. The Hebrew verb operates without the neat tense structure (past, present, future etc.) we know from Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, and English. The verb in Hebrew is a richly more complex phenomenon than that. We will need to consider this from time to time in these posts. For now simply note this: our beginning words carry more than a restricted reference to some past event. More of this will become clearer in the next few posts.

More tomorrow.

The reading is Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a. This passage will occupy us for a few posts.

General Points:

1) Note the strange numbers for this passage.

How is it that a chapter extends over into the beginning of another, even being split half way through a verse? This odd verse structure for this reading tells us something we need always to keep in mind: those numbers in our Bibles are irrelevant. Not just here in this passage, or in genesis, but in every book, on every page. Some of them are big and black and seem to be bolded, as if for emphasis. Not so. They are not part of the originals at all, neither the Hebrew nor the Greek. We are used to chapters being used as structures of significance, as carrying the plot in some way, as in aGrisham novel say. This is not so with the Bible. All those numbers, both chapters and verses, owe their black, bolded significance to printing which entered the world only in the middle of the Middle Ages. We need, therefore to be ready for a flow of thought to flow over chapter structure or to stop short of a chapter’s end. They are a super easy reference method, but for determining the Bible’s meaning they are of nearly no use whatsoever.

2) The title of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, comes from a Greek word meaning “origin, fount, source, birth.” Three sub-points therefore:

• How is it that Greek words find their way into the titles of what were originally Hebrew books? What is the title in Hebrew of the book we call Genesis? We will return to the first of these questions at some point. For now, note that the Hebrew title is bereshith, the Hebrew of the opening words, “In the beginning.” (Throughout these posts I will make the transliteration of Hebrew and Greek as user-friendly as possible, even though some purists may quibble.)

• What is “the beginning” referred to in the title? This is an excellent and probing question. The beginning of creation? Possibly. But, it certainly is the beginning chapter of Genesis and more than that the beginning chapter of the entire Bible. In some sense when the Bible was put together (something we will return to) this book with this chapter was put at the beginning. Not a bad reason for us to begin with it!

• Just as the chapter and verse numbers are not part of the text, neither are any and all “helps,” notes, and other additions put in by the well-meaning. Those little sub-headings in chapters, usually printed in italics, are not the Bible even though they are in there! You must, for the purposes of this blog, learn not to see all those, nor the boxed articles which explain it all. My desire is for you, a raw reader, to encounter the text as it stands written, not as it is filtered for you in any way. My method will be to force you to ask questions and determine where you think a reasonable answer lies; to note features and for you to explain them to yourself. Oh yes, matters of historical background and the like which you cannot be expected to know, I will explain. otherwise, you and the text!

So, what does this chapter say? Not: what do you think it says? Nor, what have you been told it says? What do its words actually say to you?

Reread the passage before my next post.

It is generally argued that the earliest cultures were polytheistic. For example, Sumerian and Egyptian religions consisted of multiple gods, although some were chosen to be worshiped in different places (monolatrists). Some have suggested therefore that early Hebrew theology was also polytheistic and could not have been monotheistic for the belief in only one deity had not developed yet. Strictly speaking therefore the earliest Hebrews would have believed in the existence of multiple deities but chose to worship only one, i.e. henotheism. Genesis 1:26 is argued to provide evidence of an early henotheistic tradition in Hebrew theology.

However, one of the fundamental pillars of both Judaism and Christianity is the belief in only one God (strict monotheism). All other deities are man-made idols. This polemic against polytheism runs through the entire Bible and is perhaps most strongly emphasised in the creation accounts. There is a complete absence of a pantheon during creation, unlike the creation stories of other Ancient Near East accounts (Enuma Elish and Atrahasis). Genesis 1 was written to counter-act the polytheistic beliefs of neighboring cultures by comparing them with the monotheistic Hebrew religion. The Bible, as we have it, never allows room for a henotheistic interpretation and puts forward a strict monotheistic worldview.

Old Testament Scholar and conservative evangelical John Walton presents the clearest and most coherent explanation of Genesis 1 that I have come across. In this talk he makes the case for reading the text of Genesis 1 in the way it was intended – and does so in a highly lucid and entertaining manner. Very readable!

…the text has no interest in the physical, material cosmos. That’s just not what it’s talking about. That doesn’t mean that God didn’t also create the physical material cosmos, but that’s not what the ancient mindset is concerned about. That gets back to us wanting the text on our terms. We want to know about about the physical cosmos because that’s our ontology, that’s our world, that’s our concepts. That’s what we want to know about. We can’t indulge ourselves in that way with the Genesis account. Again, there’s no question that God did those things, but that’s not what this text is about. God makes it work.

From Minor Thoughts: Why Didn’t God Call the Light, Light?, a paraphrase of a talk by John Walton (Minor Thoughts also offers the MP3 file). John Walton is Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and author of the NIV Application Commentary on Genesis.

I’ve been looking at his ideas for my study project on the temple metanarrative, and I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on his book ‘The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate’ (read reviews at Amazon.com).

Friday

PRaP 11-06-2009

“When Life…”

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade.

When life gives you limes you make pie.

When life is a bowl of cherries it brings joy.  (Me if I get the cherries we’re having pie again)

When life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you’re going to get. But when you take a bite it is going to be sweet.

When life brings you hunger you look for food.

When life makes you thirsty you seek a drink.

When life is abundant we share that life.

When life is a blessing we bless others and in return we are blessed even more.

When life turns to death it brings sadness.

When life turns you seek Salvation.

When life seeks Salvation there is peace.

When life brings you peace you have Jesus Christ to thank.

When life in Christ is done you begin eternity with Him.

So when this life is over it is really only beginning.

Genesis 1, Matthew 2, Revelation 22, Luke 12, Romans 5

Key Verses:

Genesis 1:30
And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Genesis 1:29-31 (in Context) Genesis 1 (Whole Chapter)

Matthew 2:20
and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
Matthew 2:19-21 (in Context) Matthew 2 (Whole Chapter)

Revelation 22:19
And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Revelation 22:18-20 (in Context) Revelation 22 (Whole Chapter)

Luke 12:15
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Luke 12:14-16 (in Context) Luke 12 (Whole Chapter)

Romans 5:17
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:16-18 (in Context) Romans 5 (Whole Chapter)

Jesus Bless,

Pastor Steve

Yesterday I wrote about the Genesis account of how God created the heavens and the earth. I wanted you to see the order God used so I didn’t want to write about everything at once. Today I want to talk about something very important about how God made everything.

Look at the first chapter in Genesis. (It’s the first chapter in the whole Bible.) Each day of creation begins with the words “And God said…”

So how did God put everything in place? God said it and it was done.

That may seem strange to you. But I don’t think it is strange at all. There was a famous scientist named Albert Einstein who came up with a fancy formula. This is the formula: E = MC². This formula may look hard to understand, but there is one simple truth in it that I hope you will see. The E stands for energy. The M stands for mass (everything in the universe is made up of mass). And the C stands for the speed of light. What does all of this have to do with God speaking the world into place? Energy produces everything. But where did the energy come from that turned into everything we see? It came out of God. He opened his mouth and it all came out, but not in some crazy spilled out way. God spoke exactly what everything was supposed to look like, to feel like, to smell like, to sound like, and even what it would taste like. He chose what to make on the first day, the second day and so on, so it would all work together.

Wow! Now that’s powerful stuff. There was no series of chance happenings that started up this universe. It was God Almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, and full of love and beauty, who made our earth and all the stars and planets that go farther than any man can see through the most  powerful telescopes on earth. Worship him in your heart, because God deserves all of our love and praise.

Father God, how awesome you are. You made the highest mountains and the tiniest flower or speck of dust. You made the stars and planets and you made the tiny atoms that make up everything from sand to flowers and trees. Our minds are so small in comparison to yous. Yet when we remember that you created us in your image we can only wonder. You gave us a little of your mind, a little of your heart, a little of your love…  How can we understand it all? Help us God. Help us to want to know you with all our hearts. Teach us what you want us to know. Amen.

© 2009 by Janice D. Green

Where did the earth come from? What about the sun and the moon and the stars? Who made the plants and animals and people?

In the first chapter of Genesis (the first book in the Bible) we read that God made everything. Here is some of what the Bible tells us.

In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth but at first everything was dark and like nothing at all. Like a spirit God floated over deep waters before he went to work.

First Day  On the first day God made the light and he separated it from the darkness.

Second Day On the second day God made the sky and used it to separate the water. Some water was above the sky and some was below the sky.

Third Day On the third day God gathered up the water that was under the sky. Then he told the dry ground to come up out of the water. He called the dry ground land. Then God made the plants to grow on the dry ground, and the plants made fruit and seeds.

Fourth Day On the fourth day God made the sun, moon, and stars. I wonder if he took all the light he made on the first day and filled up the sun and stars with it. The sun was so bright it bounced off the moon at night. God started up the seasons and began measuring days and years with the sun and earth and all the stars and planets.

Fifth Day On the fifth day God filled the sea with fish and sea animals. He also filled the sky with birds. God thought of everything. It’s a good thing he made the plants first or the birds wouldn’t have any trees to make nests in. The birds also needed the plants God made for food. 

Sixth Day On the sixth day God made the land animals. He also made people on the sixth day. The Bible tells us that people were made in God’s image. This made people more special than any of the other creatures God had made. God told the people to rule over the fish, birds, and animals.

Seventh Day On the seventh day God rested. God said everything he had made was good. Now it was time for him to rest for a day and to enjoy his creation. God wants us to rest on the seventh day of every week too.

Something we can only wonder about: What did God do the next week after he made the heavens and the earth? He only rested one day. 

You can learn more about the creation by reading it straight from the Bible. If you click on this link, Genesis 1, you can read it on your computer.

Father God, thank you for making the earth, and for making it so beautiful. Thank you for making us in your image so that we can know you in a special way. Help us to be responsible and to take care of the earth and the plants and animals you made.

(c) 2009 by Janice Green

Many argue that the creation accounts in Genesis present a sexist view of gender in which the male is superior to the female. I will attempt to argue that the creation accounts are not sexist, but show both male and female to be completely equal in status before God. The axiom ‘God has no favorites’ is key, for it states categorically that God is not sexist.

In the first creation account (Genesis 1 – 2:3) God creates male (man) and female (woman) together at the same stage in the creation process. Thus, together they are the climax of the creation account, and together they are made in the image of God. Both man and woman are defined primarily not by their gender, but by the fact that they are both made in God’s image. Both receive the blessing from God, and both are given the mandate to be fruitful and multiply. They are equals in their purpose and role in live (note that at this point they share the same purpose and role). Their status is not dependent upon gender or role, but by the fact that they are made in God’s image.

The second creation account (Genesis 2:4-25) is more complex. The whole story is about God’s concern for humankind. Hence, God creates woman because man is incomplete by himself. Again, this does not imply an inferior status, on the contrary, one could argue that the most important things are left till last in the creation account. The English word used to describe the woman, as man’s ‘helper’ is inadequate to fully describe the Hebrew meaning here. Unlike the English, the Hebrew word has no overtones of subordination and inferiority, it is not a comment about the woman’s status. It describes the woman as having the desire and power to help her partner. God himself is described this way several times (Gen 49:25, Ex 18:4, Deut 33:26 etc). It seems like the text is emphasizing the complementarity between the woman and man, they need each other to be complete. They act as a team, and God treats them both as a unit and as individuals.

It’s clear from the creation accounts that God does not treat the woman and the man any different, in the eyes of God they are completely equal in status. Nevertheless, these passages were probably written by a male author(s) and as such are written from a male perspective. This is because they came from a patriarchal society in which the male assumed authority and often a higher status. The Bible may be written from a patriarchal context but it doesn’t teach that the male is superior to the female.

Sexism and male superiority (and female superiority!) are consequences of the Fall. Men and women become sexist when they base their status upon gender instead of the fact that all persons are created in the image of God.