Superman Trivia

Who were the original creators of the character of Superman?

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

When did Superman first appear in print?

Action Comics #1 in 1938.

What is Superman’s given name?

Kal-El

“The voice of God”

What planet is he from?

Krypton

What is the source of Superman’s power?

The Yellow Sun

What is his assumed name on earth?

Clark Kent

What is the name of the town in which He was raised?

Smallville

What city served as his home as an adult?

Metropolis

Transition

1932, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were struggling high-school graduates who wanted to get published as comic strip writers and illustrators.

Numerous attempts and rejections for 5 years.

Their motivations for creating the character were, at the time, almost entirely commercial.

Numerous revisions

Final version was market-driven.

At the core, religious.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were both Jews.

Sinless man, perfect Adam.

Messianic expectations

The version of Superman that they eventually sold worked because he is an aspirational hero.

What might have been possible for mankind without the fall?

Physically limitless

Selfless

Morally perfect

Able to affect the natural world.

Indomitable

This aspiration to be more than we are is a universal human trait. We are aware that we are fallen.

Adam himself must have felt this most acutely.

Thesis: Adam was created to be the representation of God on earth. His ruin marred not only humanity but all of Creation and demonstrated the need for a HEro to restore God’s good creation.

A Broken Crown

Narrative setting: Genesis 1-3.

Genesis 1:1-23, God creates the Cosmos, the earth, plants, birds and fish.

Day six, Genesis 1:24-31, populates the land with animal life.

As a subset of that, Gen 1:26 begins the story of the creation of man, which runs through the end of the chapter.

A Distinguished Intention

Genesis 1:26–27 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Mankind is intended to be the representation of God on earth.

God is the Supreme Sovereign over all things, but mankind was created to be his vice-regent on Earth, to rule and husband all of creation.

This role is not gender-specific, God includes men and women jointly in the plan to create a species to image Him in the world.

Genesis 1:28–31 “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

The “creation mandate” comes with no limitations.

Mankind, as a species, is meant to multiply and subdue.

Exploration and learning without impediment.

Very Good!

After a brief statement about the first Sabbath rest on day 7, Genesis 2 pinch-zooms in on day 6.

In this greater-detail view, Man’s creation is shown to have been first, in Gen 2:4-7.

Greater detail about the garden is given in Gen 2:8-14.

Greater detail about the plants surrounding him disclose the existence of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:9 “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Greater detail about what dominion looked like in the garden is given.

Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Work is good, and part of the perfect plan of God for mankind.

We associate work with toil, a product of the fall, but it was not originally that way.

The first and only limitation put upon mankind in the garden is recorded.

Genesis 2:16–17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.””

When compared with the 613 commands in the Jewish law, doesn’t keeping one little rule seem ridiculously simple?

We should note that the command was given to Adam alone. He was the keeper of that knowledge and the one whose obedience was explicitly required.

The creation of Eve.

Genesis 2:18–25 “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” … Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Eve was included in the broad-stroke statements of Genesis 1 regarding intention, glory, and role, but it is significant that she is absent from the moment that the prohibition against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was given.

Her creation is one of completion.

She completes the image of God intended for humanity (1:27).

She completes Adam’s life experience (2:18).

She completes God’s creation, as the last thing fashioned by God’s hands in this narrative (2:22).

She completes the imaging of the love of God in the first marriage (2:25).

A Desecrated Image

Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””

Bullinger, E. W. (2018). The Companion Bible

Serpent: H: Nācḥāsh, נָחָשׁ ,

“The Hebrew word rendered “serpent” in Gen. 3:1 is from the root Nācḥāsh, to shine, and means a shining one. Hence, in Chaldee it means brass or copper, because of its shining. Hence also, the word Neḥushtān, a piece of brass, in 2 Kings 18:4.”

“In the same way Sārāph, in Isa. 6:2, 6, means a burning one, and, because the serpents mentioned in Num. 21 were burning, in the poison of their bite, they were called Saraphim, or Seraphs.

“But when the LORD said unto Moses, “Make thee a fiery serpent” (Num. 21:8), He said, “Make thee a Sārāph”, and, in obeying this command, we read in v. 9, “Moses made a Nācḥāsh of brass”. Nācḥāsh is thus used as being interchangeable with Sārāph.

“Now, if Sārāph is used of a serpent because its bite was burning, and is also used of a celestial or spirit-being (a burning one), why should not Nāchāsh be used of a serpent because its appearance was shining, and be also used of a celestial or spirit-being (a shining one)?”

“Crafty,” or “wise” can have both positive and negative connotations in scripture. Intentionally, Satan was made to be wise for the sake of prudence, but he became diabolical.

“Beasts,” terrible interpretation, it makes us think that we are discussing mere animals.

H: ḥay, חַי , living creature.

In the same sense in which it is used in Ezekiel 1:4–5a “As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures...”

Similar to the usage of the Greek “Zoe” in Revelation 4, these “living beings” are more than mere animals.

It makes the story seem too much like a fairy tale to have Eve speaking to a talking snake, but being fascinated by the appearance of a shining angelic being seems much more likely.

Born out by the language of 2 Cor 11.

2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

2 Corinthians 11:14 “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

It was a conversation, not with a talking snake, then, but with a “shining one.” Eve was deceived by an angel of light.

In Genesis 3:1-5, Satan plants doubt in Eve’s mind as to the trustworthiness of the word of God and the goodness of His heart toward His creation.

“Did God actually say...”

This is a summary of what our culture is saying today.

American Humanist Society, “Humanists reject the claim that the Bible is the word of God. They are convinced the book was written solely by humans in an ignorant, superstitious, and cruel age. They believe that because the writers of the Bible lived in an unenlightened era, the book contains many errors and harmful teachings.

“If the Humanist view of the Bible is correct, millions of Bible-believers and churchgoers are wasting much time, money, and energy. Humanity’s condition could be greatly improved if those resources were used for solving the world’s problems instead of worshiping a nonexistent God.

Sommer, Joseph J. “Some Reasons Why Humanists Reject The Bible” Americanhumanist.org, accessed Nov 25, 2024.

Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

Satan questioned the goodness of God’s intention toward his creation.

Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great,

““Nothing proves the man-made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell.”

“Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.”

The lies have not changed, and sadly, neither has our participation with Eve in reaching for the fruit and handing it to those we love.

Genesis 3:6–7 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

Eve may have eaten first, as Mike’s sermon through 1 Tim 2 pointed out, but it is never Eve’s bite that is used to argue for original sin.

Adam was the possessor of the prohibition. His failure to intervene in the sin of his wife and then to follow in her example is the moment of the entrance of sin into the world.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 5:15 “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.”

Paul is quick to jump to the solution, but we need to spend a moment more in the pain and the brokenness.

Mankind immediately seeks their own means of repair for their sinful condition in the making of loincloths.

Don’t we all feel that it is virtuous to “fix our own mistakes”? It is in some small cases, but this is not spilt glass of milk or broken window. This will require divine repair.

Genesis 3:8–13 Adam and Eve run from God

Mankind in both genders was entrusted with the task of imaging divinity in creation.

We were called to rule, to subdue, to husband and to keep all that God had made.

We alone were entrusted with the privilege of relationship with the Creator.

We alone were also entrusted with the burden of free will and a single prohibition to keep.

We failed.

When called out, the behavior of Adam and Eve demonstrate the truth of our relationship to them. We do the same things that they did.

Cover it up.

Hide.

Blame-shift.

A Decreed Intervention

Genesis 3:14–15 “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””

Satan’s curse here weaves together the figurative and literal sense of the H. Nachash.

The word used in Gen 3:1 does mean literal snakes many times in scripture, but here the figurative usage, as Bullinger argued, points past the meaning of the natural to the literal meaning of the text, used figuratively.

The fact that the curse contains references to this being crawling on its belly and eating dust as literal serpents do is another example of the figurative use of language reinforcing the literal meaning of the text, Satan will be utterly humiliated ultimately and permanently.

The final blow against the enemy of God will be when a figurative “He” emerges.

Seed of the woman, a descendant of Adam and eve. A human.

Unusual to mention that this offspring is a “seed” of the woman, not of the man.

“Seed” is often a euphemism a man’s reproductive contribution.

“Seed”: Hebrew: Zera, זֶ֫רַע.

Only two other times in scripture are women said to possess or produce “seed” referring to offspring.

Genesis 16:10 of the children of Hagar

Genesis 24:60 of the children of Rebekah

Could it be a literary device to point to all the children of Abraham and wonder, “from which line will ‘He’ arise?”

“He” will utterly destroy Satan.

“He will crush your head.”

a crushed head is fatal.

Used in other OT texts as examples of decisive victory.

Judges 4:21 Tent peg vs head.

Judges 9:53 Millstone vs head.

1 Samuel 17:49–51 Sling and Stone vs head.

In the course of the destruction of Satan, “He” will be wounded.

Heels are often a symbol or trickery or insult in the context of conflict.

A “cheap shot” or “sucker punch” would be modern parallels.

Jacob and Esau

Genesis 25:26 Jacob’s name.

Genesis 27:36 “Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times...

Psalm 41:9 “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”

The parting blow or “sucker punch” of Satan is all he can manage in the context of the struggle he will have with the coming “He.”

It is significant that, from the moment that sin entered the world, God decreed his means of its destruction.

Protoevangelium. First telling of the good news.

As Christians, we know that this prophecy in judgment was about Jesus Christ, but that was not clear to Adam and Eve.

The promise must have lingered in Adam and Eve’s mind with the birth of every child. Will this be “He?”

The very next story, of Cain killing Abel, immediately disqualifies their first two children.

None of the descendents of Cain rose to anything close to the moral level of a Satan-crushing Hero. Quite the contrary.

Genesis 5:1–5 “This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.”

Adam lived for 930 years.

If you create a chart or table of ages, you will quickly discover that Adam lived until the days of Methuselah, which were wicked times.

Genesis 6:5–6 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

There must have been a longing deep in Adam’s heart to find the “He.”

He knew the heights from which he had fallen, and he saw the destruction of human culture around him.

All the rest of the Old Testament can be read as a search for the “He.”

A Desperate Inquiry

This Christmas season, we will look at select individuals in the story of God’s redeeming work and ask “are you the ‘He’?”

We know the answer to the question, and it should not be a surprise that we will celebrate this answer together on Christmas Sunday in a few weeks.

For now, let’s let our hearts linger in the hope and anticipation that was the reality for Adam after 930 years of life and would remain the hope of all of the people of God for four thousand years until the birth of Christ.

Focus on the ultimate meaning of Christmas

Not gifts, parades, parties, or even feelings of joy and peace.

Christmas is about the arrival of the “He.”

He has come into the world to save sinners, to crush the serpent’s head, and to ransom the children of Adam and Eve.

Rehearse the salvation story with your family this year.

Even a Christmas that focuses on “baby Jesus” might miss the point if it does not end in the gospel.

When you read the Christmas story as a family, take another moment and talk about the rest of the story of Jesus.

Don’t fall victim to the old lies of Satan.

Did God really say.... Yes He did!

Is God really good? Yes He is!

The following poem is not in scripture, but perhaps Adam might have written something like this after 900 years of looking and longing for the “He.”

The Broken Crown

O earth, once soft beneath my tread,

Now groaning 'neath my toil and dread,

I named thee all, each beast, each tree,

Yet now thy cries resound through me.

The garden's bloom, its fragrant air,

Now lost, a memory, faint and rare.

A serpent's lie, my heart betrayed,

And here I stand, in guilt arrayed.

Thy voice, O Lord, so sweet, so near,

Once filled my soul with holy fear.

Now distant echoes haunt the breeze,

As shame and thorns bring me to my knees.

Thou gavest me dominion's crown,

To rule, to serve, to lay life down.

Yet sin’s dark shadow taints my reign,

And all my labors end in pain.

The rivers groan, the mountains weep,

The stars above their vigil keep.

Creation sighs beneath the curse,

A broken king in universe.

Yet even here, I hear thy word,

A promise faint, a hope deferred.

The seed shall come, the serpent crushed,

And sin’s dark reign at last be hushed.

Until that day, O Lord, I weep,

And in my longing, watch and keep.

Restore the crown, the throne, the land,

And place it back in sinless hands.