Genesis - Week One

Introduction

This study should address...

What does the Bible say?

What does the Bible Mean?

How can we apply that to our lives

Legend

Important

Questions

References

Personal Thoughts

Title

“Genesis” comes from the Greek Pentateuch and means “Origins”

The Hebrew title would have been the Hebrew translation of “In the Beginning”

When and Who

When and by who do you think Genesis was written?

Traditionally believed to be written by Moses as he authored the other 4 books of the Pentateuch

More recent scholarship from the 19th century places the final authorship in the 5th century BC

This would come from the Documentary Hypothesis or the JEDP theory

4 main sources (J, E, D, P)

Based on textual criticism, writing styles, word choice (elohim vs Yahweh)

Heiser has a hybrid view which states that Moses wrote most of the Pentateuch, but Gen 1-11 was compiled or written during the Babylonian exile

Heiser’s thoughts on JEDP and Genesis Authorship

https://drmsh.com/mosaic-authorship-torah-problems-documentary-hypothesis-jedp-part-1/

https://drmsh.com/mosaic-authorship-torah-problems-documentary-hypothesis-jedp-part-2/

https://drmsh.com/mosaic-authorship-torah-problems-documentary-hypothesis-jedp-part-3/

Book chapter on distinctions between J and E

https://drmsh.com/TheNakedBible/Friedmanch2WhoWrotetheBible.pdf

Why - Genre

Why do you think Genesis was written?

Chapters 1-11

Creation Polemic against Egyptians or Babylonians depending on authorship view

Parallels with other ANE creation myths

Hard to tell which creation stories are older

Yahweh is creator, no one else

William Lane Craig calls it “Mytho-History” or “Proto-History”

Book, Quest for the Historical Adam

Some say history, poetry, allegory, or something else

Primeval History is the traditional view

Generally, I think Genesis teaches truth about the cosmological origins in a poetic, ANE, understandable way

A collection of hero stories and genealogies

Chapters 12-50

Generally seen as a more standard history

Narrative Prose

Chapter 1

Generally, it is a creation poem or hymm

The author shows awareness of other cosmologies

Book, The Message of Genesis 1-11

The Message of Genesis 1–11: The Dawn of Creation 1. Majesty

But despite some similarities, how very different from the Mesopotamian myths is the creation poem of Genesis 1. Gordon Wenham writes: ‘The author of Genesis 1 … shows that he was aware of other cosmologies, and that he wrote not in dependence on them so much as in deliberate rejection of them.’

Formula to Creation

“and God said”

“let” or “let there be”

“and it was so”

“God saw it was good”

“evening and morning”

Creates 3 settings and then fills them

Connection between Days 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6

The Number Seven

7 Days of Creation

7 is “goods”

7 Hebrew words in Verse 1

2 x 7 Words in Verse 2

3 x 7 Words in Day 7

Bible Project Video on Genesis 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afVN-7vY0KA&t=241s

Contradictions to other ANE Myths

Monotheism

Majestic Praise of God

Emphasis on Humans

Humans are not created as food but as divine imagers

God provided for the humans not vice versa

Enuma Elish

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/225/enuma-elish---the-babylonian-epic-of-creation---fu/

Meant to evoke mystery

Not to answer questions

God brings order to chaos

Pattern to creation as seen above

Categorization

Ruling and Dominion

The world’s order is contingent on God

Time

Does God exist outside of time?

Aristotle says time is essentially a measure of change, God doesn’t change, therefore can God be in time?

However, if God is outside of time and has no temporal relationship to events then He can’t know what event is occuring

This would contradict his omniscience

Therefore, it seems that God entered into time after creation

He does not change, but His temporal relationship can change

Note: It is illogical to ask what was before time because that is a relative temporal term and there was no time before creation

Could God have not created?

Yes, because He exists in perfect love and relation within the Trinity

His single eternal will was set outside of time and can’t be thought of as a human decision would be

That will does not change, but it could have been different as long as it remains consistent with his nature

His essence and nature are also unchanging

God could have chosen to create any world consistent with His nature

William Lane Craig has great resources on these topics

Reasonable Faith ministry

Book, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview

There is no difference between the power to create and to sustain

All that is, is from God

Verse 1

Genesis 1:1 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Any pressing thoughts or questions on Verse 1?

“In the Beginning”

Creation of time

Different ways to translate

Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 1

1:1 In the beginning Genesis opens with the Hebrew phrase bere’shith, typically translated as “in the beginning.” There are two possible interpretations of this phrase: a specific, absolute beginning of all time; or a nonspecific, general beginning of God’s work of creation.

The Hebrew phrase does not include the definite article “the,” which allows for the two interpretations. Although an absolute beginning can be logically inferred from the text, the lack of a definite article means that translations such as “When at first” or “When God began” are also possible.

There are three possibilities for understanding the syntax of Gen 1:1–3. Verse 1 can be understood as an independent clause or as a dependent clause. The traditional translation—“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”—takes the verse as an independent clause. Alternative translations take v. 1 as a dependent temporal clause with either v. 2 or v. 3 as the main clause. For example, the NRSV reads v. 1 as dependent on v. 2: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void.” The NJPS renders v. 1 as a dependent clause, v. 2 as a parenthetical statement, and v. 3 as the main clause: “When God began to create the heaven and the earth—the earth being unformed and void … over the water—God said, ‘Let there be light.’ ”

“God”

elohim, plural

“created”

bara, singular

implies a bringing to order

different from asa which is used later

everything from nothing

creation ex nihilo

“the heavens and the earth”

all of creation

When was heaven created?

Angels?

Three Heavens

Air

Space

Heaven

2 Corinthians 12:2 “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.”

The seen and the unseen

God created it all

Are Verses 1 and 2 a summary of the days of creation or a prelude?

Gap Theory

3 Views of Cosmogony

https://drmsh.com/genesis-12-and-the-gap-theory/

https://drmsh.com/TheNakedBible/WaltkeRestitutionTheory.pdf

Verses 1 and 2 are consequential

The heavens and the earth of verse 1 are in the chaotic form of verse 2

The chaos of verse 2 existed prior to verse 1

The heavens and the earth are created perfectly in verse 1 and brought to chaos in verse 2

Perfect world in Verse 1

Rules by Satan as an angel

He becomes prideful and falls

Sin enters the world

God destroys the world into chaos

View 3 is the Gap Theory and was formulated prior to scientific pressures

Most Hebrew grammarians oppose the Gap Theory

What are your thoughts on the Gap Theory?

Verse 2

Genesis 1:2 ESV

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Any pressing thoughts or questions on Verse 2?

How can these verses bring us peace?

Our lives can feel chaotic, but God is present there to bring order

God brings light to the world as He provides to our souls

“without form and void”

tohu and bohu

rhymes in Hebrew, points to the poetic elements of Genesis

Jeremiah 4:23 “I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.”

chaotic, unordered matter

Similar to the state of the soul prior to salvation

“darkness over the face of the deep”

The sea of chaos

Parallels to Tiamat, Leviathan

“spirit of God”

ruah

wind, spirit

Verses 3-5 (Day One)

Any pressing thoughts or questions on Verses 3-5?

Genesis 1:3–5 ESV

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God 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.

“Let there be light”

dispels the darkness from Verse 2

God is the light of the world

John 1:4–5 “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Creation by spoken word

Light separate from the source

Demonstrates God power over creation

Consistent with ANE view of the cosmos

“It was good”

it was agreeable, pleasant

“Separated the light from the darkness”

Creation of day night cycle and passing of time

“evening and there was morning, the first day”

yom is used to describe the first “day”

can refer to a 24 hour period or a generic period of time

Separated Days view

time between the days

Day Age view

days refer to a period of time such as geological periods

Days as a literary structure or representation

General References and Sources

Study Bibles

ESV Study Bible

ESV Church History Study Bible

ESV Literary Study Bible

Spurgeon Study Bible

Faithlife Study Bible

Commentaries

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Matthew Poole’s Commentary

Dennis Prager’s Rational Bible on Genesis

David Atkinson, The Message of Genesis 1-11

John Davis, Paradise to Prison

Church History

Augustine, City of God

Augustine, Confessions

Aquinas, Summa Theologica