Old Testament Oral Presentation

Introduction

Good morning,

My name is Shawn Decker. Today we will be discussing Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter one is historical narrative and begins the Primeval section of the Book of Genesis, whixh is made up of Chapters 1-11.

We will be discussing the interpretation of these passages. Specifically, what they meant to the original audience. What they meant to us as the modern day church and what this passage has meant to me in my life.

What did this mean to the original audience?

To first understand what this scripture meant to the original audience, we have to understand what was the understanding of the time. We have to know that in the ancient Near East the way that they viewed the cosmos is very different than how we view it today. To have an understanding of this, we have to visit the Egyptian and Babylonian view of cosmologies.

In the passage, it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. 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.

Now to the ancient Near East, the waters represent the primordial state of all things. It represents the chaos, the Disorder. The waters represent the potential that all life could possibly be. Now in both the Egyptian and Babylonian cosmologies you have deities arise through these waters or dealing with these waters in ways to bring about creation as we know it. Now in this we have to understand that the ancient people of the Near East did not look at creation from a scientific point of view, but rather looked at creation from the point of view of ordering things, not creating something from nothing.

A good example of this is when a house becomes a home. In this, we’re not talking about when the foundations were laid and the frames went up, but rather when did the house become The home? The house became the home when we ordered all of the rooms into their final purposes and designs for use.

When we look at this passage, this is what we see Yahweh Elohim doing. We can see this in contrast to the Egyptian and Babylonian gods such as Marduk defeating Tiamat for example. In that story, we can see that Marduk defeated the waters after a great fight. That it was during that that the cosmos was ordered, and that when Tiamat was split, that was the waters above, and the waters below.

We can see, a very stark difference between the cosmologies of the time and how Yahweh Elohim dealt with this. We can see that there was no battle. We can see that there was no great struggle. We see that all Yahweh Elohim had to do with speak into creation. And creation responded. We see that this is trying to communicate a very clear message that Yahweh Elohim is the all powerful God and stands alone compared to all of the gods of the surrounding civilisations in the ancient Near East. We have to understand that most of the ancient cosmologies basically borrowed from one another, so you can see that in the Canaanites, for example, they just replaced Marduk with Baal to make their story. We can see then that this opening story of Genesis not only has its place in the cosmologies of the ancient Near East, but also stands alone in its message that it tries to communicate that Yahweh Elohim is supreme.

What does this passage mean to the Church today?

What does Genesis one mean to the New Testament Church? From the prologue of the Gospel of John. We are told that Jesus, who is the Word of God, was with God during creation. We can see that Jesus was the hands and method used during creation. The Prologue of John is trying to communicate to us that Jesus has always been God, with God and by extension always will be. He is impugning the divine nature and characteristics onto Jesus and communicating his divinity to us by connecting him back to Genesis 1. I will go a step further than the prologue of the Gospel of John. And say that we can see the cross and the character nature of God in his humility in Genesis chapter one. So go with me on this.

You have an almighty infinite God.

This God has everything He will ever need. He has perfect community with the Son and the Spirit.

This God is infinite and eternal. He is lacking in nothing.

Then you have this God, who makes less of himself, so that a creation can thrive. This is called tsimtsum. Therefore, a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. When we look at the incarnation of Jesus and His death and resurrection, we see this same tsimtsum. We see a God who. Lowered and emptied himself. To make space for his creation, to thrive. We can see that this is clearly connected to what God did in Genesis one and has been doing throughout the whole storyline of creation. What this means to us in the New Testament church is that Jesus really is the God of the Old Testament and He really is the fullfillment of the Hebrew Bible and because that is true therefore the rest of what He said is true and we have a sure foundation for our hope.

What has this passage meant to me personally?

This scripture has not spoken to me nearly as much as the searching for its interpretation has. Just this connection between the Gospel of John and the opening sentence of Genesis is one of the most basic and obvious hyperlinks of Scripture. There are hundreds and hundreds more. The biblical authors were literary geniuses. They were empowered and inspired by the Holy Spirit. You have scribes and editors who have also been inspired by the Holy Spirit who have put this Bible together. There is a wealth of complexity and depth to learning scripture that goes so far beneath the surface. The biblical authors used every tool at their disposal to convey and communicate meaning. These connections, these hyperlinks are just an example of that. Scripture is meant to be meditated on day and night so that we can come to understand what it is communicating. And that means that there is a lifetime, of Understanding. Of insight. Of wisdom. That can only be gained by investing a lifetime. Contrary to how we modern Westerners think of literature. The biblical authors communicated with less detail expecting us to meditate on the gaps. To use other stories to interpret previous stories. All of the narrative’s in Scripture are connected. They are all pointing to God’s overall design they’re pointing to the Messiah coming, they’re pointing to the Messiah becoming King they’re pointing to God’s restoration of his world. To me, to see the Bible opened up in such a way. Is like unlocking my purpose and true desire in life to study and research. To unlock the mysteries for others to teach people. I believe God is giving me a mind to understand and to research. And not only for my benefit of knowing, but to enrich the body of Christ. And for me this connection to my overall purpose. This understanding of being able to look at both the old and New Testaments and see how they are connected in a way that could have been easily missed and seeing the cross in the first opening lines of Scripture. Shows that there is a wealth of knowledge that needs to be communicated, especially when people have a hard time connecting to the God of the Old Testament. A lot of people struggle to connect Jesus to Yahweh Elohim. And it doesn’t need to be that way. To me, this connects to my greatest passion that I believe is God given.

Summary

In summation,

We have looked at what Genesis one is. We have looked at the interpretation of the passage and what it meant to the original hearers. We have looked at the interpretation and what it would mean to us as the Christian Church and we have looked at what this passage and its interpretation has meant to me in my own life.