My church is doing the Bible in 90 days this summer. I’ve agreed to post regular notes on the readings. So here goes with some preliminary thoughts on Genesis. This is overview, big picture sort of stuff, so if you’re reading put your track shoes on…
- Lesslie Newbigin has this to say about the opening chapters of Genesis:
- The first chapter of Genesis was almost certainly written during the time when Israel was in exile in Babylon. And we must picture these writers as slaves under the shadow of this mighy empire with its palaces, fortresses and temples. Babylon had its own account of creation, as we know from the work of modern scholarship. It was a story of conflict, battle and bloodshed. Violence was the theme underlying the whole creation story as the Babylonians understood it…The writers of Genesis had quite a different picture of God. They were the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Moses. They knew God as the redeemer God, the God who had saved his people from bondage. And they had a totally different picture of God’s creation–not as the result of violence but as the action of a God of love and wisdom, who, out of sheer love, desired to create a world to reflect his glory and a human family to enjoy his world and give back his love. (A Walk Through The Bible, 7.)
- Genesis begins by painting a harmonious picture of reality where human beings are in right relationship with God, one another, their world and themselves. This picturesque world quickly falls apart at the seams. It’s said that every worldview answers four questions: (1) Who am I?; (2) Where am I?; (3) What’s the problem?; (4) What’s the solution?. Genesis answers all of these. It answers the identity (1) question. Genesis tells us that we are beings created in God’s image, male and female, and that we are to share in God’s rule over God’s world. It answers the location question (2). Genesis tells us that we are good creatures in a good world that reflects God’s love and wisdom. It also addresses the question concerning evil and tragedy (3). What’s wrong with the world?? Genesis tells us that the tragic aspect of reality that we all know too well is the result of a broken relationship. And it addresses the salvation or deliverance question (4). The solution to the tragedy is the healing of the broken relationship between Creator and creature, one which God brings about through the history of redemption.
- There is a pattern in Genesis that goes something like this: sin, exile, restoration. It’s evident in chapter 3 with Adam and Eve, chapter 4 with Cain, in the flood story, and of course in the Babel story. It’s a theme that will recur in Israel’s history, and one important for understanding the mission and message of Jesus.
- Genesis 6:1-3 is always an interesting text to attempt to interpret. Who are “the sons of God” that take the daughters of men in marriage. Traditionally the sons of God have been taken to be the line of Seth referenced in 4:25-26. The preface for the flood then is the line of the promise mixing with the line of Cain. Contemporary scholars tend to understand “the sons of God” as angelic or divine beings, with the continued transgressing of boundaries precipitating the flood. Some rabbis understand the “sons of God” to be despotic rulers who, like the English Lords in the film Braveheart commit sexual abuses with those betrothed or married to another. What makes the latter interpretation compelling is that it fits into a reading of Genesis that, after the Fall, sees everything systemically breaking down. Genesis 3 describes the breakdown of individual relationships. Genesis describes the erosion of the family. If the rabbis are right, then Genesis 6 (as well as 5) points to the breakdown finally of society.
- There’s a phrase that recurs again and again in Genesis: “…this is the account of”. The Hebrew transliteration of the phrase is toledot. It occurs exactly ten times in Genesis. The last of the first five occurrences takes us to the genealogy of Shem, and of Abraham. The first of the next five gives us the account of Terah, introducing the story of Abraham. It’s clear that Abraham is at the literary center of the book. The call of Abraham is God’s answer to the problem of sin, alienation and the curse. After the Babel story God calls a new Adam and Eve who would be the parents of a new humanity through whom all the world would come to be blessed.
- Genesis begins with a cosmic and global focus. Then in chapter 12 it narrows to one couple. Then it widens again to one family, a family that will become a nation.
- It’s important to remember that when we read Genesis, we’re not to take the characters as moral exemplars. Abraham isn’t the main character. Nor is Sarah, Isaac, Joseph or any of the people we encounter. The protagonist is God, and Genesis is Gospel, good news about God’s gracious saving and redeeming work.