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Genesis Part I Page I Genesis Part I Page i The Book of Genesis Part I – Table of Contents (tentative) Session Topic Text Page 1 Why Genesis? Genesis 1:1 2 . The Metanarrative – the Big Story . What is the Book of Genesis? 2 Answers in Genesis Genesis 1:1 16 Asking the Wrong Questions Time & Eternity 3 Formless and Void Genesis 1:2 26 . The Problem of Verse 2 . Of Angels and Satan 4 Let There Be Light! Genesis 1:3 41 . The Spirit of God . The Word of God 5 Order from Chaos Genesis 1:4-10 52 The Meaning of ‘Day’ Literary Form 6 Setting the Stage Genesis 1:11-25 65 “Terraforming” Causation & Mediation 7 The Imago Dei – The Centerpiece of Creation Genesis 1:26-27 78 8 The Imago Dei – The True Image of God Genesis 1:26-27 89 Man as the Image of Christ Regeneration & Sanctification 9 The Creation Mandate Genesis 1:28 100 Dispensation or Dominion? Sphere Sovereignty 10 Remember the Sabbath Genesis 2:1-3 115 Chapter Divisions The Significance of the Sabbath 11 Eden: The Garden of the Lord Genesis 2:4-17 126 A Second Creation Account? The Garden in Redemptive History 12 Eden – The Cradle of Civilization Genesis 2:10-14 140 A River Runs Through It The Ancient World 13 A Biblical Anthropology Genesis 2:7 154 The Formation of Man The Soul and its Propagation Genesis Part I Page ii 14 The Propagation of the Soul Genesis 2:18-24 168 The Formation of Woman Genesis 5:1-3 In the Image of Adam 15 Posse Peccare – How Could Adam Have Sinned? Genesis 2:15-17 182 A Perfect Man in a Perfect Place Dangerous Knowledge Genesis Part I Page 2 Week 1: Why Genesis? Text Reading: Genesis 1:1 “In beginning, God created…” The title of this first lesson, “Why Genesis?” will lead most readers to the fuller thought of “Why study the Book of Genesis?” as in, “Why did the instructor choose Genesis as his next biblical study?” But that is not the import of the question. Rather the focus of the question is captivated fully in the two- word question, “Why Genesis?” As in, why was Genesis written? and Why was Genesis not only included in the canon of Scripture, but placed at the very opening of divine revelation? There are many reasons to ask such questions; some stemming from the manner in which the Book of Genesis is treated within professing Christianity today, and others stemming from the book itself. As to the latter category, there is the manifest reality that the Book of Genesis is not an overtly theological, or even a redemptive tome. True, it is in Genesis we discover the all- important fact of mankind’s fall into sin, but the path of redemption from that sin is not clearly set forth in the ensuing chapters. Indeed, the ‘theology’ of Genesis is almost exclusively derived from reading the balance of Scripture back into this first book of the Bible. Another feature of the book that renders such an inquiry valid is the fact that its history essentially predates the more dynamic acts of God with regard to the outworking of His redemptive plan within human history. For instance, the Dispensationalist can locate four of the seven ‘dispensation’s in this book,1 with the entire balance of the Old Testament devoted to the fifth (the Mosaic), and most of the New Testament hinging upon the sixth (the Church Age). This is not to say that Genesis is devoid of redemptive material: there is the ‘proto- evangelium’ in 3:15, the Abrahamic call and covenant, and Israel’s prophecy with respect to the ‘sceptre’ of Judah. We will see that the first two of these examples 1 Innocence, Conscience, Government, and Promise are all comprehended within the Book of Genesis. Genesis Part I Page 3 are indeed paradigmatic, setting patterns that not only the rest of the Book of Genesis, but the whole of Scripture, will follow. Still, the way of redemption would have been forever shrouded in mystery if all man had to go on was the Book of Genesis. Modern Christianity itself does not seem to know what to make of, or do with, the book. Liberals discount is as myth and legend, believing that Science has thoroughly debunked the quaint Hebrew stories found in its pages. Conservatives get their hackles up, of course, but then often turn Genesis into an academic battleground – a use for which it was never intended. The popular radio program, Answers in Genesis, frankly asks the wrong questions with its clear emphases on Geology and Biology, and runs the danger of obscuring the true message and import of the book. Still, neither side is entirely wrong in its approach (though both may be wrong in their conclusions), and it is as important to realize that the history of the Book of Genesis is, indeed, the story of a people, as it is to realize that the ‘science’ of Genesis is nowhere in contradiction with true, empirical Science today. So Why Genesis? The title itself might give us a hint as to its purpose, except that our English is a transliteration of the Latin title, which came many centuries after the book was written and is itself not part of the text. ‘Genesis’ is the English derivative of the Latin Liber Genesis from Jerome’s translation of the Bible called the Vulgate. This title means simply, ‘Book of Origins,’ and as such is not a bad title for the first book of the Bible. Still, it is not appended to the text of the book, and it is somewhat misdirecting and dangerous, as it may lead the reader to believe that he or she is about to enter a Hebrew version of Ancestry.com. The Hebrews had a simpler method of titling the books of the Bible, in many cases (Genesis included) by taking the first word of the book and setting it as the book’s title. Thus the Hebrew title for this particular book is bere’shît, which is the opening word in the Hebrew text. It is normally translated as “in the Genesis Part I Page 4 beginning,” and the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, renders it with en archai – literally, in the beginning. But the article is not present in the Hebrew, and so the first word could also be translated simply, in beginning. It is a minor point, to be sure, but the second rendering does remove the focus from that of time to that of activity, a movement that may prove quite useful as we investigate the meaning of the rest of the book. So, then, the Book of Genesis is a ‘book of origins,’ starting most notably with the origin of the world and of the human race. But it is not merely a genealogy, as important as those are in tracing the lineage of the Messiah. It is not a book to which we can turn once, establish the proper pedigree of Jesus Christ in His messianic person, and then depart therefrom, rarely if ever to return. Perhaps more significantly it is a ‘book of beginnings,’ yet even here there is the danger of improper emphasis. While the Book of Genesis is indeed a book of the beginnings with regard to the created cosmos, and of all living creatures culminating in Man himself, such an exegetical emphasis misses the point. We must read the next word: “In the beginning, God…” Too much of conservative Christian scholarship directed at Genesis fails to take its eyes off the object of Creation, and to redirect them to the divine Subject, God. God, who is without beginning, yet ‘began’ to bring about His plan of redemption, the ultimate end of which is to manifest the glory of His name throughout the universe. Thus we do not read, In the beginning the fish were created, or In the beginning Man was created, but rather, In the beginning, God… This speaks volumes as to the reason for Genesis having been written, and having been preserved in Scripture for our instruction and edification. It is the beginning of God’s self-disclosure, and throughout its pages we read not only the history of the distant ancient world, but also the allegory of His divine glory. The book begins in the Garden of Eden, moves through the Promised Land, and ends in Egypt. The rest of the Bible begins in Egypt, moves through the Promised Land, and ends in the New Jerusalem, the New Heaven and the New Genesis Part I Page 5 Earth. Therefore, as any good introduction will do, the Book of Genesis encapsulates the entire movement and history not only of God’s people, but of the whole of mankind, as it is then fleshed out from Exodus through to Revelation. That is Why Genesis! Yet while the focus of any study of the Book of Genesis should start and stay fixed upon divine self-disclosure, this does not nullify the history through which God discloses Himself. The liberal commits a non sequitur when he concludes that, because the Book of Genesis is the story of a people written after the establishment of that people, it is therefore myth and legend. Their premise, however, is correct and conservatives must acknowledge this: the Book of Genesis is indeed a metanarrative – the grand story of a people, the nation of Israel, the people of Jehovah. A metanarrative is a ‘Big Story,’ and all peoples have – indeed, need – one to cohere their society and culture into a recognizable unit.
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