| C. The World Before the Flood 4:1-5:32 | D. Noah and the flood 6:1-9:29 | E. Origin of the Nations 10:1-32 | F. The Confusion of the Languages 11:1-9 |
Introduction -
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Truth in Action throughout Genesis
Creation and Flood Stories (HBH) In giving us the Scriptures, GOD used human writers who were at home in the world of the ancient Near East. The biblical writers addressed many of the same questions that were of interest to neighboring peoples: How did the world come to be? What is the special place of humankind in the world? What is GOD [or the gods] like? How does He [they] continue to relate to the world?
The biblical writers made use of some ways of speaking shared by numerous ancient Near Eastern accounts of creation and the flood. The faith and message of the biblical writers is, however, quite distinct from that of other ancient Near Eastern writers.
The biblical writers believed in one GOD. Their neighbors believed in many gods. The biblical writers viewed GOD as Creator and the world as His work. Their neighbors believed their gods were involved in creation but were not separate from the creation. Rather, their gods were personifications of elements of the created order.
The biblical writers knew GOD to be a moral GOD, who punishes sin but responds in grace to save His creation. Israel's neighbors believed in immoral gods, concerned with their own pleasure rather than the good of humanity.
Creation Stories
Isolated elements in the biblical creation account are paralleled by elements of ancient Egyptian accounts. For example, in a creation story from Memphis the god Ptah creates by his word and rests following creation. Egyptian creation accounts, unlike their biblical counterparts, are polytheistic. That is, they describe not only the creation of the world but the creation of the numerous lesser gods who personify nature. The mythological origin of these lesser gods varies. In one account they are body parts of the chief god Atum; in others they are Atum's breath, spittle, or tears; in still others they are products of sexual acts.
The primary Mesopotamian creation story, the Enuma Elish, is an epic intended to praise the god Marduk and is not essentially a creation story. In this epic the god Marduk battled the sea goddess Tiamat. Marduk prevailed, dividing Tiamat's body in half, with part becoming the sky and the other the earth. Subsequently, the rest of creation was made and ordered.
while one can say that both the biblical and other ancient Near Eastern accounts view the world as created, the differences far outweigh this similarity. The number and immoral behavior of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian gods stands in marked contrast to that of the holy One of Israel. The Egyptian and Mesopotamian epics are profoundly mythological, whereas the biblical story is not. The biblical story is also unique in presenting GOD as preexistent and distinct from the created order.
Finally, the conception of humanity is fundamentally distinct. The Egyptian and Mesopotamian myths see humanity as an afterthought; human beings are mere by-products of a god's congestion or serve only to relieve the gods of daily drudgery. But the biblical story portrays humanity as creation's climax - the image of GOD. It is unlikely, then, that the biblical accounts are a simple reworking of earlier Near Eastern creation stories.
Flood Stories
The most important and complete Mesopotamian flood story is found in the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, a moving account of Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu's futile search for eternal life. This Mesopotamian flood account does not diverge nearly so widely from the biblical one as did the respective creation stories. In fact, the similarities are too striking to be coincidental.
In both stories GOD or the gods initiated the flood out of displeasure with humanity but informed the main character of the impending flood and admonished him to construct a massive boat covered with asphalt according to predetermined dimensions. In both stories the hero and his family were delivered from a deluge of lengthy duration, and the hero sent out a bird to see if the floodwaters had abated. In both stories the hero sacrificed and worshiped GOD or the gods after the deluge, and the hero was praised for his faithfulness.
On the other hand, the most fundamental difference between the two stories lies in the demeanor of GOD and the Mesopotamian gods. In the Bible, GOD is morally outraged by humanity's perversity. The gods in the Gilgamesh Epic are sophomoric, perturbed, and sleepless at humanity's noisiness. In Genesis, GOD's gracious will is to save those in the ark. The hero in the Gilgamesh epic discovered the coming flood despite the will of most of the gods. In the end the hero of the Gilgamesh epic became a god, quite unlike Noah's experience in Genesis 9.
Many of the details of the stories such as the dimensions of the ark and the length of the flood are also quite different. These differences are significant enough to make it highly unlikely that there was a literary connection between the two texts. However, the similarities argue for some association. Since the flood was a historical event, it is plausible that the memory of the event was preserved by the survivors and their descendants.
GOD'S CREATION GOAL: DOMINION, BLESSING, AND RELATIONSHIP (GEN 1:1-2:25 (HBH)
Primeval history describes the accounts of the creation, the fall, the flood, the tower of Babel, and the distribution of the human race. It embraces all those facets of human experience that led up to and necessitated the call of Abraham to covenant service to the LORD.
The two accounts of creation (1:1-2:3 and 2:4-25) are designed respectively to demonstrate the all-wise and all-powerful sovereignty of GOD (first account) and His special creation of humanity to rule for Him over all other created things (second account). Though the creation stories are fundamentally theological and not scientific, nothing in them is contradicted by modern scientific understanding. GEnesis insists that all the forms of life were created "after their kind" (1:11-12,21,24-25); that is, they did not evolve across species lines. Most importantly, the man and the woman were created as "the image of GOD" (1:26). In other words, humanity was created to represent GOD on earth and to rule over all things in His name (1:26-28). GOD's desire was to bless humanity and to enjoy relationship with them.
Gen. 1:1 - 2:25 See TRUTH IN ACTION at the end of Genesis.
 KINGDOM DYNAMICS |
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Gen. 1:1 Divine sovereignty, KINGDOM BASICS. The unavoidable point of departure in studying the theme "of the Kingdom of God" is the first verse of the Bible. Here we encounter the Sovereign of the universe, whose reign and government are described from the beginning.
2) His kingdom (or the power through which he governs) he exercises through his will, his Word, and his works. By his will, the Creator God made up his mind and designed the creation; through his Word God gave existence to creation, and by his works, his spirit showed unlimited power. 3) His authority to govern is rooted in his pre-existence and holiness. He is before creation, "in the beginning". As Creator, the government of that which he created should be in his hands. His benevolent intention to create "good things" reveals his holy nature (complete and perfect), which confirms his moral right to rule creation. All authority, reign and power flow from God. (*/Gen. 1:26-28/2:16,17) J.W.H. |
Gen. 1:1 "In the beginning God created": Traditional translation of that which, to a certain extent, is a complex and debated Hebrew grammatical formula. Other possible translations have appeared in the last century, but they presuppose the existence of physical chaos, or even a pre-Adamic race, after which the creation described in chapter one began. Nothing else in Genesis, nor in the Bible as a whole, requires or necessarily recommends this interpretation, although such opinions are biblically tolerable. As a whole, the most direct and acceptable translation is that which is used here.
Gen. 1:2 We are informed here of the consequences of the first creative act of God: "the Earth was untidy" (lacking the order that would rule it when God's mandate was completed) "and darkness was upon the face of the deep: (an additional reference to the absence of order and beauty which would appear within six days). Both affirmations reveal that the creation constituted a reflection of the normal process God used to introduce order into chaos. The deep is the primieval ocean that was found beneath the earth (see 7:11), "moved" implies something that does not remain stationary. The Holy Spirit is the "executive arm" of the Trinity, who remains active while God pronounces each one of his words. An alternate interpretation indicates the possibility that the initial creation described in Gen. 1:1 had been altered (possibly because of the fall of Lucifer), is not biblically objectionable, but neither is it verifiable.
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Gen. 1:3-5 God, the Maker of Covenants, THE BLOOD. From the beginning, God is revealed as the author of covenants. Jeremiah referred to this activity of God in the creation (Jer. 33:20), speaking of the "covenant with day and night". Thus, the inalterable character of the divine nature is emphasized and his relationship with that which he created is represented as an immutable union under God's sovereign government. (Gen. 8:20) (*/Gen. 8:20) C.S. |
Gen. 1:3 The first divine mandate began the process of transforming the chaos. "God said" is repeated twelve times in chapter one as a means to make order and life appear. The exact form in which the 3 persons of the Trinity relate to each other is not clearly defined in the Bible (see Col. 1:16). "The light" alludes to the luminous effect in general, because the celestial bodies are created on the 4th day (verses 14-19).
Gen. 1:4 "was good": Formula of divine approval which is repeated seven times to emphasize the quality and fitness of the creation. It contrasts with the description of the state of the creation after the Fall (ch. 3).
Gen. 1:5 "and was the afternoon and the morning": For the Hebrews, each new day began with twilight. This form of reckoning time, along with the count of the days and the sabbatical rest on the 7th day, shows that the author saw creation as something that occurs during the course of six consecutive 24-hour periods, followed by a seventh period of divine rest.
Gen 1:6,7 "And let it separate the waters from the waters": The land covered by water seems to have been surrounded by mist. God used the expanse, the space between the surface and the clouds, to separate the two "waters", creating a massive accumulation of vapor in the heavens (mabbul in Hebrew). These waters which were upon the expanse created a protective "greenhouse effect" over the earth at that time.
Gen. 1:8 Heavens: See the definition of the firmament in the note for verse 6.
Gen. 1:9,10 The 3rd day marked the appearance of the land to define the boundary ("Let the waters which are under the heavens be gathered in one place) of the seas.
Gen. 1:11,12 God commanded that the land, with its productive potential, should give life to the plant kingdom. According to its kind: The laws of divine genetics were imposed on the vegetable world.
Gen. 1:21 Great sea monsters: The most extraordinary creatures of the ocean, such as whales and dolphins. According to its species: Again, the laws of genetics that make it impossible for one kind to evolve into another; a sparrow could never produce a vulture.
Gen. 1:24 Beasts: A generic term which designates every type of domestic animals; serpents refer to reptiles, insects, and the like; animals of the earth refer to the wild animal species. Along with those mentioned in verse 21, they represent all of the animal world.
Gen. 1:26 Let us make: God was not only speaking in the name of that which is revealed as the Trinity in the New Testament, but of all the heavenly hosts, including the angels. Our image seems to refer to such qualities as reason, personality and intellect, and the capacity to relate, hear, see and speak. All these are aptitudes that God decided to grant to human beings. And rule...over all the earth: God created man to be the agent of his kingdom, to govern and subdue the rest of creation, including the aggressive satanic forces, who immediately invaded it.
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