In this first reading, done in one sitting with a 30 minute
meal break, I went from reading about creation to Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s
dreams. In between these events, Adam and Eve fell from grace. Cain killed
Abel. Noah built a pretty big boat. God made promises to Abram and renamed Him
and his wife Abraham and Sarah and promised Abraham many descendants who would
bless all the nations of the earth. Abraham's wife Sara gave birth do Isaac,
who married Rebekah and had Jacob and Esau. Jacob took Esau's birthright and
tricked Isaac into blessing him instead of his brother. Jacob fled to his
uncle's land and married Leah and Rachel, who, along with their two servant
girls bore Jacob 12 sons including Joseph. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers,
sold into slavery in Egypt to Potiphar, who's wife falsely accused him of
attempted rape. Potiphar threw Joseph in prison, until he interpreted the
dreams of the Pharaoh’s servants, one of whom much later told Pharaoh about
Joseph after Pharaoh had some had dreams. (Phew!)
Ok, so that summarizes my reading (I will go back and spell
correct names later.) I have several thoughts. First, this did take me a
significant amount of time. I will do my best to keep up with it every day but
I may need a little leeway as life does become more important sometimes. But
enough about my excuses. This exercise is proving to be very enlightening. I
had already known these stories since childhood. But when you string them all
together you get a sense of clarity about it. If I had to give these passages a
central theme, I would say it is that Almighty God, the creator of the
universe, is always faithful to keep his promises and complete the work he
began in his people. Yes we have seen harsh judgment of those who turn away
from God. But also, we have seen great promises made and kept by God to
Abraham. This promise will ultimately be fulfilled in Christ who as a
descendant of Abraham will bless all the nations of the world.
I always go back and forth about the early chapters of
Genesis and the idea of whether the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and
Noah are all literal or partially literal and partially allegorical. I believe
Genesis to be true, don't get me wrong. But I often wonder if the creation
account is actually God communicating through Moses an allegory for the history
of the universe? One interpretation could be that the fact that the creation
account is progressive, beginning with light and ending with the creation of
Man, suggests a parallel to the Big Bang theory in which a particle of
extremely dense matter explodes into light beams and energy creating the
building blocks of the universe from light. Though this would negate the
long-held Christian doctrine which states that God created the universe
'ex nihilo' or out of nothing. Still it is interesting to note those parallels. I
would say that at the very least, what we should take away from the creation
account is that God made everything, including humans, and we humans messed
everything up.
I am looking forward to completing the Pentateuch and moving
on to the historical books and greater prophets. This is going to be an
exciting journey.
Edit: I apologize for the previous version post being so rife with spelling errors. I used my mobile phone to post it at 3 am. It has since been edited for spelling alone.
I too am going through this journey regarding the book of Genesis and its interpretation. I recently had a very interesting conversation with a Christien high school science teacher who had cleared up a few misconceptions I had about the big bang theory, and how it could coinside with Genesis according to the Hebrew translation. For example, he claimed that when the Bible is referring to life and death at any given point in it's texts, it is always referring to spiritual life and death. Thus, Adam and Eve could have evolved, but they were the first to have a spirit like God, thus being in His own image. And after man sinned, they were cast out among other people. The teacher also claimed that Adam and Eve were as biologically imperfect as you or I, thus children that resulted from incest would be idiots just as they would be today.
ReplyDeleteNow,I understand that there have been corrections, and fundamental interpretational differences between the translations, especially as compared with the original text. But after reading my NIV the other day, and reading another one of your theological posts, I believe when God said "let US create man in OUR own image" Jesus had already existed, and that the flesh He took on later in time was a perfect mirror to his spiritual being. Upon further reading, at no time did I read that Adam and Eve were cast out amongst other people. So if Adam and Eve were truly the only two human beings on the entire planet, that would have necessitated incest amongst their children. However, if man has degenerated biologically based on each generation,but were themselves perfect, it would not have mattered if Adam and Eve's grandchildren received both sets of bad genes because they still wouldn't even come close to the number of bad genes in you or me. I also have a friend who has a masters degree from Wheaton College in Biblical escotology who also said that the book of Genesis was writen as a historical document, and was meant to be taken as literally as your high school U.S. history text book. These are just some thoughts I have been pondering for a few weeks now and I thought this would be a good oppertunity to share with you. :)
Thank you, Anaonymous reader, for your contribution! First let me make a clarification or two: When I said that Jesus Christ was present at the creation, I did not mean to imply that it was "in the flesh" as far as flesh is concerned. If Christ IS at the creation in the flesh, he is so in his resurrected body (the one that can miraculously disappear in front of two witnesses, and appear in a crowded room that is locked up tight, and ascend into the clouds without any form of vehicle) and not his corrupt "imperfect" body as he was in his ministry.
ReplyDeleteThat having been said, my other clarification that I wish to make is that in all honesty I don't put much stock into a literal "Big Bang" theory, and I so believe that God in fact created humanity as we know it today. Whether God utilized "evolution" as a method to achieve this is not clear. Again that would depend on how allegorical the account of the creation of mankind is.
A few key things to make note of: In genisis there is a difference between when God is addressing THE man, (Adam) and ALL man / mankind / humanity (ha-adam) the implication being that there were more men and women about than just THE man and THE woman (Eve). Genesis purists will often renounce the incest theory by claiming that God made more humans as spouses for Cain, Abel, Seth and all of their descendants. But it is interresting to note that Cain was fearful that people would kill him if he went out. If Cain was the only son of Adam at this point, the question would obviously be: WHAT people?! The answer is clear. Even according to the Genesis account as taken literally. There were more humans on earth than just Adam and Eve at the time of "The Fall" as it is called.
One more important thing to take note of: Regardless of where your journey through the interpretation of Genesis takes you, keep in mind that the main themes of Genesis are CORE VALUES for our faith: God created everything. We, who were created in the image of God messed up our relationship with Him. This creating the need for a savior. God promised Abraham that All nations would be blessed through his descendants (a promise of the Messiah for both Jew and Gentile) and God ALWAYS keeps his promises.
Good luck and happy reading!