Table of Contents

Preface: The Rise of Human Rule 

Acknowledgments

Prelude

Introduction:

     Section I:    Traditions

     Section II:   Tools

     Section III:  Perspective

          Insert: Enuma Elish, a Creation Myth of Ancient Babylonian

     Section IV:  Beginnings

Unit 1 Creation

          Insert: Introduction to Unit 1

     Chapter 1    Creation Under Construction

     Chapter 2    Creation Triad: Days 1 and 4

          Insert: Gen 1 and the Problematic Use of “Light”

     Chapter 3    Creation Triad: Days 3 and 6

          Insert: Literary Artistry and Numbers as Ancient Communication

     Chapter 4    Creation Triad: Days 2 and 5

     Chapter 5    A Cosmic Temple?

Unit 2 Garden

     Chapter 6    Structure in the Second Creation Story

     Chapter 7    Symmetry in the Second Creation Story                   

          Insert: Genre and the Creation Stories

     Chapter 8    Garden Images: Tree as Symbol Word

     Chapter 9    Garden Images: Marriage and Serpent as Symbol Words

     Chapter 10  Into the Garden  

Epilogue

Bibliography

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[In the following excerpts, citations and quoted footnotes are not included. For these see the published manuscript in which they, as well as other notes, are meticulously presented.]

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Preface: Human Rule

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Arguably, the most significant theme in the Bible is God’s sovereignty; that is his kingdom throne. As creator, God reigns over all. That is borne out in the regal phrase, “Lord of Lords, and King of Kings.” Yet, almost paradoxically, the opening chapters of Genesis ascribe rulership of the created order to humanity.

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It is surprising, therefore, how little is written in the professional world of biblical scholarship about this theme. Jerremy Treat acknowledges such stating, “This theme has often been overlooked, but it is crucial to understanding the kingdom of God.” Rulership begins in Gen 1 with the creation of humanity in God’s image and continues throughout Scripture’s presentation of Israel. In that long march toward a future destiny, the race stumbles, falling vastly short of its God-endowed potential to rule well. In the Book of Judges, Israel’s drift from God is cast under this theme, and so the book ends as it shockingly declares, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Which leads to Samuel, the last of the tribal judges who ruled over Israel, a people governed not so much as a nation but a loose confederacy. Ending that way, the Book of Judges provides a transition to a coming period in which Israel sought rule under a succession of kings. Yet, Deuteronomy (28:36) warningly records, “The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.” The scrolls referred to as Deuteronomy and Judges point to the danger of human rulership without reliance on God. In the end, Israel’s experiment with human kings, kings who seldom placed their trust in God, was an abject failure.

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This discussion may seem quite distant from the pages of Genesis. Yet, it was in the paradise garden that the failure of the man and the woman to affirm God, electing to follow the beguiling serpent, led to humanity’s corruption of the image of God as rulers, be that on the world stage, in the marketplace of commerce, or even within the “smallness” of ordinary life.

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Today, the church in America is in the throes of crisis. Like ancient Israel, the church too is falling. It is a divided temple, no longer solely splintered over debates on dogma and norms of faith, but fractured by political alliances, much like Isarel’s kings and priests. The purpose of this book, however, is not to lay out principles of effective rulership or engage in political debate, determining which side is ‘right’ and which is ‘wrong,’ or worse, identifying the side “God is on.” Rather it is to examine the early chapters of Genesis to: (a) develop meaning for the phrase “created in the image of God;” (b) contextually interpret the creation stories; and (c) provide a theological framework to assess the church’s current slippage into the abyss of political corruption.  

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Prelude

Six Days

 

Day 1. Genesis 1 verse 3, which announces the onset of light, begins God’s creative work. It bridges the description of an earth shrouded in darkness (v. 2) with the commencement of the six-day creation sequence (v. 3). This occurs as God commands the first of “seven Divine fiats,” that is his spoken word. He says, “Let there be light.” That “light” is called “day;” the darkness, which is set off to the side, is labeled “night.” Combined, this act of separation consumes one day—the first in a sequence of six creation days. More so, it suggests to readers whose traditions demand a literal interpretation an answer to the often-asked question, how long is a creation day? Evidence based on the recurring phrase “evening and morning” offers support that a Genesis “day” is twenty-four hours. While not all scholars see it so simply, the context statement “evening and morning” presents a formidable case for this conclusion. Gordon Wenham writes on this idea, “There can be little doubt that here ‘day’ has its basic sense of a 24-hour period.”

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Day 2. Verses 6–8 elicit a question regarding the term “firmament.” Some Bibles, though, use other words, such as “expanse.” The Message offers the word “sky.” But whichever word is used —firmament, expanse, sky—Elohim (Hebrew generic word for “God”) formed it out of a second divine fiat, the separation of the waters above from the waters below. Many consider the waters above to be earth’s atmosphere (hence the name “sky”). The second workday is over.

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Day 3. Verses 9–13 draw attention to the waters below. God has “gathered” them; this results in the appearance of “dry ground.” The gathered waters are called “seas;” the dry ground “land.” Further, in a burst of activity, Elohim commands the land to produce all sorts of vegetation, plant life capable of replication. All this work God assesses “good” and the third day ends. Unlike the first day’s entrance of light, this day, however, with its gathered waters, the emergence of dry land, and the addition of plant life covering earth’s landscape seems to the modern mind to exceed all expectations for a Genesis-based formula in which a day equals twenty-four hours. This is part of Genesis’s mystery: how long is a creation day?

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Day 4. Verses 14-19 find Elohim at work in the sky. There he places “lights;” they “separate” the day from the night and serve as signs to mark the passage of seasons and days and years. But their primary purpose is to “give light on the earth.” Special attention is given to two lights. Known as “the greater” and “the lesser,” they function to “govern” or “rule” the day and the night, and to “separate light from darkness.” As with the description of “good” on Day 1, so too is this workday labeled. Some scholars see within this day Elohim’s creation of time. Still, though, confusion remains over the text’s use of “light.” Mention, therefore, of light twice—on Day 1 and now on Day 4—adds mystery to the six-day sequence: why did God twice bring “light”?

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Day 5. Verses 20–23 recount a heavy day of lifting for Elohim. In one long continuous action he creates aquatics that live in the sea and birds that fill the sky. Seeing that all this is “good,” a footnote to the day’s work is added: it comes in the form of a blessing. Thus, the biblical writer pairs “life” with “blessing,” thereby associating God’s blessing with biological reproduction. The fifth day is completed.

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Day 6. Verses 24–31 form creation’s highpoint. The day's work begins as Elohim shifts emphasis to the land and causes it to bring forth animal life. Three broad categories are listed, those that are domestic (livestock), those that are wild, and those that “move along the ground.” Following this, the moderator informs readers of a conversation Elohim holds, either with himself or a royal court. We hear God say, “Let us make man in our image.” This birthing command includes man’s role, which is to “rule over” all of God’s good creation and the life it holds. As with the fifth day, Elohim too blesses humankind, both male and female, enabling race reproduction. Additionally, God provisions the land’s lifeforms with food, the “every green plant” from the third day. This closes the sixth day and with it comes completion of “the heavens and the earth.” All of God’s work is “very good.”

 

The above retell points to a disconnect between Genesis 1 and current scientific models. Significantly, that disconnect locates Genesis on the borderline of myth. But many, likely most believers, resist that placement; among them are those who strongly affirm that the Bible cannot be in error, rather it is science which is faulty. Caught in a vortex formed by myth, science, and the veracity of Scripture’s creation story are numerous believers. Overwhelmed and bewildered, many simply sidestep this murky debate by clinging to a faith that affirms Genesis’s literal depiction of creation despite a formidable body of empirical evidence. (But in the depths of many hearts uncertainty lodges.)

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In this book, the challenge of conflict between myth, science, and the Bible is taken up. Which leads to the question, what relevance can the Genesis creation story, a narrative set some four or more thousand years past, bring to a twenty-first century America rocked by political turmoil and religious fractures? With that context in mind, the Introduction lays out a strategy to authentically read, interpret, and develop meaning.

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