The Book of Genesis - Beginnings. Kenneth B. Alexander
Even after God destroyed the world by a flood, the evil slipped through and recreated itself on this side of the deluge.
Evil bodies may have died but eternal spirits continued. Yet despite the Satanic opposition God, using real people who made real mistakes, formed the beginnings of the Nation of Israel through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (later renamed Israel). Israel was and always will be a small nation but mighty in God. “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers” (Dt 7:6–8).
Joseph, after being imprisoned for 11 years (“Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the LORD tested [refined him] Psalm 105:19) was raised to the throne of Pharaoh and saved his family so they could become a great nation. You don’t see God moving through all the surrounding pagan nations but you find Him moving through Israel His chosen people. This continues through the New testament where the spiritual Israel continues the battle against satanic powers and principalities (Ephesians 6).
Facts About Genesis:
1 NAME OF THE BOOK - Genesis
A. In Hebrew (i.e. the Masoretic Text) the name is the first word of the book, bereshith, meaning “in the beginning” or “by way of beginning.”
B. From the Greek Bible (i.e. Septuagint Greek translation), the name is Genesis, which means “beginning” or “origin,” taken from Gen. 2:4a.
II. CANONIZATION
A. This is the first book of the first section of the Hebrew canon called “The Torah” or “teachings” or “Law.”
B. This section in the Septuagint is known as the Pentateuch (i.e. five scrolls).
C. It is sometimes called “The Five Books of Moses” in English.
D. Genesis–Deuteronomy is a continuous account by (or edited by) Moses concerning creation through Moses’ lifetime.
III. GENRE—The book of Genesis is primarily theological, historical narrative but it also includes other types of literary genre:
A. Historical drama—examples: 1:1–3
B. Poetry—examples: 2:23; 4:2; 8:22
C. Prophecy—examples: 3:15; 49:1ff (also poetic)
IV. AUTHORSHIP
A. The Bible itself does not name the author (as is true of many OT books). Ultimately the author is God!
B. Jewish tradition:
1. Ancient Jewish writers say Moses wrote it:
a. Ben Sirah’s Ecclesiasticus, 24:23, written about 185 B.C.
b. The Baba Bathra 14b, a part of the Talmud
c. Philo of Alexandria, Egypt, a Jewish philosopher, living about 20 B.C. to A.D. 42
d. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, living about A.D. 37–70
2. The majority of scholars attribute the authorship of Genesis to Moses as do they with the other four books of the Torah (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).
DATES
A. Genesis covers the period from the creation of the cosmos to Abraham’s family. It is possible to date Abraham’s life from secular literature of the period. The approximate date would be 2000 B.C., the second millennium B.C. The basis for this is
1. father acted as priest to family (like Job)
2. life was nomadic following herds and flocks
3. migration of Semitic peoples during this period
B. The early events of Genesis 1–11 are true historical events (possibly historical drama) but undatable by current available knowledge.
C. It must be remembered when studying Genesis that the historical events are recorded by Moses who led the people of God out of Egypt in 1445 B.C., based on 1 Kings 6:1. Therefore, either by oral tradition, unknown written sources, or direct divine revelation, Moses records “how it all began” focusing on “who” and “why,” not “how” and “when”!
SOURCES FOR CORROBORATING THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF GENESIS
A. Other Biblical books
1. Creation—Psalms 8; 19; 33; 50; 104; 148 and the NT (cf. John 1:3; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2)
2. Abraham’s time—Job
B. Archaeological sources
1. Earliest known literary parallel of the cultural setting of Genesis 1–11 is the Ebla cuneiform tablets from northern Syria dating about 2500 B.C., written in Akkadian.
2. Creation
a. The closest Mesopotamian account dealing with creation, Enuma Elish, dating from (1) NIV Study Bible, about 1900–1700 B.C. or (2) John H. Walton’s Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context, p. 21, about 1000 B.C. It was found in Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh and other copies were found at several other places. There are seven cuneiform tablets written in Akkadian that describe creation by Marduk.
(1) The gods, Apsu (fresh water—male) and Tiamat (salt water—female) had unruly, noisy children. These two gods tried to silence the younger gods.
(2) One of Ea and Damkina’s children, Marduk (the chief god of the emerging city of Babylon), defeats Tiamat. He formed the earth and sky from her body.
(3) Ea formed humanity from another defeated god, Kingu, who was the male consort of Tiamat after the death of Apsu. Humanity came from Kingu’s blood.
(4) Marduk was made chief of the Babylonian pantheon.
b. “The creation seal” is a cuneiform tablet which is a picture of a naked man and woman beside a fruit tree with a snake wrapped around the tree’s trunk and positioned over the woman’s shoulder as if talking to her.
The conservative Professor of Archaeology at Wheaton College, Alfred J. Hoerth, says that the seal is now interpreted as referring to prostitution. This is a good example of how artifacts from the past are interpreted differently by individuals and through time. This particular piece of evidence must be re-evaluated.
3. Creation and Flood—The Atrahasis Epic records the rebellion of the lesser gods because of overwork and the creation of seven human couples (from clay, blood, and saliva) to perform the duties of these lesser gods. Humans were destroyed because of: (1) over population and (2) noise. Human beings were reduced in number by a plague, two famines and finally a flood, planned by Enlil. Atrahasis builds a boat and brings animals on board in order to save them from the waters. These major events are seen in the same
The order in Genesis 1–8. This cuneiform composition dates from about the same time as Enuma Elish and the Gilgamesh Epic, about 1900–1700 B.C. All are in Akkadian.
4. Noah’s flood
a. A Sumerian tablet from Nippur, called Eridu Genesis, dating from about 1600 B.C., tells about Ziusudra and a coming flood.
(1) Enka, the water god, warns Ziusudra of a coming flood.
(2) Ziusudra, a king-priest, believes this revelation and builds a huge square boat and stocks it with all kinds of seeds.
(3) The flood lasted seven days.
(4) Ziusudra