Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Genesis

[Fiddy]

How do you explain/interpret Genesis? This isn’t simply a “literal or figurative” question about Adam and Eve.

I am a follower of Christ and my faith is firm.

Me and my girlfriend were talking about Genesis and other religions and revelations of God, etc. and she had a question (which brought on other questions within myself) that I felt I didn’t have a good answer too.

If religious activity and worship of God/gods dates back to pre-Abraham times, why didn’t God reveal himself to these other cultures/peoples, especially outside of Mesopotamia? Does this have to do with the Tower of Babel?

From Adam to Noah, Genesis portrays these characters as having contact with God. He’s not really identified with a name until Exodus 3. The Bible simply addresses Him as elohim, if I’m mistaken please correct me. I AM WHO I AM states that He is the elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Is this intentional? What does this indicate?

Are the characters from Adam to Noah simply stand-ins used to make theological points in reference to Mesopotamian creation accounts? Were they thinking of the whole world when they were writing it, even if they wrote within the culture of their time? It makes it seem like there have been people, who from the beginning have had revelation of the one true God, but why wouldn’t there be more evidence of this in ancient cultures worldwide? Why Mesopotamia?

Main one: How is it fair for God to judge everyone that the Genesis narrative doesn’t include? Or...does Genesis include everyone pre-Abraham and am I just missing something/interpreting this wrong? These were the questions I had trouble answering.

I’m fairly familiar with non-Christian scholarly theories of the roots of Judaism in Babylonian exile, etc, or there not being much archaeological evidence for Exodus or much of anything pre-David, or Yahweh coming from the Babylonian pantheon (which I’m not really convinced of). Although, of course the OT has much to say about different nations and stuff that have been proven to have existed. That stuff doesn’t bother me, there’s only so much archaeology of the ancient world we’ve uncovered and theories from non-believers have to paint Judaic roots this way because of their presuppositions. They don’t scare me and sometimes it’s even been helpful in weeding out my fundamentalist roots.

My struggle just comes from how to interpret Genesis. This book is wild and frankly, confusing sometimes, in terms of “what does this mean/how do I interpret this with my modern eyes and mindset?” My faith isn’t in shambles or anything, I have been changed by Christ and my faith rests in Him, and I have fruit as evidence, but I just don’t have good answers to these questions and I’d appreciate some answers or resources.

I am familiar with some of Michael Heiser’s work, so I’ve definitely gotten more understanding of the fall, the sons of God, and the Tower of Babel and how those things connect with Babylonian creation stories and how they play out in the NT.

I’ve prayed over these things, and maybe I’ve over-complicated them in my head, but I see these questions come up more and more and I just find myself stumbling when answering or just not knowing how to explain things concisely.

[jimwalton]

> How do you explain/interpret Genesis?

From Dr. John Walton: The purpose of Genesis is to begin the story of the covenant. God created everything to function properly, and everything had its appropriate role to play. He wanted a loving relationship with humans. But sin drew people away from God, so much that they no longer had an accurate picture of what God was like. So God decided to make a covenant, to show them what He was really like.

> If religious activity and worship of God/gods dates back to pre-Abraham times, why didn’t God reveal himself to these other cultures/peoples, especially outside of Mesopotamia?

As far as we know, God did reveal Himself to these other cultures. We read in Gn. 4.25 that people were calling on the name of the Lord. Genesis 10 indicates that descendants of Noah moved all over the known world at the time. We can reasonably assume they took the knowledge and the teaching of YHWH with them.

> Does this have to do with the Tower of Babel?

Not particularly. The story of the Tower of Babel is primarily about understanding God properly. We are not free to make God what we want Him to be; we must understand Him the way He has revealed Himself.

> From Adam to Noah, Genesis portrays these characters as having contact with God. He’s not really identified with a name until Exodus 3.

Genesis 2.4 calls Him "Yahweh Elohim," so the same name that shows up in Ex. 3 is already in use in Gn. 2.4.

> I AM WHO I AM states that He is the elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Is this intentional? What does this indicate?

Everything in the Bible is intentional.

That He (Elohim) is the God of A, I, and J indicates continuity with the covenant God gave to Abraham. What God is about to do with Israel is fulfilling a covenant promise and giving them a covenant blessing. The association back to A,I, & J makes that connection explicit.

> Are the characters from Adam to Noah simply stand-ins used to make theological points in reference to Mesopotamian creation accounts?

No, not at all. These are meant to be taken as historical figures, with no reference to the Mesopotamian creation accounts. The Genesis text stands in contrast to the Mesop. accounts.

> Were they thinking of the whole world when they were writing it, even if they wrote within the culture of their time?

Probably not. They were thinking of their region.

> It makes it seem like there have been people, who from the beginning have had revelation of the one true God, but why wouldn’t there be more evidence of this in ancient cultures worldwide? Why Mesopotamia?

Mesopotamia, as we learned in world cultures class, was the cradle of civilization.

> How is it fair for God to judge everyone that the Genesis narrative doesn’t include?

I'm convinced the flood was regional (the world they knew), not global. I agree that it would have been unfair to judge everyone worldwide.

> Yahweh coming from the Babylonian pantheon (which I’m not really convinced of).

Yeah, I'm not convinced either.

> My struggle just comes from how to interpret Genesis.

It's the story of the beginning of the covenant. In it we learn important themes that will carry through all of Scripture and history: the sin problem, the problem of seeing God accurately, God's presence, God's covenant, redemption, and resurrection. All of these themes begin here in Genesis, and we see them on just about every page of the Old Testament. They all come to fulfillment in Jesus, and they all come to completion in Revelation and beyond.

Let's talk some more.

[Fiddy]

So Moses had knowledge of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Do we get clued in on how he would know this while being raised by the Egyptians? Or is God basically saying, “The Hebrews, your people, will know what I’m saying”?

And thank you for mentioning the world cultures class because 7th grade came rushing back to memory and made me laugh and think “Oh yeah, duh”

[jimwalton]

> Moses had knowledge of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

One thing that's obvious through the Bible is that they are a people group who valued genealogical knowledge and who kept records of their ancestry. In Genesis alone, we see it in Gn. 5; 10; 11.10-26; 25.12-18; 35.23-26; 36; 46. As a matter of fact, one of the governing outlines organization Genesis is its genealogies ("these are the generations of..."). With these facts in mind, it is inevitable that Moses would have known his genealogy as well, since he had been raised as a Hebrew (Ex. 2.8-9, 11-12). They even knew that both of his parents were descendants of Levi, Jacob's son.

> Do we get clued in on how he would know this while being raised by the Egyptians?

For at least the first several years, Moses was raised by his mother, who was also his wet-nurse. The standard period of nursing a child in those days in that culture was until they were 3 or 4 (which sounds SOOOO long to us Westerners). Since the Hebrews were acutely aware of their covenant with God, no doubt it was in their early years when Jochabed (Moses's mama) taught him about the God of A,I, & J, and that the Hebrews were his fellow countrymen.

After the age of 4, Jochabed would have stopped nursing him. When he grew older (which could be at age 3-4, but perhaps as old as 12!), Moses would have been educated by a royal tutor, usually a high official at court or a retired military officer in close relationship with the pharaoh (Ex. 2.10). So it's unknown exactly how much time Jochabed would have had to train Moses, but it was possibly until his "coming of age" at 12 yrs old.