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    Genesis Survey
    Genesis Survey
    Genesis Survey
    Ebook233 pages3 hours

    Genesis Survey

    By Edwin Walhout

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    About this ebook

    How the first book of the Bible is put together, and what it all means for a theistic worldview.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEdwin Walhout
    Release dateJan 12, 2011
    ISBN9781458041081
    Genesis Survey
    Author

    Edwin Walhout

    I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

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      Book preview

      Genesis Survey - Edwin Walhout

      GENESIS SURVEY

      Understanding the First Book of the Bible

      by Edwin Walhout

      Published by Edwin Walhout

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2010 Edwin Walhout

      Cover design by Amy Cole (amy.cole@comcast.net)

      For additional ebooks by this author, go to Smashwords.com

      (then type Walhout in the search box).

      Bible quotations are from the New International Version of the Bible.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      1 Overview

      2 The Creation Hymn

      3 Adam and Eve

      4 Adam’s Line

      5 Noah

      6 Shem, Ham, and Japheth

      7 Shem

      8 Terah

      9 Ishmael

      10 Isaac

      11 Esau

      12 Jacob

      Excursus # 1 The Word of God

      Excursus # 2 History and Civilization

      * * * * *

      Chapter 1

      OVERVIEW

      I. The Cultural Context

      The Author’s Original Intent

      To understand any book of the Bible we need to figure out, as best we can, what the author had in mind when he wrote it. We need to transport ourselves back to the author’s time and country and language, understand the prevailing attitudes and thought patterns of the people in general, and then read what is written in that context.

      This is comparatively easy to do with some books of the Bible. It is fairly difficult with others, such as the first and last books, Genesis and Revelation. We open ourselves up to major mistakes if we simply take the English words and apply them to a twentieth-century setting, disregarding the author’s original intent.

      Consequently we need to pay very close attention to translations. A poor translation of some particular passage may throw us off the track of correct meaning. The better we understand the original languages, the more likely we are to get into the spirit of the text. Of course, very few of us can be experts in ancient languages, and we have to rely upon those who are. We must try to be honest with ourselves and the original text of the Bible, being willing to be instructed and to change our opinions if necessary.

      The Reader’s Modern Understanding

      First we need to understand what the author is saying to the people for whom he wrote, the people of his own times. Only then can we attempt to understand how what is said in the ancient world can be updated honestly to the modern world. Conditions in the ancient world were vastly different from conditions in the modern world. What was written in ancient times often had meaning for the people then, whereas it might have little or confusing meaning for us today.

      The first eleven chapters of Genesis are prime examples. Modern scientific research has demonstrated convincingly that the universe is millions of years old, and that human life on earth goes back hundreds of thousands of years. Yet if we take the genealogies of early Genesis literally we would conclude that planet Earth cannot be much more than 6000 years old, as the chronology in some King James Bibles suggests. We have to find reasonable and faithful ways of conveying ancient meanings into our modern world, and this requires us to be honest both with the ancient culture and with our contemporary world.

      II. Some Literary Antecedents

      It comes as quite a shock to Bible-loving Christian people to learn that some of the stories in the first eleven chapters of Genesis appear to be adaptations of earlier stories in ancient Babylonian literature.

      Mesopotamian References

      We are familiar enough with the numerous references in the first eleven chapters of Genesis to the Mesopotamian world:

      The Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10-14)

      The land of Nod, east of Eden (Genesis 4:16)

      The mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4)

      Nimrod’s kingdom (Genesis 10:10-12)

      The plain in Shinar (Genesis 11:1)

      Ur of the Chaldeans (Genesis 11:31)

      Haran (Genesis 11:31)

      Mesopotamian Documents

      We are not so familiar with the fact that archaeologists in the Mesopotamian area have unearthed many cuneiform tablets which contain stories about how the heavens and the earth were created, about long-lived dynasties of prehistoric peoples, about a vast flood nearly wiping out the human race. (Consult, for example, Documents from Old Testament Times, D. Winton Thomas, editor, Harper Torchbooks, 1958; and The Babylonian Genesis, Alexander Heidel, University of Chicago Press, 1942-1972.) The Biblical versions of these stories, of course, are significantly different, but it is almost impossible to deny that the Hebrew author was working with traditions originating from the Mesopotamian documents.

      For example, in the Babylonian story of the flood a god warns King Utnapishtim that some of the other gods are plotting to drown all humans with a great flood. He urges Utnapishtim to build a vessel in order to escape drowning. After the waters subside, the vessel comes to rest on the top of a high mountain, and the king sends out birds to discover if the land has dried up sufficiently to disembark. Afterward the king makes a sacrifice to the gods.

      This Babylonian version of the flood was written considerably earlier than the Hebrew version, so that it is very difficult to deny that there is some continuity from the earlier version to the later version. The same can be said of some of the other stories in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Alexander Heidel writes, It is not unreasonable to assume that some of the Babylonian traditions, such as the stories of creation and of the deluge, were known also to the Hebrews, at least to their leaders. (The Babylonian Genesis, p. 133)

      What must we make of this? It would not be honest to evade the question, ignoring the problem that such similarities present, but what does it do to our confidence in the inspiration and authority of the Bible? Can we say that God inspired the writers of Genesis to adapt pre-existing stories from the Babylonian world to serve God’s purposes in teaching his people Israel?

      And then there is the question of relating these ancient texts to our modern world. Is the Biblical version of these stories, adapted from ancient Babylonian literature, scientifically valid? If not, what purpose does God have for us in reading these accounts? What use does God wish us to make of these early accounts in Genesis? How does he want us to discover their meaning for us in the twenty-first century?

      III. Genesis: A Library of Eleven Scrolls

      Name

      Though Genesis was written in the Hebrew language, the name Genesis has its origin in the Greek language. Ancient scrolls did not bear separate titles, but were referred to by the first significant word in them. This scroll, for example, was known among the Jews as Bereshith, which is the first word in Hebrew (In the beginning). When it was translated into the Greek language, the first word in Greek was geneseos, which in English becomes Genesis, and that is the title that has come down to the modern world.

      Contents

      The book of Genesis can be divided into two major, though unequal, parts. The longest part by far is the section beginning in chapter 12 and continuing to the end, chapter 50. This section contains the stories of the four Israelite patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. It covers, therefore, only four generations.

      Chapters 1 through 11, on the other hand, cover the period from Creation through the Flood and the Tower of Babel, a much longer period of time. The total elapsed time, as measured by the chronological dates included, comes to 1656 years. If we were to accept these dates as accurate, Adam would still be living during the lifetime of Noah’s father Lamech, and Noah would have lived until the 60th birthday of Abraham. (Data taken from E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible)

      We may call these two divisions of Genesis 1) Primeval History (chapters 1-11), and 2) Patriarchal History (chapters 12-50).

      Subdivisions

      In terms of content, the book of Genesis may be divided into two parts: Primeval History and Patriarchal History. But in terms of composition, it is interesting to note, Genesis divides itself into eleven clearly marked subdivisions. After the opening section, Genesis 1:1 - 2:3, describing the seven days of creation, there are ten clearly identified documents:

      The account of the heavens and the earth (2:4 - 4:26)

      The account of Adam’s line (5:1 - 6:8)

      The account of Noah (6:9 - 9:29)

      The account of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (10:1 - 11:9)

      The account of Shem (11:10-26)

      The account of Terah (11:27 - 25:11)

      The account of Abraham’s son Ishmael (25:12-18)

      The account of Abraham’s son Isaac (25:19 - 35:29)

      The account of Esau (36:1 - 37:1)

      The account of Jacob (37:2 - 50:26)

      This makes eleven clearly identifiable documents. We may understand that each of these eleven documents may have been written independently and separately on a different scroll of papyrus, and later collected into one book, just as the Bible itself is a collection of numerous separate documents.

      These eleven scrolls comprised the first library for the ancient Hebrews who were as a whole illiterate at the time they gained their independence from Egypt. Perhaps Moses assigned some of the Levites, during their forty-year wanderings in the wilderness, to collect and/or write these documents. Perhaps this was the beginning of the role of scribes in ancient Israel. So we see eleven scrolls in the ancient Israelite library, which at some later time were edited and compiled into one book which we now know as Genesis.

      Genealogies

      Each of the last ten scrolls which comprise Genesis bears a title beginning with the phrase, The Account of ... . Most of them then continue with a genealogy of the person named in the title. Taken all together, these genealogies trace the descendancy of the people from Adam through Joseph’s children.

      This observation is very useful in determining why the book of Genesis was written. It is to record the genealogy of the Israelite nation, not only to its beginnings in Abraham, but all the way back to the first humans. The heart of Genesis is its genealogies. Even yet in New Testament times Jewish people were very proud of their ability to trace their ancestry far back -- we are children of Abraham, they boasted.

      Histories

      But obviously there is much more to the book of Genesis than these genealogies. There are many stories about events which happened in the past. Each of the separate documents of Genesis begins with the genealogy of that person, but it also forms a convenient place to put everything known about that person.

      So here are some interesting stories we have learned about Abraham, the scribes might have said to each other, instead of making a separate scroll for them why don’t we put them in the scroll we already have? And these stories about Noah -- where shall we put them? We don’t need to have a separate scroll for them, let’s add them to the scroll of the children of Noah. Here is another story we have just discovered about Joseph -- where does it go? And the ancient scribes would find a place to fit it in.

      The point of the above is that the existing genealogical scrolls provided a very convenient way for the later scribes to preserve whatever stories they discovered in their researches. That is how, possibly, the book of Genesis gradually took on the form which we have today. We don’t have to think that it was written by just one person at one given time.

      We may reasonably conclude that the preservation of these stories is the second purpose of the book of Genesis. The people who were responsible for collecting oral traditions and for reducing them to writing were mainly interested in telling the story of the beginnings of the Israelite nation, going all the way back beyond Abraham to Adam.

      Monotheism

      It is important to see the significance of Abraham in the book of Genesis. In the development of God’s eternal purpose Abraham’s life was as much of a turningpoint as the later exodus from Egypt. It was Abraham who set out on the path not traveled before, leaving his father’s home and society. The heart of his dissatisfaction with current Mesopotamian culture was its belief in many gods, polytheism.

      Very likely Abraham perceived that there could be no stability and unity and justice in human life so long as people served competing gods. If you believe in gods who fight and deceive and connive, then you will justify your imitating them. Accordingly, Abraham, having heard the call to serve one only God, left his culture and family, seeking a new land where he and his descendants could serve one God in the stability and peace of internal harmony. He would become the father of a multitude, his descendants would inherit a new land, and in the distant future what he and Sarah were now initiating would benefit the entire world.

      The core of it all was monotheism. All ancient civilizations were shaped by their view of the gods, that is, by their religion. The polytheism of ancient Mesopotamia, out of which Abraham migrated, had produced a relatively prosperous and productive civilization -- the ancient Babylonian empire. However, in polytheism the world of the gods was a world of intrigue, of violence and conflict, of changing supremacies. Any civilization built upon such beliefs, accordingly, would also acquire those characteristics, lacking a transcendent sense of order, priority, control, justice, respect, peace.

      So far as we know, therefore, Abraham was the first person in history to sense that in order to overcome the inequities of contemporary culture, it was necessary to abandon polytheism and to seek unity and truth and stability in terms of one only God. He and his family had to break out of the polytheistic world in which they were raised, and begin anew under the aegis of one God only. The history of the Patriarchs is the history of the origin of monotheistic civilization, and, as we shall see later, it is precisely from the point of view of monotheism that the ancient Babylonian traditions were revised to find their place in Genesis.

      IV. Genesis Has Multiple Authors

      Traditionally it is thought that Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy). Modern scholarship, both Jewish and Christian, has shown this to be highly unlikely. Moses is always described in the third person, as would any historical figure being described in later years. This is not to say Moses wrote none of it, but only to say that other persons surely had a hand in producing these five documents as we have them today.

      The Name of God

      It seems clear enough that the same person did not write all of these documents. The most noticeable difference between these eleven documents is the word which is used for God. If the same person wrote all these eleven scrolls, one would expect him to use the same word for God throughout. But the the scrolls do not all use the same word.

      Elohim. Whoever wrote Genesis 1, for example, consistently used the word Elohim (plural of El, which is the generic name for the High God in all Canaanite religions). In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. ... And Elohim said ...

      Yahweh. In the next section, however (2:4 - 4:26), the author uses two names in conjunction, LORD God. (Whenever the Old Testament writes LORD in upper case it is translating the Hebrew word Yahweh.) This second document usually employs the term Yahweh Elohim when it refers to God, although it sometimes uses the word Yahweh alone, not in conjunction with Elohim (e.g. 4:1).

      Biblical scholars conclude, quite reasonably, that documents using different names for God were written by different people at different times and places. The book of Genesis is composed of eleven such separate documents, as listed above, though this does not imply there are eleven different authors. Actually, most Old Testament scholars agree that there are three or four, and perhaps more, major authors (or editors) represented in the Pentateuch.

      So we can reconstruct the situation somewhat as follows. The stories of ancient ancestors were passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation. Literate individuals, like Joseph and Moses and doubtless other unnamed persons, became acquainted with the literature of other nations. After Moses welded the people into a nation, and the religious institutions were established, a guild of scribes (possibly Levites) gathered all the information they could about Israelite history and assembled it into a series of scrolls. This process continued for hundreds of years, and the scrolls so gathered became Israel’s sacred national literature.

      In later years there were certainly many other documents which became sources for these scribes. The Bible itself mentions several, for example: The Book of the Wars of Yahweh (Numbers 21:14), The Chronicle of Solomon (1 Kings 11:24), The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (1 Kings 14:19), The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (1 Kings 14:29), and The Book of Jashar (Joshua 10:13).

      During the course of time, new documents would be discovered, old ones updated, and new ones written. As the generations passed, different people would naturally be doing the writing. They would not want to change anything in the ancient documents passed on to them, other than perhaps writing a marginal comment about it (which later may have been incorporated into the body of the text). So the Pentateuch would take on the marks of a variety of authors. Moses may well have been one of those who wrote original scrolls, but surely not the only one to have had a hand in it.

      Usage of the Name Yahweh

      Something like the preceding may well account for the following anomaly concerning the

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