Genesis 1-3 manuscript study notes

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. Surprising insights from chapter 1: . Light created first, sun & moon created later . Earth created first, dry land and seas created later . Vegetation ð simple animals ð higher animals ð humanity
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. Scientific goofs: . Earth before light . Vegetation before sun
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. God initiates, creates, speaks into existence, evaluates his work, handles his creation – separated; orders and arranges, gives names, delegates authority, sees, envisions his creation before he creates, plans, prepares.
. God speaks and his word
. 1:2: the earth is a formless void, an formless emptiness; orderless, lifeless, nothing. Then in 1:28-31, God has created a bountiful garden for humanity to dwell in. The days show a progression from chaos to complexity, from inhospitable nothing to bountiful hospitality. It is like he is nesting, providing a nursury for a new baby. God creates in order to produce a nursury for his children, his babies, humanity.
. “formless emptiness” first he begins to fill the emptiness, and then he shapes it and gives it form. His creative acts undo the formless emptiness.
. 1:1-2: A summary statement of the entire process. The first creative act: “Let there be light.”
. “water”: waste water, urine: very scary image to these people.
. 1:6: separation actively makes creation more hospitable, it enables naming and begins to bring order out of chaos
. 1:6-8: a picture of God’s intentions here. Both an architect and a sculptor create, out of images in their minds. Both are concerned for aesthetics, but an architect is thinking aobut how to make the dwelling hospitable, shaped to people and how they will use the creation.
. 1:9-13: order coalescing out of chaos; order giving way even to complexity: variety, fecundity, dependency, authority and hierarchy, dynamic power and interaction
. structured dependencies: seas ð dry land ð earth ð vegetation; plants ð seeds; trees ð fruit ð seeds; sea ð sea monsters
. 1:14: “light” same as 1:3 “light”?
. 1:14: the egyptians worshiped the sun, Ra. Here is is clear, not only is the sun created, not divine, but it didn’t even come first. The lights: they aren’t gods, they aren’t
. In fact, all these things that God creates here were competing idols: sun, moon, stars, animals, birds, etc. It is clear that the author intends to put them in their place: created, not creator; derivative, not ultimate.
. 1:14: let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years”: this purpose he gives is not for God, but for people. God doesn’t need to keep track of days and years. Here is a nod to the passage of time, and the order of seasons and years.
. Sun and moon are a blessing to people; when blacked out, a curse and judgment (Jesus’ death, the judgments of Mark 13).
. What is good? Things functioning according to their purpose in creation.
. 1:8: Why doesn’t he call day two “good”? Perhaps because he wasn’t finished—he makes land on day three. But he called day three “good” at two different times.
. Characteristics of creation: 27. V2: out of nothing, chaos 28. V5, 8, etc: a passage of time, not instantaneous 29. V4, 6, 9: increasing order 30. V11-12, 21: great variety, of every kind 31. V21-22: great fecundity: swarms, multiply, fruitfulness, multiply 32. V16, 26: authority, structure, dominion 33. Made for humanity, abundance, generosity, great wealth, full of life
. 1:20: “living creatures”: Hebrews don’t think of plants as “living creatures”.
. 1:20: “let birds fly above the earth”: God envisions birds flying around before he creates them. The birds exist and play in his mind before they exist.
. 1:21: “sea monsters”: even the scary things were created by God and are subject to God and to those to whom he has given dominion. Sea monsters were not agents of creation (as in other myths) but part of it.
. 1:21: “So” = “this is how”: by speaking it, it came into being.
. 1:22: God blesses animals and gives them plants for food. God blesses people and gives them plants for food. Every green plant (1:30)— abundance, choice, extravagance.
. 1:22: God is eager to see living creatures spread out over the face of the earth. He wants his creatures to fill the waters, just as he wants humans to fill the earth.
. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31: The Hebrews conceive that evening precedes morning. The light of day has the final word on the period known as one day. They see God winning the struggle between dark and light every day: he creates light out of darkness once again.
. 1:24:
. 1:26: “let us”: Elohim = plural. The heavenly court. The moment we’ve all been waiting for. The drama is in high form, and lots of beings are anticipating what is coming. First mention of the trinity.
. 1:26: “let them have dominion”: humanity was intended to be plural even before creation, let alone the fall.
. 1:26: “image”, “likeness”: 45. Looks like something 46. Mirrors qualities: creative, intelligent, evaluative, can understand and comprehend structure & order; both male and female; reproductive, relational. Problem: if you are less creative, intelligent, are you less in the image of God? Does that make you less valuable? 47. Representative image or statue. Emperor put markers around the realm — images of himself — to point to the rule, dominion, purposes of the ruler. . Functional definition: As you fulfill this role, you are imaging God. Like an ambassador — delegated dominion and authority.
. 1:27: Humankind: 50. The last of creation: the pinnacle, the peak 51. Made in God’s image 52. Given dominion over all life forms 53. Commanded to till earth and subdue it—make it work for you. 54. Created male and female… Together in God’s image. 55. Blessed by God. 56. Given plants for food.
. 1:29: “See”: God is calling people to see the creation the way he has been. He invites them into the mystery of creation.
. 1:30: Plants can be harvested and eaten without death because plants aren’t alive according to Hebrews. A deathless scene. (See 1:20-21)
. 1:31: Peace, life, order, structure, abundance, fecundity, people in God’s image: shalom
. 1:31: “God saw everything that he had made”: God is very big to be able to take in everything that he has made.
. 1:31: “it was very good”: an implicit call to humans to agree with God re: God’s evaluation of creation.
. 2:1: “the heavens and earth were finished”: God finished his creation, he didn’t continue to tinker, never really satisfied with his product. The world he intended to create in fact he did create.
. 2:3: The seventh day doesn’t end. Perhaps we are still in the seventh day.
. Ps 57:5, 11: Be exalted above the heavens O God. Let your glory fill all the earth.
. Hab 2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God
. 72:19
. Ps 108:5
. Num 14:21
. Is 43:7: Whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
. God’s main objective: to fill the earth with the glory of God.

Chapter 1 summary:

. What questions are being answered in this story?
1. Is creation good? God thinks so: intention, design, purpose; it works as planned
2. What’s the point of creation? For humans. We tend to take dominion for granted, but the world could have looked very different, alien. Today people speak of “species-ism”: the notion that humans are more important than other species. Yet this account fits that notion.
3. How does everything in creation fit together? Hospitality for humankind is the organizing principle.
4. What’s God like? Orderly, planner, methodical, intentional, creative, takes initiative.
5. How are people supposedto relate to God? To the creation? We are to agree with God that his creation is good, without beginning to think that creation is in fact God.
6. What are we? We are dust, creation; we are dependent creatures, not able to sustain existence apart from God.
7. Who is in control? How? God is in control, though he has appointed rulers to whom he has delegated authority for parts of the cosmos.
8. What is the meaning of a thing’s creation? It had a purpose—it speaks of the goodness and glory of God.

. How do we apply this vision of God’s creation? . God’s goodness to people, his intent is to do good. God is good. Evangelistic strategy. . We focus on the problem of evil, but we don’t recognize the problem of good — why things work well and are good.

2:4 ff:
. Why would the author/storyteller retell the story in this way, changing significant details from the first story? One day of creation, not six; Adam is created before plants (day 3) and animals (day 5). Man and woman created together, yet now Man is created first.
. A second look at creation, this time from the perspective of the man.
. Before: a hostile environment is watery chaos. Here, the hostile environment is dry, untilled desert. Hospitality here is a picture of a lush garden.
. 2:4: “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth” not so much a new story but a geneology of creation.
. 2:4: new term for God: LORD God, emphasis on his mastery in relationship to humanity.
. Perhaps this is simply a close-up look at the sixth day, where God creates humanity and the garden of Eden — with plants and animals in the garden.
. A second story for a new set of questions: . What was human life intended to be before disobedience? . What is the nature of humanity in relationship to God? Men to women? People to creation? . In the first story, man is last: a culmination. In the second story, man is first: the centrality of humanity. Both stories communicate the highest value on people, and on
. 2:7 inauspcious beginnings to man — frail earthy quality: dust of the ground. Flimsy.
. 2:5: Ground has a problem: doesn’t have anyone to till it. So God creates man out of the ground. Cf 2:18: man has a problem: doesn’t have a partner. So creates woman out of man.
. 2:7: God was involved intimately inthe creation of Adam—breathed into his nostrils. Adam is creature, but he has divine breath in him, a soul. Perhaps from absence of mention we can discern that animals do not share with people the existence of souls.
. 2:8: “God planted a garden”: he models gardening for Adam.
. 2:9: “pleasant to the sight”: unnecessary, a frill, an extra. God is generous, over the top. He is concerned about beauty, not just utility.
. 2:9: the garden: God creates an object lesson: “I care about life, so I want you to care about life.”
. 2:9: The garden as a boundary, a context for relationship to God.
. 2:10-14: Everything else is past tense, unspecific — this is present tense, very specific. Odd.
. 2:15: The garden is great, but it still requires tilling and keeping. Adam has a job to do before the fall. (Work was not a result of the fall, merely toil.)
. 2:17: The garden contains a rule — only one: eat of all trees except one. It seems like such a dire warning of consequences: this is a parental admonition.
. 2:17: God wants people to trust his definition of good and evil rather than to try to define it or work it out for ourselves. Independent moral choice is “adult”; taking things for granted is so “naive”. Yet God wants his children to be “naive” on sin/good/evil and simply to trust him.
. 2:17: Certain knowledge will kill you — knowledge isn’t always a good thing.
. 2:18: “It is not good”: before the fall, we have an instance of “not- good”. Community is needed before the fall, not simply a response to our sin state. The ideal is not a solitary I-thou relationship with God.
. 2:18: Interesting that once again God’s thought process, his intentional plan, is described here (see 1:26ff).
. 2:19: Did God really think that Adam would find a suitable partner from among the animals? No, God is simply bringing Adam along in an inductive process, preparing him for his finally well-matched partner, Eve.
. 2:19: lit. “Like one facing him” — almost mirror-like image. That is what Adam is psyched about. Same, but different.
. 2:23: “This at last”: Adam has been prepared for a partner by the process with animals. The “at last” indicates that Adam has been longing for the proper partner, and then is very excited by the arrival of Eve. Adam had to find a peer.
. 2:23 Application: Adam needed a peer, and needed to wait, to go through a process of incompleteness before he has a chance to rejoice in the completeness. Often a wait before the consummation of the desire for a partner can be help people be ready for the fit partner God has in store.
. If this was written while the people of Israel were wandering around in the desert, this garden of Eden sounds really wonderful, the opposite of the desert they have been wandering in. This sounds like a beautiful home that God was making for his people.
. How is it that people were made in God’s image, but didn’t know good and evil?
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. What do we know about the serpent? . He was created by God . He was more crafty (lit. “Slimy”) than any other wild animal . Serpent didn’t have the power to produce the fall: he lied, he deceived, but Adam and Eve fell. Serpent is cursed because of Adam and Eve’s fall, rather than vice versa. . Where did he come from?
. Satan’s strategy: . Satan raises doubts by challenging God’s fundamental goodness. Of courser God didn’t say “Don’t eat from any tree.” To put them in that wonderful garden and then say that would be capricious and cruel indeed. In fact, God said the opposite: all the trees, but one, were available for Adam and Eve to eat. Satan presents God as stingy — Eve should have known him as generous. . Satan then continues by contradicting God’s word: “You will not die.” God is not trustworthy. . Finally, he accuses God of withholding some good blessing.
. Parallel between this interactionand Jesus’ temptation by Satan: Satan raises doubts about God’ goodness, misquotes God’s words.
. Eve’s slide into sin: . In response to Satan, Eve doesn’t mention “freely” or “every” as she references God’s commands. She has already begun to place more emphasis on the single restriction than on all the wonderful and abundant provision. She should have been outraged — “God isn’t anything like that!” She isn’t able to respond strongly to the serpent. . “The fence around the law” — Eve adds her own provision beyond God’s dictum: “nor shall you touch it”. Remember she didn’t actually hear God say it, 2:17, unless God reiterated it personally to her. . Finally, Eve begins to evaluate the options — she is starting to consider disobedience. It wis no longer unthinkable to go against God’s command.
. 3:1: Serpent drops “LORD” from “LORD God”: he doesn’t recognize God’s sovereignty.
. 3:1: God’s words are the source and vehicle for God’s authority. The serpent attacks this.
. 3:5: “You will be like God”: This is often what our parents want for us to be like: like God, independent, reliant on no one. This temptation is from Satan.
. The temptation: “drugs will make you wise.” “Mind-expanding drugs”.
. 3:5: “knowing good and evil”: God knows evil without having done it. Experiencing evil produces a kind of knowledge, but doesn’t necessarily produce wisdom.
. Part of the way they come to know good and evil is as they lose good—the good close relationship with their father and creator. This produces knowledge, but with it pain, loss, alienation, shame.
. 3:6: food, beauty, wisdom: universal human desires. 1 John 3:16.
. Temptation of the university education: knowledge for yourself in wisdom versus relying on God’s word and revelation for guidance in our life.
. 3:6: After the advertising, Eve discovers an unmet desire she didn’t know she had before.
. 3:6: “delight to the eyes”: like 2:9, beautiful trees, beautiful fruit.
. 3:6: “fruit”: a “sin sacrament”: an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual reality. Adam and Eve sinned against God before actually eating the fruit.
. 3:6: “who was with her”: Adam was on the scene — he could have counselled against it. He was complicit.
. 3:6: “took of the fruit and ate”: mirror of “take and eat”: a participation in the sacrament of sin vs. A participation in the sacrament of Christ’s saving death.
. 3:7: How do we make loincloths for ourselves? Self-protection, lack of vulnerability, unwillingness to confess sin, etc.
. Their shame was attached to their bodies, not to their behavior. They internalize it, rather than it remaining separate and different from them. This happens to us: we become our sin, we are labelled by it and take it in to our identity.
. 3:9: “Where are you?” Another parental interaction — shame and guilt, awaiting punishment (see 2:15) God asks Adam (though of course he knows) giving Adam a chance to confess. Adam places blame elsewhere. So does Eve. A universal tendency: instead of confession, we would rather place blame on others.
. 3:10: Now God’s presence, once a sign of comfort, is a cause of fear and reproach.
. 3:12: “The woman whom you gave to be with me”: Adam blames God and calls into question his good gift of Eve.
. 3:13: “What is it that you have done?” This same question God asks Cain (4:10).
. 3:13: Eve, too, tries to shift blame, blaming the serpent as tricky.
. 3:13: “The serpent tricked me”: she is no longer naive; she knows what it means to be tricked. She has grown up a little in this. Her eyes have been opened (3:7).
. 3:14: The serpent is cursed with what he must eat. Serpent tricked them to eat. The serpent and the ground is cursed, but people aren’t cursed, though their lives get harder.
. 3:15 singular — “offspring”: prefiguring Christ, who delivered the mortal blow to Satan but was wounded and killed in the struggle.
. 3:15 “you”: this isn’t about enmity between people and snakes, but about Jesus and Satan. This seems to equate the serpent with Satan, which has been previously applied. Romans 16:19.
. 3:15: a blow to the head is fatal, a wound in the heal is limiting but not fatal.
. 3:16: “your desire”: unequal emotional attachment?
. 3:17: Adam’s choice: listening to Eve over God. Perhaps Adam’s sin in the fall is choosing to hold on to God’s gift (Eve) rather than holding onto God and his command.
. 3:17: “cursed is the ground”: toil, pain, death enters the world. Scarcity enters, abundance leaves. They are then forced to leave the garden, representing abundance.
. 3:21: God gives an animal’s death to cover over the effect of Adam and Eve’s sin, the first sacrificial “covering” for sin, a type of Christ. Without death, God cannot redeem. God doesn’t let the full weight of their sins fall on Adam and Eve. So animals lost their lives as a result of the fall — all creation falls and experiences death.
. 3:21: Adam and Eve sew together fig leaves— but God gives them better, more effective clothing. Mercy.
. 3:21: Also another example of parental type of relationship between God and Adam and Eve: he provides clothing.
. 3:22: The tree of life undoes the effects of the fall — no danger before the fall but now God protects humanity from the potential of the tree.
. 3:22: Revelation 22, the tree of life. Also John 6:35, 48-54. “Bread of life” = eat/drink Jesus’ flesh/blood. He is the fruit of the tree of life. If you eat of him, you will live forever. You get back to Eden. Even innocence? Become like little children. There is no life apart from innocence. Death, jadedness is the contrast.
. 3:22: God grants mortality to Adam — as grace. Since Adam has rebelled, God doesn’t want this life of rebellion to last forever.
. 3:23: Tilling the ground — Adam’s purpose in being sent from the garden.
. 3:24: We will never wander back to paradise. Socialism, communism, democratic utopianism, etc.
. So many surprising elements of this story if not written by God: . In the garden: naked, not ashamed: How did this get figured out? . Sin leading to shame and alienation . God walking in the garden. He is very gentle with Adam and Eve, even after the fall. . God makes hems — he softens the blow of the fall and the curse by making decent clothes for his children. He hasn’t divorced his children, though he has disciplined them.
. In the fall, source relationships are fundamentally affected. 90. Man created from ground: ground needed man to till it. With the fall, cursed is the ground. 91. Woman created from man. Man needed woman. In the fall, woman gives birth in pain (even death), and man rules over woman.
. They both become ruled by their chosen idols, what previously they enjoyed.
. Matthew 18:3-4: Enter the K of G like children. Adam and Eve began as children. They desire to be more adult, more grown-up, less dependent.
. Parallels the prodigal son story, the seeking father eager to win back Adam and Eve after they have rebelled and left home.
. Genesis 1-3 and work . Work given before the fall, a characteristic of paradise . God is a worker, humanity created in God’s image . Work relativized by rest . The fall: work becomes toil: all work is ultimately frustrated.
. When their eyes are opened, they experience shame. In their desire to become independent, to strike out against God’s dominion, they find themselves in a place that gets them worse off. They find that they have taken on a crushing burden.
. Rev 3:17ff: “shame of your nakedness may not be revealed”: When the eat they realize how poor, pitiable, blind, naked, weak. They realize the laughable futility of their attempt to be like God.
. When we try to run our own life, we feel the crushing weight of trying to take on the burden of being God for ourselves. The thought that we could take God’s place in our own life becomes shameful when we see ourselves clearly in relationship to our extreme dependence on God.
. 3:20: Adam names his wife Eve, an example of his rulership over Eve. Before the fall, there was no evidence of a male-femal heirarchy. This is a result of the fall.

. What is practicing the presence of God? Like walking with God in the garden in the cool of the day. Like a child walking hand in hand with his/her father along the beach. Like play. Like simple conversation or even the lack of it. Being aware of God’s presence always.
. How would practicing his presence address living in the tree of life vs. the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Practicing the presence of God is very simple — not “wise” in the ways of the world. It seems too simple, in fact. It is acknowledging that even in simple decisions we need God’s guidance and leadership… That we won’t take a step without his guidance, and won’t live a moment outside of his care. Like playing in the forest with my kids: my children want to know where I am… More importantly I always want to know where they are. Practicing the presence of God is so childlike, not adult. Brother Lawrence doesn’t struggle with shame — he goes to God to receive forgiveness easily.
. How does reading the book make you feel? Appealing? Does it relate to your experience? Have you done this? What is it like?
. How is it that people can become Christians in sincerity but become self- righteous prigs? Brother Lawrence definitely doesn’t seem like a self- righteous prig. Eating of the tree of knowledge without the hunger and thirst for righteousness.
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. 4:1: Eve names Cain, after Adam has named everything else. Now she takes authority over what comes out of her.
. 4:4: Why is Abel’s sacrifice accepted, and Cain’s is not? Abel brought the firstlings of the flock, and their fat portions (choice portions if they are being eaten, which seems not to come until later). Cain it says brought an offering — but perhaps not the best or the first.
. 4:4: Ultimately, we are offered no reason for God’s choice — Cain obviously valued the regard of the LORD. How did God reveal his lack of value? On what basis, if any?
. 4:7: God promises that his acceptance of Cain is within Cain’s grasp, if he does well. What does that mean? Perhaps by responding well to this challenge. Mastering sin, not being mastered by it.
. 4:7: God here sounds like a coach for Cain — asking him to stick with it, learn, and overcome.
. God’s challenge to Cain in 4:7 could still be true: If you do well, you will be accepted.” But Cain gives up on faith in God and leaves his presence.
. 4:7: Free will: we are not rejected apart from a choice we make to disobey God.
. 4:8: “Let us go out to the field.” Premeditated and planned murder.
. 4:9: Cain’s defensive lie — he tries to hid his acts from God.
. 4:9: literally, “the shepherd’s shepherd”
. 4:10: “What have you done?” (see 3:13, same question to Eve) Rhetorical question meant to instill feelings of guilt and shame; “Consider what you have done!”
. 4:11: Adam and Eve weren’t cursed, but now Cain is cursed.
. 4:13: “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” Doesn’t acknowledge sin or repent. He responds in shame, but doesn’t acknowledge guilt.
. 4:14: “I shall be hidden from your face” Perceptive thinking, or self- pity and his own choice? God didn’t say that Cain would be removed from his presence. Did he mean that, or did Cain leave God instead.
. 4:14: “face” = “presence” (4:16)
. 4:14: “anyone who meets me may kill me”: Who is the anyone? Incomplete or impartial story-telling? Or are we to infer that God created other people too?
. 4:15: Cain might have taken God’s show of mercy as a sign that God would still be with him. Finally a sign of acceptance that Cain was looking for. But instead Cain leaves God’s presence, not hoping for a deeper relationship or a healed relationship.
. 4:16: Adam hid from God’s presence, but Cain chooses to leave God’s presence.
. 4:16: Cain loses: joy in his vocation, his home, security, family, relationships
. 4:16: Nod: “wandering”
. Application: How do we respond to people when they receive blessing we desire but cannot get?
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. In John 6, Jesus is saying he needs to be consumed. Is this a metaphor? Like the fruit of the tree of knowledge, (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) he needs to be consumed, taken in, ingested.
. Churches are prime places for people who live by the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Why? Because people often go to church to be a good person.
. How do we fill the earth with the glory of God? How are we agents of this? As you live in the tree of life, you begin to act towards others the way God would act towards them.
. How does the Holy Spirit fit in? The tree of life way of life is not possible on our own resources… It implies a knowledge that we need God. . Acts 1:4-5: Don’t do anything but wait for the HS. . John 7:38-39: “He who believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers… The HS . Acts 2:17-18: Joel prophecy about the outpouring of the HS . John 14:16-18: And I will ask the father, and he will give you another counselor, the spirit of truth.
. We face the two trees choices every day, multiple times of day. We must feast on Jesus in order to make the choice for life.