Welcome to Genesis

Bible Survey

Genesis

• Title
  
  

The title of Genesis in the original Hebrew is Ber'eshit. Hebrew usually takes the first word of the book and names it after that. So the first word of Genesis is "In the beginning," and therefore the title is "In the beginning." Greek names this book Genesis, which mean beginning or birth. Latin (usually borrowing from Greek) also calls it Genesis. And English borrowing from those two also calls it Genesis.

• Author
  
  

The author of Genesis has been a great debate in the recent years. Here is where the chips fall. The text makes no claims of authorship. Jewish and Christian tradition attributes it to Moses as a part of the Pentateuch. The rest of the Bible attests to this traditional belief. However if you are German and a Biblical scholar and live in between 1800-1900 you might claim otherwise. As we saw in the last blog they believe in the JEDP Documentary Hypothesis Theory. And this theory is popularly taught on the History Channel, PBS, and most other popular level Biblical programs. However I have tried to show it is a load of manure. There is not that much behind it and it grows out of the arrogance and antisupernaturalism of the modern era. But it you want to believe it fine. But I believe it is a terrible theory and only feeds into man's pride.

• Date Written
  
  

The date that Genesis is written is hard to pin down since it is a historical narrative (history story) and really does not remove itself from that position. But if you believe that Moses wrote Genesis there are several choices you can choose from. Either he wrote it before the Exodus, while still in Egypt (1490 BC). Or he wrote it in his spare time in the wilderness (1425 BC). Or he wrote it towards the end of his life and towards the end of Israel's time in the wilderness (1407 BC).

• The Purpose
  

The purpose of the book to its original audience (the new Jewish nation leaving Egypt) is to remind the Israelites of their history as God's people and to give the foundation for their claims to the land that they were going to (Genesis 15:16; 46:4). The purpose for us today is to learn about all the foundational information from Genesis. Genesis tells us about the beginning of the world, what kind of God God is; The line of Abraham. Just read Hebrews 11 to learn about some of the characters that come from Genesis. On top of that there are great theological teachings in Genesis. There is one God, he created the world, man is in the image of God, the problem in the world is that sin entered in through us. God is holy and cannot stand sin. Man needs to be cleansed from sin in order to stand before God, man is saved by faith. God is sending someone who will bring creation back to a perfect Eden type state. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. One could go on and on about all the themes that begin in Genesis and find their fulfillment and further teaching throughout the Bible.

• The Main Players of Genesis:
  
• Adam (Genesis 1-5)
• First man
• Husband of Eve
• He caused the fall of mankind
• Noah (Genesis 6-9)
• A righteous man, he listened to God and built the ark
  
• Weathered the storm, faithful (Hebrews 11:7)
• Abraham (Genesis 12-25)
• Father of the nation of Israel (and Father of the everyone who has faith in God; Galatians 3:6-9)
• He was promised Land, Seed (a son), and to be a Blessing to the nations (Genesis 12:1-9; Genesis 17:1-8)
• He had a son when he was 100 (Genesis 21:1-5)
  
• Isaac (Genesis 18-35)
• Son of promise (Genesis 21:1-5)
• Offered as a sacrifice, almost (Genesis 22; Hebrews 11:17-20)
• Jacob/Israel (Genesis 25-49)
• The Wrestler (Genesis 25:19-34; 32:22-31)
• The Dreamer (Genesis 28:10-22)
• Israel; Father of 12 tribes
  
• Joseph (Genesis 30-50)
• A son of Jacob (Genesis 30:24)
• A Dreamer (Genesis 37:1-11)
• A righteous man (Genesis 39:8-10; Hebrews 11:22)
  
  
• Literary Elements
  

Genesis can be divided into two main sections. Genesis 1-11 has God focused on mankind in general. In chapters 12-50, God focuses in on one family and works through them, specifically the family of Abraham.

Genesis
Beginning of the Creation				Beginning of the Nation
Genesis 1-11				Genesis 12-50
Four pivotal events				Four pivotal people
Creation	Fall	Flood	Babel	Abraham	Isaac	Jacob	Joseph

• Theological Themes
  

Genesis contains many deep theological themes that create a foundation for the rest of the Bible. The first theme is God as the creator, creating the world ex nihilo, or out of nothing. Many of the other creation stories of this time have God or a god creation the world on accident, or by rearranging material that is already there. Jewish monotheism is the only Ancient Near Eastern religion that has God speaking creation into existence. Furthermore, in most other creation accounts, man is created by the gods as merely a slave worker, or as a plaything of the gods. The Bible is teh only account that has God caring about man and creating him in the very image of God. What special placement and treatment by the Creator.

Another theme is the impact of sin upon the world. God made man, gave him work, gave him a helpmate, and called him to obey his instructions. However man rebelled against God. This through man's world and all of creation into the wrong state (Romans 8:22). The evil that man first let into this world only grew over time. One of the following sins of the Bible is Cain killing his own brother Able. And it only continued to grow. Creation is indeed waiting for this world to be renewed and regenerated by the Redeemer.
This leads into the next theme. Everything went wrong. God though had already prepared a plan. He was going to send someone to fix the problems of this world and crush the serpant who helped bring this trouble in here (Genesis 3:15). God began working out his plan through covanents, or agreements. He made a covanent with Abraham and David that directly worked the redeemer into this world. Jesus is the fulfillment of this recreation plan.
Finally there is the idea of monotheism. Earlier nations all contained polytheism (think of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian gods systems). The strong message of Genesis is that there is one God. He reveals himself to Abraham and Abraham's ancestors continue this line of thinking down through their family. Today we do not have many who hold to polytheism, but it has been the dominant teaching throughout history.

• Issues of Debate

Creation is an obvious issue of debate here in the States. The Bible present a fairly clear picture of creation, it is out of nothing or ex nihilo. God did not take any pre-created matter and merely formed this world from it. Rather he spoke all into existence. However, then comes in the issue of evolution. There are several kinds of evolution, godless evolution (which is not a choice for any of those who might believe a smig of the Bible) and theistic evolution. Theistic evolution teaches that God used evolution to bring about all that we see. However, that is not the picture the Bible represents. And evolution itself is a theory, it is not a hard science (science by definition can be reproduced in the lab). I see no good reason to forfeit Biblical creation, for a theory that contains many holes. Also creation in and of itself is foundation for much of the Bible. God can demand obedience from us because he is the Creator and we are his creation. He also created us in his image, not merely using evolution to bring us about. These two fairly big teachings must be reconsidered or thrown out if evolution is considered an absolute truth. But because it is merely a theory, we can hang onto the implications of Creation in 7 days and a Creator who gives us his image and calls us to obedience.

• Christology

Christology is the teachings about the coming Messiah, or Christ. The first mention of the coming Messiah is in Genesis 3:15, where he is the one who will crush the serpants head. This is called the protoevangelium, which means the first (proto) message of the good news (evangelium). The coming one is also mentioned as the seed of Abraham. In Genesis 26:4 and in 28:14, he is the one who will bless all the nations.

Genesis 1:1

A long one, but there is some good stuff in here

Bible Survey

Introduction to the Pentateuch

• Books
• The Pentateuch covers from Genesis to Deuteronomy
  
  
• Time span
• It begins with Creation and goes to roughly 1407 BC
• What are some of the different events in the Pentateuch?
• Creation
• Fall
• Flood
• Call of Abraham
• Family of Abraham
• Isaac
• Jacob
• Joseph
• Moses
• Israel the nation
  Some pretty big things are going on in these books
  
  
• Author(s), the authorship argument is a big issue for the study of these books
  
• The Pentateuch claims
• Exodus 24:4-7
• Numbers 33:1-2
• Ok the claims of the books of the Pentateuch itself are fairly straightforward, but what about other books of the OT
  
• Old Testament
• Malachi 4:4
• 1 Kings 2:3
• So the entire OT is pretty clear on who they believe wrote the OT
  
• Jewish tradition
• Moses wrote the books of Genesis to Deuteronomy
  
• What does Jesus say about the matter
  
• John 5:46-4
• Luke 24:27
• Jesus on the road to Emmaus
• Mark 7:13
• Jesus quotes from Exodus and says Moses says it
• The Bible seems to be fairly clear on this issue but some disagree.
  
  
• JEDP Documentary Hypothesis (a short history), straight from Old German Theology to your computer
  
• Parts of the OT claim to use sources for information
• Numbers 21:14
• Joshua 10:13
• 2 Chronicles 33:19
• Beginning around 1800, Scholars attempted to first decipher the different unnamed sources in the Pentateuch
• They divided the sources by the names of God used in each section. J is for YHWH, E is for Elohim
• This development led to skepticism of Mosaic authorship. By 1805, one scholar W.M.L. de Wette taught that none of the Pentateuch came before the time of David (at least 400 years after Moses)
• Julius Wellhausen (mid 19^th c. to early 20^th) popularized the JEDP
  Here is a picture of ole' Julius
  
  
  
  
  
  Here is what he argued
  
• J – YHWH documents were written about 850 BC, by a Judean author. Pro-Judean. Concerned with specific theology as YHWH as God alone
• E – Elohim documents written about 750 BC, by a Northern kingdom author. Less concerned with theology, portrays Moses as the prophet and God communicating through dreams
• Around 650 BC these documents were combined.
• D – Deuteronomic school wrote around 621 BC at the revival of Josiah. Concerned with taking down the high places
• P – (570 BC) Priestly documents written with the idea of holiness and specific worship rituals in mind.
  
• How did they divide the text when it appears line by line in a book format? Which line is an E line, which section is a D section? Created much scholarly debate.
• Now not only are there multiple authors of Genesis to Deuteronomy, but there are also multiple and competing theologies.
  
  
• Critique of JEDP theory (Gleason Archer A Survey of the OT Chapter 8)
• JEDP theory was developed in a Deistic philosophical universe. It presupposes that supernatural revelation is impossible. Example, Moses could not have been the author of Deuteronomy because Deuteronomy 28:58-68 happened much later in Israel's history. How could Moses know what would happen, not by God's foreknowledge, but because it was written after the fact.
  
• Scholars assumed that the authors of the Bible could only use one name for God (J or E) or only one style of writing (D or P). Because obviously authors only use one name and one style (I am not sure how obvious my sarcasm is here).
• Even though it claims to be an objective scientific approach, subjectivity reigns in their archaeological reasoning. Biblical information is considered with skepticism, while archaeological and pagan documentation is considered more reliable. In discrepancies between the two, the pagan documentation is shown favor. This skepticism is without cause, seeing as how time and time again archaeology proves the Bible’s historicity. Rather the Bible is just evidence of people’s political propaganda.
• Wellhausen begins with the presupposition that Jewish monotheism evolved from pantheistic roots, despite the textual evidence. All straightforward accounts are reworked by this presupposition.
• Although Semitic literature is repetitious in nature, scholars assume that repetition is evidence of multiple sources. (Reading our cultural and literary rules into their culture and literature). Repetition is not for emphasis but proves multiple authors/editors.
• They assume that they and only they have been able to figure out the text after 3,400 of distance. They know what really happened at this event. The arrogance in writings is really astonishing.
• They divide the text where the text does not divide itself. If you believe that this is God’s word, then this is a big deal for you.
• I believe this field of scholarship is asking the wrong questions, with the wrong presuppositions and therefore getting the wrong answers.
  

• What is the nature of the Bible
• Inspired Word of God
• Answers some of man’s deepest questions, guidebook for our life.
• Who is man?
• Who is God?
• What does God expect of me?
• What is the purpose of life?
• What is going on here (in life)? Tell me what's goin' on.
  
• Is there an afterlife?
• What must I do to be saved?
• This is not just an intellectual question for us, but one that hits to the very core of who we are and what our lives are all about.
• Claims to be inspired by God
• Isaiah 45:14
• This is what the LORD says
• Matthew 5:18; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; Hebrews 3:7; 1 Peter 1:10-12; 2 Peter 1:21
• This in and of itself does not prove that the Bible is the word of God (inerrant – without mistake), but it is a start. The Bible is claiming some authority here.
  
  
• Autographs (Originals) and Copies
• We believe the autographs are inerrant
• BUT We don’t have the originals!
• The copies may have errors
• Problem, there are variations in the copies (just as if I was to miscopy a verse from the Bible). How can we know what the original message is?
• Copies of the NT
• For the NT we have 5,686 known Greek copies (either fragments of books or whole books) that date from the 2^nd to the 5^th c. That does not count copies in other languages. There are 19,284 copies in other languages, some in Latin, Ethiopic, Slavic, and other languages. Altogether there are 24,970 copies. They go all the way back to the late 1^st or early 2^nd c. Now compared to other ancient documents. Homer’s Illiad, earliest copies go back 400 years after it was written and there are only 643 ancient copies available.
• Copies of the OT that we have
  
• Dead Sea Scrolls (written 300BC – 50AD), discovered in the 1940s
  
• Lenigrad Manuscript (written around 1010 AD) – Masoritic text, standard text for Hebrew scholarship today
• The Dead Sea scrolls date from 3^rd c. BC to 1^st c. AD. They are important because they can be compared to copies from much later and confirm the accuracy of these separate copies.
  
• We have many different copies and they are very old in different languages from different parts of the world, so we can compare them. When there are variations, we can see what they are and how we might reconcile them.
• For the most part there is little variation between the texts we have
  
  
• Conclusion
• Many claim today that the bible is no different than the Koran or that Jesus is a prophet just like Buddha or Mohammed.
• If we were all trying to philosophize and figure out who God is on our own then yes we are all on a level playing field. If we are all searching after truth and groping in the dark for it, then yes Jesus’ words are on par with any other “religious” teacher. But if we believe that God has revealed himself to his prophets long ago and even more so through his Son, then what they say is the truth. We are no longer trying to figure out God, but he is communicating with us. This is God’s self-revelation to us. Hebrews 1:1-2.

• We don’t study because it makes us feel good or believe because we believe the Bible is a great work of literature. No we study it because the Bible has authority and God is the one who gives it that authority. This is why we study our Bibles and this is why we trust God's Word.
  

Historical divisions (we are almost to the intro of the OT)

Periods	OT Historical Books	Supplement Books	Chronology
Antediluvian (Pre-Flood)	Genesis
Postdiluvian (Post-Flood)
Patriarchal		Job	2092-1877 BC
Egyptian	Exodus 1-15		1877-1447 BC
Wilderness	Exodus 16-40 Numbers	Leviticus Deuteronomy	1447-1407 BC
Conquest	Joshua		1407-1367 BC
Judges	Judges	Ruth	1367-1045 BC
United Monarchy	1 and 2 Samuel 1 Kings 1-11 1 Chronicles 1 – 2 Chronicles 9	Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Songs	1045-931 BC
Divided Monarchy	1 Kings 12 – 2 Kings 17 2 Chronicles 10-28		931-722 BC
Assyrian		Isaiah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah	722-605 BC
Babylonian		Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel	605-538 BC
Persian	Ezra Esther Nehemiah	Haggai Zechariah Malachi	538-432 BC

Here is a chart of the historical divisions on the Bible. In the far left are the names of the different historical divisions covered by the OT. In the middle rows are the corresponding historical and supplemental books. Then on the far right are the dates assigned to the different divisions.

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. About a month and a half ago, I started working on a Bible study for some people at church. This left me little time to keep up with the Hebrews study. We are still doing the study and will continue for a while, so instead of not blogging at all, I figured I would put up the Bible Survey Bible Study I have been getting together. I freely admit that all this information is not my own but is borrowed from lots of different sources. So if anyone wants to know where I am getting it from, just ask and I can get you a book name or author.

Without further ado or explanation, here is the new direction for my blog: Bible Survey.

Bible Study
Introduction
Getting to know the Old Testament

How the OT is organized:
We divide our Bible into 2 main sections the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament (OT) is organized into 5 sections

Genesis to Deuteronomy is called the Law or Pentateuch
Joshua to Esther is the History
Job to Song of Songs is Poetry
Isaiah to Daniel is the Major Prophets
Hosea to Malachi is the Minor Prophets

Jews divide their sacred writings into three sections
The Torah (Law): Genesis to Deuteronomy
Prophets (The Former and the Latter): Joshua to The Twelve
The Writings: Psalms to 2 Chronicles

Here is a handy table to illustrate the differences

Hebrew Scriptures		English Bible
Torah	Genesis	Law (The Pentateuch)	Genesis
	Exodus		Exodus
	Leviticus		Leviticus
	Numbers		Numbers
	Deuteronomy		Deuteronomy
Former Prophets	Joshua	History	Joshua
	Judges		Judges
	1 and 2 Samuel		Ruth
	1 and 2 Kings		1 and 2 Samuel
Latter Prophets	Isaiah		1 and 2 Kings
	Jeremiah		1 and 2 Chronicles
	Ezekiel		Ezra
The Twelve	Hosea		Nehemiah
	Joel		Esther
	Amos	Poetry (Wisdom Literature)	Job
	Obadiah		Psalms
	Jonah		Proverbs
	Micah		Ecclesiastes
	Nahum		Song of Songs
	Habakkuk	Major Prophets	Isaiah
	Zephaniah		Jeremiah
	Haggai		Lamentations
	Zechariah		Ezekiel
	Malachi		Daniel
The Writings	Psalms	The Minor Prophets	Hosea
	Job		Joel
	Proverbs		Amos
	Ruth		Obadiah
	Song of Songs		Jonah
	Ecclesiastes		Micah
	Lamentations		Nahum
	Esther		Habakkuk
	Daniel		Zephaniah
	Ezra/Nehemiah		Haggai
	1 and 2 Chronicles		Zechariah
			Malachi

The really noticeable difference is that Chronicles is at the end of the Jewish Bible while it is in the middle of the Christian OT. The reason the Jews put it at the end is in part because it serves as a summation of all of Israel's history (Adam to the exile) and has a hopeful theology towards the future.


Here are some fun stats from the OT
The longest book is Psalms
The shortest book is Obadiah
The longest chapter is Psalm 119
The shortest chapter is Psalm 117


Quick history of the OT
The OT was written in 2 different languages, Hebrew and Aramaic
Some of the authors of the books include Moses, David, Amos, Joshua, Solomon, and many more. Of course, I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God so whoever the human author may be, God ultimately is speaking through the Bible. It is not just a good book of wisdom, but it has authority and meaning because it is God's word to us.

The OT was written over 1000 years 1400-400 BC, roughly speaking. Covers from THE Beginning until the exile of Israel.

This is a good place for us to land in this study. I will keep posting these lessons that I am putting together. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed studying for them.