In this issue THE OUTLOOK presents the opening articles by Dr. Peter Y. De Jong on Genesis 1–11 intended for study by church societies, other groups, and for personal use. Dr. De Jong, professor at Calvin Seminary from 1964 to 1970, and presently serving as the pastor of the First Christian Reformed Church of Sioux Center, Iowa, is well known also for his unquestioned loyalty to the Reformed faith, as manifested in the books he has written as well as the outlines he has produced for Bible study. His series on Genesis 1–11 is scheduled to appear in THE OUTLOOK from September 1971 through April 1972.
Scripture – Read through Genesis. Note its distinctive sections. Only in the light of its structure and message can its several parts be understood.
People today seem to shy away from study. Books, magazines, pamphlets are published in such quantity, that nobody can survey them all. Often the learning accrued from our reading is superficial and incidental. Most of what we read we forget by tomorrow.
Possibly this accounts for our growing fascination with other media. Marshall MacLuhan has helped us understand the revolution-in-learning going on in this generation. People are “immersed” in the new media. This is especially true of the theater, including motion pictures. Here life seems to happen so strikingly within our range, that we find ourselves involved. So strongly are our feelings at their deepest levels attracted, that we are swept along by the medium. We lack time and energy for any careful analysis, reflection, and evaluation. Thus the message insinuates itself into our lives without any critical awareness on our part. Small wonder that thought and the issues of truth and falsehood play a subordinate role. It takes a back seat to what we are feeling.
That drama with all its activity has an important function in our learning processes and can be used to good advantage need not be denied. Even the Bible makes room for this. God comes to us not merely through the printed page but by “the lively preaching of the gospel.” Here intonations, gestures, and facial expressions play a role. But always they are subordinated to the very words of God himself. They help to illumine as well as to attract or repel; they may never substitute for the message itself.
This we as Christians must remember for the shaping of our lives in faith-obedience to Christ.
For us, then, there must be time for personal reading and reflection on God’s Word. Only then can we garner rich fruits from preaching and discussion with others. To absorb what we hear from others passively and unreflectingly is wrong. Does not the apostle exhort us, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
No one can read about and remember everything. For this the world is too big, too complex, too overwhelming and fast-moving.
We must therefore choose our priorities responsibly.
High on the list should be Bible reading and study, especially today when ignorance of the holy writings even among professing church members increases at an appalling rate. Here group discussion can offer precious help. We meet with others at stated times, expecting their presence as they do ours, to hear more precisely what God has to say in these days. In that fellowship around the Word, saturated with the Spirit’s presence in response to prayer, we may confidently expect great things to happen to God’s praise, to our growth in grace, and to the advantage of others. With the Word upon our hearts, now grasped more fully and deeply, we go again into the world of daily living for him.
Such fruits are precious. To reap them abundantly asks a tillage of the soil of mind and heart.
Let’s begin, then . . .
The series for this year deals with the opening chapters of Genesis. Although at first reading they seem so simple and straightforward, we soon discover heights and depths in the message which challenge to greater concentration.
Studying is much more than simple reading.
We are to involve ourselves totally in the words before us. God Himself calls us to the “complicated” response of faith. We are to know on the deepest level what God says for our lives. This can be experienced only when we enter into “dialogue” with that Word. Our mind and heart should ask and seek answers—analyzing, comparing, evaluating on the basis of convictions. The word itself “reveals” what is in our hearts: love or hate, acceptance or rejection, ignorance or indifference or a delight in hearing the voice of Him who calls us to covenant fellowship with Himself. Thus are our lives shaped. Barth to the contrary, God’s Word becomes for the believers a personal experiential possession, But this is possible only because in the process God takes more complete possession of us.
How—to put it in simple language—can we profitably study Scripture? What are some of the questions we may ask to make such study more fruitful?
Let’s list only a few. Who wrote or spoke the words we are reading? Why were they said? How are they related to what precedes and to what follows? In what setting—personal, social, geographical, historical, etc.—were they spoken and heard? What reaction was invoked? Which details are added, and why? What is our connection today with speaker and hearer(s) of so long ago? What response arc we giving; should we give? To this list you may easily add questions of your own. Out of such preparation on the part of many a discussion can grow to produce greater clarity and conviction concerning God’s will for His people in all ages.
But why Genesis?
Of all the sixty-six books which comprise Holy Writ none is so fascinating but often frustrating as the first, commonly called Genesis. It is, as its title indicates, “the book of beginnings.” The title derives from the practice of using the first word as a means of identification of some Bible books. It reflects to a large extent also the subject-matter.
Even the most casual reader can observe that Genesis speaks about the beginnings of the heavens and the earth, of land and sea, of plants and animals and mankind, of fellowship with God, of marriage and family life, of temptation together with man’s sin and exile from God, of the promise of salvation, of grace and judgment through the generations, of the kind covenants of God with his people, etc.
Here answers are given to basic questions which men everywhere have been asking since the beginning of time. Yet as we read, we soon find mixed emotions arising within us. Some passages seem too brief; others crowded with details that don’t seem to speak to us, And when we take the answers seriously, there is that which we don’t like at all. Only by taking time and prayer and concentration will we be able to come, as believers, to some true understanding of what is recorded.
Several reasons can be given why we should study Genesis, A few are now to be mentioned:
– because it is for many the first Bible book with which acquaintance is made. Its stories stand out in our minds, since we heard them already as little children;
– because it is foundational for understanding the Bible’s basic message: that of man’s fall into sin and the wonderful salvation which God provides;
– because it is referred to so often in the Old and New Testaments. Both Israel and the New Testament church can understand their place and calling only in the light of God’s dealings recorded here;
– because it answers the most basic questions which confront man in his existence on earth: who am I? whence came I? what am I to do? why is my life so often unhappy and frustrating? what is the meaning of life anyway? how do I relate to others?
– because, and this is most important of all, it presents itself as part of God’s Word through which He calls and brings men to salvation.
To this should be added another reason. Throughout the centuries and especially today the Genesis account is under fire. No book of the Bible has been more frequently the center of intense interest, debate and discussion. Although the arguments presented by scholars, as they faced fundamental issues concerning the authority, authorship, contents, message, etc. of this book, have often been intricate and difficult to follow, they help to illumine the basic issues of the Christian faith. One’s world-and-life view as well as life-style depends, in no small measure, on whether or not we accept Genesis as God’s own, reliable, dependable and needful message for us today. No one in his right mind can dismiss the issues which it raises about man’s origin, nature, calling, relationship to God, and destiny as insignificant.
The stance we take . . .
Only one matter remains to be considered at this time.
It makes all the difference in the world how (i.e., in what frame of mind and heart, with what convictions) we read and study this first Bible book.
No one approaches any book, least of all Holy Scripture, in a “neutral” fashion. Whether a man realizes this or not, he at his first confrontation with it has made some “judgment” about it. He supposes that it is either important or unimportant to him. Even more, he assumes that it is what it claims to be, namely God’s Word, or simply a human record which mayor may not be trustworthy and helpful.
Here, then, we look at ourselves as “learners.” And whether we shall learn what we should or not is greatly influenced by what kind of learners we are. Today it’s so popular (and personally flattering) to blame the teacher or the teaching-material when learning doesn’t take place. Nine-tenths of the failures to learn, however, spring from the learner himself. And believing the classic Christian view that Scripture is God’s inspired, infallible, and trustworthy Word to us, we will approach also Genesis eagerly reverently . . . seriously. Above all, we will approach it prayerfully, saying each time anew, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”
Questions for discussion –
1- How would you account for the growing ignorance of and even indifference to the Bible on the part of many church members?
2- Discuss God’s Word as the chief means of grace. Does this mean God saves us in a kind of mechanical and magical way? May those indifferent to Bible reading and study believe they are saved? State your reasons.
3- What does it mean to prove the spirits? What is the test required? Who and what are to be tested? How can we engage in such testing?
4- Are all questions about the Bible legitimate, permissible? Explain your answer and give examples.
5- What do you understand by the basic rule that “Scripture must be interpreted in the light of Scripture?” Does this mean that the study of Near East geography, history, culture, archeology, etc. are of no value?
6- List several New Testament references to Genesis and its contents.
7- Should missionaries begin the message with Genesis or with the gospels (life and death of our Lord)? In what sense is the one incomplete without the other?
8- How often in the last year or two did you hear a sermon on Genesis material? How did it present God’s self-revelation in Christ? May we read Genesis apart from New Testament light? Give reasons for your answer.
9- What do you understand by the inspiration of the Bible? Explain 11 Timothy 3:16, 17 and II Peter 1:19–21. What is inspired: the writers or the writings or both?
10- How can we cultivate deeper respect for and interest in and reliance upon Scripture, also in our children?
(2)
SURVEYING THE FIELD
Scripture—
Read through Genesis again, this time making your own brief Outline before reading the lesson. This promotes understanding better than simply taking over someone else’s outline, even though you may want to make changes in yours later on.
In 1554 Calvin prepared his Commentary On Genesis. Nine years later he provided a French translation, introduced with a dedicatory letter to Henry of Navarre, then ten years old and later to become king of France.
Calvin explains with great care his reasons for presenting such a volume to one so young in years. The young prince, surrounded by teachers and courtiers, was being taught many things. To this the reformer wanted to see added a sound indoctrination in Scripture and its content. He urges this as knowledge of the most basic and significant sort. Only it can give “an indisputable assurance respecting the Creation of the World, without which we should be unworthy of a place on earth. . . This one consideration stamps an inestimable value on the Book, that it alone reveals those things which are of primary necessity to be known.” Here we see God at work in creation and providence, and above all in calling a church to salvation for his praise.
Calvin therefore urges the prince’s most careful attention. Only then will he escape the snares spread before him by his teachers who would allure with sophisticated theories, and by courtiers who would tempt with luxuries and delicacies which dissolve into lasciviousness. All has to be put to the test of Scripture, specifically in this case of Genesis. Life-view and life-style of the prince will, to Calvin’s mind, be largely molded by the response. And ten years of age is not too young to be so challenged!
How much more, then, should not we of more and much maturer years be challenged! Ours is a world which claims that the old world-view must make way for something radically new; that the old life-style patterned by God’s Word can no longer be defended. But if Genesis is to receive life-rather than mere lip-service from us, we must study it with Calvin’s conviction:
“But since the propensity, not to say the wanton disposition, of the human mind to frame false systems of worship is so great, nothing can be more useful to us than to seek our rule for the pure and sincere worshipping of God from those holy patriarchs, whose piety Moses points out to us chiefly by this mark, that they depended on the Word of God alone.”
To help us in this study we begin with a few introductory matters in the hope that they will illumine the book as a whole before we deal with specific passages.
Its title—
As indicated earlier, Genesis means “beginnings” or origins, source and that which springs from the source. A key-word (toledoth, to be explained later) is usually translated: generations, that which is begotten from or descended from someone. Life is not an unrelated mass of parts and individuals; it is a unity which develops according to set patterns or laws, all of which according to this book depends on the all-controlling presence and power of the only living God.
Its place in the canon—
It is and has always been the first hook of the Bible. Yet it sustains a most intimate and indissoluble relation to the next four books. The first five, God’s oracles, belong together. Usually they have been called the Pentateuch, the five writings, rolls, volumes.
These five constitute the first division of the Old Testament called the Law, also the law of God and the law of Moses. This word Law is open to much misunderstanding among us. Usually we think of it as a series of rules and regulations, a code. Genesis, which admittedly contains much more historical than strictly legislative material, also belongs to the Law. In fact, the regulations which God gave to His people in the next four books become quite obscure and unintelligible apart from the foundations laid in Genesis. In its light we begin to understand something of that sovereign grace and power by which He made Israel His people and laid down rules for the totality of its life.
To sum up these books, we may say that they reveal and record God in His activity of establishing His kingly rule in covenant with fallen mankind through His choice of a people for His own possession. Thus Genesis reveals the necessity and preparation and foundation for such rule; Exodus its formal inauguration; Leviticus its spiritual organization; Numbers its political administration; Deuteronomy its recapitulation and rehearsal in the presence of the covenanted people.
What we find in the rest of the Old and New Testaments is in a very real sense the elaboration and fulfilment of what these five books teach. The same God is speaking. He speaks also about the same world, the same need of man, the same way of salvation and hope which in “embryo” is uncovered here. Unless we are committed to the unity of the Bible, we can never hope to understand truly any of its parts. It is no mosaic of unrelated pieces artificially put together. It is in its sixty-six books one book with one message—that of the self-revealing God who by fulfilling His word in Jesus Christ brings His people sovereignly to eternal salvation and glory.
Its authorship—
From the beginning the New Testament church ascribed Genesis to Moses. Nowhere, however, is his name specifically mentioned as the inspired writer.
With the rise of higher-criticism in the eighteenth century this view has been under constant attack. In fact, most books written about Genesis (or the Old Testament, generally) insist that no really scholarly person will uphold and defend this view. Rather, Genesis with the rest of the Pentateuch is regarded as a “composite,” written over a long period of time and by many different writers and not attaining its present form until the time of Ezra or thereafter. Even the neo-orthodox (Barth, Brunner, etc.) with all their professed insistence on the revelation of God do not regard Genesis as composed by one author (Moses) and that early in Israel’s history. This follows from their low estimate of inscripturation.
From this -because so many teachers and preachers and others in confessionally-committed churches have adopted, more or less, the neo-orthodox notion of revelation and Scripture—spring the many questions concerning the historicity of what is recorded. The issue relates also to that of the “human” and the “divine” aspects of the Bible and to the question of the interrelation of fact, word, and meaning. Here we touch on the profound mystery of Scripture—God’s Word coming to us in human language in and through human speakers and writers. Different views of the nature of the Bible will produce radically different judgments on how it is to be understood, interpreted, and applied to us today.
All this makes the question of whether or not Moses was the writer of Genesis a crucial one. For a presentation of this and a defense of the conservative Biblical position, see E. J. Young: An Introduction to the Old Testament, pp. 41–46; or, for more details, C. Van Groningen’s contribution in Interpreting God’s Word Today (editor: S. Kistemuker). pp. 11–48. There is much more at stake here than many realize or are willing to admit.
Its contents—
Genesis purports to trace, in brief, the history of mankind and especially of the patriarchs from creation to Joseph’s death in Egypt. Thus it covers more centuries than the rest of the Bible put together, possibly more than all the years this world has existed since that death in an alien land.
In a clear and wonderful way Genesis presents us with its own outline. At once this alerts us to the fact that the book is a unity, basically the product of one author no matter which materials he may have used and from where he gleaned them. It also demonstrates that he was a gifted and likely a highly-educated person. It is confessedly a literary masterpiece, something we are apt to overlook because of the quite artificial though useful way of dividing it into chapters and verses. Even the most radical critics cannot deny its unity in its present form. And Skinner, whose radical work though somewhat outdated is still widely recognized and influential, admits that the author intends to present what he writes as history.
The key to the structure of Genesis is found in the word “generations” (toledoth). Before these are introduced we find a distinct seclion on creation, which is foundational to the rest. We may best arrange the material as follows:
The creation of the heavens and the earth, 1:1–2:3.
1- The generations of the heavens and the earth, 2:4–4:26
2- The book of the generations of Adam. 5:1–6:8
3- The generations of Noah, 6:9–9: 17
4- The generations of the sons of Noah, 10:1–11:9
5- The generations of Shem, 11:10–26
6- The generations of Terah, 11:27–25:11
7- The generations of Ishmael, 25:12–18
8- The generations of Isaac, 25:19–35:29
9- The generations of Esau, 36:1–37:1
10- The generations of Jacob, 37:2–50:26.
The word “generations” must be understood as offspring, that which sprang from or descended from a person. Thus the section of Adam’s generations deals not with him directly but with his descendants.
This division does not deny that in some respects a distinction may legitimately be made between the first eleven chapters and the others which deal with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob together with his sons. In the latter we find far greater wealth of detail. Genesis does not purport to provide a comprehensive history of the world and its peoples. In fact, it isn’t even history of anyone person or people as such. It is the story (historical, indeed) of the only living God as the God of creation, covenant, and redemption. Hence what is found on these pages is highly selective, yet thoroughly trustworthy, and always with the aim of pressing God’s claims upon all who read. Those who sharply distinguish the first eleven chapters from the rest, claiming the first section as “pre-historical” and hence highly conjectural or given in the form of teaching-models or sagas, fly in the face of the structure of the book itself as well as of the testimony of our Lord and His apostles concerning the factualness of what is there recorded.
Its aim, intent, message—
Why was Genesis written and so incorporated into Holy Writ as part of God’s self-revelation to men?
Now the proverbial “shoe” begins to pinch. To answer this question may be fraught with grave danger and serious consequence, unless we remember that the Bible must be understood in terms of what it is and what it says. Thus we must try to rid ourselves of any preconceived notions which we may have gleaned from our general knowledge; i.e., these must be carefully scrutinized, analyzed, and evaluated in the light of what God’s Word says about itself. In other words, we must always be seeking to answer this question: Why do we believe what we believe about the Bible as a whole and about any of its parts? This means self-examination, not only of our background and our listening to others in their speech and writings, but especially of our own hearts!
Genesis aims at providing background and foundation for understanding God in the revelation of His way of salvation. Thus it speaks of creation, fall, flood, and many other matters. It explains why mention is made, be it only in passing. of many individuals and nations; also why some are treated ;n such detail. God is at work seeking to restore what man by sin is ruining. Thus Genesis sets forth the sovereign God in His mighty deeds as well as His words. As sovereign He seeks to reestablish His royal rule, and succeeds!
This saving coming of God is presented in terms of covenants. He is not the Great Unknown, whose impact on man is incidental, haphazard, capricious. Instead, God makes his ways unmistakably known and binds men to Himself (in “organic” relationship to Himself and others) by way of promise and command. He is the dependable, faithful God who requires faithfulness to Him of those who hear His voice and seek His saving fellowship. Next to the creation of all things, these covenantal deeds are of the greatest significance in Genesis as also in the rest of the Bible. By His covenants with Adam and Noah and Abraham God prepares for the covenant at Sinai with a people through whom He will bring his full salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ for all times and among all nations.
Questions for discussion
1- What do you understand by worship? How arc worship and work related? In what sense must our entire life be worship? How will a study of Genesis aid in this?
2- Why is there so much rejection of law today? Discuss the Biblical meaning of Law. How does a purely moralistic, legalistic view of God’s will pervert Scripture?
3- How should we be guided by the lives of the patriarchs? Can and should we try to imitate them? Explain.
4- Have someone in your society (possibly your pastor, if available) introduce the arguments for and against the Mosaic authorship of Genesis.
5- If time and interest permit, have someone present briefly the higher-critical positions on how Genesis came to be written. This is of utmost importance for understanding present-day reinterpretations of this book even by some professedly Reformed people.
6- How would you explain that while “conservative” scholars take liberal and neo-orthodox writers seriously and try to refute them, this courtesy is seldom extended by scholars of the other side.
7- List six or seven texts in Genesis which clearly speak of God as the God of salvation. Which terms are used?
8- What do you understand by the “human” and “divine” aspects of Scripture? Did God dictate the Bible? What is meant by plenary and verbal inspiration? Can this view be proved by the Bible itself?
9- Of what value is it to recognize the literary structure of Genesis? How did our division into chapters and verses arise? What do you think of it?
10- What is meant by covenant? Discuss not just the term but the substance. How does this guarantee the factualness and dependability of God’s coming to man? Why can’t the neo-orthodox with their view of revelation hold consistently to the Biblical presentation of God’s covenantal dealings with man?
Scripture – Read through Genesis. Note its distinctive sections. Only in the light of its structure and message can its several parts be understood.
People today seem to shy away from study. Books, magazines, pamphlets are published in such quantity, that nobody can survey them all. Often the learning accrued from our reading is superficial and incidental. Most of what we read we forget by tomorrow.
Possibly this accounts for our growing fascination with other media. Marshall MacLuhan has helped us understand the revolution-in-learning going on in this generation. People are “immersed” in the new media. This is especially true of the theater, including motion pictures. Here life seems to happen so strikingly within our range, that we find ourselves involved. So strongly are our feelings at their deepest levels attracted, that we are swept along by the medium. We lack time and energy for any careful analysis, reflection, and evaluation. Thus the message insinuates itself into our lives without any critical awareness on our part. Small wonder that thought and the issues of truth and falsehood play a subordinate role. It takes a back seat to what we are feeling.
That drama with all its activity has an important function in our learning processes and can be used to good advantage need not be denied. Even the Bible makes room for this. God comes to us not merely through the printed page but by “the lively preaching of the gospel.” Here intonations, gestures, and facial expressions play a role. But always they are subordinated to the very words of God himself. They help to illumine as well as to attract or repel; they may never substitute for the message itself.
This we as Christians must remember for the shaping of our lives in faith-obedience to Christ.
For us, then, there must be time for personal reading and reflection on God’s Word. Only then can we garner rich fruits from preaching and discussion with others. To absorb what we hear from others passively and unreflectingly is wrong. Does not the apostle exhort us, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
No one can read about and remember everything. For this the world is too big, too complex, too overwhelming and fast-moving.
We must therefore choose our priorities responsibly.
High on the list should be Bible reading and study, especially today when ignorance of the holy writings even among professing church members increases at an appalling rate. Here group discussion can offer precious help. We meet with others at stated times, expecting their presence as they do ours, to hear more precisely what God has to say in these days. In that fellowship around the Word, saturated with the Spirit’s presence in response to prayer, we may confidently expect great things to happen to God’s praise, to our growth in grace, and to the advantage of others. With the Word upon our hearts, now grasped more fully and deeply, we go again into the world of daily living for him.
Such fruits are precious. To reap them abundantly asks a tillage of the soil of mind and heart.
Let’s begin, then . . .
The series for this year deals with the opening chapters of Genesis. Although at first reading they seem so simple and straightforward, we soon discover heights and depths in the message which challenge to greater concentration.
Studying is much more than simple reading.
We are to involve ourselves totally in the words before us. God Himself calls us to the “complicated” response of faith. We are to know on the deepest level what God says for our lives. This can be experienced only when we enter into “dialogue” with that Word. Our mind and heart should ask and seek answers—analyzing, comparing, evaluating on the basis of convictions. The word itself “reveals” what is in our hearts: love or hate, acceptance or rejection, ignorance or indifference or a delight in hearing the voice of Him who calls us to covenant fellowship with Himself. Thus are our lives shaped. Barth to the contrary, God’s Word becomes for the believers a personal experiential possession, But this is possible only because in the process God takes more complete possession of us.
How—to put it in simple language—can we profitably study Scripture? What are some of the questions we may ask to make such study more fruitful?
Let’s list only a few. Who wrote or spoke the words we are reading? Why were they said? How are they related to what precedes and to what follows? In what setting—personal, social, geographical, historical, etc.—were they spoken and heard? What reaction was invoked? Which details are added, and why? What is our connection today with speaker and hearer(s) of so long ago? What response arc we giving; should we give? To this list you may easily add questions of your own. Out of such preparation on the part of many a discussion can grow to produce greater clarity and conviction concerning God’s will for His people in all ages.
But why Genesis?
Of all the sixty-six books which comprise Holy Writ none is so fascinating but often frustrating as the first, commonly called Genesis. It is, as its title indicates, “the book of beginnings.” The title derives from the practice of using the first word as a means of identification of some Bible books. It reflects to a large extent also the subject-matter.
Even the most casual reader can observe that Genesis speaks about the beginnings of the heavens and the earth, of land and sea, of plants and animals and mankind, of fellowship with God, of marriage and family life, of temptation together with man’s sin and exile from God, of the promise of salvation, of grace and judgment through the generations, of the kind covenants of God with his people, etc.
Here answers are given to basic questions which men everywhere have been asking since the beginning of time. Yet as we read, we soon find mixed emotions arising within us. Some passages seem too brief; others crowded with details that don’t seem to speak to us, And when we take the answers seriously, there is that which we don’t like at all. Only by taking time and prayer and concentration will we be able to come, as believers, to some true understanding of what is recorded.
Several reasons can be given why we should study Genesis, A few are now to be mentioned:
– because it is for many the first Bible book with which acquaintance is made. Its stories stand out in our minds, since we heard them already as little children;
– because it is foundational for understanding the Bible’s basic message: that of man’s fall into sin and the wonderful salvation which God provides;
– because it is referred to so often in the Old and New Testaments. Both Israel and the New Testament church can understand their place and calling only in the light of God’s dealings recorded here;
– because it answers the most basic questions which confront man in his existence on earth: who am I? whence came I? what am I to do? why is my life so often unhappy and frustrating? what is the meaning of life anyway? how do I relate to others?
– because, and this is most important of all, it presents itself as part of God’s Word through which He calls and brings men to salvation.
To this should be added another reason. Throughout the centuries and especially today the Genesis account is under fire. No book of the Bible has been more frequently the center of intense interest, debate and discussion. Although the arguments presented by scholars, as they faced fundamental issues concerning the authority, authorship, contents, message, etc. of this book, have often been intricate and difficult to follow, they help to illumine the basic issues of the Christian faith. One’s world-and-life view as well as life-style depends, in no small measure, on whether or not we accept Genesis as God’s own, reliable, dependable and needful message for us today. No one in his right mind can dismiss the issues which it raises about man’s origin, nature, calling, relationship to God, and destiny as insignificant.
The stance we take . . .
Only one matter remains to be considered at this time.
It makes all the difference in the world how (i.e., in what frame of mind and heart, with what convictions) we read and study this first Bible book.
No one approaches any book, least of all Holy Scripture, in a “neutral” fashion. Whether a man realizes this or not, he at his first confrontation with it has made some “judgment” about it. He supposes that it is either important or unimportant to him. Even more, he assumes that it is what it claims to be, namely God’s Word, or simply a human record which mayor may not be trustworthy and helpful.
Here, then, we look at ourselves as “learners.” And whether we shall learn what we should or not is greatly influenced by what kind of learners we are. Today it’s so popular (and personally flattering) to blame the teacher or the teaching-material when learning doesn’t take place. Nine-tenths of the failures to learn, however, spring from the learner himself. And believing the classic Christian view that Scripture is God’s inspired, infallible, and trustworthy Word to us, we will approach also Genesis eagerly reverently . . . seriously. Above all, we will approach it prayerfully, saying each time anew, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”
Questions for discussion –
1- How would you account for the growing ignorance of and even indifference to the Bible on the part of many church members?
2- Discuss God’s Word as the chief means of grace. Does this mean God saves us in a kind of mechanical and magical way? May those indifferent to Bible reading and study believe they are saved? State your reasons.
3- What does it mean to prove the spirits? What is the test required? Who and what are to be tested? How can we engage in such testing?
4- Are all questions about the Bible legitimate, permissible? Explain your answer and give examples.
5- What do you understand by the basic rule that “Scripture must be interpreted in the light of Scripture?” Does this mean that the study of Near East geography, history, culture, archeology, etc. are of no value?
6- List several New Testament references to Genesis and its contents.
7- Should missionaries begin the message with Genesis or with the gospels (life and death of our Lord)? In what sense is the one incomplete without the other?
8- How often in the last year or two did you hear a sermon on Genesis material? How did it present God’s self-revelation in Christ? May we read Genesis apart from New Testament light? Give reasons for your answer.
9- What do you understand by the inspiration of the Bible? Explain 11 Timothy 3:16, 17 and II Peter 1:19–21. What is inspired: the writers or the writings or both?
10- How can we cultivate deeper respect for and interest in and reliance upon Scripture, also in our children?
(2)
SURVEYING THE FIELD
Scripture—
Read through Genesis again, this time making your own brief Outline before reading the lesson. This promotes understanding better than simply taking over someone else’s outline, even though you may want to make changes in yours later on.
In 1554 Calvin prepared his Commentary On Genesis. Nine years later he provided a French translation, introduced with a dedicatory letter to Henry of Navarre, then ten years old and later to become king of France.
Calvin explains with great care his reasons for presenting such a volume to one so young in years. The young prince, surrounded by teachers and courtiers, was being taught many things. To this the reformer wanted to see added a sound indoctrination in Scripture and its content. He urges this as knowledge of the most basic and significant sort. Only it can give “an indisputable assurance respecting the Creation of the World, without which we should be unworthy of a place on earth. . . This one consideration stamps an inestimable value on the Book, that it alone reveals those things which are of primary necessity to be known.” Here we see God at work in creation and providence, and above all in calling a church to salvation for his praise.
Calvin therefore urges the prince’s most careful attention. Only then will he escape the snares spread before him by his teachers who would allure with sophisticated theories, and by courtiers who would tempt with luxuries and delicacies which dissolve into lasciviousness. All has to be put to the test of Scripture, specifically in this case of Genesis. Life-view and life-style of the prince will, to Calvin’s mind, be largely molded by the response. And ten years of age is not too young to be so challenged!
How much more, then, should not we of more and much maturer years be challenged! Ours is a world which claims that the old world-view must make way for something radically new; that the old life-style patterned by God’s Word can no longer be defended. But if Genesis is to receive life-rather than mere lip-service from us, we must study it with Calvin’s conviction:
“But since the propensity, not to say the wanton disposition, of the human mind to frame false systems of worship is so great, nothing can be more useful to us than to seek our rule for the pure and sincere worshipping of God from those holy patriarchs, whose piety Moses points out to us chiefly by this mark, that they depended on the Word of God alone.”
To help us in this study we begin with a few introductory matters in the hope that they will illumine the book as a whole before we deal with specific passages.
Its title—
As indicated earlier, Genesis means “beginnings” or origins, source and that which springs from the source. A key-word (toledoth, to be explained later) is usually translated: generations, that which is begotten from or descended from someone. Life is not an unrelated mass of parts and individuals; it is a unity which develops according to set patterns or laws, all of which according to this book depends on the all-controlling presence and power of the only living God.
Its place in the canon—
It is and has always been the first hook of the Bible. Yet it sustains a most intimate and indissoluble relation to the next four books. The first five, God’s oracles, belong together. Usually they have been called the Pentateuch, the five writings, rolls, volumes.
These five constitute the first division of the Old Testament called the Law, also the law of God and the law of Moses. This word Law is open to much misunderstanding among us. Usually we think of it as a series of rules and regulations, a code. Genesis, which admittedly contains much more historical than strictly legislative material, also belongs to the Law. In fact, the regulations which God gave to His people in the next four books become quite obscure and unintelligible apart from the foundations laid in Genesis. In its light we begin to understand something of that sovereign grace and power by which He made Israel His people and laid down rules for the totality of its life.
To sum up these books, we may say that they reveal and record God in His activity of establishing His kingly rule in covenant with fallen mankind through His choice of a people for His own possession. Thus Genesis reveals the necessity and preparation and foundation for such rule; Exodus its formal inauguration; Leviticus its spiritual organization; Numbers its political administration; Deuteronomy its recapitulation and rehearsal in the presence of the covenanted people.
What we find in the rest of the Old and New Testaments is in a very real sense the elaboration and fulfilment of what these five books teach. The same God is speaking. He speaks also about the same world, the same need of man, the same way of salvation and hope which in “embryo” is uncovered here. Unless we are committed to the unity of the Bible, we can never hope to understand truly any of its parts. It is no mosaic of unrelated pieces artificially put together. It is in its sixty-six books one book with one message—that of the self-revealing God who by fulfilling His word in Jesus Christ brings His people sovereignly to eternal salvation and glory.
Its authorship—
From the beginning the New Testament church ascribed Genesis to Moses. Nowhere, however, is his name specifically mentioned as the inspired writer.
With the rise of higher-criticism in the eighteenth century this view has been under constant attack. In fact, most books written about Genesis (or the Old Testament, generally) insist that no really scholarly person will uphold and defend this view. Rather, Genesis with the rest of the Pentateuch is regarded as a “composite,” written over a long period of time and by many different writers and not attaining its present form until the time of Ezra or thereafter. Even the neo-orthodox (Barth, Brunner, etc.) with all their professed insistence on the revelation of God do not regard Genesis as composed by one author (Moses) and that early in Israel’s history. This follows from their low estimate of inscripturation.
From this -because so many teachers and preachers and others in confessionally-committed churches have adopted, more or less, the neo-orthodox notion of revelation and Scripture—spring the many questions concerning the historicity of what is recorded. The issue relates also to that of the “human” and the “divine” aspects of the Bible and to the question of the interrelation of fact, word, and meaning. Here we touch on the profound mystery of Scripture—God’s Word coming to us in human language in and through human speakers and writers. Different views of the nature of the Bible will produce radically different judgments on how it is to be understood, interpreted, and applied to us today.
All this makes the question of whether or not Moses was the writer of Genesis a crucial one. For a presentation of this and a defense of the conservative Biblical position, see E. J. Young: An Introduction to the Old Testament, pp. 41–46; or, for more details, C. Van Groningen’s contribution in Interpreting God’s Word Today (editor: S. Kistemuker). pp. 11–48. There is much more at stake here than many realize or are willing to admit.
Its contents—
Genesis purports to trace, in brief, the history of mankind and especially of the patriarchs from creation to Joseph’s death in Egypt. Thus it covers more centuries than the rest of the Bible put together, possibly more than all the years this world has existed since that death in an alien land.
In a clear and wonderful way Genesis presents us with its own outline. At once this alerts us to the fact that the book is a unity, basically the product of one author no matter which materials he may have used and from where he gleaned them. It also demonstrates that he was a gifted and likely a highly-educated person. It is confessedly a literary masterpiece, something we are apt to overlook because of the quite artificial though useful way of dividing it into chapters and verses. Even the most radical critics cannot deny its unity in its present form. And Skinner, whose radical work though somewhat outdated is still widely recognized and influential, admits that the author intends to present what he writes as history.
The key to the structure of Genesis is found in the word “generations” (toledoth). Before these are introduced we find a distinct seclion on creation, which is foundational to the rest. We may best arrange the material as follows:
The creation of the heavens and the earth, 1:1–2:3.
1- The generations of the heavens and the earth, 2:4–4:26
2- The book of the generations of Adam. 5:1–6:8
3- The generations of Noah, 6:9–9: 17
4- The generations of the sons of Noah, 10:1–11:9
5- The generations of Shem, 11:10–26
6- The generations of Terah, 11:27–25:11
7- The generations of Ishmael, 25:12–18
8- The generations of Isaac, 25:19–35:29
9- The generations of Esau, 36:1–37:1
10- The generations of Jacob, 37:2–50:26.
The word “generations” must be understood as offspring, that which sprang from or descended from a person. Thus the section of Adam’s generations deals not with him directly but with his descendants.
This division does not deny that in some respects a distinction may legitimately be made between the first eleven chapters and the others which deal with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob together with his sons. In the latter we find far greater wealth of detail. Genesis does not purport to provide a comprehensive history of the world and its peoples. In fact, it isn’t even history of anyone person or people as such. It is the story (historical, indeed) of the only living God as the God of creation, covenant, and redemption. Hence what is found on these pages is highly selective, yet thoroughly trustworthy, and always with the aim of pressing God’s claims upon all who read. Those who sharply distinguish the first eleven chapters from the rest, claiming the first section as “pre-historical” and hence highly conjectural or given in the form of teaching-models or sagas, fly in the face of the structure of the book itself as well as of the testimony of our Lord and His apostles concerning the factualness of what is there recorded.
Its aim, intent, message—
Why was Genesis written and so incorporated into Holy Writ as part of God’s self-revelation to men?
Now the proverbial “shoe” begins to pinch. To answer this question may be fraught with grave danger and serious consequence, unless we remember that the Bible must be understood in terms of what it is and what it says. Thus we must try to rid ourselves of any preconceived notions which we may have gleaned from our general knowledge; i.e., these must be carefully scrutinized, analyzed, and evaluated in the light of what God’s Word says about itself. In other words, we must always be seeking to answer this question: Why do we believe what we believe about the Bible as a whole and about any of its parts? This means self-examination, not only of our background and our listening to others in their speech and writings, but especially of our own hearts!
Genesis aims at providing background and foundation for understanding God in the revelation of His way of salvation. Thus it speaks of creation, fall, flood, and many other matters. It explains why mention is made, be it only in passing. of many individuals and nations; also why some are treated ;n such detail. God is at work seeking to restore what man by sin is ruining. Thus Genesis sets forth the sovereign God in His mighty deeds as well as His words. As sovereign He seeks to reestablish His royal rule, and succeeds!
This saving coming of God is presented in terms of covenants. He is not the Great Unknown, whose impact on man is incidental, haphazard, capricious. Instead, God makes his ways unmistakably known and binds men to Himself (in “organic” relationship to Himself and others) by way of promise and command. He is the dependable, faithful God who requires faithfulness to Him of those who hear His voice and seek His saving fellowship. Next to the creation of all things, these covenantal deeds are of the greatest significance in Genesis as also in the rest of the Bible. By His covenants with Adam and Noah and Abraham God prepares for the covenant at Sinai with a people through whom He will bring his full salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ for all times and among all nations.
Questions for discussion
1- What do you understand by worship? How arc worship and work related? In what sense must our entire life be worship? How will a study of Genesis aid in this?
2- Why is there so much rejection of law today? Discuss the Biblical meaning of Law. How does a purely moralistic, legalistic view of God’s will pervert Scripture?
3- How should we be guided by the lives of the patriarchs? Can and should we try to imitate them? Explain.
4- Have someone in your society (possibly your pastor, if available) introduce the arguments for and against the Mosaic authorship of Genesis.
5- If time and interest permit, have someone present briefly the higher-critical positions on how Genesis came to be written. This is of utmost importance for understanding present-day reinterpretations of this book even by some professedly Reformed people.
6- How would you explain that while “conservative” scholars take liberal and neo-orthodox writers seriously and try to refute them, this courtesy is seldom extended by scholars of the other side.
7- List six or seven texts in Genesis which clearly speak of God as the God of salvation. Which terms are used?
8- What do you understand by the “human” and “divine” aspects of Scripture? Did God dictate the Bible? What is meant by plenary and verbal inspiration? Can this view be proved by the Bible itself?
9- Of what value is it to recognize the literary structure of Genesis? How did our division into chapters and verses arise? What do you think of it?
10- What is meant by covenant? Discuss not just the term but the substance. How does this guarantee the factualness and dependability of God’s coming to man? Why can’t the neo-orthodox with their view of revelation hold consistently to the Biblical presentation of God’s covenantal dealings with man?