Bible Study: Genesis

Lesson 2: Genesis 1: Creation

Applications from Genesis One

A. Reflections on the nature of God

1. God as incomparable

He is without peer in the whole of the cosmos. Every aspect of the universe is submissive to His word and rule. No force or entity competes with God.

2. God as king

a. God is portrayed issuing his decrees to the cosmos and the cosmos obediently following the commands of God's word.

b. God is portrayed as the Lawgiver for all of the cosmos. He establishes boundaries and grants commissions.

c. God is portrayed as supreme Judge of creation pronouncing his approval of his works.

d. The plural 'let us' pictures God as King before his court.

e. In the ANE the 'image of god' is a distinctly royal notion.

f. This view of God as sovereign over the cosmos informs the remainder of biblical revelation. From first to last, God is portrayed as King, and his reign a kingdom.

B. Reflections on the structure of the account

1. The structure of the creation account helps direct our focus. There is meaning not only in the content but also in the telling.

2. emphasis on order

a. The actual construction of the account with its intricate framework and careful correspondences communicates an emphasis on orderliness. Nothing is there by chance, nothing is haphazard.

b. The narrative itself is preoccupied with a movement from a state of disorder to order. Recall the formlessness, emptiness, and darkness of the precreation state with the ordered heavens and earth at the conclusion.

c. In contrast with the ancient creation stories where order is won by conflict and struggle. The order of the account extends even to its establishment. God does not fight, but commands. He does not struggle against the chaos but effortlessly brings it under his control. There is an ethos of order and peace. Construction rather than conflict is the paradigm of creation in Genesis.

d. This emphasis on order tells us something about the nature of the world we experience, especially when coupled with the notion of God as king. And that is that we live in an ordered world, apparent chaos not withstanding.

3. emphasis on humanity

Mankind stands as the pinnacle of the creation account as the final act of creation. Recall the progression towards complexity and significance within the triads of days.

4. oriented toward a goal

a. Although we may speak of man as the pinnacle of the creative acts he is not properly speaking the goal of creation. That place is reserved for the 'rest' of God -- the Sabbath.

b. This orientation toward a goal suffuses the creation account with an eschatological perspective. The pattern of creation suggests that God works with a goal in view, therefore, man who is to imitate God also lives with a goal in view. The weekly Sabbath becomes a reminder of this greater goal.

C. Reflections on the polemical thrust of the account

1. The basic relationship of Genesis one to other well known ANE creation myths can be construed in several ways, some questions will help us clarify the basic tenor of this relationship.

a. Was Genesis aware of the existing creation myths or entirely ignorant of their existence and content? Almost certainly Genesis was aware of them. Creation myths were a fixed form of knowledge, they were part and parcel of the current cultural milieu. In addition, Genesis seems to make conscious reference to various motifs prominent in the competing myths (i.e., darkness, pre-creation chaos, dividing of the waters, sea monsters). Furthermore, the basic pattern of primeval history also seems to have been a well known device.

b. Was then Genesis dependent on these myths for its own story? It is not necessary to posit any direct literary dependence. The myths seem to have been well known apart from their written forms. Furthermore, Genesis departs from the competing accounts so significantly that dependence hardly seems feasible.

c. If Genesis was neither dependent on nor ignorant of the ANE creation myths, then how may we speak of their relationship? We noted that the Genesis account is more notable in its differences from other myths than it is in its similarities. The key then is to perceive the differences among the similarities and the similarities among the differences. And what we see is that the differences, the contrasts, give Genesis one a polemical edge. Genesis is taking on the current understanding of the God, mankind, and the world and challenging it with its inspired account of the same. The relationship then is one of conflict.

2. Noting this relationship gives us insight into the original intent of the Genesis one. And this in turn can guide our own appropriation of the text. We must now discern where Genesis has stressed its own account of reality against the prevailing notions. As we noted throughout our exegesis of the text, the creation account seems to be most focused on establishing the uniqueness of God and also of man.

a. First of all, the gods in the creation myths are many. Secondly, they are often at war with each other or with elements of preexistent matter. The gods are usually malevolent in their intentions towards man. They are petty and not at all above the fray.

b. Competing creation accounts typically feature less than noble beginnings for man (i.e., they are formed to relieve lower level gods of menial labor). And yet Mesopotamian myths in particular tend have a very optimistic view of mankind in general and its potential.

c. Genesis on the contrary offers the opposite portrait of humanity. Man's origins are glorious and God's intentions are entirely benevolent. Humanity's disobedience has set it on a path of corruption and ruin from which it cannot save itself.

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