GENESISThe Book of Beginning

ALPHA AND OMEGA

Some ask “Why do you study Genesis & Revelation?”

Rev 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Rev 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

GENESIS/REVELATION

Bookends 2 Gardens 2 Cities 2 Trees 2 Adams 2 Rivers 1st. & Last 2 chapters= unfallen world Both are about Christ’s work

GENESIS & REVELATION

Genesis & Revelation are like 2 bookends of God’s story.

Genesis opens Revelation closes

ALPHA AND OMEGA

A –Z in the English Aleph & Tau in Hebrew

GENESIS FIRST’S

Genesis is also a book of firsts. Genesis records the first birth (Gen 4:1), the first death (Gen 4:8), the first musical instruments (Gen 4:21), and the first rainbow (Gen 9:12-17). Genesis is indeed the book of beginnings…

(from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright © 1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

First marriage, family, fight, lie, sacrifice, rain, flood.

THE TITLE OF GENESIS

The Hebrew title of the book is the initial word berešheet, translated "in the beginning." The English title "Genesis" was derived from the Greek translation of it.

re'shiyth {ray-sheeth'} ֵרPאִׁשLMית 07225 Meaning: 1) first, beginning, best, chief

1a) beginning…

THE KEY WORD OF GENESIS

Tôledôt is the key word of the book. In Genesis 2:4 a, the Septuagint translation is, "This is the book of the geneseos of heaven and earth."

(from Bible Knowledge Commentary)

TORAH

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah

“TORAH” CAN MEAN

Pentateuch (five volumes) The Law (or Teaching) 5 Books of Moses All the O.T. (or Tanakh) All Jewish law (Bible and Talmud) Torah can include all the oral teachings or

traditions of the rabbis Some Jews say, "Torah that is written,

and…Torah that is spoken“ Wikipedia

TORAH, STRONG’S

torah (435d) ̂תֹו\ֵר]ה <08451> Meaning: direction, instruction, law Origin: from 3384 Usage: custom(1), instruction(10),

instructions(1), Law(1), law(188), laws(10), ruling(1), teaching(7), teachings(1).

TORAH, I.S.B.E

I.S.B.E. 1. Torah ("Law"): “ Heb: Torah is from Heb: horah, the Hiphil of Heb: yarah.

The root meaning is "to throw"; hence, in Hiphil the word means "to point out" (as by throwing out the hand), and so "to direct"; and Heb: torah is "direction." Heb: Torah may be simply "human direction," as the "law of thy mother" in Prov 1:8; but most often in the Old Testament it is the Divine law. In the singular it often means a law, the plural being used in the same sense; but more frequently Heb: torah in the singular is the general body of Divinely given law. The word tells nothing as to the way in which the Law, or any part of it, was first given; it simply points out the general purpose of the Law, namely, that it was for the guidance of God's people in the various matters to which it relates….”

TORAH

The Hebrew word Torah may be referring to human direction, teaching, instruction, or Divine, either written or oral.

AUTHORSHIP OF GENESIS

Has created a lot of controversy.

DOCUMENTARY HYPOTHESIS, J.E.D.P. For Genesis, therefore, there were by

now three alleged documentary sources which had been used in the process of compilation: a Yahwistic (J) source, an Elohistic (E) document, and a postexilic Priestly (P) source, the latter formerly thought to have been part of the Grundschrift.

(from International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised edition, Copyright © 1979 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved.)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The documentary hypothesis, (DH) (sometimes called the

Wellhausen hypothesis), holds that the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors (editors). The number of these is usually set at four, but this is not an essential part of the hypothesis.

The hypothesis was developed in the 18th and 19th centuries from the attempt to reconcile inconsistencies in the biblical text. Biblical scholars, using source criticism, eventually arrived at the theory that the Torah was composed of selections woven together from separate, at times inconsistent, sources, each originally a complete and independent document. By the end of the 19th century it was generally agreed that there were four main sources, combined into their final form by a series of redactors, R. These four sources came to be known as the Yahwist, or Jahwist, J (J being the German equivalent of the English letter Y); the Elohist, E; the Deuteronomist, D, (the name comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, D's contribution to the Torah); and the Priestly Writer, P.[1]

Julius Wellhausen's contribution was to order these sources chronologically as JEDP, giving them a coherent setting in the evolving religious history of Israel, which he saw as one of ever-increasing priestly power. Wellhausen's formulation was:

the Yahwist source ( J ) : written c. 950 BC in the southern Kingdom of Judah.

the Elohist source ( E ) : written c. 850 BC in the northern Kingdom of Israel.

the Deuteronomist ( D ) : written c. 600 BC in Jerusalem during a period of religious reform.

the Priestly source ( P ) : written c. 500 BC by Kohanim (Jewish priests) in exile in Babylon.

While the hypothesis has been increasingly challenged by other models in the last part of the 20th century, its terminology and insights continue to provide the framework for modern theories on the origins of the Torah.[2]….

DOCUMENTARY HYPOTHESIS, J.E.D.P. Critical View. Critics partition the book of Genesis and view it as

composed of composite sources pieced together by a late exilic or postexilic editor. J, the Jehovist, possibly wrote about 850 B.C., in the S (Judah), employing the name Jehovah. E, the Elohist, is said to have used the name Elohim, writing about 750 B.C., in the N (Ephraim). The narrative sections J and E were allegedly fitted into the scriptural history of the origin of the Jewish nation, called the Priestly Code (P), about 500 B.C. This documentary theory, which was subtly developed, highly plausible, and universally popular, is a highly traditional product of modern rationalistic skepticism and is based on false literary criteria, unsound philosophic presuppositions, and a manifest enmity against the miraculous and the prophetic elements that constitute the foundation of the Pentateuch. (See R. K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament [1969], pp. 542-65.)

(from The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright © 1988.)

THE N.T. SAYS MOSES WROTE IT

Matt 8:4…show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded

Matt 19:8…"Moses permitted you to divorce your wives John 7:19 Has not Moses given you the law? Matt 8:4 show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses

commanded Matt 19:8 "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives Matt 22:24 Moses told us that if a man dies without having children Mark 1:44 offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded Mark 7:10 Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother, Mark 12:26 in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush Luke 2:22 purification according to the Law of Moses Luke 16:29 They have Moses and the Prophets Luke 24:44 is written about me in the Law of Moses John 1:17 the law was given through Moses John 1:45 We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, John 5:46-47 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he

wrote about me.

THE O.T. SAYS MOSES WROTE IT

Josh 1:7 Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; Dan 9:11 the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of

Moses, Dan 9:13 it is written in the Law of Moses Deut 31:9 Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests Deut 31:22 Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the

Israelites. Neh 8:1 the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had

commanded for Israel. Ezra 7:6 Ezra... He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, Ex 17:14 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll Ex 24:4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. Ex 34:27 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, Num 33:2 At the Lord's command Moses recorded the stages in their

journey

NO MATTER WHO WROTE IT

It’s God’s Word! We hold to the verbal plenary divine

inspiration of all Scripture. Matthew 22:32 'I am the God of Abraham,

the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.“

Galatians 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.

NO MATTER WHO WROTE IT

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

Matthew 5:18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

HOW DO WE READ GENESIS?

Normally It depends on what genre literature it is It is not poetry, song, legend, myth It’s historical narrative Normal, historical, grammatical,

contextual, literal hermeneutic.

WE READ GENESIS AS HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

“One of the most common statements regarding Genesis today is that it is poetic, a myth about origins, metaphorical. As soon as these presuppositions are accepted, interpretations abound. We have the gap theories, the day-age theories, local flood theories, and a plethora of others which all depend on Genesis not being a Hebrew historical narrative. However, the fact is that when Genesis is looked at from a linguistic point of view, there is no doubt but that it is intended as it was written to be a narrative of actual history….” Helen Fryman

WE READ GENESIS AS HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

“The normal order for a Hebrew narrative sentence is

Conjunction--Verb--Subject--Object. The order in poetic writing is Subject--Verb--Object -- the same as we see it in normal

English. The difference is quite obvious in the Hebrew….”

WE READ GENESIS AS HISTORICAL NARRATIVE

www.johnankerberg.org says, “In short, there are numerous grammatical, contextual, and theological reasons to believe that Genesis 1-11 is Hebrew historical narrative. Included among the implications which follow from such a position are that 1) humanity’s origin is taken back to Adam on Day Six of the Creation Week; 2) the age of humanity is directly tied to and derivable from the historical “chrono-genealogies” in Genesis 5 and 11; and 3) the burden of exegetical proof rests on anyone who interprets the days of the creation week to mean anything other than 24 hour days….”

WHEN WAS GENESIS WRITTEN?

Moses wrote it around 1440BC “The composition of the book was

probably undertaken during the wilderness exile of Israel (c. 1446-1406 B.C.).”

Nelson’s Complete Book of Maps & Charts, pg.4

Genesis 5:1 This is the written account of Adam's line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

GENESIS OUTLINE

Ch. 1-11; 2,000 yrs. Creation Fall Flood Nations

Ch. 12-50; 350 yrs. Abram Isaac Jacob Joseph

SO, LET’S LOOK AT THE CREATION

Isaiah 45:5-25 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God….

Mark 10:6 "But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

ICR’S, ACTS AND FACTS, AUG. 2012, pg.10, www.icr.org

Biblical Truth in High Definition by James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D.

“….God used “back-and-forth” motion to wash the world as the floodwaters drained….God overruled Hebrew grammar rules to teach Trinitarian theology….”

“God created directly, but not “intensively.” Genesis 1:1 has more to say about God’s first action as Creator—

informing us about what God’s action of creating was and what it was not.

Hebrew verbs usually appear in one of these seven basic forms: qal (simple active), niphâl (simple passive), piêl (intensive active), puâl (intensive passive), hiphîl (causative active), hophâl (causative passive), hithpaêl (active and passive combined—i.e., your action directly impacts yourself, like combing your own hair).8

Genesis 1:1 uses a singular masculine qal verb, bara’ (“He created”). So what does that tell us about God’s action?

From God’s perspective, His action of creating was “simple”; it was not “intensive” work. Astoundingly, God did not work very hard to decree into existence, from nothing, all the heavens and earth!

Also, God’s work of creating was not merely “causative.” God acted directly, not merely as a first cause instigator triggering a long series of dominoes.

Furthermore, because the verb bara’ is a perfect verb, the action of creating is reported as completed—finished! That specific work of creation that God did on Day One needed no further ex nihilo (out-of-nothing) creating. And that was just the beginning! The next five days involved developmental use of Day One’s creation, providing us with many more biblical word study opportunities in Genesis.

The rest of Scripture also offers a legacy of word study gems, waiting to be mined. A wealth of hidden treasures awaits those who take the time to look closer. Our understanding of the Word of God is enhanced—much like our perception of the screen when we look at a high-definition color television—when we study the original language text of the Bible…”

THE END