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Before The Beginning. Introduction To Genesis. NT. OT. The Value Of The OT. Rom. 15:4 : For whatever things were written before were written for our learning , that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope .
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Before The Beginning Introduction To Genesis Cloyce Sutton
NT OT David Watts, Sr.
The Value Of The OT • Rom. 15:4: For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. • 2 Tim. 3:16–17:16All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. What’s Not Right What’s Right How To Get Right How To Stay Right Kevin Kay
Comparing The Two Kevin Kay
OT A SaviorIs Coming NT A SaviorHas Come
NT OT Gen David Watts, Sr.
J. Sidlow Baxter “...besides being introductory, Genesis is explanatory. The other writings of the Bible are inseparably bound up with it inasmuch as it gives us the origin and initial explanation of all that follows. …. Here we have in germ all that is later developed. It has been truly said that ‘the roots of all subsequent revelation are planted deep in Genesis, and whoever would truly comprehend that revelation must begin here.’” (Explore The Book, n.p.) Kevin Kay
Heavens & Earth Plants & Animals Man & Woman Marriage & Home Language Sin Religion & Worship Civilization & Culture Government Races & Nations Hebrew Race Revelation Messianic Prophecy Etc. Genesis:The Book of Beginnings Kevin Kay
Genesis & Revelation David Watts, Sr.
Important Questions • “Who am I?” • “Where did I come from?” • “Why am I here?” • “Where am I going?” Kevin Kay
Derek Kidner “There can scarcely be another part of Scripture over which so many battles, theological, scientific, historical and literary, have been fought, or so many strong opinions cherished. This very fact is a sign of the greatness and power of the book, and of the narrow limits of both our factual knowledge and our spiritual grasp.” (Genesis: An Introduction & Commentary, 9) Cloyce Sutton
Presentation Overview • Title, Torah & Canonicity (1-4) • Authorship (5-12) • Date & Historicity (12-29) • Structure, Outline & Literary Features(29-37) • Reading & Interpreting Genesis (37-41) Cloyce Sutton
Titles • Hebrew:Bereshit = “in the beginning” • Greek: genesis = origin, source, race, creation • Latin: • Liber Genesis = “The Book of Genesis” • Liber Genesis, HebraiceBereshit= “The Book of Genesis, [known] in Hebrew [as] Bereshit” • Incipit Liber Bresith id est Genesis = “Here begins the book Bresith which is Genesis” Cloyce Sutton
Titles • Medieval: • “First Book” • “Book of the Creation of the World” • “Book of the Righteous” • “Book of Formation” (Hamilton, NICOT, 1:1-2) Cloyce Sutton
The Tanakh Kevin Kay
Torah “The word torah in its widest sense means ‘guidance, instruction, discipline,’ and only in its most narrow sense ‘law.’The Torah is the definitive ‘guide-book’ of ancient Israel, and it guides in the form of both narrative and law so that the two become inseparable and indispensible.” (Mann The Book of the Torah: The Narrative Integrity of the Pentateuch, 7; Alter, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary, x) Cloyce Sutton
English OT Arrangement Kevin Kay
Authorship of Pentateuch • Mosaic: Written by Moses • Amosaic: Portions written by different authors and redacted (“The Documentary Hypothesis”) • “J” [Jehovistic/Yahwist] (ca. 850 BC) • “E” [Elohist] (ca. 850-750 BC) • “D” [Deuteronomist] (ca. 620 BC) • “P” [Priestly] (ca. 550-450 BC) ContentsSuspect Kevin Kay
Southern Traditions Northern Traditions J850 BC E750 BC J-E650 BC Josiah’s ReformBook D621 BC Exilic PriestlyMaterial J-E-D550 BC P450 BC J-E-D-P400 BC Cloyce Sutton
Objections ToMosaic Authorship • Torah is anonymous • Noexplicit reference to Moses as author • Moses referred to in 3rd person • Writer never uses “I” or “we” (cf. Nehemiah & Luke) • Anacronisms • Moses’ humility (Num. 12:3) • Moses’ death (Dt. 34) Cloyce Sutton
Assumptions OfDH • Israelite culture evolvedover time • Writingdeveloped much later than Moses • Different namesfor God • Duplicate stories • Anachronisms • Composite stories • Differentvocabulary or literary styles Cloyce Sutton
“Like Father Like Son” Kevin Kay
“Like Father Like Son” Kevin Kay
“Like Father Like Son” Kevin Kay
Anachronisms • Camels (Gen. 12:16) • “Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gen. 11:28, 31; 15:7) • “Dan” (Gen. 14:14; cf. Jdg. 8:27-29) • Edomite kings “before any king reigned over the children of Israel” (Gen. 36:31) • “Then in the land” (Gen. 12:6; 13:7) • “To this day” (Gen. 19:38; 22:14; 32:32; 47:26) • “Land of Rameses” (Gen. 47:11) Cloyce Sutton
Composite Stories • Noah’s flood (Gen. 7-8) • Jacob’s flight (Gen. 28) • Sale of Joseph (Gen. 37) • Jacob’s son’s 1st trip to Egypt (Gen. 47) Cloyce Sutton
Critique Of DH Assumptions • Cultures sometimes decline or stagnate. Some aspects of Israelite worship settled early • Writing developed long before Moses • Different namesfor deity used in other ANE texts – rhetorical effect • Duplicate stories more differences than similarities – “Type scenes” Cloyce Sutton
Early Marks Of Civilization(Gen. 4:16-22) • Urbanization (v. 17) • Domestication (v. 20) • Music (v. 21) • Metallurgy (v. 22) Kevin Kay
Civilization Developed Early P. J. Wiseman: "No more surprising fact has been discovered by recent excavations than the suddenness with which civilization appeared in the world. This discovery is the very opposite of that anticipated. It was expected that the more ancient the period, the more primitive would excavators find it to be, until traces of civilization ceased altogether and aboriginal man appeared. Neither in Babylonia nor Egypt, the lands of the oldest known habitations of man, has this been the case.“ (“New Discoveries In Babylonia About Genesis,” p. 28) Kevin Kay
Early Writing Joseph Free & Howard Vos: “The Code of Hammurabi was written several hundred years before the time of Moses (c. 1500-1400 B.C.)….This code, from the period 2000-1700 B.C., contains advanced laws similar to those in the Mosaic laws….In view of this archaeological evidence, the destructive critic can no longer insist that the laws of Moses are too advanced for his time.” (Archaeology and Bible History, 1992, 103, 55, via Lyons & Smith, “Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch – Tried And True, Reason & Revelation, Jan. 2003, 23:1:2) Kevin Kay
“Type-Scenes” • Rivalry between wife & co-wife or concubine • Patriarch driven by famine to southern region • Birth of a child to barren woman • Finding one’s future spouseat a well • Epiphany in a field • Initiatorytrial • Danger in the desert • Discovering a well in unlikely place • Last words of dying hero Cloyce Sutton
Critique Of DH Assumptions • Anachronisms • Early promises (Gen. 17:16; 35:11) • Inspiration (Ex. 25:22; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; cf. Dt. 17:14-15) • Composite stories • Differentvocabulary or literary styles Cloyce Sutton
Composite Stories • Highly subjectiveexplanation • No single account tells the whole story. Each account leaves inexplicable gaps • “J”: Ark without its construction • “P”: Noah & family entering ark • “J”: God shut Noah in • “J”: Sending out bird Cloyce Sutton
Mosaic Authorship • Account of Amalek’s defeat (Ex. 17:14) • Words of the Lord (Ex. 24:3-4) • Ten Commandments (Ex. 34:27-28) • Israel’s journeys in wilderness (Num. 33:1ff) Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship • Law (Dt. 31:9; cf. Josh. 8:32; 2 Chr. 34:14) • Song of Moses (Dt. 31:22) • Deuteronomy (Neh. 13:1; cf. Dt. 23:3-4; 2 Chr. 25:4; cf. Dt. 24:16) • Exodus (Mk. 12:26; cf. Ex. 3:6) Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship • “Law of Moses” (Lk. 2:22; 24:44; Jn. 7:23; Acts 13:39; 15:5; 28:23; 1 Cor. 9:9) • “Book of Moses” (Mk. 12:26) • “Custom of Moses” (Acts 15:1) • “Moses’ law” (Heb. 10:28) Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship • Mk 12:26: But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? • Lk. 20:37: But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship • Lk 16:29-31: 29Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hearMoses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” • 2 Cor. 3:15: But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship • Lk. 24:27: And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. • Lk. 24:44: Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship • Jn. 1:45: Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” • Jn. 5:46-47: 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship • Acts 15:21: For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” • Acts 26:22: Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come— Kevin Kay
Mosaic Authorship • Acts 28:23: So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening. Kevin Kay
“Scriptures” For Josephus(ca. AD 37-100) “8. (38) For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another [as the Greeks have], but only twenty-two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine; (39) and of them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This interval of time was little short of three thousand years; (40) but as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia,
“Scriptures” For Josephus(ca. AD 37-100) who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human life. (41) It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time; (42) and how firmly we have given credit to Kevin Kay
“Scriptures” For Josephus(ca. AD 37-100) those books of our own nation, is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add anything to them, to take anything from them, or to make any change in them; but it becomes natural to all Jews, immediately and from their very birth, to esteem those books to contain divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be, willingly to die for them….” (Emphasis added, Against Apion, I:7-8) Kevin Kay
Explanations • Some scribal glosses • Use of sources (cf. Gen. 5:1) • Portions written by someone else (cf. Dt. 34) • Inspiration Kevin Kay
Date Of Writing • Time of Moses: • 15th cen. BC (ca. 1446) • 13th cen. BC (ca. 1230) • Four Common Views: • Early Exodus & Long Sojourn • Early Exodus & Short Sojourn • Late Exodus • Reconstructionist Cloyce Sutton
Length of Egyptian Bondage • Ex. 12:40: Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. • 1 Ki. 6:1: And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. “Egypt and Canaan” (Sam.; LXX) Kevin Kay