The Book of Genesis ( Greek: , "birth", "origin") Greek
Bereshith (Hebrew: , "in the beginning")Hebrew is the first book of
the Hebrew Bible, and the first of five books of the Torah, called
the Pentateuch in the Christian Old Testament. Hebrew
BibleTorahPentateuch ChristianOld Testament
Slide 3
The narrative runs from the creation of the world to the
descent of the children of Israel into Egypt and culminates with
the death of Joseph, and it contains some of the best-known
biblical stories, including Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's
Ark, the Tower of Babel, and the patriarchs of the Jewish
peoplecreation of the worldchildren of IsraelEgyptJoseph Adam and
EveCain and AbelNoah's ArkTower of Babel patriarchs
Slide 4
For Jews the theological importance of Genesis centers on the
Covenants linking Yahweh (God) to his Chosen People and the people
to the Promised Land.Jews Covenants YahwehGod Chosen People
Promised Land
Slide 5
Christianity has interpreted Genesis as the prefiguration of
Christian beliefs, specifically the Christian view of Christ as the
fulfillment of covenant promises as the Son of God. ChristSon of
God
Slide 6
Genesis consists of the "primeval history" (chapters 111) and
cycles of Patriarchal stories - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel.
The narrative of Joseph stands apart from these. Scholars believe
that it reached its final form in the 5th century BC, with a
previous history of composition reaching back possibly to the 10th
century.
Slide 7
In Hebrew the book is called Bereshit, meaning "in the
beginning", from the first word of the Hebrew text, in line with
the other four books of the Torah.Hebrew Torah
Slide 8
When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in the 3rd
century BC to produce the Septuagint, the name given was Genesis,
meaning "birth" or "origin". This was in line with the Septuagint
use of subject themes as book names. The Greek title has continued
to be used in all subsequent Latin and English versions of the
book, and most other languagesGreekSeptuagintLatin English
Slide 9
The oldest extant Biblical manuscripts (mss) of Genesis are the
24 fragments found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating from the few
centuries immediately prior to the Birth of Christ.Biblical
manuscriptsDead Sea Scrolls
Slide 10
The next oldest manuscripts are the Greek Codex Sinaiticus and
Vaticanus based on the Septuagint and produced by the early
Christian church in the 4th century AD.Codex
SinaiticusVaticanusSeptuagint
Slide 11
The Masoretic Text which forms the basis of Jewish worship
today, is also the youngest of these manuscripts, dating from
around 1000 AD.Masoretic Text Also worthy of note are the Samaritan
and Syriac translations, whose manuscripts are not as old as the
Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint, but preserve noteworthy
differences which are pointers to the history both of the text and
of the communities which produced them.Samaritan Syriac
Slide 12
Scholars generally accept the division of Genesis into the
Primeval History of Genesis 1-11, the Patriarchal cycles of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the story of Joseph. The "primeval
history" consists of three narrative units separated by two
genealogies and an ethnography (or ethno-geography).
Slide 13
The first narrative is that of Creation-Eden and the
descendants of Cain and Seth.
Slide 14
The second narrative is the "Sons of God", Noah and the Curse
of Ham and ethnography, the Table of Nations. Curse of Ham
Slide 15
The third narrative is that of the Tower of Babel and the
dispersal of peoples and the descendants of Seth to AbrahamTower of
Babel
Slide 16
For much of the 20th century, academic scholarship on the
origins of Genesis was dominated by the documentary hypothesis.
This sees Genesis as a composite work assembled from originally
independent sources: documentary hypothesis the J text, named for
its use of the term YHWH (JHWH in German) as the name of
God;YHWHthe name of God the E text, named for its characteristic
usage of the term "Elohim" for God;Elohim the P, or Priestly
source, named for its preoccupation with the Aaronid priesthood.
These texts were composed independently between 950 BC and 500 BC
and underwent numerous processes of redaction, emerging in their
current form in around 450 BC.Priestly sourceBC
Slide 17
For centuries, Moses had been believed to have been the author
of Genesis, and any other hypothesis was thus received by
traditionally-minded Jews and Christians as an attack on one of
their central beliefs.Mosesbelieved to have been the author
Slide 18
But in the first half of the 20th century the science of
Biblical archaeology, developed by William F. Albright and his
followers, combined with the new methods of biblical scholarship
known as source criticism and tradition history, developed by
Hermann Gunkel, Robert Alter and Martin Noth, seemed to demonstrate
that the stories of Genesis (or, at least, the stories of the
Patriarchs; the early part of Genesisfrom the Creation to the Tower
of Babelwhich were already regarded as legendary by mainstream
scholarship) were based in genuinely ancient oral tradition
grounded in the material culture of the 2nd millennium BC. Thus by
the middle of the 20th century it seemed that archaeology and
scholarship had reconciled Wellhausen with a modified version of
authorship by MosesBiblical archaeologyWilliam F. Albrightsource
criticismtradition historyHermann GunkelRobert AlterMartin
Noth
Slide 19
This consensus was challenged in the 1970s by the publication
of two books, Thomas L. Thompson's "The Historicity of the
Patriarchal Narratives" (1974), and John Van Seters's "Abraham in
History and Tradition" (1975), both of which pointed out that the
archaeological evidence connecting the author of Genesis to the 2nd
millennium BC could equally well apply to the 1st millennium, and
that oral traditions were not nearly so easily recoverable as
Gunkel and others had said.Thomas L. ThompsonThe Historicity of the
Patriarchal NarrativesJohn Van SetersAbraham in History and
Tradition A third influential work, R. N. Whybray's "The Making of
the Pentateuch" (1987), analysed the assumptions underlying
Wellhausen's work and found them illogical and unconvincing, and
William G. Dever attacked the philosophical foundations of
Albrightean biblical archaeology, arguing that it was neither
desirable nor possible to use the Bible to interpret the
archaeological record.R. N. WhybrayThe Making of the Pentateuch
William G. Dever
Slide 20
How do you explain the meaning of the Pentateuch to
evangelicals who revere these foundational books but do not see
their relevance?
Slide 21
Experience has taught me that we really have to want to
understand the meaning of the Pentateuch before we see its
relevance for our lives. I've been fortunate to have students who
have kept me looking for answers about the meaning and relevance of
this book. The old theologians used to speak of "the love for
Scripture" as a sign of true faith in Christ. They would say, "We
should read the Old Testament as if it were written with the blood
of Christ." For them, the Old Testament and the Pentateuch in
particular was a Christian book, a book about Christ. For most
evangelical Christians today it is a book about archaeology and
ancient history.
Slide 22
Here we have to be careful because, to be sure, the Old
Testament is about ancient history. But that is not its meaning.
Its meaning is Christ. Saying that also calls for a great deal of
caution. In my book, I take the view that the whole of the
Pentateuch is about Christ, but that doesn't mean that Christ is in
the whole Pentateuch. Finding Christ in the Pentateuch means
learning to see him when he is there rather than trying to see when
he is not there. I like to tell my students that we don't need to
spiritualize the Old Testament to find Christ, but we do need to
read it with spiritual eyes.
Slide 23
have a good friend who likes to chide me by saying you don't
need "exegesis" to find Christ in the Old Testament. All we need is
some "extra Jesus." I wrote my book in part to show my friend and
others like him that serious scholarship leads one to find Christ
in the Old Testament because he is really there. The author of the
Pentateuch put him there when he wrote the book. I've found that if
you show someone that Christ is really there in the Pentateuch and
the Old Testament, they will come back to see morenot merely
because they have come to revere the Pentateuch as a foundational
book, but more importantly because they want to see more of
Jesus.
Slide 24
What is the trickiest problem with discerning the meaning of
the Pentateuch?
Slide 25
The problem can be a simple one. Christians just don't really
believe the Old Testament is their Bible in the same way the New
Testament is. For them the Old Testament teaches the law and the
New Testament the gospel. The Old Testament is about Israel and the
New Testament is about the church. They may not say it in so many
words, but it's there, especially on those rare occasions when the
preacher asks them to turn to an Old Testament passage. For them
it's like reading someone else's mail. They feel they need to ask
permission to obey its laws. Remember this: What we call the "Old
Testament" today was the only "New Testament" Jesus and Paul ever
had. All the evangelism we read about in the book of Acts was the
result of the gospel they proclaimed from the pages of the "Old
Testament."
Slide 26
Slide 27
Known as "the greatest preacher in the early church", John's
sermons have been one of his greatest lasting legacies.
Chrysostom's extant homiletical works are vast, including many
hundreds of exegetical sermons on both the New Testament
(especially the works of Saint Paul) and the Old Testament
(particularly on Genesis). Among his extant exegetical works are
sixty-seven homilies on Genesis, fifty-nine on the Psalms, ninety
on the Gospel of Matthew, eighty-eight on the Gospel of John, and
fifty-five on the Acts of the ApostlesNew TestamentSaint PaulOld
TestamentGenesis PsalmsGospel of MatthewGospel of John Acts of the
Apostles
Slide 28
Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, He was an
influential 4th century Christian theologian and monastic.Christian
theologianmonastic Theologically, Basil was a supporter of the
Nicene faction of the church, in opposition to Arianism on one side
and the followers of Apollinaris of Laodicea on the other. His
ability to balance his theological convictions with his political
connections made Basil a powerful advocate for the Nicene position.
NiceneArianism Apollinaris of Laodicea
Slide 29
He was a famous preacher, and many of his homilies, including a
series of Lenten lectures on the Hexameron (the Six Days of
Creation), and an exposition of the psalter, have been preserved.
Some, like that against usury and that on the famine in 368, are
valuable for the history of morals; others illustrate the honor
paid to martyrs and relics; the address to young men on the study
of classical literature shows that Basil was lastingly influenced
by his own education, which taught him to appreciate the
propaedeutic importance of the
classicsLentenHexameronpsalterrelicsclassical
literaturepropaedeutic
Slide 30
The term Hexaemeron (Greek ) refers either to the genre of
theological treatise that describes God's work on the six days of
creation or to the six days of creation themselves.creation
Slide 31
Most often these theological works take the form of
commentaries on Genesis 1. As a genre, hexameral literature was
popular in the early church and medieval periods. The word derives
its name from the Greek roots hexa-, meaning "six", and (h)emer(a),
meaning "day".Greekhexa-
Slide 32
Using the Genesis account as a template, the days of creation
are claimed as follows:Genesis Light The firmament of HeavenHeaven
Separation of water and land, created plant life; Sun, moon, and
stars Marine life and birds Land animals, and man and woman. The
seventh day is reserved for rest (Sabbath), and so is not
countedSabbath
Slide 33
Saint Basil wrote an early and influential series of homilies
around 370 AD which figure as the earliest extant Hexameron. Basil
originally performed the work as a series of sermons, and later
collected them into a written work which was influential amongst
early church leaders. Through Hexaemeron, we get many clues about
the scientific knowledge of 4th century AD (Spheric Earth,
Atmosphere, Stars and Suns, a primitive form of the theory of
Evolution) and we can understand that science and religion was
harmonically blended in the early church. Saint
BasilsermonsEarthAtmosphereStarsSunsEvolution
Slide 34
Basil originally performed the work as a series of sermons, and
later collected them into a written work which was influential
amongst early church leader sermons
Slide 35
Through Hexaemeron, we get many clues about the scientific
knowledge of 4th century AD (Spheric Earth, Atmosphere, Stars and
Suns, a primitive form of the theory of Evolution) and we can
understand that science and religion was harmonically blended in
the early church.Earth AtmosphereStars SunsEvolution