Introduction

© John Stevenson, 2015

Dr. John T. Stevenson

• Family Life
• Academic Life
Dr. John T. Stevenson

• Family Life
• Academic Life
• Professional Life
Dr. John T. Stevenson

• Family Life
• Academic Life
• Professional Life
• Spiritual Life
• Ministry Life
 Dr. John T. Stevenson

http://JohnStevenson.net

[email protected]
 Group Introductions

• Your name
• Your home church
• Where are you in your educational
process?
• What classes have you already
taken in the area of the Old or New
Testament?
 Hebrew: “Law,
Torah Instruction”
Greek: “Five-Part
Pentateuch Book”
 Traces the origins of God’s
Genesis people from creation to Egypt
Relates God’s deliverance of
Exodus Israel from Egypt and
establishing His covenant
Leviticus Sets forth the Laws of worship
Relates the wilderness
Numbers wanderings
Gives the Law to a new
generation with special
Deuteronomy emphasis to those entering the
land
 Documentary Hypothesis

Deuteronomy Jehovah Elohim

Jean Astruc: Moses utilized two different

source documents

Wilhelm de Wette: Deuteronomy penned by

alternate author
 Documentary Hypothesis

Deuteronomy Jehovah Elohim

Herman Hulfeld: E-1 E-2

Julius Wellhausen: J – Jehovah

E – Elohim
D – Deuteronomy
P – Priestly
Mosaic Authorship of Genesis
• Moses was qualified to write the
book of Genesis.
• The Style of Genesis reflects an
Egyptian influence.
• The unity of the book of Genesis
reflects a single author.
 The Pentateuch was not
written as modern books are.
It is a collection and
arrangement of ancient
written sources, many of
which appear to have been
fragmentary and already old
by the time of Moses.
Indeed, Moses may have had
to translate some of them into
Hebrew. (John Sailhamer,
The Meaning of the
Pentateuch, Pg 28).
 Title for the Book
• The Hebrew Title: tyviareB.
(BeReshyth); “In the Beginning”
• Greek Title: GenesiV - “Beginnings”
 “THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF...”
Formula Contents Location
In the beginning God... Creation 1:1 - 2:3
1. This is the account of the Creation 2:4 - 4:26
heaven and the earth
2. This is the written account of Genealogy: Seth to Noah 5:1 - 6:8
Adam's Line
3. This is the account of Noah Flood & Covenant 6:9 - 9:29
4. This is the account of Shem, Table of Nations & Babel 10:1 - 11:9
Ham & Japheth
5. This is the account of Shem Genealogy: Shem to Abraham 11:10-26
6. This is the account of Terah Story of Abraham 11:27 - 25:11
7. This is the account of Genealogy of Ishmael 25:12-18
Abraham's son Ishmael
8. This is the account of Transition of blessing from 25:19 - 35:29
Abraham's son Isaac Isaac to Jacob
9. This is the account of Esau Genealogy of Esau 36:1-43
10. This is the account of Jacob Joseph & Israel in Egypt 37:1 - 50:26
 “These are the generations…”
• Hebrew: tAdl.At hL,ae - Elleh toledoth
• Ten sets
• History of account follows: “These
are the things that followed…”
Adam Israel
Genesis 2:4 – 11:26 Abraham Genesis 11:27 – 50:26
5 Toledoth from 5 Toledoth from
Adam to Abraham Abraham to Israel
 Genesis 1-11 Genesis 12-50
Events Predominant People Predominant
– Creation – Abraham
– Fall – Isaac
– Flood – Jacob
– Tower of Babel – Joseph

Race as a whole Family of Abraham

Over 2000 years 250 years
 Genesis Revelation
Creation of the heavens and A new heaven and a new earth.
earth.
The Tree of Life in the Garden. The Tree of Life in the New
Jerusalem.
A river runs through the A river runs through the New
Garden. Jerusalem.
The first marriage: Adam and The last marriage: The last Adam
Eve. to the church.
The beginning of the career of The end of Satan’s career: The
Satan. Lake of Fire.
Death enters. Death is destroyed.
Man lost privileges because of Man regains privileges because of
sin. Christ’s payment for sin.
Beginning of sorrow, pain and Christ wipes away all tears.
death.
The first murder. No more death.
The beginning of Babylon. Babylon destroyed.
Beginning & Ending
• Genesis begins with God: “In the
beginning God created…”
• Genesis ends with a corpse: “…in
a coffin in Egypt”
 Babylonian Creation Account
• Enuma Elish
• Seven Tablets
• Apsu & Tiamat
exist as primal
gods

When the sky above was not named,

And the earth beneath did not yet bear a
name,
 Babylonian Creation Account
• Enuma Elish
• Seven Tablets
• Apsu & Tiamat
exist as primal
gods

And the primeval Apsû, who begat them,

And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them
both,
 Babylonian Creation Account
• Enuma Elish
• Seven Tablets
• Apsu & Tiamat
exist as primal
gods

Their waters were mingled together,

And no field was formed, no marsh was
to be seen;
 Babylonian Creation Account
• Enuma Elish
• Seven Tablets
• Apsu & Tiamat
exist as primal
gods

When of the gods none had been called

into being.
 Babylonian Creation Account
• Chaos erupts
with creation of
other gods
• Aspu killed &
Tiamat takes
Kingu as new
husband
• Marduk fights Tiamat and uses her corpse
to fashion earth and sky
 Babylonian Creation Account
• Marduk kills
Kingu and
creates man
from his blood
• Sabbatu is
established as
observance
(Refers to full moon that appears once a
month)
 Ennuma Elish Genesis Account
When in the height In the beginning God
heaven was not named, created the heavens
And the earth beneath did and the earth.
not yet bear a name,
And the earth was
And the primeval Apsu,
without form and void,
who begat them,
and darkness was
And chaos, Tiamut, the
mother of them both upon the face of the
Their waters were
deep, and the Spirit of
mingled together… God was moving on
the face of the
waters…
 Ennuma Elish Genesis Account
Tiamat engulfs world in The world was
a primal chaos. unformed and unfilled.
Light comes from the God brings light into
gods. existence.
Marduk makes the God sets sun and
stars of the zodiac and moon for signs,
ordains the year. seasons, days, and
years.
Marduk makes man God creates man in
from the blood of His own image and
Kingu. likeness.
 Ennuma Elish Genesis Account
Marduk commands the God creates in six
horns to determine six days and rests on the
days, the seventh day seventh day which He
to divide the crown, appoints as a Sabbath
and the fourteenth day
to be the Sabbatu
(when the moon is full)
Ennuma Elish Genesis Account

Moses is giving to us a refutation of the

accepted mythos that was held in antiquity
as he goes point by point to show that God
is the true Creator of heaven and earth.
 Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.

When God began to create heaven

and Earth (Jewish Publication Society,
3rd edition)

In the beginning was the Word, and

the Word was with God, and the Word
was God (John 1:1).
 Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.

Elohim
• Teaches the existence of God.
• Teaches the existence of One God.
• Teaches the pre-existence of God.
• Teaches the personhood of God.
 Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.

bara

• An initial act of creation.

• A summary statement of the entire
chapter.
 Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.

shamayim
aretz
 Theories of Creation
• Supernatural versus Evolutionary.
• A Superficial Appearance of History.
• The Gap Theory.
 Genesis 1:2
And the earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters.

Original Formless 6 Days of

Creation & Void Re-creation
 Support Objections
The verb hayeta in The normal rendering
Genesis 1:2 can be of hayeta is “was” and
translated “became” so indicates a state of
that we could read that being.
“the earth became
without form and void.”
Tohu wabohu Tohu wabohu
(“formless and void”) (“formless and void”)
are a destruction can just as easily
which took place after describe an
God’s original creation unconstructed state.
(Jer. 4:23, Isa. 34:11).
 Support Objections
Isaiah 45:18 says that Isaiah 45:18 simply
God did not create the tells us that God’s
earth void (tohu) while intention for the earth
Genesis 1:2 says that in its completed form
was that it would not
the earth was now be tohu, but rather that
void. It is reasoned it might be inhabited.
that the earth must The prophet is simply
have come to be in stating the purpose of
this manner after its creation.
original creation.
 Support Objections
The darkness which Darkness does not
characterized the always indicate evil.
formless and void Both light and
condition is indicative darkness existed upon
the finished earth and
of evil. it was still said to be
good.
 Theories of Creation
• Supernatural versus Evolutionary.
• A Superficial Appearance of History.
• The Gap Theory.
• The Day/Age Theory.
 Support Objections
The word “day” is The word “day” does
sometimes used in the not normally refer to
Scriptures to describe an extended period of
a period of time longer time when it appears
with a modifier (1st
than a 24 hour period day, 2nd day, etc).
(“the day of the Lord”).
2 Peter 3:8 states that These days are clearly
with the Lord one day defined in Genesis 1:5
is as a thousand when God calls the
years. light day and the
darkness night.
 Support Objections
The sun and the moon The very purpose of
are not created until the sun was to rule
the 4th day. This over the day while the
indicates that the moon was to rule over
the night.
previous days are not
literal.
 Theories of Creation
• Supernatural versus Evolutionary.
• A Superficial Appearance of History.
• The Gap Theory.
• The Day/Age Theory.
• The Non-Sequential Theory / Framework
Theory.
 Unformed Unfilled
Day 1: Light Day 4: Light-bearers
(sun, moon, stars)
Day 2: Water & sky Day 5: Fish & birds to
divided fill water & sky
Day 3: Dry land & Day 6: Land animals
vegetation & man

Day 7: Sabbath Rest

 I personally take the view that Genesis 1
and 2 relate to each other the way Judges 4
and 5 and Exodus 14 and 15 do. In each
couplet one chapter describes a historical
event and the other is a song or poem about
the theological meaning of the event.
When reading Judges 4 it is obvious that it is
a sober recounting of what happened in the
battle, but when we read Judges 5,
Deborah’s Song about the battle, the
language is poetic and metaphorical.
When Deborah sings that the stars in the
heavens came down to fight for the
Israelites, we understand that she means
that metaphorically.
I think Genesis 1 has the earmarks of poetry
and is therefore a “song” about the wonder
and meaning of God’s creation. Genesis 2
is an account of how it happened
(The Reason for God, pg 93-94).
 Theories of Creation
• Supernatural versus Evolutionary.
• A Superficial Appearance of History.
• The Gap Theory.
• The Day/Age Theory.
• The Non-Sequential Theory / Framework
Theory.
• The Literal Interpretation.
 …general revelation in
creation, as well as the
special revelation of
Scripture, is also the
voice of God. We live in
a “universe,” and all
truth speaks with one
voice (2001:77).
 Genesis 1:2
And the earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters.

Tohu wa-bohu
• Unformed and unfilled.
• Topsy-turvy.
• Desolate and deserted.
 Genesis 1:2
And the earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters.

And darkness was over the face of the

deep,
And the Spirit of God was moving over
the face of the waters.
When the Most High gave the nations
their inheritance,
When He separated the sons of man,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the sons of
Israel.
9 For the LORD’S portion is His people;

Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.

(Deuteronomy 32:8-9).
He found him in a
desert land,
And in the howling
waste of a wilderness;
He encircled him, He
cared for him,
He guarded him as the
pupil of His eye.
(Deuteronomy 32:10).
Like an eagle that stirs up its
nest,
That hovers over its young,
He spread His wings and
caught them,
He carried them on His
pinions.
12 The LORD alone guided

him,
And there was no foreign god
with him. (Deuteronomy 32:11-
12).
 Genesis 1:2 Deuteronomy 32
And the earth He found him in a desert
was waste and land,
void, and And in the howling waste of a
darkness was wilderness;
over the surface He encircled him, He cared
of the deep, and for him,
the Spirit of God He guarded him as the pupil
was moving of His eye.
over the surface
of the waters.
 Genesis 1:2 Deuteronomy 32
And the earth Like an eagle that stirs up its
was waste and nest,
void, and That hovers over its young,
darkness was He spread His wings and
over the surface caught them,
of the deep, and He carried them on His
the Spirit of God pinions.
was moving 12 The LORD alone guided

over the surface him,

of the waters. And there was no foreign god
with him.
 Spirit

What God did with the world

at creation, He does with the
Israelites in the wilderness
 Spirit

What is God’s Spirit doing in

your life?
“The wind blows where it wishes and you
hear the sound of it, but do not know
where it comes from and where it is
going; so is everyone who is born of the
Spirit.” (John 3:8).