In 2009 I began to read the Bible alphabetically (see here for my rationale), reading each book at least three times and trying to get into the mind of the original author and readers as well as listen to God’s message for today. Here’s what I’ve discovered from reading Genesis.
Overall Impression
Genesis is not a stand-alone book. It definitely reads like book one of an ongoing series. It comes to a relatively satisfying conclusion but leaves the bigger story unfinished.
The early chapters deal with much more dramatic matters than the majority of the book which is a family saga, tracing the history of a particular family over four generations. You might find something similar in literature today. Imagine this: chapter one of a book tells how the plot of an evil wizard has been foiled by a mere baby and the whole wizarding world is rejoicing. Later chapters are about a young boy struggling to make friends in an unfamiliar school environment. Most of the book is less dramatic than the opening chapter, but the reader should not forget that opening. The evil wizard has only been temporarily defeated. He’ll be back. In fact many of the ‘troublesome school days’ incidents contain hints of a deeper plot. That evil wizard is still in the background. In later books he will return in a less subtle way. The overarching story is one which impacts the salvation of the whole wizarding world, even if much of the narrative focuses on a handful of individuals going about their everyday life.
In the same way, the first chapters of Genesis establish that this world was created by God and that he has taken an active interest in the behaviour of his human creations, sometimes rescuing them, sometimes punishing them. The reader is expected to keep those early insights in mind during the majority of the book. It’s the history of a family, but God is still present and still taking an active interest. Maybe his interventions are less drastic than flooding the earth or muddling the whole world’s languages, but he is still the same powerful creator God and he has not gone away. If you just read the later chapters as history and forget the key information provided at the beginning, you will miss the nuances. No doubt we will see more of God’s activity in the later books in the series.
Structure and Authorship
In my ABR scheme I try to put aside any preconceptions. But it’s difficult to forget my previous Biblical knowledge entirely. For example, I know that scholars believe Genesis is based on four separate sources. (I even remember their names: J, E, P, D.) Even without knowing that, there were several occasions when it seemed obvious, based on needless repetition and occasional non sequiturs, that some stories were a combination of two different accounts.
In this respect, Genesis resembles a ‘Gospel Harmony’ such as the Diatessaron by Tatian. Christians have sometimes created a single account of the life of Jesus by melding together all four gospels. What this produces is a gospel which begins with two very different accounts of the birth of Jesus, not easily reconcilable, followed by a whole series of incidents with some repetition (e.g. the cleansing of the temple both at the start and the end of Jesus’s ministry) and occasional mis-matches of information such as the day of the last supper (was it a Passover meal, or was it the day before the Passover?) Genesis has the same feel as this – a combination of differing accounts of the early history of the world and of Abraham’s family.
Here’s one example. I’ve always found it odd that Reuben persuaded his brothers to dump Joseph in a cistern, but then apparently wandered away from them so that he wasn’t around when they sold Joseph into slavery. (Hence his surprise in finding the cistern empty.) When I read “meanwhile some passing Midianite merchants drew Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him…” (37:28) I realised this was an example of two versions put together. In version one there is nothing about a cistern or Reuben’s conscience. The brothers plan to kill Joseph, but seeing an Ishmaelite caravan they change their mind and sell him into slavery. In version two Reuben persuades his brothers that instead of killing Joseph directly they should just leave him in a cistern, where he will still die from heat and starvation, but they will not have blood on their hands. His secret plan is to rescue Joseph later, but unfortunately, after the brothers have abandoned Joseph, some passing Midianites discover him and make an easy profit by selling him to Ishmaelites. In this second version the brothers have no idea what has happened to Joseph until they meet him again in Egypt of all places!
A few more examples: The story of Abraham pretending his wife is his sister appears twice, and once more with Isaac doing the same thing. There are two stories about Jacob leaving his home. 1) Jacob steals his brother’s blessing and has to flee for his life. 2) Isaac blesses Jacob without any great fuss and sends him away to find a wife from among his relations. And of course, the two very different accounts of creation.
And I can’t imagine that the following both come from the same source: a) Sarah’s advanced age (well beyond child-bearing as in 18:11-12) and b) Abraham’s fear that she was so beautiful (and still sexually available) that she would be stolen from him unless he pretended she was his sister (20:2 and 20:11).
Creation
Genesis starts with two creation stories. The first is on cosmic scale and universal; the second is more local and homely with lots of actual names of places. A reminder that God is behind the cosmos and the familiar everyday. The places named seem to us part of the ancient world, but they would have been well known to the first readers.
The first story shows signs of adaption from an eight-step account. It isn’t creation from nothing, God starts with water and chaos. Then eight times he says “let it happen” and it happens and he sees it is good. The first four occurrences are God creating an environment and the second four are God creating its inhabitants. 1. light and dark, 2. sea and sky, 3. land, 4. plants, 5. sun, moon, stars, 6. fish and birds, 7. animals, 8. human beings. The last is an exception. Humans don’t ‘inhabit’ the plant life exactly. Instead they are given dominion over fish, birds and animals (not the sun and moon), and they have some plants to eat. Other plants are for the animals and birds.
The second story hints at a view of human life which I think is questionable (and not supported by certain other passages in the Bible) – that a person consists of a mortal physical body ‘inhabited’ by an eternal spirit. Here God forms the body from dust (to which it will return under the curse) and then breathes life into it. I would still want to argue that this does not necessarily imply the creation of an eternal spirit which can automatically outlast our physical existence. To me it emphasises that life is a gift of God and only sustained because he chooses to sustain it (whether in this world, or the next.)
Early Stories
The curse against the woman includes the man becoming her master. When this was written it was an explanation of how things were, but today we are right to emphasise that this is not how things were meant to be. The domination of man over woman is part of our ‘fallen’ state which can be redeemed with God’s help.
After the flood the rules for human domination change slightly. All living creatures will be afraid of human beings and will be food for them (alongside the ‘green plants’) but people are not to consume the blood of animals. This represents their life. Again there seems to be a distinction between body and spirit, although this time the ‘spirit’ is represented by blood rather than breath.
Only a few of the early stories (the first creation account, the Nephalim, the tower of Babel) are told in broad terms about people in general. Most of them, even the big events like the second creation account, the fall, the first murder, the flood etc., are stories about named individuals.
The Patriarchs
Once we reach chapter 12, the story becomes a family saga, full of individual deeds and sometimes lists of names. Names are clearly important, and many of the given names are based on Hebrew wordplay. Strangely, the long account of the search for a wife for Isaac, with many unnecessarily repeated details, has at the centre an unnamed servant.
The sons of Israel, according to his blessing, are a rough and wild bunch. In some cases his blessing sounds more like a curse. In particular Reuben the firstborn seems to fade into obscurity. It’s names like Judah, Ephraim, Levi which become ‘famous’.
Joseph and Pharaoh exploit the people during the time of famine. They sell them grain, then they take livestock in exchange and finally land. The people end up as slaves but are grateful that their lives have been spared. They don’t seem to remember that the food for which they are paying so dearly is the excess food taken from them in taxation during the years of plenty. Joseph doesn’t exploit the priests in the same way – despite the fact that these are priests of foreign gods. All in all, I’m not impressed with him as a role model.
Morals, Values, and Insights
The Lord sometimes appears in a very human way, e.g. as three men visiting Abraham. Other times he acts via intermediaries like angels (e.g. in the same story), but conversations with the Lord are often as if he is a real physical presence. Note that the angels go to Sodom, but Abraham remains with the Lord. It’s very confusing as to whether God is present in person or in the shape of a man or angel (or more than one). Jacob’s wrestling match with a man / an angel / God doesn’t clarify the confusion.
Certain values stand out. Hospitality: both Abraham and Lot beg the visitors to stay, almost in a panic that they may not. Genetic purity: seeking wives for Isaac and Jacob from among their own people. Taking another man’s wife as a sin: Abimelech is mortified at what almost happened. Respect for the rich and powerful: Abimelech almost grovels before Abraham even though the latter was in the wrong; the Hittites are keen to give him a burial ground without payment.
Abraham twice (and Isaac once) claims his wife as his sister afraid that he will be killed and his wife stolen. In each case their hosts are appalled at this behaviour and see the risk of being cursed (for accidentally sleeping with another man’s wife) as a real and present danger – yet they do not punish Abraham or Isaac but treat them with greater honour and respect.
Blessings and treaties are important and powerful. People seem to recognise who God is blessing and they want to be part of it. There is a definite sense that good fortune and wealth are not so much earned as given by God (and not always to those who deserve it.)
It was a tough time in history – groups of families raiding each other and stealing each others flocks and herds. e.g. when Shechem raped Dinah and then offered a peace treaty with Dinah becoming his wife as part of the deal, the sons of Israel pretended to go along with it, insisted on all the town being circumcised, then attacked and killed them all. Rape avenged by mass murder. Not a good time to be alive.
Genesis establishes a principle which is at odds with the general culture of the time, but for some reason is entrenched in this early history of the Hebrew race – that the younger son is the favoured one. Abel over Cain. Isaac over Ishmael. Jacob over Esau. Joseph over all his elder brothers. Ephraim over Manasseh. It happens in practically every generation. When Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son, we imagine his listeners thinking, “it’s unfair of the younger brother to be so favoured.” In fact, if they knew their history they were probably thinking, “here we go again.”
So What?
Ultimately, what is Genesis telling us? There are some passages which can be inspirational. Jacob’s wrestling match illustrates the importance of wresting with God in prayer – “I won’t stop until you bless me!” Abraham’s willingness to trust God even if it meant the death of his precious only son is a level of faith we find astounding and terrible. The story of Joseph shows how short term disasters can be used by God to further his long term plans for good. On an emotional level I always find the moment when Joseph reveals himself to his brothers to be deeply moving, even though I know it’s coming.
But I have to admit that much of what these patriarchs get up to is distasteful to my modern sensibilities. So I have to remember those early chapters. The first humans disobeyed God. After that things started to go horribly wrong. The stories which follow are the stories of a fallen people, not stories of perfect role models. God has his work cut out to make something good out of the human race and he isn’t going to succeed overnight. This book is about the very earliest steps in the process of salvation. There will continue to be much wrong with the human race for centuries to come. But here we can see God doing some initial moulding of his creation, establishing broad principles about faith and obedience, righteousness and wickedness, blessings and punishments, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Perhaps the main thing I get out of Genesis is the reminder that God is in charge and that he works in and through the lives of fallible human beings like myself.
