Lecture 01: The Book of Genesis - Dr. Bill Barrick

alright as we begin the class on Genesis 1 3 11 we want to have a background to what the book of Genesis is all about we want to talk a little bit about mosaic authorship we want to talk about the higher critical methodologies for interpreting the book of Genesis there are a number of issues we want to cover and by the way I want to encourage you it anywhere along the way even though we're being recorded feel free to ask questions don't be you know reluctant to ask questions and to get involved in the discussions were taken care of as looking at this book we all know it's a book of beginnings the first book of the Hebrew Bible the Hebrew Bible begins with Genesis and ends with 2nd chronicles that is the pattern of the text we see even the days of Jesus Luke chapter 11 verses 51 and 52 Jesus talks about how Israel had killed the prophets he gives an example as he says from Abel to Zechariah who was killed between the altar and the holy place Abel is in the book of Genesis chapter 4 and Zechariah is death is recorded in 2nd chronicles and so he's giving a canonical spread there of the first book of the Bible - the last book of the Bible could also be taking chronologically as well that Genesis with Abel precedes even the book of Job because job is post-flood job is the time of the patriarchs perhaps as late as a time of Jacob but perhaps as early as the time of Abraham and so it's a legitimate range thereof saying that you have killed the prophets now he's speaking to Israel and obviously Israel didn't exist in Genesis chapter 4 but he's speaking generically of all mankind he's come to be the savior not just a visual but of all mankind and he's not just accusing Israel of having killed the prophets he's accusing all mankind of having that type of inimical relationship to the prophets that God has sent over the period of time in which he's been sending them and so that is the outline of the history and that is a canonical approach and it shows us that the books though the order at least the first in the last in Jesus day was Genesis as the first and second chronicles as the last within the Hebrew Bible when we look at this book of beginnings we can approach it with several different kinds of outlines and there are numerous outlines and every commentary you look at will have their own outline and as we're looking at those I would just mention first of all you can approach it from a geographical viewpoint the geography of Genesis would give you an outlet and outline like this Genesis 1 2 3 is in the Garden of Eden Genesis 4 through 6 is east of Eden Genesis 7 through 9 is on the ark or in the mountains of Ararat notice the mountain does not Mount Ararat the ark did not land on Mount Ararat the text says only in the mountains plural of Ararat sand a mountain range does not specify which peak upon which the ark landed we'll talk more about that when we get to that section Genesis 10 through 11 we're on the plain of Shinar we're in the region of Babel or what is known as Babylon in Genesis 12 through 36 we ran or of the Cal DS with Abram and then he comes to Canaan where we are through chapter 36 in chapters 37 through 50 we end up in Egypt with the story of Joseph his brother sell him into slavery in chapter 37 and it continues until they till the death of Joseph in Genesis chapter 50 his father and his brothers end up in Egypt with him during a time of famine so there's one way to look at the book of Genesis is by means of the geography by means the location or the scenes within the narrative as we look at it another way of and by the way this geography points to a book of world history this is not a book that is about or solely for Israel Israel was the first recipient of the book as penned by Moses yes but it is written for all mankind and it has a global a universal focus from start to finish it's talking about the first human being being created by God and being the physical genealogical head of the entire human race and you don't get to Israel as a nation at all in the book of Genesis we have the twelve sons of Jacob known as Israel his name has established the book of Genesis but they are not a nation until Exodus chapter 19 and so as we're in the book of Genesis everything is really about world history even in justice Chapter 12 as we go to Abraham it's pre Israelite it's before the nation of Israel exists and he and his descendants are promised to be a blessing to all nations this is one of the things we need to keep in mind about Genesis it is a book of world history it's a book of a wide scope that has to do with all mankind we can also look at the generations of Genesis the way this is done by this particular commentator is to say that Genesis 1 to 2 is generation or creation the birth of the heavens and the earth Genesis 3 through 11 d-generation the fall Genesis 12 250 regeneration God's intrusion yeah intervention into the history of mankind to provide the promised hope that was given to them back in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 and to give them a little bit of insight as to where it's heading this is the way Viktor Hamilton in his commentary in the new International come to an Old Testament handles it and he likes that type of basic simple outline for the book of Genesis you may have been thinking when I said generations that perhaps it would be the tablet theory this is a popular Jewish commentator approach to the book of Genesis to take each of the Toula do't that are mentioned in the eleven different places within the book of Genesis and to assign that as a content for a tablet which means that before the flood these commentators are suggesting they're not dogmatic no one can be dogmatic because there's no surviving example or replica but they're suggesting that's possible that each of these total vote consisted of a tablet that was written by an older author in the pre-flood period and later and was preserved by God's people some of these tablets being preserved then by Noah on the ark and brought with them through the flood and this would be one of the ways to outline the book of Genesis the first tablet the first Toula do't is Genesis 2 verse 4 and it seems to be referring back to the preceding section or it's referring to the following section chapter 2 verse 5 all the way through chapter 4 that's the way I take it that's the way Jason the wrote she takes it we'll talk later about how I recommend his viewpoint of the Toula doats and I will be posting online in the course documents later a paper that he presented about that it's also he published an article in the Journal of evangelical theological Society just a couple of years ago he has Studies on this and it's superb it's the best study that anyone has done anywhere on the topic and I highly recommend it and then you have the tablet of Adam as some take it here and they have it here they have it ending with five one where you have the total dote of adamance really they're the safer of the Tola don't the book of the generations now that's fascinating and I would really take that as Douro she does as the beginning of the next so the first chapter through chapter 2 verse 3 is really a preface it's really the opening of the book of Genesis chapter 2 verse 4 then is the heading that carries us through the end of chapter 4 and chapter 5 verse 1 is the heading that carries us on through to chapter 6 verse 9 when we have the toe load out of Noah introduced a little bit different than this pattern that is set up by some of the Jewish commentators but it appears the Toledo our preface Escala funds that precede a section and explain it when we get to chapter five we'll talk about something else and that is that there are only two places in the entire Word of God where we have the book of the generations one is the book of the generations of Adam the second is the book of the generations of the second Adam Jesus Christ Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 it is purposefully used there and that has high significance and when we get to that point we'll talk about that in greater detail so just introduce you to this particular theory and this way now the question is always been asked well we don't have any other written revelation from that period of time well the only written revelation we have is the book of Job and the book of Job I believe dates back to the time of job or up to Le Elihu who I believe that's my opinion is the author of the book or Elif as one of my former students actually did his PhD dissertation on Elif as being the author Kyle Dunham did that work you'll find it in the library he argued for elephants and made some good arguments I just was not convinced totally by his arguments I still favor Elihu or even Jobe we have to keep in mind it's anonymous we really don't know no one knows we're going on the basis of circumstantial evidence but there's no reason to wait until the time of Moses or the time of Solomon or later for an author for the book of Job it makes far greater sense in the way it's written the style of its writing the ancientness of its dialogue the internists of its vocabulary all those types of things work out well for dating it from the patriarchal period itself not just for the events but for the actual writing and so the book of Job is older in thrit inform than the book of Genesis but the book of Genesis has older content referring back to an earlier period of time and we need to keep those distinct so is there something from that earlier period of time I wrote a paper and I'll be posting that for you here in the next two weeks on in the course documents for I wrote a paper for ETS on the unwritten revelation in the book of Genesis God did reveal himself look he told Adam you shall not eat of the tree of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that's direct revelation adam was a prophet he received direct revelation from God and Abel was the first to be killed the first prophet to be killed that essentially the first to be killed that doesn't mean he's the first prophet he's actually the second prophet with Adam being the first later we find out that Abraham had statutes commands and laws and even Moses went there in the wilderness before they get to Mount Sinai has already begun to apply the statutes and the laws and the judgments that God has given him before he receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai you can read about that next is chapter 18 so God has revelation how did Cain and Abel know to offer a sacrifice she there has to be something there whether you take it as being just the illustration of God slaying an animal to provide clothing for a naked Adam and Eve after the fall or whether you say what wait a minute that's still not sufficient how do how are they going to understand this illustration except God tell them and just because God kills them will provide clothing for them how does that make them understand that there's a relationship here of sacrificing an animal of a certain kind with certain characteristics for sin in order to have forgiveness of sin or to make confession of sin where does that instruction common and what about the idea of sacrifice for the purpose of pray and then how is it that Noah later in the book of Genesis is told to take on board seven of every clean animal that's a concept that we see more clearly described in the Book of Leviticus after Mount Sinai and the giving of the law by God to Moses but there seems to be a knowledge of clean unclean from the very start even before the flood there's this knowledge how do they receive that knowledge in my thinking it's obvious that God then has revealed it to them and so we'll talk more about that as we go along and look at other things let's talk briefly as we begin to think about the book of Genesis and Genesis chapter 1 let's talk about this issue of creation vs. evolution and there's so much we could say here and I do highly recommend that as you're reading through this volume it's where you'll spend a lot of time reading a lot of pages especially early in the semester so don't neglect it and don't leave it aside stay current with it and work on that I could ask quiz questions in class give you an extemporaneous quiz at anytime surprise quizzes on your reading so please keep up with it it's gonna be a little bit heavy at the beginning of the semester so try to be disciplined try to plan your your schedule accordingly so you get that reading in it's important and makes a contribution to our discussions as we go through and there's a good deal of discussion there about this topic let's look at the early church father Agustin Augustine had a commentary he called it the literal commentary on the book of Genesis he is known to have done his writing in his ministry between 387 and 430 ad that's back to the 4th century AD and even then he made this statement I fear that I will be laughed at by those who have scientific knowledge of these matters he's talking about creation and by those who recognize the facts of the case end of quote I think that today's Christians are the only ones in the history of the world who have been doubtful about trying to read the text for what it says when secular science is saying something so diametrically different no you're not the first generation on planet Earth to face that dilemma and while we're at it think there for a minute what would scientists of the day say about the science of Augustine's day David say what in the world did he have to fear right and what will it be like five hundred years from now if the Lord tarries scientists might look back at you and say what did you have to fear look at the extent of the knowledge scientifically of that day its primitive by comparison so this idea that we fear secular science ought to be removed that ought not to affect us at all we not we shouldn't be afraid of being laughed at for adhering to what the scriptures say we just need to adhere to what the scriptures say that's the authority that we have not the authority of human reason and so on self-styled sovereignty but the authority of God and is inerrant revelation that's what we have to depend upon so be aware of that when it comes to the first verse of the book of Genesis and as we look at it here but a sheath but I Elohim F Hashem I am wa-hah audits when we look at that verse our first question is is this a caliph um is this like the toledo statements that begin in chapter 2 verse 4 and following is this just an introductory statement a heading for the creation account or is it part of the creation account if it's part of the creation account is it separate from day one or is it included in day one that's the question we face they're questions of how we translate it some translate a subordinate clause when God created the heavens and the earth at the beginning the earth was and then different people put a gap there in verse two we'll talk about that later as well but when we're talking about that issue and we're talking about okay what's the meaning of the days we have look at verse 5 there we're told there at the end li'ella excuse me while you heat air of value he vocare Yom Akkad what length of day is that how what period of time is that is that a 24-hour day as the solar day is a literal day is it a period of time an era an epoch is it figurative is it literal how do we take day there I think that if we go back to the scriptures and allow scripture to interpret Scripture we have an answer to that in Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 11 remember the Sabbath day the fourth commandment to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yahweh your God in it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter your male or your female servant or your cattle or your Sojourner stays with you for or because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day therefore therefore Yahweh I've got a mistake in there Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy alright think about it it says in six days he made the heavens and the earth and the Seas and all that is in them you see it includes Genesis 1:1 within the six days now think about this a minute can we like some say oh but wait a minute yeah you know this is Moses Moses is a fallen human being he had limited understanding he had limited capability he's just like all the rest of us he's limited in his knowledge besides he wasn't there at creation no one was right so this is just his mistake or others say oh he's just been brought into the the realm of the ancient Near East and it's concepts and this is just trying to look at this in a kind of allegorical fashion and this is not to be taken literally and Moses is writing the way the other peoples the ancient Near East would write or you have others come along and look at it and say well this wasn't even written by Moses this is written much later like Mark foo taro says all of this is written much much later in the time of the kings in the time of the the prophet Elijah and Elijah during the reign of King Ahab when they're combating the prophets of Baal and therefore this is a very late type of account and then you have others coming along and say oh it's even later than that it's down the fifth or the fourth century BC this is part of the priestly document and it's related to the holiness code because here you have God setting apart the seventh day and sanctified it he makes it holy and therefore the date for this is after 450 BC perhaps as late as a hundred BC and it has been written by these priests in Jerusalem who are corrupt who are oppressive and who desire nothing more than to impose law and their viewpoints upon the people to dominate them so they maintain their influence they maintained their wealth they maintain our power over the people that's the view the so-called queer theologians take of the text that's their term for themselves not my term for them the homosexual gay lesbian commentators of the book of Genesis and of Leviticus and elsewhere in the Old Testament attribute all condemnation of homosexuality to the holiness code and to a much later time and they argue that this is by a corrupt priesthood in Jerusalem who wants to oppress the people and these are their standards not God's standards they're imposed upon them that's their response that's how they argue but look at the text what's the context here of this text anyone it's the ten commandments what's the nature of the Ten Commandments was it something that Moses set down and penned written by the finger of God which is obviously allegorical there the finger it's a figure of speech God doesn't necessarily have fingers or a hand it's an anthropomorphism being used but the idea is that God himself was the one who wrote on the tablets of stone not Moses Moses didn't take a chisel with him he wasn't sitting there with a stone in his lap a tablet sitting there chiseling as God dictated to him this was not given by dictation it was written by God himself well you can argue from the New Testament as in Galatians that the law was mediated by angels how those angels mediated it were not told they either were the ones actually doing the inscribing at the command of God therefore it may had been dictated to them are they fallen creatures not unless God chose Satan and his demons to write it but that would not seem to be the case or perhaps God having supernaturally carved it upon the stone had the angels delivered we don't know exactly how the angels are volved or perhaps the angels are involved in just the protection of Moses while he's on the mountain we have no idea how that's involved but note very clearly this is the only text in Scripture the Ten Commandments given here in Exodus 20 give it in Deuteronomy chapter 5 this is the only text of Scripture that we know that it's written by God himself not by man so we can't say well the writer the author is a human being like me he's fallen and therefore he could have made mistakes and this could be the human voice viewpoint no this is God's viewpoint this is inerrant from the hand of God this is untouched by man what does that do to our arguments then about the content it means we have to believe this content we have no excuse we have no way to blame it on someone else other than God himself well that leaves us with only another option the option chosen by John Walton the option chosen by men like Dennis Lamar ooh the option chose by men like Peter ends and Paul Sealy and many other men and that is to say oh yeah what it says is to be taken that way that's the intended meaning but it's only because God is accommodating himself to man because he had to put it in terms that man could understand but wait a minute if if it's in terms of men can understand and God has accommodated himself to it then you're saying that this text literally means six literal days oh yes how could God do that then is that deception is that lying is he participated in an untruth then you see it implies something about the character of God that he would be willing to adapt to accommodate his revelation by purveying something that's inaccurate and untrue as though it were true just because that's the only way man can understand it and that's why and the debates I've had with Paul Sealy about the flood with John Walton and Dennis lie miru about the historicity of Adam that's the conclusion they reach at the end at the end of our sessions in San Diego in November as we reach the end of our sessions on the hermeneutics of our viewpoints on this tricity of Adam it came out that you know the text says exactly what Barrack says it says but I do not accept it that's the same exact response I got about nine years ago from Paul Seeley about the flood when we had our debate and then we sat in a panel the first question was to him and it came from the floor and they said well what do you say about verax viewpoint of the flood that he's gone through in detailed in great detail over 20 different points within the text that demonstrate that there's a literal global catastrophic flood how can you deny what's the text in his responses well that's exactly what the text says the text says exactly what berrak says it says then he added but I don't accept it you see that's the that's the line that is drawn men how can you do that how can you have that kind of hermeneutic that kind of theological approach that allows you say well that's exactly what the text says but I can't accept it that's a sad state of affairs and as see John Collins and I were discussing this issue you know the only issue he and I differ on as I mentioned is the age of the earth primarily there but he was equally disturbed by their statement he questioned the framework of their interpretive methodology that would allow them to make that type of statement it concerned both of us so when we're coming to this issue really gentlemen it's resolved in Scripture it's resolved this tells us the length of day this tells us whether Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 is part of day 1 or not whether it's part of the creation I just as we're looking at these things I think too often we're ignoring what Scripture as a whole sense we have to spend more time dealing with the Scriptures as a whole

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Length: 29min 23sec (1763 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 25 2016