Genesis

An Introduction And Commentary

Andrew E. Steinmann

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781789740905
• eBook ISBN: 9781789740912
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Commentaire biblique

Genesis is a book of origins: of the world, of sin, of God's promise of redemption, and of the people of Israel. It traces God's pledge to send a Saviour through Abraham's line down to his great-grandson Judah. It is foundational for the New Testament and its teaching that Jesus is the fulfilment of God's promise to save humankind from sin and death. Andrew Steinmann's thorough exegetical commentary includes a reconstructed timeline of events from Abraham's life through to the death of Joseph.

COMMENTARY

1. CREATION (1:1 – 2:3)

Context

Genesis’ account of the origin of the heavens and earth not only reveals God’s world as he made it for humans to inhabit, but also reveals God himself as the almighty transcendent Creator who was not brought into being but who brought into being all things through his word and will. It serves as the foundation upon which the rest of the book is built, and especially introduces the book’s view of humans as a creation of one God who also created the world which humans inhabit.

Comment

A. Day one (1:1–5)

The first five verses of the Bible introduce God’s creative acts on the first day. God is elsewhere said to be the creator of heaven and earth (Isa. 40:28; 45:18; see also Isa. 44:24; Jer. 10:16; 51:19; Eph. 3:8–9; Col. 1:16; Rev. 4:11).1 Therefore, the first verse cannot simply be a summary of everything else in the chapter but must be a statement of creation of the earth before it was formless and void (1:2). God’s existence outside of time and space, however, is simply assumed by the author: he created, but he himself has no origin. Moreover, unless one posits an unmentioned (and, therefore, unlikely) gap in time between the creation of heaven and earth and God’s activity beginning at 1:3, the creation mentioned in 1:1 is part of the activity that is later summed up by 1:5 as one day.

1. In the beginning is a statement that locates the creation of space, matter and time when God, including the person of the Son of God, already was (John 1:1–3; 17:5, 24). While some versions attempt to take this phrase as the beginning of a clause completed in verse 3 (‘When God first created . . . God said . . .’; cf. nrsv, tnk), there is little support for this, and it could imply that verse 2 is stating that the earth was pre-existent and not part of creation. Most versions as early as the lxx take this as an independent clause (csb, esv, gw, net, niv) and this verse as a complete sentence. The word for beginning (rēšît) denotes the initial portion of something.2 Here it is the initial stage of creation, which is the bringing forth of the raw material of the universe that will be shaped by God’s almighty power into a complete and good world.

Created is a word that in Hebrew is used only of God’s activity. It occurs six times in this opening account of creation. While at 2:3 it is used as a summary for all of God’s activity in this narrative, in the first five instances it introduces new things brought into being: the heavens and earth (v. 1), animate life that is endowed with the breath of life (vv. 21, 30) and human beings bearing the image of God (v. 27 [three times]). Created is in contrast to the Hebrew word for do or make, which is used throughout this account for making and forming things from already created items or as a general word for God’s work (vv. 7, 11, 12, 16, 25, 26, 31; 2:2, 3).

2. Now the earth places the narrative in a geocentric stance. Everything in the narrative from this point forward will be told from this point of view. However, formless and void describes the earth’s initial condition. Formless (Hebrew tōhû) elsewhere is a description of wildernesses (Deut. 32:10; Job 6:18; 12:24; Ps. 107:40; Isa. 45:19) or of a city in ruins (Isa. 24:10; 34:11), or is a word for emptiness (Job 26:7; Isa. 40:17, 23; 41:29; 44:9). Void (Hebrew bōhû) occurs only with formless (Isa. 34:11; Jer. 4:22), and here forms a hendiadys – one concept expressed by two words. This verse is a parenthetical comment that describes the earth as amorphous and waiting to be filled by God’s creative activity.

Darkness is not simply the absence of light, but is also a creation of God (Isa. 45:7). So is the deep (Hebrew tĕhôm), which signifies the primeval ocean that covered the earth. This word shares a common Semitic root with the word Tiamat, the name of the rival of the gods in the Assyrian creation myths. Previously it was argued that this pointed to Genesis borrowing from these Mesopotamian sources, but it is now clear that the Hebrew word and concepts are not derived from or dependent on these pagan myths. Instead, the deep is part of God’s created earth which he will shape into the inhabited world.

This verse also contains the first mention of the Spirit of God. While the word for Spirit could also denote a wind, this phrase occurs fifteen more times in the Old Testament where it always means God’s Spirit or a spirit sent from God (i.e. it is not simply a wind).3 Here the reader’s attention is called to God’s presence focused on the earth, preparing now for the acts which will transform it into the ideal place for those who will bear his image.

3. God said marks the power of God to simply speak things into existence (2 Cor. 4:6; Heb. 11:3; 2 Pet. 3:5). This phrase will be used ten times in the creation account (vv. 1:6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29). God said that light should come into being. Light precedes the creation of the sun and other heavenly luminaries. The source of the light is not stated, but elsewhere the Scriptures connect it with God himself in the person of the Word of God, Jesus (John 1:1–5). At the end of all things light will again be provided by God and the Lamb without need of the sun (Rev. 22:5).

4–5. Good is the judgment of God on his creation of light. This assessment will be repeated for other creations of God (vv. 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) until all of creation is very good (v. 31). After creating light God separated it. This separation is another key aspect of God’s creative activity that will be repeated on days two and four (vv. 6–7, 14–18). Here the separation is between light and darkness. The narrative since 1:2 has been geocentric. The separation is implied as being between night and daytime. As the Creator, God has the right also to label his creation of darkness and light as day and night. The first day’s length is summarized by the statement there was evening and there was morning, perhaps better understood as ‘In summary, there was evening, then there was morning.’4 The evening and morning are then said to make one day. In most versions this is translated the first day. However, the Hebrew text contains no article (‘the’), and the number is ‘one’, not ‘first’.5 The beginning of the day is reckoned from evening. This would dictate the way sacred days were celebrated in Israel (Exod. 12:6; Lev. 23:5, 32; Neh. 13:19).

B. A second day (1:6–8)

Since the basic description of the earth as it was originally created highlighted earth’s darkness and the deep, that is, the waters covering the earth, both needed additional creative acts. The darkness was complemented by light on day one. Now on the second day God divides the waters and creates the sky as one item that complements them.

6–7. God’s next creative act was to order that an expanse be formed between the waters. The Hebrew word for expanse (rāqîa‘) is related to the verb meaning ‘stretch out’ or ‘spread out’ and is used elsewhere of God’s spreading out the heavens and the earth (Ps. 136:6; Isa. 42:5; 44:24). It is also used at Job 37:18 to describe God’s spreading out the clouds. Here the expanse is the sky with the upper waters – the clouds – and the waters below the sky – the sea.

8. Once again God labels what he has brought into being, calling the expanse sky (csb; traditionally heavens). The repeat of the summary formula for a day (evening and morning) is followed by noting a second day. While this is traditionally rendered the second day, the Hebrew text contains no definite article here, nor for the third, fourth or fifth days.

C. A third day (1:9–13)

God continues to work with the primeval seas on the third day. Here he orders the waters to part in order to form dry land. Thus, the second and third days create items that contrast with the watery deep that was originally part of the earth. The seas are now distinct from both the sky created on the second day and the dry land created on the third day. The seas are now complemented by both sky and land, just as the light became the complement of darkness on day one. The third day also relates a second major work of God: the creation of plants.

9–10. Once more God’s creative acts are accomplished by his word...

Table of contents

• GENERAL PREFACE
• AUTHOR’S PREFACE
• ABBREVIATIONS
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INTRODUCTION1
• ANALYSIS
• COMMENTARY
• 2. THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF SIN (2:4 – 4:26)
• 3. THE FAMILY OF ADAM (5:1 – 6:8)
• 4. NOAH AND HIS FAMILY (6:9 – 9:29)
• 5. THE FAMILY OF NOAH’S SONS (10:1 – 11:9)
• 6. THE FAMILY OF SHEM: GENEALOGY FROM SHEM TO TERAH (11:10–26)
• 7. THE FAMILY OF TERAH: ABRAM’S RESPONSE TO GOD’S CALL (11:27 – 12:20)
• 8. THE FAMILY OF TERAH: ABRAM’S FAITHFULNESS REFLECTED IN HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH LOT (13:1 – 14:24)
• 9. THE FAMILY OF TERAH: YAHWEH’S COVENANT AND ABRAM’S RESPONSE (15:1 – 17:27)
• 10. THE FAMILY OF TERAH: YAHWEH’S REPEATED PROMISE AND ABRAHAM’S RESPONSE (18:1 – 19:38)
• 11. THE FAMILY OF TERAH: ABRAHAM RECEIVES THE PROMISED SON (20:1 – 21:34)
• 12. THE FAMILY OF TERAH: THE PROMISE TO ABRAHAM CONTINUED IN ISAAC (22:1 – 24:67)
• 13. THE FAMILY OF TERAH: THE END OF ABRAHAM’S LIFE (25:1–11)
• 14. THE FAMILY OF ISHMAEL (25:12–18)
• 15. THE FAMILY OF ISAAC: ISAAC AS THE BEARER OF THE PROMISE (25:19 – 26:35)
• 16. THE FAMILY OF ISAAC: JACOB STRIVES TO RECEIVE THE PROMISE (27:1 – 28:22)
• 17. THE FAMILY OF ISAAC: JACOB IS BLESSED BY GOD (29:1 – 30:43)
• 18. THE FAMILY OF ISAAC: JACOB RETURNS TO THE PROMISED LAND (31:1 – 33:20)
• 19. THE FAMILY OF ISAAC: JACOB’S TIME IN CANAAN BEFORE ISAAC’S DEATH (34:1 – 35:29)
• 20. ESAU’S FAMILY: ESAU’S WIVES AND SONS (36:1–8)
• 21. ESAU’S FAMILY: ESAU’S FAMILY IN THE MOUNTAINS OF SEIR (36:9 – 37:1)
• 22. THE FAMILY OF JACOB: JOSEPH AS A YOUNG BOY IN CANAAN (37:2–36)
• 23. THE FAMILY OF JACOB: JUDAH’S SONS BY TAMAR (38:1–30)
• 24. THE FAMILY OF JACOB: JOSEPH IS BLESSED BY GOD IN EGYPT (39:1 – 41:57)
• 25. THE FAMILY OF JACOB: THE FAMINE BRINGS JOSEPH’S BROTHERS TO EGYPT (42:1 – 45:28)
• 26. THE FAMILY OF JACOB: JACOB’S TIME IN EGYPT (46:1 – 47:27)
• 27. THE FAMILY OF JACOB: JACOB’S AND JOSEPH’S LAST ACTS (47:28 – 50:26)
• NOTES