Genesis

Believers Church Bible Commentary

Eugene F. Roop

• Publisher: Herald Press
• Year: 1987
• Print ISBN: 9780836134438
• eBook ISBN: 9780836198140
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Eugene F. Roop focuses on the rich story line that traces the development of a community of faith in Genesis. He explores the important theological motifs of the book and their implications for our lives today. These themes include creation, disaster and reaction, promise and fulfilment, infertility and blessing.

This commentary grew out of the study of Genesis in the congregational and seminary community. It is intended to promote and enhance study in those settings.

Part 1

The Saga of All Humanity

Genesis 1:1—2:3

Creation

PREVIEW

The remarkable symmetry of this unit strikes the reader immediately. The whole unit follows a regular pattern of organization:

Word: “God said.”

Result: “It was so.”

Assessment: “God saw that it was good.”

Action: “God separated/made.”

Name: “God called.”

Time: “There was evening and morning.”

Through a six-day sequence this flow repeats itself with variations.

The structure appears not rigid and inflexible, but as a steady, ordering element. No two days are exact duplicates either in outline or content. The action is not always the same (separating, 1:4, 7; making, w. 7, 16, 25; creating, w. 21, 27). Sometimes one of the regular elements drops out only to reemerge in the next sequence (e.g., v. 6 lacks the “result” and v. 8 the “assessment”). Some of the elements appear in the Greek text but not in the standard Hebrew text. These differences will show up in the various English translations. Occasionally a distinctive element will emerge in one of the “day” sections. For example, the very extensive statement about the function of the two lights in the heavens (w. 14-18) appears in day three and then we find no other elaborate description of function until day six—the function of humanity. Clearly this unit is not ordered rigidly, but we do find a persistent sequence and careful symmetry.

A similar repetitive and symmetrical arrangement of material occurs in other genres or types of literature with which we are familiar. Children’s literature frequently employs a repetitive style (McEvenue, 1971:10ff.). Adults sometimes find the repetition in the story of “the little red hen” monotonous, but just this symmetry enables the youngster to absorb the material step by step. We encounter the same repetitive style in some songs, especially folk songs. The repetition of a single phrase can carry the singers along as the story line is developed through several verses.

Genealogical tables provide an example of a biblical genre which displays a rigid pattem of organization. Although Genesis 1 does not have the strict pattem of some of the genealogies, the presentation is more in the form of a “list” than a narrative (Westermann, 1984: 81ff.). Order is one of the unit’s most obvious characteristics.

Finally, this chapter has been likened to a liturgy (Brueggemann, 1982: 29ff.). Liturgy again connotes a sense of careful ordering of the material, but liturgy also emphasizes movement along with repetition, song as well as list. Calling Genesis 1 liturgy reminds us that these words reflect the language that is found in the hymns and doxologies of the Psalter.

All of these comparisons help us see certain aspects of the unit. No other unit in the Old Testament is exactly like Genesis 1:1—2:3 nor, so far as we know, can we find a duplicate in the literature of Israel’s neighbors. They, too, had collections of material about creation. We can leam much by comparing this passage with the literature of the ancient Near East. But we have found no other narrative or poem organized like this “hymn” about God, the Creator, with its symmetrical rhythm that flows from chaos to work to rest.

When we encounter this list/liturgy of creation, the regularity and symmetry of the text gives us a sense of order and stability. The language of praise has compelling power. Such a combination of hymnic praise and ordered structure speak deeply to the faith community when it experiences the world as dangerous and chaotic. Hence it is not surprising that during the Babylonian Exile this presentation of creation grounded Israel’s experience of God and provided the community a way into God’s future.

Certainly the message of this text cannot be reduced to its orderly structure and psalmlike language. But we tend to focus so much on the content that we miss the power of this presentation of creation. We may not experience the art of this passage when things are going well. We know life has order to it, and take it for granted. But the matter is dif-ferent when our individual lives or our community’s life is falling apart. To read this text then produces a different impact. The impact comes not so much in terms of data as drama, the drama of creation that grounds our hope. [Creation and evolution, p. 317.]

OUTLINE

Introduction: Creation and Chaos, 1:1-2

List of Creation, 1:3-31

1:3-5	Day One: Light
1:6-8	Day Two: Firmament
1:9-13	Day Three: Dry Land; Vegetation
1:14-19	Day Four: The Two Lights
1:20-23	Day Five: Water and Air Animals
1:24-31	Day Six: Land Animals; Humanity

Conclusion: The Seventh Day—Rest, 2:1-3

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Introduction: Creation and Chaos 1:1-2

The unit begins with a concern central throughout Genesis 1—11, the creating God and chaos. We commonly translate these two verses as two complete sentences (RSV, NASB, and NIV). The Hebrew words allow either this familiar translation or a translation similar to that found in the footnote of the RSV: When God began to create…. Neither Hebrew syntax nor historical investigation can clearly decide for one translation over the other.

While we might like certainty in translation, the presence of two possibilities may free us to focus on the central affirmation of the text, God creating a livable world. Sometimes in studying Genesis 1:1 we be-come sidetracked with the philosophical issue of “first cause.” (If there must be a “cause” for everything, is there a “first cause” for God?) But the translation is not precise enough to use the text in that debate. Genesis 1:1-2 shows less concern with philosophical speculation than with theological confession: the creating God provides us with a livable world.

The earth could be different. Notice the poetic description of the nonlivable world.

The earth, an empty wasteland,

Darkness, over the surface of the great deep,

Mighty wind moving over the surface of the waters.

(Gen. 1:2, translation mine)

We usually translate 1:2 with past tense, but the Hebrew poetry here has no defined verb tense. The prophets used the same word picture to say that the world could again become unlivable (Jer. 4:23-26).

God is not missing from even this poetic description of the unlivable world. To translate the phrase in the third line of the poetry “mighty wind” intensifies the feel of the unlivable world. But more commonly the Hebrew phrase is rendered “the Spirit [or wind] of God was moving over the surface of the waters” (NASB). The direction of those two different translations mirrors the human experience of the unlivable world: empty, bleak, dark, and windy. But God does not abandon that world. In the midst of that darkness and wind we can find the power of God.

The power of God creates a livable world. Indeed, the word create (Hebrew, bara’) in the Old Testament allows only God as the subject. God never ceases to create, bringing a livable world out of one too dark, too wet, or too dry.

The afflicted and needy are seeking water,

But there is none,

And their tongue is parched with thirst.

I, the Lord, will answer them myself,

As the God of Israel, I will not forsake them.

I will open rivers on the barren hills,

and the springs in the midst of the valleys …

That they may see and recognize,

May consider and perceive

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

The Holy One of Israel has created it.

(Isa. 41:17-20, translation mine)

Genesis begins with this affirmation. Whatever else the narratives of Jesus say, they affirm that the power of God continues to create a livable world:

He has sent me

to proclaim release to the captives,

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

(Luke 4:18-19)

List of Creation 1:3-31

God creates the world through speech: And God said…. Speech in the biblical tradition is not a monologue but a bonding between two persons. The use of word to describe the creating work does not emphasize the separation between God and creation. Nor does the use of divine speech constitute a dramatic demonstration of magical power, as it does in some other ancient Near East stories. Rather, as the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament and the prologue to the Gospel of John recognize (John l:lff.), the word establishes and expresses a bond between God and the world. When God speaks and the livable world comes to be, God is not more distant or less involved than when God “acts” by making, separating, placing, or forming (Gen. 2).

This text uses many different words to describe God’s relationship to the world which God brings into existence: speaking, making, separating, blessing, creating, and so forth. All of these words express the Creator’s bond to the creature.

1:3-5 Day One: Light

God speaks with power, but not the power of an autocratic monarch. One must be careful not to draw too many conclusions from particular Hebrew verb forms. Even so, the form of a verb does give us some interpretive clues. Grammatically, the verb form throughout this section is jussive, not imperative. Let there be, not Be. Imperative command is a verb form we understand from our own language. The jussive has no exact counterpart in English. Jussive verb forms in Hebrew describe a broad range of declarations from the very strong (almost a command) to the very soft (almost a wish). Whether hard or gentle, the jussive always possesses a voluntary element. Our English translations try to pick up this voluntary element with the phrase Let there be … Perhaps to say that God gave permission for light and it happened would underplay the strength of the jussive. But making it God’s command eliminates the gentleness of the jussive. Creation comes by divine direction, not by a dictator’s demand.

God’s speaking/acting established a cycle of day and night. We describe that cycle in terms of “natural law.” Ancient Israel did not hear through those ears. God’s speaking and acting continues to be the reason why day follows night.

A world of endless night would not be a livable world. We might describe this in strictly natural terms—without the sun, life as we know it would be impossible. But natural science does not exhaust our fear of dark without end. That fear, mostly buried in adults, continues to be voiced by children. This text responds to such anxiety, not with a statement about natural law, but with an affirmation about the creating God. Darkness will not have the last say. The night will end and the day will come, always.

1:6-8 Day Two: Firmament

A second separation brings the waters under control. A great dome, the firmament (“expanse” NASB, NIV), keeps the waters in their place. Under control, the waters above the earth bring rain and fertility. Unleashed, these same waters bring flood (7:11). A livable world needs water under control as well as a limit to darkness.

In the Bible, control of the waters remained in God’s hands (1 Kings 17—18; Mark 4:35-41). God did not install an automated water system but acted out of a bond between Creator and creature that brings water on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45). As the community of faith knows, God is more impartial in the distribution of water than is humankind when in control of its distribution.

By separating the ground water into its assigned place, God brought the dangerous elements, darkness and water, under control. While recent interest in the creation has centered on the first moment in which matter came into existence, our biblical ancestors wondered about a dif-ferent question: Is the earth a dangerous place? This text affirms that the dangerous elements were and are in God’s control. We can trust God’s world. [Creation and Evolution, p. 317]

1:9-13 Day Three: Dry Land; Vegetation

The earth brings forth the plants in response to God’s speech. This affirmation addressed a critical issue in the precarious agrarian society of ancient Palestine: when the farmer planted com seed, would com grow? Two problems hide in this question. The first we know well: the problem of crop failure. But the second, we have almost lost in the maze of detail which attends our technical knowledge of plant reproduction: when we plant com seed, will we get com and not some other vegetable? Do we have to do something special to make sure that com seed produces com rather than beans? Genesis 1:1-13 declares the trustworthy regularity of the seasonal crops and the wonder of the reproductive process as God’s continuing gift toward a livable world.

1:14-19 Day Four: The Two Lights

We have observed the symmetry of this unit in the flow of each of the six-day sections. We can see it again as we compare days one to three with days four through six. Days one through three moved from lights to plants with four creative words (two on day three): light, firma-ment, dry land, and plants. Days four through six have a parallel move-ment from “great lights” to humanity. Again there are four creative words with two on day six: lights, animals of the waters and air, dry land animals, and humankind.

Day One

light

two great lights

Day Fou...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Author’s Preface
• A Look at the Whole Story
• Part 1: The Saga of All Humanity
• Part 2: The Saga of Abraham and Sarah
• Part 3: The Saga of Jacob
• Part 4: The Saga of Joseph
• Outline of Genesis
• Summary Essays
• Map o f Ancestral Families in Canaan
• Map of the Ancient Near East
• Reference Bibliography
• Selected Reference Books
• The Author