Genesis

Tremper Longman III

• Editorial: Zondervan Academic
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780310496083
• Categoría: Theology & Religion
• Categoría: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story.

The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike.

Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story:

• LISTEN to the Story: Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story.
• EXPLAIN the Story: Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting.
• LIVE the Story: Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students.

—Genesis—

The book of Genesis is, as the name implies, a book of beginnings: the beginning of the cosmos, the beginning of humanity, the beginning of Israel, a prequel to the main story of the Pentateuch. In narrative terms a beginning leads to a middle and to an end. The book, in other words, is ultimately not to be read isolated from the rest of the Pentateuch, the Old Testament, or finally the Christian canon as a whole.

Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.

CHAPTER 1

Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a

LISTEN to the Story

^1:1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.

⁶And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the second day.

⁹And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

¹¹Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹²The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening, and there was morning — the third day.

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening, and there was morning — the fourth day.

²⁰And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²²God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” ²³And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day.

²⁴And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

²⁸God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

²⁹Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.

^2:1Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

²By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Listening to the Text in the Story: Ancient Near Eastern Texts: Enuma Elish; Baal Myth; Atum Creation Stories; Memphite Theology (Shabako Stone)

Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a begins the story of God’s relationship with humanity, and thus there are no background texts in the Bible itself.¹ Even so, Israel’s account of the origins of the cosmos and humanity was not written in a vacuum. The original audience knew rival tales of how the world came into being. Thus, they read Genesis 1 (and 2) with those texts ringing in their minds. Modern audiences make the mistake of reading Genesis 1 and 2 in the light of modern accounts of origins (most notably evolution) and not in the light of these ancient Near Eastern texts. Knowledge of these ancient accounts of creation deepens our understanding of the biblical text.

The texts listed above do not by any means exhaust the number of ancient Near Eastern accounts of creation, but they are the most important in that we can discern similarities and differences between them and the biblical text. In this section, we will simply describe the relevant contents of these compositions, and in the next section we demonstrate how they provide the background for Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a.

Enuma Elish gets its name from its opening words (“When on high”). It is the best known of the Babylonian creation accounts, and it is the ancient text that scholars believe most informs the shape of Genesis 1 and 2. At the opening of the story, there are two deities who are simply there and presumably always were: Tiamat, the female, who represents the fresh waters, and Apsu, who represents the salt waters. Their waters mingle, suggesting sexual intercourse, and produce a new generation of gods. These divine children, who were well-known to the original audience of Enuma Elish as the gods they worshiped, disturbed the sleep of their parents. Apsu, the father, determined to kill the children in spite of Tiamat’s objections. However, one of the younger gods, Ea, the god of wisdom, learned of this plot and killed his father by a preemptive strike. He placed his throne on the corpse of his father, the flood waters (see Ps 29:10, where the psalmist applies this motif to Yahweh.)² Ea had subdued the dangerous primeval waters represented by his father, but his act enraged his mother, who now sought vengeance. She determined to war against her children with the help of a demonic horde headed by Qingu. When confronted by this threat, Ea knew he was no match for his mother, so he issued a challenge to the divine assembly for a champion to step forward. That champion was none other than his son Marduk. Marduk agreed to fight Tiamat on condition that, if he succeeded, the divine assembly would agree to make him king of the pantheon. Thus, the Enuma Elish explains how Marduk became the most important god in the Babylonian pantheon.

The battle between Marduk and Tiamat was ferocious, but Marduk eventually conquered and killed Tiamat. After his victory, Marduk created the cosmos as we know it:

He calmed down. Then the Lord was inspecting her carcass.

That he might divide(?) the monstrous lump and fashion artful things.

He split her in two, like a fish for drying.

Half of her he set up and made as a cover, heaven.

He stretched out the hide and assigned watchmen,

And ordered them not to let her waters escape. (Enuma Elish, Tablet IV, lines 135 – 141)³

She was, after all, the primordial waters. His conflict with her led to the creation of the heavens (or skies) from which the rains flow and also the earthly waters. To create land, he pushed back her waters and created boundaries. In a passage that follows, he takes the gods and places them in the heavens as stars. The text also goes on to describe the creation of human beings, but since that is more relevant to the second creation text, we reserve a description of this part of the myth until our discussion of Genesis 2:4b – 25.

The date for this composition is hard to pin down with great certainty. It is obviously the narrative justification for the preeminence of the god Marduk in Babylonian religion. Marduk was the chief god of the city of Babylon, so it is likely that this myth was written at a time when Babylon, the city, assumed primacy among other cities in the region. The two most likely occasions were either at the time of Hammurabi (reigned ca. 1792 – 1750 BC) or Nebuchadnezzar I (reigned ca. 1125 – 1103 BC).

The Baal Myth is a product of Canaanite culture and thus closer to home for future Israel. Baal was a god that many apostate Israelites worshipped. According to many scholars,⁴ this Canaanite story helped shape the Babylonian Enuma Elish. The exact date of this text is debated, and it was likely an oral tale before it was set down in written form sometime between 1800 and 1200 BC. The relevant part of the Baal myth concerns a conflict between Baal, the creator god, and Yam, whose name means “sea.” Yam attempted to assume the kingship of the gods and take Baal a prisoner. Baal resisted and successfully entreated the craftsman god, Kothar-waHasis, to make him two clubs with which he attacked Yam. He defeated Yam. At this crucial point, however, there is a break in the clay tablet that presents this story. Scholars, though, have little doubt that the missing part contains an account of Baal’s construction of the world and perhaps also of human beings.

Egyptian creation ideas are found primarily in magical texts, particularly in coffin texts and inscriptions of the walls of pyramids, though there are exceptions, most notably the Shabaka Stone, which preserves the Memphite Theology to be described below. While there are many similarities between the different descriptions of creation to be found in Egyptian texts, there is also a variety of metaphors that are employed.⁵ Acts of creation are also attributed to various deities. Different cult centers in Egypt (Memphis, Hermopolis, Heliopolis) had their own versions of creation, though we can also observe some attempts at synthesis.

For our purpose, we will describe the metaphors of creation as well as quote representative texts for illustration. The basic cosmology of the Egyptians seems somewhat constant. The primeval waters are called Nun, and it is out of these waters that creation emerged. One prominent idea was that the creator god, Atum according to Heliopolitan theology, emerged from the waters through an act of self-creation and from him evolved the other gods and goddesses who represent the various parts and forces of nature.⁶ The form of his emergence from Nun was the primeval mound, perhaps mythically reflecting the fertile soil that was the source of life left after the annual Nile flood waters receded.

Coffin Texts Spell 714 expresses the originality of the waters: “I am the Waters, unique, without second.”⁷ One version of the myth of creation has Atum, depicted as the sun god, arising from the primeval waters. Spell 714 continues with Atum speaking:

That is where I evolved, on the great occasion of my floating that happened to me. I am the one who once evolved — Circlet, who is in his egg. I am the one who began therein, (in) the Waters. See, the Flood is subtracted from me: see, I am the remainder. I made my body evolve through my own effectiveness. I am the one who made me. I built myself as I wished, according to my heart.

Pyramid Texts Spell 527 informs us that Atum then produced Shu, the god of the air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, by masturbating:

Atum evolved growing ithyphallic, in Heliopolis. He put his penis in his grasp that he might make orgasm with it, and the two siblings were born — Shu and Tefnut.

Another version, represented by Pyramid Texts Spell 600, substitutes sneezing for masturbating:

Atum Scarab! When you became high, as the high ground, when you rose, as the benben in the Phoenix Enclosure in Helioplis, you sneezed Shu, you spat Tefnut, and you put your arms about them, as the arms of ka, that you ka might be in them.

Shu’s children are Geb, the earth, and Nut, the upper limit of the heavens. Shu creates space for the sun god and for creation by pushing Geb away from Nut in what Coffin Texts Spell 76 calls the “Uplifting of Shu”:

I am weary of the Uplifting of Shu,
since I lifted my daughter Nut atop m...