Essay on Genesis, Ch. 4 - 11

After the moral failure of the original Genesis-2 humans, Adam and Eve, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden.  As stated in the fourth chapter of Genesis, the brothers Cain and Abel were born to Adam and Eve.  Living now beyond the friendly confines of the Garden of Eden, along with the thronging masses of the Genesis-1 creation, Cain and Abel plied different trades, becoming either a farmer (Cain) or a herder (Abel).

      Cain, a farmer, brought fruits of the soil as sacrifices; while Able, a herder, brought fat portions from the firstborn of his flock.  The Lord approved of Abel’s meat sacrifices, but not of Cain’s grain sacrifices.  One may only speculate that Cain’s attitude was insufficiently penitential.  Disgruntled, Cain slew Abel, whose “blood cried out to the Lord from the ground.”  Cain would henceforth become a restless wanderer with only God’s own “mark of Cain” preventing swift retribution in a violent world that aggressively recognized wrong-doing.  God decreed that anyone killing Cain would suffer vengeance seven times over.  Evidently, some elementary notions of justice had already come into existence by that time: After all, the disobedience of Adam and Eve had initiated an accumulation of moral knowledge based on perception, intuition and reflection.  After Abel died without issue, and when Adam was 130 years old (Gen. 5:3), Adam and Eve had another son, Seth.

      Cain found a marriage partner (evidently, from Genesis-1 stock) and sired Enoch.  Several generations later, Lamech was born into a consistently violent world.  Lamech commented that “if Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times” - - seeming to imply that he, Lamech, bore sin eleven times more deadly than Cain’s sin. 

      In this poisonous atmosphere, it seems to have become axiomatic that sacrifices should be made to the Lord.  Cain and Abel must have been aware that their parents were driven out of the Garden of Eden for disobedience; hence, one assumes that the sacrifices of Cain and Abel were made as atonements for this sin.  The level of sin and violence only increased from Cain’s time to Lamech’s time. 

      Genesis 4:26 concludes with the observation that, during this time of violence and need, “people began to call on the name of the Lord.”  This search for divine help prefigured the future prophecy of Joel, who spoke of “The Day of the Lord” or “The Great Day of Judgment” (Joel 2:28-32).  Cain lived shortly after 4000 B.C.  Joel lived in the 800’s B.C.  Thus, Joel’s proclamation occurred millennia after the times of Cain and Lamech.  Joel’s writing includes the passage “I (the LORD) will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions … and everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved … and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance.”

      The generations from Adam and Eve to Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth are mentioned in the fifth chapter of Genesis.  There were the ten strongly overlapping generations from Adam to Noah.  Among these antediluvian patriarchs, Adam is generation #1; while Noah is generation #10.  Seven of these ten patriarchs lived to be at least 900 years old at the time of their deaths.  Only the 10th generation (Noah) was born after the death of Adam, thereby becoming the only antediluvian patriarch whom Adam could not possibly have met.  We will assume here that Adam was created in 4000 B.C., splitting an uncertainty interval from 5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.  (Click here for some background information on OT historical dating.  All dates in these analyses are approximate guides for ordering events.) 

      Upon data-mining chapters five through nine of Genesis, one infers that, from the creation of Adam to the death of Noah, there elapsed about two thousand years, extending from about 4000 B.C. to about 2000 B.C.  These two thousand years can be divided in at least two ways: First, from the creation of Adam to the Flood there were 1650 years, allowing for Noah’s outliving of the Flood by 350 years (Gen. 9:28).  Hence, the Flood occurred in 2350 B.C., and Noah died 350 years later.  Second, from the creation of Adam to the birth of Noah there were 1050 years, allowing for Noah’s 950 years of lifetime (Gen. 9:29) ending in about 2000 B.C.  Hence, Noah was born in 2950 B.C. and died 950 years later.  In the fifth chapter of Genesis, after Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  Hence, his sons were born after 2450 B.C. and before the Flood in 2350 B.C.  Finally, we note that the patriarch Abram (later re-named Abraham) was born fairly close to the time that Noah died.  We assume here that Abram was born in 2000 B.C.

      Upon observing how great the wickedness of the human race had become (except for Noah and his sons), in the sixth chapter of Genesis the Lord regretted having made the human race.  The Lord then devised appropriate counter-measures, featuring the Flood and the Ark (Gen. 6:9 - 8:22).  The Lord then resolved, “Never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”  These statements (Gen. 8:21 and 9:15) seem to indicate that non-aqueous punishment will be employed in case future behavior gets out of hand.  For the present, however, God establishes a rainbow covenant with mankind (Gen. 9:13).

      In the nineth chapter of Genesis, Noah’s three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) were among those coming out of the Ark.  Their progeny became “scattered over the whole earth” (Gen. 9:19).  If the Flood is assumed to have been localized in or near the Middle East (e.g., the “Black Lake” destroying all impediments to becoming the “Black Sea”); then it would have naturally been expected that a mix of Noah’s sons and other, remotely-placed Flood survivors would have then repopulated the destroyed areas.  On the other hand, if the Flood had been truly universal except for the survivors in the Ark, then repopulation would have been a problem.  In that case, one would apply Origen’s “Principle of Absurdity,” namely, that whenever a Biblical passage implies something physically impossible, morally unacceptable, or religiously impious; then one reads that passage metaphorically or allegorically.

      Ultimately, Shem became the head of the Semites, who lived in western Asia.  (For some unknown linguistic reason, the expected name, “Shemites,“ was replaced by “Semites.”)  Ham became the head of peoples who lived in Africa.  Japheth became the head of peoples who lived in Europe and Northern Asia. 

      In Genesis 9:18-29 one reads the curious, lurid story of Noah, his sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), and Ham’s son, Canaan: After an evening of excessive wine-drinking by Noah, only Shem and Japheth “covered their father’s naked body.”  One might hypothesize that, for an insufficient participation in the covering of Noah, Ham was punished vicariously: His son, Canaan, was cursed to become a slave of Shem and Japheth.  Undoubtedly, other hypotheses are possible, but are not pursued here.

      In the tenth chapter of Genesis, a “Table of the Nations” descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth is presented.  Canaan is now mentioned as the fourth son of Ham (Gen. 10:6).  Another of Ham’s descendants, Nimrod, had a kingdom that was once centered on Uruk (Gen. 10:10) and that played a role in the Gilgamesh narrative. 

      In the eleventh chapter of Genesis, the narrative of the Tower of Babel is presented, followed by a more tightly focused line of descent from Shem to Terah and his son, Abram (among other family members).

      The Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9) was one instance of a type of architecture known as a ziggurat, which is a monumental, stepped-pyramidal, terraced building that reaches up into the sky.  Such a “skyscraper” was intended to be a bridge to the heavens and to the idol-gods such as Marduk of Babylonia.  The Tower of Babel purported to show that humans could do anything, thereby “making a name for themselves,” but also establishing - - independently of the Greek tradition - - that “hubris breeds nemesis.”  God destroyed this hubris by confusing the common language of the humans into many different, incompatible languages.  Thus, over-confident people were scattered over the face of the earth.

      By “a more tightly focused line of descent” (Gen. 11:10-32), we mean “omitting distant cousins.”  Terah and Abram (among other family members) originally lived in Ur of the Chaldeans (southeast Mesopotamia).  Without any divine intervention, Terah decided to move his family from Ur to Canaan.  Here, “Canaan” refers to an area near the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, and not to a son of Ham.  However, Terah went no further than northwest Mesopotamia, to the city named Harran.  Here, “Harran” refers to a city, and not to Abram’s deceased brother, Haran.  Abram will be featured in the next blog in this series.

No results found

Essay on Genesis, Ch. 1 - 3

The first Hebrew word, call it W1, in the First Book of Moses is translated into English (NIV) in the book of Genesis as “in the beginning.”  According to the Bible-hub Interlinear web resource, W1 occurs only four other times in the Old Testament, where it is translated as “early in the reign of …”  If one assumes that the creation of the universe deserves its own sense for W1, then we might postulate that W1 can bear either of two senses: first, as an absolute or logical “beginning” of time itself or, second, as a “relatively early time near the beginning of a phase, process or reign elsewhere defined.”  In the case of Genesis 1:1, W1 is taken to refer to absolute or logical priority: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

  Analysis requires that we seek to remove the quotation marks surrounding the word “beginning” in the phrase “the ‘beginning’ of time itself.”  Let A be the phrase “the ‘beginning’ of time itself.”  Let B be the phrase “time itself.”  By saying that “A is logically prior to B,” we mean that B must be understood in terms that include A (as a matter of knowledge); as well as that “if B exists, then A exists” (as a matter of ontology).  It would seem that the offending quotation marks can indeed be dropped.

In contrast, consider the events C and D.  By saying that C is temporally prior to D, we are saying something about four-dimensional space-time that is both consistent with special relativity and informative regarding the so-called “time-stamps” associated with C and D.  When relativistic effects are negligible, then “C being temporally prior to D” means that “the time value associated with C is less than the time value associated with D.

In English, the absolute (logical) versus temporal distinction seems reasonable: We may say things like “In (or at) the beginning of the war, each side had ten warships” (absolute beginning).  We might also say that “In the beginning of the war, each side failed repeatedly before finally launching ten warships” (relatively early in a temporal process, or during some imprecisely defined “days of yore”).

In German, the same absolute (logical) versus temporal distinction is indeed picked up in the Schlachter 2000 translation of Genesis 1:1, but to the opposite effect: In all German usage known to the current writer, “Am Anfang” could potentially bear either of the aforementioned two senses.  However, Schlachter renders Genesis 1:1 as “Im Anfang,” which seems to refer exclusively to the sense of “relatively early in a process.”  Generally, the present writer expects reliable translation, good German, and helpful and accurate notes in Schlacher.  But in this instance, online Luther resources verify that Martin Luther translated Genesis 1:1 as “Am Anfang schuf Gott Himmel und Erde.”

“In the beginning,” the logical necessity of Genesis-1 creation was about to be embraced (comprehended in thought).  The earth and the deep (the sea below and the heavens above) were desolate (formless), empty, and dark (Gen. 1:2); as well as seeming metaphorically to cry out for some ex-nihilo creation.  The Spirit of God was “hovering above the waters,” setting the stage for God to proclaim a six-fold “Let there be …”  On each of the Six Days of Creation (Gen. 1:3-31), God would “speak some aspect of the world into existence.”

In the Six Days of Creation portrayed by Genesis 1:3-31; six differing, overlapping, non-consecutive time intervals of universal creation and development occur.  This six-fold plan of creation featured the following: There was to be initial radiation, inorganic phase separation (solid - liquid - gas), organic plant life, astronomical development of stars, organic animal life in the water and in the air, and organic land-based animal life including mankind.  On the Sixth Day, creatures that could be referred to as man, mankind, Menschen, or “generic adam” (he who is taken from the earth) appear in Gen. 1:26-27.  In the words of Gen. 2:1, “So were the heavens and the earth completed in their vast array.”

Tto the nearest integer multiple of five billion, the universe’s inaugural radiative blast (Big Bang) has dominated about fifteen billion years of universal development; and the declaration “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3) can therefore only refer to one metaphorical day, namely, the First Day of Creation.  Moreover, there is no expectation that - - for example - - organic plant life (Day 3) must develop before stellar development (Day 4) can occur.  The developments or tasks envisioned by the Six Days of Creation are only logical prerequisites for the overall creative process.  This reading is consistent with a Biblical understanding in which metaphor and literal interpretation peacefully coexist.

Among the events of the Sixth Day of Creation in Gen. 1:26-27, God is said either to have “made mankind in our (Trinitarian) image” or to have “created mankind in His (God’s) own image.”  However, He had not yet explicitly “added form” to the dust of the earth, which is the material cause of mankind (Gen. 2:7).  Indeed, in Gen. 2:5, no Mensch was even available to cultivate newly available agricultural land.

In view of the labor shortage appearing in Gen. 2:5, it would seem to be more appropriate to redefine the term “mankind” in Gen. 1:26-27 as “the set of all hominids.”  Then the subset of all hominids, referred to in Gen. 2:7, can be relabeled as man, mankind, Menschen, or “generic adam.”  This subset of hominids refers, at first, to Adam and Eve, when they lived in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:8).  Later, upon being driven out of the Garden after the Fall of Man (Gen. 3:7-24), Adam and Eve would also have descendants falling into this subset.  Man, mankind, Menschen, or “generic adam” have a prescribed, restrictive relationship with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17).  In contrast, while the members of the set of all hominids may have logged an enormous number of travel miles during epic adventures accessible to archaeology, these migrations did not earn all hominids a special relationship to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The old-earth timeline portrayed by the Days of Genesis 1 differs from the young-earth timeline developed in Genesis 2.  (See the blog post of Nov. 10, 2025.)  Genesis 1 deals with the six metaphorical days of Biblical creation.  These are not six intervals of physical time, but rather are representations of six tasks logically required to have been accomplished before the whole panoply of heavens and earth could finally be assembled and proclaimed to have been “completed in all their vast array.”  Internal to each of these six metaphorical days, there may be temporal processes; but, overall, there seems to be no unifying time allowing sequential completion of all six tasks.  In contrast, Genesis 2 only begins its account of mankind and the Garden of Eden after the “heavens-and-earth completion” proclaimed by Gen. 2:1.  Evidently, the Big Bang, planetary formation, and hundreds of thousands of years’ worth of archeological data had all started in the remote past, long before the Genesis 2 story.

In Genesis 2:10-14, the four rivers flowing in the vicinity of the Garden of Eden are mentioned: the Pishon (near the land of Havilah), the Gihon (near the land of Cush in southeastern Mesopotamia, not in Africa), the Tigris (east of Ashur, or ancient Assyria), and the Euphrates (no data here, but it is the river flowing through ancient Babylon).  Owing to radical landscape changes due to the later, catastrophic flood, the locations and flow directions of these rivers do not sound entirely familiar.

“Adam” and “Eve” as proper names appear only gradually in the Book of Genesis.  For example, the NIV English translation of “adam” (he who is taken from the earth) changes from “a generic man” to “the particular man named Adam” in Gen. 3:20.  Next, Adam chooses to name his wife “Eve.”  Thus, Genesis 3:20 seems, momentarily, to be the first verse with both Adam and Eve mentioned as proper names.  Regrettably, however, the Schlachter 2000 German translation still uses Mensch (generic adam) as the person doing the wife-naming in Gen. 3:20.  Eve, or Eva, means life, living, or the mother of all the descendants of Adam.

In Gen. 3:1-6, the tempting snake was more deceptive than any other animal in the fields and was therefore capable of inducing Eve (who also induced Adam) into eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  In Gen. 3:22, God deplores the fact that man now knows good and evil, because man now needs only to reach out and to eat from the fruit of the tree of life in order to live forever.  In order to avoid this final, forbidden step (Gen. 3:23-24), God first banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.  God then strategically placed cherubim (angelic creatures) and a flaming sword to guard against, and presumably to prevent, mankind’s return from exile back into the vicinity (Garden of Eden) of the tree of life.

No results found

Background for Genesis Essay – 2.1

In the immediately preceding blog posting in this series of background essays, the author stated that “the Septuagint does not seem to be ‘just one more translation’” of the Hebrew Bible, but instead “seems to be a divine authorization, or warrant, to take Greek philosophical presuppositions seriously.”  At that point, beyond the issue of the acceptance of some Greek philosophical presuppositions, the author should have added the sentence: “Whether or not the Septuagint, as a whole, rises to the status of a divinely inspired writing is a complex issue not adjudicated here.”

However, we will now go on to note that the whole idea of calling the first Hebrew-to-Greek Bible translation “The Seventy” (Septuagint) was to emphasize that its 70 (or 72) participating scholars had isolated themselves in separate rooms and produced identical translations.  Hence, their work must have been divinely inspired, based on the apparently presupposed principle that hyper-consistency implies divine inspiration.  If the Septuagint had not been originally received as a divinely inspired text, then none of the original recipients would have given any credence to it.  Later, Calvin thought that the Septuagint must be respected, albeit without an authority equal to that of the Hebrew Bible: The Septuagint had, after all, been quoted in the New Testament, which presumably was divinely inspired.

Belief as an attitude toward a proposition: The philosophical approach to belief, as delineated in these background essays, distinguishes between the objective, propositional content of a belief and a thinking subject’s attitude towards that propositional content.  If the subject’s set of attitudes includes an acceptance of that objective content, based on “considered judgment,” then the subject is classified as a believer of that content.  If the accepted, objective content deals with religion, then the subject typically also holds other attitudes or inclinations, such as a propensity to worship, to reverence, to pray, to stand in awe, to seek forgiveness, or even to seek mental clarity on what should be taught (a.k.a., orthodox doctrine).

Timelines from the Vastly Old to the Merely Ancient: Some civilizations and religions from the valleys of the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, and Yellow Rivers date from circa 3500 B.C.  (The historian, Toynbee, defined and analyzed more than twenty world civilizations.)  During the last few centuries, natural scientists have been inclined to look for ever more remote physical traces of ancient civilizations, evolving life forms, planetary origins, and those ultra-remote cosmic events defining (or proceeding from) either the Big Bang or the most recent Big Bang (in case there really are intervening Cosmic Crunches).  For a given world-historical event, we assume the existence of an associated time-zero and a timeline proceeding from that time-zero up to the present and beyond.  A timeline is a half-infinite line (ray) whose unique terminal point is a time-zero for the real variable, time, appearing in the laws of physics.

The concept of the Big Bang allows one to speak meaningfully about physical laws that existed in an “inflationary epoch” (infinitesimally after a time-zero); or, on the other hand, about purposes and final causation that timelessly exist “logically prior to,” or “metaphorically before,” the Big Bang (provisionally assuming only one Big Bang).  Physical laws describe, typically via differential equations, the efficient causes operative in the universe.  Final causation considers questions such as “Why is there something rather than nothing?”  Empirically, the time-zero for the Big Bang is about 15 billion years ago.

The timeline that goes into effect after (or on the occasion of) the Big Bang might be designated as the Cosmic Timeline, which has been in operation for some fifteen billion years, has extended to the present, and will extend into the indefinite, if not infinite, future.  In other words, the time-zero in this case is 15 billion years ago.  The Cosmic Timeline seems to be consistent with the idea of ex nihilo creation attended by a “significant radiation event.”

A timeline tracing less far back, to planetary origins in our solar system, might be designated as the Old-Earth Timeline.  These planets might have become visually recognizable, albeit not yet habitable, after a certain period of swirling-dust accretion that had been mostly completed by some five billion years ago (the time-zero for this timeline).  This timeline is not consistent with ex nihilo creation, because billions of years had elapsed between the Big Bang and the heyday of planetary formation in our solar system.

A timeline tracing very much less far back - - to the celebrated homo sapiens and their predecessors who are now thought to have wandered about in Africa for multiple hundreds of thousands of years - - might be designated as the Anthropological Timeline.  In this case, the time-zero seems to have been 300 thousand years ago.  This timeline is not consistent with ex nihilo creation, because billions of years would have elapsed from the Big Bang to the origin of the DNA-encoded information that guided the development of amino acids, proteins, and molecular machines; and that led inexorably to that biological efflorescence known as homo sapiens.

At this point, the Cosmic, Old-Earth, and Anthropological Timelines provide a naturalistic temporal framework upon which to locate at least some of the events portrayed in Genesis 1.  For example, the original radiative blast establishing the time-zero of the Cosmic Timeline fits in very nicely the “Let there be light (radiation)” of Genesis 1:3.  Genesis-1 history was summarized in Genesis 2:1 as “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.”  The stage had been set for a much shorter, more finely grained timeline starting with Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2.

As a rhetorical matter, we acknowledge that there will never be an absolute resolution of the issue whether the “Days of creation” in Genesis 1 are literal or metaphorical.  However, in these essays we will assume that the Biblical Days of creation in Genesis 1 are metaphorical; and that some such metaphor offers the only way of taking the Biblical text seriously.  For example, the universe’s inaugural radiative blast dominated billions of subsequent years; and the declaration “Let there be light” can therefore only refer to a metaphorical day.  To the extent possible, we want to develop a Biblical understanding in which metaphor and literal interpretation can peacefully coexist in a reasonable, or at least plausible, manner.

The “apparent timeline” portrayed by the Days of Genesis 1 differs from the timeline to be developed in Genesis 2.  Genesis 1 deals with the six metaphorical days of Biblical creation.  These are not six units of physical time, but rather are representations of six tasks logically required to have been accomplished before the whole panoply of heavens and earth could finally be assembled and proclaimed to have been “completed in all their vast array.”  Internal to each of these six metaphorical days, there may be temporal processes; but, overall, there seems to be no unifying time allowing sequential completion of all six tasks.  In contrast, Genesis 2 only begins its account of Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden after the “heavens-and-earth completion” in Genesis 1, seeming to imply that the Big Bang, planetary formation, and those arduous African wanderings had all been things of the past at the time of the Genesis 2 story.

“In the beginning,” as Genesis-1 creation is ramping up, if not exactly proceeding along a unified physical timeline for all of its Days; the heavens and the earth were formless, empty, and dark (Gen. 1:2); seeming to cry out - - if metaphor and personification are permitted - - for some ex-nihilo creation.  The Spirit of God was “hovering above the water,” meaning that the stage was being set for God to proclaim a various, six-fold “Let there be … Day N (N = 1 - 6),” i.e., “to speak the world into existence” in Genesis 1.  This six-fold plan featured the following: There was to be initial radiation, inorganic phase separation (solid - liquid - gas), organic plant life, astronomical development of stars, organic animal life in the water and in the air, and organic land-based animal life including mankind.  Radiation having been mentioned for Day 1, the internal timeline for Day 1 seems to correlate with the beginning of the Cosmic Timeline.  The Days’ tasks being only logical prerequisites for creation, however, there is no expectation that - - for example - - organic plant life (Day 3) must develop before stellar development (Day 4) can occur.

A timeline tracing again very much less far back than the Anthropological Timeline - - to the human and horticultural origins portrayed in Genesis 2 - - might be designated as the Young-Earth Timeline.  An estimate of its time-zero value will be given in the next blog posting in this series.  That time-zero value marks the creation of Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden.  The Young-Earth Timeline is not consistent with ex nihilo creation, because billions of years would have elapsed from the Big Bang to whatever modification of DNA coding was required to guide the first appearance of Adam: “The Lord God formed a man, Adam, from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7).  On this view, Adam was not the world’s first homo sapiens, but rather an obscure branch of homo sapiens, perhaps with some slightly reinitialized DNA coding.  There is, however, no reason to doubt that Adam, Eve, and their Garden were the first of their kind in their allotted corner of Mesopotamia.

Regarding the Garden of Eden and, presumably, the Middle East generally: Where there had been no surface water, no plants, and no one to work the ground; there God created streams, plants, a horticulturalist (Adam) “from dust,” and Adam’s wife (Eve) “from one of Adam’s ribs.”  Nearby Africa may have had water, plants, and animal life from an early date; but Genesis-2 creation concentrates specifically on its own Young-Earth Timeline, during which the creation of Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden occurs.  These particular creation events occur, evidently, in Mesopotamia.

Summarizing: The Cosmic, Old-Earth, Anthropological, and Young-Earth timelines are not incompatible: In the indefinite past, there were notable events that established timelines with different estimated values for their “time zeros.”  For example, empirical evidence puts the Cosmic, Old-Earth, Anthropological, and Young-Earth time-zeros at, respectively, 15 billion years ago, 5 billion years ago, 300,000 years ago, and a value to be discussed in the next blog in this series.

No results found