The nature of God, part I: Genesis 1-3

The Jesus Institute Forum

The nature of God – Part 1
Genesis 1-3 in outline

Genesis 1-3 & the Hebrew names for God

Lee F Greer III
Loma Linda, California
© 2005
Prepared for the CHC Rose Room Sabbath school class
of Larry Christoffel & for the members of JIF

(Last updated March 2006)

Abstract. Our purpose is to explore what the first three chapters of Genesis with their creation accounts and the story of the fall of humankind tell us in their Hebrew context about the nature of God. This is the first part of a series in a Biblical study of the nature of God and of Christ.

Introduction & method – listening to the text in its own context

Exegesis is identifying what a text is originally saying in context and involves the five following steps (elaborated in the Appendix I of the Introduction to the Nature of God series).

(1) Determination of the text(s). Which text is the closest to the original? We adhere to the Hebrew Masoretic text (MT; using a system of vowel pointing, accents, and notes by early medieval Jewish scholars to transmit the text exactly as possible, Sanders, 1993a, b) and may use the Qumran Hebrew texts, the Syriac texts, and the Greek LXX for comparative purposes. Most modern translations of the Hebrew Bible are based on the MT. We will also reference the wonderfully nuanced translation of Genesis with commentary by Hebrew scholar Robert Alter (1996).

(2) Ascertaining the literary / oral form. It has long been recognized that there are two creation accounts skillfully woven together in Genesis 1-3. One is the Elohist (E) account of ch. 1 (using 'Elohim for God) and the other the Yahwist (J) account of ch. 2 (using YHWH 'Elohim). However these are only two of a total of possibly eight creation accounts in the Hebrew Scriptures: Gen. 1; 2; Job 26; 38; Ps. 104; Prov. 8, cf. perhaps Job 28:12-28 (seven of the eight). The shortest and most widely-attested, and likely the first and oldest, was probably an oral tradition affirming that the invisible God of heaven is "the One who alone stretched out the heavens" (captured in various textual contexts in Job 9:8; Ps. 104:2; Isa. 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 51:12; cf. 48:13; cf. 40:12; Jer. 51:15; Zech. 12:1; and likely reflected also in Gen. 1:6-8, the forming of 'the expanse' or 'the firmament' of 'heaven').

The structure of the Elohist (E) creation account (Genesis 1-2:4a).
It has long been recognized by some scholars that literary / theological structure and not chronological content
determine the order in Genesis 1 (JG von Herder, >2 centuries ago; Waltke & Fredericks, 2001; Irons & Kline, 2001; summarized in Christian, 2003)

Prologue (1:1-3a) – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [Or]
When God ['Elohim] began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was welter and waste ['unformed and unfilled'] and darkness over the face of the deep and the breath of God hovering over the waters; then God said, '....' [adapted from Alter, 1996]

*Forming and separating*	*Filling and adorning*
Prologue (1:1-3a) – Formless (chaos)	Prologue (1:1-3a) – Empty (chaos)
a first day – forms light separates light from darkness, day from night	a fourth day – fills 'light' with 'lights' adorns firmament with 'lights' marking day-night, seasons, months, and years
a second day – forms 'firmament' or 'dome' of 'skies' or 'heavens' separates between 'waters' above and below the 'dome'	the fifth day – fills seas & skies with living creatures adorns living creatures with blessing to swarm and reproduce
the third day – forms 'earth' or 'land' separates 'earth' from 'seas' and places vegetation on it	the sixth day – fills 'earth' or 'land' with cattle & other living creatures adorns 'earth' with Humankind (both man & woman), and Humankind with blessing to rule and reproduce
the seventh day – *finishes forming* creation** separates the 7th day by setting it apart	the seventh day – fills the 7th day with divine rest by blessing it with all creation adorning it with blessing and holiness

Epilogue (2:4a) – "This is the genealogy of the heavens and the earth in the day that they were created."

(Adapted from Greer, 2005)

The J creation account in Genesis 2 begins with a prologue which is adjacent to the epilogue of the E creation account in Genesis 1.

Outline of the J creation account (Genesis 2:4b-25)

Prologue (2:4b-6) – "On the day that the LORD God [YHWH 'Elohim] made earth and heaven, when there was yet no bush of the field and yet no plant of the field yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth [ha'eretz], and there was no human ['adam] to cultivate (serve) the humus [ha'adamah]. But a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground....

⁷and the LORD God formed the Human [ha'adam] of dust from the humus [ha'adamah], and breathed into his nostrils the breath [neshamah] of life [chayim]; and man became a living being [nephesh chayah].	*i) Formation of the Human [ha'adam] from humus [ha'adamah]*
*v8-14 – YHWH 'Elohim* formed a Garden in Eden to the east.... God placed there the Human He had made Trees for food & beauty: Tree of life & tree of knowledge of good / evil River out of Eden waters the Garden – splits into 4 rivers: (i) Pishon around land of Havilah with its gold, bdellium, onyx (ii) Gihon around land of Cush (iii) Tigris east of Assyria (iv) Euphrates**	*ii) Planting of a Garden for the Human in the eastern part of Eden (Edinn, i.e., the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia)* iii) Moral choice for the Human: Tree of life in the middle of the Garden and the tree of Knowledge
v15-20 – YHWH 'Elohim Placed the Human He had formed into the Garden to serve & keep watch over it Command to eat of every tree of the garden except tree of knowledge.... *Said that it was not good for the Human to be alone & so needs a Sustainer [ezer]* Formed every animal & bird from humus & brought them to the Human to see what he would name them The Human named them but found no sustainer for himself	iv) Formation of other living beings from humus to be a sustainer for the Human which the Human names But no sustainer was found for the Human
v21-25 – YHWH 'Elohim Caused a deep sleep to overtake the Human, removed a rib, and closed over the flesh *Removed a rib [tsel'a] and built [banah] (both architectural terms, Nahum Sarna, cited in Alter, 1996) a Woman ['ishah] and brought her to the Human* *The Human addresses her poetically as 'bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh....Woman ['ishah] because she was removed from Man ['ish]* *Decree: Man & wife become one [echad] flesh. The Human and his Woman were naked ['arumim] and not ashamed.*	*v) Formation from the Human: Man (Ish) & Woman (Ishah)* Interesting that the Human seems to be not fully Man ['ish] until she is Woman ['ishah]. In fact she is the first to receive a proper name, Living, the mother of all (Chavah, i.e., Ava or Eve, in 3:20) It was only in chapter 4, that Adam ['adam] begins to be used as a proper name rather than 'the Human' (ha'adam), generic for humankind. In the E account in ch. 1, a generic Humankind ('adam) is used for both man and woman, made in the image of God (1:26-27).

Distinguishing features between the Genesis 1 and 2 creation accounts

E creation story

J creation story

Often shorter, symmetrical, formulaic (paratactic) poetic prose
God indicated by 'Elohim
'Elohim creates by word and approves by looking
Creation starts with chaos and ends with Humankind, through a succession of separations of night-day, land-sea, etc.
'Elohim names the creation
'Elohim creates day-night, earth, sea, and skies in general
Arrangement of creation is poetic-temporal
'Elohim creates a sacred time, the 7th day

Often longer sentences with more subordinate clauses, i.e., (hypotactic) prose
God indicated by YHWH 'Elohim
YHWH creates by hand, considers, and then auguments as needed
Creation starts with a barren earth, the Human is made first, followed by everthing else, culminating in fashioning of a Human companion Woman
The Human names the creation
YHWH creates the specifically recognizeable (to the hearers) geography of Mesopotamia
Arrangement of creation is poetic-spatial
YHWH creates a sacred space, a Garden to the east in Eden (Edinn, i.e., the fertile crescent)

The fall of humankind (Genesis 3-4): Continuation of the J creation account

Transitional prologue (3:1) – "Now the serpent was more crafty ['arum, a pun on 'naked,' 'arumim in 2:25; Alter, 1996] than any beast of the field which YHWH 'Elohim had made...."

The origin of human mortality
(ch. 3)

Temptation of the Woman by the serpent
Fall of humankind: Woman and Man together
Expulsion from the garden in Eden
The covenant of the coming 'seed of the Woman': "Hatred I will put between you and Woman, between your seed and hers. He will boot [shuph] your head and you will bite [shuph] his heel" (Adapted from transl. of Alter, 1996; probably a homonym in 'boot' and 'bite')

Murder: The first fratricide
The rise of conflict in the earth
(ch. 4)

Envy of one of 'the seed of the Woman' against the other
Murder of one (Abel) by the other (Cain)
Expulsion of Cain
The first genealogies – It is significant that as the genealogies of Genesis 4 indicate that humans gave rise to other humans through the divine-like power to procreate, so the deliverer who would crush the serpent's head would be 'a seed [descendent] of the Woman.'

(3) Recovering the contemporary historical life situation (setting). The setting, historical allusions, many place names, archeology, and historical linguistics of Genesis through Deuteronomy (and the 'former prophets,' Joshua through II Kings, as well as some of the 'latter prophets,' Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Micah) suggest an audience culturally associated with the 8th through early 6th centuries BCE in the pre-exilic kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem. These books probably came to be in their present essential form or edition during this interval, along with some of the early Psalms, and so were the main written heritage (within the broad oral culture and heritage) of the Hebrews living under the Judean kings of the house of David (dating scholarship discussed and summarized in Finkelstein & Silberman, 2001; Schniedewind, 2004).

(4) Meaning of the words and idiom for original author and audience. The words for God in Genesis 1-3 are 'Elohim and YHWH 'Elohim, which serve as dividers between the E and J creation accounts.

'Elohim – (plural of 433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:--angels, X exceeding, God (gods)(-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty) Plural form of 'El [cf. plural chayim (life) with singular meaning] which context and usage show to be either singular or plural; also not used exclusively of the God of heaven, or other deities, or even angels (Ps. 8:5; cf. 8:6 LXX, cited in Heb. 2) but also of human beings of high authority, e.g., judges in Israel and other nations (Job 41:25; Ps. 82; Exod. 15:11; 21:6; 22:8, 9, 28; Isa. 9:6f), Abraham (Gen. 23:6), Moses (Exod. 4:16; 7:1), and the Davidic king (Ps. 45:6-7; cf. Solomon). Appears 2,249 times in the Hebrew Bible, mostly singular usage since it most often refers to the one God of heaven.
'El – (shortened from 352; strength; as adjective, mighty; especially the Almighty (but used also of any deity):--God (god), X goodly, X great, idol, might(-y one), power, strong. Compare names with "-el") name of Canaanite high or sky God, the God of heaven, who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Patriarchal sagas as El of Abraham, El Elyon, El Shaddai, the Terror or Kinsman of Isaac, the Mighty One of Jacob, El of Beth-El, El of Peni-El, El of Isra-El, El of Ishma-El, El-roi). Also used particularly in the poetic literature like in Ps. 19:1-4, Job, etc. Appears 235 times in the Hebrew Bible, and mostly but not always referring to the Deity or a deity or idol, but also sometimes to exalted or mighty human beings (Ezek. 17:13; 31:11; 32:21; cf. 28:2, 9) or even to the power of a human (Prov. 3:27).
YHWH 'Elohim – Although appearing as a couplet, the divine name YHWH is one of a number of anachronisms in Genesis, because according to Exodus 3, the name YHWH was not known at all until Moses at the 'burning bush'. Appears 5,521 times in the OT, almost exclusively with singular usage. Sometimes applied in one form or another to a representative of God, whether His angel (Exod. 3:1-5; cf. Judg. 13:20; etc.), or the coming messianic king (Jer. 23:6), or even the redeemed Jerusalem herself (Jer. 33:16). (For an excellent treatment of the Hebrew principal-agent motif, see Burge, 2005).

Other terms occur elsewhere in Genesis and in the Hebrew Scriptures.

The words for 'spirit' and 'word' are also significant for Genesis 1-3. In Genesis 1, the primordial 'word' of God is simply what God said ('amar, v., a primitive root; to say [used with great latitude]; appears 4338 times in OT) during creation. Although dabar (davar) or 'word' in Hebrew does not appear in Genesis 1, God's 'word' in Gen. 1 appears in His commands and blessings.

Elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, dabar appears 1,290 times in its noun form, and its verb form appears 1,050 times.

dabar – n., a word; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing; adverbially, a cause. [Strong's Exhaustive Concordance]
dabar – v., a primitive root; perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue.

The word for 'spirit' is ruach, which in its noun form appears 348 times, and its verb form appears 11 times.

ruach – n., wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. exhalation; figuratively, life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension, a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions):--air, anger, blast, breath, X cool, courage, mind, X quarter, X side, spirit((-ual)), tempest, X vain, ((whirl-))wind(-y). [Strong's Exhaustive Concordance]
ruach – v., a primitive root; properly, to blow, i.e. breathe; only (literally) to smell or (by implication, perceive (figuratively, to anticipate, enjoy):--accept, smell, X touch, make of quick understanding.

In no case is the 'word' considered to be a separate person from the speaker, and so also in vision or prophetic oracle, when 'the word of the LORD came...saying' to the various prophets (~92 times in the OT), God's word was not a separate person from God, but a communication from the God of heaven. Likewise, 'the spirit of the LORD' appears 26 times, indicating the presence and power of God acting upon nature and upon human beings, not a separate being from God. Also it is significant that 'word' and 'spirit', especially the 'word' and 'spirit' of God, are equated a number of times in the OT: Job 16:3; Ps. 33:6; 147:18; Prov. 1:23; Isa. 59:21; Zech. 7:12; cf. Micah 2:7. "By the word [dabar] of YHWH were the heavens made and all their host by the breath [ruach] of His mouth" (Ps. 33:6). In Hebrew thought, just as the spirit and word of a man are not separate beings from the man, so the spirit and word of God are not separate beings from God.

Genesis 1:26 and 3:22 have God speaking saying, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness...." or "the human is become like one of us...." respectively. The plural readings do not take away from the unity of God for at least a couple reasons. First, setting Gen. 1:26 aside for the moment, the other times such a plural pronoun is used in the Hebrew Bible (Gen. 3:22, 26; 11:7; Isa. 6:8), God is apparently addressing Himself to His heavenly retinue or council (see Buzzard & Hunting, 1998), including cherubim, who were pictured along with other heavenly beings as being present when He created or performed other important functions (cf. Gen. 3:26; Job 15:8; 38:7; I Kings 22:19-23; Ps. 104:1-5; Jer. 23:18). Secondly, returning to the case of Gen. 1:26, v27 immediately suggests that someone other than God is being addressed here also, because when the creating of humans actually actually takes place, there is a straightforward return to the singular pronouns in reference to God, "And God created the human in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Gen. 1:27). Thirdly, as scholars have pointed out, a 'plural of majesty' or a 'plural of emphasis' is sometimes employed in various languages in pronouns relating to royalty or deity (for one Biblical example, see Ezra 4:11, 18 in the case of Artaxerxes; Graesar et al. 2003).

(5) Understanding the total context and historical background. It has been recognized by scholars that the creation accounts in the Hebrew Bible are almost all modeled after and a monotheist polemic against already-extant creation myths (Kikawada & Quinn, 1985; Christian, 2003; Hasel, 1974), such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, etc. This is particularly true of the primordial story cycle in Genesis 1-11. As mentioned, the current recensions or editions of Genesis through II Kings (some Psalms; and a number of the prophets) were probably codified essentially by the 8th-6th century BCE (Finkelstein & Silberman, 2001; Schniedewind, 2004). Minor developments in the text have continued to occur until past the mid-3rd century BCE-1st century CE as evidenced in the Qumran manuscripts ('Dead Sea scrolls'). The text has remained essentially the same since the Masoretic scribes of the early medieval centuries CE. The text of the Hebrew Bible has been carefully cherished and studied by the Jews for centuries, long before Christ, and down into our own times. Conserving and defending their Hebrew heritage is what has helped the Jewish people resist assimilation and extinction.

The oldest historical records (23rd-21st centuries BCE) of the idea of one transcendant God beyond the universe are found in cuneiform tablets from Ebla (Heeren, 2000) more than 15 centuries before the final recensions of our Hebrew Bible. The evidences for a prehistoric, indigenous belief in one Deity, invisible, who originated the world and rules heaven and earth, have been found in indigenous cultures all over the world. This primordial monotheism has gradually receded for the most part in those cultures being augmented by belief in more immediate deities, spirits, and numina (Schmidt, 1912; 1931; 1933; Armstrong, 1993; summarized in Greer, 2005). The ancient historic and prehistoric strands of belief in one God form part of the background for the Hebrew Bible and Biblical monotheism.

Discussion – How do you read?

"Historical criticism has the necessary function of bringing into focus the issues that only faith can decide. . . . We must distinguish between clarity as to what the promise is and certainty that God will fulfill it. The former may be aided by the work of the historian; the latter can rest solely on faith"
(Howard Clark Kee speaking in the debt of Wolfhart Pannenberg; cited in Kee, 1970).

A) Questions from history:

Have we been historically fair to the text by hearing it on its own terms? Or have we eisegetically imported or foisted our own baggage into the text?
How are the words for God, 'Elohim, YHWH 'Elohim, used in Genesis and its cultural, Hebrew context? How does this compare with the other 7 creation accounts, and many other references to creation in the Hebrew scriptures?
Under what circumstances is 'elohim singular and plural in usage? Can you cite examples? How is it used of the God of heaven in Genesis 1-3?
Are there other heavenly beings besides God in the two creation accounts in Genesis 1-3? Does God ever address them in Genesis and the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures?
How are 'word' and 'spirit' used in Genesis 1-3 and how does this compare with usage in Genesis and the rest of the Hebrew scriptures? How are 'the word/spirit of the Lord' related to the Lord Himself?
'Seed to come' (Gen. 3:15).

B) Questions of personal commitment:

How do you commit in the light of these data?
How do you receive those who come to a different commitment?
How does your commitment help you to be more ethical? That is, has this helped empower you to make the world a better place for your having lived?
How does this exercise help you prepare for the foretold Kingdom of God?

The questions from history are the free domain of discussion in the class. The questions of personal commitment may be shared with the discussion group if the participant so desires, but only after the initial historical discussion.

References

Alter R. 1996. Genesis: Translation and commentary. New York, NY / London, UK: W. W. Norton & Company.

Armstrong K. 1993. A history of God: The 4000-year quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf (1994).

Burge D. 2005. "Divine agency in the Scriptures." Focus on the Kingdom, 7(9): 1-5. http://www.restorationfellowship.org.

Buzzard AF, Hunting CF. 1998. The doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity's self-inflicted wound. International Scholars Publications: Lanham, MD; Oxford, UK.

Christian E. 2003. "Implications of the literary structure of Genesis 1." Faith and Science Conference, 13-20 August 2003. Glacier View Ranch, Colorado.

Finkelstein I, Silberman NA. 2001. The Bible unearthed: Archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its sacred texts. New York, NY: The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Graesar MH, Lynn JA, Schoenheit JW. 2003. One God & one Lord: Reconsidering the cornerstone of the Christian faith. (3rd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Christian Educational Services; http://www.CESonline.org; http://www.BiblicalUnitarian.com.

Greer LF. 2005. "Jesus and the revolutionary Kingdom of God: From the ancient Near East to the Common Era, an emerging ethic." The Jesus Institute Forum: http://www.jesusinstituteforum.org/JKG-ethics.html.

Heeren F. 2000. Show me God: What the message from space is telling us about God. (rev. ed.). Wonders, Vol. 1. Wheeling, IL: Day Star Publications.

Irons L & Kline MG. 2001. The Genesis debate: Three views on the days of creation. DG Hagopian, ed. Mission Viejo: Crux.

Kee HC. 1970. Jesus in history: An approach to the study of the gospels. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.

Sanders, 1993a. "Masorah." In: BM Metzger and MD Coogan (eds.), The Oxford companion to the Bible. New York, NY / Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

____. 1993b. "Masoretic text." In: BM Metzger and MD Coogan (eds.), The Oxford companion to the Bible. New York, NY / Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Schmidt W. 1912. Der Ursprung der Gottesidee. [The origin of the idea of God].

____. 1931. The origin and growth of religion. New York, NY: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc. [1971].

____. 1933. High Gods in North America. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

Schniedewind WM. 2004. How the Bible became a book: The textualization of ancient Israel. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Waltke BK with Fredericks CJ. 2001. Genesis: A commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

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