January 4, 2022: Day 2 – Genesis 1-3 and John 1-3
January 4, 2022There is so much content in six chapters of Scripture that it might be helpful to at least give a brief outline of each of our readings. Genesis provides us with two creation accounts, what I like to call the creation account followed by the details of the creation of humans. Chapter 1 gives us the 7 days of creation, chapter 2 gives us the creation of humans, and chapter 3 gives us the betrayal of humans against God which continues as a theme throughout all of Scripture. We will see time and time again that God provides and gives gifts and we betray God even to the most simple things. But God remains faithful and even in the midst of God’s faithfulness we find that there are repercussions to our betrayal.
There is a word for that betrayal, and it is called sin. It is that sin which ultimately leads to our death, for as we read in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin are death. What we gain from our sin is death.
When we get to John we find John’s take on the creation narrative which has everything to do with the Word of God being present from the beginning of creation and that Word becomes flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Talk about a heavy dose of theology! This is our Christmas story that we just celebrated a week or so ago. Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior, is God, fully God. As disciples of Jesus Christ this basic truth has to be a building block to our faith. He is not just a good person, or a prophet, or someone that we ought to emulate, yes he is all those things, but he is God. Even the creator of the heavens and the earth.
That chapter then ends with John the Baptist calling Jesus the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and Jesus calls his disciples. The second chapter contains Jesus’ first miracle, which is that of changing water to wine. And then the third chapter has the visit of one of the main religious leaders of Jerusalem at the time who comes to Jesus at night and becomes a convert and one of his disciples.
Isn’t it wonderful that the world’s hope for redemption is located way back in Genesis 3:15. The ending was always in mind,even at the beginning. How insignificant our concept of time is in relation to God’s overall plan and the culmination of John’s presenting Jesus as the salvation of a sinful world.
I know where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are, but what about the Pishon and the Gihon? Are they, like the Tigris and Euphrates, on our maps today? If so, where?
The latter two are no longer identifiable as modern rivers. We can assume that they flowed through the same region, which would have been modern day Iraq, just north of the Persian Gulf. We aren’t going to be able to find them on a modern day map.
Words are important in Genesis and in John.
There is a theme of “naming” in Genesis, words given to what was created:
God calls (names): light = day, darkness = night, expanse between waters = heaven, dry land = earth, gathered waters – seas
Adam named all the cattle, birds, beasts of the field, and his helper.
In John: The Word was in the beginning, The Word was God, the Word became flesh.
What is the significance, the meaning, of God and of Jesus being called “The Word”? Why “The Word”? What is the significance or meaning of being The Word, of naming, of being The Word that names?
What does it say about Adam that he is given the right and responsibility of naming other creatures?
This is great insight. The significance of Jesus being called the Word is found in that God created naming or calling all that he created. John 1 contains basically a creation narrative that is centered around the presence of the Word, the Son, who was present in creation. It is through the call of God that all things are created. We see also in Scripture how the name of someone is changed after significant life events. Abram becomes Abraham. Sara become Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel, Simon becomes Peter. All of this alludes to a recreation of a person closer to the image of God in which he or she was created.
Adam being given the ability to name other creatures would be a secondary, but not unimportant, aspect to his responsibility of having stewardship over all of creation. While Adam does not create, even though he is given the ability to name, he does have stewardship or responsibility to tend creation. Great insight folks, keep at it!
I have often wondered about the “title”, “The Word”. What is the choice of “The Word” about instead of something else such as “The _____” (fill in other possible choices)? What does “Word” in these passages mean as to the nature of Jesus?
The word “Word” comes from the Greek logos. Throughout the ancient Hellenistic (understand Greek) world the logos, or the word, was given authoritative and even deistic qualities. It can be matched or paired with the word sophia which means wisdom and which in some cultures was worshipped. Sophia was understood as the god of wisdom as logos was seen as a necessary accessory to this wisdom. For our New Testament thinking Jesus as the Word places him squarely in creation and within the act of Creation as God spoke. This is my understanding of why Jesus is referred to as the Word, to give him gravitas as the God of creation. Now, Jesus is also given a number of other titles such as the gate, the shepherd, the way, the truth, the life etc.
How did Adam know these many names to identify animals? We don’t see too much about the names of women that were born to Adam and Eve. Who are the women born to Adam and Eve?
Adam was given the freedom to name the animals as he saw fit and as he pleased. He was able to create the names as he pleased, there was no right or wrong way to name the animals. Sometimes God gives us the ability to have pleasure in the tasks that He sets before us, like the naming of animals.
In regards to the names of the women who were born to Adam and Eve, we do not have those names, which takes us to an unfortunate, but true, aspect of the Old Testament in general. In the Old Testament the line of the family would allows stem from the male child, and specifically the oldest male child. Now, God often worked with the youngest or the second born child in order to carry out his purposes. Think of Cain and Abel, God loved Abel. Think Esau and Jacob, God used Jacob, and so on. The Old Testament uses as its point of reference the birth and the lives of the male children. Now, there are significant areas where that is not the case. You can see Deborah, the judge, who ruled Israel and was God’s chosen leader for that time and place.
Also, because Scripture does not mention the birth of daughters, that doesn’t mean there were no daughters. Likewise, it doesn’t mean that there weren’t others who were created and born across the globe other than Adam and Eve, they are the only two that are mentioned.
In other words, in OT times, women were second class citizens and in most cases not mentioned unless they were the subject of the story line or held up as example for good or bad.
Yes Pam, unfortunately yes, women in those times were not given the same rights and the same opportunities of men and so appear rarely as the protagonists, but when they do, it is something we should pay attention to. Keep in mind this has been historically the case in most cultures, including ours where it was just near the beginning of the last century when women were allowed to vote.