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Me again. :-) Genesis sets the stage for the rest of the Bible.
As Earl said it's a book of beginnings. It presents God's premise,
his design. Just as Christ is a Christian's foundation, Genesis is
the Bible's foundation. It explains the origins of the world and
everything in it. It reveals that God had no origin and we start to
see how God reveals Himself to His creation. It shows how we were
supposed to be in perfect fellowship with Him, but how we were lead
away (and willing followed) from God and why we need to come back to
Him and even starts to foretell how He will enable us to. It
introduces the concepts of obedience, sin, sacrifice, work,
death, reliance on God to take care of our needs, of walking with
God, of talking with or praying to God, even the inception of the
Bible itself, and lots of others things that are escaping my mind so
late in the day. If you start looking at all the cross-references,
you will see how Genesis is quoted thoughout the entire Bible.
I have a great deal of books on Genesis, I'll try to get them pulled
out of my library at home and enter some more information at some
later time.
Jill
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| Re .0:
Please understand that the following are not doctrinal positions of myself or
any denomination, just my own take on Genesis:
1. What is the central purpose of the book of Genesis?
It's central purpose is to describe beginnings -- of the world, of humanity,
of the human condition, (mainly) of the Hebrew people and their relationship
with God, and (incidentally) the origins of other nations that the Hebrews
knew about, along with miscellaneous other origins.
Origins are just plain one of those things that people want to know about.
An account of origins also provides conceptual orientation, an answer to the
question, "How did we get here?"
This doesn't mean that Genesis has nothing else to say, that is has, for
instance, no moral lessons to teach (to hearken back to the earlier topic).
But we should not *assume* that an incident is included in Genesis in order to
teach a moral; we should require a clearer, more explicit message that this is
the purpose.
2. What is its theological contribution?
I'd say this is a direct consequence of the central purpose, because God is a
key figure in most of the accounts of origins, certainly in all the major
ones.
Its theological contribution is the teaching that the origins of the world,
humanity, the human condition, the Hebrew nation, and its Covenant are all
begun and determined by God.
Beyond this general statement, there are important details. For instance, the
creation account makes it clear that God and God only made the world, and that
the world is basically "very good." (These are things by no means universal in
all religions.) It also establishes the basic relationship between God and
world as Creator and Creation, even, specifically, Artist and Artifact.
This by no means excludes other relationships, such as the metaphor of King
and Kingdom, or the one of Father and Family, but it affects these other
images.
3. How is it developed and used elsewhere in the Bible?
I do not have the competence to give a complete list, but here are some that
occur to me:
In the New Testament, we see many ways in which Christ brings a return to
Genesis. Christ is a new beginning, and since Genesis is the language of
beginnings, it is appropriate that Christ brings us back to Genesis. He
undoes the Fall, re-writing the human condition. He is the second Adam, the
founding father of a second, regenerate humanity. He brings the prophecied
New Covenant ("new testament"), bringing us back to Abraham's covenant. He
begins an entire new creation, envisioned most vividly at the end of
Revelation but also mentioned in the epistles.
In the Old Testament, God's position as Creator, established in Genesis, is
part of the basis of His position as King. His claim to divine kingship is
based, at least in part, on owning the universe because He made it -- not just
because He conquered it in the manner of Zeus or Marduk.
Since Genesis establishes Him as the inventor of the world and of humanity, it
gives part of the basis for His authority as judge and lawgiver. That He made
the world is grounds for His knowing how it ought to be run.
The theological flip side is that, since Genesis establishes God as creator of
so many of the conditions of existence, it also implicates Him as responsible
for those conditions. This brings us to the Problem of Evil, which is so
minor in polytheistic and dualistic theologies.
I hope this helps.
Earl Wajenberg
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