The Land, the Seed and the Blessing: A Chronological Biblical Compendium
400
The Land, the Seed and the Blessing: A Chronological Biblical Compendium
400Paperback
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781933596051 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Morgan James Publishing |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2006 |
| Series: | Morgan James Faith Series |
| Pages: | 400 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.66(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.93(d) |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
GENESIS 1-11
BEGINNINGS, ADAM, EVE, NOAH, BABEL
In the beginning God created. Gen. 1:1
The Bible is history. The Bible is the action of God in the history of mankind. Some groups breed confusion in this aspect as they pick and choose their own personal theology. Some teach that the first eleven chapters of the Bible, as to creation and the flood, are true history but, in an honest attempt to keep people from secularizing the Bible, erroneously teach that the rest is not history. Others teach that the first eleven chapters are not history but the rest is history. Our word "theology" simply means "God words". A theologian is simply one who speaks words about God working in the lives and history of humans.
We build a culture and society with stories, of which some are true and some mostly untrue but for the purpose of sending a message. These stories have several names, including fable, legend and myth. A fable is an untrue tall tale. A legend is based upon factual history but with a lot of embellishment. A myth is an explanation of the beginnings of a culture or society, a people, and may or may not be true in fact. We communicate primarily with words, spoken and written, and both the sender and receiver of such words must have the same understanding of their meaning. We will describe about a dozen Hebrew words, and a couple of Greek words. For our purposes, the correct writing or pronouncing of these words is unimportant, as we are communicating in English.
The first eleven chapters of the Bible, of the old Hebrew Scriptures, of the Old Testament, of Genesis, tell of the earliest history of humanity in general. The first word in the Hebrew Bible is b'resheeth ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].), which translates into the English as "in the first." That Hebrew word is the Hebrew name of this first book. About 250 B.C., the Greeks translated the Bible, then only the old Hebrew scriptures, from Hebrew into Greek. They translated b'resheeth into the Greek as en arche ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), "in first," and centuries later into the English as "in the beginning." The Greek word for "beginning" or "generation" is geneseis ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). In that ancient Greek translation, this word geneseis was not used in the very first verse but was used in subsequent verses many times, particularly at ten places where the beginnings or generations of heavens, earth, mankind and the families of Noah and Abraham were reported. With that Greek translation of 250 B.C. the name for this book became Genesis, "beginnings".
In the Hebrew scripture, the word toldah ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) is used to separate the ten main sections of Genesis. About seven different English words are used to translate toldah, being origin, history, account, story, birth, descendant and generation. The first five sections are of primeval matters. At 2:4 is the generation of sky and land; 5:1 is of the children of Adam and Eve; 6:9 is of Noah; 10:1 is of Noah's sons; and 11:10 is of Shem's sons. The second five sections are of the patriarchs. At 11:27 is the account of Abraham; 25:12 is of Abraham's son Ishmael; 25:19 is of Abraham's son Isaac; 36:1,9 Isaac's son Esau; and 37:2 is of Isaac's son Jacob and his son Joseph.
The English word "generate" is derived from the Greek through Latin and means to beget, procreate, bring into existence (essentially from nothing). Genesis is the book of things being brought into existence, of origins, of generations. In chapter one we have the generation of the universe, the earth and its space, seas, plants, the sun and stars, fish, fowl, animals and adam (mankind, male and female). In chapter two we have a day of rest and the generation of the word of God and of marriage. In chapter three we have the generation of sin and of judgment, as Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and were punished. In chapter four we have the generation of family, with Cain and Abel and, also obviously, daughters, and the continued increasing effects of sin with the first horrendous conflict as Cain murdered Abel. In chapter five we have the generation of generations of descendants, the begats, of Adam and Eve. In chapter six we have the generation of worshipful obedience with the example of Noah. In chapters seven through ten we have continued disobedience and evil followed by judgment, as we are told of that great flood, which has been recorded by most of the ancient cultures of the world. In chapter eleven we have the generation of separate languages at Babel, and begin the generation of a chosen people, of Abraham and the Hebrews. The rest of the chapters, twelve through fifty are of the events of the beginnings of a people, a nation, a church, a Savior and God's plan for salvation.
The Hebrew word bara ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) means "to create" out of nothing, as distinguished from the words asah ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) and b'na' ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) which mean "to make or build" out of something. In Genesis bara is used eight times, but refers to only three events, those at which modern science fails in its attempts to explain. Out of nothing, God created: (1) at the first three verses the universe and light, day one; (2) at verse twenty, the living fish and fowl, day five; (3) and at verse twenty-seven mankind, male and female, late in day six. In the other three days, plus early day six, God made, formed or built from things already created: (1) at verse six the expanse of the earthly atmospheres, day two; (2) at verse nine the waters were gathered from the dry land, from which then came vegetation, day three; (3) at verse fourteen (from the light of the first day) the greater (sun) and lesser (moon and stars) luminaries, day four; (4) and at verse twenty-four, the land animals, early in day six. God set the example for human bio-rhythms as he rested on the seventh day. Three days of separation; three days of population; one day of relaxation.
The Hebrew word for God used in the first chapter, the creation chapter (and through much of the Hebrew scriptures), is in the plural, which causes some people some confusion. This use of the plural may be either the "royal plural" as used by kings and heads of state or, for Christians, the three-in-one unified trinitarian God of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This oneness is evidenced by the fact that the verb bara (create) is in the masculine singular. God is a person, one and incomprehensible. Within the limitations of the English language, the only pronouns applicable to God are the singular "who" or "whom" and a reverent and unsexualized "he", but not "she", in some vain attempt to sexualize God, nor "it" nor "which", though "which" is used for phonetic purpose in the most popular sung version of the Lord's Prayer.
Chapter two begins with what may be called the seventh day of creation, the day on which God rested and set aside as a hallowed day of rest. We are then focused back on the afternoon of day six, the creation of man and of woman. First, the scene is set with a reminder that God created heaven and earth. Some of the plants made from the earth on day three were set in a garden called Eden. Included were two trees in the middle of the garden, the tree of Life and the tree of Knowledge of Evil, and also of Good, of which the couple already knew.
At verse four, as we focus back on the afternoon, we see four different words used for "ground". They are used very specifically and rarely interchanged, one for the other. First is eretz (cra), which usually means "land" but here means the earthly globe, which God created on day one. Second is adamah ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), the (reddish) fertile soil, the humus. Third is ara' ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), the lowly dirt. Fourth is aphar ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), loose dry dirt, the dust. In chapter one at verse twenty-seven, we are told God created Adam (male and female), indicating from the adamah, the humus, from which comes "human". In chapter two at verse seven, we are told more specifically that Adam was created from the aphar, the very top, loose layer of dust. Dirt to dirt. Dust to dust. Into Adam God breathed life, inspiration.
Immediately upon creating the male Adam, who knew only good, God commanded him not to eat of the tree of knowledge of evil. Then from the male Adam, God created a female Adam, a matching complement. Three times we are told that Adam meant both male and female, Mr. and Mrs. Ground, one flesh, she from him. The male had named all of the animals, and later he would give to the woman the wonderful name Havah (Eve), "life-giver". God had described her as a "help-meet", equally descriptive of both the male and the female, but Adam called her "life- giver".
Two different Hebrew words are used in chapter one with a sense of "dominion". Humans, Adam, are to subdue, radah, animals and fish and are to tread down, kabash, the earth. As to the earth, in chapter two, Adam is told that treading down the earth means to cultivate or farm it, to till the garden. Also, in verse twenty, the female Adam is described as ezer b'negedo, the best translation of which is in the King James Bible, as a "help-meet", which does not mean a person of lesser worth. Help simply means two working toward the same goal. Frequently a stronger one helps the weaker, but here the other is also a mate, a match, an equal, the other glove. Both are help-mates in the building of a unified family by one man, one woman, one flesh.
Marriage is of one man and one woman, and they are to have children which is the family. Many believe that some god did not make this rule but that it is simply the way societies throughout history have decided is the best way to do it. Today many would tell us that either way that system is no longer valid. Marriage and family have so many individual meanings as to have absolutely no meaning.
The true location of Eden is unknown. Four rivers flow out from Eden, two of which are unidentifiable today. The other two are the Tigris and the Euphrates, which through history have begun in southeastern Turkey, in the land of the Kurds, in the vicinity of what is thought to be Mount Ararat, and flow southeastward about 1,000 miles through modern Iraq to the Persian Gulf. This would place the Garden of Eden in the mountains of southeastern Turkey, the climate of which at the time is unknown. A more popular theory is that in Adam's time the Tigris and Euphrates came together just north of the Gulf and then separated again, allowing Eden to have been in southern Iraq, in the vicinity of ancient Babylon.
In chapter three we are told of the fall of humans into sin as the result of temptation by Satan, who appears as a serpent. Some think that this satanic serpent possibly may have been either before "evolution" gave Satan legs and arms or that the serpent lost the ability to speak due to sin. Some think this is but an absurd fairy tale. God grew things in the garden that were "pleasing to the sight", "good for food" and "available for life". Sight, food and life. God planted two trees in the middle of the garden. God told Adam, of whom Eve was "one flesh", that they could eat of the tree of Life but not of the tree of Knowledge of Evil. Satan twisted both the words of God and the thoughts of Eve, as Adam stood by in silence allowing Satan to usurp his protective dominion over Eve. Satan tells Eve a series of half-truths to convince her to alter "sight, food and life" to "food, sight and death". Immediately they knew evil and that they were naked. Upon disobeying God, the very first and primordial evil was concupiscence, lust and a twisted sexuality.
Sin went from the serpent to the woman to the man, one flesh. Serpent, woman, man. However, as God had given Mr. Adam primary responsibility, he reverses that order as he speaks to them, beginning with four primordial questions, repeated by all good counselors to this day, three to Mr. Adam. "Where are you?" meaning we are all meant to be somewhere but may be lost and suffering from an identity crisis. "Who told you?" meaning we all are taught and led by some guide. "Have you been eating from the wrong trees?" meaning we are each fed on and by some culture. To Mrs. Adam, "What have you done?" is to make us examine our past actions, smoke out a confession, and, with his help, to make corrections so as not to repeat. God then gave his judgment in the order of the sin: serpent, woman, man. The serpent was cursed to creep on its belly and to be an enemy of the woman until her descendant shall crush his head. The woman was to have great pain in childbirth and would have increased desire for her husband who would rule over her, but within that fact of being one flesh. The man was to toil and sweat all of his days in thorns and thistles until he returned to dust. God covered the sins and shames of the man and woman with animal skins, a blood sacrifice. He then cast them out of the Garden, to a place east of Eden, and posted guards at the tree of Life.
Following the story of the expulsion from the Garden is the beginning of civilization at chapter four. We are told of the cancerous growth of sin and the effects of uncontrolled, selfish jealousy as we hear of the first conflict and murder. This is the first story of the pain of a child who does not get the blessing of the father. Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel, possibly twin sons. Cain was a tiller of the ground and Abel a keeper of sheep. God had set the example of an animal blood sacrifice to cover sins, and there must have been some firm understanding that an offering to God was to be the "first" of one's produce. Cain brings only "an" offering of fruit, but Abel brings the "first" of his flock. God indicates his lack of regard for Cain's offering. Rather than correct his error, Cain becomes angry and jealous toward Abel. God now asks the fifth great question, "Why are you angry?" God cautions Cain that sin crouches like a wild animal at the door to catch such a person. Cain then lures Abel into the field where he kills him.
God then asks his sixth great question, "Where is ... your brother?" Insolently Cain replies, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The answer to that question is a resounding, "No!" We are not our brother's keeper; God is. We are to love and care for our brother, and we are not to murder, abuse, mistreat, steal from or falsely accuse our brother or sister, neither are we to keep him, her or them, not by slavery with wages earned or welfare given. God told Adam he was the keeper of all plants and animals. Humans "keep" animals and things, but only God is the keeper of humans. From a misreading of these verses can come volumes of erroneous sermons and a horribly distorted welfare system. God alone keeps humans, and he destroys any person or nation who does so. See herinafter page 277. God was not pleased with Cain's murder of Abel, and with this insolence God immediately cast Cain out of his presence to the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain and his nine descendants are mentioned in chapter four but nevermore. Eve bears a third son, Seth, and in chapter five we are told she bore Adam other sons and daughters. In the beginning brothers could marry sisters.
In chapters six through ten we are told of Noah, his family, his ark and of the great flood. Noah was the grandson of Methuselah, who lives 969 years and probably dies in the year of the great flood. Probably due to the ultra clean and nurturing environment, from Adam to Noah many people lived to be 800 to 900 years. The fact of the great flood covering the earth has been recorded by many cultures, which is wide and disparate proof of the fact that such a flood occurred. This is a story of crime and punishment. God sees that wickedness and violence are great upon the earth and in the hearts of men. Noah is the one exception, the one man who is righteous, blameless and walks with God. God determines to make an end to all flesh by a great flood. He tells Noah to build an ark of gopher wood and that it is to be covered with pitch, being 450 feet long (300 cubits), 75 feet wide (50 cubits), 45 feet high (30 cubits), with three decks, about half the size, one-fifth the volume, of a modern aircraft carrier or large cruise ship, but obviously large enough to carry the young of the land animals and fowl described.
The people ridicule Noah as he builds, but the rains do begin. Some calculations put the flood at about 2300 B.C., about the time the Egyptian pyramids were being built, but it was most likely many centuries earlier. Then Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth with their wives, load the ark with provisions and male and female of each kind. As the waters rise, the people scream to get in, but God withdraws his protection and with his own hand closes the hatches, shutting them all out. It rains forty days, then those on the ark float for another 110 days. Noah sends out doves, but they return. Then one day a dove returns with an olive branch in its mouth, forever more the symbol of reconciliation. Dry land has appeared. The ark lands on Mount Ararat, in eastern Turkey, near the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a possible site of that Garden of Eden.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Land, The Seed and the Blessing"
by .
Copyright © 2010 William T. Kump.
Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface,
Introduction,
Chapter 1 Genesis 1-11,
Chapter 2 Genesis 12-50,
Chapter 3 Job,
Chapter 4 Exodus & Numbers,
Chapter 5 Leviticus & Deuteronomy,
Chapter 6 Joshua,
Chapter 7 Judges & Ruth,
Chapter 8 First Samuel,
Chapter 9 Second Samuel,
Chapter 10 First Kings,
Chapter 11 Psalms,
Chapter 12 Proverbs,
Chapter 13 Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs,
Chapter 14 Second Kings,
Chapter 15 Chronicles 1 & 2,
Chapter 16 Obadiah, Joel & Jonah,
Chapter 17 Amos, Hosea & Micah,
Chapter 18 Isaiah 1-39,
Chapter 19 Isaiah 40-66,
Chapter 20 Zephaniah, Nahum & Habakkuk,
Chapter 21 Jeremiah 1-12,
Chapter 22 Jeremiah 13-52 & Lamentations,
Chapter 23 Ezekiel 1-14,
Chapter 24 Ezekiel 15-48,
Chapter 25 Daniel,
Chapter 26 Ezra & Haggai,
Chapter 27 Zechariah & Esther,
Chapter 28 Nehemiah & Malachi,
Chapter 29 Greeks & Maccabees,
Chapter 30 Gospels,
Chapter 31 Acts,
Chapter 32 Thessalonians 1&2,
Chapter 33 Corinthians 1,
Chapter 34 Corinthians 2,
Chapter 35 Galatians,
Chapter 36 Romans,
Chapter 37 James & Philemon,
Chapter 38 Colossians,
Chapter 39 Ephesians,
Chapter 40 Philippians,
Chapter 41 Timothy 1, 2 & Titus,
Chapter 42 Peter 1, 2 & Jude,
Chapter 43 Hebrews,
Chapter 44 John 3, 2, 1,
Chapter 45 Revelation,
Appendix A Old Testament (Hebrew) Books, Chronologically.,
Appendix B New Testament Books, Chronologically.,
Appendix C Palestine-Israel-Return-Eretz (The Land)-Return/Restoration-Zionism,
Appendix D Covenants Of The Bible,
Suggested Selected Bibliography,
Maps,