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Essay on The Holy Bible - The Nature of God in the Genesis

As such it is intended to evoke the responsibilities of child to parent and of parent to child in the minds of its readers. T he story of creation in Genesis 1 declares that human beings were made in the image of God. However, in keeping with both Hebrew narrative in general and with the priestly creation narrative in particular, the Genesis text is lacking in any detailed explanation of what this statement means.

Before discussing the specific arguments in favour of this proposal, however, a brief review of the history of interpretation of the Genesis text will be worthwhile, and in particular a look at the contemporary stalemate on the subject. A full history of attempts to address this issue would constitute a major undertaking in and of itself, and consequently here are mentioned only a few of those relevant to the present discussion. One of the oldest approaches to the biblical text has been to start from the assumption that there is some significance to the use of two different terms for the similarity which is to exist between God and humanity.

In the absence of convincing evidence otherwise, the twofold repetition of the likeness between God and humanity ought merely to be taken as heightened poetic language. With regard to this sort of reading of meaning into the text, K. The pursuit of such imaginative approaches—and in particular the lack of any obvious limitations on the possibilities which such an approach might allow—ultimately provoked the increased concern of more recent scholarship to pin down the actual meaning of the words used by Genesis 1: instead of reading contemporary anthropology into the text, it was hoped that linguistic study might enable the exegete to read meaning out of the text.

The physical implications of the terms employed by the priestly writer were first highlighted in the s by P. In other words: the alternatives were even worse. Barr also considered the potentially problematic associations of the term with statues and idols to be a feature of Aramaic, not Hebrew, and thus irrelevant to its use in Genesis 1.

Along similar lines P. Various permutations of this basic principle exist. Operating on more or less the same principle while reversing the logic, J. The discussion by D. Gropp and T. After centuries of speculation on the content of the image, the dominant view is now that the author meant for the image of God in humanity to be understood as comprising merely the physical human form, rather than any spiritual or existential similarity between God and humanity.

The wide adoption of these linguistically founded conclusions has brought to a halt the free-ranging hypotheses which have often characterized the debate as to the meaning of the image of God, and this is no bad thing. However, the downside of this new consensus has been the tendency to interpret the physical implications of the terms as implying that the verses have no real theological significance. At worst, the priestly author did not have any particular content in mind for the image when he penned the verses, and only intended to evoke a vague connection between God and humanity; at best, the divine—human connection is limited to simple physicality, a superficial likeness with no deeper significance.

This might be persuasive were it consistent with the rest of the text, but in the light of Genesis 1 as a whole it is clearly problematic. Genesis 1 wastes no words: its author is constantly and purposefully making a point, whether it is a point about the status of the sea monsters as mere created beings or a point about the sole activity of God in creation by divine fiat.

To suppose that the last two and a half millennia of exegesis have been a wild goose chase for a meaning which never existed is to ignore the theological and creative talents which are demonstrated by the priestly writer in Genesis 1. The unsatisfactory nature of this purely superficial interpretation of the text has led to interpretation along two essentially separate paths, one critical and aimed at dissecting the technical aspects of the passage, and one dogmatic and attempting to explicate its theological implications.

For the latter, many theologians have been drawn to the Barthian argument that the image is lodged in the personal relationship unique to God and humans. One might also note that Barth has himself fallen into the trap which he so decried, by interpreting the image of God concept according to the dominant anthropology and theology of his own day.


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Thus both paths have left something to be desired. The assertion that the writer meant nothing more than that human beings share the physical form of God fails as a theological explanation of the passage, and is uncharacteristically anthropomorphic for a priestly writer. On the other hand, exegesis of the passage divorced from the technical linguistic analyses which are now such an integral part of biblical studies ignores the advantages and insights offered by such analysis into the meanings of the words in question at the time in which they were chosen by the priestly writer for his particular purpose.

Before proceeding to the proposal advocated here, I should note one exception to these isolated prongs of historical-linguistic and theological investigation: the attempt to connect the divine image in Gen.

Evolution and the Historical Fall: What Does Genesis 3 Tell Us about the Origin of Evil?

When applied to the Genesis 1 situation, humans are seen as a kind of living statue, representing God in the territory of earth. Given the dead end which examination of the Genesis 1 text seems to have reached, we may turn to Gen. There, Adam is declared to have fathered a son in his own image and likeness. That statement, in fact—that humanity is made in the image of God—occurs not only in Gen.

Even without knowledge of genetics it takes minimal observational skills to note that children tend to look like one or both of their parents. Taken more broadly, children tend to look more like their parents than like any other adult in the community, other than perhaps other blood relatives. Coming back to the text, Gen.

The parallel statements of Gen. Out of the blue, with no advance warning, a mysterious and awesome voice calls to Abraham, commanding him to take a journey—"to the land I will show you"—and promising him great rewards should he do so. Abraham, without so much as a question or a comment, immediately hearkens to the call: he promptly sets off as commanded.

If we wish to imagine ourselves in Abraham's place as he hears the commanding voice, we must forget that we know, because the biblical text explicitly tells us, that the voice calling Abraham was the voice of the Lord: "And the Lord said to Abram Abraham himself is not told who is calling him; the voice that calls does not identify itself. Although he is, for reasons we shall explore in a later chapter, open to such a call, Abraham at this moment cannot know with certainty who is speaking to him or whether the voice can deliver on its great promises.

Nevertheless, trustingly and courageously, Abraham decides to take a walk with this voice. Putting aside any possible doubts and suspicions, he embarks on a path that enables him eventually to discover just who had spoken to him and why.


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    4. Readers who take up the book of Genesis without presuppositions or intermediaries find themselves in a position not unlike Abraham's: a commanding but unidentified voice is addressing us from out of the text, without warning or preparation, speaking to us right away about things for openers, the creation of the world that we human beings could not by ourselves know anything about. To be sure, the opening words of Genesis do not command us to act. Neither can we compare ourselves to Abraham in setting, stature, or virtue. Nonetheless, we readers are being invited, as was Abraham, to proceed trustingly and courageously, without knowing yet who is speaking to us, what he might want from us, and whether or not he speaks truly.

    How then shall we respond? What does the call of the author of Genesis require of us readers? Not, as some might insist, a leap of faith or a commitment in advance to the truth of the biblical story, but rather, only a suspension of disbelief. Being awake and thoughtful, we cannot help but note the difficult questions regarding both our beginning and the beginning, but we will, at least for now, put them aside and plunge right in.

    We will suspend our doubts and suspicions and accept the book's invitation to take a walk with the biblical author keeping our eyes and ears open and our judgment keen, to be sure. We will proceed in the hope that we might have our doubts addressed and our uncertainties resolved. If we allow ourselves to travel its narrative journey, the book may reward our openness and gain our trust.

    The Bible Presents A Text Record Of God

    Who knows, we may even learn who or Who is speaking to us, and why. In adopting such an attitude, we are self-consciously deciding now to decide only later, after reading and pondering, whether we think the book and its author speak truly. In making such a decision, we are according the Bible the same courtesy that we give to other books that place large obstacles before our credulity, for example, the Iliad, in which we are told, in the very first sentence, that we will hear how "the will of Zeus was accomplished.

    As with other books, we shall have to read and reread many times if we are to learn from the Bible how it wants to be read. As a result of many readings and rereadings of Genesis, I am increasingly impressed by the leanness of the text and the lacunae in the stories. Little of what we readers might like to know about an event or a character is told to us.

    Much of what we are told admits of a wide variety of interpretations. Rarely does the text tell us the inner thoughts and feelings of a character. Rarely does the text tell us the meaning of an event. And almost never does the text pronounce judgment on the words or deeds of any protagonist. Why this reticence? What purpose could it possibly serve?

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    Let me suggest that these formal features of the text are responsible for its enduring vitality and the success of its timeless pedagogical power. The book has been read by several hundred generations of readers, with each reader located in a particular time and place. Yet the compiled text remains the same, letter for letter, now as then, here as there. How can a static age-old text continue to speak to changing and always more modern readers? How can seemingly time-bound characters and stories that may possibly carry timeless insights retain their power in differing times and places and for differing types of readers?

    How can the text allow for every reader's historical and cultural particularity, while bringing him into contact with what might be a transhistorical and universal wisdom? It is precisely the text's sparseness, lacunae, ambiguity, reticence, and lack of editorial judgment that both permit and require the engagement of the reader. The difficulties of exegesis and interpretation force us to grapple with the text and to attempt and weigh alternative readings and judgments, always testing our opinions against the textual evidence as well as the differing interpretations and judgments of fellow readers of our own and earlier times.

    As a result of these efforts, the venerable stories and characters of Genesis become again and again ever young and ever fresh, taking up residence in the hearts and minds of all serious readers. By this means, each reader's imagination is furnished and enlivened and his thinking is enlarged and deepened. In the end, the concerns of the text and its characters become the concerns also of the reader.

    The education of the patriarchs and matriarchs can become the way to our own education. All of us necessarily come at the text beginning from where we are, in our own time and place, equipped—but also limited—by our particular experiences of the world around us. Yet the mysteries and perplexities of the text disturb our complacent attachment to our own parochial situation and invite our active participation in a world larger than our own. We are drawn into the stories only to discover there a profundity not hitherto available to us.

    When we analyze, ponder, and discuss the text and when we live with its stories, the enduring text comes alive, here and now. We who live here and now are offered a chance to catch a glimpse of possibly timeless and transcendent truth about, say, man and woman, kin and strangers, man and God, or whatever matter the text has under consideration.

    Hugh Ross - Natural History and Genesis 1

    At the same time, our need to continue grappling with the abiding ambiguities of the text teaches us, by performative experience, another timeless truth about ourselves: the truth of our own ignorance and the impossibility of ever resting comfortably with what we think we have understood. The open form of the text and its recalcitrance to final and indubitable interpretation are absolutely perfect instruments for cultivating the openness, thoughtfulness, and modesty about one's own understanding that is the hallmark of the pursuit of wisdom.

    Not only in form and spirit but also in substance will seekers for wisdom be easily drawn into the world of Genesis. Despite the great distance between the nomadic culture of the ancient Promised Land and the promise-filled technological civilization of third-millennium America, we will find that Genesis takes up and considers themes and questions of paramount concern also to us—one might even say, to human beings always and everywhere.

    Human beings now as ever need wisdom regarding family and private life, regarding public and civic affairs, and regarding their place in and relation to the whole and their relation to the powers that be. As were the protagonists in the world of Genesis, so are we today troubled by vexing questions of family life. Not only do we face often irreconcilable struggles between man and woman, parent and child, or sibling and sibling. We are also increasingly uncertain about the proper organization of family life, especially with regard to providing well for the rearing of children.

    Our inherited cultural forms in these matters are in a state of flux—evolving, if you approve, or breaking down, if you don't, into God only knows what new patterns. Reading Genesis reveals that this is hardly a new dilemma. Not only does it offer for reflection its famous tales of family struggle; read philosophically, the stories of Genesis reveal the deepest roots of these conflicts and show us why it is so hard to organize and sustain a flourishing human household.

    The topics of sex and the relation between the sexes are, not surprisingly, amply considered in Genesis. Women figure prominently in many of the stories, often playing vital and even heroic roles.