Pentateuch Part II

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Pentateuch Part II

• Creation A case study in Biblical Interpretation

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Overview

• Two Creation stories
• Biblical Authority
• Historical Grammatical
• Historical Critical
• Canonical Criticism
• Patristic Approach
• St. Augustine
• Chaoskampf

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Creation 1

• Genesis 11 to 23
• The Seven Days of Creation
• Cosmic View
• Very concise style
• Animals created before man

In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
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Creation 2

• Genesis 24 to 324
• Adam and Eve
• Garden of Eden
• The Fall
• Human Centric
• Anthropomorphic View of God
• Style is vivid and concrete

then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life and the man became a living being.
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Biblical Authority

• The Bible is the Word of God
• The Holy Spirit inspired the authors
• The Authors still used their natural abilities
• It teaches the truth faithfully without error

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments to be the Word of God written and to
contain all things necessary for salvation. The
Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught
and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense,
respectful of the churchs historic and
consensual reading. The Jerusalem Declaration
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Mosaic Authorship

• Moses is traditionally considered the author of
  the Pentateuch
• 1200 or 1400 BCE
• Authorship is disputed in scholarship
• Why does it matter?
• Reliability of the history of Israel
• Moses is the law giver
• Exodus 20, Deut 31, Matt 84, Mark 710,

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Historical Grammatical

• The Bible must be allowed to speak for itself
• Identify the genre
• Understand the audience
• Consider the context

What is the genre, audience and context for
Creation 1 and 2?
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Historical Critical

• Source Criticism
• JEPD Four sources
• Form Criticism
• Analyze pre-history
• Herman Gunkel
• Problems
• Diminishes authority
• Rejects Mosaic authorship
• Value
• Provides additional understanding

It should be clear that the evidence is elusive.
The best interpretation of the data admits the
presence of sources and indications of
development without dogmatically delineating
their scope or date. Longman Dillard
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Inspired by the Holy Spirit
Context
Genre
Canon
Creation 1 Terse narrative
History of Israel
E
Captivity in Egypt
Authorship
Creation 2 Vivid and concrete
J
Babylonian mythology
Human Abilities
J and E categories are useful to understand the
Genre, even if the JEDP theory is flawed
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Analysis of Creation 1 2
Creation 1
Creation 2

• God as Pantokrator
• Systematic view of creation
• Man as the highest order
• Creation is good
• Establishment of the Sabbath

• Relationship with God
• Mesopotamia
• Man and woman
• Sin and the fall
• Knowledge of good and evil

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Canonical Criticism

• Development of the canon and community is an
  interactive process
• Moses as author
• Authorship should not be determined by modern
  definitions
• Mosaic authorship is primarily a theological
  judgment, not an historical one
• Moses is the primary author

The significance of the final form of the
biblical text is that it alone bears witness to
the full history of revelation. Brevard Childs
The appeal to Mosaic authorship derived its
meaning only within the context of a community of
faith for whom a body of written tradition had
already been recognized as authoritative.
Brevard Childs
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Patristic Approach

• A return to Patristic commentary
• Avoids the limitations of the historical critical
  method
• Has ecumenical appeal
• Sources
• St. Augustine
• On the literal meaning of Genesis
• Against the Manicheans
• Origen
• Homilies on Genesis
• St. Basil
• St. John Chrysostom
• Homilies on Genesis

These texts assume some level of unity and
continuity of ecumenical consensus in the mind of
the believing church, a consensus more clearly
grasped in the patristic period than
later. Thomas Oden
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Chaoskampf
the earth was a formless void and darkness
covered the face of the deep Genesis 12

• Void may be a reference to Chaos
• The word stream in 26 was claimed to be an
  Akkadian word for chaos (refuted by David
  Tsumura)
• The opening of Creation 2 is cognate with Enum
  Elish (Babylonian creation myth)
• Rahab is the personification of chaos
• Also found in Ezekiel 281-9

In the day that the LORD God made the earth and
the heavens, Genesis 24b