Narrative: Orientation/Creation Flashcards
The OverArching Meta Narrative of the Entire Bible
- Orientation: Creation
- Complication: The Kingdom of Man: Rebellion of Adam - Babel
- Resolution: The Consummated Kingdom
Scriptural support for the fact the entire bible tells one story
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning Himself” -Luke 24:27
What is the Literary Structure of the Old Testament and New Testament
Tanach
Ta = Torah = Instruction = Covenant Na = Nevi'im = Prophets = Covenant Keepers K = Ketuvim = Writings (the rest)= Eclectic with universal Emphasis
New Testament
Gospels & Acts = New Covenant
Epistles = New Covenant Keepers
Revelation = Apocalyptic with a Universal Outlook
What is the over-arching meta narrative of the bible framed around
The process of God taking perishable/temporal creation and sactifying it into imperishable creation - His glorified kingdom
The 5 Books of the Torah
Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy
4 Books of the Former Prophets
Joshua
Judges
Samuel
Kings
15 Books of the Later Prophets
Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi
The 12 books of the writings
Psalms Job Proverbs Ruth Songs Ecclesiastes Lamentations Esther Daniel Ezra Nehemiah Chronicles
Why is creation theology important?
It is a major driver for biblical narrative
Primeval history
the name given by biblical scholars to the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis, the story of the first years of the world’s existence.
Summary
- Creation (process and function
- The pinnacle of creation, is Humanity, who is the image of God
- The image of God cracks, through humanities choice of the path to death instead of the path to life (rebellion)
- This renders all four relationships of humanity dysfunctional - with God, with ourselves, their fellow human beings and creation
- The climax of this rebellion is depicted in the story of Babel, the idolatrous kingdom.
- There is still hope, however, presented through the seed and remnant theology
Two of the most controversial areas of scripture
Creation and Eschatology
Two Views on the Process of Creation
Young Earth Creationism:
- Creation Days are literal 24 hour days
- Earth is approx 6000 years old
- Base estimation on Genealogies found in the Bible
Old Earth Creationism
- Creation Days are Acts of Creation rather than a 24 hour day
- Consistent with Big-Bang cosmology
- Earth is more than 13 Billion years old.
Two literary frameworks of Creation
Process (How) and Function (Why)
The Function of Creation Literary Framework
3 Major Acts
Act 1: Forming Kingdoms
Day 1: (Day and Night)
- Formless land
- Darkness
- Primordial waters (chaos and death)
- Light in the darkness
- Day and Night
Day 2 (Waters and Sky) - Separation of primordial waters by way of the firmament
Day 3 (Land and Vegetation
- Land out of the waters
- Mountains which hold up the firmament
- vegetation
Act 3: Assigning Rulers
Day 4: Day and Night are filled with the:
- Greater light
- lesser light
- Stars
Day 5: Waters and Sky are filled with
- fish
- Birds and flying creatures
Day 6: Land and vegetation are filled with
- Animals
- Rulers over all of it: Humanity
Act 3: God rested on Day 7
What are the overarching themes in Creation that drives the entire narrative of the bible
Beauty out of Chaos:
Blessing and Cursing:
The tet
The Hebrew for Adam and Eve
Adamah = soil/dirt/earth
Adam = dirt creature
Adam = Human
Humanity split into two:
- Ish = male
- Isha = female
Their names: Human Life
Adam = Human
Chavva = life
A Tale of two Gardens
Garden of Eden
- Presented by a choice: God’s will or their own
- Adam and eve tempted by the serpent
- Do what is right in their own eyes and fails
Garden of Gethsemane
- Presented with a choice: Gods will or His own
- Chooses God’s will and Succeeds
Creation account in Proverbs 3
- Uses the same imagery of the choice between the path to life and the path to death.
The same choice is presented in Psalm 1:
- The way of righteousness and the way of sin
The same choice is set before us today, but unlike eve, we today, have God’s spirit which enables us to choose righteousness.
The Cracked Image of God Cracks
First Adam and Eve
- Sin destroyed our relationship with God
- Sin destroyed their relationship with themselves
- Sin destroyed their relationship with each other
- Sin destroyed their relationship with creation
Then Cain Kills Abel
Then Humanity becomes so corrupt and violent that God has to kill humanity with the flood to start over with Noah
But the corruption doesn’t end their humanity and the entire world becomes unified around idolatry and false religion at Babel, and again God is displeased and breaks or separates humanity. Humanity once again finds themselves disunified
Is the fact that God cursed the ground after the fall in Eden the cause of all suffering today?
No, after the flood, God restores the earth
“21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Hope in the seed and remnant
The hope of “seed” in the families of Seth, Abraham and David, and the hope of the “remnant” seen in the families of Seth, Noah and Abraham.
Gen 3:15 A promise for restoration
“Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At the time people began to call on the name of the Lord”-Gen 4:25-26
Three ways of interpreting the account of Creation
Young Earth, Old Earth, Literary Framework
The period known as the Kingdom of Humanity
The time from the fall to Babel
Everything seems to get worse and worse from Adam’s time to Cain’s to Noah’s time; the ground not producing, the scale of sin, the degradation of relationships.
Patterns or Themes in Scripture
The ideas of the bible is not presented as formulas or lists, but are explored as patterns called themes
All the themes in Scripture link together and unify the whole story
The themes are “activated” by words that are repeated throughout different parts of scripture, these words are called links
Eg. The theme of God’s blessing. The word blessing is used hundreds of times throughout the bible. In the first story of the bible, the word blessing appears three times. The first when He creates the fish, and says: be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters, so God’s blessing has to do with abundance and multiplying life. God next blesses the humans by giving them the honor of ruling over creation, so ruling is a part of Gods blessing. On the seventh day God rests and blesses his creation, so Rest is also related to blessing. So God’s blessing is related to other ideas such as Ruling, Resting, Being Fruitful, and Life, So when you see these word elsewhere in scripture you know it is related to the theme of God’s blessing
Theme:Blessing and Cursing
Gods blessing is about flourishing and multiplication of life, rest, rulership, He blesses humanity with the ability to rule over and take care of his other blessings, by rule by trusting in His abundance by eating from the tree of His abundance which is the tree of God’s own eternal life. But there is another tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which represents trying to seize abundance in life on our own terms. by our own wisdom. Humans encounter a serpent that deceives humanity into thinking that the fruit of this tree is a shortcut to blessing, but instead of blessing it becomes a curse. A Curse is when God hands people over to the consequences of their own sin, of trying to seize our own blessing on our own terms. It’s a curse because instead of abundance and life, we end up with scarcity, isolation, and death.
This is carried forward in scripture, later as we see God blessing Abraham and Sarah, so that they can be fruitful and multiply, so that through them the nation of Israel is born, and then God blesses Israel so that they in turn can become a blessing to all nations, all they have to do is trust and live by God’s wisdom (the ten commandments and laws of the old testament), and they are told that this is a choice between life and death, between blessing and curse. But Israel did not trust in God’s abundance and instead fell into violence, injustice and chaos which eventually lead to them being taken into captivity. This pattern is repeated, and they are constantly oppressed by and having to live under the rule of foreign nations.
When Jesus arrives they are still under the curse and living under Roman Occupation. But Jesus, ulike Israel, chooses to live in accordance with God’s will and wisdom, and so becomes a blessing to all of humanity, through his death, After His resurrection, He blesses His followers and tells them that His presence will always be with them as they learn to trust in God’s wisdom and share God’s blessing with others
And even through the curse is still with use, His followers believe that the power of His blessing is even stronger, which is why we can live with extreme generosity even when it seems like there is not enough.
And we look forward to the day when everything is renewed and there is no longer any curse.
