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Genesis 1. In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless
and empty, darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the
waters. And God said, "Let there be
light" and
there was light. God saw that the light was good and
he separated the light from the darkness. God called the
light "day" and the darkness he called
"night". And there was evening, and there was
morning the first day. 6. And God said, "Let there be an
expanse between the waters to separate water from
water." So God made the expanse and separated the
water below from the water above. And it was so. God
called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and
there was morning the second day. 9. And God said, "Let the water under
the sky be gathered together and let dry ground
appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground
"land" and the gathered waters he called "seas." And
God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the land produce
vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and trees on the
land that bear fruit with seeds in it, according to
their various kinds." And it was so. The land
produced vegetation:plants bearing seeds according
to their kinds.And trees bearing fruit with seed in
it according to their kinds.And God saw that it was
good. And there was evening and there was morning,
the third day. 14. And God said, "Let there be lights
in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from
the night; and let them serve as signs to mark
seasons and days and years, and let them be
lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on
the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights, the greater
light to govern the day and the lesser light to
govern the night. He also made the stars. God set
them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the
earth to govern the day and the night, and to
separate light from darkness. And God saw that it
was good. And there was evening and there was
morning, the fourth day. 20. And God said, "Let the water teem
with living creatures, and let birds fly above the
earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created
the great creatures of the sea and every living,
moving thing with which the water teems, according
to their kinds, and every winged bird according to
its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed
them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number
and fill the water in the seas, and let the
birds increase on the earth." And there was evening
and there was morning, the fifth day. 24. And God said, "Let the land
produce living creatures according to their kinds:
livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and
wild animals, each according to its kind." And it
was so. God made the wild animals according to
their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds,
and all the creatures that move along
the ground according to their kinds. And God saw
that it was good. 26. Then God said, "Let us make man in
our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over
the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over
the livestock, over all the wild animals of the
earth, and over all the creatures that move along
the ground." So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God he created him, male and female he
created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be
fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and
subdue it. Rule
over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air,
and over every living creature that moves on the
ground." Then God said, I give you every
seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth
and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They
will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the
earth and all the birds of the air and all the
creatures that move on the ground, everything that
has the breath of life in it I give every green
plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he
had made and it was very good. And there was evening
and there was morning, the sixth day. (Chapter 2) Thus the heavens and the earth were
completed in all their vast array. By the seventh
day God had finished the work he had been doing; so
on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work of
creating that he had done.
This
is the account of the heavens and the earth when
they were created.
When the LORD God made the earth and the
heavens, no shrub of the field had yet appeared on
the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung
up; the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and
there was no man to work the ground, but streams
came up from the earth and watered the whole surface
of the ground.
And the LORD God formed a man (Adam) from the
dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and he became a living being. Now
the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in
Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the
Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the
ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good
for food. In
the middle of the garden were the tree of life and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil .... (15) The LORD God took Adam and put him
in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of
it. And
the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat
from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for
when you eat of it you will surely die." The
LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be
alone. I
will make a helper suitable for him....... (21) So
the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep
sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the
man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the
LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out
of the man, and he brought her to the man .... (25) The man and his wife were both
naked, and they felt no shame. Chapter 3: The Fall Now the serpent was more crafty than
any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said
to the woman, "Did God really say You must not eat
from any tree in the garden?" The
woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from
the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must
not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of
the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will
die.'" "You
will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
"For God knows that when you eat it your eyes will
be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good
and evil." When
the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good
for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable
for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it She
also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and
he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they realized that they were naked; so
they sewed fig leaves together and made
coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife
heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in
the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from
the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the
LORD God called to the man, "Adam, where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And
he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you
eaten from the tree that -1 commanded you not to eat
from?" Adam
said, "The woman you put here with me, she gave me
some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." Then the
LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have
done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived
me, and I ate.".... So
the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to
work the ground from which he had been taken. After he
drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the
Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing
back and forth to guard the way to the tree of
life.
Chapter
4:1-16, the story of Cain and Abel, the first
murder, the picture of "fallen humanity" begins,
with a growth in disasters and moral corruption
leading up to the story of Noah. The idea of
social responsibility and of interdependence is
present from the beginning, as also the
irrationality of evil. Abel
kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the
course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of
the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel
brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of
his flock. The
LORD looked with favour on Abel and his offering,
but on Cain and his offering he did not look with
favour. So
Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are
you angry? Why
is your face downcast? If you do what is right will
you not be accepted?
But if you do not do what is right, sin is
crouching at your door; it desires to have you,
but you must master it." Now
Cain said to his brother, "Let us go out to the
field." And while they were in the field, Cain
attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then
the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother, Abel? "I
don't know," he replied, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The
Lord said, "What have you done? Listen! Your
brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you
are under a curse and driven from the ground, which
opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood
from your hand.
When you work the ground, it will no longer
yield its crops for you. You will be a restless
wanderer on the earth." In Chapter 5 there are strange lists of
people reported to have lived for 900 years, the
oldest being Methuselah, who has become proverbial. This
is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man,
blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah
had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth
was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.
God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all
the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So
God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all
people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely
going to destroy both them and the earth. So make
yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it
and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how
you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long,
75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it
and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top.
Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower,
middle and upper decks. I
am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to
destroy all life under the heavens, every creature
that has the breath of life in it. Everything on
earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant
with you, and you will enter the ark‑‑you and your
sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
You are to bring into the ark two of all living
creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with
you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of
animal and of every kind of creature that moves
along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
You are to take every kind of food that is to be
eaten and store it away as food for youand for
them." Noah
did everything just as God commanded him. Genesis 7 The
LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and
your whole family, because I have found you
righteous in this generation. Take with you seven
[1] of every kind of clean animal, a male and its
mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a
male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of
bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds
alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I
will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty
nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth
every living creature I have made." And
Noah did all that the LORD commanded him. Noah was
six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on
the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and
his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters
of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of
birds and of all creatures that move along the
ground, 9male
and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God
had commanded Noah. And after the seven days the
floodwaters came on the earth. In
the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the
seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all
the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the
floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell
on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that
very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth,
together with his wife and the wives of his three
sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild
animal according to its kind, all livestock
according to their kinds, every creature that moves
along the ground according to its kind and every
bird according to its kind, everything with wings.
Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life
in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The
animals going in were male and female of every
living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the
LORD shut him in. For
forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and
as the waters increased they lifted the ark high
above the earth. The waters rose and increased
greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the
surface of the
water. They
rose greatly on the earth, and all the high
mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The
waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of
more than twenty feet. Every living thing that moved
on the earth perished‑‑birds, livestock, wild
animals, all the creatures that swarm over the
earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that
had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every
living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out;
men and animals and the creatures that move along
the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from
the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in
the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred
and fifty days. Genesis 8 But
God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the
livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent
a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Now
the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the
heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped
falling from the sky. The water receded steadily
from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty
days the water had gone down, and on
the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark
came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The
waters continued to recede until the tenth month,
and on the first day of the tenth month
the tops of the mountains became visible. After
forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the
ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back
and forth until the water had dried up from the
earth. Then
he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded
from the surface of the ground. But the
dove could find no place to set its feet because
there was water over all the surface of the earth;
so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out
his hand and took the dove and brought it back to
himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and
again sent out the dove from the ark. When the
dove returned to him in the evening, there in its
beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah
knew that the water had receded from the earth. He
waited seven more days and sent the dove out again,
but this time it did not return to him. By
the first day of the first month of Noah's six
hundred and first year, the water had dried up from
the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the
ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the
twenty‑seventh day of the second month the earth was
completely dry. Then
God said to Noah,
"Come out of the ark, you and your wife and
your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind
of living creature that is with you‑‑the birds, the
animals, and all the creatures that move along the
ground‑‑so they can multiply on the earth and be
fruitful and increase in number upon it." So
Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife
and his sons' wives.
All the animals and all the creatures that
move along the ground and all the birds‑‑everything
that moves on the earth‑‑came out of the ark, one
kind after another. Then Noah built an altar to the
LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and
clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The
LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his
heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because
of man, even though every inclination of his heart
is evil from childhood. And never again will I
destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As
long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will
never cease." In
Chapter 10 there are lists of strange tribes,
records of places: the Bible is from the beginning
anchored in a culture, a history, a specific
geography, not ours. It expresses its message
in a universal context. This is the meaning of
what follows.
Joseph,
a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks
with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons
of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their
father a bad report about them. Now his
father Israel loved Joseph more than any of his
other sons, because he had been born to him in his
old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe (a
coat of many colours) for him. When his brothers saw
that their father loved him more than any of them,
they hated him and could not speak a kind word to
him. Joseph
had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers,
they hated him all the more. He said to them,
"Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves
of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf
rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered
around mine and bowed down to
it." His
brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over
us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him
all the more because of his dream and what he had
said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to
his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another
dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven
stars were bowing down to me." When
he told his father as well as his brothers, his
father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you
had? Will your mother and I and your brothers
actually come and bow down to the ground before
you?" His
brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept
the matter in mind. His brothers sell Joseph as a
slave, then dip his coat in blood to suggest that he
has been eaten by an animal. He becomes slave in the
house of Potiphar, a high official in Egypt, but
soon rises to a posiion of great responsibility.
There he undergoes a difficult situation with
Potiphar's wife:
Now
Joseph was well‑built and handsome, and after a
while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and
said, "Come to bed with me!" But he refused. "With
me in charge," he told her, "my master does not
concern himself
with anything in the house; everything he owns he
has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this
house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from
me except you, because you are his wife. How then
could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"
And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he
refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. One
day he went into the house to attend to his duties,
and none of the household servants was inside. She
caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with
me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out
of the house. When she saw that he had left his
cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she
called her household servants. "Look," she said to
them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make
sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I
screamed. When
he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak
beside me and ran out of the house." She
kept his cloak beside her until his master came
home. Then
she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you
brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as
soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak
beside me and ran out of the house." When his
master heard the story his wife told him, saying,
"This is how your slave treated me," he burned with
anger. Joseph's master took him and put him in
prison. In
prison, Joseph correctly interprets dreams for the
Pharaoh'scup-bearer and baker. The cup-bearer is
restored to his position and recalls the event when
Pharaoh has a strange dream. Joseph explains that
the dream means that Egypt is going to experience a
long famine, and should take appropriate measures.
Pharaoh makes Joseph his chief minister. The same
famine strikes Jacob (Israel) and he sends ten of
Joseph's brothers to buy grain in Egypt, keeping the
youngest , Benjamin, at home.
They
said to one another, "Surely we are being punished
because of our brother Joseph. We saw how distressed
he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we
would not listen; that's why this distress has come
upon us." Reuben replied, "Didn't I tell you not to
sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now we
must give an accounting for his blood." They
did not realize that Joseph could understand them,
since he was using an interpreter. He
turned away from them and began to weep, but then
turned back and spoke to them again. He had Simeon
taken from them and bound before their eyes. Yet
on their way home, they find that the money
they paid for their grain has been put into their
sacks. Confused, they return to Egypt with Benjamin,
and double the money, 'in case it was a mistake'.
When
Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the
steward of his house, "Take these men to my house,
slaughter an animal and prepare dinner; they are to
eat with me at noon." The man did as Joseph told him
and took the men to Joseph's house. Now
the men were frightened when they were taken to his
house. They thought, "We were brought here because
of the silver that was put back into our sacks the
first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us
and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys." So
they went up to Joseph's steward and spoke to him at
the entrance to the house. "Please, sir," they said, "we
came down here the first time to buy food. But at
the place where we stopped for the night we opened
our sacks and each of us found his silver‑‑the exact
weight‑‑in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought
it back with us.
We have also brought additional silver with
us to buy food. We don't know who put our silver in
our sacks." "It's
all right," he said. "Don't be afraid. Your God, the
God of your father, has given you treasure in your
sacks; I received your silver." Then he brought
Simeon out to them. The steward took the men into
Joseph's house, gave them water to wash their feet
and provided fodder for their donkeys. They prepared
their gifts for Joseph's arrival at noon, because
they had heard that they were to eat there. When
Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts
they had brought into the house, and they bowed down
before him to the ground. He asked them how they
were, and then he said, "How is your aged father you
told me about? Is he still living?" They
replied, "Your servant our father is still alive and
well." And they bowed low to pay him honor. As
he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his
own mother's son, he asked, "Is this your youngest
brother, the one you told me about?" And he said,
"God be gracious to you, my son." Deeply
moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried
out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his
private room and wept there. After he had washed his
face, he came out and, controlling himself, said,
"Serve the food." Joseph
plays the same trick as before, sending them off
with their money placed in their sacks; but this
time he puts his own cup in Benjamin's sack. His
steward rides after them, discovers the cup, and
accuses them of stealing it. They all ride back to
the city, where Joseph decrees that Benjamin must
become his slave, the others can go. They tell his
it would kill their father to lose Benjamin; they
even offer to all become his slaves, if only
Benjamin can go home. Then
Joseph could no longer control himself before all
his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone
leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph
when he made himself known to his brothers. And he
wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and
Pharaoh's household heard about it. Joseph
said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father
still living?" But his brothers were not able to
answer him, because they were terrified at his
presence. Then
Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When
they had done so, he said, "I am your brother
Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not
be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves
for selling me here, because it was to save lives
that God sent me ahead of you. For two
years now there has been famine in the land, and for
the next five
years there will not be plowing and reaping.
But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a
remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great
deliverance. "So
then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He
made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire
household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to
my father and say to him, `This is what your son
Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come
down to me; don't delay. You shall live in the region
of Goshen and be near me‑‑you, your children and
grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you
have. I
will provide for you there, because five years of
famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your
household and all who belong to you will become
destitute.' "You
can see for yourselves, and so can my brother
Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to
you. Tell my father about all the honor accorded me
in Egypt and about everything you have
seen. And bring my father down here quickly." Then
he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and
wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he
kissed all his brothers and wept over them.
Afterward his brothers talked with him. This
story is remarkable, both by its "change in
fortunes" themes and by the emotionally touching
scenes involving Benjamin (the youngest son) and the
old father Jacob. It is extremely well
structured. The story is put here to explain
why the "children of Israel" were in Egypt.
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