Genesis 1-3

Review: The Manifold Beauty of Genesis One

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The Manifold Beauty of Genesis One, Gregg Davidson & Kenneth J. Turner. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2021.

Summary: An layered approach to the meaning of Genesis 1, focusing on what this reveals about God and God’s intentions for the flourishing of his creation and the human beings created in God’s image.

Genesis 1 is often the focus of controversy over scientific theories of origins and how to reconcile these with the biblical account. The two authors of this book, a geologist and an Old Testament professor, think that in doing so, we miss the richness of this account, and more than that the glory of God and the wonder of God’s creation. More than that, they contend that this account is so meaning laden that it may only be fully grasped in a layered approach that approaches scripture from different angles or through different lenses. They defend the idea that this multi-layered approach is both consistent with biblical inerrancy and sound hermeneutics, arising as it does from exegesis of Genesis 1 itself.

They identify seven layers to which they devote a chapter to elaborate. The layers are:

  1. Song. Many have noted the poetic character of Genesis 1, yet it defies poetic forms known elsewhere in scripture. The authors note the formlessness of creation and how days 1-3 give it form, and they note the emptiness of creation and how days 4-6 fill what God has given form. Noting all the repeated language in the days, they contend that this well may have been a sung account in which the beauty of the text reflects the beauty of the Maker.
  2. Analogy. The form of a week of seven days, of work conceived, executed, and appraised, the bringing of order from disorder, and the rest on the seventh day serves as an analogy that teaches us the goodness of work, that celebrates creativity, and serves as the basis for keeping the sabbath rest.
  3. Polemic. Genesis 1 is polemic. It shows there is no god like the LORD. The LORD has no backstory, no company of gods. Creation by intent and not accident. God sustains humans; they do not sustain him.
  4. Covenant. While the word is not used, the framework of covenant is evident: a suzerain-vassal, a royal land grant, blessings and curses, and loss of the land grant for disobedience.
  5. Temple. They note the many parallels with other Ancient Near East texts of gods and their temples in the language of Genesis: a garden on a mountain facing eastward, cherubim that guard the entrance, the tree of life (lampstand), the tree of knowledge, the mentions of lands with gold and gemstones, the source of rivers, and most of all, a place of God’s dwelling.
  6. Calendar. In addition to the creation week structure, the mention of the luminaries in day four to be “for signs and appointed times,” and “for days and for years.” This look forward to the yearly calendar of festivals that follow planting and harvest and commemorate the great events of the Exodus.
  7. Land. The land prepared for the first couple and lost, anticipate the land promises to Israel, their fulfillment, and the land lost in exile, and the hope of restoration.

Many of these layers are both rich in themselves and anticipatory of future works of God. The authors admit that not all the arguments for a particular layer are strong, but the cumulative case for the layers is. For me, the argument for “calendar” seemed the most tenuous, and yet not without basis.

I’ve long believed that to teach any important biblical truth, you have to start with the early chapters of Genesis. This book underscores this truth by demonstrating how so much that we see in the scriptures is evident in one or another of the layers of Genesis. The authors uncover rich treasures in Genesis that have nothing to do with origin controversies and everything to do with God and God’s ways. Manifold beauty indeed!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: In The Beginning, GOD

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In the Beginning GOD

In The Beginning, GOD, Marva J. Dawn. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009.

Summary: A series of reflections on the texts of Genesis 1-3 focused not on questions of beginnings and the controversies that surround these chapters but on what they show us of God and how this may lead us into worship.

Over the last 150 years, the first chapters of Genesis have been a battleground between faith and science, and sometimes between competing views within the Christian community. Marva J. Dawn thinks all of this misses the central object of these chapters. She contends these chapters reveal the character of God and lead us into worship of this God.

There is the very text itself. She observes the liturgical character of Genesis 1:1-2:3 with its repetition of “God said,” “it came to be,” “it was good,” and “evening and morning.” with an ordering of creation and a culmination in God’s “very good” and the rest of the seventh day.

This is a story in which we are formed. There is the creation of human beings as male and female. They are formed for care of the earth. They are formed for justice, with enough food and all the goods of creation for all. They are formed for sabbath-keeping. As God rests, so may we.

She considers the second of the accounts beginning with Genesis 2:4, with humans placed in a well-watered garden. Like a number of other scholars, Dawn notes that the woman is “helper”, a term used of God 17 times and thus not a term of subordination. She notes the design of our sexuality to be a leaving, cleaving and becoming one between woman and man. She then explores the fall and the choice God gives that allows us to choose love, the nature of human sin, and its effects, and the mercy of a God who clothes the naked and ashamed couple in skins, foreshadowing a greater sacrifice.

She concludes with a summary of the questions Genesis does answer:

  1. Who am I? What is my identity?
  2. To whom do I belong? To whom do I pledge my loyalty?
  3. Why am I here? What is my purpose in life?
  4. What is wrong with the world? Why is there so much disorder?
  5. How can it be fixed? What is the remedy for sin and evil?
  6. Where am I headed? What is my goal?
  7. How does everything fit together? Is there a master story?
  8. How can I survive? When the forces of evil assail me, how do I find the power to protect myself?
  9. What do I respect? By what values do I live?
  10. Why should I live? What gives meaning to my existence?
  11. How can there be a future when the world is in such a mess? How do I find hope?
  12. What is my center? Who is our God?

The Epilogue to the book is a confession of sin and faith based on her reading of Genesis, a confession she first introduced at InterVarsity’s 2002 Following Christ conference in Atlanta (I was there!).

Dawn’s book is reflection, not polemic. Along the way, she helps us recognize the important emphases of Genesis without descending into controversy or weighty exegesis. She opens our eyes to the wisdom and beauty and grace and truth of God in his creative work, and the beginnings of his dealings with human fallenness. She leads us into worship and response to what God has done in a series of short but rich reflections. I would commend this as a first text to read for any interested in the message of Genesis 1-3, to focus us on foundational and formative truths rather than the incidental concerns that have come to occupy our attentions.