BE102.

Old Testament History I

Unit 2. Genesis
Video 1. Genesis 1 Part 1

James Allman

Instructor: God’s purposes are not fulfilled yet. Now we turn to Genesis 1. So let us go
there. Here I have the exposition with Genesis 1 and 2. “In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, darkness was upon the
face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters.”

Of course the first question we have to ask and answer is how does this fit with evolution?
How would Moses have answered that question? What’s evolution? That’s how he would
have answered it. The story was not written to address evolution. To expound Genesis 1 as
addressing evolution, at some point we’ve got to say something about it, but to expound
Genesis 1, as if it were the antidote to all evolutionary thinking is really inappropriate.
That’s not why Moses wrote this. He’s setting out who God is, what kind of person is this
that Israel is entering into relationship with? As Israel goes into the land of Canaan who is
this God?

Now we have to ask further what is the relationship of verses 1 and 2 to the whole chapter
and the relationship of verse 1 to verse 2? So I will, let’s talk about that for a minute. There
are different views here. One view is to say that Genesis 1:1, verse 1, is the first act of God
in creation. So He creates everything there is. Then He comes and models the earth. Does
that make sense to you? A second view is the Gap Theory. You are all familiar with the
Gap Theory? Yes? What’s the Gap Theory? Okay you’re not. Okay yeah.

Response: I’m going to try that. Isn’t the Gap Theory that there is a gap in time between
Genesis 1:2 and,

Instructor: 1:1 and 1:2, yeah.

Response: And during that time is when like the fallen state, and things like that.

Instructor: Yeah. This is Ross’ position of Genesis 1:1 and 2, sort of. It’s not exactly. The
Gap Theory was really, as far as I can tell; it was promulgated in order to get all the
geologic ages into Genesis. So you can have the geologic ages and then have a recreation of
the earth but the problem with that, of course, is you have death before death is imposed. So
that probably, again Moses never knew about geologic ages, right. One of my basic
principles of interpretation of the principle that Dr. Grassmick proposed years ago, I think it
was Grassmick, I call it the principle of share ability. The best interpretation is the one the
author and original readers could share with one another and geologic ages wasn’t in the
mental framework of Moses and his readers, so that probably is not what he’s trying to
communicate at all.

Another view, and this of course is the right one, is that Genesis 1:1, gives a summary of
the entire event and Genesis 1:2, gives the event, gives the conditions at the beginning of
the story, and then 1:3, starts to tell the story. I mentioned to you, when we talked about
Leviticus 1:1, starting with ______ consecutive, that is a means of saying this event is an
outgrowth of that event in either logical or chronological ways, remember that? I don’t
have that in verse 2. I have what’s called the disjunctive clause in verse 2, and that means
that the, verse 2 is not an outgrowth of verse 1, either chronologically or logically. So
typically what I have, and this is fairly standard Hebrew style, you start by giving a
summary of an event and then the conditions at the beginning of the story and then you tell
the story. So I take verse 1 as a summary or title. Yeah?

Response: Can you talk a little bit about the word bara' tocreate? It always seems to mean
fully formed.

Instructor: Yeah it’s possible. It does, it’s always used bara’ to create is used with God as
its subject. It never has any other being as its subject. It always is, the result of bara’ is
always something unique, so you find bara’ in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1, only at
isolated places. It’s not all over Genesis 1. It’s when God makes the animals, the fish He
creates, when He makes man He creates and it doesn’t, apparently it doesn’t mean make
out of nothing. In Genesis 1, God creates by His word, yes the human race. Yes? Yeah? In
Genesis 2, He makes the human race In Genesis 2 He makes the human race how?

Response: Dirt.

Instructor: Out of dirt, so are we made out of nothing? You may say we’re made out of next
to nothing, but folks; there is an existential gulf between dirt and nothing. Yes? There’s an
abyss existentially between dirt and nothing so I can’t really say that we’re made out of
nothing. We’re made out of something so bara’ apparently does not necessarily make out of
nothing. Certainly one can use it that way. But I have then the view that Genesis 1:1, is a
summary, a title, if you will.

Turn to Mark 1, in that regard. In Mark 1:1, Mark is about Jesus as the servant. Matthew’s
about the king, Mark’s about the servant, Luke’s about some man, John about some God,
right? I wish Mark had read our introductions to the New Testament, because he got it all
mixed up, Mark’s about the servant. You don’t have a genealogy in the Gospel of Mark
because servant you don’t care what his genealogy is. You just want to know whether
servant can do the job, yes?

Well look at Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Number one I would propose to you that’s the title of the Book of Mark. Number two I
would propose to you there is a genealogy in Mark, Son of God, is all the genealogy He can
have. When you’re the Son of God that’s the sum total of the genealogy and the rest of the
book sets out to prove that Jesus is the Son of God. So we actually have two Gospels that
focus on Jesus in His role as Son of God and if we were studying the Gospels we would
pursue that a little further. And Ryan where are you brother? There you are. We’ll do that
in Gospels next semester.

So I have something like that in Mark 1:1. I have a summary, then I have the conditions,
the identity of this one who is preparing the way for the Lord, and then John the Baptist is
sent and the story begins. You follow this? So I think we have something like that going on
in Genesis 1. Well what is going on in Genesis 1? Well what’s going on is God rectifying
the conditions that are stated in verse 2. What are the conditions? The earth was without
form and void. What does void mean? What is the NET Bible say? Empty. It means empty.
It was shapeless and empty. The earth was a mess. It was a chaotic mess.

I don’t want to say a whole lot about this except to say one thing. Jeremiah 4, is referring to
this passage and uses formless and void in a context where God is bringing wrath on Israel.
If you, I suppose we’d better turn there. Turn to Jeremiah 4. Let’s see, verse, yeah, 23,
Jeremiah 4:23. “I looked at the land.” In Hebrew the earth is ‘erets and the land is ‘erets. So
it sounds different in our English Bibles, but it’s the same in Hebrew. So I looked at the
‘erets and saw that it was an empty wasteland, the NET Bible reads, same phrase as we
have in Genesis 1:2. “I looked up at the sky and its light had vanished. I looked at the
mountains and saw that they were shaking, all the hills were swaying back and forth. I
looked and saw that there were no people and all the birds in the sky had flown away. I
looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert, that all of the cities had been laid
in ruins.”

We stop reading there. Notice that we take Genesis 1, and we reverse the order. We start
with man, birds, plants, do you follow this, so we’re reversing the order. This passage is
really intending to comment on Genesis 1, by reversing Creation. It’s a reversal of
Creation. To what end? The last part of verse 26, “The Lord has brought all this about
because of His blazing anger.” This may be an inter-biblical commentary on Genesis 1, and
if it is then the formless and void or shapeless and empty issue may be an indication of the
wrath of God. Why has the wrath come? I don’t know. Alan Ross, whom I reverence, I
almost want to bow every time I say the name Alan Ross, but Alan Ross, whom I
reverence, says, that the fall of Satan has occurred and that’s what has caused the
corruption of the earth. I don’t know that. I don’t have anything in Scripture that tells me
that Satan fell at this point. He is fallen by the time we encounter him in Genesis 3, but I
don’t know that he fell between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. I don’t want to know what the Bible
doesn’t tell me. Okay? All right? As far as its interpretation goes.

But the earth is without form and it’s empty. Darkness is upon the face of the deep.
Darkness is an image that the Old Testament uses to talk about the place where the wicked
can function. Wicked people lay in wait until after dark to waylay the righteous and to
plunder them, to beat them up and take their wealth, Proverbs 1, for example. Light is a
symbol of salvation; darkness is a symbol of disaster. Yes? Darkness upon Egypt, for
example. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The deep, the sea is consistently in the
Old Testament a place where you would assume God is not, Psalm 103, no not 103, Psalm
139, “If I take the wings of the dawn and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there,”
what does even mean? “Even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will lay hold
of me.” What does even mean?
Response: Also. You wouldn’t expect it.

Instructor: Yeah, that’s it. I wouldn’t expect it, but in fact, that’s the case. So if I could fly
from the East to the West as fast as the rays of the dawn fly, God would already be there
and would be dealing with it. I wouldn’t expect it but it is. If I ascend into the heavens You
are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. It’s where God is not. Do you follow?
Where God is most fully revealed and where God seems to be most fully not revealed or
heaven and Sheol, where God is revealed in the land, where God is not revealed is in the
sea. Do you follow this? How many Israelites went to sea intentionally? Name me some.

Response: Jonah.

Instructor: Jonah went to sea for what purpose? To run away from the Lord, which makes
no sense even on his own reasoning. The God whom I serve is the Maker of heaven and
earth and the sea. How do you run away from God when He made the sea? But the sea is
where you don’t expect God to be. Do you follow this? So here I’ve got several indications
that there is something terribly, dreadfully wrong with the earth at the beginning. What
made it that way, I don’t know. I don’t even want to speculate about it, but there’s
something dreadfully wrong.

Response: What’s the difference between that and Gap Theory then?

Instructor: I don’t want to, number one, I’m not putting any geological ages there so it’s
fundamentally distinct from the Gap Theory. Number two, Genesis 1:1, is not the
beginning event. It’s simply saying here’s what I’m going to talk to you about, then here
are the conditions at the beginning of the story and now I’m going to tell you how God did
it. So, it’s something happened. Should you believe in an old earth or a new earth, a recent
earth? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t think this passage tells us. My suspicion is first
of all as I look at Genesis 1, I don’t find any clear indication of God making anything out of
nothing in Genesis 1. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God made things out of nothing. Is it 11:6?
11:4? I can’t recall. Early verses of 11, it’s 4 to 6. It’s 11:6? I can’t remember either. I can
look that up. I don’t need to know it. But the point is to say that here I don’t know what we
have except that we have God’s ordering the creation as it now is. Are you with me here? I
don’t know whether it was 25,000 years ago; I don’t know if it was four and a half billion
years ago, I don’t know and I don’t want to speculate about it. God has told me what I need
to know about it. Beyond that I should not go.

© 2018 Dallas Theological Seminary

BE102. Old Testament History I

Unit 2. Genesis
Video 2. Genesis 1 Part 2
James Allman

Instructor: That raises the question then are we dealing with a literal or a figurative
narrative here? And the answer is in some sense we’re probably dealing with analogical
language. What do I mean by analogical language?

Response: Not logical.

Instructor: It’s not, not logical. Analogical means we’re using analogies to explain things
that are beyond our comprehension. When I call God Father is that literally true?

Response: In a sense.

Instructor: With whom did He have sex to make me His son? No, it’s not literally true; it’s
analogical. It’s an analogy. It’s a valid analogy. Who chose it?

Response: Jesus.

Instructor: Yeah, or? God chose it. God chose that to describe Himself, and if God is
choosing the analogies then the analogies are reliable. I must not push them to every
possible use to which they might be put, yes? But they’re reliable analogies. Does that
make sense to you? Because God has chosen them then they’re reliable analogies. Am I
making sense to you? So is this literal or figurative? It’s probably not absolutely literal, in
the sense that how can you have day and night when there is no sun? I don’t know. I don’t
need to know. God didn’t tell me. He said there was day and night. It’s literal enough for
me to know what was going on. It’s analogical language, but it’s analogical language by
which God intends to communicate.

I have two presuppositions when I come to the Bible that are general, not specific. They’re
not universal, but generally speaking would you say that God intends to communicate in
the Scriptures?

Response: Yes.

Instructor: All right. If God intends to communicate is He a good communicator?

Response: The best.

Instructor: The best. Then if I assume that God is a good communicator and that He intends
to communicate then what He has said is sufficiently like the literal that I can depend on it.
Does that make sense to you? Now, it’s not universally true that God intends to
communicate. In Revelation, for example, just to use one very specific example, “The
seven thunder spoke and I was preparing to write and the voice that was speaking with me
said, ‘Do not write, but seal up what the seven thunders has said.’” God spoke but did not
intend to communicate, yes?
Response: To any one other than John.

Instructor: To any one other than John. And so here there is revelation that is not
enscripturated and I don’t get any information. I can go a little further with that where it’s a
little less clear, but the Book of Proverbs is intended to create problems for thought so that
you can develop your moral sense. It creates analogies that are difficult to understand in
order for, they erect a barrier to understanding first, so God’s primary purpose is not always
to communicate, but in a passage like this I conclude that it is sufficient, it’s probably
analogical at some point, but it’s sufficiently like reality that the analogy is dependable. Are
you with me here? So I’m not sure that the question is Genesis 1 literal or figurative is a
well-framed question.

Did God create the earth in seven days? I think so. Let me give you the reasons why I think
so. Read on. The world is in a terrible condition, chaotic mess and God sets out to solve
that chaotic mess. On the first three days, two and a half, He solves the shapelessness of the
earth, and on the next three and a half days He begins to fill the earth. So here verse 3,
“God said let there be light and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, so
God separated the light from the darkness.” He is now dealing with the shapelessness of the
earth. First things separating the light and the darkness. “So God separated the light from
the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness night. There was evening and there
was morning, the first day.” In verse 5, the first use of the word day, how long is day? If
God intends to communicate and the best interpretation is the one that the author and
original readers could share with one another how long is the first use of the word day in
verse 5?

Response: 12 hours, 24 hours.

Instructor: 12 hours. He called the light day and the darkness He called night, yes? Right?
Then in the second use how long is the day?

Response: 24.

Instructor: 24, 24. Are you with me here? Now turn to chapter 2. Verse 4, Genesis 2:4. This
is the account of the heavens and the earth when the NET Bible reads rightly, more literally
in the day when the Lord created the heavens and the earth. How long was the time of the
creation of the heavens and the earth according to Genesis 1?

Response: Six days?

Instructor: Yeah, six days. The word day is not universally 24 hours in Genesis. Are you
with me? But it’s not infinitely expandable. I can’t make it millions or billions of years. I
can’t make it into thousands of years. Are you with me here?

Response: Why not?

Instructor: Why not? Because the context always determines meaning and the context I
have three uses of the word day that are definable within the context. One use that’s 12
hours roughly, one use that’s 24 roughly, and one use that’s 6 days roughly, but I can’t just
infinitely, based on the context of Genesis 1, I can’t simply infinitely expand or contract the
meaning of the word. Context always determines. Wherever, also, wherever Hebrew uses
the ordinal numbers, or rather, yes the ordinal numbers 1st, 2nd, 3rd, with the word day, it
always refers to 24-hour periods. Look at Genesis 22. This is an example of that. By the
way this is the way I expect you to argue in your papers. When you tell me that something
means something, a word means this, then you show me in the context why it means that.
That’s the only way to argue, folks, on these things. Dictionaries don’t prove that a word
means anything. Okay? The Standard Hebrew Lexicon, Brown, Driver and Briggs, I
haven’t looked at Koehler and Baumgartner on this, but Brown, Driver and Briggs says that
the verb yadah to acknowledge, to confess, means to give thanks. I can’t find any place that
it inherently means to give thanks. We’ll talk about that later too.

Verse 3, I’m sorry not verse 3, verse 4, “On the third day Abraham got up, caught sight of
the place in the distance.” So 3,000 years later Abraham saw Mount Mariah off in the
distance, yes? Three thousand years later? No? Three million years later?

Response: Yes.

Instructor: Three years later? No? Three weeks later? How long is this period?

Response: _A real 24-hour day._____________

Instructor: Yeah. There’s the night in which he gets the vision, right? And on the third day,
so it’s less than 72 hours that are in view, yes? This is a standard thing throughout the
Scriptures. Look at Exodus 20, God even argues for the Sabbath based on the six days of
Creation, so He seems to take the view that the days of Creation are 24-hour periods. In
Exodus 20:8, “Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy.” Now Exodus 20:9, “For
six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord
your God. On it you shall not do any work.” Verse 11 now, “For in six days the Lord made
the heavens and the earth.” How long is a day in Exodus 20:8-11?

Response: 24 hours.

Instructor: 24 hours. So, what is He trying to communicate? Is God a good communicator?

Response: Yeah, the best.

Instructor: All right. Does He intend to communicate?

Response: Yes.

Instructor: Is the meaning shareable?

Response: Yeah.

Instructor: Yeah. Then what does day mean?

Response: 24 hours.

Instructor: 24-hour period, or 12, 24, or a week. But it’s not infinitely expandable within
the context. Does this make sense to you?

© 2018 Dallas Theological Seminary

BE102. Old Testament History I

Unit 2. Genesis
Video 3. Genesis 1 Part 3

James Allman

Instructor: So we’ve dealt with the days. Structure relation. Okay we get light, dry land,
grass and fruit trees. Why did God create light?

Response: He’s light. For light.

Instructor: He’s light, so why did He create light if He’s present there should be light, so
why did He create light?

Response: For us. For the Israelites.________

Instructor: Oh, for His creatures. Hear this, folks. Are you listening? “God said, ‘Let there
be light,’ and there was light.” God has the kind of authority that when He speaks things get
done immediately and exactly as He gives the command. I assume you were an officer.

Response: Uh hum.

Instructor: That doesn’t always follow, but what rank?

Response: Captain.

Instructor: Captain, so you were probably at least a company commander? Oh boy, what a
job. I’m glad I was enlisted. I got to go home at 4:30. As company commander, when you
issued an order how often was it carried out exactly as you ordered and immediately.

Response: Fairly often.

Instructor: Fairly often because there are some remedies you have to draw on, but not
universally.

Response: Right.

Instructor: One of the things that people find when they get into the presidency is things
don’t work the way they ought to. If you’re the president, you’re the supreme commander
of the military of the United States good stuff, right. The power, powerful, most powerful
chair in the world, sit president seat, right? And yet you’ve got the State Department, the
highest level of the State Department is made up of his appointees, but all those people who
actually do all the work in the State Department have been in there for umpteen years and
they’re under the merit system so they can’t be fired and they do things the way they want
to no matter whose in the White House. Same thing, not only in the State Department, the
Defense Department and all through the administration. Folks, do you realize how unusual
it is to have a person who has a will that gets carried out immediately and exactly as he
wills it? This is absolute sovereignty. But how does he use that absolute sovereignty? Why
did He create light? Why does He create dry land? Why does He create grass? Why does
He create fruit trees? Response: For our enjoyment.

Instructor: For all of His creatures, every amoeba that’s ever lived on the face of the earth
has had to have access to light. Then God, who is absolute sovereign rules by serving. I
thought for years that Jesus had come up with the idea. He who would be first among you
must be first what?

Response: Last.

Instructor: Last, servant of all. Remember this? But that wasn’t new with Jesus. Jesus got it
from Genesis 1. It is crucial that we see that. So here light, dry land, grass, fruit trees.
Naming, why does He name things? Why does He name the day and name the night?

Response: Well got to call it something.

Instructor: Why?

Response: To communicate. For order.

Instructor: To communicate. Say again?

Response: For order.

Instructor: How for order?

Response: Well I mean in giving, assigning its names distinguishes between the two.

Instructor: Good. It helps; it assists thought. I can begin to think and organize my
conceptions of reality when I can name things. Does that make sense to you? That’s, of
course, not a problem for God, but He’s going to call it day and He’s going to call it night
because, first of all that’s what it is, and secondly because it will give mankind a way to
think about these things.

But also the night is where in Hebrew the word night is layelah. I know that helps you
enormously, but layelah. l-a-y-e-l-a-h, layelah. Okay? Did I get the pointing right? Are
there any Hebrew students here? I can’t remember if it’s a patakh or kamats, but I think it is
kamats. Help me.

Response: Looks good.

Instructor: Looks good, all right. There is another word in Hebrew layil. You can see it
better in Hebrew than you can in English. The similarities between the two words, yes?
That’s a night demon, lilith. So if you watched Frazier then lilith is a night demon. It
explains a lot of things. For the ancient Israelite night is a time that is frightening. You
don’t know quite what’s going to happen at night, and you don’t ever want to go to bed
without light in the house, so if it’s possible you’re going to have a light burning in the
house. You have to be exceedingly poor not to have a light burning in the house through
the night. To have the lights put out is an indication that you’re in real trouble. Does that
make sense? So here why would God name the night, because He is sovereign over it and
He controls it and Israel has nothing to fear from it. Does that make sense to you?

So His naming indicates His sovereignty over it and throughout the Old Testament when
someone named something or someone there is sovereignty going on. When Daniel went to
Babylon they renamed, of course, Daniel Belteshazzar and his three friends, Yourshack,
Myshack, and Abungalow, right, [laughter]. I never can, Azariah, Hananiah, and Mishael
became Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. Why, because they’re being transferred from
one sovereignty to another sovereignty and having come into the new sovereignty their
names are changed to indicate that. Does that make sense to you? God is sovereign over the
night and so Israel really has nothing to dread there.

We have also separating God is a God who makes distinctions. He separates the light from
the darkness; He separates the water and lets the dry land appear; He’s a God who makes
distinctions. Why will that be relevant for Israel?

Response: They’re chosen people.

Instructor: They’re the chosen people. He makes distinctions between Israel and all other
peoples. He will make distinctions in Egypt between Israel and the Egyptians, right? He
will make distinctions between different kinds of animals that Israel may and may not eat.
God’s a God who makes distinctions, so you have all this laid out in Genesis 1. So there’s
the creation of life. This is complete departure from everything else that has been in
Genesis 1 up to this point. So we read Genesis 1:20, “God said let the water swarm with
swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.
God created the great sea creatures.” Here is a departure, some new actions that God is
carrying out. It’s unique, nothing like it has ever been done before and then when we get
down to 28, 27, we have the creation of the human race, so this is a crucial issue, the
departure, something new, something unique.

Blessing. God blessed the animals. How did He bless the animals? What was the nature of
that blessing?

Response: They multiplied.

Instructor: Yeah. How did He bless the human race?

Response: Multiplied.

Instructor: Multiply. What is blessing?

Response: Prosperity.

Instructor: Yeah, it’s conferring fullness of life; you said prosperity. To bless is to confer
fullness of life on whatever is blessed. Are you with me? God blessed the animals, verse,
what verse is that? Verse 22. “ God blessed them and said be fruitful, multiply, fill the
waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” So He blesses the animals. And
the nature of that blessing is fullness of life. Then He blesses the human race and the human
race is to fill the earth, multiply on it, yes? Fullness of life! When God blesses Noah and his
three sons, Genesis 9:1, turn there, how did He bless Noah and his three sons?

Response: Be fruitful and multiply.

Instructor: Does that sound like anything?

Response: Sounds like Genesis 1.

Instructor: One. Then the purpose of God in blessing the human race remains as of Genesis
9, even with the terrible sinfulness of the race, there is still God’s purpose to bless and the
blessing is still the same, namely fullness of life. Does that make sense to you? All right.
When; therefore, God blesses Abraham it’s bringing fullness of life. When He blesses Isaac
and Jacob it’s bringing fullness of life. He blesses Joseph, when Jacob blesses Pharaoh
how, by the way, is Abraham able to bless Isaac, how is Isaac able to bless Jacob? If
blessing means to confer fullness of life how are they able to do that? How is Jacob able to
bless Pharaoh?

Response: More of a transfer of the Covenant?

Instructor: Yeah, well I wouldn’t say transfer the Covenant, but it’s inherently tied to the
concept of covenant. These guys are mediators of the Covenant and as mediators of the
Covenant they have the right to bless. In Numbers 6, we will see Aaron and Moses blessing
the nations of Israel. How are they able to do that? They’re mediators of the Covenant. Do
you follow? That means I’m not a mediator of the Covenant. I don’t have any blessing
power. Yes, I can give you a grade, but that may not be a blessing, huh?

Now let me confuse the water just a little bit. Psalm 103:1, is the proof you ought to pray
after you eat, not before. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.” [Laughter]
How do I bless the Lord? Do I confer fullness of life on Him?

Response: Maybe that’s not the best definition of it.

Instructor: Maybe it’s not. Or, perhaps there’s a derived definition that will cover that.
Look at Psalm 103. That is a good question and it should be asked when that kind of
information arises. Psalm 103:2, the NET Bible reads: “Praise the Lord.” The word really is
bless and probably should be translated that way here. Verse 2: “Praise the Lord O my soul,
do not forget all His benefits. He is the one who forgives all your sins, who heals all your
diseases, who delivers your life from the pit.” Is this fullness of life? Is the Psalmist
describing fullness of life here? Who crowns your years, crowns you with loyal love and
compassion, satisfies your life with good things, so your youth is renewed like the eagles.
Is that fullness of life?

Response: Yeah.

Instructor: Sure. Then when I bless God I acknowledge Him as the one who has given me
fullness of life, see. We bless You Lord. Well maybe you don’t. No, the point of blessing is
to say that I acknowledge God as the giver of all the things that I have, all the benefits that I
have. Does that make sense to you? So, blessing here, when God does it, and there’s a
social distinction between the two subjects, when God does it or when one of His covenant
mediators does it we’re conferring fullness of life. When I reverse the process and bless
God I’m acknowledging Him as the one who has given fullness of life. So this concept of
blessing.

If you choose to do that assignment on blessing in Genesis trace it through the book,
though. Test this definition; go see if there are better ones around, and see if you can help
me out here, but the point of this assignment is to get you into the book and thinking
broadly about what’s going on with blessing in the Book of Genesis.

© 2018 Dallas Theological Seminary

BE102. Old Testament History I

Unit 2. Genesis
Video 4. Genesis 1 Part 4

James Allman
Instructor: Now the image of God, Genesis 1:26-28. What is the image? Well it’s mind,
emotion, and will, yes? It is body, soul, and spirit, yes? What’s in the context if all meaning
comes from context, what’s in the context? Well there are three things in the context 1:26-
28. God said, let Us make humankind, and that’s a wonderful translation there, Adam in
Hebrew means simply humanity. It may be further distinguished into male humanity, but
the simple meaning of the word is humanity. How do I know that? You don’t have to know
any Hebrew or have studied any Hebrew to answer this.

Response: Because there is more than just men around?

Instructor: Yes. In verse 27, male and female He created them. And Adam is the antecedent
of them in Hebrew. So male, rather Adam is male and female, right? So God said let Us
make humanity or humankind in Our image after Our likeness so that they may rule. The
first element of the image, as far as I can tell in the context here, is rule. Why should the
image of God rule? Because God rules. What will the nature of the image’s rule be?

Response: Sovereignty.

Instructor: Yeah absolute sovereignty. That’s indicated by verse 28. Look down there, verse
28, where we have an inclusio. Do you know this word inclusio? I-n-c-l-u-s-i-o, inclusio is
a figure of rhetoric in which you start a unit and end the unit with the same basic idea. So I
start with rule and I end with rule, right? Verse 28, “God blessed them and said be fruitful
and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.” Subdue is the word wrought, I think it’s the word
radah, which means to trample down. It’s an absolute sovereignty, but it’s a sovereignty
that’s going to be like God’s sovereignty. It’s an absolute sovereignty that is a sovereignty
of service. So if we rule over the birds of the air, the cattle over the earth and over all the
creatures that move on the earth, what are we going to do with them? Kill them and eat
them? Make shoes out of them? How do you rule over all the animals that are on the earth?

Response: Responsible for them?

Instructor: You’re responsible for them and help them develop. Brothers and sisters, there
are some who are claiming that chimpanzees can learn sign language. Have you heard this?
Yeah, this is an old idea. The University of Oklahoma they have a chimp that they’ve been
teaching sign language, American Sign Language for years. This thing carries on
conversations with folks. Folks, is it unreasonable to think that God, who created us to be
speech partners, left us with no other speech partner on the earth? Is it possible, if you’ve
had a pet, now it’s a fish, but if you’ve had a pet have you not found that your pet can
communicate with you? Cats are of the devil so I exclude them absolutely. I’m a dog
person and so I don’t really dislike cats. I like cats I’m just allergic to them and can’t be
around them, but it rouses people and wakes them up in class so I say things like that.

But I had a little dog up until about three years ago. She, I had to have her put to sleep. She
was so sick. But, she could let me know when it was time to go outside. She could tell me
when she wanted to play. She could tell me when she wanted to rest. How is that the case
when they have no verbal skills? Maybe the animals in the kingdom will be able to develop
beyond what we have thought of them. Maybe today they’re able to develop beyond what
we’ve thought of them and our task as the human rulers of the earth is to help the animals
to develop to the fullness of their capacity under the creative purpose of God. Does that
make sense to you?

So we rule by serving. Are you with me here? Verse 27, “God created humankind in His
own image; in the image of God He created the”, the NET Bible says “them,” which is
accurate, but Hebrew says created him, because the antecedent is singular then the pronoun
should be singular. Then we carry it further by saying male and female He created them.
Why should the image of God be male and female?

Response: Because it’s not sex.

Instructor: Hm?

Response: The beginning verse in verse 27 it says God created humankind so female would
include humankind.

Instructor: Yes.

Response: Therefore, humankind is representation of both male and female.

Instructor: Why though should the image be male and female?

Response: It’s fruitful.

Instructor: It’s fruitful, that’s good, and that’s on the right track.

Response: God has the qualities of both men and women.

Instructor: Okay good, and we don’t want to say this do we?

Response: God is spirit. He’s not _______.

Instructor: God is a plurality in unity. God is a plurality in unity; His image cannot be, His
image can’t function fully if it’s not a plurality in unity.

Response: Father, Son and Spirit.

Instructor: Say again?

Response: Father, Son and Spirit. Instructor: Father, Son and There’s enough evidence in
the Old Testament to suggest some plurality within God. God is one. We quoted the Shema
earlier, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” The word ahad, however,
clearly can include a plurality of unity. Look at chapter 2. Genesis 2:24, NET Bible, I
wanted to read this to see what it was like and I’m getting an eye opener here. Verse 24,
“That is why man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife and they become a
new family.” The two shall become one flesh, in Hebrew. That one flesh is two is a
plurality in unity. Yes? So ahad in Hebrew can mean more than a numerical unity. Does
that make sense to you? The point is to say God is a plurality in unity then His image must
be a plurality in unity and no one person is the image, it is the race that is the image. It is
not I or two of us that are the image, it is the whole race. Adam and Eve happened to be the
whole race at the time, yes? But Adam, Eve, and Cain are the race, and Adam, Eve, Cain,
and Abel are the race. Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel and Seth are the race. Adam, Eve, Cain,
Abel, Seth and Mrs. Cain, Mrs. Abel, and Mrs. Seth, there’s no Mrs. Abel I understand that,
but they were the race and so they are the image. So what? Yeah?

Response: _Does that imply that somehow like the Holy Spirit is female or something?

Instructor: No there’s no sexuality in God as such, but as someone, I forget who it was,
there was a comment made that there are, was it you Chris, that there are characteristics in
God that are both male and female characteristics. He is a nurturer.

Response: We describe Him as a He constantly.

Instructor: And consistently in both Hebrew and Greek the name, or the word for God is
masculine and so any pronoun referring to a masculine noun must be masculine. But, God
is not inherently sexual, but He has characteristic that only can be expressed through the
multiplicity of the human race. Now verse 28. I’m sorry, go ahead.

Response: I’ve also heard that it’s said that the Us in Chapter 1:26, God said let Us make
man in Our image was not specifically speaking of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity or whatever.

Instructor: Why isn’t there an emphasis on the plurality of God in the Old Testament?

Response: It was such a big deal that God is one.

Instructor: Yeah. Ah, go ahead.

Response: They were worshipping so many gods.

Instructor: Yeah, they’re in a polytheistic society. Polytheism pervades all human thinking
and if I start talking about a plurality within God I start confusing issues because I can’t
communicate plurality and unity to a polytheistic society. I have to prove that God is one,
so that when a man comes walking down the road and claims to be God I will have to say
he’s either lying or telling the truth. He’s probably lying, but I see in him, if he walks like a
duck and quacks like a duck then he is a?

Response: Duck.

Instructor: Duck. If he has all the attributes of God then he is?

Response: God.
Instructor: God. One of the proofs of the deity of Christ that I ignored for a long time, but
knew since I was a little child, folks I had a three-month attendance pin, I had a year
attendance pin when I was three months old, because I was in church every Sunday through
my gestation period and three months after my birth, but I grew up in church. My
grandmother was the church secretary and my grandfather and father were deacons. My
father-in-law is the pastor. I grew up in church. So, but, so I learned the Great Commission
when I was a little kid. “Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things that I command you, and lo I am with you always even until the end of the age.
Amen?

Response: Amen!

Instructor: And that last verse, verse 29, proves that God, you should not fly because it is
low that I am with you. Amen? Amen! You’re doing well; you’re catching it. And behold I
am with you always even to the end of the age. Jesus is claiming omnipresence in space and
time. Are you with me? He’s claiming that so I can’t say that He was a good teacher but
was not God. No, He’s claiming omnipresence in space and time. Either maniacs or God
say things like that. Are you with me here? Then folks, I have to have the unity of God
taught in the Old Testament so I shouldn’t go back to the Old Testament to find the
doctrine of the Trinity. I taught theology for years, taught in a little tiny college, 129
students when I first went there, and that means you teach everything. By the time I got
there they really specialized so I only taught Bible, Theology, Greek, Church History and
Spiritual Disciplines. But in preparing my notes on the attributes of God I began to find, I
kept looking in the New Testament for attributes of God and I can’t find it. It’s there, it’s
not absent, but that’s not where you go to find the attributes of God. If you ever get to the
point of teaching theology proper and developing notes on the attributes of God you’re
going to find most of the evidence in the Old Testament. Why is that the case, because the
Old Testament has to confirm in our minds who God is so that when Jesus comes and
claims to be God we’ll have something to judge it by.

So we have the unity of God in the Old Testament, the plurality of God in the New
Testament, so Genesis 1:26, is consistent with the concept of the Trinity but it’s probably
not teaching the Trinity. Probably it’s talking to the angelic host at this point, who are also
Elohim in the Old Testament. Then why should the human race be a plurality in unity?
Well God is a plurality in unity, but why? Because how can they multiply and fill the earth
if they’re not a plurality. How can Adam multiply and fill the earth? Adam will be forever
in frustration if there’s not a woman who corresponds to him through whom children can be
born.

© 2018 Dallas Theological Seminary