Treasures New and Old

Genesis: Origins

There’s A LOT to unpack in the first chapter of Genesis. Genesis means beginnings and includes the origins of many things. This year we’re going to dig into the Book of Genesis as a new series of study. Though we will not be able to get into all the nuances in all of the deep things that can be studied in Genesis, we will certainly dig into the highlights of the most important parts. Before we get into a review of the various verses, let me list some important concepts and things that Genesis unveils for us in this book of beginnings.

Some Important Concepts:

• The Principle of First Mention
• Types in Genesis: Adam: Romans 5:12-19; I Corinthians 15:21-22; 45-47. Eve as the Church: Ephesians 5:29-33; Abraham offering son Isaac: Hebrews 11:17-19; Melchizedek: Genesis 14:18; Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:6
• Myths versus Truth
• Science theory versus God’s truth (Were you there?)

What Origins Do We See in Genesis?

• Origin of the universe
• Origin of order and complexity
• Origin of the solar system
• Origin of the atmosphere and hydrosphere
• Origin of life
• Origin of species (after their kind)
• Origin of man (a unique creation)
• Origin of marriage and family
• Origin of evil, rebellion, and the curse
• Origin of language
• Origin of nations
• Origin of government
• Origin of religions
• Origin of a chosen people
• Origin of covenants (vs contracts)
• Origin of clothing, modesty (need for)
• Origin for sacrifices (need for)
• Origin of the Redeemer promise
• Origin of customs (Abraham and servant example, first born rights, etc.)
• Other origins???

Who Wrote Genesis?

• Holy Spirit inspired Moses:
  

• 2 Peter 1:21: “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
  

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God man be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” “Writing appears simultaneously some five thousand years ago in numerous places and not before – writing appears as complete with syntax, form, and purpose” (Ralph Lindon, p. 9).
  

• Christ Himself asserts that Moses wrote (under Holy Spirit inspiration) the first five books of the Bible.
  

• Luke 24:25-27: “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
  

• Luke 24:44: “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.”

Genesis Has No Less Than Ten Generations Described:

1. Genesis 2:4: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,”

2. Genesis 5:1: “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;”

3. Genesis 6:9: “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

4. Genesis 10:1: “Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.”

5. Genesis 11:10: “These are the generations of Shem: Shem was a hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood:”

6. Genesis 11:27: “Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begot Lot.”

7. Genesis 25:12: “Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptians, Sarah’s handmaid, bore unto Abraham:”

8. Genesis 25:19: “And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begot Isaac:”

9. Genesis 36:1: “Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.” And Genesis 36:9: “And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir:”

10. Genesis 37:2: “These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.”

Anticipation For the Resolution of All Things and Restoration

Why Genesis 1:1 is so Important:

• It refutes atheism
• It refutes pantheism
• It refutes polytheism
• It refutes materialism
• It refutes dualism
• It refutes humanism
• It refutes evolutionism
• It establishes God’s ownership
• It establishes God’s authority
• First glimpse of God’s sovereignty
• It establishes that God is outside of space/time – He started it all
• It establishes God’s power (bara (created: Genesis 1:1: Strong’s H1254) is create out of nothing as opposed to asah (make: Genesis 1:26: Strong’s H6213) and yatsar (form: Genesis 2:7: Strong’s H3335) which both imply materials available Hebrews 11:3; Romans 4:17)
• It is the genealogy of the universe
• It introduces us to God (Elohim): plural yet singular
• In Hebrew, we learn that Heavens are “sham” (there) and “mayim” (waters): (Strong’s H4325; Genesis 1:2) Genesis 1:1 “shamayim” (Morris, 1976, p. 40).

Old or Young Earth?

Why we hedge our numbers (a little):

• Some uncertainty of accurate copying

• Calendar year lengths (360 days vs 365 1/4 days)

• Possible missing generations in the genealogies

• Durations of reigns and birth years (when someone had a son in his thirtieth year, did he do it right after his birthday or when he was almost thirty-one?)

• Attempts by secular historical documents to collaborate the Bible record (Egypt and Babylon, for example)

• Some gaps like in the intertestamental period

• Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656); puts creation at 4004 B.C.  Many others have derived dates (in years and B.C.): Jewish – 3760; Septuagint – 5270; Josephus – 5555; Kepler – 3993; Melanchthon – 3964; Luther – 3961; Lightfoot – 3960; Hale – 5402; Playfair – 4008; Lipman – 3916 (Morris, 1976, p. 44, 45).

• In 1976, science said that man was first around 3,000,000 years ago (Morris, 1976. p. 45). Look it up on the Internet today and the oldest is all over the place with claims from 400,000 to 177,000 years old. Science simply does not know! Dating methods stink!

Genesis 1:2: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

Gap Theory Problems:

• Also called the “ruin and reconstruction theory” and the “pre-Adamic cataclysm theory” by Thomas Chalmers and popularized in the Scofield Bible Notes (Morris, 1976, p. 46).

1. We are a young race:

• • We are getting dumber
  • Languages are not as precise
  • We have more mutations in our genes each generation
  • Our mitochondria strands are getting shorter

2. Death issues during the gap

• • “World that was” (2 Peter 3:6 is a reference to the world before the flood – not the “gap”)
  • Sin entered the world by Adam (Romans 5:12, 1 Corinthians 15:21)

3. Gap implies millions of years (but the list below is evidence for a young earth)

• • Saltiness level of the oceans
  • Dust layers on the moon
  • Erosion of both air and water on rock formations
  • Moon receding from the earth a few inches a year – if billions of years old, the moon would have been part of the earth!
  • Diamonds radio carbon dating and decay rate
  • Earth’s decaying magnetic field
  • Dinosaur soft tissue and other extinct animals would be long gone in billions of years
  • Population growths of both man and animals (doubles every one hundred fifty years)
  • Geological records – tightly folded rock layers

• The importance of the Hebrew waw or vav: which can be the English equivalent of and (“and the earth . . .”)
  

• The two most misused words in verse 2
  

Without form (Strong’s H8414): “tohu to’-hoo: From an unused root meaning to lie waste; a desolation (of surface), that is, desert; figuratively a worthless thing; adverbially in vain: – confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.”

Void (Strong’s H922): “bohu bo’-hoo: From an unused root (meaning to be empty); a vacuity, that is, (superficially) an undistinguishable ruin: – emptiness, void.”

Formed (to mold something) (Strong’s H3335): yatsar yaw-tsar’: probably identical with H3334 (through the squeezing into shape); (compare H3331); to mold into a form; especially as a potter; figuratively to determine (that is, form a resolution): – X earthen, fashion, form, frame, make (-r), potter, purpose.”

• Gap theory says: “. . . earth was . . .” can also be translated “. . . earth became . . .” but in 98% of the time it is correctly translated was. This is because of the waw that starts the sentence. The waw ties the first verse to the second and, thus, eliminates a possible gap.
  

• Isaiah 45:18: “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.”
  

• Elements were created first (bara – out of nothing), and then God systematically formed (yatsar – shaped, molded, etc.) the elements into the various things we now see in the universe.
  

• Void can mean either vain or empty. On day one, was there any kind of life (inhabitants) on the earth? Could the best translation of the word be empty?
  

• Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”
  

• 2 Peter 3:4-7 (bold added):

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation [evolutionists teach uniformitarianism]. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: [implied separation of what was once all mixed together]: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

The deep (Strong’s H8415): “tehom tehom teh-home’, teh-home’: (Usually feminine) from H1949; an abyss (as a surging mass of water), especially the deep (the main sea or the subterranean water supply): – deep (place), depth.”

• Proverbs 8:23-27: “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth [referring to wisdom – see Proverbs 8:1]; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:”
  

• Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is most likely a synonym for Christ.
  

• Isaiah 40:22 (bold added): “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:”

• Job 22:14 (bold added): “Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.”
  

• Face (Genesis 1:2; Strong’s H6440) in Hebrew is paniym, and can be translated presence. Darkness was covering (face) or presence with the deep. Simply, there was yet no light. (One could also conclude that all the material sat there unmoving, all mixed up in a state of absolute zero).
  

Spirit (Strong’s H7307): “ruach: From H7306; wind; by resemblance breath, that is, a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively life . . . by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being . . .”

Moved (Strong’s H7363): “rachaph: A primitive root; to brood; by implication to be relaxed: – flutter, move, shake.” Today, a science-applied word might be “vibrated”.

• The first law of thermodynamics is a version of the law of conservation of energy adapted for thermodynamic systems. The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant. Energy and matter can be transformed from one form to another, but can be neither created nor destroyed (read that can’t disappear – will always be there in one form or another).

• Therefore, a closed system (the universe) in an absolute state (no energy) required an external source to energize it – God did by His rachaph across the deep.

• Figure 1: A diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum showing various properties across the range of frequencies and wavelengths (“Electromagnetic Spectrum.” Wikimedia Commons. The free media repository).

Maranatha!

Bro. Joe

References

“Electromagnetic Spectrum.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 19, 2025. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum.

Lindon, R. The Tree of Culture. New York: Alfred A. Knoff. 1955.

Morris, Dr. Henry M. The Genesis Record. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House. 1976.

Strong, J. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Meyers, R. (2005). e-Sword. [computer software] . Franklin, TN: Equipping Ministries Foundation. (Original work published 1539)

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