Genesis Framework Part 2

Genesis Framework

GF 02 Genesis 1.1
July 5, 2015
Part 02

Scripture

Genesis 1.1

How are you doing with Proverbs 8.1-36?

NKJ Genesis 1.1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Over the next couple of weeks I intend to demonstrate that the Genesis 1.1 account was the beginning point of origin for all things, visible and invisible.

NKJ Colossians 1:16
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

We will be looking at several lines of evidence which will confirm the interpretation of the “heavens” of Genesis 1.1 as the invisible heavens.

This statement of the creation work of God of Gen. 1.1

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

is not to be interpreted as a heading that summarizes the creation process narrated in verses 2 and following, since that subsequent process does not include the production of the invisible heavens.

A correct interpretation of Genesis 1.1 will affirm that this “beginning” time is the witness to the origins of the cosmos as a whole, visible and invisible, and that the absolute act of origination is creation ex nihilo, without a context of prior created reality.

We will also see that Proverbs 8 which you have been studying, gives us an interpretation of the “beginning” in Genesis 1.1 as a time prior to the developments described in verse 2 and following.

Then, from this “earth” of verses 1 and 2, God eventually derives not only the land and seas, but the visible heavens.

Before we begin with the heavy stuff (next week), we really must prepare ourselves for the “culture shock” of moving from a message series that primarily had us in the Greek New Testament, to a series primarily based in the Hebrew Old Testament.

Sometimes we forget the fact that our minds have been thoroughly trained to mentally process biblical information from the perspective view of western thinking, and that the Old Testament Scriptures are written from an entirely eastern perspective; that is, an ancient Hebrew thinking perspective.

We must exercise spiritual discernment while engaged in the thinking processes of interpreting Scripture, keeping in mind that the authors of the Old Testament biblical text are writing from within their culture to those of the same culture.

So, in order to fully understand the text we must have a working familiarity with the culture and the thought processes of the ancient Hebrew people. Notice that I made the specific distinction, the “ancient” Hebrew people, rather than simply refer to the Hebrew people in general. Why? Because our modern translations of the ancient Hebrew text have already been passed through a “western filter” and all the vocabulary of the ancient Hebrews has been converted into a vocabulary compatible to our modern western language.

How extensive is the impact of this kind of conversion? It is actually radically extensive, so that it can honestly be said that there is a whole other resource of revelation waiting for us to discover that is able to enhance, not replace; and to clarify, not substitute, our present understanding of God’s Word from the Old Testament Scriptures, if we trust the Lord to help
us understand His text as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of the ancient Hebrews who penned the words of the Bible by means of the gracious inspiration of the Holy Spirit working through them.

Let me give you a few examples of what I’m talking about.

(Q) What actually constitutes the notion of “western thought”?

(A) Western thought is Hellenized thought, a way of viewing the world and thinking about things that is directly related to the Greek culture.

All human beings think by using words; words are the instrumental means of all mental thought processing. Greek thought characteristically views the world through the mind, mainly by using abstract words as the stuff which is used to “think things out.”

(Q) So, what actually are abstract words?

We have been talking about and referring to the notions of abstract and concrete words for some time now, but the time has come for us to make sure that we all know exactly what those terms mean, and clearly comprehend how they affect our understanding of the Scriptures.

(A) Abstract words are the representative terms we use to inform our western thinking process.

They express concepts and ideas in terms of words which themselves cannot be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, or heard; that is, ideas that cannot be experienced directly through human physical senses. Abstract words are names for intangible things, like ideas, ideals, states of emotional and physical being, concepts and qualities.

Examples…

ability reality need movement
thought
defeat poverty
forgiveness principle
faith
redemption law
comfort freedom
death eternal
justice compassion
wisdom
victory grace mercy
peace
anger
imagination
idea
love
truth
glory
life
belief
wealth knowledge

Abstract words may be thought of as high-level words, names and terms. They have high-level status because they are
representative of a large variety of other words, names and terms.

The function of a single abstract word is like that of a one word title for a book. While the title itself does not directly speak to our senses, the contents of the book consist of many concrete words which represent tangible things, and these kinds of words help us experience their meaning by appealing to our senses.

a blue book with the word grace written on the cover

The book will also contain other abstract words, which in turn function as the titles for other books that are also constituent parts of our main book.

image of text

Is this content complete?

So abstract words are generally “comprehensive” terms, words that represent a subset collection consisting of an combination of concrete and abstract words which, in turn, represent more specific thoughts, ideas, concepts, and meanings. All of these aspects work together to inform our thinking, to give criteria to our evaluations, and our choices, and to help us make decisions and to take certain actions. Whether we realize it or not, we live in a very “thinking” and “learning” kind of culture. Life is not always simple and straight forward; we have to learn what “grace” means, both in concept and by experience.

In contrast, ancient Hebrew thought views the world mainly through the senses by using concrete words in the process of thinking things through.

(Q) So, what are concrete words?

(A) Concrete words are representative terms used to inform the concrete thinking process, and to express concepts and ideas in ways that can be experienced first-hand; things seen, touched, smelled, tasted, or heard; that is, ideas that can be experienced through the senses.

Concrete words put us closely “in touch” and “in contact” with the world around us.

Concrete words function as representive “physical sensors” that help inform our thinking.

Examples…

tent    tree   ox   water
wall   dust
nose   blood   flower
  sky   grass   head   line
  bitter
thorns   law
  rain   freedom
seed   eye
  hand   fruit
daughter   stink   wind   cold
spice
  marker   doorway   sweet    sunset
dry   stars
  grave    horizon
sheep   staff
  yoke   man
smoke   foot   basket
  tent   knife   peg
lion   mouth
mountain

plus the whole lot of prepositional words.

(Q) So, is western thinking bad and is eastern thinking good?

(A) No. They are simply different ways of thinking. So when abstract and concrete words are used together, they function cooperatively; and if their distinctions are maintained so as to not contribute to confusion, the combined types of thinking make it possible for us to engage Scripture in the most effective way possible.

The Old and New Testament Word is a marvelous combination of western and eastern communication and thinking, abstract and concrete.

While we are inclined to think of most of the concrete objects spoken of in the Bible as things that are static, that is, relatively motionless; the ancient Hebrew mind comprehends each concrete word as in some way dynamic, that is, as functionally being in motion.

The idea of action nouns is not strange to other languages, but ancient Hebrew happens to abound in them.

(Q) How is it that ancient Hebrew nouns are so active?

(A) This language phenomenon stems from the fact that ancient Hebrew thought describes objects in relation to their function, in contrast to Greek thought which describes objects in relation to their appearance.

Since we are the products of a western culture, we are inclined to think of the concrete words in the previous list in terms descriptive of their appearance, and not in terms of their function.

For example…

mountain

What could be more fixed, static, or stationary than a mountain, at least from our western way of thinking about and describing concrete objects?

(Q) How could the ancient Hebrew mind think of the noun “mountain” as an object that functions actively, apart from the possibility of it being an active volcano?

(A) In our modern western language verbs express action (dynamic) while nouns express inanimate objects as (static).

In ancient Hebrew all things are in motion (dynamic) including verbs and inanimate nouns.

In Hebrew, words consist of basic combinations of particular letter-character sets, called roots, which are used to indicate both the verb and the noun functions for a given root word. The verb function identifies the action of an object. The noun function identifies an object of the action. The object and the action, the noun and the verb, have a close affinity relationship with one another.

English example: google

Since we are eventually going to be doing a lot of thinking and learning about the biblical functions of “mountains” used in the Scriptures, we’ll use this word as an example now.

A mountain or a hill is a concrete object that is comprehended by simply observing its top. While it may surprise you, “a mountain” is not a static object to the Hebrew way of thinking, but it is the “head lifting up out of the landscape”. And “a mountain top” is not a static object to the Hebrew way of thinking, but it is the “head lifting up out of the hill”. That kind of talk doesn’t particularly make sense in our way of thinking, yet we will be able to see how the Hebrew word for mountain and hill relates to reality by examining the ancient Hebrew pictographic of the word “mountain.”

har

Ancient Hebrew English Modern Hebrew

har

This is a figure representing a man standing with his hands raised out.

The original and the modern Hebrew name for this letter is “hey”, which means “to behold”, as when looking at a great sight.

This word can also mean “breath” (noun) or “sigh” (noun) as one does when looking at a great sight; “to look” (verb), “to reveal” (verb), “revelation” (noun) from the idea of revealing a great sight by pointing it out.

This letter also commonly functions as a definite article, by functioning as a pointer that indicates something important within the sentence.

So putting the two characters together results in the following profile:

Action (verb): to rise high

Concrete Object (noun): a mountain

The mountain is not inanimate, but the head of the landscape rising up out of the ground.

Notice: that basic Hebrew words are called “roots” because each root can blossom forth( function) as a verb, a participle, a noun; or on occasion, even an abstract noun.

Hebrew root words also have a familial relationship with one another.

Mountain (har) is a 2 letter parent root word. an X with a gift box beside it Hebrew for Hill or Mountain

In the Hebrew concept of language, 2 letter “parent” words have 3 letter derivatives which are formed from the letters of the parent root.

These derivatives are interestingly referred to as “child” root words.

Also there is actually a systemic provision within the language made for producing as many as 12 structural variants of “child” root words in order to organizationally generate a full range of family-related meanings from the parent root.

Plus there is a provision for generating “adopted” roots that allow for more specific words in the family for expressing finely differentiated precision.

Hebrew has never been a “random” language, and should never be thought of as a so-called “primitive” language.

Let me quick show you a couple of “child” derivatives of this “parent” root word har an X with a gift box beside it Hebrew for Hill or Mountain

ha-rah

to conceive, pregnant

Action (verb): to conceive

Concrete Object (noun): pregnant

(Q) So what is the connection to a hill?

(A) A belly on the rise, as a mound lifting its head.

Here’s an example…

NKJ Genesis 16:11

And the Angel of the LORD said to her: "Behold, you are with child, pregnant And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction. action noun

a mountainous woman

ye-har proud

the action of producing something by the function of the arm or hand of a man

Action (verb):

Concrete Object (noun):

Abstract (noun): proud, as in one who has lifted himself( his head) high by the action of his own arm( strength)

a solid bloack circle and a little black with a white cross on the side of it Hebrew for grace cheyn grace

a wall section of the nomad tent

a solid black circle a seed sprout denoting continuation

a solid bloack circle and a little black with a white cross on the side of it “the wall continues”

A nomads’ camp consisted of many family tents, which make up the clan camp (under the banner). The camp can have as many as 50 tents or more in it.

Whenever a clan became threatened by a hostile enemy intruder from the outside world, the camp would respond by placing the tents in a tight circular configuration so as to present only the backside wall of each tent facing toward the outside, thus creating a protective, continuous wall of safety surrounding the entire camp.

a solid bloack circle and a little black with a white cross on the side of it “the wall continues”

Within this wall is the family clan, and a place where freedom, compassion, grace and beauty are realized by anyone who is within it, whether the undeserving child or the stranger who has contributed nothing to building of the camp, they are thereby shown the beauty of unmerited grace and mercy by all the others in the camp.

a solid bloack circle and a little black with a white cross on the side of it “the wall continues”

grace, mercy, beauty

Grace is a beautiful place where God’s children live.

Many will be surprised on the Day of Judgment when they discover that it was just as the Word of God says; only the righteousness of Christ is able to save you.All men are sinners and no one can save himself. God is just, so He must punish sin; but He is also merciful, moreover gracious, and offers His Son as the perfect sacrifice in order to purchase a place for you in heaven, which He offers to you as the free gift of eternal life.

Jesus is God Incarnate

In order to pay the debt of our sins, He came from Heaven, having been sent by the Father, where He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father even unto the shameful death upon the cross in order to pay the debt of your sins.This gift must be received by faith, believing that Jesus’ perfect life and Cross Work was His complete and necessary Atonement for your sins, in your behalf.Faith is a gift that comes by the Power of God the Holy Spirit working in a person’s innermost being. The Holy Spirit has the authority and power to quicken your dead spirit, to make it come to life. If you have not done so before this moment, ask Jesus to forgive you your sins, tell Him you’ve stop trying to be your own savior, and ask Him to come into your life right now, and to give you eternal life. Then, in faith believing, thank Him for the gift that He is giving you, the one He paid for in full in your place, in Jesus’ name,AMEN

Bibliography

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Aland, Kurt, Matthew Black, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger, and Allen Wikgren (eds.). The Greek New Testament, 4th rev. ed. Germany: Biblica-Druck, 1994.
Benner, Jeff A. The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible. College Station, Texas: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., 2005
Bullinger, E. W. Figures of Speech Used in the Bible; Explained an Illustrated. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 2007.
Chapman, Benjamin. Greek New Testament Insert. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1977.
Dana, H. E., and Julius R. Mantey. A Manual of the New Testament. Canada: The Macmillan Company, 1957.
Louw, Johannes P. and Eugene A. Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. New York, NY: United Bible Societies, 1989.
The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2011.
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Wikipedia contributors. "Xenophon." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Aug. 2014.
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Wuest, Kenneth S. (Revised, Donald L. Wise). The Practical Use of the Greek New Testament, rev. ed. Chicago, Il: Moody Press, 1982.
Walsh, J. Martyn and Anna Kathleen Walsh. Plain English Handbook: A Complete Guide to Good English, 7th rev. ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: McCormick-Mathers PublishingCompany,1977.