The Bible & Creation
What does the word Bible mean?
*How many books are in the Bible?
A collection of books
*73 books in the Bible. The Bible is a small library of books consisting of personal letters, poems, narratives, songs, wisdom literature, historical documents, codes of conduct, visions, love letters.
Created in God's image in likeness, we are created to share in his ability to do what three things?
*God looked at all he created and said it was good - what did he say was not good?
Love, Labor, Leisure
*For man to be alone
God sends this to Noah in remembrance of the covenant/promise saying "Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth"
Rainbow
This is the first action Noah does when coming off the Ark after the flood
Noah builds and alter & offers a sacrifice
Nimrod, a descendant of Noah's wicked son, Ham, becomes known for his quest/ambition for what?
(hint: Leads to the towel of Babel)
Power & Control
Scripture tells us the story of God's plan for salvation through his covenant promises, which all points to Jesus. All of scripture reveals what? (& what is a covenant?)
We are created for a relationship with God (God desires what is best for us & our Salvation)
(a covenant is a mutual exchange of self. God promises to give all of himself to us, and we are to give all of ourselves in return to Him)
When the serpent enters the scene, he doesn’t challenge God’s existence or even God’s authority. Instead, the serpent challenges and casts doubt on what?
God's trustworthiness
This is the only obstacle to God's mercy
Us (ourselves)
The seemingly uncontrollable spread of sin can be seen in this early narrative following the wicked like of Noah's descendants.
The Tower of Babel
God continues to build his covenant family through this descendant (son) of Noah
Shem
Exegesis is a greek term which means the proper method reading, explaining, and critically interpreting the Bible. What is the difference between Content & Context?
Content means “things contained,” while context means “woven together.” The facts and details in the Bible are the content, but the Church and the saints help us to understand how all those people, events, and details go together and work together (context) to fulfill God’s plan
Who are Adam & Eve's children (Oldest to Youngest)
Describe the difference between their two oldest son's offerings to the Lord?
Cain, Abel, Seth
Cain offered whatever was left (fruit of the ground)
Abel offered his first fruits (fatty portion of the firstlings of his flock)
When God flood the earth, we witness two things:
1. God's mercy - giving others the opportunity for repent and restore their relationship with him
2. God's Justice. Define Justice
"giving to another what is owed to them"
God wanted people to repent and change their ways. He wanted to extend his mercy. He warned his people he would flood the earth and all would perish unless they place their trust in him and get on the Ark (Noah preached this). We see God respond in his justice to those whom do not choose him.
At Babel, Ham's descendants begin constructing a tower in hopes that it will do this
Make a name for themselves
The word "Hebrew" is derived from this individual's name, who is the great grandson of Noah's faithful son, Shem.
Eber
Describe the 7 days of creation. What are writers of creation accounts telling us?
They tell us WHY God created, as opposed to how. (Created for relationship)
Days 1-3: Created Form/Environment & Structure
1: God separated the light from darkness, 2: God separated the sky from the water, 3: God separate the dry land from the vegetation
__________
Days 4-6: Creates inhabitants to fill & rule envirnoment
4: God created the sun, moon, stars, 5: God created birds & sea creatures, 6: God created animals and humans
Day 7: God rested
When Cain was angry, his countenance fell. What is another word for this? What does this teach us about sin?
"self-control" or "self-restraint"
**This led to Cain murdering his brother, showing sin's tendency to lead to more sin**
(Cain is lazy/doesn't take full responsibility of his work. He becomes jealous of Abel. He caves into his jealousy and kills his brother. Cain then lies to God and denies his duty to care for his brother.)
God saw “All flesh had corrupted their ways.. the Earth was filled with violence.” Deeply saddened by this, what did God decide to do & why?
*This depicted as a kind of "de-creation" and "re-creation", serving as a prefiguration to what later event in scripture?
God decides to start over by flooding the earth in order to preserve what is good and destroy the corruption.
*Baptism
In response to human arrogance with the Tower of Babel, God renders judgement, God takes action. What two things does God do?
God confuses their language and scatters them across the nations.
Seth's descendants call upon the name of the Lord. We see the full righteousness of Seth's line through this individual who "Walked with God & God took him" (Gen 5:24)
Enoch
In addition to content/context, understanding Scripture requires considerations of both the Literal and Spiritual senses of Scripture. What is the difference?
Literal - the meaning of the words & expressions used by writers as they were understood in their original setting, by original recipient.
Spiritual - Helps us search out what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us today, beyond even what human authors asserted (3 lens)
1. Allegorical Sense - points our focus to Jesus (builds faith)
2. Moral Sense - teaches us to act well (builds charity/virtue)
3. Anagogical Sense - leads us to our purpose, pointing our focus towards heaven (builds hope)
Describe the aftermath of what happened when Adam and Eve sinned?
They broke the original covenant with God. They lost their perfect, original holiness & original justice in which they were created.
God promised a redeemer who would restore the covenant (Protoevangelium - the first telling of the Good News - Gen 3:15)
Adam & Eve experience shame, separation from God, discord in their relationship with one another, disharmony with the created world, a loss of original holiness, and death.
The consequences of sin would be inherited by their descendants (lived & redeemed by Jesus as New Adam)
*be able to define underlined terms*
A "chiasm" is a literary pattern in which elements appear in a sequence, followed by the same sequence in reverse. What is in the middle of the Chiasm in Genesis 7 & 8 regarding the story of Noah & the Flood?
"God remembered Noah"
The scattering of Babel is overcome by the unifying power of the Holy Spirit at this event in the New Testament
Pentecost
This descendant of Cain is known to be the first man to have multiple wives and shows a vindictive, violent streak
Lamech