Genesis chapters 1-2

1. Genesis chapters 1-2 “tohu wabohu”

2. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3 NASB) • Formless (tohu) – a worthless thing, desert, chaos, confusion, empty place, void • Void (bohu) – an undistinguishable ruin

3. “…enemies are coming from a country far away. These enemies will shout against the cities of Judah and will surround Jerusalem like men guarding a field, because her people have rebelled against the LORD…Judah, you have brought this on yourself by the way you have lived and by the things you have done. Your sin has caused this suffering; it has stabbed you through the heart…The LORD says, ‘My people are stupid; they don’t know me. They are like foolish children; they have no understanding. They are experts at doing what is evil, but failures at doing what is good.’ I looked at the earth---it was a barren waste (“formless and void”); at the sky---there was no light. I looked at the mountains---they were shaking, and the hills were rocking back and forth. I saw that there were no people; even the birds had flown away. The fertile land had become a desert…The earth will mourn; the sky will grow dark.” (Jeremiah 4:16-18, 22-28 GNB)

4. “The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar. It will burn day and night, and smoke will rise from it forever. The land will lie waste age after age, and no one will ever travel through it again. Owls and ravens will take over the land. The LORD will make it a barren waste (‘chaos…emptiness’) again, as it was before the creation.” (Isaiah 34:9-11 GNB)

5. “There are several aspects of the Genesis narrative that indicate that, while the creation of Genesis 1:2 onwards is “good,” it is set in the context of a broader environment that is not altogether good.” • Boyd, God at War

6. tohu wabohu • “The forces that oppose [Yahweh] and his acts of creation—the forces of disorder, injustice, affliction, and chaos, which are, in the Israelite worldview, one.” • Levenson, Persistence of Evil

7. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darknesswas over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3 NASB) • chôshek: figuratively misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness

8. NET Bible footnotes • “The Hebrew word simply means ‘darkness’ but in the Bible it has come to symbolize what opposes God, such as judgment (Exodus 10:21), death (Psalm 88:13), oppression (Isaiah 9:1), the wicked (1 Samuel 2:9) and in general, sin. • “He will protect His faithful ones, but the wicked will disappear in darkness.” (1 Samuel 2:9 NLT)

9. “God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it…”; (Genesis 1:28 NASB, NKJV, ESV) • “bring it under your control” (GNB, CEV) • Subdue: “to enslave”, “to conquer”, “to sexually assault” (Esther 7:8)

10. “Then the LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it.” (Genesis 2:15 GNB)

11. “This is usually interpreted to mean that Adam was simply to till the garden -- as though protecting the garden from weeds was his greatest concern. But in light of the fact that the broader narrative suggests that the ground did not become resistant to Adam or produce things like weeds until after the rebellion, and in light of the fact that a malevolent serpent appears in the next chapter with the intent of bringing Adam and Eve’s paradise to ruin (Gen. 3:1-5), one could easily argue that Adam’s charge to “guard” the garden concerned more than weeds. He was supposed to protect Eden from malevolent forces, represented by the serpent.” • Greg Boyd, God at War

12. “But the LORD God warned him, ‘You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden —except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17 NLT) • “Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the LORD God had made…” (Genesis 3:1 GNB)

13. “Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, who fought back with his angels; but the dragon was defeated, and he and his angels were not allowed to stay in heaven any longer. The huge dragon was thrown out---that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.” (Revelation 12:7-9 GNB)

14. War • “polemos” • “polemics” – the art or practice of argumentation or controversy • “politics”

15. Gap, alternate gap theories • “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3 NASB)

17. NET Bible footnotes: • “The exegetical evidence suggests the word “day” in this chapter refers to a literal twenty-four hour day…this chapter uses “day”, “night”, “morning”, “evening”, “years”, and “seasons.” Consistency would require sorting out how all these terms could be used to express ages…Furthermore, the commandment to keep the Sabbath clearly favors this interpretation. One is to work for six days and then rest on the seventh.”

18. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3 NASB)

19. Cosmic conflict in the early Christian church • “Their utter stupidity (of the Christians) can be illustrated in any number of ways, but especially with their misreading of the divine enigmas and their insistence that there exists a being opposed to God, whom they know by the name devil (in Hebrew, Satanas…” Celsus 175-177 AD

20. “It is blasphemy to say that when the greatest God indeed wishes to confer some benefit upon men, He has a power which is opposed to Him, and so is unable to do it.” • - Celsus

22. Satan is “the prince of this world”

23. “The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the Devil had done.” (1 John 3:8) • “Jesus himself became like them and shared their human nature. He did this so that through his death he might destroy the Devil…” (Hebrews 2:4) • He came as “the light of the world” (John 8:12) “because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

24. “Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son’s blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.…” (Colossians 1:20-22 – GNB)

25. “Son of man, give the prince of Tyre this message from the Sovereign Lord: In your great pride you claim, ‘I am a god! I sit on a divine throne in the heart of the sea’…‘Son of man, weep for the king of Tyre. Give him this message from the Sovereign Lord: ‘You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone…They were given to you on the day you were created. I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire.

26. You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. Your great wealth filled you with violence, and you sinned. So I banished you from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire. Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.” (Ezekiel 28:2, 11-17 – NLT)

27. “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God's stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths. Everyone there will stare at you and ask, ‘Can this be the one who shook the earth and made the kingdoms of the world tremble? Is this the one who destroyed the world and made it into a wasteland? Is this the king who demolished the world’s greatest cities and had no mercy on his prisoners?” (Isaiah 14:12-17 – NLT)

28. “Son of the morning”, literally “shining one” or “brilliant one.” • Hebrew - “helel” which is commonly applied to the planet Venus – a “star” so bright that it can even be seen in the middle of the day. • “Morning star” or “light bearer” • Latin - “Lucifer” • “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (KJV)

30. Jesus: “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36) • Jesus referred to Satan as “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) • archōn (“prince,” “ruler”) • “the highest official in a city or a region in the Greco-Roman world.” • C. Arnold, Powers of Darkness: Principalities and Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992), 81.

31. Paul: “the god of this age” and “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2) • John: “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) and that Satan “leads the whole world astray” (Rev. 12:9; 20:3, 8)

32. “May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10 - GNB) • “Keep us safe from the Evil one.” (Matthew 6:10 – GNB)

33. “Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil's evil tricks. For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. So put on God's armor now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground.” (Ephesians 6:11-13 GNB)

35. “Wolves and sheep will live together in peace, and leopards will lie down with young goats. Calves and lion cubs will feed together, and little children will take care of them.” (Isaiah 11:6 – NLT)

36. Adam: “The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” (Genesis 3:12 – GNB) • Eve: “The snake tricked me into eating it.” (Genesis 3:13 – GNB)

37. “…if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of the others--- like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve…” (Matthew 20:27,28 – GNB) • “Let love make you serve one another. For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’” (Galatians 5:13,14 – GNB)

38. “All this will be yours, then, if you worship me.” (Luke 4:7 - GNB) • “…the Devil left Jesus…angels came and helped him.” (Matthew 4:11 – GNB) • “It forced the earth and all who live on it to worship the first beast, whose wound had healed.” (Revelation 13:12)

40. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3 NASB)

41. “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was already with God in the beginning. Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him. He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity. The light shines in the dark, and the dark has never extinguished it…This was the real light---the light that comes into the world and shines on all people. (John 1:1-5,9 GNB)

42. “The people who live in darkness will see a great light. On those who live in the dark land of death the light will shine.” (Matthew 4:16 - GNB) • “I am the light of the world,’ he said. ‘Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.’” (John 8:12 - GNB) • “While I am in the world, I am the light for the world.” (John 9:5 - GNB) • “I have come into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.” (John 12:46 – GNB)

43. “They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God…The God who said, ‘Out of darkness the light shall shine!’ is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts, to bring us the knowledge of God’s glory shining in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:4, 6 GNB)

44. “Now the message that we have heard from his Son and announce is this: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in him.” (1 John 1:5 - GNB)

45. “If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very hour. If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to sin.” (1 John 2:9,10 – GNB)