On Genesis, Part 1: The Creation Account through Christian Eyes
On Genesis, Part 1: The Creation Account through Christian Eyes
Here we are going to venture a commentary on the Book of Genesis, which, Yahweh God be willing, shall certainly require many months to complete. Some years ago we did a series of discussions here titled Pragmatic Genesis, and we may draw on some of that, or at least repeat ourselves somewhat because our opinions have not changed. So for that same reason, I will probably also repeat things which I have presented in other papers as well, and even some things of which Clifton Emahiser had also written. But most of our past work in Genesis was written only for the purpose of refuting certain heresies which are found in either Christian Identity circles or in the denominational churches. While perhaps I may mention some of those heresies as we progress through the chapters of Genesis here, I will try not to dwell on any of them at length, so as to be a distraction.
Some years ago I also wrote a paper titled On Biblical Exegesis. There I asserted that in order to understand the Old Testament, and Genesis especially, one can only do so through the lens of New Testament understanding, allegorically speaking. In other words, one can only understand Genesis through an understanding of the words of Christ both in the Gospel and in the Revelation. That is primarily because Genesis is not a complete history of what is popularly perceived as the “world”, nor does it offer a complete understanding of the state of the “world” when the Adamic man was created. This is first evident in the words of Matthew in chapter 13 of his Gospel where, after having recorded some of the parables of Christ, he wrote: “34 All these things Yahshua had spoken in parables to the crowds, and without a parable He spoke nothing to them, 35 that that which was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying: ‘I shall open My mouth in parables; I shall bellow things kept secret from the foundation of Society!’” The apostle was citing the 78th Psalm, but we shall see that this is also evident in subsequent chapters of Genesis itself.