I realized something the other day that I had never picked up on before. Genesis opens up with an account of man’s creation and fall. I’ve always taken it as obvious that Moses included the story because he wanted to detail the history of Israel all the way back to creation. Additionally, however, I think Moses had a very practical reason for including the story: It served as a warning to the nation of Israel. Just as God had prepared a garden for the first humans to live in, God had also prepared the land of Canaan for the Israelites to inhabit. And just as God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because of their disobedience to God’s covenant with them, likewise God would expel the children of Israel from the land of Canaan if they disobeyed the covenant God had made with them. Adam and Eve’s experience served as a literary and historical example for Israel to learn from, lest they experience the same fate in Canaan.
September 28, 2010
Thinking to Believe 
September 28, 2010 at 9:12 am
Excellent thoughts. I love Genesis. It is one of my favorite books of the Bible although I love them all. Even berith/covenant was both a Hebrew and Near Eastern concept as well. Something Canaanites would have done just as Hebrews.
I think of it this way too, Genesis is strategic in the understanding of Biblical anthropology. It should be taught more so that we can better understand ourselves.
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September 29, 2010 at 7:38 am
Yes. I believe that is absolutely right and Moses drops hints of this along the way. I noticed this just the other day, and I think you will like it: in Genesis 13:10, when Abraham and Lot separate, it is noted that the Jordan Valley is “like the garden of the Lord.” Incidental? No. The Land that Abraham is promised will someday be possessed by his descendants is compared explicitly to the garden of Eden/garden of the Lord of Genesis 2.
I think this is also seen in the years of rest/jubilee intended to be given to the land every so many years in the Law. The Land was to be treated as a garden, not abused or overworked.
Wow. Good stuff.
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September 29, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Good insight, Chad. Right now I’m reading John Sailhamer’s “The Meaning of the Pentateuch.” I’m only 1/2 way through, but it is a tremendous book. I’ll never read the Pentateuch the same again. I’ve never seen how the various parts of the Pentateuch relate, and the compositional seams. Now I do. But anyway, he points out a lot of these kind of parallels. For example, Adam and Eve eat of the fruit of the tree and recognize their nakedness; Noah drinks the wine from the orchard he planted and uncovers his nakedness. He points out the strikingly similar verbal and thematic parallel betwen God’s call of Noah out of the ark (Gen 8:15-20) and God’s call of Abraham out of Ur (Gen 12:1-7). Both Noah and Abraham represent new beginnings in the course of history, and both are marked by God’s promise of blessing and a new covenant. In the creation, God separates the land from the water, but in the flood God merges the two back together. Both events were followed by the command to be fruitful and multiply (re-creation).
Jason
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