Genesis | Knowable Word

The Trick of Observing Genre

October 4, 2013 By Peter Krol

Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart wrote, “There is a real difference between a psalm, on the one hand, and an epistle on the other. Our concern is to help the reader to read and study the psalms as poems, and the epistles as letters…These differences are vital and should affect both the way one reads them and how one is to understand their message for today.”[1] Since genre influences our entire approach to a text, Fee and Stuart’s bestselling book on Bible interpretation focuses there. Make sure to observe genre.

Genre is normally simple in its identification. The two primary genres are poetry and prose; every text fits in one of those two categories. Within prose, we find narrative, law, letters, and apocalyptic literature (symbolic visions). Within poetry, we find psalms, songs, and proverbs. Some genres, like prophecies and wisdom literature, are written in either poetry or prose (for example, see Ecclesiastes and Ezekiel, which frequently alternate). In addition, the Bible has many sub-genres like speeches, genealogies, parables, dialogue, fables, diatribes, instructions, and epics.

Genre is also complex in its ramifications. Once we identify the genre, the real trick is to read it accurately. For example, consider the moment of Jesus’ birth. Luke says it occurred outside of hospital or inn and that it captured the attention of only a few shepherds (Luke 2:6-16), but Revelation says there were great signs in the heavens and a cosmic conflict with a devouring dragon (Rev 12:1-6). The differing genres of these two books help us to make sense of the differing accounts.

Since I can’t cover all the ramifications of genre in this short post, I commend Fee and Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth for further study. I’ll simply illustrate observation of genre with Genesis 1:1-2:3 (which I’ll call simply “Genesis 1”).

The primary observation is straightforward: This text, like most of Genesis, presents itself as historical narrative. The author reports events through the use of characters, setting, plot, climax, and resolution. He tells a story with a setting and a matter-of-fact style (“God said…God created…It was so.”). Thus Genesis 1, like all biblical narratives, tells a story of true events.

Now many interpretations of Genesis 1 hinge on the observation of genre. Some interpreters use Genesis 1 to explain Christianity’s compatibility with scientific evidence of origins. Others observe that Genesis 1 isn’t a science textbook. Either way, the argument is basically centered on the text’s genre.

Because Genesis 1 was written in the genre of historical narrative, we can conclude the narrator believed the act of creation really happened. Though Genesis 1 speaks of seemingly implausible things like light (Gen 1:3) without a sun (Gen 1:14-15), plants (Gen 1:11) without pollinating insects (Gen 1:24), a good-but-initially-unfinished earth (Gen 1:2), and an eternal, almighty God whose words held it together (Gen 1:1, 3, 6, etc.), the author presents them all as neither fable nor fairy tale.

However, we must not read historical narratives too strictly. Sometimes the chronology is all mixed up (for example, compare the order of events in the four Gospels). Biblical narratives are beautifully written and intentionally structured because every narrator has an agenda, and that agenda is more important than anything.

But that agenda doesn’t contradict the narrative’s factuality.

Many biblical witnesses confirm the factuality of Genesis 1. Moses thought this act of creation really happened (Ex 20:11). So did Isaiah (Is 42:5, 45:18). So did Jonah (Jonah 1:9), Nehemiah (Neh 9:6), Paul (2 Cor 4:6), and Peter (2 Pet 3:5). So did Jesus (Mark 10:6).

Thus, as we read Genesis 1, we must avoid either pushing the details too far or ignoring their historicity altogether. Observing the narrative genre prepares us for this task.

[1] How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Zondervan, 2009 (Kindle Locations 204-206). Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, so if you click it and buy stuff you’ll support the site at no extra cost to yourself.

Genesis Overview

September 27, 2013 By Peter Krol

Last week I explained how to do an overview of a Bible book. Let’s say you’d like to study the book of Genesis. You might begin with the following overview.

Author. Though Christians commonly teach that Moses wrote Genesis, the Bible doesn’t explicitly attribute Genesis to Moses. However, since biblical authors universally treat the first five books of the Bible as “the Book of the Law of Moses” (Josh 23:6, Neh 8:1), we are justified in doing the same. Whether Moses penned the words of Genesis or not, he certainly saw fit to include the book in his collection of laws for Israel.

Audience. According to the ESV Study Bible, “it is reasonable to consider the first audience of the Pentateuch [Genesis through Deuteronomy] to be Israel in the wilderness (either the generation that left Egypt or their children).”[1]

Occasion and Purpose. After reading the book a few times, we can recognize significant themes. To understand the book’s purpose, we take the major themes and ask why this author wrote these things to this audience at this time. For Genesis, I agree with the ESV Study Bible’s assessment that “the theme of Genesis is creation, sin, and re-creation,” involving both “how God created the world” and “the call of Abraham.”[2] When we ask why Moses would give this book to these people at this time, we can identify the book’s purpose as follows: to establish Israel’s national identity by explaining the history of God’s creation and his promises to Abraham and his offspring.

Note that a book’s purpose is similar to its main point. The difference is that the “purpose” is closely tied to the original audience, while the “main point” may be more timeless. I’d state the main point of Genesis like this: to establish the identity of all God’s people by explaining the history of God’s creation and his promises to Abraham and his offspring.

Structure. Genesis 1:1-2:3 opens the book by introducing God, his creative power, and his gracious delegation of authority to humanity. The book then proceeds in two main sections: Early history (Gen 2-11) and the history of Israel’s forefathers (Gen 12-50). Furthermore, the book is structured by ten “These are the generations” statements (Gen 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:11, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 37:2), which outline cycles of creation-fall-redemption-new creation. Humanity repeatedly fails to submit to God’s gracious rule, and God begins again with new generations.

[1] Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008, p.40.

[2] p.41.

Jesus is Your Resume

April 23, 2013 By Peter Krol

This is a guest post by my friend and co-worker Dan Miller, who has a video blog at Video Verses. You can follow him on Facebook.

As a Christian, the best work you’ll ever do for God’s kingdom is believe in the work of Jesus.

Do you agree with that? Or do you work under the assumption that child-like faith in Jesus is a good thing…but it belongs on your résumé somewhere below the great number of people you’ve managed?

If that is what your résumé looks like, Jesus is not hiring.

That’s been His policy all along, and yet there’s hope. Just look at the Bible’s most capable manager.

Joseph. A man who, no matter what life threw at him, seemed unstoppable. Sold into slavery as a teenager in a foreign land, he rose to manage the estate of a powerful man. Then after being framed and losing everything, he rose from “neglected prisoner” to “essentially the most powerful man in Egypt.” His rise came during a devastating time: a famine that could have leveled the entire world.

Fortunately for the world, Joseph was the right man for the job.

Joseph led Egypt to store their abundance before the famine hit, so they could feed themselves, the nations, and the world. Including the brothers who were so unkind to him and the person who had framed him.

In a nutshell, Joseph rose from convict to savior of the world. How would you like that on your résumé?

Now, stop planning your financial future for a moment, and consider Hebrews 11, the “who’s who” of the Old Testament. To no one’s surprise, Joseph made it in there. What do you think was on his résumé?

By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:22, ESV)

That’s it?

Yes. According to the writer of Hebrews, this is the most important thing to know about Joseph’s life’s work. Back in Genesis 12, God made a promise to Joseph’s great-grandpa Abraham. This promise continued through the line, but as awesome as Joseph’s life was, the promise didn’t come true during his lifetime. Rather than questioning God and dying a bitter old man, Joseph believed God. He believed so strongly, in fact, that he denied himself a prominent burial, instead saying, “Descendents, take my bones to the Promised Land yourself.” About 500 years later, they did.

God always keeps His promises.

But God had a bigger, better promise, and the name of that promise is Jesus. In John 3:16, Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me will not perish, but have eternal life.” The real goal for God’s people was not land acquisition, but restoration to the holy God who made us, whom we betrayed. This restoration came totally through Jesus, who is alive and well, interceding for us despite our best efforts to stop Him. He has given us new life and a glorious new mission – to proclaim HIS name. He’s also given us the strength for the mission.

That’s the point: your belief in Jesus’ work is the greatest work you will ever offer the world. In other words, it’s not just at the top of your résumé, it is your résumé.

So as you live the rest of your life, remember that faith in Jesus is your greatest weapon, and your greatest danger is faith in anything else.

Why Study a Book like Genesis?

March 6, 2013 By Peter Krol

The elders of our church just finished a year-and-a-half-long sermon series through the book of Genesis, and I had the privilege of preaching the last sermon.

I titled this final sermon “Why Did We Preach Through Genesis?” and I gave 3 answers:

To build your confidence in the Bible
To build your confidence in the Basics (how to love God, love your neighbor, and make disciples)
To build your confidence in Jesus

Have you doubted whether old books like Genesis are useful to us? Have you wondered what is the main point of Genesis? Would you like to understand better how Genesis teaches us about Jesus?

You might enjoy the sermon. Check it out!

Difficult texts: Genesis 6:1-4

October 27, 2012 By Tom Hallman

When you’re reading through Genesis, you run into some strange things. Talking snakes (Gen 3:1), twins wrestling in the womb to see who comes out first (Gen 38:28-30), and… some kind of mixed-world marriage that results in superhero children…?

[1] When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, [2] the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. [3] Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” [4] The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (Genesis 6:1-4 ESV)

I’ll reveal my cards early: I don’t think this passage is talking about angels marrying people, as is sometimes suggested. (Though City of Angels is a fun flick.)

So what’s really going on?

I think what usually trips people up here is that this passage comes right off the genealogy in Genesis 5. For many of us, when we hit a genealogy, our eyes glaze over and our brain only resets once we get back to the narrative. However, genealogies serve just as important a role as anything else in the narrative. They move the story forward over generations, but it’s still the same story. So, let’s go back even a little further to Genesis 4:

[17] Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. [18] To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. . . . [25] And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” [26] To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD. (Genesis 4:17-18, 25-26 ESV)

These are some of the last verses just before the Genesis 5 genealogy and our Genesis 6 text. In other words, the author of Genesis wants us to notice the two separate lines forming here: the wicked line of Cain and the godly line of Seth. In between Seth fathering Enosh and the Genesis 5 genealogy, the author notes that “people began to call upon the name of the LORD.”

With that in mind, the meaning of those verses in Genesis 6 becomes clear: the sons of God are from Seth’s godly line while the daughters of men are from Cain’s wicked line. Sadly, the theme of the “godly” seeing something “attractive” and therefore taking it shows up here just as it did when Eve saw and took the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3. (Clearly not all that appears beautiful is good!) This time the death that results from this foolish attraction is far more widespread: the Flood.

(After composing the bulk of this blog entry, my fellow Knowable Word author Peter noted to me that R.C. Sproul, Jr. just covered this text not long ago. The good news is that we agree on the interpretation! So if you’d like to read more about this passage, check out his blog.)

The Greatest Enemy of Observation is Familiarity

August 30, 2012 By Peter Krol

The first step of our Bible study method is Observation. Before we’ve even crossed the line of scrimmage, however, familiarity is right there to knock us down. When we think we know something, we stop paying attention to it.

For example, how many stairs are there in your house? What color are your father’s eyes? What is your license plate number? Name three left-handed people in your acquaintance.

As Sherlock Holmes says to Dr. Watson in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “You see, but you do not observe.”

Let me give an example. I recently taught on Genesis 31, the story where Jacob runs away from Laban without telling him. My initial thought was, “I know what happens. Why does the story have to take up 55 verses, and how am I going to teach on it?”

So I dug deeper. I stared at the text and kept reading it over and over. Things started popping out.

For example, I observed that every other verse in Gen 31:4-16 makes reference to God. Up until now, Jacob hasn’t really mentioned God a whole lot.

Then I observed that the narrator calls Laban “the Aramean” (Gen 31:20, 24). That’s funny, because he used to call him Jacob’s “mother’s brother” (for example, see Gen 29:10 where he’s called that 3 times). So the narrator doesn’t consider Laban family anymore….

Then I observed that Laban calls God to witness their agreement (Gen 31:53), but do you see which god it is? “The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” The true God called Abraham to leave the household (and gods) of his fathers (Gen 12:1). Jacob knows this, but Laban doesn’t get it. Jacob swears by the true God, the Fear of his father Isaac (Gen 31:53).

I could go on. My point is not that any single observation is the silver bullet that unlocks a Bible passage. Instead, I’m suggesting that the way forward is always to keep observing. We must be willing to stare at a text until we don’t just see, but we observe.

I’ll give one more big example. One of the most famous passages in the whole Bible is 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. It’s the great Love Chapter. We’re so familiar with it, though, that we generally miss the point.

Read it again, one verse at a time, and ask yourself, “what is he saying here?” Observe carefully, and I think you’ll see that it’s neither romantic nor encouraging. It’s actually a stinging rebuke directed toward those who don’t know how to love their neighbor.

Let’s not just see. Let’s observe.

Difficult texts: Genesis 3:16

July 3, 2012 By Tom Hallman

So there you are, emotionally reading through Genesis 3…

You boo as the serpent comes on the scene, eager to destroy God’s good creation. You cry out to the woman to not listen to him! You cringe as she takes that terrible, terrible bite of the forbidden fruit. You tremble with the first two humans as they try to hide from God as He approaches. You hang your head with them as God questions what they’ve done. For a moment, you feel immense joy and cheer as God pronounces the curses on the serpent and makes the first promise of a coming Messiah (Genesis 3:15). But then something strange happens…

To the woman [God] said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;

in pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be for your husband,

and he shall rule over you.“

(Genesis 3:16 ESV, emphasis mine)

You mourn but nod as you understand the reasoning for childbirth being painful. But then suddenly God seems to say, “And now for the worst part… woman, you’re gonna desire your husband!”

Ummmm… right.

Thankfully, you’re a faithful Knowable Word reader, and you’ve just got done looking at the difficult text of Colossians 1:24. There you saw that even though Paul’s words were initially tricky to understand, you could look at another passage of Scripture (Philippians 2:25-30) that used the same words to help determine Paul’s meaning back in the Colossians passage. So you wonder, “Could a similar technique be used to clear up this odd verse?”

I’m glad you asked.

In this case, you only need to read a short distance further, to Genesis 4:

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:1-7 ESV, emphasis mine)

Note God’s warning to Cain (which he doesn’t heed). He portrays sin as a predator crouching just outside Cain’s door. It desires him, all right, but not in the way a man desire a woman or vice-versa. Rather, this desire is more like the way that a lion desires a sheep. God is telling Cain that despite the ferocity of that predator, Cain must rule over it. The image here is of a lion tamer – at any moment, he is mere moments from catastrophe, yet he commands authority and the beast is subdued. Cain had that very option before him, but he did not “do well”.

So, with that lesson in mind, let’s return to Genesis 3:16. When God tells the woman that her “desire shall be for [her] husband, and he shall rule over [her]”, He isn’t saying that her curse is romantic desire for her husband, but rather that she will find herself, like the predator at Cain’s door, ready to “attack” or “master” her husband, but instead he will rule over her.

Now, that interpretation itself needs further interpretation, and indeed there are a number of views on what that means practically. I think the simplest conclusion is this: the husband and wife in the garden, as well as today, tend to enter power struggles with each selfishly seeking to rule the other. Thankfully, the Scriptures also point us to hope in Christ, the perfect husband who rightfully rules over us, His bride, but doesn’t do so in a harsh or condescending manner; rather, He is the Husband who laid down His life for us, taking on Himself the full punishment that we deserved. Sin was crouching at our door, yet He was the one who went out to do battle with the beast in our place. What sacrificial love!

For further reading on the right role and role model for husbands and wives, consider Ephesians 5:21-32. God is far from silent on the topic of marriage, and He deeply desires that we know Him – and our spouses – still more through His knowable Word.

« Previous Page