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Genesis 1: Creation of a Cosmic Temple

12/10/2018

2 Comments

 
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Did God create the universe in 6 literal 24-hour days? That controversial question has divided churches and derailed journeys toward Jesus. It has become the litmus test to measure whether you believe the Bible is true for Answers in Genesis—creators of the Creation Museum and Noah’s ark in the Ohio river valley. Bible readers have combed through the language and structure of Genesis 1 to devise and defend their position. But before you decide on the right answer, is it even the right question?

​If you respect the author of a text, you will take the time to understand the author’s reason for writing the text. Before dragging it into your world of concerns, you must get into what concerned the author. The point being made in a text might not match your reason for reading it. But still we force authors to answer questions they didn’t have. That is precisely the problem for so many disrespectful readings of Genesis 1.

We want to know when the universe was created. We want to know how long it took. But what if we are missing the point? What if we are asking questions of the text that the author did not care to answer? To be respectful of the author, we must first explore why the writer wrote the short creation epic before we can figure out what questions the text answers.
​Structure Reveals Purpose

The short creation epic of Genesis 1 is structured around 6 days of creating and 1 day of divine rest. The 7-day sequence from Genesis 1:1-2:3 gives us a big hint about the author’s reason for recording God’s creative activity. The point wasn’t to communicate a chronological timeline but rather to reveal the theological purpose behind the world humanity inhabits.

You might think we shouldn’t make too much out of the sevenfold structure of the creation epic. But the literary structure tells us otherwise. As Gordon J. Wenham observes in his commentary on Genesis 1-15, the entire passage is packed full of sevenfold language. Genesis 1:1 has seven words. Genesis 1:2 has 14 words (7x2). References to the earth and heavens/firmament appear 21 times each (7x3), God’s name appears 35 times (7x5), and the climactic phrase “God saw that it was good” appears 7 times. So an informed Hebrew reader is told at every turn to pay attention to the sevenfold (or heptadic) structure.

But we can’t just take the number 7 and start guessing about its generic meanings of perfection, wholeness, or completeness. We need to combine this dominant numerical structure with the story’s specific content.
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In the Ancient Near East, we have many other stories about 7-day construction projects. Those stories are about building temples. The parallel biblical accounts are the 7-day consecration of the Tabernacle in Exodus 39-40 and the 7-year construction of Jerusalem’s temple under king Solomon (see 1 Kings 6:38). Outside the Bible, the Sumerian Gudea Cylinders recount the construction of a Temple that ended in a 7-day consecration ceremony (Gudea Cylinder B xvii 18-19). All these temple building projects include divine instructions and blessings just like the creation epic of genesis 1:1-2:3.

What do the structural parallels between the creation epic and temple-building tell us about Genesis 1? God wasn’t just building a universe. He was building a place to dwell. He walked around the garden of Eden in Genesis 2 just like he walked around (Hebrew hlk) the Tabernacle and Temple. And the people in all those divine dwellings were placed there to worship him.
Buy this book to explore the background of Genesis One
The Cosmic Temple

The instructions given to Adam in the Garden after the world (or cosmic Temple) is created are to work (Hebrew šmr) and to keep (Hebrew ‘bd) the land. As Jeff Morrow observed in “Creation as Temple-Building and Work as Liturgy in Genesis 1-3”, “šmr and ‘bd only occur together again in the Pentateuch in the descriptions in Numbers for the Levites’ activities in the tabernacle.” The Levites were appointed to serve God in the Temple. Their role was to help people worship the one true God. Adam’s instructions were the same. Humanity’s purpose is to worship God in the place where God dwells.​

The structural and grammatical pointers lead Scott Hahn to define humanity as Homo liturgicus—we are beings for worship (Scott W. Hahn, “Worship in the Word: Toward a Liturgical Hermeneutic,” Letter & Spirit 1 [2005]: 106). We were created to honor God in the cosmic Temple he built. Prophets like Ezekiel associated the Temple with creation (Ezekiel 28), and non-canonical Jewish writings like Sirach (Sirach 24) made the same connection. Jesus himself referred to Jerusalem’s Temple as “heaven and earth” just like the prophet Isaiah score him (Isaiah 65:17-18). The Tabernacle and Temple were microcosms of God’s original dream for the whole world to be where he walked among his worshippers.
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Parallels go beyond Genesis One into the Garden of Eden and events in Genesis 2-3
What the 7-Day Creation Means

Genesis 1 doesn’t tell us how long it took for God to create the universe; it tells us why God created the universe and what our purpose is in it. The author wasn’t concerned with scientific questions, but with theological ones. The question we should ask about Genesis 1 is: Why were we created? What is our intended purpose in the world?

It is much easier to debate the chronology of the cosmos than to assess whether we have or have not honored God is his cosmic Temple. We would rather talk about the definition of “days” than discuss our devotion. We would rather argue about the timeline of our origins than honor our originator. But if you want to respect the author of Genesis 1, then it is time to evaluate your reverence for the God who walks among us. We are here to honor the God who made us in the way we live upon the land. He did everything so we could thrive on this planet; now it is time for us to go about our business in a way that embodies his goal of a global family upholding justice, caring for one another, and enjoying this amazing temple. That is our act of worship.


NOTE: I am indebted to the compilation of relevant ANE sources and Hebrew grammar analysis in Morrow’s “Creation as Temple-Building and Work as Liturgy in Genesis 1-3
2 Comments
Melinda
10/29/2019 03:59:23 am

I do believe in a literal 6 days of creating and a seventh day of resting from that activity for God although as you point out, that seventh day lasted...well still now-he hasn't created anything new since that day.

For me, other passages in scripture kind of hinge on the 6 days of creation. Like the "day for a thousand years" things, plus Barnabas, Irenaeus and others from the first 300 years all seem to think there are 6000 years in line with 6 days until the new kingdom begins.

However, I also believe that there was another world here before that was flooded and God started over with this current earth. I get that impression from two main things in scripture. I noticed that in Genesis 1:2 it says the earth WAS formless and void, but when I looked at that Hebrew word, it's almost always translated differently than "was" and usually it's "became" or something of that same nature.

This makes sense to me because on the day that we read about the Earth in the creation account, we don't read that God created it, instead we read that when he separates the waters, the dry land appears, as if moving the water out of the way REVEALS the land that was already there.

Plus-why is there water everywhere in the beginning? No one ever asks that question, but I think Peter gives us a possible answer:

“Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the WORLD at THAT TIME was destroyed, being FLOODED with water. But by His word the PRESENT (current) heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men."

This makes sense to me, but I'm curious what you have to say since you are familiar with the language better than I.

But this would definitely explain why we find things in the earth that seem to be older than 6000 years.
I know that people generally think of this as the time of Noah, but he seems to make a distinction between two worlds and that after the one world was flooded, the CURRENT heavens and earth that are NOW are reserved for fire.

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CaptZac link
6/27/2021 08:34:47 am

Melinda,

I agree 100% with your comments. It only makes sense that there was a time prior to Adam that Satan fell & deceived 1/3 of the angels to follow him.

I believe this was the 1st earth age that the Bible speaks little of due to the main theme being man's redemption back to God our Father & Creator through Christ.

Peter's comments are describing the 3 earth ages IMO. (& many others...:)

Understanding the 1st world age also solves the global Noah's flood problems. Enough water to cover the mountains would have be enough to freeze solid even at the equator. (snow caps at 15,000' there) Not to mention, what happened to the dinosaurs, how could a sloth get from the middle east back to South America, or many other indigenous animals specific to locations and climates around the world, what did the carnivores eat until the planet repopulated etc etc etc.

I believe God wiped the earth clean after the fall of Satan for the purpose of redeeming his creation. And ultimately judging satan and those who end up following him.

That explains why fossils are found on top of the highest mountain ranges, why fossils and frozen dinosaurs, mammoth, etc have been found buried in the ice caps on the poles. Also why I believe the axis of the poles is 9 degrees off center now.

IMO it is clear all this will be put back to perfection in the next/final earth age.

Hope someone else finds this and continues the discussion...
Zac

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