Step by Step through the Old Testament

Step by Step through the Old Testament

Carlton L. Arnold, Teacher

Week 4

9/1/02 : Background of the Bible and Genesis 1 - Creation

I want to review, quickly, last week and how we got to the King James Version and New International Version. I want to introduce Genesis and get into at least the first or second chapter of Genesis. That's a lot to do, but I think we can accomplish it.

Review

Last week, I did introduce the Bible. We said that there were 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament for a total of 66. The Old Testament was written in two languages: Hebrew and Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. The first translation of the Old Testament was called the Septuagint. I told you to remember that. Jerome did the Vulgate. The Septuagint was written in 250 BC because of the influence of the Greek culture. As a result of Alexander the Great and his conquerings, the Greek culture spread throughout the world. Greek became a well-known language, so they translated the Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek: the Septuagint. The Vulgate was done by Jerome in about 400 AD in Latin. He used the Septuagint as well as some Hebrew and Aramaic text. This is in Latin. This is the bible that became the bible for a thousand years (until about 1500 AD). Christians at this time belonged to the Roman Catholic Church and this was their bible. If you knew Latin, you could study the bible. If you didn't know Latin, you were out of luck. There were other translations in other countries (e.g., Egyptian, Phoenician, and others). But if you were English and a Roman Catholic, you had to know Latin and the Vulgate.

The English Bible

The English language comes along and that's what we want to get to. There were some in Anglo-Saxon earlier than this, but the first English translation was made by Wycliffe around 1350 AD. He translated the bible into English. The Roman Catholic Church did not like it. They burned all of the copies that they could get their hands on. It had to be in Latin-it could not be in anything else. Out of the 150 or so copies that were produced, there exists one today. Tyndale was another guy who translated it into English around 1530 AD. The Church around this time was tied up in politics. (Sometime I'd like to take a deviation and tell you about the fascinating history of the organized Church.) The separation of Church and government didn't exist at this time. The Church condemned him and burned him at the stake. I wanted you to feel the impact of how the English translation of the bible came to be. The Roman Catholic Church had a huge hole on how that would happen. The Protestant Reformation occurs. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church in Wittenburg. That kind of changed everything because he said, "Man is not justified by his works, but he's justified by faith, alone." He was reading the Bible and said, "There's something wrong here." He looked at the Roman Catholic Church and said, "That's not right. They can't be that way." And so we have the Protestant Reformation. We are all familiar with the King James Version which came out in 1611 AD. The King James Version became the authorized translation of the Bible into English for Protestants. Several other editions of the King James Version were written through the 1700s. This is what we have today. This lasted about 200-300 years. There is a reason that I bring all of these versions up.

The New International Version

The predominant version used today is the New International Version. Read the flyleaf in the front of your NIV Bible. You'll find out some of the history of how the New International Version came about. Starting in the 18-1900s, people started looking at some of the wording and phrasing (e.g., thee, thou, thy, etc.) and said, "Let's get a more current translation." There were several translations: an authorized, standard version, a new authorized, standard version, and many others. Then the NIV came about as an attempt by a committee to go back to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts (including the Septuagint, which gives us the order of the books). The chapters and verses came about around AD 1500. So the committee went back and looked at the original texts and said, "Let's come up with something written in the modern language but that reflects accurately the thoughts that were in the original Hebrew and Greek. Let's create a bible like that." You can read about the history of that in your Bible and I highly recommend that you do so. It will give you a lot of confidence that what you're reading there is God's Word.

Around 100 AD, at the Council of Jamnia, it was pretty well settled as far as what books were included in the bible. There were certain books that they didn't want in the bible. One of them was Esther because it did not have the name of God in it. Another was the Songs of Solomon because it was considered erotic or had sexual overtones. And they said, "Should we leave these in or not?" There were others that they questioned and recommended to be canonized. Remember, canon is measuring: how do we know what to include in the bible? Again, when you look at all of this, realize that what you're holding there is thousands upon thousands (if not millions) of people who have looked at, read, copied, and rewritten to make sure that it's accurate. There is not a book known to man that has more manuscripts and copies of manuscripts dating back as far as we've got than what you're holding in the Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls are mentioned. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls, the last manuscript or copy we had was around 1100 AD. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, the earliest becomes around 100 AD-a one thousand year difference. They compared the Dead Sea Scrolls to the versions in existence and found very, very few differences-maybe an indefinite article here and there. But the vast majority of it was the same. So 1,000 years went by and we're reading the same book of Isaiah. That shows you that God has protected His Word all throughout the ages even though man has burned it and destroyed it. God said, "I'm going to protect the Word." And He protected it.

When you read about your NIV, there is one other group that I wanted to mention: the Masoretic. By the sixth century AD, this was a group that had gone back to the original Hebrew. If you study Hebrew, you'll learn that it's a language with no vowels. It's all consonants. You wonder why the name God, Yahweh, is YWHW. There are no vowels in there. When you read Hebrew, you have to understand how it's read. The Masoretic text, which a lot of Hebrews use, was started in about 100 AD through the sixth century. They would put identification marks in the text to make sure that you read it right. In other words, you spoke the Hebrew as it was read. This group was making sure that when you spoke the Hebrew language, it was what you were reading.

Do you have a picture of the Bible now? That was pretty quick, but it's a fascinating study. I passed out a history of the bible and versions that you might want to read sometime. You could read a countless number of hours about the detail. Some of you have asked what other books you can study in addition to the workbook. This is a handy book that I use called Halley's Handbook. This is not a commentary. A commentary is where a verse is given and somebody will expound on it, explain it, define terms, and so forth. This handbook is looking more at the history of the Church, the archaeology, the source of every book, who they think the author is, a summary of it, etc. It's a good book-$14.97. It's an excellent handbook if anyone wants to read and study more.

What about the Apocrypha?

I'll talk more about this when we get to the time between the testaments. Those are not canonized. The Protestant Bible does not include the Apocrypha. The Catholic Bible does. The Catholic Bible today, if I'm not mistaken, is called the Douay Bible. It was translated from Latin into English.

What do you mean they were not canonized?

They did not meet the criteria. For example, if you look in the New Testament for the Apocrypha, nowhere are they referenced by Jesus, Paul, or anyone else. That's part of the reasoning that was used to select which books became part of the canon. Another measurement could be: they should be uplifting and encouraging or have "the Lord said..." Things that definitely say, "This is a part of God's Word." That's why they questioned Esther and Songs of Solomon. It went back and forth as to what should and should not be included. Again, there were seven different councils that looked at the Bible again and again.

Criticism of the Bible

You're holding a book that if there's ever anything that's been scrutinized, turned upside down, right-side, left-side, reverse, anything you want to look at, it's the Bible. It is not something that just kind of fell into your lap. It has been looked at countless numbers of years.

The other thing that you might be interested in is that when the Age of Enlightenment came around (17-1800s), there were a lot of critics of the Bible. These are people who read the Bible and said, "Ah! This person never existed! This place doesn't exist!" So there are a lot of critics who have tried to throw things at the Bible. Archaeological digs recently have uncovered references to many of those people and places. Today, you don't find a lot of critics of the Bible. You won't find them. If you did, guess what would make the headlines in the newspapers? "Significant Error Found In Bible!!!" And your faith goes out the window. Somewhere behind any "problem" that people have with the Bible is "self." That's what they're focusing on. You can say, "Wait a minute. I think you've walked in here not willing to believe." It has nothing to do with whether the Bible is God's Word or not; you're not even willing to accept it. You've got to be willing to accept it before you can accept it. It's all about faith.

God is telling us something

The one word that I want you to remember if you had to sum up the entire Bible is relationship. It is God's relationship with man. You've got to focus in on that. Some people may get hung up on some "thing" about the Bible, but you want to come back to, "What's your relationship with God?" That's what the Bible is about. We're going to see it with Creation. Creation takes about two chapters; three chapters, if you count the repeat of the creation of man and woman. That's three chapters. How many chapters are in the Bible? A bunch. So if God was going to tell us something through His Word (it is not man trying to figure out something about God), He's going to tell us what we need to know. After chapter three, there is one story: the story of redemption. It's the story of making us "right." It's the story of us getting back to a right relationship with Him. Everything after that, without exception, including the lineage of Christ, Joseph being sold into slavery, and Abraham and Isaac, is all about that relationship with God. So, when we get into Creation, how many chapters are there? Two. We're going to spend some time on Creation, but that's one that people really get hung up on. For example, how old is the Earth? Nobody knows. Some people say 4-6,000 years old, some say millions, and some say billions. If God wanted to tell us how old the Earth was, guess what he'd do? "And the Earth is ... years old."

Everything in the Bible is in the book of Genesis. So we're going to spend a lot of time in Genesis. We're going to see all of the concepts and all of the things we need to know about our relationship with God in Genesis. After that, you're going to see it repeated and repeated, over and over again. We're going to see everything we need to know for the rest of the Bible in Genesis. Genesis means Beginning or Generation. I want to recommend to you and challenge you to sometime sit down and read the entire book of Genesis in one sitting. I know that is a challenge. It will be rewarding to you if you can allow God to work on you through a reading of Genesis in one sitting.

The Holy Spirit will teach you

When I study the Bible, I have a lot of what I call "tripping verses." I will be reading along in the Bible and I will trip over something. Meaning: "Wait a minute. I've got to think about that for a moment." It may be something that says, "I thought this was this way and I thought that was that way." You'll hear me ask, "Does everyone trip over that?" And that's what I mean. You get to a point where you say, "Wait a minute. I've got a little problem with this." We'll be doing the tripping verses. I will tell you again, up front, the Holy Spirit is the only one who can teach you anything. I can only teach you facts and knowledge. The only thing that means anything is what the Holy Spirit teaches you that changes you to grow in Christ. That's all. That's the only thing that's meaningful. We've already looked at a lot of numbers and dates and so forth. Did that help your spiritual growth? Other than giving you confidence about the Bible, no. That's it. It didn't really help you learn how to control your jealousy, anger, envy, or greed. It didn't help you do that. It may have given you a little confidence in the Bible, but it didn't change who you are. That's what the Holy Spirit is going to do. You're going to see it-the Holy Spirit working on people. I want you to keep that in mind. When you read Genesis all the way through, you're asking the Holy Spirit to show you what the Bible has. All of you are Christians. All of you said you were Christians. That means that the Holy Spirit is within you already. We'll study that in the New Testament. No questions, "if"s, "and"s, "but"s, or "or"s about it. Just take it for granted. If you want to argue with me that the Holy Spirit is not with you, I'll argue with you until the cows come home. The Holy Spirit is within you. The Holy Spirit dwells within you. The Holy Spirit doesn't leave you, doesn't depart from you. Jesus said, "I must leave so that the Comforter will come and He will teach you and guide you in all truths." So I believe that every Christian in here has the Holy Spirit within them. That is an awesome thing: to realize that you have the Holy Spirit within you. The Holy Spirit, the third part of the triune of God, is within you. But He does not push you. He doesn't beat you over the head and say, "You will sit down and read Genesis." But if you sit down and read Genesis, he says, "I will help you. I'll go alongside of you. I'll be with you all throughout this. I'll be with you." It is up to you to call on the Holy Spirit. So I ask you, when you start to read and study Genesis, stop and pray. Say, "Holy Spirit, show me. Guide me. I know you're here. Carlton said you were here. God said you were here. Jesus said you were here. I know you're here. Now, guide me." Do that before you start reading and watch the Holy Spirit work. He's going to show you some things that you never saw before in the Word of God.

Timelines

This is a timeline that I came up with through other peoples' timelines and through scripture verses. This is something I came up with to help me understand a timeline of the Bible. The whole Bible is contained on this one sheet. We're not going through it all now. I'll use it in the Old Testament and I'll use it in the New Testament. I use it in the New Testament in Revelation to talk about what's going to happen in the end times. Now, we'll look at the beginning. When I use an arrow (à ), it means that it just keeps going, indefinitely. This is how I show eternity. This is a concept that we have a hard problem with. Eternity means that there is no time. It always is, always has been, and always will be. Jesus said, "I am, I was, and I always will be." It is now, past, present, and future. God is eternal.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

This is my interpretation and you can disagree with it. At some point in time, God created heaven and earth. I put it on a line in eternity, meaning it always is and was, but there's got to be a start somewhere because that's how our finite minds are. Human beings want something to start and end. I want to show you some things that happen in the Spirit World. As soon as I say, "Spirit World," some of you are not comfortable with the Spirit World. I know you're not. You haven't been around it enough. You haven't thought about it or studied it enough. You haven't talked about it or experienced it yet. But there is a Spirit World. We have our physical, material world and then we have the Spirit World because God said, "I am a Spirit." There is a spiritual kingdom, a spiritual realm. There is a spiritual world and there is an earthly world. Eternity is in the spiritual world. The Bible says, and we're going to look at it, there's a spiritual world going on, whether we believe it or not. You've got to get out of your modern man mind that we are the most important creation that ever existed anywhere, at any time, and under any condition and that the world revolves around us. The sun and moon and stars revolve around the Earth. You've got to get out of that context. We are not our own god.

There were God and angels up here (in the Spirit World) and Satan rebelled out of pride. God said, "I cast you out of heaven and send you to Earth." In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and Satan was cast out onto the Earth. Now I'm not making this up-it's in the Bible. I'm not trying to draw time up here other than what came first and what came second. Satan comes to Earth. Now, verse 2.

Genesis 1:2

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Let me describe this to you. In the beginning, in 1969, D'Ette and I got married. Now, our Son, Eric, is 32 years old. How much time is between our marriage and children? I use the whole Bible. It's one book-it's not 66 separate books with 40 different authors. You want to learn the whole Bible. By the way, there are over 2,500 times where the Bible says, "God told..." or "the Lord says..." You have to really stretch it to say, "Well, God never said..." Let's go to Isaiah 45:18.

Isaiah 45:18

For this is what the LORD says-- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited-- he says: "I am the LORD, and there is no other.

How can Genesis 1:2 say that the earth was empty and Isaiah 45:18 say that it is not empty? I interpret it this way. God did not make anything that was bad, empty, void, or meaningless. That's what those words mean. When you read Genesis 1:2 in the original Hebrew, it means empty, void, meaningless, vacant, nothing. In my mind, when God created something, everything else He created was good. Isaiah said that He created the earth but he didn't create it empty. In my mind, God created the heavens and the earth and it was fine. It was fine until Satan came. Satan ruined it. That is my interpretation of what we're reading there. You can study it and you can read it. It is a fact that God cast Satan to the Earth. You can't argue that fact. It is a fact that God created the heavens and the earth. You can't argue with that. When and where, you can start thinking, "Well, I don't know about that." The key word in verse two is "Now." Is there time between verse one and verse two? Who has dominion over the Earth today? Satan. I want you to remember that as we go through this. I want you to remember that as we go through Creation that Satan has dominion over this Earth. "...the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Now we have God and the Holy Spirit coming and being interested in this heaven and earth.

Time-wise, this is going to be difficult because we're talking about eternity. Satan came down to Earth and then we have seven days of Creation. Some people have tried to describe that one day was a thousand years or that one day was eons. The best that I can come up with, because of other scripture, is that these were 24-hour days. I can't come up with anything else-if you look at the Hebrew word and all of the other places "day" is used in the Bible. That's what I do. When you read God's Word and notice little references out to the side of it, go and read those. You'll be amazed. I'll show you some things where if you go and read other scripture, you'll get a better understanding of what God intended. That's what we want to learn. We're not trying to justify your concept of God that you brought in here. We're trying to open our minds and ask, "God, who are you? Tell us about this relationship and redemption." So we have seven days of Creation that are somehow or another in this eternity. In other words, God said, and He did tell us, "When I created light, it took me one day. When I created the animals and vegetables and so forth, it took me one day. When I created man, in took me one day." He told us that, and that's what we'll read.

Genesis 1:3-5

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.

How many suns, moons, stars, and everything were created at the time light was created? None. So what is this light business? We don't know. Other than God gave us the capacity to experience that when the sun is up there, it gives off light. Even today when scientists study light, they cannot determine whether it is energy or matter. They can't make up their minds. It's a phenomenon. There was a National Geographic article about three months ago. Read the article. Scientists can describe light, but they can't understand it. It's hard to figure out. Hold onto this. This is what I want you to see. Look at it from God's perspective. It wasn't the sun that caused light. God created light and then created the sun. Keep that in mind.

Now, I'm going to skip the rest of Creation. You can read it. Everything is created in there.

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

The Bible does not say, "Let me make man in my image." It says, "in our image." Who is "our"? The three parts of God. If you take God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, we say they are one, but they are three. There are three "beginnings" in the Bible. In Mark, the first gospel written, we have "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God." In John, chapter 1, we have "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In other words, John 1:1 is before Genesis 1:1. It goes back before the heavens and earth were created. So who was there? God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. When it says, "in our image," think about relationships. What is it about their relationships with each other? The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost have a relationship-a oneness. When you read the Bible, Jesus talks about the unity or oneness. In other words, God said, "I'm going to create man to have a unity or a oneness. The companion, the complement, the consistency to have a oneness like we are." We have the capacity to decide between right and wrong. God looks at everything He created and says, "This is good." By the way, if anyone wants to get into the existence of God and learn more, read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Absolutely excellent book to answer a lot of questions. It is deep, but it is an excellent book.

He created man, us, to have dominion over everything. Who has dominion today? Satan. Who had dominion when God created man? Man. What was man doing in the Garden of Eden? He gave it up. I get a chill with that. Do you get a chill with that? God created everything right and we gave it up-not Satan-we gave it up.

Genesis 1:27-28

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

That is sex right there. Sex in marriage; reproduction. That's what He said, "I want you to reproduce."

Genesis 1:29-30

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

Did you know that everybody was a vegetarian? Even the animals are vegetarians until the Flood. This is not made up...you're going to read it. If you've ever read Genesis and did not discover that, you have not read Genesis close enough. So they're all vegetarians until the Flood. Did He give them meat to eat? No. They were all vegetarians.

Here's what happens, and I'm giving you my own, personal testimony. I read this and I think of a zoo. I think of raw meat being passed out and everything. I think, "Well, they've got to have it for the vitamins and minerals and everything, and they can't live without it." And I start looking at this and saying, "Hmmm... I don't know about that... vegetarian animals and so forth." Remember, I just took my concept and what I knew and tried to get God to fit into it. I didn't open my mind to say, "Is it a possibility that this could have really happened? Am I willing to accept that God, somehow or another, had all of the trees and plants with the necessary nutrients, minerals, and vitamins (that we know about today) to sustain life." That's what I'm thinking-not that tigers can get by without meat. Is everybody with me? You're going to face that. I hope you face it every time you open the Word of God that you come up against what you thought versus what the Bible says, what God says. But that is between you and the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 1:31-2:3

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

The word, "rest," here is very interesting because: Was God tired when He got through? No. Well, why did He have to rest? Meditate, reflect, enjoy, and be at peace. That's the word "rest." Now I want to challenge you with something, really big-time. Can you get to the point in your life, today, with everything going on (9/11, your job, your career, medical, kids, etc.) that you can honestly say that you can stop and rest? I don't mean sleep. I mean rest, as God said, "Rest." Meaning there is nothing that is going to enter my mind to get my blood pressure up, make my palms to sweat, or get me anxious or anything. I am going to be at complete rest. I want to tell you, that is what God wants for you. God wants you to have that kind of rest that He had on the seventh day in this world with everything going on as Christians. That's what we need to be after. We need to be after, "How can I be at rest with all of this stuff going on in the world?" And God said, "I have it for you. If you'll just reach out and accept it, I have it for you. You do not have to worry about anything." Now think of burdens. Jesus said, "Cast all of your cares upon me." Take my yolk, and I'll take your heavy burden. "Be anxious for nothing, but in all things, give thanks." If you start thinking about verses like that, there's nothing left for you to think about and worry about other than rest. God wants for you to get to a point where you can take five minutes and you can be completely at rest. I'm not saying to tie yourself up into a yoga knot. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying being at rest. That you can say something like this, "God is in control. He is the Father and Lord of the Universe and He has created everything. There is nothing without Him that I want to think about." God wants that for every, single human being. We're going to see it in the Old Testament and we're going to see it in the New Testament.

Hebrews 4:1-5

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, `They shall never enter my rest.'" And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."

He's talking about people who have not put faith in Him, who do not exercise faith in Him. What does it say? They will never enter this rest. What do we do as Christians? We should enter this rest time. We have it. We have everything that God could possibly give us. We have all the spiritual blessings in Heaven. And we should be at rest. Strive this week to be at rest. Experience it. Ask the Holy Spirit, "Holy Spirit, make me at rest." See what happens between you and the Holy Spirit. Next week, Adam and Eve. The woman is the helper. How did God create these women? To help us, men. I challenge you on the concept there, of what God intended. It's all intentional. You can go over to Ephesians, chapter 5, and read about "submit." Women submit yourselves to your husbands. We're going to study a little bit about that next week. So don't miss next week.

Prayer:

Father, God, thank you for this morning. Thank you for your Word, Father. Your Word that has come to us and is written right here. Father, we hold it, and we can pick it up and read it anytime we want, God. So many times we've ignored it. So many times we want to go to the lake, watch a football game, or do something else, Father, when your Word is right here and all we have to do is pick it up and read it. Father, forgive us of those times. May your Word become something that is daily for us--a daily diet. We feed on your Word constantly, God, that we may know what you really have in mind for us, God. Not what we think, but what you had in mind from the Creation and foundation of this earth. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

For further research:

Moses: John 5:31
Creation: Job 38:1-4
Purpose of the Bible: 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Created for God's Pleasure: Revelation 4:11
Created good: Isaiah 45:18
Created for everyone: James 3:9
Enter God's rest: Hebrews 4:1-5
Tree of Life: Revelation 22:2, 14
Woman as the Helper: Psalm 30:10, 54:4
Satan on Earth: Ezekiel 28:11-17, Isaiah 14:12, Luke 10:17-20

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