genesis

So far, this series has been going through Genesis at a slow pace. But today, with the story of Noah and the Ark, we can speed up considerably, and take up the bulk of three chapters in just two posts. This is because this story is very well-known already, because its narrative is pretty straightforward, … Continue reading Creation Undone: Genesis 6.5-8.19, Part 1

As we saw last time, Genesis 5 is connective material that brings us from the stories of Adam and Eve and their children to Noah and the flood. But, chapter 6 does not pick up where this story left us. Instead, it begins with a four-verse story that biblical scholars have called “surely the strangest” … Continue reading Blurred Lines: Genesis 6.1-4

Genesis 4, a generally ambivalent text about Cain and his descendants, ends with the hope of an alternative path or fresh start through the line of Adam and Eve’s third son, Seth (Sarna (1989) 40).* Genesis 5 expands on this possibility of new hope in the form of a lengthy genealogy of his line. Genealogies … Continue reading The House of Adam: An Integral Study of Genesis 5

Before last week’s side-quest looking at how ideas of the fall and original sin evolved over time, we left Adam and Eve facing their new life outside the garden, armed with new knowledge and moral reasoning, but facing a whole new world of trouble. Today their narrative continues with the tragic story of their first … Continue reading Things Fall Further Apart: Genesis 4.1-16

Proponents of the classic Western Christian teaching of original sin, as articulated in the thought of Augustine of Hippo and later championed by John Calvin and the Reformed tradition, often act as if it’s the the clear implication of Genesis 3 (and Romans 5), and that to deny their doctrine is tantamount to denying the … Continue reading Excursus on the Fall and Original Sin, Part 3: Christian History