spirituality

The other day, we looked at the Bible’s second creation story, Genesis 2.4-3.24, in the big picture. We saw that where Genesis 1 seems likely to have been written to combat the despair of the Exile, Genesis 2 offers a less hopeful, but more relatable message: We humans are unfaithful and struggle to live up … Continue reading A Garden in Paradise: Genesis 2.4-17, Part 1

We spent the couple few weeks looking through the creation story in Genesis 1.1-2.3. We saw that that text, likely dating to the seventh century BCE, took the common Babylonian creation myth and twisted it, retelling it for its own monotheistic purposes. It’s a beautiful, optimistic story, but while it absolutely captures the majesty and … Continue reading Creation, Take 2: Genesis 2.4-3.24

[In my series on Ephesians two years ago, I found the practice of creating a targum, an extended paraphrase of the Scriptures applied to contemporary circumstances, to be a helpful way of summarizing the study. This is an ancient rabbinic practice, but has been revived in recent years by, among others, Canadian New Testament scholar … Continue reading A Targum on Genesis 1.1-2.3

Over the last couple posts, I’ve said a few times something to the effect of how the creation of humanity “can be” “in many ways” considered to be the pinnacle of the Genesis 1 creation story. One might ask why such hedging is necessary. Well, the Genesis 1 story does not end at 1.31, but … Continue reading God Rests: Genesis 2.1-3