Even though Book Three is much longer than Book Two, it follows the same pattern. It begins with the title "These are the generations of Noah" (Gen 6:9). The book should focus on the descendants of Noah with such a title, but the last book did not record his death so that this book could tell us what happened in the fullness of time. The narrative section begins "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God" (Gen 6:9). Thus both numbers seven and ten in the royal genealogy of Book Two's narrative are now described as having "walked with God." The narrative of Book Three continues until Gen 9:24. The pattern then finishes out with the poetic curse of Canaan and blessing of Shem (Gen 9:25-27) and an epilogue reminiscent of the pattern found in the royal genealogy of Book Two: "After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died" (Gen 9:28-29).

The narrative follows a chiastic structure natural to a flood story because of the flood rising and receding. In a chiasm the first thing said and the last thing said are parallel conceptually or thematically and the second thing said and the second to last thing said are parallel conceptually or thematically and so forth. Chiasms can be very elaborate or very simple. This one is very complicated. The Scriptures use chiasms as a way to organize stories repeatedly. Sometimes scholars have been tempted to see them where they do not exist. But this story is artificially crafted to maintain the chiasm's structure. We know the chiasm is intentional and not just an accident of flood story-telling because on the way to the climax we see one week described two times (Gen 7:4-5 and 6-10) and in the parallel position after the climax we see three weeks described two times (Gen 8:10-11 and 12-13). The first is one week described as if two weeks by simply repeating that the rain will begin in one week (Gen 7:4 and 10). The second is a time period of three weeks described as if two weeks because there is a week that he waited before sending out the dove (Gen 8:10), he waited another seven days and again sent out the dove (Gen 8:10), and then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove (Gen 8:12). But clearly the way it is written these three weeks sound like two weeks. So the author wants us to read the story as a chiasm. I am indebted to Tremper Longman III for this observation in his article in Inerrancy and Hermeneutic (see p.142).

The climax of a chiasm is at the center. In the flood chiasm the center is: "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark..." (Gen 8:1-3). The language of remembering is language for resurrection. The flood story is a death and resurrection story. But this resurrection falls short of the one it points forward to -- as the narrative analogy demonstrates.

The story develops a narrative analogy or recapitulation (Sailhamer shows this) between the creation and fall narratives and the flood story. The flood is a creation-reversal. Thus when the flood recedes we see similarities with the creation story. So we see a new creation. At first the waters cover everything. Then the tops of the mountains were seen (Gen 1:9 and 8:5). The dove brings back a freshly plucked olive leaf (the earth brought forth vegetation, Gen 1:11 and 8:11). God blesses the animals and tells them to be fruitful and multiply on the earth (i.e. Gen 1:22 for birds, Gen 8:17). Man is blessed and to rule over the creation (Gen 1:28b, 9:1-2) and told that he can eat (Gen 1:29, 9:3). Man is told to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28, 9:7). Adam and Noah both have three sons. Adam has Cain, Abel, and Seth (Gen 4:1-2, 25); Noah has Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Gen 9:18-19). YHWH God planted a garden for Adam (Gen 2:8) and Noah planted a vineyard (Gen 9:20).

Then we see the recapitulation of the fall narrative. Adam and Eve ate of the tree they had been commanded not to eat from (Gen 3:6) and Noah drank the wine and became drunk (Gen 9:21). Adam and Eve knew they were naked (Gen 3:7) and Noah "lay uncovered in his tent" (Gen 9:21). Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together for aprons (Gen 3:7) and Shem and Japheth took a garment and walked backwards to cover Noah's nakedness (Gen 9:23). And then YHWH cursed the serpent (Gen 3:14-15) and Noah cursed Canaan (Gen 9:25-27). Therefore, we learn that things before and after the fall are remarkably the same. The people still need a Savior from sin. Noah is one of many Christs (anointed ones) in Scripture who through their sin will point us to the need for Jesus. Noah's resurrection does not change hearts. The curse still holds sway over this new creation.

To return for a moment to the subject of the narrative analogy with Genesis 1: the text, like Genesis 1, uses ANE cosmology to describe the flood. The picture is one where the deep wells up like fountains and the waters above the firmament are allowed to pour through the windows in the firmament. The firmament had been created to hold back these waters. The firmament is a hard structure to which the sun, moon, and stars are attached. In this cosmology, when one looks up in the sky and sees blue they are seeing the waters on the other side of the firmament. The author of Genesis has shown us that he knows about clouds forming and watering the earth (Gen 2:5-6 as translated by Kline) but here describes the water coming down from above with the ANE cosmology by saying the windows of the heavens were opened (Gen 7:11) and closed (Gen 8:2). We should expect the author of Genesis to do this. And this in no way demonstrates that the author is in error because the book is not teaching us science but is teaching us about God's judgment, will, salvation, and people. It is important that the flood be considered a universal one regardless of whether it covered the whole earth or not because the text is teaching us about the final judgment that is coming for all.

So to summarize the positive teaching of the flood narrative: the great Noah falls short of the coming seed who will crush the serpent's head. Changed hearts do not result from Noah's resurrection. All deserve the final judgment of guilty for sin. The new creation after the flood has not escaped the effects of the curse. Thus we need the poetry.

In the overall structure of Book Three (like Books One and Two) the most important part is the poetry. Curses and blessings for future generations are immensely important in the Torah and often are the poetic text. This poem is a curse/blessing: "He said, 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.' He also said, "Blessed be YHWH, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant'" (Gen 9:25-27). Thus the poem points us to the line of Shem as the line of the promise for one whose resurrection will crush the serpent's head, reverse the curse, and begin the new creation of the heavens and earth. Israel is of the line of Shem. Thus the poetry points us to Israel as the legitimate seed of the woman and heir to the promise and ultimately points us to Jesus Christ as that seed and heir.

And the brevity of the epilogue is appropriate. Noah died.

Labels: blessing, canaan, chiasm, curse, flood, Genesis, japheth, noah, recapitulation, shem

The second book in Genesis begins with the title "This is the book of the generations of Adam" (Gen 5:1). Thus we will find out about the descendants of Adam.

We should identify the genre of the narrative and part of the epilogue as a royal genealogy. Up until now I have not spoken much about the similarities of Genesis and literature from the surrounding ANE world. But this genre identification is important because the tendency of some is to try to date the earth based on mathematically analyzing texts like this. Waltke's commentary mentions the Sumerian king list, which could skip over many generations. Likewise, in Scripture the father/son relationship could also be a grandfather/grandson (or any number of generations) relationship. The purpose of this text is not scientific. It is a royal genealogy pointing us to the legitimacy of Israel (and ultimately Jesus Christ) as the heir of the promise to the woman. And thus the genealogy conforms to a pattern we will analyze later.

Genealogies are one of the most skimmed things in Scripture, but the genealogies in Genesis are some of the most fascinating texts. One of the really interesting things is the ages of the Sethites. Waltke cites M. Barnouin (who wrote in French) who has observed that the ages of the Sethites are equal to particular astronomical periods known to the Babylonians. Enoch's 365 years are the same number of days of the year. Lamech's 777 years (not to be confused with the Lamech in the last book) are the same as the synodic periods of Jupiter plus Saturn (this just means how long it takes for the planet to get back around to the same place in the sky). And Jared's 962 years are the same as the synodic periods of Venus plus Saturn. Moreover, Waltke says,

"If the sum of the years at the time of fathering and of the total life spans from Adam to Lamech are each divided by sixty--based on the Babylonian sexagesimal system--the sum of the remainders is 365, again perhaps representing the perfect life span. The cycles of a man's years may match the cycles of the heavenly spheres to show that their lives follow a meaningful pattern and end with a completed cycle."

So even though 365 is short compared to the lifespans of the others in the genealogy, Enoch was a very important man.

This is confirmed when we observe the pattern of the text. The pattern is: When X had lived Y years, he fathered...Z, The days of X after he fathered Z were ZZ years; and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that X lived were ZZZ years, and he died. For Adam the pattern is more expansive than the rest. For example, for 'he fathered Z' it says, "he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth." This line is also expanded for Lamech, the text says, "he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying..." Any major variations of the pattern should stop us in our tracks as we read the genealogy. When we get to number three (Adam, Seth, Enosh) we find the basic pattern. Same with number four, Kenan; five, Mahalalel; and six, Jared. But as we should have guessed from the symbolic significance of seven (not to mention the crafting of the genealogy we saw in the last book) the pattern is broken for Enoch who lives the perfect lifespan. Instead of saying, 'Enoch lived after he fathered Methuselah 300 years' it says, "Enoch walked with God after he fathered..." And where we would expect the text to tell us, "and he died" it says, "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Enoch's son has the longest recorded lifespan (according to Scripture) 969 years. And Enoch himself could have lived longer than his son, but it is far better to be with God.

The pattern resumes only to be broken again for number ten. Ten means fullness. Therefore, at the fullness of time, God sent forth his son Noah (cf. Galatians 4:4). Thus the longer form of he fathered: "he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, 'Out of the ground that YHWH has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands'" (Gen 5:29). Here we see the same overall pattern for most of these books applies to this second book as well (heading, narrative, poetry, epilogue). And remember that we said the poetry is what is most important. Noah gives rest and joy to the people of God through raising a vineyard. Of course, this points forward to Jesus Christ, the son of God born at the fullness of time, who gives us rest and joy everlasting.

The epilogue continues the royal genealogy and adds the plus one generation has three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. The next book will be about them and unlike most of the books it will also be about Noah as it does not tell us "and he died" quite yet. The epilogue continues to prepare us for the next book and to set the stage. Traditionally the problem has been explained as the sons of Seth intermarrying with the daughters of Cain. But, following Meredith Kline, it is much more plausible (for grammatical, contextual and other reasons) to read "sons of God" as a title of kingship. Since "sons of God" also sometimes refers to angels, it is not a stretch to say that these kings are demon-possessed. The text then is talking about demon-possessed kings (the sons of Cain) taking harems ("they took as their wives any they chose," Gen 6:2) and breeding champions for their army (the Nephilim). The Nephilim are giants sometimes called Anakim. Anak was a person who is the ancestor of many giants and Nephil is the place where giants lived. See Numbers 13:33. Without a doubt, all giants are then called Nephilim. Sin has continued to escalate to a climax demanding judgment. Now we see more than just polygamy and murder but harems and marauding armies. "But Noah found favor in the eyes of YHWH" (Gen 6:8).

It is also worth noting that before the flood "every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen 8:5) and after the flood "the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gen 8:21). The circumcision of the heart has not yet taken place. God has started over but the problem of sin is not yet answered. This is the difference when God starts over with Jesus Christ and He pours out the Spirit.

Labels: enoch, Genesis, giants, harems, kline, noah, royal genealogy, ten