Moses. But, who recorded Moses’ death? Either God revealed it to Moses (why can’t God do that?) and he had to write it down or it was written by Joseph. Both are logically plausible.
If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. If you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words? (John 5:46–47)
For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’. (Mark 7:10)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this in a book [lit.: the book] as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” (Exodus 17:14)
During the forty‐years wanderings in the wilderness, B.C. 1491‐1451. By comparing Dead Sea level indications in chapter 14 of Genesis Amos Frumkin and Yoel Elitzur suggest the composition dating between 1500 and 1200 BC. Since prior to the 10 Commandments carved on stone, the “law” MAY have been handed down orally OR was written down, just no copies survived to this day. Considering ancient archaeological history, writing important things down was normal, worldwide, and oral tradition dependence was not necessary. If oral tradition was normal in Moses’ day, why couldn’t they just have memorized the short 10 commandments instead of dramatically carving them on stone? Clearly, the text talks about a time before writing was invented or necessary and a great flood would have destroyed anything written; and nothing is mentioned instructing Noah to save any writings, or for Noah to write anything down at all. Then HOW do we even know about these events of creation all the way down to the food? Oral stories from Noah and his wife, directly.
Shem, Noah’s son, was 98 years old when Methuselah died at the age of 969. Methuselah was the son of Enoch, who was the son of Jared, who was the sixth generation from Adam. BUT, Adam was still alive when Methuselah was 200 years old. THEREFORE Noah’s children (Noah as well) could have been taught by someone who spoke to Adam directly. Adam only died 126 years before Noah was born. Oral traditions coming from the mouth of someone who heard and saw the first human being ever is pretty powerful; makes those oral traditions more memorable, reliable, and authoritative. Shem could have told Abraham these same oral traditions as well. Issiac, son of Abraham, could have also spoken with Shem.
First book of the Pentateuch. It is quoted by other biblical historical texts as NOT mythology. It is quoted and taught by ancient jewish culture to be historical facts and real persons (Adam and eve). Writers of portions of the Talmud quote from it as their source for authority. The Soferim meticulously copied the scrolls as though they were one of the most important things in the world. The 70 translators of the Septuagint meticulously translated and copied the scrolls as though they were one of the most important things in the world.
The Dead Sea scrolls, dated to around 200BC were written NOT by Soferim or Septuagint scholars but a third separatist jewish sect, labeled 1QGen and 2QGen. The Papyrus Fouad 266 (three fragments listed as Rahlfs 847, 848 and 942) are fragments, part of a papyrus manuscript in scroll form containing the Greek translation, known as the Septuagint, of the Pentateuch. They have been assigned palaeographically to the 1st century BCE. There is discussion about whether the text is original or a later recension of the Septuagint. The Leningrad Codex was written in 1000AD. The Aleppo Codex was written around 900AD and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. Together with the Leningrad Codex, it contains the Ben-Asher masoretic tradition.
Some early Christian writers found the Samaritan Pentateuch useful for textual criticism. Cyril of Alexandria, Procopius of Gaza, and others spoke of certain words missing from the Masoretic Text, but present in the Samaritan Pentateuch. Eusebius wrote that the "Greek translation [of the Bible] also differs from the Hebrew, though not so much from the Samaritan" and noted that the Septuagint agrees with the Samaritan Pentateuch in the number of years elapsed from Noah's Flood to Abraham.
So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered. (Genesis 47:11).
How could Ramesses be pharaoh at the time of Joseph and also at the time of the Exodus? These events are separated by centuries. What we are seeing here is an anachronism, a place that has been renamed to a more modern or up-to-date name, likely because its old name had become obscure and meaningless to those who would read the text of the Bible, to the Jews of Old Testament times. The name of the city where the family of Jacob settled had a different name at the time of the famine, but it passed out of usage at some point in Old Testament times, so the Hebrew scribes substituted the then-current name of the place into the text of the Bible. Both cities were in the same location, in the land of Goshen, in the best part of the land of Egypt, but the new name was more meaningful and understandable.
An example from our own country is the name of the city founded by the Pilgrims. Surely they founded New York. That is the present name of the city. But when they founded it the name was New Amsterdam. Yet today we can easily say that the Pilgrims founded the city of New York, even though it did not receive that name until the Dutch ceded it to the British in 1664. The statement refers to the name the city had at the time of the writing, not to the name it had many years earlier. Thus using Exodus 1:11 to set the date of the Exodus was a mistake from the beginning, and the date must be determined another way.
There are a few other examples of anachronisms in the Old Testament, no doubt arising from the need to update ancient place names. A few examples: Genesis 14:14 says that “Abram pursued them unto Dan.” But Dan (the northern most area of the promised land) was not called by that name at the time of Abram. Thus this is a later update to that ancient place name, whatever it was called at the time of Abram. In Genesis 21:34 it is said that “Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for many days.” If the present scholarly opinion is correct that the Philistines did not live in that area at that early date, then this is another example of an anachronism, an update to an ancient place name that had become obsolete at some point in the history of Israel. The same could be conjectured about the reference to “Philistines” in chapter 26 of Genesis.
There are four major textual witnesses to the book: the Masoretic Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and fragments of Genesis found at Qumran.
In the 1970s, archaeologists discovered tablets made before 2000 B.C. at Ebla in northern Syria. Among them were found creation tablets (Wilson, C. 1977. Ebla : Its Impact on Bible Records. Acts & Facts. 6 (4).) that say, “Lord of heaven and earth: / The earth was not, you created it; / The light of day was not, you created it.” (Davis, C. 2007. Dating the Old Testament. New York: RJ Communications, 93.)
Cylinder seals are tiny stone rollers with carved three-dimensional reverse images that the ancients would roll across wet clay to impress picture patterns onto the clay before baking it in a kiln. One of the oldest seals shows a seated woman reaching for one of two fruits hanging from a tree. A man also reaches for fruit opposite her, and behind her a serpent slithers. It has every key element from the Fall of man found in Genesis 3.(Cooper, B. 2012. Authenticity of the Book of Genesis. Portsmouth, UK: Creation Science Movement, 55.)
Secular sources also confirm kings and cities mentioned in Genesis 14. The first verse says, “And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations.” In 1895, assyriologist Theophilus Pinches found cuneiform tablet Sp. III. 2 archived at the British Museum. He presented his translation to the Victoria Institute in 1897, showing what the Hebrew of Genesis calls Arioch as Eri-aku, Chedorlaomer as Kudurlagmal, Tidal as Tudhula, and possibly Amraphel as Hammurabi, though the text breaks off after “Hammu.” (Pinches, T. 1897. Certain Inscriptions and Records Referring to Babylonia and Elam and Their Rulers, and Other Matters. Journal of the Transactions of The Victoria Institute. F.W.H. Petrie, ed. XXIX: 43-48.)
Genesis 14:2 refers to Sodom, Gomorrah, and three other “cities of the plain.”8 Excavations at Bab edh-Dhra southeast of the Dead Sea starting in the 1960s revealed many clues that match the Sodom account.9 For example, the city and even its nearby cemetery were burned from the top down and, in places, lie beneath several feet of ash even today. (Morris, J. 2013. Have Sodom and Gomorrah Been Discovered? Acts & Facts. 42 (4): 15.)
Literally, hundreds of people groups have their own accounts and legends of the flood. One of the most remarkable is the Babylonian account, which is similar to the Genesis account in many ways and is clearly drawn from it. Since all mankind came from Noah’s sons, all mankind remembers the flood. Boice specifically cites the legends of the Samo-Kubo tribe of New Guinea, the Athapascan Indians of America, the Papago Indians of Arizona, Brazilian tribes, Peruvian Indians, African Hottentots, natives of Greenland, native Hawaiian islanders, Hindus, Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Australian natives, the Welsh, Celts, Druids, Siberians, and Lithuanians. Of the more than 200 cultures that have their own account of the flood the following aspects of the story are common:
88% describe a favored family.
70% attribute survival to a boat.
95% say the sole cause of the catastrophe is a flood.
66% say that the disaster is due to man’s wickedness.
67% record that animals are also saved.
57% describe that the survivors end up on a mountain.
Many of the accounts also specifically mention birds being sent out, a rainbow, and eight persons being saved.
the Babylonian tower temple north of the Marduk temple, which in Babylonian was called Bab-ilu (“Gate of God”), Hebrew form Babel, or Bavel. The similarity in pronunciation of Babel and balal (“to confuse”) Alexander the Great removed bricks and the outer coating, but he never rebuilt it. ““It has a solid central tower, one furlong square, with a second erected on top of it and then a third, and so on up to eight. All eight towers can be climbed by a spiral way running around the outside, and about halfway up there are seats for those who make the journey to rest on.”” - 440 B.C., a historian named Herodotus. Birs Cylinders The Birs Cylinders are a series of clay cylinders dating to c. 600 b.c.e., discovered by Sir Henry Rawlinson during the mid-19th century at the Babylonian site of Borsippa The cylinders, bearing parallel inscriptions, were found inserted into the walls of a massive, heavily damaged tower at the site. This tower—a type of the famous Mesopotamian religious ziggurats—had been heavily repaired during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. Bricks were found around the site, having been stamped with the name of the king. And the wall cylinders had an interesting story to tell. Rawlinson (known as the father of Assyriology) translated the inscriptions as follows:
I am Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon … my great lord has established me in strength, and has urged me to repair his buildings … the Tower of Babylon, I have made and finished … the Tower of Borsippa had been built by a former king. He had completed 42 [cubits?], but he did not finish its head; from the lapse of time it had become ruined … the rain and wet had penetrated into the brickwork; the casing of burnt brick had bulged out … Merodach, my great lord, inclined my heart to repair the building. I did not change its site, nor did I destroy its foundation platform; but, in a fortunate month, and upon an auspicious day, I undertook the rebuilding … I set my hand to build it up, and to finish its summit. As it had been in ancient times, so I built up its structure ….
There is another translation of this text that is even more direct in language. This one comes from Rawlinson’s contemporary Assyriologist, Julius Oppert. He translates a couple of lines slightly differently:
… the most ancient monument of Babylon; I built and finished it … A former king built it—they reckon 42 ages [ago]—but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time, people had abandoned it without order expressing their words ….
Tower of Babel Stele
The Tower of Babel Stele is a black ceremonial stone, about 50 centimeters (20 inches) tall, discovered just over a century ago among the ruins of the city of Babylon.
The tablet, belonging to King Nebuchadnezzar, dates to around 600 b.c.e., and includes a depiction of the king in the upper right-hand corner. In the left-hand corner of the tablet there is a diagram of a large, seven-storied tower; above it, a separate floor plan of the massive edifice. The lower part of the tablet contains an inscription, describing Nebuchadnezzar’s tower-building programs. The partial translation follows:
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon am I: In order to complete [the towers] Etemenanki and Eurmeiminanki, I mobilized all countries everywhere … the base I filled in to make a high terrace. I built their structures with bitumen and baked brick throughout. I completed it raising its top to the heaven ….
The Etemenanki ziggurat (again, a likely parallel to the Borsippa tower) is also described by fifth-century b.c.e. historian Herodotus:
In the middle of [Babylon’s] precinct there was a tower of solid masonry … upon which was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. … On the topmost tower there is a spacious temple … There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the chamber occupied of nights by any one but a single native woman, who, as the Chaldeans, the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen for himself by the deity out of all the women of the land.
This woman appears to have been a representation of the ancient deified Inanna/Ishtar, herself associated in later traditions as the mother-wife of Nimrod.
The Sumerian King List This find revealed one of history’s first mentions of a great flood. Found in the ruins of Mesopotamia, this list dates to 2100BC. What is striking about this list is that it’s divided in two groups–those who ruled before a great flood and those who ruled after it. Another noteworthy fact: the lengths of reigns and life spans of these kings drastically decreased after the flood, as did the life spans of people in the Bible. Genesis 7-8 in the Bible is not the only proof of a great flood!
Discovery of Ur Ur, mentioned four times in the Bible, is the hometown of Abraham and was occupied from the 4th millennium BC. You probably won’t find it on a map today; instead you’ll see Iraq. Digs show that Ur had been a powerful city-state before it fell. If Ur’s decline and fall came during Abraham’s time, perhaps archaeology has provided another clue as to why Abraham’s father relocated his family Haran
Discovery of Boghazkoy About 90 miles east of Ankara, Turkey, a dig revealed the ancient Hittite capitol city. The Hittite empire stretched as far as Syria and Lebanon. Although Hittites are mentioned often in the Old Testament, almost nothing was known about them until modern times. Critics and skeptics assumed that they were a mythical or imaginary people dreamt up by biblical authors. Finding the Hittite’s empire flipped these critiques on their heads. Claims were withdrawn, with findings confirming the biblical record
Nuzi Tablets Excavations east of the Tigris River turned up over 20,000 baked clay cuneiform tablets where the city of Nuzi once stood. The tablets explain some of the common practices and background which are found in earlier biblical events of the patriarchal period (2000BC-1500BC) like marriage, adopting an heir, surrogate mothers, and inheritance. These customs and stories are strikingly similar to those found in Genesis 15-31.
Discovery of Haran A village of Harran (Haran) exists in Turkey today, and has been found to stand atop the ancient one from the Old Testament period. Also found near Haran are villages that still bear the names of Abraham’s great-grandfather and grandfather, Serug and Nahor, as mentioned in Genesis 11:22-26. Haran was the father of Lot (Gen. 11:27). The cities of Ur and Haran both had the moon god as their main deity. According to Joshua 24:2, Terah, father of Abraham, worshiped “other gods” and moved his family from Ur, in southern Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), to Haran in the north (Gen. 11:27-31).
A large granite slab called the Israel Stella, discovered in the late 1890’s by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (called the father of Egyptian Archeology), refers to the nation of Israel as a significant Canaanite entity. It was engraved by Merneptah, the thirteenth son and immediate successor of Ramesses II. The hieroglyphs are his campaign register, listing the nations that he conquered or subjugated. Prominent among his list of conquered nations is Israel, “Israel is laid waste, his seed is no more.” This is the typical exaggeration and boasting found on such war campaign registers. Israel was not totally destroyed. But it must have existed as a nation at that time. But if Ramesses II was the pharaoh of the Exodus, then how could his son be referring to Israel as a major established entity on this stella? The Israel Stella implies that the Exodus happened long before the reign of Ramesses II—or, alternately, that his reign followed the Exodus by many years.[x] Of course, there is great controversy and scholarly debate rages over the right way to understand and interpret the stella. Another discover that has much more recently come to light is a block fragment from a statue that is dated to even earlier in Egyptian history, and that has the name “I-a-shra-i-l” on it. Just how much earlier has not yet been determined for certain. This is in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. It was found in 1913, but has been ignored until recently. These two references to “Israel” imply the Hebrews left Egypt well before Ramesses was born.
430 years in Egypt and Canaan is the correct understanding of the time of the Israelite’s sojourning. 215 of that was in Canaan, and 215 was in Egypt. Thus the date when Jacob and his family entered Egypt was 1446 + 215 = 1661 BC. As we will see when we comment on Genesis, Joseph preceded his father and the rest of his family into Egypt by about 21 years, so Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt in about 1661 + 21 = 1682 BC. This gives the chronology of the Sojourn of the Hebrews in Egypt.
Senuseret III = 1698-1658 BC [This is the pharaoh whose dreams Joseph interpreted.]
Amenemhat III = 1678-1631 BC [co-regent with Senuseret III for 20 years]
Once we assign 1446 BC as the date for the Exodus then abundant archeological evidence for the Sojourn can be found. Again, the Sojourn lasted for a total of 215 years, so it began in 1661 BC and ended with the Exodus in 1446 BC.
Because the Bible says that Jacob and his family settled in the land of Goshen, which is the Eastern part of the Nile delta, we must look there for the signs of their culture. We pointed out that the reference to Ramesses II in the Bible is an anachronism. The location where the Hebrew slaves built a city for pharaoh at the time of the Exodus was located at the same place but was called by another name. That would mean that Pi-Ramesses had been built near to or on top of some other more ancient city. One such city has been found there, built centuries earlier. It is called Avaris. The Sojourn was contemporary with Avaris, not with Pi-Ramesses, which was built centuries after the Jews had left Egypt. Avaris had a mixed population of Egyptians, Semites, and even some Greeks. It included 25,000 to 30,000 Semitic people. Avaris was surrounded by dozens of other settlements which together would have made up a large and expanding population of Semitic people. But this was in 1450 BC and the decades that followed, not in 1250 BC.[xxiii]
More specific details about Avaris from 1450 BC and following:[xxvi]
A Semitic population with their distinct culture continued living at Avaris for centuries.
One modest Semitic dwelling had an elaborate Egyptian structure built on top of it. It must have belonged to a man of prestige. The elaborate superstructure had 12 pillars in it, and in the garden or courtyard surrounding it were 12 tombs.
One of the tombs was in the shape of a pyramid, which is significant because that shape of tomb was normally reserved for pharaohs, but this man was not a pharaoh because inside of the pyramid was a statue of a man with red hair and pale, yellow, skin. That was how Egyptians depicted northerners. The statue had a throw stick across the shoulder, a unique symbol of office made for an official from Asia. The statue itself was twice as high as normal, indicating again his great importance.[xxvii]
On the back of this man we can see the faintest remains of paint-colored stripes from a multi-colored coat. The statue as been broken and cast down, but here is shown an artist’s reconstruction with an enhanced photo of the coat on that statue.
Finally, in the account in the Scripture Joseph commanded his descendants to carry his bones with them when at last the Lord God visited them and took them to the land that He had promised to their forefathers. The tomb had been raided, as we notice from the fact that the statue lies broken in pieces, but no grave robber would have taken bones. Only those treating Joseph’s body with the reverence that he had requested would have taken the bones. Thus it appears that the body of Joseph was removed, just as he requested, and buried in Israel. In fact the body of Joseph is claimed to have been buried at Shechem in Israel, where there is a shrine.
One further point about the tombs at Avaris; The Egyptian graves were hastily filled with bodies, while in the Semitic quarter we see a sudden mass abandonment. Because of the careful and elaborate burial customs of the Egyptians, in contrast to the hasty burial of bodies thrown together in Avaris graves, it appears as if they must have been facing a plague, or dealing with some kind of very contagious disease. This is very much like what we would expect as the result of the judgments of the Exodus.[xxix]
When the Exodus judgments fell on Egypt they would have left the nation weakened and in a desperate state. Are there archeological records reporting such an occurrence? Yes, an ancient Egyptian Papyrus, The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage, written by an otherwise unknown person named Ipuwer. The document is addressed to his majesty the pharaoh and describes circumstances that sound like what would have prevailed in Egypt as a result of the Exodus judgments. Here are some statements from the Admonitions:
Chronology is a huge factor in the rejection of this clear evidence for the Exodus (as is an underlying anti-supernaturalism). Poor chronology will be seen as a recurring reason for much of the skepticism that is so common in scholarly circles. In reality, however, because Ms. Lichtheim dated this to the late Middle Kingdom, and Dr Rohl’s new chronology places the 1400’s BC during the Middle Kingdom, the date of this composition now matches the Exodus timeframe and only an anti-supernatural bias would refuse to see the confirmation of Biblical details from archeology.
Starts off where only God is existing and repeatedly states “God said” and then literally quotes God. It alone is the source of what God did. It is also a historical record of genealogy as a matter of fact of real people. It reveals events and things that are miraculous and supernatural as historical facts. The only way for Moses to be able to record these things is that if God revealed these things to him and he recalled all the stories told to him (with the help of The Holy Spirit) by his grandparents who were influenced by The Holy Spirit. Both are possible.
Moses was the 7th generation from Abraham, who was taught by Shem and Noah. Issac was alive long enough to teach Levi, and Levi was alive long enough to teach Amram, who was the father of Moses. So, despite 7 generations, the oral history was only passed down by 3 people. And technically, all (pure) oral history from the beginning of time could/may have been passed down and safeguarded through just 5 people before Moses.
According to Genesis, God himself comes to Moses and thus validates him as The Prophet of God at that time; giving him divine authority to speak on God’s behalf for everyone else to know.
The earliest Jewish traditions cite Genesis (the Pentateuch) as divine authority as well as recognize Moses as having that divine authority as Prophet. The Gospels confirm this (Jesus) as well as the Apostles and later Church Fathers.
God is a plural being (1:26-27; 3:22; 11:7), the source of truth (1:1; 28:15a), a spirit that leads people into God’s will and glorifies God (1:2; 28:15b; 41:38), and has appeared in a physical form (3:8; 35:9-12) as A Man (18:16; 32:24-30), The Angel of The Lord God (16:7-13; 18:2-16; 21:17; 22:11,14-18; 28:16; 31:11).
Adam Clarke quoted Rabbi Simeon ben Joachi, commenting on the word Elohim: “Come and see the mystery of the word Elohim; there are three degrees, and each degree by itself alone, and yet notwithstanding they are all one, and joined together in one, and are not divided from each other.” Clarke adds: “He must be strangely prejudiced indeed who cannot see that the doctrine of a Trinity, and of a Trinity in unity, is expressed in the above words.”
God is eternal (1:1; 21:33), timeless (1:1,14), almighty (omnipotent) (1:1,31; 17:1,8 43:14; 48:3), all seeing, hearing, and knowing (omniscient, and omnipresent) (1:31; 18:13; 20:5; 21:17), completely sovereign (43:23; 45:5,7-8) and Holy.
God has a personal relationship with selected people whom he walks with, talks with, and speaks to through visions, dreams (31:11), from heaven (21:17; 22:11,14), and in person (16:7; 18:4-9; 32:24-25). When dealing with his creation, he is involved, forward looking (12:18; 16:10-12), and comes down to see the acts of his creation personally (11:5; 18:1,22; 35:9-12).
The likeness of God is knowing good and evil, has emotions and feelings (6:6), The Angel of The Lord God ate and drank with Abraham (18:4-8) and wrestled with Jacob (32:24).
God is just (18:21), merciful (43:14), gracious (43:29), compassionate, and wills all things for his glory and his purposes.
The Angel of The Lord God physically appeared as a Male (18:16), equal to God (16:13) in authority (16:10), power (32:25), omnipresent (16:7), omnipotent (18:22-33), omniscient, hears thoughts, sees the future (16:10-12; 18:13), and at times spoke directly from heaven (21:17; 22:11,14) or in dreams (31:11); thus, is God (16:13).
The actual name of God is not recorded (32:29).
God mandated that Adam and Eve be fruitful and multiply, subdue and manage all the creatures of the Earth, but also obey just one simple command (See ‘Creation’).
Noah was called by God (6:8,9) to obey (6:22; 7:9) and save his family and God’s chosen creatures (6:13). He was given detailed instructions to build something never built, to prepare for something that has never happened (6:14-19). After this judgment (The Flood) God called Noah and his family and their descendants to spread out and repopulate the Earth (9:1).
Abram was chosen by God (12:1; 18:17) to become Abraham (17:5), not just a father, but a father of nations. God himself calls Abraham a prophet (20:7). He called him to leave his home and family, leave his land, and to go to a certain place. He was instructed to circumcise everyone and become a nation of people set apart from everyone else (17:10-14).
God even calls the wicked and appoints them to positions and outcomes in their lives (16:7-13)
God called Joseph to be a great prophet and Leader of Israel; but first he had to be hated by his brothers, stripped of clothes, thone in a bit, fear being killed, then sold as a slave who took him all the way to Egypt. Then, be accused of doing something immoral, that he didn’t do, go to prison; then finally be made prosperous and powerful.
The proper honorable and fearfully loving response to God is “Here I am.” (22:1) The proper attitude for God’s calling is humility, faithfulness, obedience, and praise for God’s sovereignty, righteousness, mercy and grace.
God calls people to things and places to test their faith, and to do things that don’t seem immediately logical or rational; which may also be right away and instant or take years and decades to be fully revealed (22:1-2).
God’s calling is not of this world but for us to come out of this world for his glory as sojourners of the world (47:9).
God’s calling may drag us through hardships brought on by the sinfulness of the world and wicked people, but his calling results in goodness no matter how the world tries to ruin it (c39). Thus, those who are called are immortal in the sense that no harm can come to them and nothing outside of God’s plan and will can have any effect on those who have a calling to complete (45:5,7-8; 49:33).
God is in absolute, full, and complete control over all that he created, over all reality and everything that exists in space and time. God physically places people where he wants them (2:15). God makes whatever he deems necessary, even people (2:18; 31:8-9). God moves, brings, takes, drives out, pushes away people and animals wherever he chooses (2:19,22, 3:17-19; 11:8-9). God directly causes specific things to happen (2:21; 11:8-9; 19:16), or may simply assist, help, protect, prosper and influence major or subtle things to take place as he chooses (4:1; 15:1; 28:20; 39:2-4; 48:15). God can do things to people physically (4:15). He chooses, determines, appoints, and decrees, he doesn’t ask (18:19). God can intervene and keep people from doing things (20:6) and break our own wills if needed (33:3)
God is in absolute full control of life, who gives it, prevents it, and takes it (20:18; 21:1-7; 22:10; c25; 29:31; 31:8-9,22; 38:7,9-10; 46:12). God makes nations of people rise and fall (12:1) and uses people in their own ways to complete his will (38:16; 39:2-3; c44; 45:5,7-8; 50:20)
God can appoint, ordain, plan, and will something, anything that he chooses to happen in the future (6:3; 18:14; c41). And he sees his plan of the future presently as though it has already happened (timelessness) (15:18).
God’s favor (grace) is gifted, given, transferred, accredited and applied by God on whomever he chooses (6:8). And this gifted transferred and applied faith that then justly allows God to deem them “righteous” and able to “walk with God” and do “all that God commands” (6:8-9,22; 7:5; 21:13; 25:28). Nowhere is this holy favor and holy righteousness earned by people through merit, effort, and work. His promises and covenants are completely on him and up to him (15:9-21; 28:13)
God shows common grace to all creation, even the wicked (c36).
God is in absolute full control of nature, animals, weather, earth, plants, seasons (6:3; 7:11; 8:1-2; c41) and is active and not passive.
Whatever God decrees and wills, does come to pass in the exact way, manner, and time he wills it (17:1-8; 22:16) and nothing and no one can stop it from coming to pass (c27; c37; 45:5; 39:21-23; 50:20).
God’s existence is presupposed, eternally existing (See ‘God’).
The universe and all reality was created from nothing with just God’s words in literal 6 days, morning and night (1:1-2:3). A sudden massive burst of creation and its expansion beginning on day 4 until now.
Everything was made according to their own kind at the moment of creation and everything was made good, not perfect or neutral (ch1). The totality of creation, God said it was “very good.” (1:31) Even before the Flood and after, the samples of animals were according to their kind (1:11-12,21,25; 6:20; 7:14). And were all made just male and female (5:2; 6:19; 7:16) Incompatible with an evolutionary concept.
Even after the fall of man, The Garden of Eden still existed, but an angel prevented anyone from ever entering again (3:24).
All creatures that ate food, ate plants and fruits (1:30). Initially animals and humans did not eat meat, but later, God permitted the eating of meat through clean means (9:3-4). Animals obeyed Adam and Eve and all people until after the Flood when God instinctively installed the fear of man to help protect them from being hunted (9:2).
There was no weather to bring rainfall. Dew is what watered the plants, initially (2:5-6). Then a geo-catastrophe caused mass amounts of water to come up from the ground, and finally an atmospheric change caused intense rainfall to cause the Flood; forever changed creation (7:11-12).
God’s first ever command was for things to come into existence (1:1-2). The second command from God was to Adam, not to eat from a certain tree (2:17). First command caused life and goodness. The second command would usher in death and sin.
God himself planted this unique garden called Eden (2:5). In the garden was every kind of fruit and plant they needed to eat and live (2:16). Also in the garden was the Tree of life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (2:9).
The Tree of Life was not withheld from Adam and Eve, only the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God commanded Adam and Eve to not eat from the later, not the former (2:17). The Tree of Life would have kept them alive forever (3:22).
Mist and dew watered the plants and provided the exact amount of hydration for all creatures (2:5-6).
Adam was made first and placed in the garden where he was given the task to manage it (2:15) and name all of its creatures as well as to find a suitable equivalent satisfactory helper from the creatures. None were suitable, equivalent, or fully satisfactory for Adam (2:18-19).
It was located in the East of the author of Genesis (2:10-14).
The serpent was permitted to be in the Garden (3:1).
The 7th day of creation where God completed creation, rested, and declared it to be holy (2:3). And it is important to note that there was not an “evening and morning” on the 7th day. Though it is described as “a day” it is a day that has yet to end. The 7th day, blessed and holy, is perpetual rest - the pinnacle of perfection and completeness.
God finished the work he had done (2:2), but not all work in space and time was complete, there was still more to do (Noah’s flood)
“Sabbath” Strong's H7673 - šāḇaṯ - cause to, let, make to) cease, celebrate, cause (make) to fail, keep (sabbath), suffer to be lacking, leave, put away (down), (make to) rest, rid, still, take away
The Serpent initially seems to be like a “beast of the field” also known as Livestock, but The Serpent was more “crafty” than all the smart beasts that were used to assist people in managing the land (3:1). It may also have had legs prior to God’s judgment (3:14). The Serpent is described as “he” so he was a male (3:3).
The Serpent also spoke the same language as Adam and Eve but was more witty in words than Eve (3:3). Intelligent in that he maliciously and tactfully misquotes and distorts God’s command to Adam and Eve (3:4).
The Serpent knew God’s words, he knew his commands because Eve told him, but even hearing and knowing didn’t change him. Instead, The Serpent spoke for God, put words in his mouth and triggered the ultimate desire that he, himself, was born out of: Pride and being like God (3:3-5).
Cherubim are angelic beings who obey God and are given swords to prevent anyone from going to the Tree of Life (3:24).
“Sons of God”: אֱלֹהִים ʼĕlôhîym, el-o-heem'; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:—angels, exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), (very) great, judges, mighty.
At this time in history (6:2), a group called “sons of God” who were maybe “godly” in appearance and that they were “great, judges, and mighty” But this alone doesn’t account for how their children are described and why they are described differently than of the “daughters of man.” Thus, “sons of God” being angels makes the most sense.
There is no description of angles not having the ability to have sex and reproduce. Therefore it is plausible for angels to marry human women and have half breed children.
“Nephilim” are the children of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of man.” These beings were so common that they alone led the world into absolute wickedness and immorality. Translates to “giant” nᵉphîyl, nef-eel'; or נְפִל nᵉphil; from H5307; properly, a feller, i.e. a bully or tyrant:—giant. They were mighty, strong, huge, famous, and tyrants. Since their parents were possibly angels, they would have felt like gods (6:4).
Angelic beings appeared to Abraham (19:1) with The Angel of the Lord, which Abraham acknowledged as Godly and preeminent. These angels went to Sodom and Gomorrah and were the ones that destroyed it (19:15).
The angels of God met Jacob on his way. They came to him and inspired him. The probably ministered to him and guarded him (32:1)