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GOD’S CREATION AND THE FALL OF MAN: GENESIS 1-11

The first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis contain a story of the origins of the world, of mankind

and of the people of Israel. During the thirteenth century B.C., as we shall see below, the people of Israel

were liberated by God from their slavery in Egypt and were given possession of the promised land of

Canaan (or Palestine). The book of Genesis is written from the standpoint of this “Exodus experience,”

Israel’s experience of God’s special favor toward his people. Many scholars believe that the present

form of Genesis is a compilation and edition of ancient written documents and oral traditions made by

Jewish religious authorities in the fifth century B.C. The Orthodox Church does not deny this, but teaches

that the entire process by which the book of Genesis (and the other books of Holy Scripture) came into

existence—the writing, the editing and the compiling of the documents that make up the biblical text—

was guided and inspired by God through the Holy Spirit.

The early chapters of Genesis were not written as a scientific or empirical history, but as a sacred

history. Through poetic, symbolic, legendary and even mythological stories, Genesis 1-11 is an attempt

to convey certain religious truths concerning the general relationship between God, man and the

universe and the special relationship between God and Israel. This section of scripture is not a scientific

account of the origins of man and the cosmos, but a theological interpretation, within a chronological

and genealogical framework, of the human condition and of Israel’s role in God’s providential plan for

the world.

Genesis 1-11 does, of course, contain a number of important factual claims: that God created the

universe, that mankind was created in the image of God, that the human race has alienated itself from

God as a result of sin, that the sinful world is subject to God’s judgment and that God mercifully acts to

redeem his creation from the powers of sin and death. It may also be true that Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel,

Seth, Noah and other persons named in Genesis 1-11 were indeed historical figures whose names have

been preserved in the folklore of ancient Israel; and many scholars believe that the story of the great

flood in Genesis 6-8 is based upon the actual occurrence of a major deluge in the ancient Middle East (c.

4000 B.C.). But it is doubtful that God created the world and mankind in the precise manner depicted in

Genesis 1-2, that the fall of the human race took place exactly as described in Genesis 3, that the stories

of Noah and the flood (Gn 6-9) and of the Tower of Babel (Gn 11) are literally true in all of their details,

and so on. Were we to accept every detail of Genesis 1-11 as literally true, we should be committing

ourselves to the view that man made his appearance on earth only about 120 hours after the world was

created; that daylight existed before the sun came into being (Gn 1:3-5, 14-19); that the universe is

surrounded by water (1:6-8); that the universe is no more than six or seven thousand years old (a figure

arrived at by tracing the various genealogies found in the Old Testament); and that the various

languages of the human race originated at the Tower of Babel, less than four thousand years ago (11:1-

9). Such ancient conceptions of the cosmos and of human history have been rendered implausible by

modern scientific and historical discoveries. For example, it is practically certain that the universe is

millions or even billions of years old and that it is not surrounded by water; that mankind appeared on

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earth approximately two million years ago; and that there was a multiplicity of human cultures and

languages long before the time of the Tower of Babel (c. 2000 B.C.).

It may well be that the human writer (or writers) of the book of Genesis believed some or even all of the

stories contained in the first eleven chapters of that book to be literally true in every detail. Even so, the

primary purpose of Genesis 1-11 is not to insist upon the truth of any particular scientific description of

the origins and development of the world, but to proclaim that God is the Creator of the world and of

mankind, that the human race has sinfully separated itself from the presence of God and that to be

saved from the powers of sin and death man must return to God in a spirit of love and obedience. The

cosmological and historical framework of the early chapters of Genesis is merely the vehicle by which

the Holy Spirit reveals and communicates certain spiritual truths necessary to the salvation of mankind

and the world. Genesis 1-11 is a sacred history that gives “coherent expression to truths and events of a

religious nature which cannot possibly be enunciated or described in empirical terms”; it is a revelation

of God and his nature, a prophetic explanation of the “brokenness” of human existence and a

proclamation of God’s plan for the redemption of mankind and the world.

The theological content of Genesis 1-11, then, encompasses two major themes: (1) the original

relationship between God, man and the universe, prior to the intrusion of sin into the divinely created

cosmic order (chapters 1-2); and (2) the disruption of the divine order by sin, God’s judgment and

condemnation of that sin and his merciful determination to redeem mankind and the world from the

bondage of evil (3-11). Genesis 1-2 describes the relationship between God, man and nature as it was

originally intended to be; while Genesis 3-11 presents that relationship as it is—corrupted and

subverted by man’s sinful rebellion against the love and will of God.

Taken from THE MESSAGE OF THE BIBLE by George Cronk.