Genesis 1:1-2:3

[alon]

This Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Gen 1:1-2:3
Haftara- Isa 42:1-9

D’rash: There is a continuity in our parashah and haftara which is a bit difficult to follow. But I’ll try to make sense of it here.

The haftara verses 1-4 are a clear Messianic prophecy. Others believe the prophecy is of:
Cyrus (Saadia Gaon)
Yeshayahu/Isaiah himself (Ibn Ezra)
the Israelite nation (Septuagint and Rashi, and most contemporary Judaism)
however the Targum* and Radak say it is of ha’moshiach, and so are in agreement on this point with we as Meshiachim
The second half of the haftara moves on to a clear statement of God’s sovereignty, power and glory, especially over other gods. But what has this to do with the creation account?

At the time Torah was given the 1st Babylonian empire was in ascendency. A, if not the major regional power on the horizon now Egypt was in decline after the Exodus. They were the biggest (though certainly not the most immediate) threat Hebrew people would have been looking at. And this is a good time to remind ourselves of a couple of things:
while we read as though it is the time of the beginning, actually this is being given some 3500 yrs later, and
it was given to a specific people for a specific purpose. Yes, the message is universal and speaks to us today. But believe me, standing in the desert with powers both small and mighty wanting what God just gave the Hebrews- ex-slaves at that and no home, therefore in the minds of the nations no god to defend them- they needed to know right then that their God IS God!

The Babylonians believed in many gods, but a few were very powerful, capable of “creation.” All pagan creation accounts are eloquent tales full of intrigue, mystery, magic, struggles and ultimate victory- and a new order is established. Enuma Elish is the creation account according to Babylonian mythology. The Hebrews would have been familiar with this story. The Babylonian creation myth begins with a goddess of the watery depths named Tiamat, a ferocious water deity. Eventually, the god Marduk kills Tiamat by splitting her in half and using one of her halves to create the expanse of the heavens.

The biblical account of creation cuts right to the heart of the Babylonian account, fundamentally challenging its substance. In contrast to mythology, the Genesis account is sparse, to the point:
Genesis 1:1 (ESV) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

בָּרָא bârâ, our Creator (Rom 1:25, 1 Pet 4:19) like a painter calmly surveys His canvas:
Genesis 1:2 (ESV) The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The 1st Babylonian Empire was ruled by Amorites, a Semitic people who spoke a language similar to Hebrew. “Deep” in Hebrew is תהום tehom, and linguistically is related to the Babylonian word for “Tiamat.” So saying the Hebrew God controlled tehom, the deep was a declaration that YHVH Elohim, the Lord Your (Our) God (Gen 27:20) was stronger than a major Babylonian goddess. It is also saying El’Olam, Everlasting God (Gen 21:33) needs no other god to use as raw material for His creation; no other god to lend a hand, and no other god to die so He could create. He created, then later as we now know He gave of Himself, a sacrifice to die then live for His creation- a hugely important distinction.

In our Elohim’s creation story mighty Tiamat is just tehom, the deep waters; no more than part of His appointed order of creation.
Genesis 1:3 (ESV)  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

“Let there be light” was spoken in the imperative; a command, not a request. And this is the case throughout the creation account. It demonstrates the absolute supremacy of the Hebrew God over all other deities, especially those of Babylon. So this the first part of the Hebrew Bible is meant as encouragement to both the newly freed people receiving it and to us today.

Genesis 1 tells us not only how creation occurred, but why. Creation actually mirrors the building of the Temple, and Genesis 1 sees the whole world as a Temple wherein Aibishter, The Most High (Yiddish) holds dominion:
Genesis 1:6 (ESV)  And God said, “Let there be an expanse [canopy, firmament; i.e., atmosphere and space] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

God speaks into existence “רקיע raqia an expanse in the midst of the waters.” רקיע raqia is the same word used for the “ceiling” of God’s Temple:
Psalm 150:1 (ESV) Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty רקיע raqia expanse!
The term רקיע raqia seems to link both the heavens above and the ceiling above the worshipers heads in the Temple. God’s construction of our universe is reflected in the way His sanctuary is built on earth: 
Leviticus 24:2 (ESV) “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light מאור; maor may be kept burning regularly.
This command to provide for a מאור; maor light in His sanctuary mirrors his command to make the sun and moon:
Genesis 1:14-15 (ESV)  And God said, “Let there be lights מָאוֹר mâ'ôr (H3974) in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons [appointed times], and for days and years,  and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

And last, the seven-day creation relates to the seven years it took Solomon to build the Temple: 1 Kings 6:38c … “He was seven years in building it.” and the last day was “a feast before the Lord our God seven days”: “So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him,” 1 Kings 8:65a (ESV) 

All peoples built temples to their gods, but the God of the Hebrews lives and reigns not in a single Temple, but He fills the universe; and not just over a land, but over all lands, the depths, and the expanse of the heavens themselves! This is why He can say “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.” Isaiah 42:8 (ESV)

Throughout the parashah here we see the principle that YHVH m’Kaddesh, God Who Sanctifies (Ex 31:13) separates in all His creation; dark from the light, heavens from the waters and waters from the land, plants and animals according to their kind. Likewise sanctification is the process of setting us as believers apart, separating us from the ways of he world. J. C. Ryle summarized the issue of sanctification by declaring, “He that is born again and made a new creature receives a new nature and a new principle, and always lives a new life. . . . In a word, where there is no sanctification there is no regeneration, and where there is no holy life there is no new birth.”

Titus 3:5 (ESV) he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Before we accepted Yeshua as the Anointed One of Yisroel, the long awaited Messiah and as Eternal God our lives had no real meaning. They were “without form and void.” But again like an artist brooding over an empty canvas, the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) watched and waited to begin the work of regeneration in us. By living in the Ruach and the λόγος logos, or Word (the 66 book Bible as His Word revealed) and the same Word who spoke the universe into existence we become better able to separate light from dark, good from evil, and shades of grey which bear the seeds of evil:
1 Thessalonians 5:21 (ESV) but δοκιμάζω dokimazō test [prove, examine, discern] everything; hold fast what is good.
κατέχω katechō- hold fast, hold down, have, keep (in memory), make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold.

As we will see next week we were created in His image. God separates and is Himself kadosh, holy, separated. He expects us to be kadosh, separated unto Himself. And to accomplish that we must learn to use discernment, to recognize and separate good from evil, then “hold fast” to that which is good.
Genesis 1:31 (ESV) And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

HaShem’s days always start with the growing darkness, but they end in light!

Mekorot: the NJP Study TNK; Dr. Schasser of the IBC; W Wiersbe; FB Meyer; J C Ryle; Dr GW Milliken; my father and others.
* davidtay81.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/targum-isaiah-on-the-messiah-in-isaiah-421-8/

Next Week’s Readings:
Parashah- Gen 2:4-3:24
Haftara- Ezek 28:11-26
Apostolic references will be given in the darashot

[alon]

I guess I should note that I am starting early and posting during the feasts because there will be some parashot, like next weeks that I will be splitting up. So hopefully this will help get me on track to finish on time in three years.

Dan   

[mosheli]

I don't disagree with most of what you said, but just two minor comments on the side on Tiamat, and on day begins at sundown.

I am not sure myself that the Babylonian Tiamat matches the Biblical Tehom. On the one hand the names and natures are similar, but on the other hand there are differences: Tehom a thing, Tiamat is a female being (though Tamtu is bitter waters as a thing); the -h- and the -at are missing (though the Arabian Tihamah may bridge the difference); Tehom is the "deep" before separation of waters above & below and before waters below gathered in one place and called seas, Tiamat is just salt/bitter waters (though before Marduk/Bel cleaved heaven & earth). In the Bible Tiamat could match either Yhvh, Tohu-Bohu "formless and void" (Genesis 1), Tehom "deep" (Genesis 1), seas (Genesis 1), Eve (Genesis), Flood (Genesis 6-9), the Dragon (additions to Daniel).
Tiamat is similar to Phoenician/Ugaritic/Canaanite god Yam(m) "sea". Tiamat is also written Tiawath which is close to the name Yhvh and/or Chavah/Hawah/Eve, and the T- & -t could be feminine or dual/plural prefix/suffix. Marduk/Bel vs Tiamat (compare Baal vs Yamm) is maybe related to Nimrod a hunter before/against the Lord. Biblical begins with a Monad (God), Babylonian begins with a Dyad (Tiamat & Apsu). Biblical one God in three forms, Babylonian triad of Tiamat, Apsu, Mummu. Tiamat's son Kingu is also similar to Yeshua (though his name might be related to Cain). Babylonians are Akkadians, and Akkadian is the earliest Semitic language. (Though Amorites are Semitic in Mesopotamian archaeology, while they are Hamitic in Biblical.) There are also other possible parallels of Babylonian and Biblical like Helel "Lucifer" may match Akkadian Ellil (Sumerian Enlil, Hittite Ellel). Though I might be wrong in relating Tiamat & Yhvh because others relate Ea to Yhvh.
I'm not meaning any degradation, I don't mean biblical came from Babylonian, just that their early histories might be connected, and Tiawath might be an inverted version of Yhvh and might be confirmation of the biblical God's early origins/existence and nature.

If a day begins at sundown, how long was the first night or evening (and/or how long was the first 24 hour day)? Because if the night/evening of the first day was at the start then it was eternal length which doesn't seem right to me (though the first day is written different way to the other 5 days).
While it does say evening and morning a day, this might not from from evening to morning and from morning to evening, it might mean from morning to evening and from evening to morning. (Though Missler says evening to morning indicates reverse entropy (negentropy).) In Genesis day and night are different to evening and morning.

There are alot of other things I could comment on about Genesis 1:1-2:3 but they are too many to put here and they don't relate to things mentioned in the OP.

Since this is under Genesis/ I won't comment on Isaiah verses except that there are details which seem to better fit Messiah/Yeshua than Cyrus or Isaiah or Israel.

(I wasn't going to put the Name since rule here not to spell/speak it, but since the OP mentioned Yhvh in it I felt it was ok to use that.)

[alon]

mosheli, thanks for the detailed reply. Yes, with ancient languages there is always room for doubt, since they have not been spoken for centuries. You tend to be very scholarly and so know many of the controversies in the world of academia that I do not. The same is true of ancient mythology. Myths are the ancient (and modern) pagans bible. However unlike the Hebrew Bible, myths are meant to be changed to meet the needs of changing societies or even the point the storyteller wants to make. So there will be many variations which are not always easy to date. They are "living documents."

We hear that term a lot today applied to both the Christian Bible and even the US Constitution, NEITHER of which were meant to be that way. Whenever you hear this it is an attempt to paganize them, making them changeable to suit the whim or worldview of the contemporary "storyteller." For our purposes however it can introduce a degree of uncertainty as to dating particular versions of the myth. I tend to go with the most likely or most accepted interpretation or opinion. Basically I rely on a lot of people smarter than me. However as I said there will always be controversy and/or uncertainty when dealing with ancient history. And this is important to understand, so I appreciate your post. If I tried to explain this all on my own it'd be a mess.

"Negentropy" eh? A student of Erwin Schrödinger? A simpler way of looking at it is that the euphemisms or linguistic methods used by the ancient Hebrews could reorder the times. However we and "all" (sic) Judaism go with context and the fact in several places the biblical day goes from sundown (actually twilight) to sundown. Not very specific, but then they had no clocks as we know them in 3500 BCE, relying on direct observation to establish times and even dates. A day itself was divided into 2 parts, night and daylight. Then those were each divided into 12 equal parts. So at different times of year an hour of darkness could be shorter, longer, or 1 time each year equal to an hour of daylight. That's why scripture will say something like "the third hour," which is approximately 9:00 AM. It means the third equal division of the daylight hours. Since we go from midnight to midnight, the conversion would be 6 hrs as half the night from midnight to daybreak, plus 3 hrs of daylight giving us about 9:00 Am our time. Ours is more accurate, theirs is more practical for an ancient people. Same with marking a day from sundown to sundown which was easier to observe by the masses and facilitated them dividing the hours as I explained. 

Using the Name YHVH is permitted, though we like to limit its use as it is the Covenant Name of The Almighty. I use it as a biblical name which has some meaning to the text being discussed. Typically also we capitalize all 4 letters as a sign of respect.

Since this is a parashah it is primarily about the Torah reading. The haftara is meant only to compliment that reading, which is why I place the post under the Torah reference. So feel free to comment on the haftara. As I said, you tend to be a bit more "scholarly" and look more in depth than I do. And when I write I tend to keep it simple. But your insights are interesting as well as valuable.

Here's an excerpt from my reply to mystic in another thread (on Yom Kippur) that exemplifies the linguistic nuances of ancient methods which must be accounted for:

Vayikra 23:32:
- "And you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month at evening" (Leviticus 23:32b)
But as they say the normal biblical reference is:
- “From evening to evening [shall you observe your day of rest],” (Leviticus 23:32c)

That's just one biblical day.

Leviticus 23:32 (ESV) It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”

The reference to the 9th is simply that the fast would begin at sundown on the 9th, which is when the 10th would start. We fast the entire day of the 10th. It does not mean a 2 day fast. The Orthodox come to the same conclusion that it is only a one day fast, but they do it by a convoluted method of interpretation.