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creation identity origins

Humanity as an image/idol

For our next session please take a moment to watch this moving little video. Watch especially for the crowds’ reaction and the reaction of the elephant.

Consider this interaction in the light of our being Yahweh God’s image/idol. Is it a reflection of God’s character as you understand it? How does it fulfil our royal mandate to tend for Eden (temple) and to make his presence known in our world. Would you go so far as to describe it as an act of worship? How does it fit in the light of world events?

Please add a comment below – I mean you don’t have to – but you know, discussion is good.

Categories
Bible questions identity old testament origins

Origins

Here’s a couple of hundred words to describe what the aim of the ‘Origins’ course is.

After some thought I have decided to go with the topic of Genesis 1-3. Here’s a little more detail of what to expect. I expect the curriculum to be driven by the follow strands.

As you probably know I end up talking about Genesis virtually every time I preach. Why is this? I guess it is because it is the Hebrew Origin story and so clearly, obviously underpins what our Christian faith is all about.

Unsurprisingly to me, when I announced the possibility of doing something more in depth on Genesis I was asked about discussing Evolution vs Creation. We might, perhaps, make a passing reference to the subject on our way towards something else. It is not my intention to get into that particular rabbit hole. As somebody once said to me ‘the text is so much deeper than that’. So here’s a brief look at what I am thinking about covering.

Close Reading of the Passage

This is the starting, and ending point, of course. We will look deeply into some of the text, and some of the words to help us understand how the Hebrews saw the cosmos before the acts of Gen1. We might unpack the ‘formless and void’ of vs 2 , and the famously beautiful phrase ‘image and likeness’ of vs 26 which is so debated. We might look into the order of the 6 days narrative and what our God given role in Eden was. Why a garden? What is outside the garden? Why the description of the rivers, and precious stones?

Chapter 3

We will spend some time in this chapter taking an overview of just what is Hebrew author saying to us about those famous events. What is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What is ‘a serpent’? What was the attack that faced our ancestors? Just what was going on in the fall?

Setting Genesis into it’s cultural Context

The Hebrews who wrote Genesis were obviously part of a wider society, just as we are today. Naturally again this means they were influenced by these cultures. Again, we can gain useful insights into what the writers were thinking when they wrote. Archaeology and alternative creation stories such as the Sumerian shed light on how the Hebrews and their contemporaries thought about God, and the human.

Creation and Worship

Hopefully we will get to look at this at least in part – since it is so intrically linked into Genesis 1 and 2. The temple is described as ‘Creation in Stone’ – really? And if so, so what? We might consider the belly of the earth, and even some of the mathematics behind the construction (don’t worry, it is totally awesome). What is that large bowl of water for? And those mysterious pillars? And why is their no cult statue in the Holy of Holies? Does this have any bearing on how we do church?

Here and Now

Overall, I aim to show that this ancient story, has direct consequences of our understanding of humanity and our relationship to the divine. This is not a study for dry and dusty university lecture theatres. It is relevant, life changing and – put plainly, utterly beautiful.

Categories
Ephesians identity new testament Paul

Bringing Down the Fence

In the last post we considered the division that existed between the Jewish people and the Gentiles, ie everyone else, in the time of Jesus. A ‘fence’ between them had been erected that protected the Jews from ethical decay, forbidding intermarriage, cultural appropriation or even eating with Gentiles. According to Williamson Jews saw Gentiles as ‘less than human’ and in response gentiles regarded Jews with suspicion. (1)

Categories
identity Walking with Jesus

Languages are Definitely Not For Me.

School was a funny old time. The seven years at secondary were not the happiest years of my life, not by a long shot. My school was very academic, and pushy, which was ok as long as I could keep my head down. I was that child who was into things. Electronics. Astronomy. Woodwork. Punk music. Squash. Girls.

But not languages. Definitely not languages. Foreign languages bought me pain. Oh, and fear.

Categories
atonement creation Devotional identity

Human identity – part 4 – godlike

In “human identity – divinity” we cemented the connection between image (tselem) in Genesis 1 and cult statues or idols. To the people of the aNE (ancient near east) an idol was the living embodiment of their god, and not just a physical thing like a statue in the local park. To them it was not only alive, and in it their god was fully present to them. If you think about it this sheds light on the way humans could worship idols them and lavish care on them. Clearly, the understanding of the writers of genesis was very different to ours.

Categories
atonement creation Devotional identity

Human identity – part 3 – divinity

In the first post “human identity – representation” we looked at the Hebrew words used for image and likeness. In “human identity – crowned” we looked into the royal meaning behind some of the words the Hebrew bible uses to describe Adam and Eve’s role and status. Given that the same ‘image’ language is used in Gen 5 it is clear that what was true of Adam & Eve is true for all of us – they were ‘God’s Royal Representatives.’ We briefly concluded by saying that to the cultures of the aNE, royalty were seen as children of a god. We cited two examples of this, and left the implicit link to Adam & Eve unspoken. It’s time to dig into this at last.

Categories
atonement creation identity

Human identity – part 2 – crowned

In the first post “human identity – representation” we looked at the Hebrew words used for image and likeness. We concluded that the authors of Genesis wanted us to think-in an holistic manner, which suggests that to their mind the image/ likeness was something included ideas around a statue ie physical. We also introduced the idea that we are made in such a way as to represent (think re-present or to “present again”) Yahweh God. We also saw there was a very clear, and somewhat disturbing “idol” theme to the word image (tslem). So there was lots to chew on. Back to our key passage Gen 1 for something a bit regal…

Categories
atonement creation identity

Human identity – part 1 – representation

In the previous posts I set out something of my thinking regarding the directions this series on atonement would go. We now come to look at Genesis to get a grip on what we, as humans, were created to be. Remember, our aim here is to look at our purpose and our nature as well – what can be referred to as our ‘ontology’. There will be several installments.

Reading in Genesis 1 26 we see:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea …”