Genesis, A New Look

By Dan Baxley

servant@yahshuaservant.com

Last year (2010) it was reported that a group of Chinese Christians had discovered Noah’s Ark and photos were released over the internet, Noah’s Ark Ministries International (NAMI).   If true this, of course, would be the find any century but it is clouded by accusations from others in attempting to claim or share in this discovery, again, if it is true.  There is a battle of words continuing to go on between this group and the renowned author and lecturer Randall Price.  This aside brings up the reliability of the Book of Genesis.  If the Ark has been found, then this would prove the Biblical Flood more than just a story, it would be history.  But, as usual, the waters (pun intended) are being muddied by the controversy of ownership, plagiarism and accusations of contracts broken.  This find, whatever it is, is a significant discovery as there has never been any record of any human habitations at this height above sea level. 

If you are interested and wish to follow this argument/discovery go to the link I have provided as follows -- http://www.noahsarksearch.net/eng/index.php.

My interest is not in proving the find, one way or another, but in the credibility and reliability of the Scriptures, in particular the Book of Genesis.  This is a book recognized by our Savior YaHshua and His Apostles as a genuine account of man’s beginning.  Like it or not, the acceptance or rejection of the Genesis account would also be the acceptance or rejection or our Messiah and Savior, YaHshua.

(Genesis is the Greek meaning “generations” demonstrating, once again the Greek/Roman influence on the Scriptures.  See the end of this article for more information)

Remember, or read the word’s of our Savior YaHshua and we see, without a doubt, that He spoke of this event as fact.  His Apostles also accepted this Book as fact.  As believers do we need proof?  Not really as the proof is from the words or our Savior Himself –

Yahshua –

 (Mat 24:38-39)  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

And -- Peter

(2Pe 2:5)  And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

And –  Paul

(Heb 11:7)  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

It is sad when we see professing believers try to make excuses for the tales found in Genesis (Bereshith, as in the original Hebrew, meaning, “In The Beginning), giving in to the intellectual critics and not recognizing the Genesis account as factual history, as did our Savior, YaHshua – they should be ashamed of themselves.   

Moses, the Author?  Did Moses know how to write?

It seemed appropriate to mention things about the Book of Genesis concerning whether we should take it for what it says, as our Lord did, or see it as just a story of tribal people attempting to explain where they came from.  Moses is given credit for writing the Torah (The Law, first five books).  There are those that do not believe this and divide the writing of the Torah into different periods with authors ‘unknown” – from here they begin to start guessing. 

There should be no argument about Moses being the author of most of the Torah and it is not without reason to say Genesis could well have been dictated to him by YHWH.  Certainly Moses was not present at the creation of the Garden of Eden.  This would answer the question as to how Moses came by so much information concerning place, events and people he had never witness, or knew. 

Okay, there is the little thing of plagiarism also, although most critics don’t use such a strong word but the fact remains, when they say the Genesis account of creation was taken from (stolen?) the Gilgamesh epic tales coming to us from the Sumerian cuneiform text.  Now let’s not forget, this account of the Flood is 25-2700 BC and it is a written record

Wikipedia: Gilgamesh (Akkadian cuneiform) Gilgameš, also known as Bilgames in the earliest text)was the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II, first dynasty of Uruk), placing his reign ca. 2500 BC

World Civilizations,  Richard Hooker:

    Considering the dating for the escape from Egypt under the command of Moses being anywhere from 8 BC to 5 BC, depending on which books you are reading,  you can see how the critics are illiterate themselves.  The information presented above by itself should squash those schalors (?) that have for many years chanted, “Moses could not have written the Torah, because writing was not invented yet”.  That chant is not heard so much any more but not so long ago this was a prime mantra of the so called intellectuals in attempts to denigrate the Holy Scriptures.  It is hard for the intellectuals, standing against all things Biblical, to explain away the Sumerian society as the evidence mounts (actually is released) demonstrating the Sumerians enjoyed nearly everything we enjoy as a modern society, except for maybe things like cell phones.  They had transportation, mega cities (still being dug up), schools, libraries and live entertaiment, and all this some 2000 years before Moses, if you go by the dating, presented by the archologist for the Sumerian society now vanished from history, buried.      

   To recap and a little more information -- The point is, people living at least hundreds of years before Moses were writing things down, had libraries, and from all appearances were very civilized and modern in their thinking.  Then we have the Babylonian culture becoming the central jewel of mans accomplishments, all other societies seeking to model themselves after the the Babylonian fashion. They had developed religion to a new level and one of their primary gods was Marduk, small statuettes of various sizes have been uncovered and displayed.  The first images I saw of this god, Marduk, Babylon’s patron deity (small statuettes used in home worship), startled me for the similartiy of that image to the images the JESUS we see in the world today.  Other wall images of thie god picture a partnership with a serpent and pirture this god as a king, while the smaller statuettes are of a Christ like figure, long hair, beard, wide open eyes, white robe with rope sash.

Side note:  The god Marduck was said to be the son of Ea, (Enki In Sumeria) and all the powers of Ea passes to Marduck.  This is a simple observation, of course, but demonstrates another similarity of JESUS.  This makes me wonder even more about the vision the Christian church, as influenced by the Babylonian Roman Church’s images and protrayals.  Another point is the son of Ea, Marduk, has the planet Jupiter as his champion.  Some have pointed out that in the Vatican is an image in stone, said to be of Peter, which originally was an image of the god Jupiter, rededicated to the Apostle Peter as first pope – or first Jupiter, assistant to Marduk?  These are just simple connections an thoughts.  It is eveident, however, from a little research, that the high society of Sumer and of Babylonian political, religious sytems have not really dissapeared, only the names have been changed. 

Moses Comes Late

  The dates for Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt is all over the place.  Some say the 13^th  century BC, during the bronze age and others say the 5^th and 6^th  and 8^th century  BC for the iron age.  Writing and knowledge were before Egypt. 

Moses  was raised in the Pharoh’s house as a Prince and his education would have been the highest available.  Moses was 40 years old before he fled for his life after murdering an Egyptian authority.  He was not a child when he fled from Eygpt  into the mountains of Midian located in the Arabian Desert, and there he lived another 40 years as a shepard and student of Jethro (Called a Priest of Midian with knowledge of  YHWH – Ex 3:1, 18:1).  Moses was 80 years old when called of YHWH to return to Egypt and, of course, you should know the rest of the story.  Moses was a highly educated man, educated in the arts and in writing and in common knowledge of the desert people in the practice of self reliance and survivial, and received religious study under Jethro --  a far cry from his first 40 years of comfort and protection while living under the protection of Pharaoh.  Moses education was well rounded and His only complaint when asked to return to Egypt was his speaking ability, that was overcome by YHWH sending his older brother Aaron, so Moses was prepared for he job set in front of him.  Later, as we see, Moses found his voice, his public speaking voice.  

Iron Age and Bronze Age at the Same Time?

   We have already seen mankind as far back as history can be uncovered possessed the art of writing and communicating in an intelligent manner.  If we can accept the truth of the Scriptures we can also throw a little curve at those having set dates based on what they preceive as “ages of man” determined by stone tools and metal development – stones, copper, bronze, iron.  If, however, we would listen to the Scriptures we would see the Bronze Age and the Iron Age actually occurred at the same time, and we would know to whom credit should be given for this technological discovery.

(Gen 4:22)  Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.

   Remember, this is on record as having happened before the worldwide flood, hundreds and hundreds of years before the Sumerian records.  Okay, I concede, if you do not believe the Scriptures are true then this means nothing to you but still, as an intellectual, or at least an intelligent human being, you should be somewhat amazed that someone way back then was writing about something not yet discovered, at least according to modern thinking.  Bonze maybe but iron, really? For the author of Genesis to make mention of such technology and to include it in a story is amazing in itself and when we consider this is not information that really needed to advance the story, unless, of course, it is not a story but is fact.  You don’t believe or don’t want to believer but you do have to wonder, right?

   Accepting the Scriptures as true and reliable is a step all called saints will have to deal with as the critics continue to act and treat you as if you are stupid, never mind that some of the greatest thinkers in recorded history have done just that – believed the Scriptures to be the work or a Higher Intelligence.

   We find a great number of the faithful making every attempt to accommodate the highly educated critics by agreeing to relegate much of Scripture to the bin of   symbolic language not really meant to be taken at face value.  Shame on them. Even if we understand the desire to fit in, our Creator has given us a brain to sort things out with the ability to recognize the context of what is being said. 

   When a thing is symbolic, in Scripture, we are told that very thing and then we are told, by the messenger of the vision, what it means.  When it is a vision, we are told over and over what is and is not a visual lesson.  The Author of the Book of Genesis never once indicates it is a symbolic message and it is not recorded as a vision.  We have already read how out Savior YaHshua quoted from Genesis as a source and later Peter and Paul also.

   Many have trouble accepting the Great Flood, as an example, there has been several very smart individuals, down through the ages, ready to supply an apology for the account and to make concessions for the Creator giving us a nice story.  If anything, they say, it is a story of a local event not a worldwide event.  The true critics, those so full of intellectual self importance, deny the account totally as a fabricated story told around primitive campfires.   The Apostle Paul had something to say about this.

(Rom 1:17-20)  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. NIV

   Living by faith, we then, as believers, do not need proof in order to believe our Creator, the Higher Intelligence, as the true author of Genesis.  Moses is the servant (secretary/scribe) who wrote the things down given to him.  And it is evident to us as we witness the wonders of Creation surrounding us that anyone rejecting this information is a fool, indeed, reserved for the wrath to come.  Even hardened scientists admit the earth has seen catastrophic changes not unlike those described in the Book of Genesis, but still, they refuse to acknowledge intelligence greater than their own.  They see the proof but work mightily in weaving their own story and stories based on the imaginations of men. 

   When considering the Great Flood we see the evidence the world over but it is refused by those of higher learning and this exerts a certain pressure on believers and teachers of Scripture to compromise – and compromise they do.  Those that should know better deny the truth of Genesis trying to make the falsehood of scientific assumptions as fact.    Never mind about the scientist or the self-proclaimed experts, in denial and down right hatred of the Creator God, we can and should ignore them for the most part -- this is about the “believer” living in a world of critics attempting to make you doubt, or getting you to admit the Scriptures are nothing more than fancy tales of the primitive mind. 

   When you or any Christian teacher or preacher begins talking evolution and attempts to blend scripture in some method of reasoning to excuse the Creator God for having made up such fanciful stories you are, in a matter of speaking, calling YHWH a liar.  In this they try to appease the intellectuals so they don’t have to answer the questions of doubt with, “The Bible told me so”, and in this seem in their own eyes as deluded.  This also allows these false believers into the cocktail parties of men and women they admire as more intelligent than you or me.

Genesis Needs No Defense

So far we have seen how the book of Genesis could very well have been written and accounts recorded for later use even before Moses – not to suggest the book of Genesis was written before, but that the ability to write such accounts into a record was possible before Moses was ever born.  If the Sumerians had this ability and it is becoming ever more evident to the scholars that ancient men and women were anything but stupid.  Let’s not forget, nearly every society of men that have lived on this earth, be they tribal, savage, aboriginal or civilized they all have a record (story) about the original family escaping a great flood.  Consider, a conservative reckoning, of approximately 400 separate accounts given of this event.  This would be one of the most reported events in the history of mankind running through every type of social order found in human history.  Ignore, excused, denied and rejected even by some claiming to be believers and followers of the Scriptures.  What we have in the Genesis account is a Creator giving a more exact account of this event and the reason why it happened.  Moses did not plagiarize the Gilgamesh account anymore than the North American Indians plagiarize Moses when they speak of the same event in their stories of beginnings.

Here is a link to a very informative site: http://www.nwcreation.net/noahlegends.html

UFO Connection?

Some things the ancients accomplished are so far beyond the modern mind some have suggested they must have had extraterrestrial help -- UFO visitations -- but this does not explain where they came from, if that were the case.  Super intelligence from outer space, giving monkey men advanced technology?  Well, of course that is true – our Creator and His Angels are from somewhere out there, in a place called Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens.  Our Creator, however, and His angels did not build the pyramids, no they built the Earth.  The Great Wall of China was built by men, not lizard men from space.  Stonehenge – men, Tower of Babel – men, etc., etc.

If we, as the faithful, believe what is written we then know the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, biblically, were the same age.  These developments in bronze and iron work were happening at the same time and by the same founder.  Just like when we give Edison credit for electricity, we should give Tubal-cain credit for the development of metallurgy.  If this were accepted by the science of today the time-tables of advancement and regression would change.  I said regression as the progress of man’s development has suffered some giant steps backward. 

   Contrary to evolutionary thought, men have not been advancing intellectually – we are not evolving bigger and better brains.  The Biblical account gives us a view into a couple to events plunging the advancement of men backward. Certainly we acknowledge the Dark Ages in our near history where knowledge was lost, but a funny thing happened, from this period came some of the greatest thinkers and scientist of our time since YaHshua walked in the flesh on this Earth.  The Dark Ages forced men to look for answers and a lot of mistakes were made along the way but see what they did, they returned to ancient writings and wisdoms, literature became a prize to cherish and protect.  Even in this, however, men slaughtered men in attempting to protect certain cherished ideals some bordering on superstitions inherited from a pagan past.  Strangely enough, Christianity had been taking a form similar to the pagan superstitions and even incorporating some, if not all, of the pagan festival and practices into its own traditions.  Some give this flow into a pagan Christianity credit for the plunge into darkness leading to the Dark Ages and eventually the blood letting of anyone not in agreement with the clergy whether of Roman origin or Protestant -- both have the blood of true followers of the Christ on their historical hands.  From this bloody time came a rebellion, of sorts, and in this came the idea of free thought and investigation.  Like it or not, the schools of higher learning, higher thinking were, for the most part financed and built by the Churches.  As an example, both Cambridge and Harvard, not to mention Oxford of England, were religious institutions.   So, from the bloody Dark Ages came modern thought and prosperity.  But was this advancement or merely the rediscovery of lost intelligence? 

   In the Scriptures we have the advancement of mankind then a radical shift throwing the human race backward.  We have the Flood of Genesis taking mankind right back to a new beginning.  Then we have the Genesis account of the confusion of languages, another event throwing mankind backward and it seems this event alone pushed mankind’s advancement backward even further than had been accomplished by the Great Flood. 

First Things First

  First there is the record of what some call the “original sin”, but I don’t think that is the case, I believe “sin” was already present, otherwise why the “Tree of Good and EVIL”?  What Adam and Eve did was disobey their Creator, but the first place we hear of the term “sin” it is connected to Cain and represents an attitude.

(Gen 4:7)  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

You will see doing right and wrong is separate from “sin”.  It is “sin crouching” and ready to consume him but it is the doing wrong continually that would bring Cain into the penalty of “sin”.   In the following verses we see Cain not taking Yahweh’s advice in practicing righteous way of living ultimately taking his brother Abel into the field and murder him.  What we see is a person continuing in a bad attitude of making wrong decisions and living contrary to what he was instructed in.

 (1Jn 3:4)  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

(Rom 4:15)  Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

We can see the “sin” Cain entered into was the sin of “murder”, on of the Commandments of YHWH.  Cain’s wrong living and thinking led to this sin.  Without the Commands of our God and Savior YaHshua there would be not “wrath”, which is to say, a penalty.  We can recognize the Commandments written by the finger of YHWH, known to most as the Ten Commandments, appearing in one form or another, demonstrating to us our Creator’s Commands from the Beginnings.  Cain disrespected His parents and he lied to YWHW, and he murdered his brother – all Commands of YHWH.  His instruction is to live right so we will not fall into one of these “sins”.

Satan and the Original Sin  

From all appearances we have the first or “Original Sin” being authored by Satan, also called the first liar and the father of all liars. 

(John 8:44)  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

It is Satan that committed the “Original Sin”.  Adam and Eve, being “beguiled” (led astray, deluded, seduced) by Satan disobeyed their Creator in a moment of temptation.  Cain, on the other hand, plotted the murder of his brother; Satan is no where around and is without excuse.  This does beg the question – Who did Satan murder?  YaHshua said Satan “was a murderer from the beginning” but it does not appear that Satan had a hand in influencing Cain at all. 

  Is it possible Satan has, or had the power to “murder” (destroy) other beings such as himself, spirit beings?  Just a thought and I would only be speculating, but we do see from the Historical account presented in the book of Genesis that man did not need the encouragement of Satan to live a life style contrary to what is right and good and to commit murder, to lie, to covet or to be disrespectful of our parents, all parts and pieces of the Ten Commandments, all of which Cain on his own

  On Giant Step Back

This step backward was to last for hundreds of years with the Sons of God struggling in an hostile environment and ultimately moving so far away from their Creator as to bring an end to themselves.  Yes, they were responsible for their own fate and they were going so terribly wrong their Maker repented of ever having made mankind.  In His mercy He did not give up on us, seeing in Noah a glimmer of hope.  Noah, found to be the only righteous person on the face of the earth.  Hard to believe but believe it we must for it is a message for us today.

(Mat 24:37)  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Is it possible there will be so few people of real faith when our Lord Yahshua returns? 

   After the Great Flood men began to advance at an alarming rate and were headed in the same direction of their pre-flood ancestors.  Men began to multiply rapidly and at this point of rebellion the languages of the various races were confounded and this led to the division and halted the advancement once again.  Humanity, confounded, began to spread out over the earth, no longer the beneficiary of unity of mind, now each race must live or die on its own.  Today, in a modern world, we see this language barrier pulled down and men are once again benefiting, good or bad, from a shared mind. 

   YHWH has promised never to destroy the earth with a flood like that again.  This is an empty promise if the Great Flood of Genesis had only been a local event.  No, this Flood completely covered the face of the earth.

(Gen 8:5)  And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

  The Ark came to rest on a mountain peak, grounded as the waters began to recede and it was not until the 10^th month when Noah began to see the tops of other mountains.  This is not some local flood and anyone taking to time to read all of chapters 7-8 will see a lot of detail about this event, more than any other account. 

As believers and servants of YaHshua we do not have to back away from what is written in the Book of Genesis/Bereshith, but embrace it and learn from it.  There is hardly any other book like it, it is unique in its detail and its claims. 

servant@yahshuaservant.com

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:  Genesis  -- 1. The Name 

The first book of Moses is named by the Jews from the first word, namely, ????????, b^ere¯'shi¯th, i.e. “in the beginning” (compare the ???s??, Bre¯sith of Origen). In the Septuagint it is called Ge´?es??, Ge´nesis, because it recounts the beginnings of the world and of mankind. This name has passed over into the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 ad) (Liber Genesis). As a matter of fact the name is based only on the beginning of the book.

Bible.org on Genesis – Title:

 Nearly the entire Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, and Genesis is no exception. The original Hebrew title of Genesis is bereshit, which means “in beginning” (see 1:1a). This is an appropriate title, for the book of beginnings. But our English Bibles do not follow the Hebrew title; we follow the Greek title.

The Hebrew Old Testament was eventually translated into Greek (about 250 years before the time of Christ). The Greek translators then gave their own title, “Genesis” to the first book of their Old Testament text. The Greek word geneseos means “origin, source, generation, or beginning.” Geneseos is a translation of the Hebrew word toledot (“generations,” 2:4). This title is also quite appropriate because Genesis is indeed a history of origins, births, genealogies, and generations.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary -- Genesis

The five books of Moses were collectively called the Pentateuch, a word of Greek origin meaning “the five-fold book.” The Jews called them the Torah, i.e., “the law.” It is probable that the division of the Torah into five books proceeded from the Greek translators of the Old Testament. The names by which these several books are generally known are Greek.

The first book of the Pentateuch (q.v.) is called by the Jews Bereshith, i.e., “in the beginning”, because this is the first word of the book. It is generally known among Christians by the name of Genesis, i.e., “creation” or “generation,” being the name given to it in the LXX. as designating its character, because it gives an account of the origin of all things. It contains, according to the usual computation, the history of about two thousand three hundred and sixty-nine years.