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IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS |
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by
Doug Ward |
In Genesis 26:4-5, God affirmed to the patriarch Isaac the
promise that he had originally made to Isaac's father Abraham:
"And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven,
and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept
my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws" (KJV).
The
statement in verse 5 about Abraham's obedience has intrigued many readers over
the centuries. The language used here for the laws that Abraham obeyed
("my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws") is very
similar to that employed elsewhere in the Pentateuch for the Torah that
God later gave to the children of Israel.1
This language raises the question of what laws are in view in Genesis 26:5.
In
proposing answers to this question, some interpreters have examined Gen 26:5
for clues (see for example [7, pp. 250-251]). The Kabbalah uses numerological
clues, including the fact that there are ten Hebrew words in the verse, to
conclude that it refers primarily to the Ten Commandments [7, p. 250]. One
rabbinic tradition goes much further, extrapolating from the fact that the word
for "laws" in Gen. 26:5 is plural to assert that Abraham kept two
"Torahs"-the written Torah preserved in the Pentateuch and the
"oral Torah" of Jewish traditions that spell out how to apply
the written Torah ([6, p. 706], [5, chapter 9]). This tradition seems to
be reflected in the Mishnah, where R. Nehorai
is quoted as saying, "We find that the patriarch Abraham kept the entire
Torah even before it was revealed, since it says, `Since Abraham obeyed my
voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws' " (m.
Qiddushin 4:14; see also b. Yoma
28b).
These
traditions give what might be called a "maximalist" reading of Gen
26:5. There are other interpreters who adopt more of a "minimalist"
stance-e.g., those from Christian traditions that uphold a strict law vs.
gospel dichotomy. One way for a modern minimalist to deal with Gen 26:5 is to
claim that it was added to the text of Genesis by an editor writing much later
in Israel's history.2
The
broad range of interpretation of Gen 26:5 is noted by Christian scholar James
K. Bruckner in his doctoral dissertation [2]. Bruckner observes a tendency for
interpreters to see this verse through the lenses of their theological presuppositions.
He suggests that a more fruitful approach would begin with a study of the
bigger picture of what the book of Genesis has to say about the laws of God,
and he goes on to explore this bigger picture. The present article is based on
his findings.
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Paying
Attention to Genre |
At first glance, it might appear that the book of Genesis contains
little information on the subject of law, since it includes few explicit
statements of the "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not"
varieties. Indeed, in the traditional list compiled by Maimonides of the 613
commandments of the Torah (see for example [8]), only two are referenced
to passages in the section of scripture from Genesis 1 through Exodus 11. Those
two are the commandment to "be fruitful and multiply" in Gen 1:28 and
the circumcision commandment in Gen 17:10.
One
reason that there are relatively few direct commands in the book of Genesis is
that this part of the Bible is a narrative rather than, say, a covenant
document like the book of Deuteronomy. In the course of telling its story, this
beginning portion of the Bible actually has quite a lot to say about legal
matters. However, it often addresses these matters indirectly rather than in
the form of explicit commandments.
It
is instructive to go through the book of Genesis, keeping track of the
different ways in which the text implies that certain actions are right and
others are wrong. I will next present the results of such a survey. My list is
not exhaustive, but it is extensive enough to give an idea of the wealth of
moral teaching contained in Genesis. Subsequent examination of the list will
suggest a unified rationale for much of this teaching.
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Right
and Wrong in Genesis |
I have grouped my compilation of the legal and ethical information
conveyed in the book of Genesis into five main categories. Since God is the
ultimate authority in these matters and the main character in the Genesis
narrative, we first examine God's words and actions.
1. Divine Commands
Some divine commands in Genesis are intended strictly for particular
individuals-e.g., the command that Noah build an ark (Gen 6:14-16), or the
directives that Abram leave his homeland (12:1) and later sacrifice his son
Isaac (22:2). Other instructions from God are intended to apply more broadly.
Two examples mentioned already are the commandment to be fruitful and multiply
(1:28; 9:1,7), given to the first humans and repeated
to Noah; and the circumcision commandment (17:10-14) that is the sign of a
covenant with Abraham and his descendants. Additional instructions that may
belong to this category include the following:
· The
fact that Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden "to dress it and to keep
it" (2:15) would seem to imply a more general responsibility of
stewardship over creation.
· The
instruction that "a man ... cleave unto his wife" (2:24) is clearly
directed toward men in general, not just to Adam.
· The
"cursing of the ground" in Gen 3:17-19 carries with it an implicit
commandment that people work in order to earn a living.
· The
command in Gen 7:2 that seven pairs of each clean animal and one pair of each
unclean animal be put on the ark was, of course, only applicable to Noah.
However, this command also communicates the more general fact that God has
deemed some animals to be ceremonially clean and others to be unclean.
· The
prohibition against eating meat from which the blood has not been drained (Gen
9:4) is meant for Noah's descendants as well as Noah himself. So is the
stipulation of capital punishment for murder (9:5-6).
2. Divine Judgment
At various junctures in the Genesis narrative, God intervenes to judge the
actions of individuals or groups. These incidents supply further information
about the content of divine law in Genesis:
· Adam
and Eve are removed from the Garden of Eden when they yield to the serpent's
temptation and disobey God's direct order (Gen 3).
· God
deems Abel's offering to be acceptable and Cain's unacceptable (4:4-5).
· When
Cain kills Abel, God punishes Cain (4:8-15).
· When
wickedness, corruption and violence fill the earth, God sends a flood (6:5-17).
· After
the flood, God intervenes at Babel to scatter the people and "confound
their language"(11:1-9).
· God
sends plagues upon Pharaoh (12:17) when Pharaoh attempts to take Sarai as a
wife. Later, God closes the wombs of the women of Gerar
and sentences Abimelech to death when that ruler undertakes a similar action
(20:3-7,18).
· God
destroys the cities of the plain after failing to find as many as ten righteous
men there and turns Lot's wife into a pillar of salt (Gen 18-19).
· God
puts wicked Er to death (38:7). Then Onan, who
disobeys his father and fails to carry out the responsibility of levirate
marriage on behalf of his deceased brother, receives the same penalty
(38:8-10).
3. Divine Example
One concise summary of God's commandments, repeated in both the Hebrew
Scriptures and the Greek New Testament, is given in Lev 19:2: "Ye shall be
holy: for I the LORD your God am holy" (cf. Lev 11:44-45; 20:26; I Peter
1:15-16). This simple statement implies that the people of God are to emulate
him. God's example, then, carries a great deal of weight.
In
Gen 2:1-3, God follows six days of creation with a day of rest, setting a
precedent for human Sabbath-keeping. To those who deny the importance of this
example, Seventh-day Adventist scholar Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi asks a series of questions:
"What is it that makes any divine precept moral and
universal? Do we not regard a law moral when it reflects God's nature? Could
God have given any stronger revelation of the moral nature of the Sabbath than
by making it a rule of His divine conduct? Is a principle established by divine
example less binding than one enunciated by a divine command? Do not actions
speak louder than words?" [1, p. 78]
4.
Actions Acknowledged as Right or Wrong
In a number of places in the book of Genesis, people state either directly or
indirectly that certain actions are right and others are wrong:
· Lot
characterizes the desire of the men of Sodom to sexually assault his guests as
"wicked" (19:7).
· Abraham's
insistence that his servant take an oath "by the LORD, the God of heaven,
and the God of the earth" (24:3) implies both men agreed that it would be
wrong to "take God's name in vain."
· Abimelech
of Gerar describes adultery as "a great
sin" and Abraham's deception as something that "ought not be done" (20:9). A later Abimelech makes a similar
statement to Isaac (26:10).
· Jacob
denounces Laban's deception (31:7). After Laban accuses Jacob of theft, Jacob
agrees that theft is wrong, stating that the perpetrator should die (31:30-32).
· Jacob's
sons are outraged at the behavior of Shechem toward
their sister Dinah (34:2,7,31). Jacob, in turn,
condemns Simeon and Levi for their cruel retaliation (34:30; 49:5-7).
· Jacob
tells the members of his household to discard their idols in preparation for
his reunion with Esau (35:2).
· Judah
orders Tamar to be burned for harlotry (38:24). When he learns that he was
Tamar's "customer," he acknowledges his own guilt in not providing a
husband for his widowed daughter-in-law (38:26).
· Joseph
resists the advances of Potiphar's wife, describing adultery as "great
wickedness" and a sin against God (39:9).
· When
Joseph tells his brothers that one of them will be held prisoner until they
bring their youngest brother to Egypt, the brothers believe they are being
punished for selling Joseph into slavery (42:21-22).
· Joseph's
scheme involving his silver cup is founded on a common understanding that theft
is wrong (44:1-17).
· Jacob
predicts that the descendants of Reuben will "not excel" because
Reuben had slept with Jacob's wife Bilhah (49:4; 35:22).
5. Human Actions and their Consequences
In many cases the narrator of Genesis does not pass judgment explicitly upon
the actions of the human characters in the book.3
However, there are often implicit connections between actions of the characters
and subsequent events in the narrative. For instance, the harm done by the
false testimony of Potiphar's wife against Joseph is easy to see, since it
results in Joseph's undeserved incarceration.
Some
of these connections are less straightforward but probably still intended by the
text. It is fairly standard, for instance, to see the deceptions suffered by
Jacob at the hands of his father-in-law Laban as a fitting recompense for
Jacob's earlier trickery involving Esau's birthright and Isaac's blessing.
Similarly, the strife among the sons of Jacob is often seen as a warning
against the consequences of polygamy. Such implicit judgments carry less weight
than those mentioned explicitly, but they are still worth considering.
The
biblical data on Abraham's life are especially relevant, since it is Abraham
who is said to be law-abiding in Gen 26:5. Here are some examples of Abraham's
virtuous actions:
· Abraham
seeks peace in his dealings with Lot (13:8-9) and with the inhabitants of
Canaan (14:21-24; chapter 23).
· In
his rescue of the kidnapped Lot (Gen 14), Abraham follows the divine guidelines
for conducting warfare later spelled out in Deut 20.4
· After
Lot's rescue, Abraham gives thanks for the successful outcome by presenting a
tithe to Melchizedek, "priest of the most high
God" (14:17-20).
· Abraham
shows hospitality to the strangers who visit him (Gen 18).5
He subsequently intercedes on behalf of the cities of the plain (18:23-33).
· Abraham
passes the ultimate test of faith in his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac
(Gen 22).
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The
Decalogue and More |
An examination of our list indicates that all of the Ten
Commandments are included in one way or another in the Genesis narrative, as
demonstrated in the following summary (cf. [3], p. 82):
· The
judgments at Eden (Gen 3) and Babel (Gen 11) and the punishment of Lot's wife
involved situations where people were placing something else above the true
God. On the other hand, Abraham's faith was anchored in God.
· Jacob's
order that the members of his household get rid of their idols (35:2) implies
that one cannot be blameless before God while in possession of these objects.
· As
mentioned previously, Abraham's servant must have believed that one should not
"take God's name in vain." Otherwise his oath would have given
Abraham no comfort.
· God's
creation week example establishes Sabbath observance as an ideal.
· The
sins for which Onan received judgment included a failure to honor his father.
· The
judgment on Cain, the Flood, and God's instruction in Gen 9:6 all condemn
murder.
· Adultery
is characterized as "great wickedness" in Gen 39:9. Rape and
prostitution are also condemned.
· Theft
is understood to be a crime (31:30-32; 44:1-17).
· False
witness (39:17-20) and deception in general (20:9) are shown to be wrong.
· Covetousness
results in judgment from God in Gen 12:17; 20:3-7,18.
In addition to the principles of the Decalogue, we also find in Genesis the practices
of levirate marriage, circumcision, and tithing, along with the distinction
between clean and unclean meats. The example of Cain and Abel gives instruction
in how and how not to prepare an offering. The account of Abraham's life
includes lessons about peacemaking, hospitality, and faith and even an example
of how to conduct a military operation. Our data give strong support to
Bruckner's conclusion that in the book of Genesis, we observe "a full
range of law implied and functioning from the beginning of God's creating,
sustaining, and providential work" [2, p. 205].
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A
Creational Ethic |
Bruckner sees the ethical standards of the book of Genesis as
rooted in creation. This is, of course, not a new idea in Christian thought.
According to the Reformed tradition of Christian theology, God set down
standards at creation that are required of every person who is in covenant with
God. These "creation ordinances" include dominion over creation,
marriage and replenishment of the earth with children, work and Sabbath
observance.
The
rest of the Bible lends support to the principle of looking to creation for
ideal standards. The book of Exodus points back to creation as the rationale
for the Sabbath commandment (Exod 20:8-11), enjoining
Israelites to follow God's example set at the beginning. Later, Jesus appealed
to the creational ideal of Gen 2:24-25 in his condemnation of divorce (Matt
19:3-9).
Evidence
for a creational standard goes beyond the first three chapters of Genesis. In
explaining why murder is an offense worthy of capital punishment (Gen 9:5-6),
God reminds Noah's family that people are created in the image of God (Gen
1:26-27).6 More broadly, in the world of the book
of Genesis certain laws seem to be hard-wired into creation, so that when those
laws are violated, creation itself is violently damaged. The catastrophe of the
Flood, the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the closing of the wombs of
Abimelech's house (20:18) are examples of the upheaval in creation produced by
sin. The characters in Genesis apparently are aware of this principle. In Gen
18:23, Abraham understands that the whole region of Sodom and Gomorrah is in
jeopardy because of the sins committed there, even though God has not
explicitly mentioned it. Similarly, Abimelech understands that his coveting
another man's wife could have consequences for all of his people (20:4).
The
moral standards of Genesis seem to be understood by everyone, not just
Abraham's family, giving further evidence that a basic law is imbedded in the
structure of creation. Both Pharaoh and Abimelech are well aware that one
should not covet the wife of another, so they are outraged when Abraham does
not explain that Sarah is his wife. Abimelech gives Abraham a mini-lecture on
morality: "What hast thou done unto us? and what
have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great
sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be
done" (Gen 20:9).7
The
existence of a universal moral standard is upheld by the rest of the Bible. In
Exodus 16:4, the existence of divine law is mentioned before the giving of the Torah
at Sinai. Then in Exodus 18, Moses settles disputes among the Israelites, which
presupposes a standard of judgment. Moreover, Moses takes advice on how to
carry out this responsibility from Jethro, his Midianite father-in-law. Later,
prophets like Jonah and Amos announce God's impending judgment on Gentile
nations, which implies that they are accountable to God according to some moral
requirements. And in the New Testament, the apostle Paul upholds this universal
accountability in the second chapter of his epistle to the Romans.
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Conclusion |
Our study of the book of Genesis supports a "maximalist"
reading of Gen 26:5. Although there is no proof that Abraham knew the rabbinic
oral law in advance, as some of the Talmudic sages contended, there is strong
evidence for the existence of a universal moral law that is in some sense built
into creation.
Since
the book of Genesis is a narrative rather than a formal legal code, it does not
spell out all the details of the creational law. Questions about how God's laws
should be lived out in our modern world by today's communities of faith still
have to be worked out by those communities, as guided by the Holy Spirit (see
Matt 16:19; 18:18-20). However, I believe our data suggest the following
conclusions:
· The
universal, creational law includes the principles of the Decalogue.
· Christian
theologies that posit a sharp law vs. gospel dichotomy are seriously flawed.
Abraham, singled out in the New Testament as an example of faith, was also an
example of obedience. The two are not in conflict (James 2:14-26).
· In
deciding how to apply the law of God, faith communities should not take lightly
any principle of the Torah, which rightly can be described as spelling
out the details of what was already implicit in Genesis.
As Walter Kaiser declares,
"So endemic is the moral law to the whole of the Mosaic
law that evidences for its abiding nature can be found in the fact that even
before it was given on Sinai it was held to be normative and binding on all who
aspired to living by faith. In fact every one of the Ten Commandments is
already implicitly found in the Genesis record even before their publication on
Sinai. Moses did not invent the moral law; God did, and he had already been
holding men and women responsible for heeding it millennia before he finally
wrote it on tablets of stone" [4, pp. 299-300].
Finally,
it will be we wise to remember one of the major lessons of Genesis: Prolonged
disregard for God's commandments can lead to catastrophe. In light of this
lesson, I hope in particular that as a society, we will soon repent of our
collective failure to protect the lives of the unborn.
|
References: |
1. Samuele Bacchiocchi, The Sabbath
under Crossfire: A Biblical Analysis of Recent Sabbath/Sunday Developments,
Biblical Perspectives, Berrien Springs, Michigan, 1998.
2. James K. Bruckner, Implied Law in the
Abraham Narrative: A Literary and Theological Analysis, Journal for the
Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 335, Sheffield Academic Press,
London, 2001.
3. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Toward Old Testament
Ethics, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1983.
4. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., "God's Promise
Plan and His Gracious Law," Journal of the Evangelical Theological
Society 33 (1990), 289-302.
5. David Klinghoffer, The Discovery of God : Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism, Doubleday,
New York, 2003.
6. James L. Kugel, Traditions of the Bible : A
Guide to the Bible As It Was at the Start of the Common Era, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998.
7. John H. Sailhamer,
"The Mosaic Law and the Theology of the Pentateuch," Westminster
Theological Journal 53 (1991) 241-261.
8. John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A
Biblical-Theological Commentary, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1992.
1See for example Deut 4:40;
5:31; 6:1-2, 17; 7:11; 8:11; 10:13; 11:1; 26:17; 27:10; 28:15, 45; 30:10, 16.
2Walter Kaiser [4, p.
299] notes that even Franz Delitizsch, a conservative
Lutheran scholar of the late nineteenth century, took this approach.
3For example, the
circumstances surrounding the conception of Lot's sons Moab and Benammi (19:30-38) are simply reported without additional
comment.
4This is observed by Sailhamer in [8]. Specifically, Abraham does not hesitate
despite being outnumbered (Deut 20:1). He leads a select group of
"trained" men, in accordance with the spirit of Deut 20:5-9. He
allows his men a portion of the spoils of victory over their distant foe but
refuses to become entangled with his wicked neighbors in Sodom (cf. Deut
20:14-18).
5According to Jewish
tradition, he is still recovering from his circumcision when the strangers
arrive [5].
6Walter Kaiser
elaborates on this reasoning in [3, p. 167]: "The person who destroys
another person, who bears the image of God, does violence to God himself-as if
he had killed God in effigy."
7Ironically,
it is Abraham who does not exhibit the fear of God in this instance, even
though Abraham had worried that there was no fear of God in Gerar
(v.11).
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