Genesis to Jesus
IV. Starting in the Beginning:
a. The Story of Creation
b. The Word and the Sabbath
V. Study Questions
b. The Word and the Sabbath
Something also to note, as we read these first few verses of the Bible. How does God create? By speaking His Word. He says "Let there be..." and things come into being. We know by reading the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, that the Word of God by which He created the world is Jesus (see
John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16-17).
That's something to remember - not only when you read the rest of the Bible, but everytime you go to Mass, too. God's Word always
does things. God's Word does what it says it's doing. When He says, "Let there be light," His Word creates light, really and truly. God's Word does what it says it's doing.
This same power of the living Word of God is at work in the sacraments of the Church. When the priest speaks the Word of Jesus: "This is My Body," the bread and wine at the altar become the Body and of Christ. When the priest speaks the Word of Jesus: "I absolve you" or "I baptize you," that Word creates the reality it speaks about.
The creative power of the Word of God is one of the most important things to learn from these early verses of Genesis.
One more interesting thing to point out. We may have a hint of the Church's doctrine of the Trinity in these early verses of Genesis.
Notice that we have three divine actors here - there is God, there is the Word that He speaks, and there is the Spirit that's describe hovering over the face of the deep (see
Genesis 1:2). Note that the New American Bible translates this "a mighty wind." But it's more accurately translated in the
Revised Standard Version: "The Spirit of God," which follows the
Vulgate, the Church's official Latin edition ("spiritus Dei) and the
Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament ("pneuma Theos").
Notice, too, that God appears to be talking to Himself in the plural: "Let
Us make man in
Our image, after
Our likeness" (
Genesis 1:26-27). Why didn't God say, "Let
Me make man in
My image, etc."?
We don't know. Scholars and saints have puzzled over this for years. We mention it here because it may be our first hint of what Jesus will later reveal - that God is three divine Persons in One: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (see
Matthew 28:19).
On the seventh day, God rests and blesses His creation. Now we're into the next chapter of Genesis (see
Genesis 2:2-3). It's not that God got tired. We should see this cosmic rest and blessing as the first of the cycle of covenants that we will see throughout the Bible.
God, by His act of establishing the Sabbath, is making a covenant with His creation, and especially with all of humanity, represented by the man He created in His own image. That seems to be what Jesus is getting at when He says: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (
Mark 2:27-28).
It makes sense, when you think about it: God doesn't create the world for no reason - to be detached or somehow unrelated to Him. He creates the world, and the human family out of love. The Sabbath is the sign of that covenant and that love.
God explains this later when He gives Moses the Sabbath laws for the people of Israel. He says the Sabbath is "a perpetual covenant" (see
Exodus 31:16-17). That's why the
Catechism calls the creation story the "first step" in God's covenant-making and "the first and universal witness to God's all-powerful love" (
no. 288).
Also, the Hebrew word for "oath-swearing" is
sheba, a word that's based on the Hebrew word for the number "seven." In Hebrew, to swear an oath, which is what you do when you make a covenant, is "to seven oneself" (see Abraham's oath in
Genesis 21:27-32).
So, what God seems to be doing here on the seventh day, is not resting, but binding Himself to His creation in a perpetual covenant relationship. And we'll see this pattern of covenant continuing throughout the Bible.
By reading the creation story according to the "content and unity" of the entire Bible, we see something else that's important about the story of creation.
We see that the creation account is describing God's creation of the world as the building of a temple, a holy place where God will dwell and meet His creatures. Like the Temple He later ordered to be built in Jerusalem, the "temple" of creation is a holy place where He will dwell and where men and women will worship and offer sacrifice.
We see this in the
Book of Job, Chapter 38, where the creation of the world is described in terms of temple building.
In fact, if we compare the creation account with the accounts of the building of the tabernacle and the Temple, we'll see that both of these holy dwellings are described in terms very similar to those used to describe the creation of the world.
For instance, when Moses constructs the tabernacle, God speaks to Him 10 times ("The Lord said to Moses"). It's no coincidence that God spoke 10 times in Genesis 1 ("Let there be..."). And there are more parallels:
God beholds that His creation is good (
Genesis 1:31). Moses beholds that his work has been done as the Lord commanded (
Exodus 39:43). Compare also
Genesis 2:1 and
Exodus 39:32 and
Genesis 2:2 and
Exodus 40:33.
Also: God blesses and hallows the Sabbath when He is done and Moses blesses the tabernacle (
Genesis 2:3; Exodus 39:43; 40:9). Finally, both accounts end with a declaration that the Sabbath is holy (
Genesis 2:2-4; Exodus 31:12-17).
You'll see the same patterns in
1 Kings 6-8 which describes the building of the Temple. King Solomon consecrates the Temple in the seventh month, on the seventh day of a seven-day feast, offering seven petitions - another not-so-subtle allusion to the creation story.
As the Spirit "hovered" over the primordial waters, the Spirit of God fills Solomon's Temple (
1 Kings 8:10), as it also did when Moses consecrated the meeting tent (see
Exodus 40:35).
In the Temple, it was the "sanctuary," the "holy of holies" that was truly the dwelling place of God, the holiest of places.
And in the creation account in Genesis, the Garden of Eden, where God placed the man and the woman, is described in terms similar to those used to describe the inner precincts of the Temple.
The Garden was entered from the East, as was the Temple sanctuary. The cherubim posted by God at the entrance of the garden resemble whose posted in the sanctuary of Solomon's temple (see
Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25:18-22, 26-31; I Kings 6:23-29).
God "walks" in the garden (
Genesis 3:8) as He is said to dwell in the Temple sanctuary (see
Leviticus 26:11-12; Deuteronomy 14:23; 2 Samuel 7:6-7).
We'll see more parallels in our
next lesson as we look more in-depth at the creation of man and woman and their "fall."
V. Study Questions for Class One: Lesson One
1. Name and explain the three way that God reveals Himself to us.
2. What does it mean to say that the Bible is inspired by God and free from error?
3. What's the difference between a covenant and a contract?
4. What do covenants do and why are they important to understanding the Bible?
5. There may be two hints of the Trinity in Genesis 1. What are they?
6. How is God's creation like the tabernacle and Temple He ordered to be built?
7. What is the meaning of the Sabbath day?
8. For prayer and reflection: The Genesis creation story is the first of nine Scriptures that are read during the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday night. Read all the readings for the Vigil, the Responses and, if possible the prayers that go along with the readings. Ask God to help you see the pattern of salvation history that these readings unfold, using the prayer that's said during the Vigil after the reading of Genesis and the Psalm:
Almighty and eternal God,
You created all things in wonderful beauty and order.
Help us now to perceive
how still more wonderful is the new creation
by which in the fullness of time
You redeemed your people
through the sacrifice of our Passover, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
The readings for the Easter Vigil are as follows:
1. Genesis 1:1-2:2
Response: Psalm 104:1-2,5-6,10-14,24,35
2. Genesis 22:1-18
Response: Psalm 16:5,8, 9-11
3. Exodus 14:15 -15:1
Response: Exodus 15:1-6,17-18
4. Isaiah 54:5-14
Response: Psalm 30:2-6,11-13
5. Isaiah 55:1-11
Response: Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6
6. Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4
Response: Psalm 19:8-10,17
7. Ezekiel 36:16-17, 18-28
Response: Psalm 42:3,5; 43:3- 4
8. Romans 6:3-11
Response: Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
9. Matthew 28:1-10 (Year A) or Mark 16:1-7 (Year B) or Luke 24:1-12 (Year C)
