Before reading this article, please read “TWO Creation Stories in Genesis 1-3!” and “The Toledoth or ‘Book Titles’ in Genesis” first.
Just like Genesis 1-3 has literal elements, but isn’t fully literal, neither is Genesis 4-11. We don’t encounter actual history until Abraham, in Genesis 12. So if that’s the case, what is Genesis 1-11 telling us?
Just like we were able to better understand the biblical Creation story by looking at its underlying structure, we can do the same with all of Genesis 1-11:
| A – Gen. 1:1-2:4 | Earth born out of water | A’ – Gen. 6:10-8:22 | Earth reborn out of water |
|---|---|---|---|
| B – Gen. 2:4-5:1 | God covenants with man, but sin and murder enter | B’ – Gen. 9:1-10:1 | God covenants with man and warns against murder, but sin enters |
| C – Gen. 5 | Genealogy of the sons of God | C’ – Gen. 10 | Genealogy of the Gentile sons of God |
| D – Gen. 6:1-9 | Evil generation of Noah | D’ – Gen. 11:1-10 | Evil generation of Shem (Tower of Babel) |
Note that these sections fairly closely correspond to the “tablets” that we discovered before. A is God’s section, B is Adam’s section, C and D are Noah’s section, A’ and B’ are Noah’s three sons’ section, and C’ and D’ are Shem’s section. That shows that this construction was very deliberate, on the part of the authors. So what are they trying to tell us?
Firstly, we’re intended to see a repeating pattern in God’s dealings with man. That repeating pattern begins with the establishment or re-establishment of a perfect order, but ends with the full manifestation of evil, towards the end of the life of a righteous patriarch. In both cases, God separates the righteous from the wicked at this final point in time.
Secondly, in both cases we’re to see God’s covenant with man as a key to maintaining that state of order, but nevertheless, sin very quickly enters the scene.
Here’s the ultimate question though. What parts of these sections, actually happened? How can we know? Did Cain exist, and did he murder Abel? Did the Flood really happen? Did the Tower of Babel exist, and was all of mankind scattered from the Tower of Babel?
The answer to these things is complicated, but we have one very important key, here. When the earth was reborn out of water in the biblical Flood, was there a state of chaos beforehand? How did it get that way? Through violence and wickedness on the part of mankind, right?
We’re intended to understand that the earth being born out of water in Genesis 1:1 WAS NOT THE VERY BEGINNING. It got that way because of mankind. Obviously so, because as we’ve seen, other nations already existed at the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We’re simply not being told what happened before then.
In Jeremiah 4:19-26, Jeremiah laments the sorry state of Judah, because of their sins. He deliberately uses language evocative of creation in reverse, to show that Judah was about to be destroyed and left in a state of chaos, as if before creation had occurred. Once again, we see a repeating pattern of an evil generation, followed by destruction.
The fact that Genesis 1:1 wasn’t the very beginning, will help us to discern what’s going on in these early sections of Genesis. In the future, we’ll discuss how the biblical Eden wasn’t the first Eden, the biblical Flood wasn’t the first catastrophe, and the Tower of Babel wasn’t man’s first attempt to ascend to heaven, as it were.