The way of imagination

“ You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more  zealous  for the traditions of my ancestors. But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased   to reveal his Son to me…”  (Galatians 1.13-16)         As one reads his letter to the Romans, it is easy to forget that Paul was not always a disciple of Jesus.    His understanding of the gospel and his devotion to Christ seem to have always been part and parcel of his thinking and his way of life.    However, as he pointed out to the Galatians at least 5 years before writing to Rome, Saul of Tarsus – prior to his becoming a believer in Jesus – had been a “zealous” persecutor of the church; indeed, he had tried to destroy it.    The trad...

  I.                     Gn. 2.4—3.24: The garden of Eden A.     OBSERVATION 1.       General observations      This pericope is all about “the ground”.   In 2.5, it is pointed out that “In the day that the LORD God ( YHWH Elohim ) made the earth and the heavens…there was no one to till the ground ”.   Before the LORD God begins to explicitly create, there is “the (pre-existing) ground” and a stream that would water the face of the ground and/or earth (2.6).   “Then the LORD God formed man ( Adam ) [1] from the dust of the ground ( adamah )” (2.7).   The Adam ’s purpose is to till/keep the garden (2.15; cf. 3.23) that the LORD God had planted; i.e. the LORD God had made trees to grow “out of the ground” (2.8-9), from which He makes man as well as “every animal of the field and every bird of the air” (2....

  I.                     Gn. 1.1—2.3: The (first) creation account A.     OBSERVATION 1.       General observations      There isn’t exactly “nothing” in the beginning.   Darkness covers the watery abyss which surrounds (?) the earth, i.e. “a formless void” (1.2). [1]   A “wind from God” swept over the face of the waters (1.2; cf. 8.1 [2] ).   Then, God begins to speak and thus to form an ordered cosmos out of the primordial chaos.   The expression “there was evening and there was morning” which is used to “wrap up” the account of each day of creation is intriguing.   God’s delight in his work of creation is evidenced by the repeated use of the word “good”. [3]   This pericope is obviously, amongst other things, a justification of Sabbath observance (2.3; cf. Ex. 20.8-11). 2.   ...