Creation to Tower-Genesis 1-11: Why the Rest of the Bible Exists

by G.S. Augustine

Desperate for a Solution

The part of the Bible that most people reject as myth is the first eleven chapters of Genesis. The creation story, Noah and flood, and the Tower of Babel are simply too fantastic and unscientific. And even those who do take these chapters with some seriousness, miss the great import of them. Though I believe these chapters reflect a condensed history, the point isn’t a history lesson. The author intends to reveal a deadly human problem that the rest of the Bible gives a multidimensional solution for. He presents the problem in such a way that when we understand him properly, we feel desperate for a solution.

I believe Moses is the original author of most of the Pentateuch. But even if one doubts that, Creation is an odd place to start. If Moses is writing this, he is writing near the end of his life. The people of Israel wait outside the promised land of Canaan. Israel is about to invade another nation’s country and take possession of it. By what right do they do this? In Genesis, we read that God gives the land to Abraham (Genesis 15). Why not just start here? Why go all the way back to Creation?

Creators Own What They Create

Moses begins with the creation of everything to impress two things upon the people of Israel. First, since God created it, he owns it and can do what he wants with it. He can give it to whom he wishes and, he can stipulate the requirements for staying in it.

However we want to read the creation story—as literal six day history or as poetic interpretation—we cannot overlook the reason the writer tells this account. God owns the land and can give it to us to live in. But secondly he can kick us out of it if we don’t live up to our end of the bargain.

When the first couple failed to live up to God’s stipulation in the garden, he kicked them out of it. This will become a pattern for the whole of the Bible. It will also be true at the of end of history when God establishes his kingdom on earth. Those who have fulfilled the requirements for living in the land will live there. Those who don’t, won’t.

What is the Stipulation?

The author of Genesis begins by telling us not just of God’s creation, but of God’s “good” creation.  Six times in Genesis 1, the author says, “And God saw that it was good,” and once “very good.”  Any time a Bible author repeats something this many times, it is the very heart of his message.  

Then, in Genesis 2, something is “not good.”  God says, “It is not good for man to alone,” and he solves that by creating a woman.  God knows what is good and not good. He also tells the man that he must not eat from the “tree of knowing of good and bad.”  This will bring death into the human race. The translation, “Tree of Good and Evil” create in our modern Western mind something not quite right. It derives more from Platonic dualism than from Hebraic thought. Good and evil to us sounds like the war between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. And we tend to interpret it that way. 

Who Gets to Decide?

The Hebrew simply means “good and bad” or more clearly, “good and not good.” And God has been doing that very thing in the first two chapters. God gives us great authority over creation. But there is one thing we have no capacity for. We cannot successfully “know” or “discern” what is good and not good.

The Hebrew word “yada” translated “knowledge” here, carries the meaning in wisdom literature as discerning something, not just knowing something. This is a better way of understanding the meaning here. God is able to determine good or not good because only he can see the future results of present choices.  We only guess at the future results. What may look good now might be bad later.

When We Decided We Knew Better

In the fall of the human race, the author highlights the fact that the woman calls something “good” on her own apart from God. “The woman decided that the tree was good for food and able to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6). Here she is contradicting God’s statement that the tree is “bad” i.e. it will cause her death. Whether she realizes it or not, she has usurped God’s authority. When her husband acts with her, though, he knowingly usurps God’s authority in this area.

Wait a minute. This doesn’t sound much like literal trees and fruit! Correct. The first eleven chapters of Genesis is highly compressed history. Biblical authors (and all antiquity in general) used symbols to express their ideas in brief. A garden has trees and fruit. It may be that the first couple’s action in a real garden was connected with their fall, but historical trivia of eating a piece of fruit is not our author’s main interest. He uses these things to make an eternal point. Our connection with God relies on our willingness to submit to his definitions of what is good and not good. The tree, literal or not, is more than a tree. It is the very essence of submitting to God’s authority in this matter.

God cannot be anything other than God. He cannot subject himself to human whims. The first couple demanding the authority to determine what is good and not good for themselves severs their relationship to God. In doing so, they also sever their relationship with the source of life itself—in other words, they embrace death.

A Conundrum of Rule

When God created male and female, he gave them an irrevocable gift: the rule over all creation. (This is found in Genesis 1:26-27; see also Romans 11:28-29 on irrevocable gifts). But severing our relationship with God created a conundrum in that rule.

We damaged our ability to rule over creation because it now operates without God’s direction. We weakened our ability to be fruitful because we took authority over what we have no power to do successfully. Weeds rather than crops now grow naturally; bearing and rearing children becomes difficult; relationships become strained. Violence, death, political oppression, and fragmentation of society follow in the next chapters of Genesis. 

And if we have eyes to see, every form of hostility in society from that day to the presence derives from the demand of one person or group over another to enforce their determination of what is good and not good.

Violence and Murder: Unavoidable Result

The first event after severing connection with God is a murder. Not the first event that happened—the first event the author of Genesis wants us to know about after the fall.

Possibly thirty or more years have past but our author focuses on one brother killing another. Cain does not like God’s call about what sacrifice (or who) is acceptable. Cain decides that God’s decision is not good. He then decides a “good” next step is to kill his brother. After all Abel is making him feel bad. Today, we consider making anybody feel bad for any reason as definitely in the “not good” category. But what did God say? 

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 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 (Genesis 4:6-7)

When We Arbitrate Good And Not Good

What should have been an opportunity for Cain to become a better version of himself, becomes his undoing. Hampered by his commitment to his own definition of what is good and not good, he kills his brother. The result is further alienation from the ground and others. He forms a city for protection that produces a human system of easily rationalized justice. The most noticeable example in Lamech’s rant (Genesis 4:23-24). 

By Genesis 6, this sickness of violent expression spreads to all humanity. This was automatic. All wars and every source of conflict derives from a clash over who gets to determine what is good and not good. For instance, some say a woman should have the right to terminate a pregnancy since it’s her body. Taking care of one’s body is an obvious good. Others say terminating a pregnancy kills a child and is definitely not good. Who is right? Without God weighing in, the argument goes on forever without resolution.

Leads to Human Annihilation

Genesis 6:11 reads, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and full of violence.”  Whatever the system of rule is, it does not produce world peace. In fact, It is impossible for any system of human government apart from God to produce lasting peace. When every individual determines for himself what is good, he will always be at war with a person who believes the opposite. (In Judges 17:6 & 21:25, the author hammers this point). Eventually, this warring spreads so completely that the human race comes to the brink of annihilating itself. And it doesn’t take nuclear weapons to do it.   

Note on Wickedness

Genesis 6:5 says the God was grieved because he saw how great man’s wickedness had become. It is likely that all types of wickedness existed at the time, but this is not the author’s main concern. The wickedness he is focused on here is specifically violence. Verses 11 and 13 says the earth was filled with violence and by that he means murder— likely to the point of human self annihilation. This is not a stretch. It may not have been imminent, but it is likely that we had reached the point of no return. To continue on the course would have led to complete human destruction. It wouldn’t just be Cain killing Abel or Lamech killing a man who wounded him and then bragging about it (Genesis 4:23-24). It would be everyone killing everyone.

The author of Genesis tips his hand on this score in Genesis 9:4-6. God follows the covenant that he makes with Noah with a stipulation about murder. Anyone or any animal who kills a human being, by human beings he must be killed. This stipulation doesn’t come out of nowhere, but as a direct result of a new arrangement God is making with the human race after the flood. Looking back to Cain and Abel and the violence before the flood, God attempts to mitigate man’s propensity for violence.

There Is None Good, Not One

However, God also recognizes this this propensity is built into all of us from the fall. He choses not to destroy the human race by a flood ever again because he knows that destroying the whole human race while saving one family still won’t solve the problem (See Genesis 8:21). The magma of violence with erupt over and over again. This sets up his later action in Genesis 11 and the tower of Babel. Instead of trying to end the violence there, God divides the world in competing nations that will curb the violence by preventing warring persons or groups from gaining ultimate power. We will look at that more closely below.

Saving the Human Race: A Flood Story

Most usually look at the flood story simply as judgment for sin, but it is more about saving the whole human race. In fact, the writer of the book of Hebrews intimates that the whole ancient world might have been saved. Yet they were condemned not so much because of their sin but because of their unbelief.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

Building an ark of the size God required likely took decades if not longer. The entire building of the ark was prophetic preaching to the world of his day. They could have heard the message and repented not unlike Nineveh in Jonah’s day. Instead they either doubted or just ignored it. For that reason they perished. Noah’s faith in building the ark, the author of Hebrews says, is what finally condemned that world.

Back On Track?

God preserves one family, Noah’s, ostensibly because human violence was threatening its own existence where no one would survive. Here God intervenes with a flood that saves one last family in order to stop the march toward destruction of God’s image on earth. That one family would repopulate and fill the world.

Problem solved, right? Not exactly. All is not well. Noah plants a vineyard, ferments the juice of the grapes and makes wine. And then drinks till roaringly drunk collapsing in his tent stark naked (9:20-23). Some suggest that Noah was unaware of the effects of alcohol. The theory goes, the chemical process for fermentation might not have existed before the flood.

However nothing in the Genesis suggests this. It is not wise to go beyond what is written (see 1 Corinthians 4:6). And when we compare our writer’s tendency to carefully point out the serious flaws in those God chooses, there is a good argument to suggest that Noah is at fault here. 

No Solution in Fallen Humans

As much as Noah finds grace, he is not the solution to the problem of humanity. He, like all the rest of us, is part of the problem. And this extends to his sons. Ham “sees” his father’s nakedness (9:22). This “seeing” seems to have more to it because Noah discerns (Heb. yada) “what his younger son did to him” (9:24). This could be a hint of the sexual abuse or possibly just general disrespect of human dignity. Noah responds to the knowledge of what Ham did by cursing Canaan, Ham’s son. Whatever Ham “did” reflects a defect that will be most pronounced in his son, Canaan’s character. “Cursed be Canaan. The lowest of slaves will be he to his brothers” (9:25). 

The descendants of Canaan will eventually be slaves to the descendants of Shem and Japheth. But even here Noah highlights an ominous difference between Shem and Japheth. God will bless Shem, but will extend Japheth’s territory. Japheth will also “live in the tents of Shem” (9:26-27). Noah’s sons will not be equal. Ham’s son Canaan heads for slavery. Though Shem does well, it is Japheth who will control the most land (this is also historically true). Already, these differences don’t bode well. 

And The Cycle Returns

Another descendent of Ham, Nimrod, will become a warrior and the head of a kingdom centered near Babylon.  Eventually, an empire of power grows around a tower structure. The Tower is not just a worship structure, though it is that. In the ancient world this would have also been the center of commerce. In a one world government, that means that the most powerful would end up controlling the wealth. Oppression and violence always results in this arrangement. This is at least part of the meaning behind God’s evaluation of their tower building:

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, “if as one people speaking the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their languages so they will not understand each other. (Genesis 11:5-7)

The oppression and violence of pre-flood humanity is forming again. Human government eventually goes this way every time. God, however, intervenes and scrambles the languages. Over 100 nations form out of the new languages. This keeps each other’s power in check and prevents unlimited oppression. War must now be the tragic way of things, but it will also allow possibility for seasons of peace.  

Necessary But Not Ideal

However, war is not God desire for the human race.  Violence creates isolation.  Isolation is “not good” as in “it is not good for man to be alone.”  This is the Biblical state of death.  Physical death is just the final stage.  Nothing we do as a human race can ever resolve this. 

Every human action, no matter what direction we take makes it worse. No political system East or West, Right or Left will be able to bring lasting peace. Each system will actually inflame violence. As they claim authority to define what is good, they tend to use force to eliminate dissent. It is the hidden cause of every hostility, war and relational rupture. Only God can determine good and bad without violence.

God Inaugurates His Plan

So God calls Abraham in Genesis 12 to lift us out of the grave we’ve dug for ourselves. While the human race exists in divided, warring nations, God plans to reunite all the families of the earth in peace. Those who curse that family will themselves remain under the curse of the fall. Those who bless that family will be blessed because they will be in a place to benefit from God’s plan.

But we will see very quickly that neither Abraham nor his descendants are the solution either. They are as much a part of the problem as anyone else. Just reading a few more chapters in Genesis proves it. But through them, God will speak to the world and eventually bring One who will be the solution we need. Only He will be able to bring peace to the world. We will in fact call him “the Prince of Peace.” All the rest of the Bible is the outworking of this plan.  

What the Author Wanted Us To Know

The Hebrew name for the first book of the Bible is Beresit, meaning “in the beginning.” It is the first Hebrew word of the Bible. “Genesis” is just the name given it in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures called the Septuagint. It is a good idea to remember that the Old Testament is a Hebrew book with Hebrew literary structure. It isn’t just telling fanciful stories. The author is making a serious point that all the rest of the Hebrew Bible will expound. So what does the author wish us to discover in these first eleven chapters of Beresit?

There are four things:

1. God made “the land.” We translate the Hebrew word for “land” (ha aretz) as “the earth” but “the land” is the correct translation. We all live in God’s “land.” He owns it and can determine who lives there and who doesn’t. 
2. Human beings were made to reflect God and his character and given rule over all creation with the exception of determining what is good and not good. 
3. When humanity usurps the authority to determine what is good and not good, they engender death preceded by violence.  
4. No typical descendant of Adam is able to restore humanity to peace, so a warring balance of power preserves humankind until God implements his plan of salvation.  

Conclusion

In these first eleven chapters, the writer of Genesis isn’t presenting fanciful bed time stories to scare children into obedience. He clearly outlines not only the problem of human communities attempting to live outside the guidance of God, but the very nature of the created order itself. Living in community with other beings “created in the image of God” all claiming to be the source of what is good and bad will degenerate into violence and death. Human beings all have infinite worth because of the image of God stamped on them. That also poses the problem of who will be the ultimate authority for the good of all.

But once humans demand that authority for dictating good and bad, how do we find our way back to living under God again? All the possible answers to this question from human philosophy have been tested in the long and complex history of God’s people and the world. And all of those philosophies prove wanting.

God’s solution lies along the most improbable road from our point of view: sacrifice unto death. First, by one who was capable of placing the good of all people above himself by surrendering his life entirely to God’s definition of good and bad. He was not only willing to die for all people, he actually does it. And then he graciously calls to himself a people who will die with him in surrender to God (See Romans 6:4). Paradoxically hidden within that agenda is the secret to keeping life forever. But that is another story for another time.