The Origins Of Writing

Biblegems #258

Question:  According to Scripture, how far back in history do we find evidence of writing, and how does this compare with the secular estimation?

This question is of vital significance. For the ability to read and write is at the very heart of how God often reveals Himself:

         2Tim. 3:16  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…

Most secular scholars, as well as many theologians, once believed that Moses could not have written the first five books of the Bible because (in their view) writing did not exist at that point in history (approx. 1400 B.C.).

Today it is commonly accepted that writing appeared around 3500 B.C. in Sumer in the form of cuneiform. The surprising thing about this appearance of writing between 5,000 – 6,000 years ago is that it was already well developed, showing up in Egypt and the Indus Valley. Biblically, that puts written communication at the very dawn of creation and the human race.

Scripture records five separate occasions where Moses was instructed by God to write down key events and instructions (Ex. 24:4,7,14; 34:27; Nu. 33:1-2; and Dt. 31:9, 24). Jesus himself authenticates Moses’ authorship of the first five books of the Bible (i.e., “the Law of Moses,” or, Heb.:  Torah):

         Luke 24:44  He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Where did Moses get his information from in writing down the history of his forebears, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and from their ancestors all the way back to Adam and Eve? Each generation of the Hebrew people preserved the genealogies of their ancestors, all the way back to the first human couple. Moses eventually compiled these ancient histories and organized them in the book of Genesis. This would include the creation of the universe as God had described it to Adam and Eve.

The original sources Moses used to record these successive “generations” can still be seen in Genesis, beginning with Genesis 2:4: “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth….” The book of Genesis is then organized under the headings of “the generations of Adam” (5:1), “…of Noah” (6:9), of Noah’s sons (10:1), “…of Shem” (11:10), “…of Terah” (11:27), ”… of Ishmael” (25:12), “…of Isaac” (25:190, “…of Esau” (36:1, 9), and “…of Jacob” (37:2). This means that Genesis contains the records of actual people and events written down by the people who witnessed them.

Adam and Eve were created as fully mature adults, capable from day one of articulate communication. They lived to be nearly one thousand years old, knowing their children’s children to the tenth generation.  As their descendants grew to maturity and moved out into the world, developing villages, tribes and cities, communication over distances necessitated the development of written language. And through this miracle of language transferred to written form, God has continued to speak to mankind:

         Ps. 139:16  Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Contradicting Creation Accounts?

Biblegems #255

Question: Genesis states that all vegetation was created on day three and Adam on day six (Gen. 1:11-12; 1:26-27). Yet Gen. 2:5-7 seems to contradict this by teaching that vegetation was created after man. Why the apparent discrepancy?

The confusion stems largely from difficulties in translating some generalizations from Hebrew to English. Below, my translation aims at reducing the confusion.

Gen. 2:5 [So there was a time] before any shrubs appeared on the earth and before any grass of the fields began to grow (because the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to work the ground, (6) but a mist came up from the earth that irrigated the entire surface). (7) So the Lord God formed the man from the earth and breathed life into his nostrils and the man became a living soul.                                                                

Genesis 2:1-4 provides a conclusion for the order of creation events in chapter one.

Verses 5-7 introduce a shift in focus away from the order of creation in general to the creation of Adam and Eve in particular. They set the scene for Adam and Eve’s role as caretakers of earth, beginning in the Valley of Eden (2:8-17).  The scene is also set for how destructive Adam and Eve’s disobedience will prove to be to God’s creation. The “shrubs” and grain fields (“grass of the fields,” v. 5) God freely provided for their pleasure and their food, irrigated by a perpetual mist, would shrivel up, grow weeds and thorns and require constant effort against hostile elements as a result of their sin:

Gen. 3:17-19  …“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Even the lack of rain in those early days is noted, because rain was not yet a necessity. Later, rain would become a much-needed blessing:

         Ps. 147:8  He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.

It would also become a source of devastation:

         Gen. 7:17, 24  For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.   The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 2:5-7provides a segue from the “why” and “how” of creation (chapter 1) to the tragic impact of Adam and Eve’s sin (chapter 2). Together, they reveal God’s total sovereignty over His created universe as He provides both judgment for sin and salvation from what would otherwise be eternal consequences of that judgment.

         Rom. 6:22-23  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Does A Literal Adam & Eve Matter?

Biblegems # 248

Question: Does the existence of a literal Adam and Eve really matter?

Contemporary science and the Bible propose distinctly different definitions of what it means to be human.

Modern definitions of “human” vary, but all share this fundamental understanding:

         “Human” means the only surviving species that evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago from a common group (Genus) identified as “Homo,” which in turn evolved from the great apes millions of years ago. Homo-sapiens (humans) walk on two feet, possess manual dexterity, have more complex brains and more complex societies than other animals.

The Bible portrays humanity as a distinctly unique “kind” of being, created fully mature, one male and one female, on the sixth day of the universe’s existence, for the purpose of exercising dominion over the newly created earth (Gen. 1:28).

         Gen. 5:1-2  This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.  (NIV ’11)

Either, one is correct and the other incorrect, or else both are incorrect. Both cannot be true; they are mutually exclusive. One view assumes man is an accidental byproduct of millions of years of evolution, which in turn is the accidental byproduct of billions of years of evolution emanating from the Big Bang. The other view assumes the existence of God, the Creator of all that exists, who brought a fully formed universe and mature human beings into existence for His specific purpose.

         Col. 1:16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

The ramifications of these two conflicting worldviews are profound. According to the current scientific worldview, matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed (First Law of Thermodynamics), and that all matter and energy steadily decays (Second Law of Thermodynamics). In other words, the universe is falling apart.

Unfortunately, these two “laws” are in conflict with each other. The Second Law describes a universe in a constant and steady state of chaos, decay and death, implying that there was once a “beginning” when everything was in perfect order, and that there will be an “end” when everything finally falls apart. But a “beginning” and an “end” contradict the First Law—that matter and energy have no beginning or end!

        

The Bible, however, makes sense of this apparent contradiction:

         Rom. 5:12b   …sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin and in this way death came to all people… (Second Law).

Death and decay are the result of man’s rebellion against God, who created of all matter and energy in the beginning (First Law).

But—

         Rom. 5:17  …if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!