Greidanus / Ortlund From Chaos to Cosmos

Creation to New Creation
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4335-5500-8
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 244 Seiten

Reihe: Short Studies in Biblical Theology

'I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.' Isaiah 45:7  When God created the world, he brought perfect order out of what was 'without form and void.' But with human rebellion against God leading to God's curse, disorder was introduced into creation-disorder that we still see all around us today. Tracing the chaos to cosmos theme from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, pastor-scholar Sidney Greidanus reveals how God is restoring his creation through Jesus Christ, who has already begun to shine light into the darkness and will one day return to bring peace, order, and restoration once and for all. With discussion questions at the end of each chapter and a fourteen-session reading plan, this book is ideal for small groups as well as individual study.

Sidney Greidanus (PhD, Free University of Amsterdam) has taught at Calvin College, Calvin Theological Seminary, and The King's College. Since his retirement from full-time teaching in 2004, he has devoted his time to writing commentaries specifically for preachers. He is the author of many books, including Sola Scriptura; Preaching Christ from the Old Testament; and The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Greidanus, Sidney

Ortlund, Dane

Leseproben

1

The Chaos–Cosmos Theme in Genesis, Exodus, and Joshua1

The chaos–cosmos theme falls under the overarching biblical theme of God’s kingship and God’s coming kingdom. It is also a subset of the biblical storyline of creation, fall, redemption, new creation.

Some biblical scholars prefer not to use the word chaos because the Hebrew does not use chaos but rather several other words, such as without form, void, darkness, the deep, the waters, the seas, Rahab, great sea creatures, and Leviathan, and because scholars use chaos in many different senses, some assuming that chaos is inherently evil.2 We can still use this common term, however, if we define it correctly. Among several options, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary offers a good, initial definition of chaos: “The infinity of space or formless matter supposed to have preceded the existence of the ordered universe.” Webster’s also offers us a workable definition for cosmos: “The world or universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious system.”

Starting out with these rather general definitions of chaos and cosmos, we can add the more specific forms of chaos and cosmos as we move through the Scriptures from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. Genesis 1 begins with, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”—an orderly, harmonious universe.3 Revelation 21 and 22 describe “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1)—another orderly, harmonious universe. Between these cosmic bookends (called inclusio) we find microcosmic units of disorder and restored order—units such as the earth, the animal kingdom, humanity, nations, and individuals. All of these ordered microcosmic units prefigure the end-time orderly cosmos described in Revelation.4

The Ancient Near Eastern Background

We must understand the biblical chaos–cosmos theme against the broader background of the ancient world, in which chaos was associated with the sea, the waters. Israel shared with its ancient Near Eastern neighbors the worldview of a three-storied universe. John Day explains: “All those passages in the Old Testament which speak about God’s control of the sea at the time of creation naturally presuppose the archaic worldview shared by the ancient Israelites along with other peoples of the ancient Near East that both above the domed firmament of heaven and below the earth there is a cosmic sea. Rain was regarded as having its origin in the cosmic sea above the firmament and coming down through the windows of heaven, while the world’s seas and lakes were thought of as being connected with the subterranean part of the cosmic sea (cf. Gen. 7:11).”5

The chaos–cosmos theme in Scripture has many similarities with ancient Near Eastern myths. According to the ancient Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish, the Babylonian head god, Marduk, created heaven and earth when Marduk battled the ocean goddess Tiamat:

The Lord spread out his net, encircled her,

The ill wind he had held behind him he released in her face.

Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow,

He thrust in the ill wind so she could not close her lips.

The raging winds bloated her belly,

Her insides were stopped up, she gaped her mouth wide.

He shot off the arrow, it broke open her belly,

It cut to her innards, it pierced the heart.

He subdued her and snuffed out her life,

He flung down her carcass, he took his stand upon it. . . .

He split her in two, like a fish for drying,

Half of her he set up and made as a cover, heaven.

He stretched out the hide and assigned watchmen,

And ordered them not to let her waters escape.

He crossed heaven and inspected (its) firmament. . . .

Spreading [half of] her as a cover, he established the netherworld. . . .

Then the great gods convened.

They made Marduk’s destiny highest. . . .

They established him forever for lordship of heaven and earth. . . .

His word shall be supreme above and below.6

When Babylonian literature was rediscovered in the late nineteenth century, many scholars assumed that Israel simply took over the Babylonian creation myth. For example, the influential Hermann Gunkel claimed that the Enuma Elish was simply transferred to Israel, where it lost many of its mythological and polytheistic elements until “in Genesis 1 it is, as far as was possible, completely Judaized.”7 As Robin Routledge points out, however, “While there may be enough points of similarity to suggest that the writer of Genesis knew the Babylonian myth and used some of its imagery, it is widely recognized that there is nothing to indicate dependence. The conflict motif [battle against chaos] and ultimate exaltation of the creator god which is a central feature of Enuma Elish is missing from Genesis 1.”8

Contemporary scholars are more likely to look for the background of the chaos–cosmos theme in ancient Canaanite literature.9 Here we also find a myth about a storm god doing battle with a sea god. The storm god (controlling lightning, rain, and fertility) was Baal, and the sea god (the god of chaos) was Yam. Part of the Baal myth reads as follows:

The mace whirled in Baal’s hand like an eagle,

(grasped) in his fingers it crushed the pate of prince [Yam]. . . .

Yam collapsed and fell down to the earth,

his face quivered and his features crumpled up.

Baal was drawing up Yam and scattering him. . . .

“Verily Yam is dead, (and) [Baal] shall be king.”10

Although this myth also speaks of a god, Baal, battling the sea god for control, the result is not the creation of heaven and earth, but Baal’s kingship and his building a palace in the heavens with windows to water the earth.

Biblical authors did not write in a vacuum, of course. To be understood, they had to accommodate their imagery to the prevailing culture, whether Babylonian, Canaanite, or Egyptian. Therefore Genesis, as well as other Old Testament books, must be heard against the background of the stories of the ancient Near East. But just as sermon illustrations using Little Red Riding Hood do not thereby teach that this fairy tale is literally and historically true, so the biblical authors’ use of ancient Near Eastern stories does not mean that they taught that these ancient stories were literally and historically true.

For example, Hebrew poetry called for the use of much imagery. Where were the Hebrew poets to get their imagery? From the stories known in that culture, of course—the ancient myths. Elements of those myths served to embellish the point they tried to make in order to make it more vivid. Instead of looking for similarities between the biblical writings and the ancient myths (often undertaken in order to establish dependence), it is more important to note the differences.11 These differences make us aware of Scripture’s criticism of the pagan myths.

Nahum Sarna has set out the relationship between the biblical references to chaos and those of the myths:

The references appear to be snippets of what was once an epic about the God of creation and mutinous forces of primeval chaos at the outset of the cosmogonic process. The rebels are variously termed Rahab, Leviathan, sea monster(s) / Dragon (Hebrew tannîn, pl. tannînim); Sea (Hebrew yam, pl. yammîm), River(s) (Hebrew nahar, pl. neharîm); and Elusive Serpent (Hebrew nahaš bariah). Isaiah [51:9–10] tells that in primeval times, God’s arm hacked Rahab in pieces, pierced Tannin, and dried up Yam, the waters of the great deep (Hebrew tehôm). Habakkuk [3:8] refers to God’s wrath at Neharim and His rage against Yam. The Psalms [74:13–14; see 77:17] depict God driving back Yam with His might, smashing the heads of the monsters on the waters, crushing the heads of Leviathan, crushing Rahab so that he was like a corpse, and scattering His enemies with His powerful arm. . . . Similar echoes of this myth are found in Job [7:12], who asks God, ‘Am I Yam or Tannin that You have set a watch over me?’ In another passage, Job [9:13] states that God does not restrain His anger; beneath Him, Rahab’s helpers fall prostrate. He stilled the sea, struck down Rahab, and pierced the Elusive Serpent [26:12–13].12

Although the Bible uses the same names as the ancient myths, Sarna continues, “What fundamentally distinguishes the biblical references from the other Near Eastern examples is the Israelite, thoroughly monotheistic atmosphere: there is one supreme sovereign God; His foes are not divine beings; the motif of theogony, or birth of gods, is wholly absent; there are no titanic battles in which the outcome appears to be in doubt at one time or another; there is no mention of...