Friday 2 April 2010

Help with Genesis

I have been working for some time on a project to do a short, practical commentary on Genesis 1-4. I've done the standard commentaries, and have a grasp of the general issues. The trouble is, I can't find much to read that is really stimulating - something that fires the imagination, rather than simply goes over the text (again)!

Has anyone who reads this blog read anything on Genesis - a book or an article, or even something online - which has really made them sit up and take notice? I'm thinking of things like J V Fesko's Last Things First - something which might throw up some new ideas.

If you have, please notify me with a comment. If you want to say why you commend it, that would also be helpful.

John R

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14 comments:

  1. I found the book The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis to provide a refreshing new take on the creation text. The book is a "philosophical", and not a theological, commentary. Although it is informed with a lot of the ancient rabbinical tradition, it still provides an analysis not to be found anywhere else.

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  2. Jacky Lam's commentary blog is worth a look. I like it because he's not afraid to be completely different. Also he sees Christ right from the first verse. http://thesentone.wordpress.com/pentateuch/

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  3. Have you read "In The Beginning" by Henri Blocher? A long time since I read it, so I'm not quite sure how much it "fires the imagination", but I remember appreciating it.

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  4. Try the video series "The Primeval World" presented by Richard Pratt at Third Millenium Ministries- I found them very helpful when preparing sermons:

    http://www.thirdmill.org/video-curriculum/free-downloads

    Meredith Kline "Kingdom Prologue" is stodgily written, but worth persevering with.

    Stephen Walton, Marbury

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  5. May I email you some notes?
    ~Cameron Sandel
    cameronsandel@gmail.com

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  6. Dear John,

    If you want something out of left field, go to Alice Linsley's blog "Just Genesis":
    http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com

    Alice is from an evangelical background, trained in a Lutheran seminary, and was ordained in the Episcopal Church (TEC). After many years she renounced her ordination, and journeyed to Orthodoxy where she has a teaching ministry. She was the keynote speaker at the Oz FiF Conference last year. You need to go back a fair way in her blog entries and follow her arguments. I think you'll find her insights challenging. I learned many things in the overlap between Genesis studies and anthropology. Alice shows how a proper grasp of this overlap enhances our understanding of the Gospel.

    Easter Greetings!

    David Chislett

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  7. "The Lost World of Genesis One" J.H.Walton, has some helpful things to say, but I don't know how much it adds to his commentary.

    Graham

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  8. The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (New Studies in Biblical Theology) (Paperback)

    Excellent exploration of temple imagery in creation.

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  9. Beale (mentioned by J. Thomson) has influenced Chris Wright's comments in The Mission of God (IVP, 2006) and has also been taken up by NT Wright in his very recent Virtue Reborn (SPCK, 2010). Both authors will provide you with perspectives not found in the commentaries.

    Jonathan Rowe

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  10. Maybe of (tangential?) interest: Culture Making, (Andre Crouch). Some stimulating stuff: he defines culture as "what we make of the world." "Work in the Spirit", (Miroslav Volf); "A Theology of Work", and "The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work", (both by Darrell Cosden).

    Graham Wintle

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  11. Another mention for Blocher - William Taylor kept referring to it in his series on Genesis at St Helen's a few months ago.

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  12. John H Walton has already been mentioned - could I add his 'Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the OT'. It made me read the creation stories with new eyes. Probably best read in conjunction with his NIV Application Commentary on Genesis.

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  13. The relevant sections of Barth's Church Dogmatics helped revolutionize how I see the doctrine of creation (am I allowed to say that and retain my repuation as a soundly conservative Reformed evangelical?).

    Bavinck is is similarly good, I think.

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  14. I think you would find Chuck Missler's commentary on Genesis most interesting. Koinonia House, Khouse.org I think.
    Pax

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