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Bookends of Genesis
Bookends of Genesis: The structure of Genesis can be simplified into two halves: 1-11; 12-50. The writer himself shows us this two-part division:
• Genesis 1-11 “let us make man in our own image” (1:26); “let us go down there and confuse their language” (11:7)
o “be fruitful and fill the earth” (1:28); “so the Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth” (11:8)
o God builds the earth and garden and comes down to earth (1,2,3); Man builds a tower to reach up to heaven (11:4)
o Man must be stopped on he will live forever (3:22); Man must be stopped for nothing they plan will be impossible (11:6)
o Cherubim stationed at the east of Eden (3:24); The people migrate to (11:2)
o “these are the generations/toledoth” (2:4); “these are the generations/toledoth” (10:1)
o No doubt there are more.
• Genesis 12-50o There is a famine (12); There is a famine (41)
o Abraham (without children) leaves the promised land and goes to Egypt (12);
Jacob and family leave the promised land and go to Egypt (family numbers 70) (46).
o Abraham story focuses on a son that is almost put to death (22); Jacob’s son I almost put to death (37)
Again, no doubt there are more.
The Bible as a whole, and each part, is not a haphazard collection of writings by ignorant or uneducated men. And even if they were, the Holy Spirit inspired it. We should respect the structure of God’s revealed word because it shows His hand.
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