Everett S Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures - Genesis (Vol. 1) (Gary H. Everett)

《Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures - Genesis (Vol. 1)》(Gary H. Everett)

Commentator

Gary Everett received his Master of Divinity (1992) and Doctor of Ministry (2015) degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as pastor for five years and taught in Bible college for ten years.

Since 1997, Gary has worked as the station manager of Lighthouse Television, located in Kampala, Uganda, an affiliate of Trinity Broadcasting Network. The station is owned by Calvary Cathedral International in Fort Worth, Texas, and the chairman of the board and president of Lighthouse Television is Dr. Robert B. Nichols.

Gary served seven years as the director of the Joyce Meyer Ministries outreach in Uganda. He now serves as the international director Andrew Wommack Ministries Uganda.

Study Notes is also available along with his sermons and teachings on his website www.geverett.org.

Gary was married to Menchu in 1996. They have four children, three of whom were born and raised in Uganda.

Introduction

STUDY NOTES ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

Using a Theme-based Approach

to Identify Literary Structures

By Gary H. Everett

THE BOOK OF GENESIS

January 2013Edition

All Scripture quotations in English are taken from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Some words have been emphasized by the author of this commentary using bold or italics.

All Old Testament Scripture quotations in the Hebrew text are taken from Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: With Westminster Hebrew Morphology, electronic ed, Stuttgart; Glenside PA: German Bible Society, Westminster Seminary, 1996, c 1925, morphology c 1991, in Libronix Digital Library System, v 21c [CD-ROM] Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp, 2000-2004.

All New Testament Scripture quotations in the Greek text are taken from Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition (with Morphology), eds. Kurt Aland, Matthew Black, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger, M. Robinson, and Allen Wikgren, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft (United Bible Societies), c 1966, 1993, 2006, in Libronix Digital Library System, v 21c [CD-ROM] Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp, 2000-2004.

All Hebrew and Greek text for word studies are taken from James Strong in The New Strong"s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, c 1996, 1997, in Libronix Digital Library System, v 21c [CD-ROM] Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp, 2000-2004.

The Crucifixion image on the book cover was created by the author's daughter Victoria Everett in 2012.

Gary H. Everett, 1981-2013

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form without prior permission of the author.

Foundational Theme - The Lord God is the One, True God

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.

Deuteronomy 6:4

Structural Theme (1) - God Predestines Mankind to Take Dominion upon the Earth

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,

and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,

and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:26

Structural Theme (2) - The Calling Out of Abraham and the Founding of the Nation of Israel

Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you:

for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

Isaiah 51:2

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace;

to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed;

not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham;

who is the father of us all.

Romans 4:16

Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love;

and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness:

yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee,

saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

Ezekiel 16:8

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Romans 9:13

Imperative Theme (1) - God Commands Man to be Fruitful and Multiply and Subdue the Earth

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:28

Imperative Theme (2) - God Calls Us out to Walk in the Steps of the Faith of our Father Abraham

…that he might be the father of all them that believe,

though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only,

but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham,

which he had being yet uncircumcised.

Romans 4:11-12

Untitled

Solitude and Beauty

And all things great and small;

Flowers, Sunshine, Rainbows,

The Lord God made them all.

Each drop of dew falls on them,

It comes from heaven above;

They glisten in the sunlight and speak

Of God's great love.

(Flossie Powell Everett 1910-1987)

INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT

The New Testament uses various names in referring to the Old Testament: "the Scriptures," "Holy Scriptures," "the Writings," "the Sacred Scriptures," "the Book," "the Sacred Books." However, God did not hand to us these sacred books of the Old Testament canon all at once on a silver platter, as other religions claim to have received theirs. It was a long, historical process that took centuries. The canonization of the Holy Scriptures was based upon the foundations laid by those men of God who walked in the offices of the prophet and the apostle ( Ephesians 2:20). Church history tells us that God used the office of the prophet to write the Old Testament and the office of the apostle to write the New Testament. When the prophets of old died, the Old Testament canon was closed (Josephus, Against Apion 18). 1] The canonization of the New Testament was based upon apostolic authority. A closer evaluation will explain these statements.

1] Flavius Josephus, Flavius Josephus Against Apion, in The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, trans. William Whiston (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson, c 1987, 1996), in Libronix Digital Library System, v 21c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp, 2000-2004).

Ephesians 2:20, "And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;"

A. The Old Testament Canon- We read in the Scriptures that the Old Testament custom was to keep holy writings in the Temple. Moses told the children of Israel to give the Levites the custody of the Sacred Scriptures ( Deuteronomy 17:18).

Deuteronomy 17:18, "And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:"

We see this during the time of King Josiah's reforms when his servants cleaned out the Temple ( 2 Kings 22:8). There, hidden for decades, were the Sacred Scriptures.

2 Kings 22:8, "And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it."

The prophets of the Old Testament were the inspiration for the Jews' sacred books. They carefully collected these holy prophecies and taught them to their people. There came a time that the prophets ceased to prophesy, and at that point in Jewish history, the Old Testament canon was closed. This is confirmed by Josephus, who says, "It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time." (Against Apion 18) In addition, the opening verse of the book of Hebrews states that the Old Testament was delivered to us by His prophets ( Hebrews 1:1-2), thus revealing the fact that the Old Testament prophets were the ones who kept the canon open.

Hebrews 1:1-2, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Song of Solomon , whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;"

Just as the New Testament canon closed when the twelve apostles dies, so did the Old Testament canon close when the prophets ceased. Early Church tradition held that it was Ezra the scribe who finally compiled the books of the Old Testament Scriptures as we know them today. Eusebius (A.D 260 to 340) says Ezra was inspired to restore the Sacred Scriptures after his return from Exile. Note:

"And this was nothing wonderful for God to do, who, in the captivity of the people trader Nebuchadnezzar, when the Scriptures had been destroyed, and the Jews had returned to their own country after seventy years, afterwards, in the time of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, inspired Ezra the priest, of the tribe of Levi, to relate all the words of the former prophets, and to restore to the people the legislation of Moses." Such are the words of Irenaeus." (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5815) 2]

2] Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, trans. Arthur C. McGiffert under the title The Church History of Eusebius, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, A New Series, vol 1, eds. Henry Wace and Philip Schaff (Oxford: Parker and Company, c 1890, 1905), 224.

The purpose of compiling or editing Sacred Writings would be for the purpose of teaching the people of a later era than which a book was written. This is exactly what happened during the time of Ezra the scribe. E. W. Bullinger tells us the Jewish tradition how that after the Babylonian captivity, Ezra and Nehemiah began the task of setting the Old Testament Scriptures in order. We see this in Ezra 7:6; Ezra 7:11 and Nehemiah 8:8. They created an order of scribes called the Sopherim (from the Hebrew word "saphar," which means, "to count or number"). Their task was to set the original text in order. This means, that they counted each line, each word and each letter of the books of the Old Testament. They devised the way each page of Scripture was to have a certain column of text with the known amount of words and letters on each particular page. These pages could then be copied without error using this counting system because each page would always look the same. This meant that each letter was locked into same place on its designated page in the Scriptures and could never be moved. Only the order of the Sopherim had the authority to revise the original text or to move text to a new place. Jewish tradition tells us that the men of "the Great Synagogue" as they were known, took about 100 years to complete this work, from the time of Nehemiah to Simon the first, 410-300 B.C.

After the text was set, the order of the Massorites was established. This title comes from the Hebrew word "maser," which means, "to deliver something into the hand of another, so as to commit it to his trust." This order of Jewish scribes became the custodians of the Sacred Scriptures. Their job was to preserve the Scriptures so that no changes took place. A look at an ancient Hebrew manuscript reveals how this was done. In the upper and lower margins of these ancient manuscripts and between and along the outside of the columns of Sacred Text, you can see small writings by these Massorites, which contain a counting system for the text. These side notes are not commentaries, but rather information about the text on that particular page, such as the number of times the several letters occur in the various books of the Bible; the number of words, and the middle word; the number of verses, and the middle verse; the number of expressions and combinations of words, etc. It even listed the one hundred thirty four (134) passages in which the Hebrew word "Adonai" was substituted for the original "YHWH." When the Hebrew Bible came into print in the fifteenth century, only the Sacred Text was printed and all of the marginal notes were disregarded. This is why we are not familiar with this ancient Hebrew tradition today. 3]

3] E. W. Bullinger, Appendix 30: Massrah, in The Companion Bible Being The Authorized Version of 1611With The Structures And Notes, Critical, Explanatory and Suggestive And With 198 Appendixes (London: Oxford University Press, c 1909-22), 31.

Regarding the number of Old Testament books originally canonized by the Jews, Josephus (A.D 37 to 100) tells us that the ancient Jews counted twenty-two books as the canon of the Old Testament. They did this by combining together some of the books that are separated in the English Bible.

"For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another, [as the Greeks have,] but only twenty-two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine; and of them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This interval of time was little short of three thousand years; but as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human life. It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time." (Josephus, Against Apion 18) 4]