Front Matter

A Note on Bible Translation and Citation

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations in this volume are from the NET Bible® (New English Translation), copyright © 1996–2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved. Used by permission. THE NET BIBLE® is a registered trademark. The NET Bible is made available through the ministry-first free-distribution license of Biblical Studies Press, permitting free electronic and non-commercial use. Users of the NET Bible should be aware that the translators have provided extensive translator’s notes throughout the NET Bible itself; those notes are not reproduced in this volume, but readers are encouraged to consult them at https://netbible.com/ when questions of translation arise.

Where the author has modified the NET rendering for exegetical reasons, the modification is either flagged in the surrounding prose or presented as the author’s translation informed by the Hebrew or Greek. Hebrew and Greek terms are transliterated in italics with a working English gloss on their first occurrence in each session, and the same term is transliterated consistently throughout the volume so the reader can trace it across the biblical witness. Set-off block quotations of Scripture reproduce the NET rendering verbatim; brief italicized phrases woven into the running commentary sometimes preserve the author’s working translation, which may reflect the wording of another standard English version. Where a specific NET word choice becomes the subject of discussion, that discussion is anchored to the block quotation just above it.

The convention for the divine name follows English biblical publishing tradition: where the Hebrew has the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), the English rendering is LORD in small capitals. Where the Hebrew has ‘ELOHIM without the divine name, the rendering is God. Where the Hebrew has ADONAI YHWH together, the rendering is Lord GOD, with GOD in small capitals. The NET Bible itself renders the Tetragrammaton as Lord in small capitals (mixed case); this volume has adapted that to LORD in small capitals (all capitals) to match the broader English publishing convention the volume employs throughout.

A Methodological Preface

This volume reads Genesis as the first movement in the biblical witness to Jesus Christ. That reading proceeds under several commitments that shape every session and that the reader should understand from the outset.

1. The Christological reading of the Old Testament.

The volume takes as its methodological starting point the Emmaus-road hermeneutic of Luke 24:27 — the risen Lord “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets… interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luther named this the was Christum treibet principle: read the Old Testament for what shows forth Christ. This is not allegorical projection but typological recognition: the patterns are in the text, and the apostolic witness has authorized specific Christological readings of specific Old Testament passages.

2. A three-tier convention for typological claims.

Not all typological claims carry equal authority. This volume distinguishes three tiers, either implicitly through the prose or explicitly where the difference matters most.

Tier A — Apostolic: a typology explicitly identified by the New Testament. Adam and Christ (Romans 5; 1 Corinthians 15). Melchizedek and Christ (Hebrews 5–7). The flood and baptism (1 Peter 3). Genesis 15:6 and justification by faith (Romans 4; Galatians 3). The seed promise (Galatians 3:16). These typologies stand on the strongest ground because the apostolic witness has drawn them.

Tier B — Strong canonical pattern: no single apostolic proof-text names the typology, but the biblical canon itself develops the pattern with sufficient depth that recognizing it is warranted. Joseph as the rejected-and-exalted deliverer. Judah’s substitutionary arc reaching the Lion of Judah. The Akedah and the cross (with the strong verbal echo in Romans 8:32). These readings the reader can trust though they are not spelled out in a single New Testament verse.

Tier C — Churchly homiletical resonance: patterns the Christian tradition has long meditated on without direct apostolic warrant. The servant seeking a bride for Isaac as an echo of the Spirit gathering the Bride for the Son (Genesis 24). The two prisoners with Joseph as an echo of the two criminals at Calvary. “Go to Joseph, do whatever he says” and Mary’s “do whatever he tells you” at Cana. These are legitimate and valuable in Christian preaching, but they carry less binding force than Tier A and B; the reader should hold them as devotional resonance rather than doctrinal foundation.

3. Patriarchal chronology.

The volume assumes the standard biblical chronology as reflected in the text’s own numerical statements. Abraham is one hundred at Isaac’s birth (Genesis 21:5); Isaac is sixty at Jacob’s birth (Genesis 25:26); Jacob is one hundred thirty when he stands before Pharaoh (Genesis 47:9); Jacob dies at one hundred forty-seven (Genesis 47:28). Working backward, Jacob is roughly seventy-seven when he flees to Paddan-aram and roughly ninety-seven when he returns to Canaan. Where earlier study materials sometimes describe Jacob at Paddan-aram as a “young man,” this volume follows the numbers the text itself gives. The deception in Genesis 27 is a middle-aged man’s deception; the wrestling at Peniel is a man in his nineties.

On the 400/430-year question (Genesis 15:13, Exodus 12:40, Galatians 3:17), the volume follows the confessional tradition that takes the four hundred thirty years as spanning the whole patriarchal sojourn as strangers, from Abraham’s call through the Exodus, of which the Egyptian portion is roughly two hundred fifteen years (see the sidebar in Chapter Thirty).

Open the complete patriarchal timeline →

4. Mosaic substance, editorial-update place-names, and textual variants.

The volume affirms Mosaic substance of the Pentateuch while recognizing that occasional editorial notices appear in the text as it stands — “the land of Rameses” (Genesis 47:11) for a city that would be built centuries later, “Philistines” in the patriarchal narratives (Genesis 21, 26) for peoples who would arrive from the Aegean much later, “Amalekites” in Genesis 14:7 before Amalek is born in Genesis 36. These place-names are handled as editorial updates in a text with Mosaic substance rather than as evidence against Mosaic authorship.

Where major textual variants bear on the exposition — as with the seventy versus seventy-five souls of Jacob’s household (Masoretic Text versus Septuagint / Acts 7:14) — the variants are noted in the running text, and the exposition’s theological conclusions are shown to hold under either reading.

5. Discussion questions.

The discussion questions at the end of each session are designed for adult Sunday school teachers and small-group Bible study leaders. They avoid three patterns that would compromise their usefulness in confessional Lutheran settings: they do not solicit private revelation or ask what the passage means “to you” as if meaning were personally constructed; they do not conflate lay vocation with pastoral or priestly office; and they do not manufacture inner experience by asking readers to feel something specific. The questions engage the text, the doctrine, and the actual life of the lay reader.

A Glossary of Recurring Terms

The following technical vocabulary appears repeatedly in the volume. Definitions given here are brief and functional; fuller treatments appear in the sessions where the terms are first significant.

Akedah. The Hebrew term for the “binding” of Isaac in Genesis 22. The Jewish tradition’s name for the episode. Read in this volume as the deepest patriarchal foreshadowing of the cross.

bara’. Hebrew verb usually translated “create.” In Genesis 1, used only of divine activity. The doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) is a canonical inference (2 Maccabees 7:28; Romans 4:17; Hebrews 11:3) rather than a meaning carried by the verb alone.

berit. Hebrew for “covenant.” A structured relationship established by the LORD with specific obligations, promises, and signs.

chashav. Hebrew verb meaning to think, reckon, count, credit, impute. Used in Genesis 15:6 of the LORD counting Abram’s faith as righteousness, and again in Genesis 50:20 of both the brothers’ evil intention and God’s good intention.

El Olam / El Roi / El Shaddai. Compound divine names in the patriarchal narratives. El Olam means “the Eternal God”; El Roi “the God who sees” (Hagar’s name for the LORD in Genesis 16); El Shaddai often rendered “God Almighty.”

go’el. Hebrew for “redeemer,” specifically the kinsman-redeemer with the right and obligation to buy back what a family member had lost. Jacob names the angel of the LORD as his go’el in Genesis 48:16.

hesed. Hebrew for the LORD’s covenant loyalty and steadfast love. Often translated “lovingkindness” or “steadfast love.”

levirate. From Latin levir, “husband’s brother.” The obligation of a surviving brother to marry his brother’s childless widow to preserve the deceased brother’s name (Deuteronomy 25:5–10). Central to the Tamar-and-Judah episode in Genesis 38.

paqad. Hebrew verb meaning to visit, attend to, take account of. The great visitation-verb of the biblical witness. Joseph foretells the paqod yifqod (“visiting will visit”) in Genesis 50:24; Moses announces its fulfillment at the burning bush (Exodus 3:16); Zechariah sings its deepest fulfillment at the birth of John (Luke 1:68 KJV: “has visited and redeemed his people”).

protoevangelium. Latin for “first gospel.” The traditional name for Genesis 3:15 — the first gospel-word in Scripture, promising that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.

teraphim. Hebrew for household or family gods; ancestral figurines. Rachel steals Laban’s teraphim in Genesis 31, indicating either their religious significance in the household or an inheritance-marker function.

toledot. Hebrew for “generations” or “account of.” The structural marker running through Genesis (“These are the generations of…”) that organizes the book’s ten sections.

was Christum treibet. Luther’s German phrase, often rendered “what shows forth Christ” or “what drives toward Christ.” Luther’s hermeneutical principle for reading the Old Testament — not by projecting Christ onto every passage but by recognizing the patterns the Holy Spirit has built into the text.