Should the early chapters of Genesis be taken literally?

The Lord Jesus said that the writings of Moses (the first five books of the Bible) were to be believed. John 5:45 ‘Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. (46) For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. (47) But IF YE BELIEVE NOT HIS WRITINGS, how shall ye believe My words?’

Where are we to begin taking Genesis as history? With Joseph, with Jacob, with Isaac, with Abraham?

Let’s imagine that Genesis is to be regarded as history from Abraham. Genesis 25:19 ‘Abraham BEGAT Isaac’. In Genesis 11:26 we read, ‘And Terah lived seventy years, and BEGAT Abram’. Are we to say that the ‘begetting’ by Abraham was real, but the ‘begetting’ by Abraham’s father, Terah, was not? Are we not forced to conclude that Terah was as real a man in history as Abraham? Some will concede the point and say, “Well then, Genesis becomes literal from Terah.” However, this leads to a further problem, for we read in Genesis 11:24 ‘And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and BEGAT Terah.’ Are we to say that the ‘begetting’ by Terah was real, but the ‘begetting’ by Terah’s father, Nahor, was not? This problem of interpretation continues with us back down the genealogy right to Adam, of whom we read, ‘And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and BEGAT a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.’ Is not this ‘begetting’ by Adam as real as the ‘begetting’ by Abraham? Doesn’t consistency of Bible interpretation demand that every reference to ‘begetting’ refers to a real, historical event, and this being so, history begins with Adam!

In the book of Hebrews the writer is encouraging those who have professed faith in Jesus the Messiah to press on in spite of the hardships they were enduring. He has told them in ch.10:38 ‘Now the just shall live by faith.’ He then shows in chapter 11, that living by faith was not something new, and lists many men and women, some named and some not named, who were outstanding examples of living by faith. We might call chapter 11, ‘The Portrait Gallery of Faith’. Moving backwards up the Portrait Gallery, we meet Daniel, David, Samuel, Moses, Abraham, Noah, Enoch and then CAIN and ABEL – ‘By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain’. The writer to the Hebrews is giving us REAL LIFE examples of those who lived by faith to show to these Hebrew Christians that even in dark difficult days, it is possible to live by faith. Using allegorical characters would never have sufficed to convince the readers! With this in mind we must conclude that Cain and Abel were REAL men! But who begat them? ............ Genesis 4:1 ‘And ADAM knew EVE his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. (2) And she again bare his brother Abel’

The Lord Jesus took Genesis as being literal. In Matthew ch.19, the Pharisees come to Him with a question relating to divorce - ‘The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?’ The Lord replies by taking them back to Genesis, saying, (Matthew 19:4) “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, (5) And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? (6) Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.” The phrase, ‘made them male and female’, is a direct quote from Genesis 1:26, ‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ... (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; MALE AND FEMALE created he them. The expression, ‘a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh’, is a direct quote from Genesis 2:24, ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.’ The Lord obviously believed Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 were real history. Further, we would point out that the serious issue of marriage is not based on a myth!

It should also be noted that the apostle Paul was keen to see a God-given order established in all churches. This order included the silence of the sisters in the church gatherings, and the covered heads of the sisters in the same gatherings. This was not some whim or personal teaching of the great apostle. He actually tells us why these things have to be so. 1Timothy 2:12 ‘But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. (13) FOR Adam was first formed, then Eve. (14) AND Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” With regard to the head covering, Paul teaches that the men always have ‘uncovered’ heads, whereas the women have ‘covered’ heads, and one of the reasons for this takes us back to the first two chapters of the the Bible. 1Corinthians 11:7 ‘For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. (8) For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. (9) Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.’ Today these two teachings are ignored by the majority who embrace Christianity, but such need to realise that these practices are not based on myth or allegory, but on the real events of man’s early history!

The genealogy from Luke’s Gospel – We are given the genealogy of the Lord in Luke ch.3, beginning at v.23. It should be noted that the repeated expression ‘the son’ is in italics in the King James Version. This simply means the words are not in the Greek text. It literally reads as follows - “And Jesus himself was beginning to be about thirty years old; being as was supposed son of Joseph; of Eli, (24) of Matthat ... (31 ... of David (32) of Jesse, of Obed, of Booz, of Salmon, of Naasson ... (34) of Abraham, of Terah, of Nachor ... (38) of Enos, of Seth, of Adam, of God.”

All Christians accept that Joseph, the ‘supposed’ father of the Lord was a real character in history. They would say the same about David and his father Jesse. The last Person in the list is God. Again, all would concede that God is a real Person. How strange then that all the persons in the genealogy are real except the second-last one; namely Adam!

Continued over