Genesis 1:1-5

Quite a few years ago I found a lecture by Ernest Lucas about the early chapters of Genesis. They tend to move this link around, but here's where I last found it. He talks about the culture that this story grew out of. Although this is page 1 of chapter 1 of book 1, we know it is not the beginning. Like all of the other stories we find in the Bible, it's a reaction to the other stories being told in that time in that part of the world. Those other creation stories usually had some kind of chaos or some monstrous creatures inhabiting the universe, then the gods came along and defeated them or gained control over them. They would then create humans to serve them.

Here, in Genesis, God creates everything out of a void. He doesn't just gain control, he created everything from nothing. It's a comforting statement that there is a caring god who is in control. It is also a commentary on the power structures with those other creation myths. It says, "they got nothing". This god's got it all.

Mark 1:4-11

We'll be working our way through Mark this year. It's the second book in the New Testament, but it was the first to be written. So it's pretty significant that it starts off saying Jesus he is the Messiah. As we will see, or you probably already know, Jesus as portrayed here doesn't fit the mold of King David or the cosmic deliverer of peace that some expected. Instead, he's a badass dude hanging around in the wilderness with people eating locusts and wild honey. If you wanted conformity, you came to the wrong messiah.

There are connections made to earlier prophets, like Elijah's belt and garment of hair, and God himself shows up to let us know the guy is legit. But he still has to do his time; 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan (in the verses immediately following these). That he is the son of God would have resonated with the non-Jewish Greco-Romans. They were familiar with sons of gods and would have put him in the same category as other living sons of gods they knew or knew of.

With Judaism, "son of God" wasn't new either. 2nd Samuel 7 describes the Lord's Covenant with David for example. Sometimes these sons of god performed miracles; always it was some sort of special relationship. The debate about what was exactly meant by this would continue for a few centuries and only be settled by decrees of emperors. Wars would be fought over it and those who tried to open the debate anew would be burned at the stake. But I digress.