A Jason House project.

Home

1 Genesis

No one would expect Genesis to be anything other than the first book of the Bible, but God has attested in Isaiah chapter 1 that Genesis is the first book of the Bible. Isaiah chapter 1 matches stories from the first four chapters of Genesis with a focus on the Garden and Cain.

The Opening

The opening verse of Isaiah identifies the prophet in question, Isaiah, and the time of his prophetic revelation.

13 Isaiah 1:1
¹The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

This verse does not connect to Genesis in a way that I understand, but does serve to introduce us to the person God is speaking to/through. It also helps us identify which part of the book of Isaiah matches the book of Isaiah. You can peek at the answer if you want, but the bottom line is the 13th chapter of Isaiah begins with an almost identical statement identifying that section of Isaiah as a match to the book of Isaiah itself. For these reasons it's important for the book to begin this way even if this opening thought does not relate to the book of Genesis.

Listen

The first match to Genesis begins with Isaiah 1:2. It's a match with creation and the fall in one sweeping statement. Compare the Isaiah quote on the left with the opening line of Genesis on the right.

13 Isaiah 1:2
²Hear, skies, and give ear, land; for Yahvah has spoken, I have reared and brought up sons, and they have rebelled against me.

1 Genesis 1:1
¹In a beginning god created the skies and the land.

In Isaiah God speaks to the skies and land and tells them to listen up. It's an echo of the creation story, the story of God speaking things into existence. The point is clear, if he has the ability to create with speech, those things he makes should listen when he has something to say to them. Problem is his creation closed their ears. His children who he spoke into existence would not listen. We went against his desire and ate from the tree he asked us not to eat from.

Feeding Trough

The story of eating the forbidden fruit is well known. Isaiah has a rendition of the same story. Here are the two side by side.

13 Isaiah 1:3
³The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its lord's crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.

1 Genesis 3:1-6
¹Now the serpent was more subtle than all the wild animals that Yahvah God had made. And the serpent said to the woman, Has god truly said that you must not eat of any tree of the garden?
²And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of all the trees of the garden;
³but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, god has said, You must not eat of it, nor will you touch it, lest you die.
⁴And the serpent said to the woman, Surely, you will not die;
⁵for god knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.
⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that the tree was delightful to look at, she took some of the fruit, and ate, and she also gave to her husband with her; and he ate.

God is saying through Isaiah that 1) the ox knows who his owner is and 2) the donkey knows which feeding trough he can eat from. In Genesis Adam and Eve listened to the serpent instead of their owner and they ate from the wrong tree.

Hiding

As the story unfolds Adam and Eve realize they are naked and hide when God comes near. Isaiah covers this detail in verse 4.

13 Isaiah 1:4
⁴Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, an offspring of evildoers, sons that are corrupt; you have forsaken Yahvah, you have provoked the holy one of Israel to anger, you have gone away backward.

1 Genesis 3:8
⁸And they heard the voice of Yahvah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahvah God among the trees of the garden.

This verse in Isaiah states several things in past tense, so it must match a detail in the story in Genesis given after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. I think it matches the point in the story when they hid.

Bandages

In the Genesis account God speaks to Adam and Eve and the serpent about what the consequences will be. The story then goes on to explain that God provided clothing to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness. Many have noted that the clothing are actually animal skins, and that means an animal lost it's life. This shedding of blood points to what Jesus would eventually do for the whole race to reverse the consequences that came on us through Adam. In Isaiah 1:5-6 this shedding of blood is also mentioned.

13 Isaiah 1:5-6
⁵Why should you be struck any longer, and be chastised? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises, and swelling sores; they have not been closed, nor bound up, nor softened with oil.

1 Genesis 3:21
²¹And Yahvah God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skin, and clothed them.

By the shedding of blood Adam and Eve are covered. In Isaiah's version it's like dressing a wound with a bandage.

Fleeing Sodom

Isaiah covers the exodus from the garden in terms that seem distant until one realizes Isaiah is trying to add information not provided in the original account. On the strength of the series of matches Isaiah can insert new information on occassion without throwing off our ability to see the matches. This particular match is the first of many I saw working this way. Comparing the two quotes below, they appear unrelated at worse and distant at best, but they are likely really close in terms of what actually happened on the ground.

13 Isaiah 1:7-9
⁷Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
⁸And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

⁹Except Yahvah of hosts had left to us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah.

1 Genesis 3:24-4:0
²⁴So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the path to the tree of life.

The reference in Isaiah to Sodom and Gomorrah is a good match to what happened in Eden. In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his wife were escorted from Sodom by angels because the cities were destroyed by fire. In the case of Eden an angel or cherubim escorted Adam and his wife from Eden and uses fire to block the way back. It's not a perfect match, but really close. The only detail that seems amis is actually an argument from silence. We assume Eden was not destroyed because the account in Genesis does not say that it was. If Isaiah is a second witness to the same events, and we have correctly aligned his witness to Genesis, then what actually happened in Eden is closer to what happened in Sodom then not.

If you think about the situation in Isaiah's day, he's likely looking out at the land of Judah ablaze from within the walls of Jerusalem, just trying to survive the Assyrian onslought along with the remnant. In fact, we know from Isaiah's account and the account in Second Kings that the only reason Isaiah and Hezekiah and their remnant lived through the siege was by an act of God when he sent an angel to slay the Assyrian soldiers. The point is Isaiah's experience looks and smells a lot like Lot's and a lot like Adam's when the three are compared.

Unpleasing Offerings

The story now shifts gears to what happens post Eden. The first story in Genesis 4 is Cain and Abel making an offering to God. Abel's offering is pleasing while Cain's is not.

13 Isaiah 1:10-14
¹⁰Hear the word of Yahvah, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our god, you people of Gomorrah.
¹¹Yahvah said, Of what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals; and I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

¹²When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
¹³Do not bring vain offerings to me any longer; their savor is an abomination to me; in the new months and sabbaths, you call an assembly; I do not eat what is obtained wrongfully, and taken by force.
¹⁴Your new months and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they are a burden to me; I am weary to bear them.

1 Genesis 4:3-5
³And in the course of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to Yahvah.
⁴And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and some of the fatlings. And Yahvah was pleased with Abel and with his offering;
⁵but with Cain and with his offering he was not pleased. So Cain was exceedingly displeased, and his countenance was sad.

Isaiah must be playing to Cain's offering, which was displeasing, because God is not happy, but he was pleased with Abel's offering. Whatever the problem was with Cain's offering is likely the same problem Isaiah was addressing around the altar in Solomon's temple in his own day. The two accounts can be used to understand one another. That these two match so obviously also establishes that we are correctly aligning Isaiah and Genesis.

Blood on Hands

Genesis reveals that Cain killed his brother Abel when he saw that God was pleased with Abel's offering, but not his own. Isaiah picks up on this detail of Cain's story and addresses Cain directly in much the same way God addressed him in the Genesis account. Compare the two to see the number of matches within this alignment.

13 Isaiah 1:15-17
¹⁵And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.
¹⁶Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your actions from before my eyes; cease to do evil;
¹⁷learn to do good; seek justice, do good to the oppressed, plead for the fatherless, plead for the widows.

1 Genesis 4:8-10
⁸And Cain said to his brother Abel, Let us go to the plain; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.
⁹And Yahvah said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?
¹⁰And Yahvah said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.

Blood is the issue in both accounts. The passage in Isaiah says to put away evil and do good. In Genesis it's God's desire that Cain be his brother's keeper, though he was not. In Isaiah God is not going to hear prayer. In the Genesis account it is eventually discovered that the land is not even going to respond to farming. The next match covers more of the consequences of Cain's actions.

Curse on Land

Cain is told in Genesis that he will not be able to farm the land as a result of shedding Abel's blood. Compare this to the Isaiah account.

13 Isaiah 1:18-20
¹⁸Now come and let us reason together says Yahvah: though your sins be as scarlet they will be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson they will be like wool.
¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land;
²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Yahvah has spoken it.

1 Genesis 4:11-14
¹¹And from now on, you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand;
¹²when you till the ground, it will not yield its strength to you any longer; a fugitive and a wanderer you will be on the land.
¹³And Cain said to Yahvah, My transgression is too great to be forgiven.
¹⁴Look, you have driven me out this day from the face of the land; and from your face I will be hidden; and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the land; and it will come to pass, that whoever finds me will kill me.

The Isaiah account says Cain could have eaten from the land if he had met with and reasoned with God and if he was willing and obedient to God afterwards. We know from Genesis this never happened and Cain became a nomad instead, so we also know he did not reason with God. Basically, Cain was unrepentent for what he did.

Cain's City

Cain's story ends with the account of his city in the east. The Isaiah passage has quite a bit to say about the city where murderers dwell. Given the way Isaiah has already identified Cain as a murderer, the city Isaiah is talking about is Cain's city, the city he named Enoch.

13 Isaiah 1:21-2:0
²¹How is the faithful city become a prostitute. For once it was full of justice; and righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.
²²Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.
²³Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves; each of them loves a bribe and runs after rewards; they do not plead the cause of the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them.

²⁴Therefore Yahvah, the sovereign of hosts, the mighty one of Israel says: Ah, I will avenge myself of my adversaries, I will take vengeance on my enemies;
²⁵and I will turn my hand against you, and purge away your rebellious men, and remove all your iniquities;
²⁶and I will restore your judges as at first, and your counsellors as at the beginning; afterward you will be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.

²⁷Zion will be redeemed with justice, and her captivity with righteousness.
²⁸And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners will be together, and those who have forsaken Yahvah will perish.
²⁹For they will be ashamed of the idols which they have desired, and they will be confounded by the witchcraft which they have chosen.
³⁰For they will be like an oak whose leaves have fallen, and like a garden that has no water.
³¹And their strength will be like cotton, and their works like a spark, and they will both burn together, and there will not be anyone to quench them.

1 Genesis 4:16-17
¹⁶And Cain went out from the presence of Yahvah, and lived in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

¹⁷And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bore Enoch; and he started to build a village, and named the village after the name of his son, Enoch.

Why Isaiah would focus so much column space on a city we apparently know nothing else about from Scripture is hard to understand. However, we already know the mode of letting the prophet add data not provided in the base account in Genesis if only we know we are properly aligned. Given the way Cain builds a city after killing his brother and Isaiah chapter 1 talks about the city where murderers live it's hard to get the alignment wrong. It's just a question of how to understand what Isaiah is adding to the story of Cain's mysterious city.

By Ryan Eaton
Posted Monday, Gad 10, 13001