106
March 1931
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Structure in Scripture The Book of Genesis and the Entire Bible
(Minneapolis, Minn.)
All Rights Reserved
B y N orman B. H arrison
G enesis 1
B ook of G enesis
G enesis 2 tc R evelation 22
1. Creation and chaos
H Adam
1. Creation and fall
O ld T estament
N ew T estament
fSun
fChrist
2. Light versus 5. Lights-j Moon
5. Isaac
2. Good and evil— 5. Gospel-! Church
2. Abel
darkness
right versus
(Stars
(Christians
wrong
3. Waters
6. Waters—filled
3. Government
6. Jacob
6. Tribulation
3. Noah
' 4. Earth (land) 7. Earth—filled
4. Chosen people 7. Millennium
4. Abraham 7. Joseph
a. Separated from seas
a. Separated
a. Nature restored
a. Creature life
from nations
b. Made
b. Fruitful as
b. Man over all
b. Man ruling
fruitful
a nation
8. God’s rest day
8. God’s eternal rest
f REVIOUSLY, as an approach to Bible structure, we have examined Genesis 1 with the expecta tio n of finding it a pattern chapter. Our thesis •was that this initial chapter of the Bible records the reclamation of the earth in such a manner as to furnish a structural pattern for man’s redemp In other words, Genesis 1 provides a structural or archi tectural sketch that is followed and expanded throughout the redemption story. In pursuing this thesis, we found that the three cen tral and elemental terms of the Genesis 1 account, namely, light, waters, earth, are clothed in Scripture with a sym bolic significance of a far-reaching and altogether com prehensive character. Light stands for that which is heavenly; truth as against the darkness of error and evil; God’s Son, coming to dispel our darkness; God’s New Testament people, heaven-born through faith in the Heaven-Sent. Waters represent the mass of humanity, untouched by God’s grace, in their unstable and unde pendable state. Earth stands for the people whom God assigned to a particular portion of the earth, and who are out of place when not occupying that land. Thus these three terms take in the totality of humanity, comprehend ing the threefold classification given by God—the church, the nations, the nation Israel (1 Cor. 10:32). They are terms, therefore, suited to the telling of man’s entire spir itual biography. Our present thesis is this: that which is true of Gene sis 1 with reference to the remainder of the sacred record is, equally true of the entire Book of Genesis, that just as the initial chapter furnishes a structural plan to be followed throughout the Bible narrative, so also does its initial book. Bible scholars have called Genesis the seed plot of Scripture, calling our attention to the fact that every truth met with later is here in germinal form, in symbolic picturing, or in initial statement. Here are the begin nings, the firsts of everything. • This fact finds further amplification and corrobora tion in the study now before u s ; namely, that Genesis af
fords a structural anticipation of the entire Bible, and that its story, as it progresses, carries a pictorial presenta tion of the complete Scripture narrative. Genesis is biographical: its story is the story of seven representative men, seven lives that are symbolic and pic torial of the progress of redemption’s program. See the above tabulation. We suggest that the student make a test of the trustworthiness of these tabulations by men tally placing all three a-top of one another. If in each instance the three correspondingly numbered items state the same truth and tell the same story, we have surely found food for reflection and further study. H igh O rder of I nspiration Possibly all of our readers are persuaded that the Bible is true, that it is so inspired of God that its state ments present the truth of God, and that without error. But we submit that here is evidence of a type of inspira tion that is not only above our ordinary conception, but almost beyond belief. What, may we ask, was necessary to secure such a correspondence between the Genesis narrative and the en tire Bible story, such a harmonization between the suc cessive lives of Genesis and the successive steps in re demption’s progressive unfolding, that they absolutely match and tell precisely the same story? The only explanation is that inspiration goes back of the mere record to a divine ordering of the events to be recorded. We are forced to the conclusion that these lives were so directed that their biographies fit together to form a mosaic, portraying, piece by piece, as well as in its entirety, the very design that is to be elaborated in the long range of revelation. Men move before us who, in unmistakable symbolism, act out the great drama of re demption—the more amazing because they are wholly un conscious of the part they are playing. Men of modern times would have us regard the Bible as a record of human experiences, of men groping their way up to the higher and the better, religion being merely an evolution from the primitive and pagan to a discovery of God, of truth, and duty—the latter process in which
tion as recorded throughout the remainder of Scripture.
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