Beginnings: A Commentary on Genesis 1-4

By Brian Vermeer

One of the most disputed sections of the Bible is the first few chapters of Genesis. This book takes the first four chapters and explains them verse-by-verse. This easy to read volume will take you from the creation to the murder of Abel. The difficulties will be examined and the truth of the Bible revealed. You will read about Adam and Eve and the real reason they were expelled from paradise. You will discover the origins of God, the universe, earth, animals, man, sin, marriage and many other concepts. Written by a scientist, who has also studied theology. Appendices include a short explanation of the major creation theories and an explanation of the differences between a scientific hypothesis, theory and law.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Vermeer
• Release date: Nov 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310337338

Brian Vermeer

I was born in 1968 and born again in 1978. In addition to my apologetic ministry, I have served in the church as a Sunday School teacher for over twenty years. I have also served as an usher, choir member and have sung in a southern gospel quartet. I have also taken two mission trips to Guatemala where I worked in a pharmacy of a village hospital. Outside the church, I hold a BS in physics with a math minor from an accredited university and an Arkansas teaching certificate in Physics and Physical Science with an approval in Chemistry and Principles of Technology. I taught high school and college level Physics and Chemistry courses in Arkansas Public Schools for 17 years. I have also taught high school courses in astronomy, biology, environmental science and study skills. I am a member of American Mensa, Ltd. and have twice passed the qualification test to appear on Jeopardy. In spite of this my intelligence has been questioned because I believe in a literal six-day creation. I have been happily married to the same wonderful woman since 1996 and am the proud father of a little girl and caretaker of a hyperactive dachshund.

Book preview

Beginnings

A Commentary on Genesis Chapters One Through Four

by Brian Vermeer

Published by Brian Vermeer at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Brian Vermeer

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FOREWORD

The idea for this book first came around thirty years ago when I read In the Beginning by Isaac Asimov. As many of you know, Asimov was a well known science fiction writer and atheist. He was a good scientist who also wrote some books on real science but in my opinion he was a horrible theologian. In the Beginning was a verse-by-verse commentary on Genesis 1-11. Needless to say, he approached Genesis with a completely naturalistic worldview. As far as he was concerned, anything mentioned that was supernatural in nature just did not happen, the creation account was completely made up, and the account of the great flood was stolen from Babylonian stories. (Why no one assumes the Babylonian stories could have been distorted accounts of Noah, he did not say.) Since then, I have wanted to write my own commentary as a sort of answer to his book. So here is my verse by verse account of Genesis. This first volume only covers Genesis 1-4. I guess I have more to say on the topic than he did. I hope to continue in future volumes.

One thing many well meaning Bible teachers do which I don't like is this. They refer to the Biblical accounts as stories. For example, The Story of Creation, The Story of the Flood, etc. Some children may equate these with The Story of Little Red Riding Hood, or The story of Pinocchio. We need to stress, especially to children, that these are not just stories, but historical accounts. We do not tell kids, for example, the Story of World War II. In my Sunday School class, I am careful to say such things as "the

account of David."

Another thing I do not like is when people say we cannot trust the Bible because it was written thousands of years ago. This is called the Anachronistic Fallacy. That is, the belief that a written account is not trustworthy just because it is old. I like to ask these people Do you believe Julius Caesar invaded France? The only account we have was written two thousand years ago allegedly by Caesar himself. We trust that Caesar was the author and we trust his account so why do we not trust the books of the Bible and their authors? There is archeological evidence to support the conquests of Caesar but there is also archeological evidence to support the Bible. The truth is people choose to believe what they want to believe. The Biblical accounts are rejected my many not because they are untrustworthy, but because they do not want to believe in an almighty god to whom they are accountable. They do not say that, of course. They will say something like I don't believe it because it contains miracles, which aren't possible. To which I reply, But if there is an almighty god, then miracles are not only possible, but likely.

The First Book of Moses called Genesis

When the Old Testament books were written, they weren’t given titles by their authors the way books are today. The tradition of the Hebrews was to refer to their books after the first phrase in the text. The first phrase in Genesis is In the beginning... therefore the Hebrew name for the book is bereshith (in the beginning.) Genesis is simply the Greek translation of this Hebrew word and as Genesis is a book of beginnings, it is an appropriate name for the first book of the Bible.

Tradition says that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy. (Just to stave off any questions, no Moses probably did not write the final bit of Deuteronomy describing his death and burial but he is still given credit as the author just as the author of any posthumous book today is given full credit even though the book may contain a blurb about his death.)

Many modern scholars do not believe Moses to be the literal author of Genesis. They cite such reasons as a different name for God used in different parts of the book. They believe the book was compiled sometime during the Babylonian exile from at least four other books which they call J, E, D, and P. This theory is called the 'documentary hypothesis.'

This would be like saying one thousand years from now, "Lewis Carroll could