The Seven Days: Making Sense of the Bible’s Structure

By Claire Wilcox

Anyone who has ever found the configuration of the Bible to be confusing will enjoy The Seven Days: Making Sense of the Bible’s Structure.
Claire Wilcox asks, “If all Scripture is God-breathed, then wouldn’t the Bible’s structure also be divinely inspired?”
For both veteran and new readers of the Bible, this book provides a thought-provoking look at the creation that reveals God’s plan for salvation woven throughout the structure of the Bible. Its canonical sequence of sixty-six books finally makes sense.
Rather than a stand-alone narrative, the first creation story of Genesis can be read as the thematic key to the God-breathed structural organization of the Bible. By correlating sense and structure to the entire biblical canon for each of the seven days of creation, the author breaks new ground.
Discover great and hidden things that go far beyond anything you’ve ever known by using structural analysis to understand the Bible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664249974

Claire Wilcox

Claire Wilcox is a former English teacher of AP and Honors literature. She has a bachelor’s degree in general science from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, and a Master of Arts degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. In 2007, she and her husband retired from the East Coast to eastern New Mexico to enjoy the bucolic life and pursue her dream of being an author.

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WestBow Press rev. date: 12/14/2021

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great

and hidden things that you have not known.

—Jeremiah 33:3 (NRSV)

CONTENTS

Abbreviations

Introduction

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

The Covenant Revealed through Adam.

The Covenant Revealed through Noah

The Covenant Revealed through Abraham

The Covenant Revealed through Moses

The Covenant Revealed through Phinehas

The Covenant Revealed through King David

The Covenant Fulfilled through the New Covenant

Day Seven

Conclusion

Notes

About the Author

ABBREVIATIONS

*The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition (Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017), 597–99.

INTRODUCTION

This is not the book I expected to write. I always enjoyed putting my thoughts on paper and often felt there was a book in me. Academic essays, the occasional article for a community magazine, a short story for a grandniece’s birthday, the attempted mystery novel: These sporadic efforts to be an author kept a small flame alight through the years.

This small flame burst into a consuming fire when I asked a question that only occurred to me in late adulthood. I have read the Bible for most of my adult life, yet I was rarely able to locate a particular book without consulting the table of contents. The placement of various books did not make sense to me. Since the Bible is composed of many different types of literature, I just presumed that the Bible’s structure had evolved throughout the ages. What is written there is what is important, not where it is located. I accepted this premise until I thought to ask, if all scripture is God-breathed (2 Tm 3:16) and the entire Bible is the Holy Book of scripture, then wouldn’t the Bible’s structure also be inspired by God? Is there a raison d’être for the particular sequence of its distinct books beyond the human decisions, albeit erudite ones, made in councils?

After decades of study, church leaders concur that the Bible is one complete, coherent story and are teaching it as such. To help facilitate this perspective of one coherent story, there are books now that provide a strictly chronological reading of the Bible. No doubt, this is a very helpful tool for understanding the historical flow of the biblical story.

However, a unified story of any merit demands a well-crafted underlying framework that supports the story’s cohesive narration. So, if the Bible is one overarching story, then its peculiar structure should support reading it as such, without alteration. A book’s structure and content should always complement each other. With this in mind, I decided to read my Bible using the literary analysis method of correlating sense and structure.

I chose this approach of finding sense in structure because, as a former English teacher, it is familiar to me, and I used it in the classroom with often astonishing results. More importantly, it is not necessary to have a working knowledge of biblical stories to understand this analysis. Its focus is on the Bible’s configuration, not its content. I did not try to confirm or deny current scholarship concerning who wrote what and when. Nor did I examine it to prove theological doctrine or religious dogma. If the Bible is inspired by God, then I wanted to find God’s inspiration in its structure, not an academic debate or a Sunday school lesson (as wonderful as they both may be). However, both doctrine and scholarship are necessarily organic to the text. When my analysis required doctrine, I used scripture as much as possible to support it. When academic expertise was essential, I refrained from detouring into lengthy explanation, stopping just long enough to define terms. In both cases, I went only where the structure of the Bible led me.

The Bible that is the basis for this analysis is comprised of the sixty-six books, out of many inspired texts, that are canonical to all traditions and denominations of the Christian faith. These sixty-six books are divided into the Old Testament of thirty-nine books and the New Testament of twenty-seven books. After these sixty-six were authoritatively agreed upon by the early church and declared a canon, their content could not be revised or edited further. They are the basis of the Christian faith. Other books could not be added to them, nor could any of them be deleted.¹ Their sequence was set in place. Accordingly, all Bibles begin with the book of Genesis.

The opening story of Genesis is a cosmology—a creation account of the origin of the heavens and the earth. The first chapter of the Bible is the only one of its kind in 1,189 chapters of the entire sixty-six-book canon. Its uniqueness sets it apart from the rest. Yet in any well-crafted literary work, the major themes to be developed throughout are subtly woven in its opening pages. From this underpinning, the rest of the story unfolds without loss of concept, building to the final pages, where it culminates in a cogent, satisfying conclusion. Rather than a unique, stand-alone account, could this first story of creation instead be the key to the structural organization of the entire biblical story line? What subtle themes could be in the opening narrative of Genesis that would fundamentally connect it to the rest of the biblical narratives? Could these themes woven throughout the Bible create the tapestry of the canon?

I found I could not decipher any connecting themes if I read the cosmology as a single, unified story. Consequently, I deconstructed it into seven component parts, seven days. I then further separated each day from the others and looked at only that day’s content. Each day’s content is comprised of two elements: the subject matter and the number associated with it. Once both features of each day were analyzed, they brought forth a twofold revelation: a unique theme and the means by which to track it through the entire Bible. Therefore, I approached the seven-day cosmology of Genesis not as a separate stand-alone account but as a set of seven keys to unlock thematic information that would reveal the unifying logic behind the structure of the Bible.

Correlating sense and structure is not a new method of analysis in biblical studies when understanding a particular book. What is new here is applying this method to the entire biblical canon for each of the seven days of creation. I examined each of the seven days within the context of only that day and the number associated with it. Once that day’s thematic focus was discerned, I traced it throughout the canonical sequence of the Bible. Even though I did this seven times, I endeavored to confine my attention to only what can be deduced from the context of one single day. Thus, it was necessary to keep any familiarity with or preconceptions about the Bible at bay while exploring that day’s key structural theme. This has proven to be the most difficult aspect of writing this book, as well as the most rewarding.

Each day brought forth not only a sequentially unique emphasis throughout the sixty-six books as a unit, but also a distinctive emphasis within the individual books themselves. Like the perfect choir, each day sings its coherent story of the Bible, yet all seven harmonize without missing a beat for a richer, deeper crescendo of the unified complete story. Each day can solo, but without the other days, its song is muted. And if one day is lacking, the choir is off key.

All Bibles, no matter the translation, can support this analysis in harmony with their canonical structure. Nevertheless, to ensure analytical accuracy and compositional flow, I referenced several Bibles that balance a range of translation from the most literal or equivalent literal to an emphasis on contemporary reading. These are the New American Standard Version (NASB), the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), the New International Version (NIV), the New King James Version (NKJV), and the New Living Translation (NLT). Unless otherwise noted, scripture verses are from the NIV. All are based on rigorous scholarship of original Hebrew and Greek texts. Any differences in punctuation and capitalizations have been adjusted for consistent elements of style within the text.

Furthermore, since I am not a biblical scholar, I depended heavily on those who are in order to keep my head above water whenever the text led me into the deep. My heartfelt thanks for the work of Professor N. T. Wright of St. Andrews University, Scotland, and C. S. Lewis, on whose giant shoulders he stands. Their wisdom and expertise about the Bible and vision of Christianity are unparalleled. Many a morning found me overwhelmed at what I had taken on. But like Ariadne’s thread, the organizational theme of the day would lead me safely out of the maze of my uncertainty. At the end of the day, this book seeks only to clear a footpath through the structural composition of the Bible for those who, like myself, have often found it to be a stumbling block.

Needless to say, any errors in analysis are my own, as well as any oversight in mentioning here other myriad sources that proved extremely helpful. They are noted when referenced. The one source of support I cannot overlook is my lifelong love, Sam, who always encouraged my flailing efforts. Without him, this work would never have been attempted much less completed.

In using this structural analysis to understand the Bible, I discovered there great and hidden things that went far beyond anything I have ever known. I bear witness to the many blessings that come with studying its pages. With the hope that you also will be blessed, I invite you to come now, and let us reason together (Is 1:18 NKJV) and behold God’s creative breath in the structure of the Bible.

DAY ONE

1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

—GENESIS 1:1–5

T he first day is quite naturally the beginning, and its associated number is one. One is the beginning number. There can be no other number without one. How can there be two unless there is one? When there is zero, there is nothing to count. There is nothing before, and everything after originates with one. In all languages, the number one means unity and primacy. ¹ Therefore, one is the number that symbolizes the unity and primacy of God, the Creator of all. ²

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light (Gn 1:3 NKJV). In the Hebrew, the first spoken word of God translates into a two-word command:³ Be light. Light is; nothing can be added to or subtracted from its description.⁴ Thus, it can be considered perfect.⁵ By calling forth light that is, light that is perfect, God announces himself⁶ the first time he speaks.

By announcing himself, God makes himself known. He must want to be known, for there was no reason for God to call forth the being of light otherwise. One is complete in itself. Being complete in oneself, what would be the reason for being known? To what purpose would God be known? He would not want to be known in order to be just robotically acknowledged. How would that be any different from not being known?

Calling forth light is, therefore, God’s call for relationship—between the known and the knower. This relationship of knowing God benefits only the knower, for God is complete in himself. The knower, in knowing God, does not change anything for God. By definition, God cannot be added to or subtracted from. However, the knower benefits beyond imagining in this relationship. The knower is given not only life but also reason, for how else can God be known?

This is an act of perfect love, for only love desires to do something that would benefit only the recipient. We exist because God loves us—freely and without any merit on our part. Therefore, by deciphering the elements of day one, we can now know the essence of God’s nature. God is love (1 Jn 4:8 NASB). And love by its very existence is expressed to others. Consequently, our relationship with God is based entirely on his unmerited favor, or grace, for us.

We next read, God saw that the light was good (Gn 1:4 NRSV). Although the word good connotes moral perfection, language scholars tell us that the use of good here primarily means perfectly fulfilling its purpose.⁷ However, this definition is all-inclusive, since perfectly fulfilling God’s purpose would, by necessity, produce moral perfection. God’s perfect goodness would not harbor evil purposes. To fulfill a perfectly good purpose, one would inevitability become perfectly good. Hence, the light is good in all manner of definition. God has a perfect purpose for it.

We can discern this purpose because we know when light is present. We can see it. And because the Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment (Ps 104:2), God’s presence can be seen. The name for the light of God that is visible to us is Shekinah glory. As a noun, it means the glory of the divine presence,⁸ represented as light. In Hebrew, it signifies dwelling and is strongly associated with the word for tabernacle.⁹ The Merriam-Webster Dictionary calls it the presence of God in the world.¹⁰

God’s light or presence in the world would naturally bring about relationship because that is the nature of love. However, this relationship would require a mindful recognition of God’s presence in the world. Humans are the only species on earth that can perceive God. We are the only part of the known creation that can consciously benefit from and voluntarily reciprocate his love. We are the only species that can intentionally reflect God’s love to one another, to other species, and to all creation.

Therefore, the purpose for God’s light, for his presence in the world, is to give humankind an intentional relationship of love with him, for their good and the good of all creation. For this, much like he separated light from the darkness, God is separating unto himself a people who choose to have this relationship with him. This choice by definition must be an individual choice; otherwise, it is not love but conformity. And since God is eternal, his purpose to have this relationship with the individual is eternal. Consequently, the individual must also be eternal. We will examine this further on day six.

In the meantime, this separating, a setting apart of those who accept God’s purpose of intentional relationship, is what is called making holy. It produces behavior perfected by God, but achieved through human interaction. And so, God’s love for humankind spreads from one to another throughout creation. It begins on day one with God revealing his presence in the world and separating from darkness a holy people, set apart for himself.

Theme of Day One

God is creating a people to be in loving relationship with him eternally for the benefit of all creation.

One means unity. A book of many chapters is one book. The Bible of sixty-six books is one book that contains many different types of writings, such as origin stories, histories, poems, narratives, prophecies, parables, and songs, to convey its message. When viewed within the framework of one structure, all these various forms of literature support one story. It is the story of how God is bringing finite humanity into infinite relationship with him. Subsequently, the purpose of the Bible is to let us know what God is doing and respond to it.

However, the question still remains: If the Bible is one overarching story of God’s relationship with humankind, what is the rationale for the sequence of its various books? So far, we have discovered the day’s unique theme. We next look for the means by which to sequentially track it throughout the canon.

There is only light or the glory of the divine presence on day one, so we will follow only those passages throughout the Bible that contain the phrase the glory of God or the glory of the Lord. (God and the Lord are used interchangeably throughout scripture. We will discover why on day two.) By looking at only these phrases from day one, we start to see the rationale of the Bible’s structure as God’s revelation to people in order for them to be in loving relationship with him forever.

Genesis

The only reference to God’s light in Genesis is on the first day of creation when God said, Be light. There is no phrase the glory of God or the glory of the Lord. No other reference is needed in Genesis. God’s light is present from the beginning and has been shining ever since.

Exodus

In logical succession, we have the light of God in Genesis and then the people of God in Exodus. God will make himself known to these people. Therefore, numerous verses in Exodus contain the glory of the Lord. This is because God brings these people, the Israelites, out of the darkness of Egyptian slavery to be a light through which God has promised to bless everyone in the world (Gn 12:3).

God reveals himself to this people because he made a covenant with their ancestor Abraham (15:12–16). Among most biblical scholars today, the preferred definition of the Hebrew root word for covenant, berit, is to bond.¹¹ In the Old Testament, a berit ritual was a formal agreement; it was a binding promise.¹² God promised Abraham that he would make his descendants into a great nation and give them the land of Canaan. (Why this land will be discovered further along.)

Covenant language in scripture is the language of the law court because a covenant is a formal, protected agreement to fulfill a defined promise.¹³ Subsequently, aged Abraham believed without doubt that God would do what he promised. Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, shall be God’s people, and he will be their God (17:1–8).

In Exodus, under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites will return, after more than four hundred years, to the land God promised their ancestor Abraham. They witness the mighty power of God in their deliverance from their exile in Egypt. Once they are beyond the Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s army destroyed, the Israelites are in the desert wilderness with no food and no water. God has saved them, but for what? How are they now to live? Therefore, it is here that he reveals his glory.

A word of caution is necessary here. Human language is not capable of describing God in terms of the transcendental God himself. We cannot see him. Language can only describe him in terms of human experience. For this reason, God reveals himself through his creation. We compare his attributes to something that is known in the physical world. We must use analogies in any attempt to define God.¹⁴ For instance, we describe his visible glory as radiant light.

The word glory is used extensively throughout the Bible. Most often, it doesn’t mean that God has physically manifested in some way.¹⁵ However, when a physical manifestation is present, it is not of God himself; it is only a symbol of God’s attributes that reveal his nature.¹⁶ Accordingly, for this analysis, when the word glory is used in connection with the phrase of day one, it most often refers to a symbolic physical manifestation. Thus, when we read that the glory of God, or the glory of the Lord, appeared, it is not God that is seen, but rather a symbolic manifestation of his power and character. In the Old Testament, these manifestations usually reveal God as a savior God, a deliverer,¹⁷ and they can take various forms. God’s light, God’s glory, will be seen as forms of light such as fire, smoke, or cloud.

When the phrase of day one first occurs in the Bible, it occurs not once but twice. The first reference to the glory of the Lord is to make the Israelites aware of what is about to happen; the people need to be prepared for this awesome event. The second reference is the actual event.

There are only three episodes in Exodus where this double reference to the glory of the Lord occurs. The first time is when God reveals his provision for his people; the second, when he makes a covenant with them; and the third, when he fills with his presence the tabernacle they have built for him. Therefore, the phrase of day one occurs in logical progression as God reveals he is savior in relationship to his people, makes a covenant bonding them to him, and begins to dwell with them.

It starts in chapter 16 of Exodus, when the whole community grumbled against Moses and his older brother Aaron. They are hungry. They complain: Why didn’t we die in Egypt, where we had plenty of food (vv. 2–3)? Rather than trust God, they rely on their own understanding (Prv 3:5). Moses knows that the Lord will miraculously feed them (Ex 16:4), but the people do not. So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, ‘In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him’ (vv. 6–7). The Lord will reveal his glory, for he is faithful to his purpose to establish them and be their God. He will reassure them that they can believe him; they can trust him; they can depend on him. He is their all-powerful deliverer, their savior.

Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud (Exodus 16:10 NKJV). They can see him for the first time, but he is at a reassuringly safe distance from them. He sends them quail in the evening, manna in the morning. The Lord reveals his glorious power by providing for them.

Then, three months after leaving Egypt, the Israelites come to Mount Sinai, where the Lord God descends on top of the mountain with thunder and lightning and a mighty trumpet blast (19:16). Now he is right over them, and for the first time they hear him speak (19:9). He gives them the Ten Commandments (20:1–17), which define their relationship to himself and to each other. This is a teaching beyond anything they have ever experienced before.

The people are understandably terrified. Though Moses tells them not to be afraid, they implore him to intercede with God on their behalf. So, as their representative, Moses approaches God (v. 21). Moses writes down the covenant terms between the Lord and his people (24:4).

When Moses reads the Book of the Covenant to the people, they agree to be faithful to it. Then, when Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. … To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain (vv. 15–17). To dwell with God will consume their old way of slavery; they will live according to the new way in the power of God’s love.

Moses is gone forty days and forty nights (v. 18), and the people grow impatient with his absence. They had said three times that they will do all the Lord requires (19:8; 24:3, 7); they will worship only the Lord. Nevertheless, without Moses there to intercede for them, they revert to Egyptian idolatry by making a golden calf to worship. Without one to speak for them, they are already unfaithful to their covenant with the one God.

When Moses returns, he realizes what they have done and turns his anger on them, smashing the tablets of the covenant. But as their representative, he still intercedes on their behalf. Moses asks to be taught God’s way (33:13), to see God’s glory (v. 18). He wants to know that God’s presence will remain with them. If God does not dwell with his people, how would anyone be able to distinguish them from those who do not know the love and grace of the one and only God (vv. 15–16)?

God grants Moses’s request but protects Moses as his glory passes by (vv. 21–23). Even so, there is no phrase the glory of God in this episode. What Moses experiences is more directly personal than symbols of fire or smoke or cloud (vv. 15–19). Moses then spends another forty days on the mountain with God, where he receives, once again, the tablets of their covenant (34:27–32).

During his first forty days on the mountain, Moses received specific instructions on how to prepare for God’s presence. The Israelites were to build a tabernacle, a house for God’s glory, in which there will be several items made according to specific directions. Once everything they were instructed to do was accomplished, the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (40:34–35 NASB).

The presence of God now dwells with a people chosen not for their strength or goodness but for his purpose: to reveal himself to humanity. There will be a priesthood to intercede between God and the people, and laws, statutes, and regulations under which to form a cohesive community dedicated to living in relationship with the one God. They will convey to the world God’s love for humankind.

Leviticus

Leviticus opens at the same point Exodus closes: with Moses at the tent of meeting, which is filled with the glory of the Lord. Leviticus is the book about what the Lord then spoke to Moses at the tabernacle (1:1–2).

The priesthood is established to mediate between the people and God, to accurately teach them the law of the covenant, and to care for all matters concerning the tabernacle, where the people will bring their offerings and requests to God. Priests will represent the people to God. It is Moses’s older brother Aaron and his sons who will be this priesthood. By chapter 9, they are ordained and begin their ministry.

There are only two references to the glory of the Lord in Leviticus, and they both occur with the first official sacrifices offered to God on behalf of the people in front of the tent of meeting (the significance of these sacrifices will be explained on day five).

As in Exodus, the first reference prepares them for the event; the second one is the event. God always informs his people about what he will do. Moses tells Aaron and his sons how to begin their ministry: This is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you (9:6).

After the sacrifices are made, Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown (vv. 23–24).

God is with them and, through his representatives, blesses them. He is their God, and they are his people. And now has officially demonstrated his presence with them. The people dwell with him in joy.

Numbers

In Numbers, the Israelites are on the move. After four hundred years of generational slavery in Egypt, they are headed back to Canaan, the promised land of their forefathers. In the year spent at the foot of Mt. Sinai, they built their tabernacle to house the glory of the Lord; they consecrated their worship system; and they organized into tribes with appointed tasks and camps around the tabernacle. But they did not stop grumbling and complaining and rebelling.

There are four major episodes of rebellion; each occasion includes a choice and its consequence. The first event takes place in the second year since leaving Egypt. The Israelites have come to the border of their promised land and have gotten the report from the twelve men (one from each tribe) sent to reconnoiter. It is not encouraging. The people living there tower over them, and ten of the scouts convince the Israelites that they could never defeat these people (13:32).

Again, they bemoan their fate, wishing they had never left Egypt. They have no faith in a loving relationship with God. When Moses and Aaron assure them that God is with them, the whole congregation threatened to stone them. Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites (14:10 NRSV). There is no preparation this time; the people have rejected their promised land. The Lord is