Genesis presents not the religious vision of the patriarchs (whose deeds it recounts) but the religious visions of the era of its final composition. Taking the accidents of time and place away, the creation story in Genesis tells us about the nature of time, reaching its climax in the Sabbath. The text tells us about the nature of the world, reaching its perfection in God’s pleasure with what God had created, God’s blessing and sanctifying creation. It also tells us about the character of humankind, man and women, perfect in God’s image, like God, but tragically flawed. Remembering that the substance of the text tells us about a timeless God, we may treat as peripheral incidentals that are peculiar to the time of composition if doing so unveils the central themes: the enduring attributes of God and His plan for humanity.
When the sacred writers put the story together in ca. 450 BC, the issues were clear: How was the world made such that Israel served God in a Temple that was destroyed and now rebuilt, in a land that was lost and now regained, in a holy way of life that was set down in Sinai, violated but then recovered and renewed?
The central theme for the Israelites in this story is the Exodus. Prior to the Exodus experience, the Hebrews as community lacked an organizing principle. If people are to be bound together, they do so not only by blood and soil, but also by shared experience. The Israelite community begins with Exodus, an experience that creates hope and establishes direction and purpose.
In Exodus, God acted in Israel’s behalf and laid upon them lasting obligations to God and fellow human beings. Exodus provides the model for how the people of God should seek justice in society as the only appropriate response to the liberation they had experienced.
