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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2024
An overview of findings from an in-depth inductive study of ‘the lexical, exegetical, conceptual, and theological study of evil from the Hebrew text of Genesis’ provides key insights into the broad use of the primary lexeme(s) for evil (ra as an adjective, raa as a verb, and raah as a noun). The use of evil is followed sequentially through each occurrence in Genesis to assess its meaning and concept contextually. The plot conflict of good and evil is observed from the beginning to its bookend. Evil is never called good nor found to be the absence of good, but rather, the corruption of creational and covenantal goodness. God is found to work in and through flawed and dysfunctional humans to overturn evil and accomplish his good creational and covenantal purposes.
1 Leland Ryken and Tremper Longman III, ‘Introduction’, in A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible, ed. by Leland Ryken and Tremper Longman III (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993), pp. 35–36.
2 Ingrid Faro, ‘A Lexical, Exegetical, Conceptual, and Theological Study of Evil in Genesis’ (Dissertation, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2013).
3 Ingrid Faro, Evil in Genesis: A Contextual Analysis of Hebrew Lexemes for Evil in the Book of Genesis, Studies in Scripture & Biblical Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021).
4 Joseph Tan, ‘A Lexical and Narratival Analysis of Evil In The Book of Judges’ (Dissertation, Springfield, MO, Evangel University, 2019).
5 Susan Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy, First Princeton Classic edition, Princeton Classics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015), p. 21.
6 N. T Wright, Evil and the Justice of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), pp. 45–46.
7 The Masoretic Text.
8 Multiple perspectives and debates surround the interpretation of tohu ve-vohu in Genesis 1:2. However, that discussion is tangential to the present exploration of the meaning and use of evil in Genesis.
9 G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2004), pp. 32–37.
10 John H. Walton, The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), pp. 98–100; and Gregory K. Beale, ‘Eden, the Temple, and the Church’s Mission in the New Creation’, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 48 (2005), 6–8.
11 Note: Sixteen times out of the twenty-one times that ezer occurs in the Hebrew Bible, it refers to God or Yahweh as a helper/help. For example, Deuteronomy 33:7, 26, 29; Psalm 40:17; 70:6; 121:1, 2; 124:8; and 146:5.
12 G. K. Beale, God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden To The Ends Of The Earth (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2015).
13 Tracing the terms ‘flesh and bone’ through both the Old Testament and the New Testament always refers to kinship, family. See Catherine L. McDowell, The Image of God in the Garden of Eden: The Creation of Humankind in Genesis 2:5–3:24 in Light of the Mīs Pî, Pīt Pî, and Wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia … and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures, 1st edn, (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), p. 138.
14 All quotes from Scripture are taken from the NIV unless otherwise noted.
15 Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Whispering the Word: Hearing Women’s Stories in the Old Testament, Annotated edn (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), pp. 13–16.
16 For details on the ‘washing of the mouth’ and ‘opening of the eyes’ rituals see especially McDowell, The Image of God in the Garden of Eden, 43–114. Also, G. Herbert Livingston, The Pentateuch and Its Cultural Environment (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1987), p. 109.
17 God’s seven declarations of ‘good’ in creation: Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31.
18 Notably, the two words identified with taking what is desirable (neḥmad) and pleasing (taawah) in Genesis 3:6 are the same root words in Deuteronomy 5:21, the Tenth Commandment, for coveting and desiring.
19 See Gen 12:8; 13:4; 21:33; 22:9; 26:25; 33:20; 35:1; Exod 17:15; 1 Kings 18:24; Ps 116:17; Joel 2:32; Zep 3:9; See Acts 2:21; Rom 10:13.
20 John I. Saeed, Semantics (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), p. 68.
21 Nahum M. Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis, 1st edn (Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 2001), p. 168 n.50.
22 Howard N. Wallace, The Eden Narrative (Atlanta, GA: Brill Academic Pub, 1985), p. 123. Also Walter Vogels, ‘Like One of Us, Knowing tôb and ra‘(Gen 3:22)’, Semeia, 81 (1998), 150.
23 Faro, Evil in Genesis, p. 56.
24 The description of a wild animal using the adjective ra only occurs elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible in Lev 26:6 and in Ezekiel (5:17; 14:15, 21; 34:25).
25 Zohar Amar and Naama Sukenik, ‘Epistles: The Signs That Bind: Why Tamar RequestedJudah’s Signet, Cord, and Staff’, Biblical Archaeology Review, 2021, 1/6, (https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/47/3/22) [accessed 15 July 2024].
26 John Goldingay, Genesis, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020), pp. 582–83.
27 Marten Stol, Women in the Ancient Near East, trans. by Helen Richardson and M. E. J. Richardson (Boston; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), p. 297.
28 Raymond Westbrook, Property and the Family in Biblical Law, JSOT 113 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991), p. 87.
29 A. S. Yahuda, The Language of the Pentateuch in its Relation to Egyptian (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), p. 17.
30 Faro, Evil in Genesis, pp. 195–96.
31 Faro, Evil in Genesis, p. 198.
32 For detailed results, see Faro, ‘A Lexical, Exegetical, Conceptual, and Theological Study of Evil in Genesis’; Faro, Evil in Genesis; and Ingrid Faro, Demystifying Evil: A Biblical and Personal Exploration (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2023).