Christ Across the Pages of the Bible

Alice C. Linsley

Genesis tends to be read either literally, as a scientific text, or as myth with little relevance for modern people. Both approaches lead to misunderstanding because they fail to note the patterns that are expressed throughout the book. These patterns speak of the mystery of divine love and the intervention of the Creator in human history. They also speak of the earliest Messianic expectation.

The patterns are discerned when we look deeply into the text with minds and hearts open to the leading of God's Spirit. We note that the pattern of the Kushite kings speaks about the Kingdom of God. Their sent-away sons delivered kingdoms to their fathers, and this was a driving factor in the scientifically verified Kushite expansion out of Africa. It is important in understanding the divine Son, Jesus Christ. He who lived immortally in communion with the Father set aside His power and right (kenosis) and became mortal that He might redeem a people and establish an eternal kingdom.

We see the pattern in the cosmology of Abraham's Horite people. God brings light into the world daily with the rising of the sun in the east. This is the pattern whereby we understand the "Seed" of Genesis 3:15 as the lamb who matures to full strength, as a ram caught in the thicket, as the perfect and ultimate holocaust.

I've noticed that more readers of Just Genesis are picking up on this approach which helps us to see Christ across all the pages of the Bible. Ramona Gordy recently commented on this post. She wrote:

I believe that Adam and Eve were at once "real" people, and their lives were set for a pattern of a people, past, present and future. The pattern of a people who chose to obey God and all that entails. They are also set forth as a sign and a beginning of the blood line of the Savior.

I am fascinated by your research on the customs of the Horite's. Adam lived to be at least 900 years old and had many children. No record of how old Eve lived, do you suppose that Adam had other wives, in that Horite type of tradition?

Here is my response:

Ramona,

Pattern is so important in proper understanding of the Genesis material. Adam and Eve are the pattern for every man and woman. We, like they, are made in the "image and likeness" of our Creator. In that respect, humans are unique among all the creatures.

They are also the First Parents of the line of Jesus Christ and we trace that line by paying attention to the marriage pattern of the kings listed in Gen. 4, 5, 10, 1, 25 and 36. Analysis of their marriage and ascendancy pattern reveals an authentic lineage of royal priests who served kingdom builders across the ancient world. The pattern remains unchanged from Cain in Genesis 4 to the lists of Hebrew ruler--priests listed in Matthew and Luke, the ancestry of Jesus. It is the Horite Hebrew pattern of Abraham's ancestors, Joktan the Elder, Seir the Horite (Gen. 36) Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Moses, and Samuel.
I believe that the years attributed to the pre-flood rulers come from a later period and reflect a Kabalistic interest in the hidden meanings of numbers. It is interesting that Noah's father, Lamech the Younger, is assigned 777 years in the Masoretic text and Noah is called "righteous" among those living on Earth.

It would be speculating beyond the biblical evidence to say that Adam had two wives, but there is a Talmudic tradition that suggests he did. The first wife was called Lilith and she was evil. However, like the Talmud, the myth of Lilith is also much later than the Genesis king lists, and the context is Babylonian, not Nilo-Saharan.


Related reading:  Jesus: From Lamb to Ram; The Myth of Lilith; The Genesis King Lists; Afro-Arabian Number Symbolism; Jacob's Ninth Son; Moses' Wives and Brothers; Joseph and Mary's Relationship; Mary's Ruler-Priestly Lineage