BibleProject - Humans & Animals - Son of Man E2

Episode Date: January 21, 2019

Welcome to episode two of our series discussing the biblical theme of the Son of Man. In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss humanity's role in relation to other parts of creation, specifically animals. In part one (0:00-30:15), the guys briefly recap the first episode and quickly go over Daniel’s dream in Daniel 7, where he has a vision of the Son of Man appearing. Tim then dives into the language and ideas presented in Genesis 1 and specifically focuses on the order of creation and how the days are paired. Genesis 1:1-2: In the beginning God created the skies and the land and the land was wild and waste, and darkness was over the face of the watery deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Wild (tohu) = unordered Waste (vohu) = uninhabited Day 1 - Light: Separated from dark, day and night. Day 4 - Lights appointed to rule the day and night. Day 2 - Waters above separated from waters below. Day 5 - Creatures in waters below, creatures in waters above. “And God created the great sea monsters..." (1:21) “And God blessed them, saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters…” (1:22) Day 3 - Water separated from dry land. “Let the land bring forth (ותוצא) plants and vegetation and seed-producing plants and trees producing fruit.” (1:12) Day 6 - Creatures on the land. “Let the land bring forth (ותוצא) living beasts by their kinds.” (1:25) “Let us create the human (ha-adam) in our image and as our likeness… And God blessed them, and said, (1) be fruitful and multiply and fill the land and subdue it, and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the beasts on the land.” (1:26-28) Gen 2:1-3: God rests on the seventh day, which does not end. Tim then focuses on humanity's relationship with animals. Tim notices that humans are the “second comers” to creation, who are given the responsibility to rule over the animals who came first. This is a pattern that shows itself many times in Genesis. (Think about Joseph’s sons later in the story.) Tim then asks what it means for humans to be called to rule over the animals. Tim cites Richard Bauckham’s book Living with Other Creatures, “It is not often well enough noticed that the command God gives to humanity refers to two rather different matters. It refers first to the relationship of humans to the earth, secondly to their relationship to other living creatures...and they are not the same thing. Humans are not alone in being told to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill, the first and birds were given the same blessing on day 5. Only humans are told to fill and to subdue the land. In the narrative this refers clearly to agriculture, taking possession of the soil and working it in order to make it yield more food for humans than it would otherwise do. But what about all the other land animals? How does humanity’s role of subduing land relate to God’s blessing of the animals to fill the land? Notice God’s next words to the humans: See, I have given you (humans) every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. (Gen 1: 29– 30) Why does God tell humans that he has given every plant for food for the other living creatures? Surely, the reason is that it is the humans who need to know that the produce of the earth is not intended to feed them alone, but also all the living species of the earth. The clear implication is that the earth can provide enough food for all creatures. Humans are not to fill the earth and subdue it in a way that leaves no room and no sustenance for the other creatures who share the earth with them. God has given them too the right to live from the soil. So the human right to make use of the earth, to live from it, is far from unlimited. It must respect the existence of other creatures. The biblical portrait of human dominion over the animals must be filled out by the Bible’s vision of “royal rule.” Since Genesis depicts the image of God as a kind of royal function, the rule of a king over others, it is worth recalling the only passage in the law of Moses that refers to the role of the king in Israel (Deut. 17: 14– 20). There it is emphasized that the king is one among his brothers and sisters, his fellow-Israelites, and should not forget it. He should not accumulate wealth or arms or indulge in any of the ways kings usually exalt themselves above their subjects. Only if they remember their fundamental solidarity with their people will kings be able to rule truly for the benefit of their people. Similarly, only when humans remember their fundamental solidarity with their fellow-creatures will they be able to exercise their distinctive authority within creation for the benefit of other creatures.” (pp. 226-228) In part two (30:15-41:30), Jon asks about carnivorous animals like lions. Tim says that life survives at the expense of other lives right now, but apparently, in the new creation, that will fundamentally change. Tim says that humans bear responsibility for animal’s destiny; that’s why we are called to rule them. This is humanity acting in their identity of the divine image. Tim shares this quote: “The close relation of the term for God’s image with that for the commission to exercise dominion emerges quite clearly when we have understood selem as a plastic image. Just as powerful earthly kings, to indicate their claim to dominion, erect an image of themselves in the provinces of their empire where they do not personally appear, so man is placed upon earth in God’s image as God’s sovereign emblem. He is really only God’s representative, summoned to maintain and enforce God’s claim to dominion over the earth.” Gerhard von Rad, Genesis: A Commentary, ed. Peter Ackroyd et al., trans. John H. Marks, Revised Edition., The Old Testament Library (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1972), 59–60. Tim says that a human making an idol is an oxymoron. Humans are the image of God, so why would they make one? Tim then posits that in Genesis 3, an animal (the snake) is the one who deceives Adam and Eve. Humans end up getting ruled by the animals instead of ruling them. In part three (41:30-53:00), the guys discuss Psalm 8: O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have shown Your splendor above the heavens! ….When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is human that You take thought of him, And the son of man (human) that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than elohim (God or angelic beings), And You crown him with glory and majesty! [kavod va-hadar ‘divine attributes’] You make him to rule [mashal] over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth! Notice how God’s exaltation and glorification of humans is set within an inclusion frame about God’s own majesty and reputation. An exalted humanity doesn’t compete with God, rather it increases God’s own honor, because humans are an expression of the divine beauty and creativity. In part four (53:00-end), Tim shares this quote: “One point of saying that God is the absolute sovereign (as the biblical texts say time and again) is to say that he is free: free to exalt and share his own power and divine power with those whom he wills, through a transformation of their nature and identity; free to create entities that in various ways share in his identity as ruler and judge, and who manifest his presence within the world… The God of the biblical story is able to enter into and take on the nature and identity of the very reality he has created, taking it up into his very self. God’s identity is, apparently, “sharable.” … God’s identity is not a zero-sum game. To say that God shares his identity with humanity does not mean he suffers a loss of being; on the contrary, it is actually a way of saying that his identity is magnified and his glory extended.” [Tim’s note: “and, we may add, this is the way the divine love is extended as well.”] - Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Jesus Monotheism, 310-312. Tim says that for God, relationship with creation means entering into a shared relationship with it. Show Produced By: Dan Gummel, Jon Collins Show Music: Defender Instrumental, Tents The Cave Resides Deep in the Forest, Artificial Music Talking with You, Copyright free Very Chill Saxaphone, Copyright free Show Resources: Gerhard von Rad, Genesis: A Commentary Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Jesus Monotheism Richard Bauckham, Living with Other Creatures. Our video on the Son of Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6cWEcqxhlI&t=113s

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

The Eden ideal is humans peacefully co-existing with the animals, that's the Eden ideal. On page 1, the ideal is that humans are placed in a role of responsibility for the animals to rule the world. But that raises the question that's both ancient and modern about humans' relationship to animals. To rule the animals, what does that mean? Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. And on this episode of the podcast,

we're going to continue a series that we just began on the Son of Man. The Son of Man is a phrase that Jesus uses to refer to himself. It's a phrase that he got from a vision, a dream, that takes place in Daniel 7. And in this dream, there's a series of beasts, crazy animal-like creatures

that represent oppressive humans. It's a picture of humans becoming animals. And this isn't just a random image that the Bible uses. It's actually a theme the Bible develops, starting in its very first pages. The set of man theme is a way of thinking about the whole biblical story through the images of humans and animals. In Genesis chapter 1, God creates humans and animals on the same day. And if you think about it, humans are kind of just a type of animal.

But according to the Bible, we're much more. So very clearly, humans come from the earth, just like animals come from the earth. They're similar, but there's also something different that humans are designated as the divine image. The divine image, the image of God, the biblical claim, the role of humans is to rule alongside God. The whole premise of the story for this not a man will be when humans elevate themselves to the role of the creator. They don't want to be an image of God, they want to be God. Something tragic happens, they become beasts, they become less than human. When humans want to transcend

their humanity and act like God, Ironically, they become and begin acting like animals. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Okay, all right, we talked about the Son of Man in the last episode. Yep, Daniel 7. Jesus is go to phrase. Frays to call himself. Title for himself. It's not a title. It's not an official title.

But he made it a title. But he used it as a title to refer to himself, the story that he saw himself within, and a way of identifying who he was in light of the biblical story. And Daniel 7, where it comes from, is a symbolic dream vision that Daniel has that's like this super dense, compressed, symbolic retelling of the entire biblical drama in one chapter, which for sure is why Jesus was attracted to it and used it to explain who he was. So that story that he saw himself being a part of when he used that phrase,

Sunday Man, I think that's what we're going to start getting into, right? Yes, that's right. So maybe give me like 60 seconds, what's in your mind after we talked about what the Daniel 7 story is, how it summarizes the biblical story. Okay. Well, Daniel saw these crazy beasts and they're doing damage to humanity. Not only are they crazy looking, but they're mean. And they represent the kingdoms of the earth, representing oppressive empires and what humans becomingcoming like animals yeah and hurting each other. I mean, this is Daniel's context. So that makes sense Yeah, he's in Babylon. Yeah, the the beast of an empire that took over his people just devoured Jerusalem

So now he's living in a foreign land. Yeah, his hometown has been is in ruins. Well, not complete ruins, but you know, mm-hmm It's in bad shape. Yeah. So, he's seen this vision, that's not a fun dream to have. There's one beast after the next, and then the final beast is like this amalgam super beast. Super beast. And then he looks up in the sky, and he sees God is the ancient of days on the throne, and he's glimmering and fiery.

And so this is Daniel kind of having a vision of if you were in the temple and able to kind of see up through what is this representing and what is God's authority. This is it. This is God on his cosmic mountain. Yeah. Raining. It's like when you look down what you see are the beasts and violence. But when he looks up to the heavens, which is the top of the cosmic mountain. Yeah. Where God's in throne above all creation,

what he sees is the reality that down here on earth is difficult to see. Yeah, it's like pulling back the veil. Yes, that's exactly right. But the thing that he sees, the detail that's given, that's kind of odd, is that there's two throats. Yes, multiple divine throats. Yeah. And these throats are, by the way, on like that, chariot's kind of odd, is that there's two thrones. Yes, multiple divine thrones. Yeah.

Yeah. And these thrones are, by the way, unlike that chariot, kind of thing. Yeah, the god, my beautiful. Yeah. Two thrones, ancient days, gods on one, the other one is unoccupied. It's empty. Which makes you wonder, like, what, what is there in these thrones? Yeah, who's gonna go there?

Yeah. Yeah. Who gets to sit next to God? Yeah. And it's a potent image for the plot conflict of the biblical story. God made the world to share rule over it with a partner. And right now he has no workable partner. And that should be going through your head when there's two thrones. Because that wouldn't be what I think of immediately. Well the point is is he says, I saw Throne set up.

And then he says, and I saw the ancient of days. Yeah. Maybe it was like a throne for like Michael or something just to hang out with God or you know. Who knows? Well, but the point, yes. The point is, who does that other throne belong to? Maybe God likes to switch up his throne

and everyone's in one place sits in another throne. He just has multiple thrones. Yeah. Sit on the other one, a different day. Yeah, it's a double throne cherry. OK, that is one possibility of what it could be. So he looks up at this, and then God, it all sends you in a courtroom scene.

And the ancient days pulls out his material and destroys the super beast. Yes. Judges condemns the super beast. That's awesome. That would be like, that's it. It's over. Battles one. But that's not the end of the vision. Suddenly Daniel's, he's looking closer and he sees

the son of man, the human one, the human, coming up on a cloud and then he gets up there to the Godmobile yeah and sits on the throne yeah that was there empty and then they're both worshiped and they both have authority and the whole humanity and the kingdoms of the world worship and serve both of them yeah so this is tying into the story of God wanting to partner with humans. Yes, yeah, yeah. He creates a good world, rule this world with me.

You're the image of God. You have authority to go extend the garden and rule and subdue the earth. And that's what the throne represents. That's what the empty throne represents. Yes, that's right. Yeah, the twin thrones or the multiple thrones, yeah, represent as an image the ideal that the whole story began with, which is God, and his image-bearing humans ruling the world and covenant partnership together.

That's the premise of the biblical story. And so Daniel's vision begins with a symbol. Yeah. With the symbol of the Throne. So again, the logic is of the whole of the video and our whole conversation, Jesus used this phrase to talk about himself way more often than he used the image of Christ or Messiah. Son of Man was how he described himself. Where did he get that from Daniel 7? What's Daniel 7? A compressed retelling of the whole biblical story in symbol and imagery to dream. So what we're going to do now for the rest of our conversation is like reverse engineer. What is that story compressed and Daniel let's expand it back out and just walk through the

different sections of the Old Testament, showing how each one of them has major contributions to make to the developing Son of Man theme, and then we're going to get back to Daniel 7, notice some things with new significance, and then go to the Gospels, and then to the Son of Man, it's like the key. There's so many puzzling things in the Gosp gospel of Jesus says and does that all of a sudden make sense. Cool. Once do you have all this in your head, in your head, in your heart. So we're going back to the beginning. Yeah. Page one. Page one of the Bible. Here we are again. Sorry, but I'm not sorry. So this is, I'm not sure how much we'll need to go here in the video,

but there's an enormous overlap that I never quite realized between, well, the Sun of Man just means human, right? And what that throne, empty throne and Daniel represents is that God wants to, like you said, partner together with humans very closely. So that's a whole premise of the biblical story. The language that Genesis 1 uses to describe that is something we made a video about already, which is the image. The image of God. The image of God. So the way that Genesis 1 is designed, we've been

talking about this, we're actually going to make a whole separate video series about it, about literary design themes in Genesis 1 and 2. But Genesis 1 works in an opening statement, then a triad, a pair, three pairs. So I think we have the first sentences of Genesis 1 in the beginning, God created the skies in the land. Now the land was wild and waste, darkness over the face of the watery deep and the spirit of God was hovering over those waters. It's opening by introducing. Like the premise. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So God's going to create. And your translation probably says heavens and the earth, not skies and the land.

Guys, that's right. So it begins with God versus an undeveloped unordered wasteland. Yeah. That is both a wilderness and a chaotic ocean. And what I'm familiar with in this chapter and most people are going to be that from here it's broken into structures of days. That's right. Seven days. Seven to follow.

Seven days follow and God creates something on each day. Mm-hmm. If you pay attention to repeated words and patterns of repeated words, day is one through six, line up precisely in three pairs of two. So day is one through three. In one column.

In one column. And then day is four through six. And then the second column. And corresponding column. And the day one will then match with day four. Yeah, and you just read it. Day one is light separated from dark matching day four, which is the lights, the big light and the little light rule the day and the night. So day one and day four are about light and correct. Yeah, correct.

Yep. Day and night. Day two is the waters above are separated from waters below. Day five, its pair, is God placing inhabitants in each of those waters. So the creatures that fly against the waters above are the birds, because they fly right in that blue stuff up there. Yeah. Which are the waters above, and they fly against the face of the blue stuff. Mm-hmm. And then the fish, then the water swarmer is in the waters below. The water swarmer is. Water swarmer is.

Yep. Then day three, it's interesting. Day three, first of all, has the waters recede from a chunk of dry land. Like a mound of land. It emerges, yeah. A mound of land emerges from the waters. Step one, on day three. Step two on day three is vegetation is birthed out of the land.

It just emerges. It matches day six, which also has two steps. First is the land births or brings forth beasts, animals. Step one of day six. and births or brings forth beasts, animals. Step one of Day six. Step two of Day six is the culminating, let us create human in our image and in our likeness. And so what God, a point then is human.

There is a reflection of the divine image. It is the divine image. It is a divine image, a reflector of the divine. And he appoints them to rule and have dominion and stewardship over everything that just came before. That's the flow. Yeah. That's the flow of the.

I remember when you first pointed this out to me, the matching chapters, I really blew my mind. How the days man never saw that, but it's so obvious once you see it. Yes. That day one and four are matched day two and five and day three and six. Yeah.

Because I've always been trained to think of it more literally. So I missed that. I just missed that. Yeah, that's right. Connection. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Genesis one.

So good. We should spend hours here. Genesis one is both teaching you how to read the Hebrew Bible. It's so patterned and ordered, right down to the syllables and the numbers of words and sentences. Whoa, it's just, I'm sorry to imagine how long it took someone, to compose it. I believe was inspired and carried along by God's spirit, but all the same, it took someone a long believe, was inspired and carried along by God's spirit, but all the same.

It took someone a long time to craft this, everything. Okay, anyway. And so remember we had an opening statement. Then we have the six day structures, which is, it works for in three pairs. And then you have matching the opening's introduction. You have a conclusion, which is the seventh day, which is God blessed the seventh day. He consecrated it. He finished his work. Bless the seventh day. So there's so many cool things about Genesis one, but I'll save it for when we talk about that. Yeah. So the main thing to pay attention to, I think, for the Son of Man video, is on day six,

on the same day, the land creatures, which are called the beasts, the animals. So the land creatures- I just have word for animal in the beast. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I think this is a King James thing, where in 1611, when the King James was made, beast was a normal word for animal. Okay. It's the Hebrew word for animal.

Yeah. We don't walk around Portland and walking your dogs. Somebody find Beastie out there. Your right. Beast makes it seem like you're talking about a dangerous animal. Yeah. A ferocious, dangerous animal. Most animals are, if they're not... Which is true of most animals.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, except super domesticated dogs. But even there are a little wild, but they'll nip at you. Yeah. Well, their inner beast will come out. Here's what I like the word beast.

The beasts are gonna be used mainly as negative symbols and images throughout the rest of the biblical story. I think that's why I like the word the translation beast. Yeah, because beast has a negative connotation to it. Correct. But is in Hebrew, does it have a negative connotation? Nope. No.

Just animal. Land animal. Land animal. Yep. Yeah. It could easily be translators, it's just animal. Correct. And then there's categories for domesticated animal in Hebrew.

Which would be domesticated beasts. Yeah cows, cattle, sheep, and goats, and then wild animals. Yeah, there's that language. So here it's let the bland bring forth animals. So day six, the first comers on day six are the animals, but then the second comers on day six are the humans, but it's the second commerce that got a point to rule over the animals. The first commerce. The commission is, God bless the humans, instead of be fruitful and multiply, fill the land and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beast of the land. So those who came before you? Yes, yeah. So this is interesting. You got, you know, in the six- the air, the beasts of the land. Little those who came before you. Yes, yeah.

So this is interesting. You got, in the six day structure, it was day five, they have the Sky Flyers and the Water Swimmers. And then the first part of day six is the land creatures. You need a better phrase. What's that? Sky Flyers, Water Swimmers, you need a good,

like the land walkers. The land walkers, yeah, that's good. Land walkers. And then it, but it's the humans, it's the last commerce who end up ruling over all who come before. So just that's an important point. Okay. Because that's a pattern in the book of Genesis that's going to keep playing itself out in every generation of the characters, where there's somebody

who came first, and then there's somebody who comes second, and God typically chooses the one who came second, and then the one who came first gets angry about it, which is going to be relevant for what happens in Genesis 3. So the point is, here we go. This is the ideal set here. This is the first born second born thing. Correct. Yeah, that we go. This is the ideal set here. This is the first born second born thing. Correct. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, animals are the first born of Day 6. Humans are the second born, but God chooses the second born. To rule over the first born. To rule over the first born of Day 6. And there you go. This is Paul Book of Genesis. Previewed for you.

That's true. In seed form. The other relevant thing. Oh yes, okay. So let's just talk about humans and animals. That's going to be a big thing of this video, is the Son of Man video and the Son of Man theme is a way of just thinking about the whole biblical story through the images of humans and animals. So here, on page one, that ideal is that humans are placed in a role of responsibility for the animals

to rule them. But that raises the question that's both ancient and modern about humans' relationship to animals. Yeah. And what does it mean to rule the animals? Yeah, it's equally important question, but a completely different premise. Like before, it was like, how do we not get killed

by these things? And how do we domesticate enough of them to like keep us alive? And now it's like, how do we make sure we don't wipe them all out? Totally. Let's keep some of them around. Yes, that's exactly right. Oh man, I was just on a backpacking trip with some friends out south of Yellowstone in the Teton's, Grand Teton's. So we saw like a couple heard of Bison when we were out in the park entrance area. But I was just reminded the story of the Buffalo.

I think we've talked about it before. Three million killed in less than five years. In the mid 18th. Yeah, you did mention that. By all the Western expansions. This has been fact checked. Feels like kind of a... Well, I was reading the interpretive

like little sign, you know, at the park. Well, there you go. And it matched what I read about a month earlier in the children's book to my son, that's like a, was it historical kids level retelling of the buff, are you looking up right now? Yeah, I just feel like I have to. That's good.

3 million buffalo. Yeah, an estimated population of 3 million on the American planes. That's how many there were. Correct. Okay, here we go. This is from the Atlantic. Okay.

The title is Kill Every Buffalo You Can. Every Buffalo Dead is an Indian gone. It was near the end of September. Okay, so then this is magic up to your story was, it was like, if we kill these buffalo then Indians will have anything to eat I'm sure that was one whole layer. Oh, you didn't tell me about that. I didn't tell you about that. Oh someone told me about that I'm sure but yeah, there was a mandate, but yeah go kill the buffalo and so as a way of Dispossessing Indian Indians from their territory. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Instead of going and finding Indians whose boats killed buffalo.

The beast and humans, humans are beasts. That's actually a good example of what this theme is all about. Yeah. You're still reading. I was trying to find a number. It is estimated as many 60 million buffalo over on the Great Plains from Canada in North Texas. There were millions.

The population was brought down to something of under a thousand. Oh really? Oh, that's what that was just saying. And then it was a series of settlers who realized what was going on and then started breeding them again in captivity and brought the population up to back.

Yeah, they're saying there's some 20 to 25,000 now. Yes, that's right. Yeah, and it actually began with a number of settlers starting to breed them when they realized they were all going to go extinct. Wow. And then it got subsidized by the federal government. Got it.

And then they started giving them national parks. So there was once like 30 million of these things. Yeah. Then we came in and we just started picking them off. For all kinds of reasons. All sorts of reasons. Yeah. Some of them, survival, some of them, really screwed up.

Yeah. And there was down to just a few thousand and... Yes. Yeah. Brought back. So here's the thing, I'm not an expert in this by any means. But I even can pick it up in rhetoric of like public media where people will often portray the biblical worldview

of humans over the animals as part of the problem of the Western worldview or bringing species to their extinction. So the question is for sure people have. Yeah, one option is, well maybe humans shouldn't rule the earth. Yeah, one option is, well, maybe humans shouldn't rule the Earth. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that what this chapter is doing of humans ruling the animals is actually giving license to humans to just do what they want.

Do what they want with the animals. So this is an important discussion and I'll just, here's, I just want to recommend a book on it and some quotes. Because I think it helps illuminate what's going on in Genesis 1, the in ways that I hadn't noticed before. So, this human's relationship to animals. So, humans are called to rule over the animals. What does that mean?

What does that mean? So, very clearly humans, humans are come from the earth, just like animals come from the earth. So, they share, they're similar. But there's also something different in that humans are designated as the divine image, which is connected to their ruling. So this is a book by Richard Bauchem

called Living with Other Creatures. It's a whole book exploring this very thing. Humans relationship to animals in the Bible. So fascinating. This guy has so much time on his hands. Seriously, he writes so many good books. I can't keep up with him. So in Genesis, right after God appoints the humans to rule,

he designates what humans can have for their food and what animals can have for their food. Oh yeah. And it's the original, it's the vegan ideal. Yeah, the humans are told to eat the tree fruit. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. It's in Genesis 1, 29.

God says, I give you humans all of the plants yielding seed and every tree that has fruit. Yeah. You get the fruit trees. You get the vegetarian diet. Yeah, you get, yeah, totally. And then he says,

and to every beast of the earth and bird of the air and everything that creeps on the earth, I give them every green plant for food. and to every beast of the earth and bird of the air and everything that creeps on the earth, I give them every green plant for food. So humans get, and this is connected to humans subduing the lands about agriculture. You get agricultural food and you get fruit. That's the human diet.

And the animals get all the green grass stuff. Yeah. Bushes in the grass. So just stop. Like why? Did they not know about lions or something? No, this is about the ideal. It's in the grass. So just stop, like why? Did they not know about lions or something? Or? No, this is about the ideal. It's about the ideal.

The Eden ideal is. Lions are eaten grass too. No creature has to live at the expense of another creature's life. That's the ideal. Yeah, the animals are all depicted as vegetarians as well. As vegetarians, yes. Again, Genesis 1 is a portrayal of the ideal.

Yeah. And whether or not it's preserved historical memory of how the world actually was for some period of time, that's a whole series of debates. Yeah. Whatever view you hold on that, everybody can agree, it's portraying the ideal. Yeah. So Genesis 1 depicts a world where animals don't have to live at the expense of each other's lives.

And humans don't live at the expense of the animals, right? Why else would you have a whole paragraph clarifying who gets what for to eat? It was interesting. So here's what Balkham says about this, because it's relevant to understanding what it means for humans to rule. He says this. He says it's not often well enough noticed that the command God gives to humanity refers to two rather different matters. It first refers to the relationship of humans to the earth, which is subdue the land. Secondly, to their relationship to other living

creatures, and these commands are not the same thing. So he's referring to the, right, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue the land and rule the animals. Oh, okay. Those two commands. subdue the land. subdue the land. rule the animals. rule the animals.

So humans are not alone in being told to be fruitful and multiply. He said that actually first of the birds. Yeah. And the fish. They have the same blessing on day five. It's only humans that are told to fill the land and to subdue it. In the Genesis narrative, subduing the land clearly refers to agriculture as explored in Genesis chapter 2. Regarding all that kind of thing, agriculture. So taking possession of the soil and working it to make it yield more food for humans than it would otherwise do.

So the narrative itself clarifies what it means to subdue the land, farm it, make more food than we'll just fall off trees if you just don't do anything at all. But what about the other land animals, Bacchum Cozon? How does humanity's role of subduing the land relate to the blessing that God gives to the animals to fill the land? Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, because if you've subdued all the land where the animals are going to hang out.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's right. If you turn everything into a garden or a farm, then where does zebra get to go? Yeah, it's a question that arises if Then where did the zebra get to go? Yeah. It's a question that arises if you read through the story. Oh, if humans subdue the land, but the animals are supposed to fill the land along with humans, where did the animals go? So then he says, look at these gods' next words to the humans.

See, I've given you humans every plant yielding seed on the face of the earth, every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and bird, and everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has a breath of life, I give the rest of the green plants for food. Again, back to Bacchum. I've never noticed this before, but I think he's right on. He asks, why does God tell the humans that he's given every green plant for food to the other living creatures?

Why does God have to say that? So that they leave it there. Surely the reason is that the humans who need to know that the produce of the earth isn't intended to feed them alone, but also the other living species of the earth. Yeah. The clear implication, Bakem says,

is that the earth can provide enough food for all creatures. Humans aren't to fill and subdue the earth in a way that leaves no room, or sustenance for the other creatures, who share the earth with them. God has given them to the right to live from the soil, just like the humans. And so, he says, the human right to make use of the earth to live from it is far from an unlimited right. It must respect the

existence of the other creatures. As such a good observation, I've never, I'd never quite put it that way, but I think that's exactly right. Yeah, that makes sense. So he goes on to talk about then the biblical portrait of human rulers in the Bible is really nuanced. For example, the kings in Israel, who are called the rule, just using the same vocabulary as Genesis 1, I mean, the kings in Israel, we've looked at these, the king law and Deuteronomy, and it's like,'t you mass wealth right like don't bring in Egyptian horses don't yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like don't build a huge military don't do political marriages

Just be a Bible nerd and study the Torah and pray and trust God. Yeah, so that's that's ruling In the biblical world view and so it's very similar here of ruling in the biblical world view. And so it's very similar here of... Backwards kind of what we're looking for. God tell someone to rule as his image. It is not... It's not take over. It's not a blank check.

Yeah. Yeah. To do whatever you want. Yeah. Just the opposite. And so in Genesis 1, it's clarified by who gets what food is this way of showing that humans' relationships the animals is to be one of coexistence. That's why I called the book Living with Other Creatures.

Yeah. Yeah. Cool. That's helpful. I think it is helpful. And so when the Eden ideal is humans peacefully coexisting with the animals, that's the Eden ideal. And everyone's just eating veggies. Everyone's vegan. And no creature has to live at the expense of another. There's plenty because this god's generous he wants to share. That's the ideal on page one. And then that image gets filled out

even a little bit more in Genesis 2, where humans relationship the animals takes another step forward. This is where, though, if the story of the Bible is coming back to the ideal, then are we anticipating a time when humans and animals are on a vegan diet, which you can make that case for humans, but what are the lions going to do? Those things are meant to kill other animals and eat them. That's how their whole body works. Yeah. In the world, as we experience it, life survives

at the expense of other lives. Yeah. That's the universe as we know it. Yeah. So that needs to fundamentally change, you think. Apparently. Yeah, the ideal on Genesis 1 is a universe that's like the world that's like ours, but also

Fundamentally unlike it. We're getting into new creation Yes, territory. Yes, which is where the Son of Man video will take us. Yeah, it's about a new humanity I just like lions. I want them to be around. Yeah, I mean creation But yeah, it wouldn't quite be as fearsome. They didn't threaten to slash you. Yeah, yeah Well that and just like, will it still be a lion? Yeah. If all of a sudden you take away the claws and the teeth and you give them a digestive tract that can eat grass.

Yeah. You know, like what do you got now? You have a cow, is what you got now. Yeah. A famous looking cow with a furry head. Yeah, that's a furry head. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, there you go.

I mean, I think we're getting to the limits of our framework, our way of understanding reality for what new creation means. Jensus 1 asks us to see our world as good, but incomplete. And on its way to some next step and the way we'll be led by a new kind of human, which is what the biblical story is all about. Humans and animals. Humans and animals living together.

Yes, and humans as the ruling partner of the animals. So humans bear responsibility for the creation in a way that's different. Apparently in Genesis 1, animals aren't responsible for the destiny of the Earth. The way that humans are responsible before God. You know, because the elephant can really trash a field. Uh-huh. Yeah. But humans can trash a continent. Yeah. Yeah. So it's that kind of difference here.

Yeah. So the ski, to how the biblical story begins, it's God, humans, and animals, and a happy triangle. And a had triangle. We think God over everything. Over everything. And then the humans and the animals, and then. On the same plane. Yeah, and then the humans and the animals and then the same plane. Yeah, and then the humans are responsible for the animals, but in a horizontal relationship,

because they're both creatures before God. Yeah, both come from the earth on the same day. Yeah, that's right. So that's one element. The second element, as we said, this is a human, and humans are called the image of God. And so we don't need to fill this out, although I've done a lot more reading and thinking about it. But it is relevant to where the Son of Man theme is going, because the whole biblical story then is going to be about humans as these closely united partners, these bridges of heaven and earth.

If God's the heavenly supreme ruler, but he's installed an image, which is the biblical word for idol statue. Yeah, physical representation of who God is. That's right. So if the ideal is going to be maintained, what you need is a human who's so united with God, connected with God, you could say that when you look at this human, you're looking at God. What else does it mean to say a human is an image of God? When you think of Daniel set back to Daniel 7, that unoccupied throne next to God, that will be filled by a human,

who will be worshiped by other humans as part of God's identity. You can see how this phrase, image of God, is actually starting to give you categories for that. Yeah. And you've pointed out to me before how the image of God, it's connected to the vocational calling of theirs to go subdue the earth and rule the animals. Not only can you look at that person and maybe see God, but that person is acting on God's behalf and has his authority to rule. Yeah, that's right. And so it doesn't mean that you look at a human and say, oh, that's God.

You look at and say, hmm, that's an image of God. Or that's God embodied through a human image or expression. Genesis 1 is trying to give us a category of God, creation, very separate things. God is not the animal or the rock or the tree. But merging those two, or somehow bridging those two, is the image, the divine image, that is a physical representation of the creator. What else does image mean? Well, I don't know. It's not a word I use a lot, but I mean, in the way that it's being used here, as an idol. I mean, we don't use that typically. Yeah, that's right.

Actually, here, I have some quotes here that I've pulled together since we last talked about this. This one is from a German commentator named Gerhard von Rodd. Is this last name von Rodd? Gerhard von Rodd. Yeah, the vond just means from German. He's from rad.

He's from rad. Gerhard from rad. So it reads from. He's rad. Yeah, this guy was a boss. Not only is he rad, he's from rad. Yeah, totally. So he says commenting on the image of God in Genesis 1.

He says, the close relation of the term for God's image, with that for the commission to exercise dominion. So he's saying, calling humans the image of God, and then in the next sentence, saying, rule the land. It emerges quite clearly when we understand the word Selam, that's a Hebrew word for image, he calls it as a plastic image, a plastic meaning, malleable, moldable. Just as powerful earthly kings kings to indicate their claim to dominion erect an image of themselves in the provinces of the empire where they

do not personally appear. So man is placed on the earth in God's image as God's sovereign emblem like that phrase. He is really only God's representative, summoned to maintain and enforce God's claim to dominion over the earth. So we're being given a category. It looks like God, ideally. It acts like God. It's a physical emblem.

So God created a bunch of creatures that resemble Him in some way, but aren't Him. And said, this is, in the some way, but aren't him, and said, this is in the same way a king would put up a statue of himself in a city that he doesn't get to hang out in. God put us to resemble him to show people that remind them who's really in charge. Well, if it's about showing people, it's just that God, the fundamental portrait is that this God wants to share existence. And so he...

With living idols. With living images. Yeah, that's right. And this is for sure what's underneath the prohibition of making idols. If we're a human to make an idol, there's a oxymoron. And I don't, it's a meta. In a biblical worldview. Yeah. I don't think you're an idol is a oxymoron. It's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, it's an, Well, yeah, think of the Esau story, selling your birthright for a bowl of porridge.

Mm. Yeah. It's like you've been given this wonderful identity and vocation. It's like a transformer car trying to build a car. Yeah, it's all right. Yeah. No, no, no, you are a car.

And thinking that the car is somehow more powerful than it. It's like, no, dude, you're an Autobot. You're an Autobot. Make a car. Yeah. And like drive it. Yeah. No, dude,, you're an Autobot. You're an Autobot. Make a car and drive it. Yeah. No, dude, drive yourself. Absolutely, yeah. Like, you're the thing.

Yeah. Yeah, that's it. That is meta. So, and just typically Protestants have been a little twitchy. We kind of get uncomfortable with this glorious elevation of humanity. Because we aren't gods. Yes. And that is a human temptation is to then take that and be like,

exactly right. That's right. So one of the ways of thinking about the conflict in the Bible that's relevant at the Sun and Man theme is that humans aren't content to be images of God. They want to live and rule as if they are God. That's key to the plotline conflict. And actually, the whole premise of the story for this not a man will be when humans elevate themselves to the role of the creator.

They don't want to be an image of God. They want to be God. Something tragic happens. They become beasts. They become less than human. When humans want to transcend their humanity and act like God, ironically, they become and begin acting like animals, they become less than human.

And so, in the biblical story, it's only when humans humble themselves and recognize their subordinate role as images of God that they become truly human and are elevated to their glorious role. It's this inversion. Be found to figure out something visual. The first will become last. Totally. Yeah, that's right. And so let's just think about Genesis 3. What's the agent tricking the humans? Us, Nate. It's an animal. Oh, it's an animal. Yeah, it's a snake. We're told that in Genesis 3, verse 1, that- It's a snake with legs. It's a snake.

Well, actually doesn't say that. That's a whole other thing. It's a snake. It's a snake. It's a snake. Then in the narrative says, it's one of the beasts of the field that the Lord God made. Yeah. It's one of the beasts.

It's a beast. So in Genesis 3, you have a beast deceiving humans to think that they can be God. Yeah. And what they end up being is becoming less than what they were made to be. Hmm. So once again it's humans and animals. Yeah. Genesis 3 is a conflict between humans and animals and humans end up getting ruled by an animal instead of ruling the animal. between humans and animals, and humans end up getting ruled by an animal, instead of ruling the animal. Ruled by the snake. Yeah, yeah. And so then we're off to the race.

And then they're out. They're out roaming the wilderness like animals. Totally. Yeah, killing each other like animals. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. One last thought about the glorious ideal of the human image of God is Psalm 8. We've looked at it before. Psalm 8. But it's going to be again relevant for the Son of Man theme and how it gets drawn upon

by the Jesus Nephossil. So Psalm 8, you want to read Psalm 8? Sure. Do it. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? Who have shown your splendor above the heavens? Is that a question? Oh. The earth has shown?

Is your name in all the earth? O Lord, who's shown your splendor above the heavens? Oh, okay. Yeah, sorry, it's awkward. When I consider your heavens, above the heavens. Oh, okay. Yeah, sorry, it's awkward. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained,

what is human that you take a thought of him? And the son of man, that you care for him. Yet you have made him a little lower than Elohim, and you crown him with glory and majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name and all the earth?

Salmate. Salmate. Yeah. Yeah, it's all in there. It is, isn't it? Yeah. What a, you couldn't ask for like a better poetic rendition.

Summary of Genesis 1, could you? Yeah. Yeah. So a couple of things are one formally in terms of the form or design of the poem. You know, it ends with identical phrase. Yep. Mm-hmm. Oh Lord our Lord How majestic is your name and all the earth? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So think about this ponder this This is one of these things you have a cup of tea and read the poem for the fiftieth time and think about it So this poem is begins in ends

elevating God's majesty and above all the land. So whatever happens in the middle of the poem is about increasing God's majesty over the land. And what is the content of the poem? It's about how God has elevated a creature to have glory and majesty. Do you see that? to have glory and majesty. Do you see that? You've made her a little lower than Elohim, we'll talk about that. And you've crowned human with glory and majesty. So the very thing that God, the attribute of God,

that elevates him above the land, is the thing that God wants to share with humans. And God's majesty isn't threatened by an exalted, glorious humanity. It's actually increased. Isn't that interesting? Right, yeah. Yeah.

I mean, a think of analogy would be like, it's like, it's okay. It's where you make something that's so clearly not yourself. Yeah. You make a work of art. Let's go with the work of art. You make a work of art. And if you show it off in a gallery, like a big sculpture, what you really want people to focus on if you're a humble artist It's just to look at the sculpture. You don't want everybody to walk into the room and just come look at you

You want them to go look at the guy made sculpture. He totally and you know look at you. Yeah, so on But in in a room like that people are looking at the sculpture But what they're thinking about is, whoa, the person who created this. And so, even though everybody's marveling at the glory of the sculpture, it doesn't detract from the glory of the artist. It actually increases it. And there's something similar going on here, where a glorious, elevated humanity doesn't threaten gods. Like glory, it actually increases it.

And it's an image of it. And that's the logic here. Yeah, it's just worth sitting and thinking about. Yeah. I think. Notice that humans are called in two poetic lines here, paired in verse four. Yeah, what is human that you take thought of him, the son of man? Yes, the son of man. There's a phrase.

Synonym for human. Yep. Synonym for human. And then, ah, this is significant. Verse five. It's Ben Adam is what that is. Yeah, Ben Adam. Yep. So what is Adam and what is Ben Adam?

Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. So here, the poem is envisioning humanity as a whole, but also in its successive generations. The ideal is that all generation experience this. This is an interesting line. Verse 5, you've made him a little lower than Elohim. Yeah, so we've had a big conversation about Elohim. Yeah, which is out.

And there's a translation and interpretive challenge here. Hmm. In that, you're looking at me. I'm imagining, so yeah, when we talk about Elohim, it's the best way I can think to translate that word is spiritual being, because it doesn't just refer to Yahweh, the Creator God, it refers to a whole class of spiritual beings.

Could be angels, could be demons, spirits. And so here, in verse five, you have made him, the humans, a little lower than Elohim. Singular? Elohim. So that's the question. Elohim is the plural. Elohim is plural. It's plural in Hebrew.

So it could be translated. You have made him lower than gods. Then gods, plural, right? Or you have made him lower than Elohim referring to the singular chief god that is Yahweh. But it's plural. But the word for the god of Israel is often the plural noun. Oh, is it? Oh, okay. That's right. So, if you flip open a different translations of Psalm 8, you'll notice differences here.

So, the English, excuse me, the new American standard version of Psalm 8, verse 6 reads, you have made him a little lower than God. Yeah. The new Revised Standard version, the same. You've made them a little lower than God. The new Revised Standard version, the same. You've made them a little lower than God. And IV, international version reads, you have made them a little lower than the angels. ESV translates, you made him a little lower than the heavenly being. That's interesting. NIV says angels. So it's really interesting.

So it's not just translating Elohim, they're actually interpreting Elohim to refer to a specific type of spiritual being. A plural group of spiritual beings, namely angelic being. Oh, and this is the verse quoted in Hebrews, and it's translated as eight-hose. It is. So, there were Jewish translators, 200-ish years before Jesus translating the Hebrew Bible and the Greek. It's often called the Septuagint. Yeah.

Technically incorrect, but that's okay. So what's technically incorrect? The title Septuagint is incorrect as a title for all of the Greek translations of the Old Testament. The title originally referred only to the Greek translation of the Torah. Oh, but anyway. Sorry. What's the phrase for the whole thing? Oh, um, scholars just call it the old Greek translation. Oh, that's awesome.

The OG. It's the abbreviation. That's awesome. I had to use it in my dissertation a whole bunch, and I just abbreviated it as OG. I always snickered a little bit. The original, when I wrote that. Yeah, because you have like, you'd be at a Biblical studies conference and there's all these people and suits and they are

using the phrase OG. It makes me laugh. Anyway, sorry, sorry, it's a rabbit trail. So the old Greek translation translated it as Anglos, Angels. And that's what the NIV and the ESV is going off of here. God is that interpretation. Tradition. So it exposes a ambiguity, though, that's in Hebrew.

Our humans made to be just a little lower than God. Well, that kind of makes sense in that they're an image of God, the mental resemble God. You have made them a little lower than the gods. Yeah, it's like a little lower than the class of Elohim. Correct. That's correct. There's a type of being that doesn't live. It's not a creature on the earth, Elohim. And we are lower, we're physically lower in the way that they thought of cosmology.

Correct. That's right. That realm is above. That realm is above. They're with God. They're part of his divine council. Yeah. So they're the Elohim.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And speaking of divine council, then they're ruling with God. Yeah. They're given authority too. Yeah. So they also image God in a different way.

Right. Sure. They're Elohim, like Yahweh. And we are a wrong lower than that kind of preacher. That's right. I think that's the idea here. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And it's a contrast.

The point is you've made... But despite that... You've made him a little lower than the Elohim, but it's humans that you've crowned to be your glory and to rule over all of it. Yeah, because I mean, he didn't call them image of God called humans. Yeah, humans are the image of God called the rule over the rest of creation. Yeah, you could have just said humans, you're kind of a really smart animal.

Yeah. And the Elohim are going to rule over creation. Correct. But instead, he said, no humans, your animals that carry my image and even though you're lower than the angels. It seems like the psalmist is kind of tripping out on that, how weird, like if you think about the levels of power, you got the beasts and then they get the humans, but then you have like the possible Elohim and above that all is Yahweh Elohim.

Yahweh Elohim. And him going, he would think like authority would also be along this ranking. Beasts, and then humans, and then Elohim, and then God. But it's not. No. Humans were given the special task.

Special, like it was flipped. Yes. Just like on it was flipped. Yes. Just like on day six in Genesis 1. Beasts, right? Right, the sky flyers, the water swimmers, and the beasts, the land walkers. They came first. And it's the lake comers, humans,

who end up actually being flipped, who rule over everything else. It's very similar to another kind of flipping. Correct. So this is within a biblical world, but I've really tried to come and own this as I've pondered some eight, too. It's really remarkable.

You think about this, too, that the human species is what it is on planet Earth. I mean, we're much weaker than a mountain lion. Oh, sure. On many levels, humans are a subpar species compared to other creatures. Yeah. Except for this thing carried by our necks.

Yeah. It is a game changer. Right. Right? The most marvelous thing in the universe, some people think. Is the human brain? The human brain.

Yeah. Yeah. So we can outthink the mountain lion and rule it. Yeah. And hell. Okay, let's see. Ah yes. This is, trust me, this relates to the back to the animals again. Okay. This is a quote from another Bible narrator recently discovered on the top of page 8. His name's Crispin Fletcher Lewis.

And he's reflecting on Genesis 1, image of God, Psalm 8, how the Son of Man is elevated to rule everything else. He says this. He says one point of saying that God is the absolute sovereign, as the biblical texts say, time and again, is to saying that God is the absolute sovereign as the biblical text say time and again is to say that God is free He's free to exalt and share his own power and his divine power with those whom he wills through a transformation of their nature and identity Think what's happening on Genesis 1? That's making creatures. Yeah, then there's one creature who's elevated Yeah, he's like I'm gonna do something there's one creature who's elevated. Yeah.

He's like, I'm gonna do something special with you. Yes. And God's... And he has that prerogative. Yeah. He can do that. Yeah. So God's sovereignty in the Bible isn't just...

He has the authority to tell you what to do. It's he's free to do things that might surprise us. We're seem counterintuitive. Right. Because the author of Psalm 8, he's like, I can't believe you elevated humans. Yeah. Yeah. Can't believe it. When I look he's like, I can't believe you elevated humans. Yeah, yeah.

Can't believe it. When I look at the universe, I think why humans? Right. That's what he's talking about. But God can do that. He's free to create entities, Chris Ben Govon, that in various ways share in his identity as ruler and judge and who manifests his presence to the world.

The God of the biblical story is able to enter into and take on the nature and identity of the very reality He's created, taking it up into His very self. God's identity is apparently shareable. Again, He's just reflecting on Genesis 1. God's identity in the Bible isn't a zero-sum game to say that God shares his identity with humans as his image. Doesn't mean he suffers a loss of being. On the contrary, it's actually

a way of saying that his identity is magnified and is glory extended. So we're back to Psalm 8 here. For God to share his divine throne with a human. Now, why would you say shares identity versus share his authority or share his... Well, on Genesis 1, you're right. It's God sharing authority. That's right. But what this is in a book called Jesus Monotheism. And essentially, what he's trying to do is allow the Hebrew Bible to shape all of our categories about God's relationship to humans and reading the New Testament portrait of Jesus as divine in light of the Hebrew Bible. And so what he's pondering is that for a Jewish monotheist in Jesus' day,

monotheist in Jesus' day, like Paul, to say, we have one God, the Father and Jesus. So that sounds to us like a contradiction. He's just really trying to reframe the whole conversation, to say if you really reflect on Genesis 1 and Psalm 8, that the God's relationship to creation has always been to enter into a solidarity with it and to have it share in his identity. For God to crown a creature with glory and majesty, that's an image of the divine majesty. What is that? Except God's sharing himself with that creature. And Christmastepoint is that in the Bible God's identity isn't something that God's like walling off or

He's actually inviting people into his identity and he doesn't stop being God and they don't stop being creatures invite people into his identity. What else is Daniel 7? But God? Well, yeah, Daniel 7 for sure. That's right. But Daniel 7 is only makes the sense that it does in light of this depiction of God and humans. And Genesis 1, I didn't sell me. Well, one way of framing it is that God is bringing a human into his identity. Another way of framing it is that the word became flesh. Correct. Yeah, that's right. So it's that God became human. Correct. So he isn't elevating a human. He's elevating a God human

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, totally. Yeah, that's where this is all going. Yeah, but I'm saying this is preparing this giving us the conceptual categories of the incarnation of God become human Genesis 1 is about God elevating humans to this role, which they forfeit. And then the rest of the story is just going to be iterating on just how every generation of humans just keeps forfeiting. The chance to participate in the divine rule as God's image. And so the climactic solution in Jesus is that as the Son of Man, God becomes the Son of Man. Which if you have a God, I don't know who's so walled off from his creation, so Transana and above it, something like the Incarnation is a very bizarre.

But the biblical God is just in this very close intimate relationship. And he allows the developing story of his creation to affect him as he relates to it. And he eventually becomes a part of it in and through the incarnation. I don't even know what I'm talking about. I know. Once I get here, I'm just like, oh, yeah. All I have is the language of the story.

The biblical story makes sense of something that's just like what I want. Yeah. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of the story, the biblical story, it makes sense of something that's just like one. Hey thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast. If you're enjoying this conversation on the Son of Man, you'll like the video we made on the Son of Man. It's on our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash the Bible Project. It's also on our website, thebiboproject.com. Also, if you've been enjoying this podcast, one really amazingly helpful thing you can do is review or rate our podcast on iTunes

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We make free resources, videos, this podcast, study notes, other downloads. It's all for free at thebibleproject.com. Thanks for being a part of this with us. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. We are a crowd-founded project by people like me. Find free videos, study notes, and more at theBibleProject.com. you