Bible Studies
It is the author's intention to post a commentary on the weekly readings of Scripture, as they are read in Synagogues around the world, each week this year. The commentary will be from a Nazarene (Messianic) Jewish perspective.
Parshat B’reshit
“In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth” B’reshit 1:1 (Stone)
The word B’reshit, the very first word of the very first parsha, is normally translated “In the beginning.” B’reshit can be split into two parts B’ and Reshit. B’ is the prefix “in” “at” or “to be” and reshit is the word “first” or “beginning.” In B’reshit 49:3 Yacov says, “Reuven, you are my firstborn, my strength and my initial vigor, foremost in rank and foremost in power.” (Stone) but some versions render it, “Reuben, you are my first-born, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, pre-eminent in pride and pre-eminent in power.” (RSV) “First fruits” or “initial” is the word Reshit.
Vayiqra 2:12 says, “You shall offer them as a first-fruit offering to HASHEM, but they may not go up upon the Altar for a satisfying aroma.” (Stone) The word “first-fruit” is the word Reshit. What if “First Fruits” were substituted for “beginning” in this verse?
“At First Fruits, God created the heavens and the earth.” Going to Leviticus 23:10-11 “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: When you shall enter the Land that I give you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring an Omer fro your first harvest to the Kohen. He shall wave the Omer before HASHEM to gain favor for you; on the morrow of the rest day the Kohen shall wave it.” (Stone)
This is when Father created the heavens and the earth. He is giving a timeframe, as well as pointing out that the heavens and the earth are a first fruit offering.
“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep.” B’reshit 1:2 (NKJV)
Some say that Father would not create something that was ‘formless’ and ‘void’ and so believe that this verse shows that the earth had been created before and then destroyed. The words (Tohu: formless) and Bohu: void) speak about something that is not complete, rather than something that has been destroyed.
A great number of people have taught that the seven days of B’reshit are not literal 24-hour periods, and the scientists argue over which the evidence supports. This parsha gives the answer. B’reshit 2:1-3, “Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He abstained on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He abstained from all His work which God created to make.” (Stone)
Is it to be understood that Father took a cosmic age off from creating? But the Hebrew past progressive tense connects this to the previous verses, which is a tense that shows that one thing leads into another in the same story. It shows connection. Sh’mot 20:8-11, “Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. Six days shall you work and accomplish all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to HASHEM, your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maidservant, your animal, and your convert within your gates—for in six days HASHEM made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, HASHEM blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.” (Stone)
This is a clear connection between a single day and the Sabbath in which Father rested. There can be no doubt.
Some teach that there is a gap between B’reshit 2:3 and B’reshit 2:4. But in chapter 1 verse 27 says, “So God created Man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Stone) And B’reshit 5:2 says, “He created them male and female. He blessed them and called their name Man [Adam] on the day they were created” (Stone)
Clearly this is talking about the creation of Adam in B’reshit 2:7, and connects it to the creation of man in the previous chapter, by using the same exact wording. There is no gap. Father is merely going back and being more specific about what He has already said.
B’reshit 2:7 reads, “The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (HNV) The word Nephesh or “soul” comes from the root word Naphash meaning “breath.” So when Father breathed into Adam the breath of life, He actually put His breath in Adam.
“Then again Yeshua cried out with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. And immediately, the curtains at the door of the temple were torn in two from the top to the bottom. And the earth was shaken and the rocks were split. And the tomb were opened and many bodies of the saints who were asleep arose,” Matt. 27:50-52 (Younan) The word for “spirit” in the Peshitta Aramaic version of Matthew is also the word for “breath.” So when Yeshua yielded up His breath, or soul, or spirit, it went through the graveyard, and filled these dead bodies with the breath of life again, just as Father filled Adam in the very beginning. This reveals Yeshua as the very soul of the Father.
A great many teachings have been done on the sins in B’reshit 3, and far to many and too long to be taught in a brief commentary. But the first sin is that Chava or Eve was out from under the authority of Adam. Adam was created to be the leader, and that was his responsibility. Whether Adam was not with Chava, or whether Adam stood by and listened during her exchange with the serpent, it was his job to lead, and he was not fulfilling this role. This is what allowed Chava to fall into the sin of eating the fruit.
This does not absolve Chava, either. She ought to have been submitting to the authority of Adam. But many times someone tries to pin the entire blame on one or the other. Both were to blame, just as we are all to blame. “For all have sinned and are short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 (Lamsa)
Father points out this sin in verse 17. “To Adam He said, ‘Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate of the tree about which I commanded you saying, “You shall not eat of it,” accursed is the ground because of you; through suffering shall you eat of it all the days of your life.’” (Stone)
B’reshit 4:3-5 says, “After a period of time, Cain brought an offering to HASHEM of the fruit of the ground; and as for Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and from their choicest. HASHEM turned to Abel and to his offering, but to Cain and to his offering He did not turn. This annoyed Cain exceedingly, and his countenance fell.” (Stone)
While it is important to see what it does say, it is also important to see what it doesn’t say in this passage. It merely says that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground. It says that Abel brought an offering of the finest first fruits of his flock. Father was not disappointed with Cain for bringing plants, rather than animals. He was disappointed because Cain did not bring the finest first fruits. Father demands the best of all He has given.
This also shows that there must have been a Torah at the time of Cain and Abel. Father would not punish Cain if He had not told Cain what to do, and Cain disobeyed.
Verse 25 reveals a lot about the rivalry of Cain and Abel. “Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, because: “God has provided me another child in place of Abel, for Cain had killed him.” (Stone)
Abel was already chosen before Cain killed him, in spite of the fact that Cain was the first-born. Cain was, no doubt, disappointed, and this spurred on his disappointment with Father, and his hatred toward his brother. If Father had discarded him already, he probably felt no need to sacrifice properly, and if his brother was chosen for the birthright, maybe by killing him he thought he could get the birthright.
In B’reshit 5, the descendants of Adam through Noach are listed. The meanings of their names, when laid side-by-side tell this story, “Man, Appointed, Mortal, Sorrow, The blessed God, Shall come down, Teaching, His death shall bring, The despairing, Comfort/Rest.”
The Readings: Parshat B’reshit, Genesis 1:1-6:8. Haftarat B’reshit, Isaiah 42:5-21. Tehillim B’reshit, Psalm 139. B’rit Chadesha B’reshit, Matthew 27:38-54, John 1:1-14.
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