The Beginning of the End: The Eschatology of Genesis

Abstract

AbstractThis dissertation examines the book of Genesis as a functioning literary whole, orientingpost-exilic Persian-era Judeans toward their ideal future expectations. While many havecontrasted Genesis' account of origins with the prophetic books' account of the future, this workargues that Genesis narrates Israel's origins (and the world's) precisely in order to ground Judeanhopes for an eschatological restoration. Employing a speech-act linguistic semiotics, this studyexplores the temporal orientation of Genesis and its indexical pointing to the lives and hopes ofits Persian-era users. Promises made throughout Genesis apply not only to the characters oftraditional memory, but also to those who preserved/ composed/ received the text of Genesis.Divine promises for Israel's future help constitute Israel's ongoing identity. Poor, sparselypopulated, Persian-ruled Judea imagines its mythic destiny as a great nation exemplifying (andspreading) blessing among the families of the earth, dominating central Palestine in a new pan-Israelite unity with neighboring Samaria and expanding both territory and population.Genesis' narrative of Israel's origins and destiny thus dovetails with the Persian-eraexpectations attested in Israel's prophetic corpus--a coherent (though variegated) restorationeschatology. This prophetic eschatology shares mythic traditions with Genesis, using thosetraditions typologically to point to Israel's future hope. Taken together, Genesis and the propheticcorpus identify Israel as a precious seed, carrying forward promises of a yet-to-be-realizedcreation fruitfulness and blessing. Those who used this literature identify their disappointmentsand tragedies in terms of the mythic destruction and cursing that threaten creation but neverextinguish the line of promise. The dynamic processes of Genesis' usage (its compositionstretching back to the pre-exilic period, and its reception stretching forward to the post-Persianera) have made Genesis an etiology of Israel's expected future--not of its static present. Becausevthis future will be fully realized only in the coming divine visitation, Genesis cannot be attributedto an anti-eschatological, hierocratic establishment. Rather, it belongs to the same Persian-eraJudean synthesis which produced the restoration eschatology of the prophetic corpus. Thisaccount of Genesis contributes to a canonical understanding of Second Temple Hebrew literature;prophetic scrolls and Pentateuchal (Torah) scrolls interact to form a textually based Israeliteidentity, founded on trust in a divinely promised future.