Hebrew scholar affirms that Genesis means

what it says!
Interview with Dr Ting Wang, lecturer in biblical Hebrew
by Jonathan Sarfati
Dr Ting Wang earned his M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary in California
(Escondido) and his doctorate in Biblical Studies at the Hebrew Union College, Jewish
Institute of Religion (Cincinnati, Ohio). He now lectures on biblical Hebrew at Stanford
University in California,
1
and is a pastor for the Youth and Childrens Ministries at
Korean Central Presbyterian Church. Dr Wang is a member of the Society of Biblical
Literature and the National Association of Professors of Hebrew. He has also been a
college instructor in biblical and classical Greek. Dr Wang lives in Palo Alto with his
wife, Becky.


While the creation evangelism message is helping to win many people to Christ, there
is strong resistance within parts of the church. While most attacks focus on the science
involved, many otherwise conservative theologians claim that Genesis really doesnt
mean what it says, is not meant to be a historical record, or that its not really so
important anyway. Since Genesis was written in Hebrew, I asked a real Hebrew
scholar, Dr Ting Wang, about what the author really meant.
Original languages
Why would anyone want to study biblical Hebrew so deeply? Dr Wang gives his own
testimony:
The Lord used the Bible to save me. I was very despondent during my second year of
university, so I bought a Bible, and read it as a last resort?. The words were unlike
any I had encountered beforeJesus, the bread of life, the one who eats this bread
would never hunger; Jesus, the light of the world; if anyone is thirsty let him come to
me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living
water will flow from within him [John 7:3738].
This sounded so good to a parched and desperate soul, and subsequently God made it
clear to me that whatever I did in life would have to revolve around the Word of truth.
By His grace, I was able to study both Hebrew and Greek for years. And why did I
want to? The Word is so important that I did not want to read a translation!
Old and New Testaments
Many in the church say that the New Testament is all that matters, or act as if this
were true. But Dr Wang explained why the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is important
for Christians today:
The Law is a schoolmaster pointing the way to Christ (Galatians 3:24). Jesus Himself
said that if one does not listen to Moses and the Prophets, one will not understand the
New Testament, for one will not believe even if someone rises from the dead [Luke
16:31]. Indeed, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus explained that the Old Testament
essentially taught about Him [Luke 24:27].
Moreover, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that He did not come to abolish
the Law and Prophets, but to fulfill themthat until heaven and earth disappeared with
a roar, nothing in the Old Testament would become obsolete [Matthew 5:1718, cf. 2
Peter 3:10]. Jesus explicitly said, Scripture cannot be broken [John 10:35].
God has elevated above all things His name and His Word (Psalm 138:2), and the
person He esteems trembles at His Word (Isaiah 66:2). And despite the fact that the
heavens continuously declare the glory of God, how else but from the Old Testament
would we learn details about Creation and the Fall?
What type of book is Genesis?
A number of theologians claim that Genesis is not meant to be taken straightforwardly,
that it is really poetry or allegory, or just a polemic against the surrounding paganism.
But Ting said:
Because Scripture is living and active, relevant to past, present and future, it escapes
easy categorization. Genesis is world history, particular history and theocentric
anthropology [God-focused study of man]. It is prophecy, promise, wisdom,
covenantwords that God breathed (2 Timothy 3:1517, 2 Peter 1:2021)the
grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever (Isaiah
40:8). From a secular perspective, Genesis has been called a historical record of
origins, which is also accurate.
What does day mean?
Many old-earth creationists claim to believe that Genesis was truly history, but they
want to fit in the billions of years proposed by scientists who werent there. So they
assert that the creation days were really long periods of time. Dr Wang firmly refutes
this suggestion:
The semantic range [list of all possible meanings] of the English word day is not
unlike the range of the Hebrew word (ym). No-one denies that day can mean a
period or era in some contexts in both languages. For example, thats what we mean if
we say, in Martin Luthers day .
Similarly, in Proverbs 25:13 we find as the cold of snow in the time/day of the
harvest. However, its totally improper to claim day can mean era in a different
context. For instance, on the last day of Luthers life , day clearly must mean an
ordinary daythe modifier last and the contextLuthers passingrender the
meaning clear.
In Genesis 1, ym comes with evening and morning, and is modified by a number.
So its obvious that the Hebrew text is describing a 24-hour daythe exegetical burden
of proof rests crushingly upon those who view otherwise (notice too that in Jeremiah
33:1722, Gods covenant with the day and the night, so that both will come at the
appointed time, is as unalterable as the promise that a son of David will reign). But no
amount of evidence will convince those who are persuaded to play devils advocate
just like the serpent in Genesis 3, they must ask, Did God really say?
Some have claimed that biblical Hebrew had no long-age words available. However, Dr
Wang showed the falsity of this:
One of the most familiar passages in the Hebrew Bible is found in Ecclesiastes 3:18,
the God makes all things beautiful in his time passage. In Hebrew, two words for
time appear. The passage begins There is a season ( z
e
man) for everything, and
a time ( et) for every activity under heaven: a time ( ) to be born and a time ( )
to die, a time ( ) to plant and a time ( ) to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal
, and so on. Whereas is only used in the later books Esther, Ecclesiastes, Daniel,
Ezra and Nehemiah, ( ) is used throughout Scripture, and would be an appropriate
term to communicate an indefinite period of time, though most likely used without a
number.
The goodness of Gods creation, and what went wrong
The most common objection to Christianity is, Why would a good God create a world
full of suffering? However, this was not the way God originally created things. Ting
points out:
Good (Hebrew tv), used seven times in Genesis 1, indicates that there was no
sin or death or pain. These were introduced after the opposite of good, evil, was
unleashed through the eating of the forbidden fruit. The first death was evidently the
animal(s) whose skin(s) God used to clothe the naked and shameful Adam and Eve.
Prior to this God-initiated sacrifice to save people (foreshadowing greater grace and
sacrifice to come), diets were vegetarian (Genesis 1:2930).
Moreover, the Fall affected all of creation, which is in bondage to decay (Romans
8:21), groaning under its effects, longing for redemption. The curses listed in Genesis
3, though succinct, describe the universality of the Fallenmity within creation for
generations to come, pain, male-female relationship problems, a cursed ground,
painstaking work, death. Good in Eden meant what it will mean in Heaven, much as
salvation history comes full circleno tears, no pain, no death, the Tree of Life,
river(s), the presence of Emmanuel (and no need for the sun for the Lamb is its light
in Revelation 21:23similar to the light in Creation before the creation of the sun on
Day Four).
The distinction is that in Eden, the good was pre-evil, whereas in Heaven the good is
forever post-evil. In Eden there was night, in Heaven there will be no more night
(Revelation 22:5).
Noahs Flood
Long-agers believe that the fossil record was laid down over millions of years, which
would leave no room for a global Flood. Conversely, if there was a global Flood, that
would have laid down much of the rock and fossil record quickly, so there would be no
need for millions of years.
So a faith commitment to long-age ideas entails a local flood (if they believe in one at
all). So is this possible from the Hebrew? Dr Wang is emphatic:
The Hebrew word for all, (kol), generally means all, all kinds, or every
without hyperbole [exaggeration].
On both lexical [word meaning] and contextual grounds, Noahs Flood is
comprehensive. Recounting the biblical sequence of events, initially, all people had
become corrupt, God would destroy them and the earth, floodwaters would destroy
all lifeevery land creature that breathed through its nostrils (Genesis 7:22).
Everything on Earth would perish, God would wipe from the face of the
earth everycreature he had made; the Ark would hold every kind of wild
animal, every ground creature, and every bird.
Subsequently, all mountains under Heaven were under water by more than 15 cubits,
every living thing on Earth perishedall creatures, all humankind. Every living thing on
land died. Everything was wiped out. Only Noah and the others on the Ark were left.
Its hard to imagine how God could have been clearer.
Why do so many theologians reject Genesis as it is written?
Since the Hebrew grammar is so clear that Genesis should be read plainly, why do
many church leaders reject this? This is a very good question, replied Dr Wang, and
can be answered on different levels.
On the one hand, it is common to study the Scriptures (John 5:39), and disregard
God. Remarkably, in the situation from which this John quote is taken, Jesus Himself
was standing right in front of His disputers! There is a veil over peoples hearts when
they read Scripture (2 Corinthians 3:15), the god of this agehas blinded minds (2
Corinthians 4:4), the things of God are foolishness to the world and cannot be
understood apart from the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14).
In a more mundane sense, many theologians would rather not face the calumny of the
world, forsaking the foolishness of the Gospel for the wisdom of the world, seeking
the esteem of scholars and scholarship rather than the well done, good and faithful
servant, from the Lord.
Why is Genesis creation important for Christians?
God as Creator is essential and foundational to Christianity, said Dr Wang.
The wisdom of people is not to be trusted, as reasonable as it may seem. How
reasonable was Eves good for food, pleasing to the eye and taking the fruit and
eating? Sounds good to me! Lets eat! And once again, how much like the Serpents
did God really say? in Genesis 3 is the approach most people take towards Genesis
1 and 2?
Often, people will use the old argument that we should concentrate on preaching the
Gospel, rather than get distracted by side-issues such as Creation. But if we cannot
believe the record of Creation, then why believe the record of the New Creation (if
anyone is in Christ, he is a New Creation; the old is gone, the new has come!2
Corinthians 5:17)?
If we cannot believe in the First Adam, why believe in the Last [1 Corinthians 15:45]?
Death came through the First, life through the Last [1 Corinthians 15:2122].
Evolution, of course, would say that death (through the Unholy Trinity of evolution:
Time, Chance Mutations and Natural Selection) formed and shaped the first humans.
This imperils the parallels between death from the first Adam and life from Christ. And
if Christ is not raised (and the first Adam did not bring death), then we are to be pitied
more than all people (1 Corinthians 15:1719).
God as Creator is also central to his sovereignty. So He has mercy upon whom He has
mercy (Romans 9:1521), upon those called by His name. God communicates the fact
that He is Creator to Jonah, Habakkuk and others (especially Job) who question the
justice of their situation.
In all things, God points to the fact that He is the Potter, we the clay; He the Creator,
we the creature (Romans 9). Everything about our relationship with Him is based upon
this distinction.
Moreover, Gods creating and His acting are inextricably related. His acting now is
based on His creating then. His creating out of nothing, ex nihilo, is His calling what is
not what is (1 Corinthians 1:28), creating streams in the desert (Isaiah 43:19).
Gods very name, YHWH, is related to His being Creator, for He identified Himself as I
am who I am (Exodus 3:14, cf. John 8:58), the beginning and the end (Revelation
21:6, 22:13).
Isnt it wonderful to be able to totally trust the words of our Creator, who means what
He says, from the very first verse in the Bible, as this respected Hebrew scholar
attests?
Thank you very much, Dr Wang.
Note
1. Dr Wangs views do not necessarily represent those of Stanford University as a whole.