Most of these proposals, with bibliographical references, are summarized in Gerhard F.

1
Hasel, Old Testament Theology: Basic Issues in the Current Debate (rev. and expanded 4 ed.;
th
Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1991), 139-171; Henning Graf Reventlow, Problems of Biblical
Theology in the Twentieth Century (trans. John Bowden; Philadelphia, Pa.: Fortress, 1986), 145-
178; and D. L. Baker, Two Testaments, One Bible: A Study of Some Modern Solutions to the
Theological Problem of the Relationship between the Old and New Testaments (Downers Grove,
Ill.: Inter-Varsity, 1977), 377-386. The proposed centers not listed in these basic overviews are
referenced by footnotes separately.
1
Back to the Beginning: Genesis 1-3 and the Theological Center of Scripture
Richard M. Davidson
Andrews University
24 July 2004
Abstract:
There have been many suggestions by biblical scholars in modern times as to what
constitutes the theological center of Scripture. In recent years, a number of scholars have
recognized that the opening chapters of the Bible, Gen 1-3, provide a canonical paradigm for the
Pentateuch, and also for the whole of Scripture. In this paper, I suggest that a close reading of
Gen 1-3 allows the multifaceted theological center of Scripture to emerge. This center is further
substantiated in Scripture's companion chronological introduction, the book of Job, which was
written about the same time as Genesis, and also in the conclusion of Scripture, Rev 20-22. The
inspired insights of Ellen White give further support for the conclusions drawn from Gen 1-3.
The multifaceted theological center of Scripture is to be employed, not as a reductionistic
organizing principle for biblical theology, but as an orientation point, from which to view
wholistically the contents of the rest of the Bible.
Introduction
Biblical scholars in modern times have provided many suggestions as to what constitutes
the theological center of Scripture. I have collected over thirty different scholarly proposals for
the theological center of the OT or the Bible as a whole. Here is a partial listing of proposals
1
(and a representative scholar for each proposal):
1. Covenant (Walter Eichrodt)
2. Holiness of God (Ernst Sellin)
3. The experience of God (O. J. Baab)
4. God as Lord (Ludwig Koehler)
5. Israels election as the people of God (Hans Wildberger)
6. Rulership of God (Horst Seebass)
7. Kingdom of God (Guenther Klein)
8. Communion (Th. C. Vriezen)
9. The rule of God and communion between God and man (Georg Fohrer)
Elmer A. Martens, Gods Design: A Focus on Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids,
2
Mich.: Baker, 1981), 11-24 and passim.
Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy
3
(Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 1997), xvi-xvii and passim.
Paul R. House, Old Testament Theology (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998),
4
56-57 and passim.
J. Clinton McCann, Jr., The Hermeneutics of Grace: Discerning the Bibles Single
5
Plot, Interpretation 57 (2003): 9-15.
Oscar Cullmann, Salvation in History (New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1967), 294 and
6
passim. Although Cullmann was a NT scholar, he suggested that salvation history was the
theological center of the entire Bible.
2
10. Covenant-kingdom (Rudolph Schnackenburg)
11. Yahweh the God of Israel; Israel the people of Yahweh (Rudolf Smend)
12. The exclusiveness of God (W. H. Schmidt)
13. The name of Yahweh (first commandment; Walther Zimmerli)
14. The book of Deuteronomy (S. Herrmann)
15. Promise-blessing (Walter Kaiser)
16. Creation faith (H. H. Schmid)
17. Righteousness (Walter Dietrich)
18. Righteousness and justice (Rolf Knierim)
19. The elusive presence of God, with a dialectic of the ethical and aesthetic (Samuel
Terrien)
20. Yahweh, with the Deuteronomistic theology of history as the secret center (the later
Gerhard von Rad)
21. God as the dynamic unifying center (Gerhard Hasel)
22. No center (the early Gerhard von Rad and George Ernest Wright)
23. God-Man-Salvation (G. A. F. Knight)
24. Christ (H. L. Ellison)
25. The dialectic of deliverance and blessing (Claus Westermann)
26. The dialectic of providence and election (the early Walter Brueggemann)
27. The dialectic of law and promise (Ronald E. Clement)
28. A multiplex center expressed diagrammatically by an elliptical cylinder. The
center is Christ; the foci are God (Yahweh) and people (Israel); concentric layers of
the cylinder are election, promise, covenant, kingdom, etc.; and the length of the
cylinder is the time in which Israel experienced God in history (D. F. Baker)
29. A four-fold center of deliverance, community, knowledge of God, and abundant life
(Elmer Martens)
2
30. The courtroom trial metaphor/imagery: legal claimstestimony, dispute,
advocacy asserted for Yahweh, God of Israel (Walter Brueggemann)
3
31. Monotheismthe existence and worship of one God (Paul R. House)
4
32. The hermeneutics of grace (J. Clinton McCann, Jr.)
5
33. Salvation history (Oscar Cullmann)
6
See, e.g., Deborah F. Sawyer, God, Gender and the Bible (London: Routledge, 2002),
7
24, 29.
Phyllis A. Bird, Bone of My Bone and Flesh of My Flesh, ThTo 50 (1994): 525, 527.
8
John Rankin, Power and Gender at the Divinity School, in Finding God at Harvard:
9
Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians (ed. Kelly Monroe; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan,
1996), 203.
3
As apparent from the above listing, some scholars suggest a single theme as the
theological center, others propose a bipolar (dialectic) center, and still others argue for a cluster
of several themes. Some deny the existence of any theological center of the Bible.
Suggested Methodology for Allowing the Theological Center to Emerge from Scripture
Amidst the plethora of proposals for the theological center of the OT and of Scripture as a
whole, how does one decide which, if any, is correct? I have long pondered this question. In this
paper I suggest that perhaps we have made the procedure for choosing Scriptures center too
complicated, and overlooked the most obvious location for discovering this center. In any other
book of non-fiction how does one find out the main thesis of the book? As a seminary professor,
I need to keep abreast of the many dissertations that appear every year in my discipline. Many of
these are not worth spending hours wading through every page of their tortuous arguments. So
how do I discover the main point? When one browses in a book store, looking for a good book,
how does one know what to buy? In a regular book of non-fiction, one discovers the major thesis
of the book by reading its introduction and conclusion. Why not so with the Bible? Did not God
inspire the Bible to be written so that it could be understood by humans? Would He not have
used the way familiar to us in reading other books to clarify its major focus? So I suggest that
the central thrust of the Bible appears in its opening and concluding chapters.
This common-sense suggestion is strengthened by a relatively new trend in biblical
scholarship. In the last thirty years or so, renewed attention has been given to the final form of
Scripture, and Gen 1-3 has been increasingly recognized as set apart from the rest of the Bible,
constituting a kind of prologue or introduction. These opening chapters of Scripture are now
widely regarded as providing the paradigm for the rest of the Bible. So, e.g., Phyllis Bird writes:
7
Canonically, the understanding of human nature expressed or implied in the laws, wisdom
literature, narratives, prophetic texts, and other genres of the Hebrew Scriptures may be viewed
as commentary on the creation texts. . . . The Bibles first statement concerning humankind
remains the normative statement that governs all others. John Rankin summarizes the growing
8
conviction among biblical scholars: whether one is evangelical or liberal, it is clear that Gen 1-3
is the interpretive foundation of all Scripture.
9
I have become convinced that in these opening chapters of Gen 1-3 is summarized the
multi-faceted center of Scripture. I invite us to go Back to the Beginning, to allow the broad
strokes of Scriptures theological center as it emerges from the canonical introduction to the
Bible.
See especially the following: Jacques Doukhan, The Literary Structure of the Genesis
10
Creation Story, Andrews University Seminary Doctoral Dissertation Series, vol. 5, (Berrien
Springs, Mich.: Andrews University, 1978); and William Shea, Literary Structural Parallels
between Genesis 1 and 2, Origins 16 (1989): 49-68. For evidence supporting the unity and/or
Mosaic authorship of Genesis (and the Pentateuch as a whole), see, e.g., Gleason L. Archer, A
Survey of Old Testament Introduction (Chicago, Ill.: Moody, 1974), 81-176 (and especially 127-
128); Umberto Cassuto, The Documentary Hypothesis (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1961), passim;
idem, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, vol. 1 (trans. Israel Abrahams; Jerusalem: Magnes
Press, Hebrew University, 1961), 7-20; 84-100; Duane Garrett, Rethinking Genesis: The Sources
and Authorship of the First Book of the Pentateuch (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1991); R. K.
Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1969), 495-541;
Gerhard F. Hasel, Biblical Interpretation Today (Washington, D.C.: Biblical Research Institute,
1985); I. M. Kikawada and A. Quinn, Before Abraham Was: The Unity of Genesis 1-11
(Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1985); Kenneth A. Kitchen, Ancient Orient and Old Testament
(Chicago, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1968), 112-135; John Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A
Biblical-Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1992), 1-79; Herbert M.
Wolf, An Introduction to the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Chicago, Ill.: Moody, 1991), 51-78.
4
The Theological Center, as It Emerges from Gen 1-3
1. As one opens the first page of the Bible and reads its first two chapters, what theme is
immediately apparent? Yes, divine creation. And not only creation per se, but Gods original
design for His creation: for Adam and Eve, their home, their work, their diet, their social
relationship with each other and with the animals, their day of rest, etc. So creation is an obvious
first facet of the multi-faceted diamond that comprises the theological center at the beginning of
Scripture.
2. But a closer look reveals an even deeper underlying issue. Why are there two accounts
of creation in Gen 1-2? Why does one account use one name for God and the other account adds
another divine name? In portraying creation week in Gen 1 (which actually continues through
Gen 2:4a), the Creator is named God, using the Hebrew Elohim; but in the rest of Gen 2, the
complementary creation narrative, the narrator adds the name Lord or in Hebrew, Yahweh.
Critical scholars have claimed that this gives evidence of two different sources, but in so doing
they have missed the profound central issue portrayed in these two chapters. Recent studies have
shown that these two narratives do not represent different conjectured sources, but rather form a
unity composed by a single author. In Gen 1 and 2 Moses is not only portraying the divine act
10
of creation and Gods original design for humankind. He is also eloquently revealing the
character of Creator.
In Gen 1 God appears as Elohim. This is the generic name for God; El means mighty
one, and the plural probably serves as a superlative, meaning means The Mightiest One. He is
the omnipotent God; He speaks and it is done. He is the transcendent One, totally separate from
and above His creation. He is the infinite One, the all-powerful sovereign Creator. He is Elohim.
In Gen 2 the name Yahweh is introduced alongside Elohim. Yahweh is the personal,
covenant name of God. He is the One Who comes down to be with His creatures, who bends
Exegetical support for this interpretation may be found in Afolarin O. Ojewole, The
11
Seed in Genesis 3:15: An Exegetical and Intertextual Study (Ph. D. diss., Andrews University,
2002), 155-165, 183-190.
Ojewole, The Seed in Genesis 3:15, 97-98.
12
5
down over a lump of clay, and blows into Adams nostrils the breath of life; who takes one of
Adams ribs and architecturally designs and builds a beautiful creature to be his companion. He
is the intimate, caring God. Two names for Goda dual portrayal of the character of God.
Only the true God of the Judeo-Christian tradition is both infinite (Elohim) and personal
(Yahweh). The gods of the eastern religions are infinite, but not personal; the gods of the Greeks
in the West are personal, but not infinite. Only the God of Scripture is both. He is all-powerful;
He can do anything; He is all-caring; He will do the loving thing.
Thus in the dramatic act of creation in Gen 1 and 2 Moses describes Gods creation and
His original purpose for man and this planet. This is the first facet of Scriptures theological
center. But what is more, as a second facet, Moses indicates clearly the character of the Creator.
Why is so important to emphasize the character of the Creator right here at the beginning of
Scripture? Only against this background can we grasp the issue in Genesis chapter 3.
3. Gen 3 describes the rise of a moral conflict on earth. And what is the issue in that
moral conflict? The issue is the character of God. The serpent casts doubt on the goodness of
the Creator, with his insinuating questions to Eve. In essence, the serpent lisps: Did God really
say. . . ? Look at me; I ate the fruit and I can talk. Can you imagine what you will be able to do
if you eat? You will become like God! God is just trying to keep something from you, because
He doesnt want to share. But you wont really die if you eat. For He isnt the all-powerful and
all-loving God He claims He is. Eve and Adam believed the lying lisping of a serpent, and the
floodgates of woe were opened upon the world.
The third facet of the Scriptures theological center is the rise of the moral controversy;
and this conflict rages over the issue of the character of God. We read in the first part of Gen
3:15 Gods words: I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between
your seed and her seed. Here is the prediction of the continued moral conflict down through
history between the spiritual descendants of Satan and the spiritual descendants of Eve.
4. But this same verse also reveals a fourth facet of this diamond which is the theological
center of Scripture. Is the enmity described in v. 15 a natural hatred? No! After Adam and Eve
sinned, there was no longer natural enmity between them and the serpent. They had sold
themselves to the serpent, and their hearts had become depraved and bent toward evil just like
the serpents. They didnt hate evil; they were attracted to evil. But in this verse God Himself
promises to implant enmity between Eve and the serpent and between the spiritual descendants
(collective seed) of both. Here is the first Gospel promise. The structure of the entire third
11
chapter of Genesis is chiastic, and exactly in the center, at the apex of the chiasm, vv. 14-15, is
12
found what theologians call the Protoevangeliumthe First Gospel Promise!
The middle part of Gen 3:15 goes to the heart of this promise and shows that it is centered
in a Person. God tells the serpent: He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel. In a
penetrating doctoral dissertation, Afolarin Ojewole, shows how in this verse the conflict narrows
from many descendants (a collective seed) in the first part of the verse to a masculine singular
Ojewole, The Seed in Genesis 3:15, 190-207.
13
See, e.g., O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (Philipsburg, N.J.:
14
Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., 1980), 93-107.
Ojewole, The Seed in Genesis 3:15, 207-213.
15
Ojewole, The Seed in Genesis 3:15, 212-215.
16
Richard M. Davidson, Cosmic Metanarrative for the Coming Millennium, JATS 11/1-
17
2 (Spring-Autumn, 2000): 109-112.
6
pronoun in the last part of the verseHefighting against the serpent. Elsewhere in Scripture
whenever the term seed is modified by a singular pronoun, it is a single individual that is in
view. Thus here God promises victory centered in a Person. Hethe ultimate representative
Seed of the woman, later to be revealed as the Messiah, shall bruise your head, Satan, and you
shall bruise His heel. This is the fourth facet of Scriptures theological centerthe promise of
13
redemption centered in the Person of the Messianic Seed. Covenant language found in
connection with Gen 3:15, made even more explicit later in the biblical canon, indicates that this
promise is actually the first announcement of the everlasting covenant between the Father and the
Son, that a solution to the Sin problem will be forthcoming. So the fourth facet of Scriptures
14
theological center is the Gospel covenant promise of a solution to the moral conflict, centered in
the messianic Seed.
5. Now look more closely for a related, fifth facet: Visualize what is depicted in Gen
3:15: the Seed, Christ, takes off his sandal, as it were, bares his heel, and steps voluntarily on a
venomous viper. It is a picture of the Seed voluntarily giving up His life to slay the serpent.
Christ volunteered to consciously step on the head of the most deadly viper in the universe, the
serpent Satan himself, knowing full well that it would cost Him His life. Here is a power portrait
of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. Here is what I label as the fifth facet of
15
Scriptures theological center: the substitutionary atonement, as our Representative Seed dies on
behalf of the fallen human race.
6. The sixth facet of this theological jewel of Scriptures center is also found in Gen
3:15. We find here predicted the windup of the cosmic conflict and the end of evil and the
serpent at the close of earths history. Christs heel will be bruised at Calvary, but it is only a
wound to the heel. Later revelation makes clear that though He dies, on the third day He comes
back to life. But Satan is crushed in the head, a mortal wound with no hope of recovery. The
great conflict will not go on forever. Rom 16:20 alludes to this text. Paul writes that The God
16
of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Satans head is mortally wounded at Calvary,
and will receive the final crushing at the end of time. So the sixth facet of Scriptures theological
center is the predicted final end of the moral conflict as the serpents head is crushed.
7. A seventh, and last, facet of the multi-faceted theological center of Scripture is implied
throughout Gen 1-3. I have found some seventeen lines of evidence pointing toward the
conclusion that the Garden of Eden was the first sanctuary on earth. Especially as one compares
the portrayal of Eden with the descriptions of later divine instructions for the building of God's
Sanctuary/Temple by Moses and Solomon, major intertextual parallels become evident. I have
published this evidence elsewhere, but here is a summary of major points.
17
Claus Westermann, Creation (trans. John J. Scullion; London: SPCK, 1974), 96.
18
7
The Garden of Eden was situated with an eastward orientation, as the later sanctuaries
(Gen 2:8; cf. Exod 36:20-30, 1 Kgs 7:21, Ezek 47:1). The tree of life was in the midst (betwk)
of the garden (Gen 2:9), and this is the precise term for the presence of God in the midst of His
people in the Sanctuary (Exod 25:8). The description of God walking around (Hithpael of
hlak) is found only twice in the Old Testament, once in connection with God's walking in the
garden (Gen 3:8) and the other His walking in the midst of the camp of Israel (Deut 23:14
[Hebrew 15]).
On earth after creation there were three spheres of space, in ascending degrees of holiness
(set apartness for special use): the earth, the garden, and the midst of the garden. These
three spheres are repeated in the court, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place in the Sanctuary.
Numerous parallels exist between the accounts of Creation as a whole and the
construction of the Mosaic Sanctuary. There is a series of key verbal parallels: Just as God saw
everything that he had made/done [sah], finished his work and blessed the seventh day, so
Moses saw all the work which the people made/did [sah] in constructing the Sanctuary;
and Moses finished the work and blessed the people for their labors (Gen 1:31; 2:1; 2:2; 2:3
with Exod 39:43; 39:32; 40:33; 39:43, respectively). There are also structural parallels. As the
creation of the world is said to occupy six days (each introduced by the clause And God said),
followed by the seventh day Sabbath, so God's instruction to Moses regarding the construction of
the tabernacle in Exod 25-31 is divided into six sections (introduced by the phrase The Lord
said to Moses), followed by a concluding seventh section dealing with the Sabbath.
In Eden the work assigned to man was to till (bad, literally serve) and keep
(amar) the garden, and it seems more than coincidence that these are the very terms used to
describe the work of the Levites and priests in the Sanctuary (Num 3:7-8; 18:3-7). The term for
light (greater and lesser light) used to describe the sun and moon in Gen 1:14-16 is elsewhere in
the Pentateuch used only for the light of the menorah in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary (Exod
25:6; 35:14; 39:27, etc.). In both the Solomonic and Mosaic Sanctuaries, the lampstand was a
stylized almond tree (Exod 25:31-40; cf. 1 Kgs 7:49). Lily work appeared on the tops of the two
free-standing pillars, and representations of oxen, lions, and more lilies and palm trees in the
laver (1 Kgs 7:26, 29, 36). Carved in the Solomonic architectureon the walls round about, and
on the doors, were palm trees and open flowers (1 Kgs 6:29, 32, 35). These artistic portrayals of
nature seem to be representative of the return to Eden, the earth's original Sanctuary.
When we move to the post-Fall depiction of the Garden of Eden, we have confirmation of
its Sanctuary character. As God comes walking in the cool of the day after Adam and Eve
sinned, He initiates a legal trial or investigative judgment before pronouncing the verdict and
sentence. This insight is not one recognized only by Seventh-day Adventists. The famous liberal
Protest German scholar, Claus Westermann points out that after the Fall God comes for a legal
process, a trial, a court process. Adam and Eve are placed on the witness stand, as it were,
18
and given opportunity to testify, and in their very testimony, they perjure themselves and reveal
the truth of their guilt. God pronounces the verdict of guilty and sentence of judgment. Gods
investigative judgment in Eden parallels the legal investigations he would later instruct the
priests to carry out at the Mosaic sanctuary (Deut 19).
The name Shekinah does not appear in Scripture, but is used in the later Jewish
19
literature. See also Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 349, etc.
That Adams children brought their sacrifices to the gate of the Garden is probably
20
implied in the narrative of Cain and Abel in Gen 4. See Joaquim Azevedo, At the Door of
Paradise: A Contextual Interpretation of Gen 4:7, Biblische Notizen 100 (1999):45-59. Cf.
White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 62, 83-84.
For substantiation and elaboration of this point, see Davidson, Cosmic Metanarrative,
21
102-119.
8
Following the gospel promise of Gen 3:15, God clothes (laba, Hiphil) Adam and Eve
with coats (k tonet), Gen 3:21, and this same combination of terms is used elsewhere only to
e
describe the clothing of the priests at the sanctuaryAaron and his sons (Lev 8:7, 13; Num
20:28; cf. Exod 28:4; 29:5; 40:14). After Adam and Eve are expelled, in their sinful state they
are no longer able to meet with God face to face in the Garden. But at the eastern entrance to the
Garden (as with the eastern entrance to the later sanctuaries), we encounter cherubimthe beings
associated with God's throne in the heavenly Sanctuary (Rev 4-5; Ezek 1:10). These cherubim
are placed (Hebrew kan), the same specific Hebrew verb for God's dwelling (kan)
among His people (Exod 25:8). It is also the same root as for the Shekinah glory, the visible
presence of God in the Sanctuary. To this eastern entrance of the Garden, guarded by the
19
cherubim with flaming swords, Adam and Eve and their children came to worship God, built
their altars, brought their sacrifices; here the Shekinah glory was manifested as God came down
to hold communion with them.
20
Based upon this and other evidence presented elsewhere, I conclude that the first chapters
of Genesis present the Garden of Eden as a sanctuary. The sanctuary is the setting of the rise of
the Great Controversy on earth, just as it was the setting for its prior inception in heaven, as
described in Isa 14 and Ezek 28. The sanctuary is the battleground of the moral conflict, and
21
the seventh facet of the multi-faceted theological center of Scripture.
Lets review where we have come thus far. At the beginning of the Bible we find its
basic focus, the seven-faceted theological center, that unfolds in the rest of the pages of Scripture.
Lets summarize the seven facets:
1. Creation and the divine design for this planet.
2. The character of the Creator.
3. The rise of the moral conflict concerning the character of God.
4. The Gospel covenant promise centered in the Person of the Messianic Seed.
5. The substitutionary atonement worked out by the Messianic Seed.
6. The windup of the Moral Conflict with the end of the serpent and evil.
7. The sanctuary setting of the moral conflict.
The Theological Center of Scripture found in the Book of Job
Further confirmation for this multi-faceted theological center comes from a second
introduction in Scripture. At about the same time that Moses wrote Genesis, he also composed
See SDABC 3:493. Cf. Ellen White, Education, 159; idem, SDABC 3:1140 (ST Feb. 19,
22
1880).
See, e.g., Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament, 386: It is widely agreed that
23
the book of Job is Israels most ambitious countertestimony concerning the crisis of theodicy.
Gordon E. Christo, The Eschatological Judgment in Job 19:21-29: An Exegetical
24
Study (Ph.D. diss., Andrews University, 1992), 42.
9
the book of Job. Thus the book of Job stands chronologically with Genesis at the introduction
22
of Scripture. Intriguingly, we find the same seven themes highlighted in Job as emerge from Gen
1-3, although not in the same order. At the end of the book we find Gods answer to Jobthe
longest extended divine speech in Scripture. What is the focus of Gods reply? He doesnt
answer Jobs questions directly, but rather directs Job to consider the time of creation and Gods
care for His creatures (Job 38-41).
Then, at the beginning of the book we have the same portrait as Genesis of the moral
conflict, only in Job the curtain is pulled back even further than Genesis, and we view the cosmic
dimension of the conflict, involving the whole universe, even the sons of God, the inhabitants of
the unfallen worlds. As in Genesis, the conflict revolves around the character of God. Satan
insinuates that God is not trustworthy, that He is arbitrary and unfair. He charges that Job does
not serve God because His character is worthy of worship, but because God has bribed Job with
temporal blessings. Take away the goodies, Satan says, and Job will curse you to Your face.
The ensuing drama of the rest of the book is divine permission for Satan to try to demonstrate the
legitimacy of his claims. Many scholars recognize in Job an overarching theme of
theodicyvindication of Gods actions and character in face of the false charges of Satan.
23
The book of Job was written in a chiastic structure, as demonstrated by Gordon Christo in
his doctoral dissertation. At the exact center of the chiasm, at the climax of the book,
24
Job19:25-28, we find Jobs sublime testimony of faith and hope: For I know that my Redeemer
lives. My Redeemergoelvindicator. Here is the same focus upon the person of the
Messiah as in Gen 3:15. Here is the same emphasis upon His redeeming, vindicating work.
Here, also, is the same promise of the windup of the cosmic conflict with the end of evil, with the
added clarity pointing to the eschatological resurrection and judgment. Job continues: And He
[my Redeemer] shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I
know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold,
and not another. . . .Then you may know there is a judgment (vv. 26-28). Finally, the cosmic
setting of this moral conflict is the heavenly sanctuary, where the sons of God come before the
Lord (Job 1:6).
The Theological Center of Scripture, as Revealed in Its Conclusion: The Book of
Revelation
Moving from the canonical and chronological introductions of Scripture, we find further
confirmation for our proposed theological center of Scripture in the conclusion of the Bible. As
Old Testament scholars generally recognize, the Hebrew Bible or OT does not contain a
conclusion; it remains open-ended. The conclusion to the Christian Scriptures comes in the last
three chapters of the book of Revelation. Here we find the same seven themes as in Gen 1-3 and
10
the book of Job. As the first two chapters of the Bible describe the creation of the heavens and
earth, so the last two chapters of the Bible describe the creation of the new heavens and earth. As
the third chapter of the Bible depicts the rise of the moral conflict and the first investigative
judgment, so the last chapter of the Bible, Rev 20, depicts the final judgment and the windup of
the cosmic warfare (cf. 21:6It is done!) In the closing chapters of Revelation we find a final
revelation and vindication of the character of God (esp. Rev 22:4, 6; cf. 19:1-2). There is a focus
upon the Lamb (21:22-23), who introduces Himself as the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and
End (22:6); Jesusthe Root and Seed of David, the Bright and Morning Star (22:16). He
repeats the Gospel promise: I will give the water of life freely, alluding to that living water that
flowed from Eden. And the final scenes of Revelation are suffused with sanctuary imagery. The
New Jerusalem descends as the true tabernacle of God (21:3), with the same cubical shape as
the sanctuary Most Holy Place (21:16); and ultimately the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are
the Temple (21:22).
What we have outlined thus far is a three-fold witness to the Scriptures theological
center: first, the witness of the canonical introduction to Scripture, Gen 1-3; second, the witness
of the accompanying chronological introduction to Scripture, the book of Job; and third, the
witness of the canonical conclusion of Scripture, Rev 20-22. In the introductions and conclusion
to Scripture, we find a concise seven-fold summary of the Bibles theological center.
The Theological Center of Scripture As Revealed in the Writings of Ellen G. White
According to biblical jurisprudence, in the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter is
established (Deut 19:15). But Seventh-day Adventists are fortunate to have a fourth witness in
this matter. As I looked up on the CD-ROM of Ellen Whites published writings, the term
center and its synonyms, I found a remarkable, even stunning, confirmation of the seven-
faceted center of Scripture that I have presented from the introductions and conclusion of the
Bible. Ellen White mentions all sevenand just these seventhemes that we have seen emerge
from Genesis, Job, and Revelation, as elements of the center of Scripture.
Note, for example the paragraph from Education 190, which mentions three of these
themes under the rubric of the grand central theme of Scripture:
The Bible is its own expositor. Scripture is to be compared with scripture. The
student should learn to view the word as a whole, and to see the relation of its
parts. He should gain a knowledge of its grand central theme, [1] of God's original
purpose for the world, [2] of the rise of the great controversy, [3] and of the work
of redemption [3]. He should understand the nature of the two principles that are
contending for supremacy, and should learn to trace their working through the
records of history and prophecy, to the great consummation. He should see how
this controversy enters into every phase of human experience; how in every act of
life he himself reveals the one or the other of the two antagonistic motives; and
how, whether he will or not, he is even now deciding upon which side of the
controversy he will be found.
Adventists have followed Ellen Whites lead in summarizing this multi-faceted
grand central theme under the rubric of the Great Controversy. Recent evangelical studies
have begun to recognize this warfare worldview as permeating and even central to Scripture.
Gregory A. Boyd, God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict (Downers Grove, Ill.:
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InterVarsity, 1997).
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Most notably, Gregory A. Boyds work, God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict has caught
the attention of the scholarly evangelical community.
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Ellen White makes clear that the major issue in the Great Controversy is the character of
God. The first words of her five-volume magnum opus The Conflict of the Ages are God is
love, and the last words are God is love. In between is an exposition of how this is true. This
emphasis upon the character of God is made explicit in PP 596: [In Scripture] The curtain that
separates the visible from the invisible world is lifted, and we behold the conflict of the opposing
forces of good and evil, from the first entrance of sin to the final triumph of righteousness and
truth; and all is but a revelation of the character of God.
Several statements make clear that Jesus is the center of Scripture: Jesus is the living
center of everything (Ev 186); Christ is the center to which all should be attracted (1 SM
259); The great center of attraction, Jesus Christ . . . (1 SM 383). More specifically, Christs
work of substitutionary atonement on Calvary is placed by White at the center of Scripture: The
cross of Calvary is the great center (4BC 1173). The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin
is the great truth around which all other truths cluster. In order to be rightly understood and
appreciated, every truth in the word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, must be studied in the
light that streams from the cross of Calvary (GW 315). The standard of truth is to be uplifted
and the atonement of Christ presented as the grand, central theme for consideration (8T 77).
The conclusion of the great controversy, occurring at the second advent and beyond, is
described by White using a synonym of center: The doctrine of the second advent is the very
keynote of Sacred Scriptures (GC 299). Finally, utilizing another synonym, Ellen White
highlights the role of the sanctuary in the great system of biblical truth: The subject of the
sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment of 1844. It opened to
view a complete system of truth, connected and harmonius, showing that Gods hand had
directed the great advent movement and revealing present duty as it brought to light the position
and work of His people (GC 423).
Ellen White also summarizes the center of Scripture utilizing the phrase the
redemption plan. The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the
whole book clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of
God. From the first intimation of hope in the sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious
promise of the Revelation, They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads
(Rev 22:4), the burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this
wondrous thememans uplifting. . . . (Ed 125-136).
Some have suggested that Ellen White utilized the term center or one of its synonyms
to describe certain themes of Scripture by way of hyperbole, simply to underscore their
importance. But in light of what we have seen in the introductions and conclusion of Scripture,
where these same themes emerge, I have come to the conclusion that White is not engaged in
hyperbole. Under inspiration of God, she was led to pinpoint the very seven themes that
Scripture itself identifies as constituting its multi-faceted theological center.
Hasel, Old Testament Theology, 167-168.
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See Davidson, Cosmic Metanarrative, 102-119, for elaboration of this point, with
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practical illustrations from contemporary life situations.
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Integrating and Diagraming the Multi-Faceted Theological Center of Scripture How
do these various components of the Bibles theological center relate to each other? I have
tentatively proposed a diagram that illustrates their interrelationships. The overall heading,
following the lead of both Scripture and Ellen White, is the Moral Conflict or Great
Controversy. The underlying issue throughout the history of this conflict is the character of
God. Gen 1-2 takes us back to the beginning, where at creation God sets forth His original
design for this planet, and revealed His character There in the garden of Eden, the serpent
already lurked, implying a wider cosmic setting of the moral conflict (that we hear about
explicitly in the book of Job). The creation and rise of the conflict on this earth is illustrated by
the horizontal line on the left of the chart. The horizontal line at the right of the chart marks the
end of the Great Controversy, marked by the keynote of Scripture, the second advent. In the
middle of the chart are layers of concentric circles, moving from the most specific activity of
Christs substitutionary atonement on Calvary, in every widening circles of inclusivity, to the
whole work of Christ, including His life as well as death, and even wider to the entire Plan of
Redemption involving all the agencies of heaven. These concentric circles should be viewed as
three-dimensional, in the shape of a cylinder, representing the movement through time from the
rise of the Great Controversy to its conclusion. At the bottom of the diagram is the setting for the
outworking of the Great Controversy, in the sanctuary; the window into the entire biblical system
of truth.
Conclusion
While I have become convinced that the seven thematic facets encapsulated in the
opening and closing portions of Scripture constitute its theological center, I hasten to add,
heeding the warning of my Doktorvater, Gerhard Hasel, that no proposed center should be used
as a grid or organizing principle into which all the other themes, motifs, and concepts of
Scripture are to be force-fit. Instead, I see this seven-fold theological center as an
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orientation point in light of which the whole of Scripture makes ultimate sense.
Why is understanding what constitutes the center of Scripture important for us who are
Bible students? Ellen White gives an amazing and electrifying answer: He who grasps this
thought [the central theme of the Bible] has before him an infinite field for study. He has the key
that will unlock to him the whole treasure house of Gods word! (Ed 125-126)
Especially is this center significant as we face the post-modern culture in which we now
live. On one hand, the post-modern mindset has rejected the impossibility of discovering a
grand-central theme or metanarrative from our limited and provincial perspectives, on the other
hand there is a hunger among post-moderns hunger for a story, a narrative, with which they can
identify and in which they can find meaning.
I see this time as the opportunity for a new and exciting application of the center of
Scripture for evangelism: to show that there is a grand central themea theological center to
Scripture and to realitya grand metanarrative, that does give meaning to life like none other.
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I am confident that as postmoderns are introduced to the beauty and harmony of this theological
center of Scripture, the Holy Spirit will bring conviction to the honest in heart that this
overarching metanarrative is indeed the comprehensive and normative picture of reality for
which they have been unconsciously longing.
I commend to all Bible scholars, teachers, pastors, laity, alike, this theological center of
the Bible, this multi-faceted grand central theme of Scripture, as the key that will unlock the
whole treasure house of Gods word! In our personal study, may this key provide the big
picture in light of which all other truths of the Bible will become coherent and beautiful. In our
evangelism, may this key supply the basic plot of Scripture, so that we may present the Grand
Old Story alluringly to a dying world!
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