Lost In Translation: Genesis 1-11
A guide to understanding the most difficult passages of Genesis 1-11.
Video transcript of Lost in Translation: Genesis 1-11, created by Church of the City:
Reading the Bible is like visiting another country—not Canada, but someplace really different.
I love Ethiopia because it's so unique—with names, foods, and languages you won’t find anywhere else. Even time works differently there—their calendar is eight years behind ours, and they’ve got thirteen months in a year.
Traveling somewhere so exotic can be exhilarating if you’re curious and open to new experiences. But it can also be unsettling—a real culture shock that can make us feel anxious and disoriented. We might head for the nearest McDonald’s or Starbucks, just to experience something familiar, something easier.
Reading the Bible can feel the same way. When we open these pages, we’re stepping into a different time, place, and culture. It’s normal to feel a little lost.
Whether you’re traveling the world or the pages of Scripture, having a guide makes a big difference. A good guide doesn’t tell you everything but offers just enough help to ease your mind and encourage your curiosity.
I hope this guided tour through Genesis answers some of your biggest questions and stirs up even better and deeper ones. Along the way, you’ll also pick up useful skills for understanding any book of the Bible.
Literature
Let’s start by talking about what kind of literature Genesis is. Because we read a textbook differently than a text message. We expect different things from different kinds of writing.
Genesis can be divided into two parts. Each one is a very different kind of literature doing very different things. In this first video, we’ll explore Genesis 1-11 together. These chapters are written as a creation narrative.
Genesis 1–11
Creation narratives were a common genre in the Ancient Near East. Typically, these stories were about how gods were created, and how those gods then created other things through conflict with each other. These creation narratives also told the origin story of a single people group, usually emphasizing how that group was superior to their less intelligent and immoral neighbors.
But Genesis 1-11 does something unexpected with this genre. It tells the story of one uncreated God creating everything else by simply speaking. All people have the same origin, the same worth, are created by the same God, and are part of one family! Now, like other Ancient Near Eastern creation stories, Genesis 1–11 is packed with figurative language, poetry, and symbolism. It's not aiming to be a science textbook or a straightforward historical account.
This can be disorienting for us. We’re used to literature being either concrete and factual or figurative and fictional. But this ancient genre is both figurative and very true. In fact, you could say it communicates truths that go deeper than concrete language can express.
When we’re reading the Bible, it’s important to know what kind of literature we’re dealing with. If it’s a story, like the creation narrative in Genesis 1-11, it’s crucial to understand the basic plot. So, let’s summarize the plot of Genesis 1-11 and then see how that plot can help us answer common questions people have about these chapters.
Plot Summary
Here’s the story. Genesis begins with God turning uninhabitable disorder into an organized, beautiful, and good world that’s teeming with life.
God creates humans in His image. That means they’re God’s representatives managing God’s good world on God’s behalf. They’re made to cultivate and care for what God has made so that life will multiply and spread.
If they do this, they’ll have good relationships with God and each other, enjoying God’s peace and plenty together.
But humans have a choice in all this: Will they trust God’s definition of good, or will they define good for themselves? Will they manage the world God’s good way or go their own way?
Humans choose to define good for themselves and to go their own way. This fractures relationships and spreads conflict and scarcity like a virus: infecting the first man and woman, then their family, then an entire city, and eventually a whole society called Babylon.
When questions arise about Genesis 1-11, this plot can guide us toward answers…and better questions.
Talking Snake
For example, we’ve got questions about the talking snake that shows up in Genesis 3. Why is a snake talking? Why would God create an evil creature and put it in the world to mess with humans?
Where does the snake appear in the plot? The snake appears just as the first humans are deciding whether to follow God’s good way or go their own. That’s helpful to keep in mind.
The snake is described as the most "crafty" creature of the field. That word "crafty" is arum in Hebrew. Throughout the Old Testament, arum is never negative but it describes someone who’s wise, careful, deliberative, prudent—someone who doesn’t make rash decisions. So, the snake isn’t created evil; it’s created with the capacity to make thoughtful choices.
The snake could have followed God’s way and encouraged humans to do the same. Instead, it chose to rebel against God and lead humans to join that rebellion.
After this, the snake is called the most cursed creature of the field. It goes from being the most arum (wise) to the most arur (cursed), crawling on its belly and becoming less than it was designed to be.
The main idea here is that when creatures choose their own way and rebel against their Creator, they become less than they were designed to be. This idea is central to the plot of Genesis 1-11 and will come up again and again throughout the book of Genesis.
Polygamy
Let’s look at another question the plot can help us answer. This one comes from Genesis 4: Is polygamy a good thing in the Bible? Great question. There’s a principle in Bible study called the “Law of First Mention.” It says that our understanding of an idea, word, or symbol should be shaped by the first time it is mentioned in the Bible. For example, the first mention of polygamy is in Genesis 4. What does that first mention tell us about polygamy?
Remember the plot. The first mention of polygamy shows up when the sin and destruction that spread from one couple to their children, has now spread to an entire city. In that city, we meet the first polygamist—a man named Lamech. Lamech is a descendant of the murderer Cain. We’re introduced to Lamech as he’s singing a song to his wives about how much more violent he is than Cain ever was. So, the first mention of polygamy is connected to the spread of sin and to a violent and arrogant man who is not following God’s good way.
Polygamy is in the Bible, but it’s never endorsed or encouraged by God. God’s good way has always been a faithful and lifelong commitment between one man and one woman. When people deviate from that design, as we see in Lamech's story, sin and destruction spread.
“Sons of God” & The Nephilim
Remembering the plot can also steer us away from fun distractions, interesting rabbit trails, and guide us back to the main point. Which brings us to a popular question about Genesis 6: Who were the Nephilim?
To refresh our memory, Genesis 6 says, "The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose."
God didn’t like this. Then the text says, ”The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”
So, who are these "sons of God," the "daughters of humans," and the Nephilim they produced?
Some scholars believe the "sons of God" were spiritual beings who had children with human women. Others think they were descendants of Seth, Adam's righteous son, intermarrying with the descendants of Cain, who were not following God’s way. Others point out that rulers in the Ancient Near East often claimed to be gods or descended from gods, and they frequently took multiple wives, often by force.
These are all interesting rabbit trails to go down. But the plot guides us back to what’s most important. The main point here is that creatures are once again crossing boundaries set by the Creator. The "sons of God" saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful and took them—just as Eve saw that the fruit was desirable and took it. This recurring pattern of self-gratifying creatures taking what they want goes against God's way and spreads conflict in the world.
The Sin of Ham
One last question from Genesis 1–11: What did Ham actually do to Noah in that tent?
Again, it helps to remember where we are in the story. In Genesis 9, the floodwaters have receded. Noah and his family are on a mountain where he’s planted a vineyard.
In Genesis, mountains and trees (and sometimes vines and bushes) are intended to remind us of the Garden of Eden. These things mark places where humans often meet with God and decide whether to follow God’s way or their own. When we see that mountain and that vine, we should be leaning in right now and looking for someone to make an important choice.
Noah takes the fruit of his vineyard, makes wine, gets drunk, and passes out naked inside his tent. His son Ham enters, sees his father lying there, and then tells his brothers, who quickly cover Noah’s nakedness. When Noah wakes up, he realizes what Ham has done to him and pronounces a curse on Ham’s son, Canaan.
So, what exactly did Ham do that was so terrible? The answer needs to explain how Noah knew what Ham did and why Canaan was cursed instead of Ham.
Scholars have offered three primary solutions.
One view is that Ham dishonored his father by seeing him naked or by failing to immediately cover his nakedness. But this theory doesn’t explain how Noah knew what Ham had done as soon as he woke up or why Canaan was cursed instead of Ham.
A second possibility is that something more egregious happened in the tent. In the Bible, the phrases "uncover nakedness" or “look upon nakedness” often refer to incestuous acts (see Leviticus 18 and 20). So, this theory suggests that Ham may have done something like this to Noah. It explains how Noah knew what had happened when he woke up but doesn’t explain why Canaan was cursed rather than Ham.
A third possibility explains all of this—but it’s the most disturbing of the three. In Leviticus 18, “uncovering” the nakedness of a man’s wife is also described as uncovering the nakedness of the man himself, since husband and wife are considered one flesh. So, this view suggests that Ham “uncovering” his father’s nakedness means Ham had intercourse with Noah’s wife, Ham’s own mother.
This was a way to assert dominance in the Ancient Near East. In 2 Samuel 16, Absalom overthrows his father, King David. The first thing Absolom does as king is establish his dominance by sleeping with David’s wives.
According to this third theory, Canaan is the child of Ham’s sin with his mother, which explains why Canaan is cursed. In the Bible, a curse isn’t destiny—it’s not a magic spell that takes away free will. A curse is being handed over to the consequences of sinful actions. By abusing others to gain power and position, Ham set a pattern of behavior that his descendants would be prone to follow. They don’t have to follow it, but as we’ll see throughout the Old Testament, many Canaanites choose to go Ham’s way rather than God’s good way. (14)
Conclusion
In this first video, we've learned that paying attention to genre and plot can help us find our way when we get lost in the Bible.
It’s crucial to understand the kind of literature we’re reading. Genesis 1-11 is a poetic, figurative, and symbolic creation narrative focused on the origins of humanity and their relationship with God and each other.
We’ve also seen how important it is to follow the plot. In Genesis 1-11, that plot repeats again and again: humanity faces the ongoing choice to follow God’s way or their own, and their decisions have consequences.
As you continue to read the Bible, keep genre and plot in mind.
Next time, we'll get into Genesis 12-50, meet a new kind of literature, and take on some even more challenging questions. See you then.
