The L ORD continued addressing the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel’” ( Gen 3:15). With the fall into sin, chaos also invaded the animal kingdom. The calf has good reason to fear the lion.
The lamb has good reason to fear the wolf. The fact that the serpent is cursed “ above all livestock and above all beasts of the field” suggests that the animal world is also living under God’s curse. Then followed God’s judgment: “The L ORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field” ( Gen 3:14). The harmony of Paradise was broken: chaos invaded God’s good creation. Then the man had the nerve to blame both God and the woman: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” And the woman, in turn, blamed the serpent: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” ( Gen 3:12, 13). The human relationship with God was broken: the man said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” ( Gen 3:10). The effects of the fall into sin were felt immediately in the loss of innocence and the breakdown of harmonious relationships. God had warned them, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die ” ( Gen 2:17). Tempted by “the serpent” (later identified as “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan” ), our ancestors disobeyed God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sidney Greidanus: The biblical reasons why we experience evil chaos in this world are primarily three: the devil, human sinfulness, and God’s curse. What are the biblical reasons we experience chaos in the world?ĭr. Paradise will be restored ( Rev 2:7 22:14). In addition, the New Testament views creation christologically: Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is not only the maker of the first creation ( John 1:1-18), which is now broken, but also the maker of the coming new creation. The New Testament centers the chaos – cosmos theme primarily in the battle between Satan, the prince of darkness ( Eph 6:12) and Jesus, “the light of the world” ( John 8:12 9:5). So we can trace the chaos – cosmos theme through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, the Epistles, and the book of Revelation.
But it also uses sea for chaos: for example, Jesus stilled the storm and calmed the sea, turning chaos to cosmos ( Mark 4:35-41). The New Testament uses some of these same words (in Greek) for chaos but it focuses especially on the contrast between darkness ( skotos) and light ( phos) and various synonyms. In any event, we can trace these seven Hebrew words for chaos through the Scriptures from Genesis to Exodus, Joshua, Proverbs, Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Minor Prophets, and Daniel.
Chaos took on connotations of evil with the human fall into sin and God’s curse ( Gen 3). In fact, God called the “seas” and even “the great sea monsters” “good” ( Gen 1:10, 21). This original chaos was not evil God created it. These seven words will be used in later Scriptures either individually or in combination to refer to some form of chaos. Genesis 1 adds two more words that refer to chaos: seas ( v 10) and great sea monsters ( v 21). And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” These five italicized words describe the primeval chaos. Genesis 1:2 backs up to the earliest stage in God’s creation of the earth: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. Sidney Greidanus: Genesis 1:1 reads, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” that is, the cosmos: “The world or universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious system” ( Webster). What do you mean that the chaos-to-cosmos theme permeates Scripture?ĭr. How is this “chaos to cosmos” theme interwoven through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation?īible Gateway interviewed Sidney Greidanus about his book, From Chaos to Cosmos: Creation to New Creation (Crossway, 2019). When God created the world, he brought perfect order out of what was “without form and void.” But with human rebellion against God, disorder (chaos) was introduced into creation which God continues to redeem (cosmos).
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