Why Do Jesus and the Apostles Keep Returning to Genesis?
Having established that the ascended Christ continued teaching His Church through His inspired apostles, we are now ready to notice a recurring feature of that teaching.
It is a simple question.
Yet it may be one of the most important questions in this entire project.
Why do they keep returning to Genesis?
Once we begin noticing their use of the Old Testament, the pattern becomes impossible to ignore.
Again and again, whenever they explain God’s purposes for humanity, they return to the beginning.
Why?
The first answer is straightforward.
Genesis is not merely the first book of the Bible.
It is the foundation upon which the biblical story is built.
Here we first encounter creation.
Humanity.
The image of God.
Male and female.
Marriage.
Life.
Death.
Sin.
Blessing.
Curse.
Promise.
The nations.
The great themes that fill the rest of Scripture do not appear suddenly later in the Bible.
Their foundations are laid in Genesis.
If we wish to understand the completed story, it makes sense to begin where the story itself begins.
That explains why Genesis occupies such an important place within Scripture.
But it does not yet explain why Jesus and His apostles continually return there.
As we read the Gospels, we discover that this is no occasional habit.
When Jesus teaches about marriage, He returns to creation.
When He speaks of humanity, He returns to creation.
When He warns of judgement, He returns to Noah and Lot.
He speaks of Abel.
He speaks of Abraham.
Again and again, Jesus explains God’s present purposes by returning to the beginning.
The apostles do exactly the same.
Paul repeatedly returns to Adam and Eve.
To Abraham.
To creation.
To the image of God.
To marriage.
To the entrance of sin and death.
Peter, James, John and the writer to the Hebrews likewise assume that Genesis provides the indispensable foundation for understanding the gospel.
This is not merely the practice of one apostle.
It is a remarkably consistent pattern throughout the New Testament.
That observation naturally raises another question.
If Jesus repeatedly returns to Genesis…
If His apostles repeatedly return to Genesis…
Should Christians not learn to read Genesis in the same way?
That conviction lies at the heart of Genesis2Paul.
These studies are not attempting to make Genesis more important than the rest of Scripture.
Nor are they suggesting that every doctrine begins and ends in Genesis.
Rather, they recognise that the New Testament itself repeatedly takes us back to the beginning in order to explain God’s purposes fulfilled in Christ.
Yet even this does not fully answer our question.
Why Genesis?
Why not Exodus?
Why not the Psalms?
Why not Isaiah?
Why does the New Testament instinctively return to creation itself?
The answer is deeper still.
The New Testament does not merely present Jesus as the fulfilment of God’s promises.
It presents Him as the One through whom all things were created.
The One in whom all things hold together.
The One through whom the new creation has begun.
If that is true, then Jesus’ continual return to Genesis is not simply a helpful teaching method.
It is exactly what we should expect.
The Creator repeatedly returns to His own creation to reveal its true meaning and its true goal.
Understanding that larger Christological framework opens an entirely new way of reading both Genesis and the New Testament.
That is the subject of the next study.
Continue Exploring
Jesus and His apostles repeatedly return to Genesis because it establishes the foundational categories through which the biblical story unfolds.
Yet an even deeper question remains: why is a return to creation especially fitting when the New Testament is explaining Jesus Himself?
Jesus, the Beginning and the End → Explore this study →
The next study places this repeated return to Genesis within the larger Christological story: all things were created through Christ, are sustained in Christ, are redeemed through Christ, and reach their appointed goal in Christ. → Explore this study →