Bible as Literature - Crain Home

Chapter Four
The point being made is simply that the second-born, the Christian, seems to be enjoying the birthright of
the first-born, the Hebrew. This is the analogy on which much of the New Testament works. The Jew
argues the law must be fulfilled without relinquishing any aspect of it; the Christian argues that the law
was fulfilled in Christ. Their differences are many, but at bottom, the old antagonism, the old sibling
rivalry, is being maintained while the universal brotherhood of the family of God is being underplayed.
While the New Testament contains much anti-Semitism, at its best, it is egalitarian in the extension of
God's outreach to humankind. The Talmud teaches that all nations have a share in the Word to Come. That
is, God's Kingdom will come when God will be One God for the entire world. This is, perhaps, prefigured
in the utterance of Cyrus: "All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord, the God of heaven, given me." In
the meantime, though, a conflict continues to exist: Christians urge "Believe" while Jews say "Act." Both
sets of people see themselves as catalysts for the rest of the world. In creed and deed, though, truth lies:
relationship demands both.
Romans
Hebrews
The Garden and the City
The Old Testament story begins in a garden; the New Testament story ends with the descension of a city,
New Jerusalem. This movement underlines another theme which exists as a unifying force in the Bible as a
whole. Generally, the garden--as in literature, generally--represents ideal existence. It is a place of unity,
wholeness, vision, peace, relationship with God, absence of pain. This is also the Messianic vision. In one
sense, then, the Bible story is told utopia to utopia. This is the vision which I have frequently referred to as
God's world. What history seems to be then is, in one sense, an interlude of rebellion, alienation, suffering
and pain. Existential literature tells us we exist as strangers to ourselves; the story of Abraham, our story in
miniature, is that of sojourner in a strange land. But before Abram was promise--a promised land, not fully
realized, for, as Hebrews tells the story, they rebelled:
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."
16 Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the
leadership of Moses? 17 But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose
bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to
those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief (3).
Actually, an astounding parallel exists between Genesis and Revelation: The closing chapters of
Revelation contain a striking contrast to the opening chapters of Genesis. Genesis speaks of the creation of
the sun, the entrance of sin into the world, the pronouncement of the curse, Satan's triumph, and the
exclusion from the "tree of life." Revelation tells of a place where there will be no need of the sun, where
sin is banished, where the curse is gone, Satan is overthrown, and admission is given to the "tree of life."
What needs to be understood clearly is that the descending city is the City of God; its parallel on the
human level is Babylon, the city of the fallen. It's no accident that the city is, on earth, the counterpart to
the garden. The city is a place where human beings have located themselves with respect to each other,
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