<\/p>
Some reflections in spired by a paper on the biblical theology of the city by a student, Lisa Beyeler. <\/p>\n
1) Genesis 1-11 is often treated as a \u201cprologue\u201d to Israel\u2019s history, but that tends to detach it as \u201cnatural history\u201d as opposed to \u201credemptive history.\u201d It is a preparation for the history of Israel, but not because it is detached from Israel\u2019s history. Rather, Genesis 1-11 sets up the problems that Israel is designed to solve. Abram is called right after the collapse of the Babel project, and Hebrews 11:10 says that he looks for a \u201cbetter city, whose builder and maker is God.\u201d Abram never built a city, of course, but he\u2019s an urban visionary. <\/p>\n
2) After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard. That is, he doesn\u2019t do what Cain did, immediately establishing a city. He starts over again with a garden. Abram does the same: After Babel collapses, he doesn\u2019t immediately found a city, but moves from place to place, worshiping in garden-groves. This might provide a way of making room for a form of tactical or strategic move from the city. After an urban civilization collapses, a return to the garden is the beginning of a new cycle of garden-to-city. This is not to endorse an ideological agrarianism \u2013 the notion that country life is inherently superior to city life, a notion that the Bible nowhere endorses. Noah\u2019s vineyard was the beginning of a new progress toward a better city, and so were Abram\u2019s altars. <\/p>\n
3) Arguably, the same pattern is evident in the establishment of a tabernacle. After the highly developed civilization of Egypt collapses by force of Yahweh\u2019s plagues, Yahweh doesn\u2019t immediately tell His people to found a city, but instead instructs them to build an architectural garden, the tabernacle. They take the treasures of an urban civilization and begin to start over, aiming to form a new city. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some reflections in spired by a paper on the biblical theology of the city by a student, Lisa Beyeler. 1) Genesis 1-11 is often treated as a \u201cprologue\u201d to Israel\u2019s history, but that tends to detach it as \u201cnatural history\u201d as opposed to \u201credemptive history.\u201d It is a preparation for the history of Israel, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible"],"yoast_head":"\n