Genesis: A New Commentary

by Meredith G. Kline

Publisher:

Hendrickson

, 2016

Overview

Meredith G. Kline is famous in the Reformed community for his teaching and writings in the area of biblical and covenant theology. In the mid-1990s, just after Kline finished writing what is considered to be his magnum opus (a study of the book of Genesis called Kingdom Prologue), he wrote a brief commentary on the same biblical text. Genesis: A New Commentary was not published during his lifetime and is just now being made available to the public.

Many of Kline’s former students, as well as many pastors and laypeople in the Reformed community, consider his work to have had a transformative effect on their faith and thinking. His teaching and writings (he wrote seven books and more than seventy articles) were filled with fresh, insightful interpretations.

Meredith Kline’s posthumously published Genesis: A New Commentary, which distills his mature views on the book of Genesis, and, indeed, on Scripture as a whole, will appeal greatly to those who already admire his work and make his thinking accessible to a broader audience. The commentary has been edited by Kline’s grandson Jonathan G. Kline, who received his PhD in Hebrew Bible from Harvard University, and contains a foreword by Michael S. Horton, the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California.

Key Features

• Focuses on the broader unfolding plan of redemption
• Underscores the covenantal drama found in the genealogical details
• Presents Christ as the fulfillment of God's promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15

Contents

• Introduction
• Prologue: Covenant of Creation (1:1-2:3)
• Division One: City of Man in the Old World (2:4-4:26)
• Division Two: Community of Faith in the Old World (5:1-6:8)
• Division Three: Redemptive Judgment and Re-creation (6:9-9:29)
• Division Four: City of Man in the New World (10:1-11:9)
• Division Five: Community of Faith in the New World (11:10-26)
• Division Six: Covenant with Abraham (11:27-25:11)
• Division Seven: Dismissal from the Covenant (Ishmael) (25:12-18)
• Division Eight: Isaac, Covenant Patriarch (25:19-35:29)
• Division Nine: Dismissal from the Covenant (Esau) (36:1-37:1)
• Division Ten: Jacob, Covenant Patriarch (37:2-50:26)

Top Highlights

“Just as Genesis and the early chapters of Exodus provide a historical prologue to the Sinai covenant, Gen 1–3 is itself a covenantal treaty document in its own right, with a preamble (identifying Yahweh as the Suzerain), a historical prologue (God’s lordly rights as Creator of heaven and earth), and the giving of stipulations and sanctions (to Adam as the vassal).” (Page xi)

“Vegetation was not the total provision of food for man; animals were also fair game (cf. 1 Tim 4:3–5; 2 Pet 2:12). Specific mention of plants as food prepares for the special prohibition of the tree of knowledge (2:16, 17). Reaching beyond the land realm, man’s dominion included all the realms of days one to three and all the rulers of days four to six. His historical mission was to extend the kingdom of God from its cultic focus at the mountain of God in Eden (see notes on 2:8–14) to the fullness of a global city of God.⁶ Through procreation, blessed by God, the original couple would people the planet. Royal labor, in imitation of the Creator-King and prospered by him, would bring the earth increasingly into man’s service until the mandated cultural task was completed.” (Pages 13–14)

“In setting the law in its historical context, Genesis concentrates on the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 12–50), for the Mosaic order was a fulfillment of its specific kingdom promises. Since that covenant stood in continuity with previous redemptive covenant, which itself resumed the kingdom objectives of the creation covenant, Genesis includes a review of these foundational beginnings (Gen 1–11). Creation, fall, and redemption with its prospect of consummation—that is the basic outline of the theological story. Genesis tells of the Creator-Lord who, in spite of the devil’s opposition and man’s revolt against heaven, directs earthly history and guides his covenant people toward the perfecting of his kingdom.” (Pages 5–6)

Product Details

• Title: Genesis: A New Commentary
• Author: Meredith G. Kline
• Publisher: Hendrickson
• Print Publication Date: 2016
• Logos Release Date: 2017
• Pages: 150
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. O.T. Genesis › Commentaries
• ISBNs: 9781619708525, 1619708523
• Resource ID: LLS:GENESISANEWCOMM
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:14:24Z

About Meredith G. Kline

Meredith G. Kline (1922–2008) was professor emeritus of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Westminster Seminary California. He also taught at Claremont School of Theology and Reformed Theological Seminary. He received his BD and ThM from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) and his PhD in Assyriology and Egyptology from Dropsie College. Professor Kline maintained an active writing and teaching ministry, and was also an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.