Symbols in the Bible Course: Water, Gardens, and Mountains
Symbols in the Bible Course: Water, Gardens, and Mountains
Session One—Water: The Sea of Chaos
We’ll be diving into the course by looking at why the sea was an image of chaos in ancient times as well as introducing some rules of thumb for reading this ancient book as modern people. We’ll begin to build a cross-section of ancient cosmology, focusing on the key role water played.
Session Two—Water: The River of Life
Water has twin meanings in the Bible: death and life. In Genesis 2, the river of life is introduced as an image of God’s life-giving presence that flows all the way through the storyline of the Bible. This week we’ll look at the river of life in the Psalms, Ezekiel’s “river temple,” and Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well.
Session Three—Gardens: The Garden Temple
The garden in Eden is the archetypal place where humankind dwells with God. When humanity was exiled from the garden, God chose many other places where his creation could come meet with him again—and they were all echoes of Eden. This week we will look at the geography of Eden, the decorations in the temple, the gardens in Babylon, and the garden temple of the New Creation.
Session Four—Gardens: The Tree of Death & The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life is known by certain traits that appear in other trees throughout the Bible, echoes of that first life-giving tree. But what does it mean? And why is everything hung on a tree cursed? We’ll be looking at the motif of the tree of life in Genesis, the psalms, the gospels, and asking why there are so many significant moments in the Bible when life and death depend on what happens around a tree.
Session Five—Mountains: The Mountain Temple
The Garden of Eden was not only a temple, it was a mountain. Starting in Genesis, humankind has meetings with God at the top of mountains (or tries to manufacture them) all the way to the book of Revelation. We’ll be looking at the moment when the first mountains emerge from the sea, what it means that God is likened to a mountain fortress in the psalms, why the kingdom of God is called a “city on a hill,” and the mountain of the New Creation.
Session Six—Mountains: The War of Two Mountains
The story of the Bible can be told as a war between two mountains: Mount Zion vs. Mount Babylon. Mount Zion is equated with Jerusalem and the anti-God mountain takes many forms, starting with the Tower of Babylon (Babel). We’ll be looking at what they were actually up to in Shinar in Genesis 11 and why it was so significant. We’ll also spend some on the other anti-God mountains of mt. Hermon, the “high places,” and the empire of Rome.
More Resources
A sample “first lesson” from the course: “The Primeval Sea—God Rules the Chaotic Waters”