The Bible can be read in many different ways, but one of the most interesting to me is to compare Genesis with the New Testament. Below are many parallels that I hope will astound you as they have me.
Bookends
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, you have a man, a woman, and the devil. The devil wins. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation 12, you have a man, a woman, and the devil. The devil loses.
Genesis 3 – The devil makes war on Adam and Eve.
Revelation 12:17 – The devil makes war on Mary’s children, who obey the commandments and who testify that Jesus is Lord.
The Spirit Moves over the Water = New Creation
Genesis 1:2 – The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
Genesis 8:8: – Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground.
Matthew 3:16 – Jesus’ Baptism – When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him.
2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
“Let US create man in our image”: Jesus Reveals the Trinity in the NT
Genesis 1:26 – Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Matthew 3:16-17 – And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, God the Father, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Garden
Adam falls in the Garden of Eden.
Jesus is taken prisoner in the Garden of Gethsamene.
God’s Children Hiding in the Garden in Fear
Genesis 3:8 – And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Matthew 26:56 – Then all the disciples in the Garden of Gesthemane forsook him and fled.
Eating, Living and Dying, Lies and Truth
Genesis 3:4-5 – ”But the serpent said to the woman, You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Sin weakens the will and dims the intellect so you do NOT know right from wrong.) The forbidden fruit is the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.) They died in the sense that they committed the first mortal sin.
John 6:51 – “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Eucharist is the fruit of the tree of life, which is the cross.
Genesis 3:22 – God said that if Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of life, they will live forever.
John 6:51 – If we eat the Eucharist, the fruit of the cross, we will live forever.
Eve and Mary
God created immaculate Eve, who listened to the spirit Lucifer and disobeyed God by eating forbidden fruit, thus allowing damnation to enter the world. Eve came out of Adam.
God created Immaculate Mary, who listened to the spirit Gabriel, obeyed God, and gave birth to the Eucharist (the body and blood of Jesus), thus allowing salvation to enter the world. Jesus came out of Mary.
Self – Sacrifice
Adam is disobedient to God and does not sacrifice himself to protect his bride from the devil.
Jesus is obedient to God and dies to protect his bride, the church, from the devil.
She Shall Crush the Head of Satan
Genesis 3:15 tells us that a woman will crush the head of the serpent.
John 19:17 tells us that Jesus died on Golgotha, the place of the skull.
Clothing
Genesis 3:7 – Adam is naked and puts on clothes after his fall in the garden.
Mark 15:24 – Jesus is clothed and stripped naked before being crucified.
Punishment of Adam
Genesis 3:17-19 – Adam will earn his living with toil and sweat, and the ground shall bring forth thorns and thistles.
Luke 22:44 – Jesus sweat blood and wore a crown of thorns on his head.
Light
Genesis 1:3 – Let there be LIGHT, and the new world was created.
John 8:12 – Jesus is the Light of the World, and the New Covenant becomes a reality.
The Methods of Temptation
1 John 2:16, the three-fold concupiscence – ”This is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; it is not of the Father, but of the world.”
Genesis 3: 6 – So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh), and that it was a delight to the eyes (lust of the eyes), and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise (pride of life), she ate it.
Also, Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus in the desert – Lust of the flesh (turn these stones into bread). lust of the eyes (Look at all of these kingdoms!), and pride of life (“Throw yourself down from this high place and nothing shall happen to you, because you’re God!”).
Man Listens to Woman
Adam listened to Eve to commit original sin.
Jesus listened to Mary to do his first miracle.
The Seed of the Woman
Genesis 3:15 – Enmity (life-long hatred) exists between the seed (semen in Latin) of the woman and the seed of the devil. (Women don’t have seeds, they have eggs; therefore this is one unique woman!)
Revelation 12:17 – We are her children if we obey the commandments and give testimony that Jesus is the Christ (seed = children = semen).
The Universal Term “WOMAN”
Genesis 2:23 – Adam called Eve “WOMAN.”
John 19:26 – Jesus called Mary “WOMAN,” an allusion that Mary is the new Eve.
New Birth
Genesis 2:21-22 – Eve, the bride of Adam, was born out of the side of Adam.
John 19:34 – Jesus, the bridegroom of the Church, came out of Mary. At the crucifixion, the church was born when blood and water (representing the Eucharist and Baptism and new birth) came out of the side of Christ.
Trees
Genesis 2:9 – Eden had the bad Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the good Tree of Life.
The carrying of the wooden Cross by Jesus represents the burden mankind has carried on his back because of Adam eating from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Jesus, once nailed to the cross, overcame that burden because He sanctifies it with his body and blood. The cross now becomes the Tree of Life (by His holy suffering) for mankind.
Getting into Paradise after the Fall
Genesis 3:24 – The flaming sword guarding Eden from Adam and Eve re-entering implies that you must get stuck by the sword to get back into paradise.
John 19:34 (Jesus on the cross) and Luke 2:34-35 (Mary’s soul and prophecy of Simeon) – Jesus, the new Adam, and Mary, the new Eve, were both stuck with a sword.
The Breath of God
Genesis 2:7 – God breathes the breath of life into Adam.
John 20:22 – God breathes on the apostles to give them the power to forgive sins.
Genesis 2 – God picks Adam out of the dust to breathe the breath of life into him.
Matthew 27 – Man causes God to fall down into the dust three times to take the breath of life out of him.
The Mother of the Living
Genesis 3:20 – Eve becomes the physical mother of the living at the foot of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
John 19:27 – Mary becomes our spiritual mother (when Jesus says, “BEHOLD YOUR MOTHER”) at the foot of the cross, the new tree of life.
Murder of the Innocent
Genesis 4:8 – The innocent Abel is slain by his own jealous brother because of his pleasing sacrifice of his lambs to God.
The innocent Jesus, the Lamb of God, is killed by the envious Satan, after his Father said at the Transfiguration that He was well pleased with Him.
Lions
Satan is a proud roaring lion seeking to devour us so as to damn us.
Jesus is the humble Lion of Judah, who wants us to instead devour Him in the Eucharist so as to save us from the roaring lion.
Tribes and Apostles
12 sons of Jacob = 12 tribes of Israel.
12 apostles of Jesus = 12 leaders of the new Israel, the Church.
Assumption
Enoch/Elijah taken up to heaven.
Mary taken up to heaven in the Assumption.
Tongues
The Tower of Babel led to the confusion of tongues.
Pentecost in Acts led to the understanding of all tongues.
Joseph (Genesis 37) and Jesus
Joseph – Sun, moon, and stars (angels and Israel) bowing down to him
Mary, a woman clothed with the sun, has the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head, representing the angels, Israel, and the Church, the new Israel.
Joseph – Coat soiled with goat’s blood
Jesus – Garment soiled with the blood of the Lamb
Joseph – Went to Egypt under duress as an adult
Jesus – Went to Egypt under duress as a child
Joseph – Sold by his brothers to non-believers for 20 pieces of silver
Jesus – Sold to non-believers for 30 pieces of silver
Joseph – Unjustly accused and thrown into prison
Jesus – Unjustly accused and imprisoned
Joseph – Became Pharaoh’s right hand man
Jesus – Sits at the right hand of the Father
Joseph – Saved Israel by giving them bread from Egypt
Jesus – Saves the new Israel, His Church, with the Eucharist from Heaven
Joseph – Reunited with his father after his father thought he was dead
Jesus – Reunited with His Father in heaven after rising from the dead
Judah – Offers to stay back as a self-sacrifice
Jesus – From the tribe of Judah, a willing self-sacrifice
Jacob – Says that Judah will save Israel
Jesus – From the tribe of Judah, saves us all
Covenants
Abraham’s Covenant with God is a worldwide blessing (Genesis 22:18).
Catholic Church means UNIVERSAL Church that blesses the world every day with around 300,000 Masses.
Jacob’s Ladder
Jacob dreams of angels ascending into heaven and descending to earth on a ladder (Genesis 28:12).
Jesus says that you will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51)
Priest King
Melchizedek is the Priest King of Salem (peace).
Jesus is the eternal high priest and king of Kings, in the line of Melchezedek, and the Prince of Peace.
Bread and Wine
In a foreshadowing of the Mass, Melchizedek, the Priest King of Salem, offers bread and wine as a thanksgiving sacrificial offering to Abraham, because Lot was set free from his enemy.
Jesus turns ordinary bread and wine into His body and blood as a thanksgiving sacrificial offering to God the Father, setting us free from the enemy, Satan.
Isaac and Jesus
Abraham was ordered to kill his only son, Isaac, who carried wood up a mountain for his own sacrifice. Isaac was saved by a ram with its head in a thicket, on the site of the Temple of Jerusalem.
Jesus, the Lamb of God, carried his wooden cross up the mountain to be sacrificed, with his head in a crown of thorns. Jesus is the new Temple (John 2:19).
The Flood
Mankind is saved from the worldwide flood by getting into the Ark.
Mankind is saved by the worldwide flood of sin by getting into the Church.
In Revelation 12:15, the devil tries to kill Mary with a flood of evil. But She was spared by God who opened up the earth to swallow the flood. Her family (those who acknowledge her as Mother) on earth will also be spared.
Destruction by Fire
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire for immorality and sin.
The world today will be destroyed by fire because of immorality and sin. Jesus says that He has come to cast fire upon the earth (the Holy Spirit).
Mama’s Boy
Jacob was a mama’s boy and received the blessing of God from his father Isaac.
Jesus was a mama’s boy and blesses those who honor His mother.
In the Beginning/Sabbath/Adam and Eve/Bridegroom
Both Genesis and John start out with “In the Beginning”.
Book of Genesis = New world
Book of John = New creation in Jesus Christ
I see you had fun with that. Now, if evolution is true, well you still had fun.