Understanding Jesus Through the Lens of Genesis

Numerous parallels and interesting bookends in the Book of Genesis exist when compared to the events and people of the New Testament, specifically, Jesus. Understanding the New Testament is really hard unless one looks at it through the lens of the Old Testament. Let’s take a quick look at some of the similarities!

Bookends

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis 3, the scene involves a man (Adam), a woman (Eve), and the devil. The devil wins. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation 12, a man (Jesus), a woman (Mary), and the devil are present. This time the devil loses.

• Genesis 3 – The devil beguiles on Adam and Eve, starting the war with mankind.
  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.”
  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.”
• Genesis 8:8 – ”Then he sent forth a dove (symbolizing the Holy Spirit) from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground;”
  Matthew 3:16 – “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;”

Let US Create Man in Our Image: Jesus Reveals the Trinity in the New Testament

• 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.”  (All three persons of the Trinity are present at Jesus’ baptism.)

Falling in a 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 forsook him and fled.

Eating – Damnation AND Salvation

• 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.” (The devil says if you eat this fruit, you will know right from wrong. This assertion is a huge lie, as 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.
  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 Jesus, which is the fruit of the New Testament tree of life. In other words, 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 – Jesus says that if we eat the Eucharist (the fruit of the cross), we will live forever.
• Genesis 3:6 – The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is appealing to the eye and tastes great (symbolic of the carnal allurements of this world).
  The Eucharist is the fruit of the tree of Life – the cross – which is neither appealing to the eye nor tastes great (symbolic of the suffering in this world in order to get to heaven).

Eve and Mary 

• God created the immaculate Eve, who listened to the spirit Lucifer, who 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, who obeyed God and gave us the Eucharist to eat, thus allowing salvation to enter the world. Jesus came out of Mary.

Devil’s Two Lies Overcome by the Eucharist

• Genesis 3:4-5 – Satan told two lies: “If you eat this fruit, you shall not die,” and “If you eat this fruit, you will become like God.”
  John 6:56-58 – Jesus said, “If you eat the Eucharist, you will have eternal life,”  and “God abides in you and you in him.”

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 sacrifices Himself 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, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Genesis 3:15.

Clothing

• Genesis 3:7 – Adam is naked and puts on clothes after his fall in the garden.
  Mark 15:24 – Jesus, the new Adam,  is clothed and stripped naked before being crucified.

Punishment of Adam Taken on by Jesus

• 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 water and wore a crown of thorns on his head.

Punishment of Eve and Birth Pangs

• Genesis 3:16 – “To the woman he said,“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing, in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
  Revelation 12:1-2 – “And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;  she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.”
• Genesis 35:16-19 – Rachel, Jacob’s wife, died of her birthpangs, and in Jeremiah 31:15, weeps for her children, as does Mary.
  Since Mary is sinless, she does not have birth pangs from delivering Jesus, but rather for us, the rest of her spiritual children (John 19:27 and Revelation 12;17), who constantly sin. Her desire is for the Holy Spirit, her spiritual husband, who rules over her, and for us, her children,  to be saved.

Light

• Genesis 1:3 – Let there be LIGHT, and the new world was then created.
  John 8:12 – Jesus is the Light of the World, and The New Covenant was created.

The Methods of Temptation

• Genesis 3: 6 – Lust of the flesh — “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, –lust of the eyes –and that it was a delight to the eyes, and — pride of life –  that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she ate it.”
  1 John 2:16 – The 3-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.”
  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 The 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) between the seed of the woman and the seed of the devil. (Women don’t have seeds, they have eggs; therefore, this is one unique woman!). In the Vulgate Latin translation, seed = semen.
  Revelation 12:17 – We are her children (seed) 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.”

Leaving Father and Mother

• Genesis 2:24 – A man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife. (Adam and Eve had no earthly father and mother.)
  Ephesians 5:31-32 – Jesus left the Father in heaven and Mary on earth to create and cleave to His bride, the church.

New Birth

• Genesis 2:21-22 – Eve, the bride of Adam, was born out of the side of Adam.
  John 19:34 – At the crucifixion, the church (the Bride of Christ) 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 good Tree of Life.
• The carrying of the wooden Cross represents the burden mankind has carried on his back caused by 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 (holy suffering) for mankind.

Getting Back into Paradise after the Fall

• Genesis 3:24 – The Cherubim holds a flaming sword guarding Eden.
  In John 19:34, Jesus on the cross was pierced with a sword, and in Luke 2:34-35, Mary’s soul (Prophecy of Simeon) will be stuck with a sword, thus reopening paradise.

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.

• God picks Adam out of the dust to breathe the breath of life into him.
  Way of the Cross – Man causes God to fall down into the dust three times in order 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 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 Cain because of his pleasing sacrifice of his lambs to God.
  The innocent Jesus, the Lamb of God, is killed by the envious Satan, after God the Father said that He was well pleased with Him.

Lions

• 1 Peter 5:8 –  Satan is a proud roaring lion seeking to devour us so as to damn us.
  Revelation 5:5 – Jesus is the humble Lion of Judah, who wants us to instead devour Him in the Eucharist, so as to save us from the evil roaring lion.

Tribes and Apostles

• 12 sons of Jacob = 12 tribes of Israel
  12 apostles of Jesus = 12 leaders of the new Israel, His Church

Life after Death

• Old Testament people went to Sheol to await salvation in heaven.
  Some New Testament people go to purgatory to await salvation in Heaven.

Tongues

• Genesis 11 – The Tower of Babel led to the confusion of tongues.
  Acts 2 – Pentecost led to the understanding of all tongues.

The Old Testament Joseph, Mary, and Jesus

(The story of Joseph in the Old Testament starts in Genesis 37.)

• Genesis 37:9 – Joseph – The sun, moon, and the stars (angels and Israel) were all bowing down to him.
  Mary, a woman clothed with the sun, has the moon under her feet and crown of 12 stars on her head, representing the angels, Israel, and the Church, the new Israel.

• Joseph – His coat was 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 as a child under duress.

• 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 Pharaoh.
  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 is from the tribe of Judah; willing self-sacrifice.

• Jacob – Says that Judah will save Israel.
  Jesus from the tribe of Judah, saves us all.

Covenants

• Genesis 12 – Abraham’s Covenant with God is worldwide blessing.
  The Catholic Church is Jesus’ New Covenant and means UNIVERSAL Church which blesses the world every day with around 300,000 Masses and the Eucharist feeding Jesus’ flock.

Jacob’s Ladder

• Genesis 28:12 – Jacob dreams of angels ascending into heaven and descending to earth on a ladder.
  John 1:51 – Jesus says that you will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. 

Priest King

• Genesis 14:18 – 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

• Genesis 14:18 – 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.
  Matthew 26:26 – 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, also known as Satan.

Isaac and Jesus

• Genesis 22:10 – Abraham was ordered to kill his only son, Isaac, who carried wood up a mountain for his own sacrifice, and who was saved by a ram with its head in a thicket, on the site of the Temple of Jerusalem.
  John 19:17 – 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.

Noah and the Flood

• Mankind is saved from the flood of water by getting into the Ark.
  Mankind is saved from the flood of sin by getting into the Church.

Destruction by Fire

• Genesis 19:24 – Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire for immorality and sin.
  2 Peter 3:7 – The world today will be destroyed by fire because of immorality and sin. Jesus says that He has come to cast fire (the Holy Spirit) upon the earth.

Women at the Well

• Genesis 29:9 – Jacob and Isaac meet their wives at a well.
  John 4:7 – Jesus and the woman at the well discuss her five husbands.

Conclusion

I’m sure that there are many more similarities between the events in Genesis and Jesus’ life, but I hope you see the importance of knowing the Old Testament to fully understand Jesus in the New Testament.