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A glimpse at the book of Genesis as a whole will reveal a unique arrangement of
subject matter. It opens with the creation of heaven and earth "in the beginning", it
closes with the record of Joseph's death in Egypt.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1: 1).
"So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he
was put in a coffin in Egypt" (Gen. 50: 26).
Did any book ever begin and end like this? What possible connexion can there be
between so vast a theme as the creation of the universe, and the embalming of one man,
aged 110 years, in Egypt? The first item that emerges is that the record of creation given
in Genesis is not put there as a matter of scientific interest, it evidently subserves another
purpose. That purpose embraces man and his destiny, and the purpose that underlies the
inclusion of "a coffin in Egypt" is REDEMPTIVE, so that the fate of Joseph is of more
consequence than the appointment of sun, moon or star. When once this aspect of truth is
accepted, we shall have made the first step to the understanding of the Scriptures, we
shall understand why Moses devotes almost as many chapters in Exodus to the
description of the tabernacle, its foundation and its priesthood, as he devotes verses to
describe the creation of the world.
In a subsequent study we shall have to consider the relation of Genesis, the first book,
with the Revelation, the last book, but all in good time. We now come a little closer to
Genesis, and while still considering it as a whole, let us endeavour to trace its outline
in the large. Chapters 1:-11: deal with the whole human race, Adam to Noah.
Chapters 12:-50: deal with the one chosen nation Israel, Abraham to Joseph. We
therefore use the word RACE for the first part, and NATION for the second. Next we
observe that the first half ends with an ARK, while the second half ends with a COFFIN.
In order to be able to appreciate this strange correspondence, the reader must permit a
reference to the Hebrew and the Greek words involved, but there will be nothing put
forward which need bother the simplest.
The word "ark" in Gen. 6:-9: is the translation of the Hebrew word tebah, a word
that is described by grammarians as "a loan word" from the Egyptian T-B-T "a chest". If
the reader possesses "Young's Analytical Concordance", he will observe that under this
heading Ark tebah, there are listed all the references in the record of the flood, with two
references from Exodus in addition. Now there can be no reference discovered in Exodus
to the Flood, but Moses had been saved from death. His own mother had made an Ark of
bulrushes, daubed it with slime and with pitch, and Moses remembering his mother's
devotion used the selfsame Egyptian word for the Ark, made by Noah of wood, which
was also covered within and without in pitch.
The word translated "coffin" in Gen. 50: 26 is the Hebrew word aron, which is
translated "chest" six times and "ark" 195 times. There is therefore a closer connexion
between Noah's Ark and Joseph' coffin than at first appears. This is by no means all,
however. We discover that this word translated "coffin" is used in Exodus for the Ark of
the Covenant! and not only so, a consultation of the N.T. reveals that the selfsame word
kibotos speaks of the Ark prepared by Noah (Heb. 11: 7) and the Ark of the Covenant