In the first, God creates the universe in 6 days and rests on the 7th day. It takes us through each of the 6 days in succession. In the second, the focus is on the creation of humankind...not on the creation of the world. In the first, humankind is created last (after everything else) whereas in the second, humankind is created first (before vegetation and animals). In the first, humans as male and female are created simultaneously, while in the second, man comes first, with woman coming later.
From a historical perspective:
- It is believed that the first creation story was written in the 500s BCE, during or shortly after the Jewish exile into Babylon. During this time, one of the distinctive practices of the Jews was observance of the sabbath. Some would argue that the writing of the first creation story with six days was done primarily to emphasize the importance of the sabbath as something that God also observes. It has also been argued that part of the purpose of the creation story was to assert that the God of Israel is the creator of heaven and earth and proclaiming the lordship of Israel's God over the lordship of Babylon and its gods (with whom the Jews were obviously not very happy at that point in time!).
- The historical understanding of the universe is also interesting to note in the context of the creation stories. Ancient Israelites thought of the earth as the centre of the universe. Above the earth was the "dome of the sky" with water being above the dome (hence the falling of rain and snow). Thus, the description of creation (e.g. separating the waters so that dry land is below the sky, etc.) reflects their understanding of the nature of the universe.
- Finally, the historical language used in the creation stories is interesting to understand. In the second creation story, Adam and Eve are the first humans. Adam comes from the Hebrew word adham which means "humankind" (coming from the Hebrew word adhamah meaning "ground" or "dust"). Thus, the story is not about a particular man but of "everyone". Similarly, Eve means "mother of all living".
From a metaphorical viewpoint:
- A key point being made in the creation stories is that God is the source of everything that is. One person noted "The only literal statement in Genesis 1 is 'God created the heavens and the earth'".
- Secondly, humans are the climax of creation but at the same time "dust creatures". That is, we are small, we are finite, we are mortal - yet, there is something different about us (e.g. greater consciousness than any species we know of).
- Another key point is that the world is the good creation of a good God. All that is, is good.
- Having said that, something has happened - though the world is beautiful, something is not right; we live in a world of hard labour, suffering, pain, violence and fragmentation.
On this last point, what went wrong (often referred to as the fall or the original sin)? There are different viewpoints including:
- Human disobedience (this is the most common and simplist view within fundamentalist Christianity)
- Human pride and self-centeredness
- Living the agenda of others
- The inevitability of self-consciousness
These various understandings can be combined. For example, the birth of consciousness in all of us as we move from infants to adults typically leads to pride and being centered in one's self. At the same time, the process of socialization leads to internalizing and living in accord with the agendas of others, including parents, culture and religion.
Given this combination of historical and metaphorical views, I can see the creation stories as profoundly true - not literally or factually, but in the truth of the stories' central claims. Borg says it like this: "This" - the universe and we - is not self-caused, but grounded in the sacred. "This" is utterly remarkable and wondrous, a mystery beyond words that evokes wonder, awe and praise. We begin our lives "in paradise", but we all experience explusion into a world of exile, anxiety, self-preoccupation, bondage and conflict. And yes, also a world of goodness and beauty: it is the creation of God. But it is a world in which something is awry.
The rest of the Bible is to a large extent the story of this state of affairs: the human predicament and its solution. Our lives "east of Eden" are marked by exile, and we need to return and reconnect; by bondage, and we need liberation; by blindness and deafness, and we need wholeness; by violence and conflict, and we need to learn justice and peace; by self- and other-centeredness, and we need to centre in God. Such are the central claims of Israel's stories of human beginnings.
A new way to look at the creation stories don't you think?
(Again, lots of credit to Marcus Borg's Reading the Bible Again for the First Time for the bulk of this blog)
3 comments:
Yes, I would agree Cold Mol.
Profoundly interesting stuff.
-- Cip
P.S. I examined the brand new John Shelby Spong book last night at the store. It looks VERY good, but it is much less expensive to buy it online, so that is what I will do.
I too have tried to find Spong's book for a power-flip...but, alas, my local Indigo doesn't seem to have any copies! But you are right, the online price is much better...I too plan to buy it there...when I have time to read it that is!
P.S. Glad to see your resolution of getting more sleep (i.e. going to bed earlier) is working out for you :)
Quite an interesting post - especially with your own interpretations of the Borg interspersed.
Literal and figurative.
I find the metaphoric far easier to swallow than the literal myself.
But I am sure I would meet with considerable contention on this point, partly because once one enters into the metaphoric, it may become wildly speculative and interpretive.
And for the fundamentalist (who already has The Truth, after all - just listen to the tele-evangelists), the realm of the interpretation makes for unacceptable ambiguity.
Whose interpretation are we going to accept? This becomes the question.
As well as how FAR do we go with the literal and how far with the metaphoric? If one event is metaphoric, are they all? If not, which ones then? How do you choose?
On the other hand, how can we NOT look metaphorically?
The first words of the Bible say “In the beginning, God
created. . .” But how can it be the "beginning" if God is already there?
I think it is impossible to even understand the phrase "in the beginning" in any kind of literal sense.
How does one imagine a (concrete) beginning? Where IS it? How does one wrap one's head around the concept of nothingness and then a beginning?
And how did it "get there"?
Immediately we have moved out of the literal and into the metaphoric.
Words, after all, are in and of themselves - even before we get into the nuance of translation problems - symbols. Little metaphors. A word is not the thing. It is a symbol for an idea, concept, action...etc.
Already we are smack dab into the realm of interpretation. Right?
Each person who reads the words comes up with his own interpretation, based on the words as he understands them, bringing connotaions which will be dependent and his own background.
Your historical perspective in this space is most enlightening. It is an area about which I know nothing, yet which seems to me to be increasingly essential to even the most rudimentary understanding of the text.
Eve, by the way, has her counterparts in various creation myths. Even Pandora, in Greek myth, opens that box that lets out all kinds of "trouble" – and (significant to your post, I thnk) all of that trouble arises from Man's newfound awareness. Just like in the story of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Nearly all the mythic stories I know of (not all that many, but a few) point toward the inevitability of awareness (your fourth bullet there) as being the key factor in our “fall.” If you are human, you are going to be curious…and lean toward awareness.
How closely tied is our disobedience to a Greater One to our desire for more "awareness?"
The idea of our initiation or passage from a state of ignorance (bliss) to awareness comes not without cost.
It seems to me that nearly every myth of creation that I have ever heard gets the participants in trouble when they disobey in an effort to come to a greater awareness of self, surroundings, creator.
We emerge from innocence, to experience. Knowledge or awareness – call it what you will.
And – regardless of its relationship to a “fall” - it is a condition devoutly to be wished by the thinking among us. It is an inevitable stage in our development.
By the way, I have to point this one thing out: in ancient Greek myth the Mother figurehead (Gaia) was The MOST Important One.
It is SHE who arises from Chaos and gives birth to the cosmos. Goes with your Eve-mother notataion.
Did you know that some authors believe that we actually DID begin our lives in Paradise?
As we grow – and are able to talk and reason - we forget those roots. We get caught up in the things of this world.
I enjoyed this post.
Thanks.
More, please.
Post a Comment