GENESIS: For week of 23 September 2008

THE OLD TESTAMENT

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At least for now, I will use the WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB). Note that my comments are always in RED.
    The Bible is divided into two Testaments. The Jewish Bible which teaches the laws of Moses from God; and the Christian Bible. However Christians call the Jewish Bible the "old" testament and their Bible the "new" testament. "Testament" means "covenant" or "agreement." So both books tell of God's agreement (contract) with humans.
    Ideas that are special to the Bible include that God made everything. Before God there was nothing. Moreover, God does not have to battle with other Gods. There's only one God. Even more important, everything is GOOD. This is a refrain (repeat) throughout the Bible, especially in the opening verses: "God saw that it was good."
    Compare with other religions or philosophies, which believe the world is evil. In fact, later Jewish thought, in the form of Christianity, tended towards this belief that the world is evil: the Devil owns the world, as we shall see in the Christian Gospels. Still Christians never give up the idea in the Old Testament that the world is good. It's people who are bad, though made good. So something went wrong; the Bible is the story of how it went wrong and how to make it right again. As such it's not pure history, but "salvation history": a history of how people became separated from God and how they can return to God. This involves justice most of all. The reader should observe a key difference between the Old and New Testaments: the Old Testament is more concerned with social justice than the New Testament. Of course social justice is implied in what Jesus asks of people in the New Testament. But the demand for social justice is very loud and clear in the Old Testament. This is one of many reasons why the Bible should appeal to today's readers.
    The Bible is divided into books, chapers, and verses. You should familiarize yourselves with the books in order and how to cite (refer to) them in abbreviation or short form. For example GEN 5:6 means the book of Genesis, chapter 5, verse 6. A verse is usually a line but not always. Sometimes it's two lines or more. Then scholars divide up the lines into a and b. So 5:6a means chapter 5, verse 6, the first sentence.
    The question that a young student will naturally ask is, is the Bible true. The question then is what is meant by "true"? Is "love" true? Is Freud's idea of an "unconscious" true? These are words that try to capture an experience that seems real. The Bible does the same thing. It tries to capture an experience that seems real and that seems to explain a lot. When a person says "I love my spouse" the person may not know what "love" means but uses the word to explain what to the person is real, whatever words are used! The Bible has lasted so long because it tells of something real, which others recognize as real too. It doesn't matter if God made the world in 6 days or 6 million days. The point of the writer is that God controls the world. So everything is good.

Genesis

1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
The book of Genesis starts from the beginning. In fact it's called "In the beginning" in Hebrew. These are some of the most famous lines. St. John later borrows verse 1 for his Gospel in the New Testament. (You may wish to check out the beginning of John's Gospel (called the "incipet" or "beginning"; compare the English word, "incipient," or "about to begin."

1:3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 1:4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. 1:5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning, one day.
Another key idea: separation. We can only be "holy" by keeping God's differences between animals, humans, the sexes, etc. "Light" becomes a big theme in the New Testament, where Jesus is compared to the Light which shines in darkness. So the reader should follow this theme, which we shall call a "motif" (a little idea that is repeated, as, in music, the famous opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony).
    Notice that you cannot read the Bible literally, though some do. Today few believers read the Bible literally. Those who do are called "fundamentalists." There are many in the US South. Note that God made "light" before he made the sun and moon (below). So you see, you can't read the Bible literally.
    Study too the motif of the "Word." God creates just with his "word." Later Jesus becomes the "Word." The "word" has been translated to mean many things. Probably the main meaning is "logos" (as the word "logic" or "logical" in English): order, reason. The world is orderly and reasonable.

1:6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 1:7 God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 1:8 God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening and there was morning, a second day.
The main idea here is that God owns everything. Whereas in other myths of this period the sea is a monster, in the Bible even the sea is "good." Later, in the book of Revelation, there is no sea; because the sea was always considered dangerous (the Jews were not good sailors). But still; the sea is owned by God. So what does this do? It assures people not to be afraid of anything; because there are no monsters; just God.

1:9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 1:10 God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. 1:11 God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with its seed in it, on the earth”; and it was so. 1:12 The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with its seed in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 1:13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Notice that evening comes before day. This is the way that Jews reckoned (counted) time: day begins at 6 p.m.  or sunset. So Saturday begins at sunset on Friday evening.

1:14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; 1:15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 1:16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 1:17 God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the earth, 1:18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 1:19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

1:20 God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of sky.” 1:21 God created the large sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. 1:22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 1:23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
"Be frutiful and multiply" encourages sex between men and women. Later Jewish thought, in Christianity, tended to look upon sex and the body as evil. So you can see a development here. Yet there's no question that Christians accept the Old Testament God. In terms of style, not the use of "ands" and repeated words and phrases ("after their kind"). This is not the King James version, which influenced many writers (especially Hemingway), but it's similar.
1:24 God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. 1:25 God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
Another key text: "Let us make man in our image." First, what does "our" mean? Who is God talking to? If you go back to the beginning you'll remember that God is speaking to someone and his spirit "hovers" over the waters. Here is where we get the idea of a three-personed God: Father, son, and Holy Spirit; yet one God.  However, it's also possible God is speaking to angels or lesser gods.
    Jewish monotheism (one-god) developed slowly over time. At first there was something more like "henotheism," a less familiar word which means many gods but one in command. We'll study this issue of the development of monotheism in the Bible in many other verses too.
    What does it mean to "make man in our image"? First of all it suggests man is something like God. Second, it gives man dignity. Certainly the Bible has had strong influence on later democracies, with its idea that all people are created equal and have rights.
     Now here we get to something interesting, which scholars pointed out more than a hundred years ago; that there are really two stories of creation in the first two chapters here. The first shows men and women as equal; the second shows the woman as inferior to the man. This is the first:
1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 1:27 God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. 1:28 God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 1:29 God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. 1:30 To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.
Note that humans don't eat meat yet; just herbs and fruit.
1:31 God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Now we get to another key point: the Sabbath; one of the great ideas of the Hebrew Bible; that people are entitled to rest. This idea of "rest" becomes important later too, when "rest" is imagined as Heaven; the final rest that God has promised.
    The Sabbath gives dignity to man. It says to "stop"; forget your boss; forget your slavery; forget buying and selling. This day belongs to God; but it belongs to Man too; because in thinking of God, man gives himself dignity too. We are what we love. If we love movie stars, we are as mortal as they. But if we love God, as pictured in the Bible in Creation, then we grow bigger. By not working we know ourselves as creatures of God, not slaves to others. By not doing anything on the Sabbath, we also discover God's creation; because we allow God to do everything on that day. Note "the seventh day" is Saturday, not Sunday. The Sabbath was changed to Sunday by Christians. Also note, as I said before, Jews count time from the evening; so the Sabbath begings at sunset on Fridays to sunet on Saturday.
2:1 The heavens and the earth were finished, and all their vast array. 2:2 On the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 2:3 God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work which he had created and made.
Now begins the second story of Creation. So you see there are two stories. Scholars realized this and then realized other things too. For example, God is called God in the first story but Yahweh God in the one below. Also God is more human in the one below. And this pattern is repeated in other stories. The idea of God is more dignified in the first Creation story; more human in the second. So scholars suggested that the first came later than the second. Scholars name the first writer P after "priest"; because we think he came from the priest class. The second writer is named "J" (after Jahweh in German, or Yahweh; the English form is Jehovah, or Lord). This is the name for "God" in the J text. There are other differences but these are the most basic. Note that in the second story, man is created first, not last, as in the first story. Note also that "heaven" is mentioned first in the first story, but "earth" is mentioned first in the second. That's why scholars divide the Creation story from 2:4a to 2:4b (when a verse is long, it's divided into "a" and "b." I've underlined where the J text begins. J's stories, by the way, are some of the most famous in the Bible, including the story of Adam and Eve.
2:4 This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens. 2:5 No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground, 2:6 but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground. 2:7 Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 2:8 Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 2:15 Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 2:16 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”
What does the tree of Good and Evil mean? Naturally this has been studied for centuries. One idea is that we know right from wrong because we can now do right or wrong. But Hebrew scholars also point out that "evil" is not the best translation; a better one is "bad." So now it means that we see differences where we did not before. We are not happy with this dish of food or that car; we always see it as bad compared to something better. And this kind of desire based on good and bad can destroy us because we always want more and better than we have.

2:18 Yahweh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 2:21 Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 2:22 He made the rib, which Yahweh God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man. 2:23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.” 2:24 Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. 2:25 They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Note that there is no shame over nudity (nakedness). Shame comes from self-consciousness that follows "good and bad." For example, the woman or man wants a better body, so feels ashamed. The main point here is that the writer of this text (J) thinks that "in the beginning" everything was good, as "P" says too. Sex is good. The body is good. How did they become bad?
3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”
Who is this serpent? Later, in the New Testament, he's called the Devil. But the Jews who wrote this, did not think so. First, God is the only power. The serpent is just the freedom to reason falsely; as when we say, "Does my father's money really belong to him? Aren't I his son and aren't I entitled to his money?" And then we steal it; but we don't call it stealing. Same for so many other crimes. Notice that Eve, below, puts words into God's mouth. God never said don't touch, but don't eat. By changing some words, Eve can change other words too. And by this "subtle" process, Even can disobey God. That's how our mind work too. NO PARKING. But this is Sunday; that sign must mean work days!

3:2 The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, 3:3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

3:4 The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, 3:5 for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
There are many ways to understand this verse (v.4). "You will be like God, knowing good and evil." First, people envy what they don't have. And this kind of "rivalry" may be the root of all evil. John doesn't want a car but what Jack has (a car)! Jill wants George because Janet wants him too. Eve wants what God has. Note below how wonderfully the writer shows the steps by which one sins: Eve "saw," and "delight," and "desired." And that process is a chain reaction; after Eve, Adam.
3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. 3:7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 3:8 They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.

3:9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

3:10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

3:11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

3:12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

3:13 Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

3:14 Yahweh God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
    you are cursed above all livestock,
    and above every animal of the field.
On your belly you shall go,
    and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will bruise your head,
    and you will bruise his heel.”
For Christians, this is a key text. It's called the protevangelium. A long word, but it means "first gospel." Because Christians see the future in it. The snake is later called the Devil; and there is "enmity" between him and her offspring, which to Christians means "Jesus." Jesus will bruise the snake's head (perhaps "heads" means "crown," hence kingdom), while the Devil will bruise Jesus' feet.
3:16 To the woman he said,

“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.
    In pain you will bear children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”
This suggests that woman desire men as their sole desire. Naturally feminists have discussed this text a lot. There are way to make women come out better. First, Eve seems more intelligent than Adam; she is curious; she wants to learn and be like God. She is the aggressor; Adam is passive. So in a sense all modern science comes from Eve, not Adam! But then, if we had God we would not need science!
3:17 To Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to your wife’s voice,
    and have eaten of the tree,
    of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
    cursed is the ground for your sake.
In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
    3:18 It will yield thorns and thistles to you;
    and you will eat the herb of the field.
The American writer, Thoreau, who believed in living simply, found humor in 3:19, saying something like, "I don't see why a man has to earn his living by the sweat of his brow, unless he sweats easier than I do."
3:19 By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken.
For you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

3:20 The man called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 3:21 Yahweh God made coats of skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.

3:22 Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...” 3:23 Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

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