The Creation Story
(Genesis 1,1-2,25) |
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| The first words of the Bible are:
in the beginning God created.What follows looks rather like a hymn
than a story (Genesis 1,1- 2,4).The story version,
one of the oldest stories in the Bible, begins only in chapter 2 verse 4. Neither the hymn nor this story just inform us about events at the beginning of the world,nor do they intend to give an explanation of how everything happened. They are neither records of happenings in the distant past, nor chapters from a scientific book trying to explain some geological phenomenon. What is told here is the testimony of what the people of Israel believed about the meaning of our world and the things and happenings in it. Let us take a look at the story version first,then at the hymn version. |
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The Story Version |
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The "place" where this story originated is a dry land, a desert, where there is an oasis, the Garden of Eden where man can live. The writer may think of the fertile land of Mesopotamia. The Lord God works like a potter, forming man from clay and breathing his own life into him. God puts him in the garden and orders him to take care of everything in it. The Lord God gives him some rules he should live by. Man feels lonely, so the Lord God wants him to find a partner among the animals, but man does not find what he is hoping for. So the Lord God creates him a partner to be his wife and the mother of their children (in Hebrew it is a playing with words: ish = man, isha = woman: "taken from man"). How does this story interpret humans and their world? Man and woman are very precious. Like a handmade tea bowl, man and woman are unique, no two people are the same. Life is precious, it is a gift from God. Man and woman are equal - they are of the same bone and flesh. Man is responsible for his world. There are rules for man's life which he should obey, otherwise he might lose his happy state or even his life. |
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| The Hymn Version
If you have a Bible, read this story (Genesis 1,1-2,4) |
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| This is the first page of the Bible, but not the oldest text.
This text was composed during the 6th century BC., while the story version was put
into writing during the 9th century BC. After the opening words "In the
beginning God created" follows a hymn with seven verses and a refrain after
each verse. Creation is no longer thought of as a "working" by the
Lord God; things come into being by his WORD. No material is there from which
things were made; no conditions are put on God's sovereignty: God speaks and
things come to be. This is a new image of God. God is different from man. His
way of "doing things" is different too. And yet, the poet encloses
God's creation in the framework of a Hebrew's weekly life: six days of work and
one day of rest. The six verses of the hymn have the same structure: God's word:
"Let there be...." is followed by the short statement "it was
good" and the refrain: Evening came, and morning came...." The seventh's
day is to be the day of rest. |
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1. Light - it was good - Evening came, and morning came the first day. 2. Firmament - (it was good)* - Evening came, and morning came the second day. 3. Land and Sea and Vegetation - it was good - Evening came and morning came the third day. 4. Lights in the firmament - it was good - Evening came, and morning came the fourth day. 5. Living crreatures in the sea and birds in the sky - it was good - Evening came, and morning came the fifth day. 6. Living crreatures on the earth and mankind in his image - it was very good - Evening came, and morning came the sixth day. 7. God rests God ceased from all his work and blessed the seventh and made it holy. |
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*for unknown reasons the repetition "it was good" is missing in the original |
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What is the intention of the writer? Everything we know of is not just there. Everything is, because God wants it to be. He is before and above everything. The sun, the moon, the stars are not gods, but creatures. "Nature" is good. It is God's gift.Man and woman are special in God's eyes. Both are made in his image. They should take care of the other creatures, but may take what they need to make their living. As it was prescribed in the book of the Exodus (the book following the Genesis), the seventh day of the week is a day of rest. The hymn gives the reason for the observation of the Sabbath, the day of rest: Even God rested. |
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