Humankind's Unique Place

     

     Moving into the second creation account, this time from the perspective of humankind, the literature must be examined as a poetic tale and therefore containing elements specific to this genre. This grammatical structure is revealed by the echoing of the word “eat,” whose connotation changes from sustenance (2:9,16) to prohibition (2:17) to misunderstanding (3:1-5) to disobedience (3:6, 11-13) and, ends with, to curse (3:14, 17, 19). The bridging of the two narratives in this account, from the creation of humankind to the introduction of the snake is accomplished using two identical sounding words in Hebrew, arum, meaning “nude” and “shrewd.” I stress the poetic nature of this account not to diminish the poetic and “order out of chaos” structure achieved in the previous account, but to focus on the message which is often lost when the poetry of this story is ignored in the pursuit of establishing theological theories.

This account, at its core, seeks to address the origin of the event most central to human consciousness: death. It makes connections, as in the book of Job, of knowledge and mortality within the human sphere being inextricably linked. That rebellion against God (and His established order), or disobedience of God's commands (which established that order), results in banishment, estrangement, and involves death (however the application occurs). Thus, from the very beginning, choice is the major element in human existence.

In Gen. 2:9, God caused to spring up from the adama (soil), “every type of tree, desirable to look at and good to eat, and the Tree of Life (conferring immortality on the eater of its fruits), and the Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil (this being the first usage of the word Evil).” The Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil has two interpretations, that of a merism, as in the “knowledge of A to Z” (of everything), or an expression of moral choice. Seeing as how the founding major element in human existence is choice, I envision the correct interpretation as being “an expression of moral choice.” Also with this understanding is the expectation of humankind being capable of following a command of God, which would undoubtedly require the knowledge of what it is commanded of them. Thus, in a sense, what pops out is the understanding that all mankind needed to know is what was Right and what was Wrong based upon the word (command) of God which established order and brought into existence the creation humankind dwells in. The Knowing of Good and Evil then boils down into what it really is, the expression of moral choice. Realize here, when the word moral is used it does not carry with it the implication of good virtue or righteousness, but the ability to express morality – something, when expressed as righteousness, already capable of being accomplished through obedience to the command of God.

     “...God, planted a garden of Eden / Land-of-Pleasure... and there he placed the human who He had formed.” “...God, took the human and set him in the garden of Eden / Land-of-Pleasure, to work it and watch it.” The beauty of the creation accounts are the nigh inexhaustible understanding gleaming through each telling of the story. The Garden of Eden / Land-of-Pleasure, the root here for pleasure being the same used by Sara in 18:12 as she laughs about her old age and the seemingly impossible pleasure of bearing a child. This root has direct connotations to sexual pleasure and pushes into the understanding of sexual pleasure the idea of bearing life. Here we can see the intense application of the above line: God blows the breath of life into the human being and he becomes a living being and then places him into the land-of-life-bearing-sexual-pleasure. God took the human and set him in this land of life bearing sexual pleasure to work it and to watch it. The pleasure of life is not found in only working it, through rote bodily mechanics and skillful application to get what one desires, but from watching it and appreciating its multiplicity of life bearing beauty. Neither can we only be mere observers, taking no part in the abundance of life bearing existence; we must delve into the work of life and express ourselves in its beautiful nature. This is part of what we were created for!

     The word for work used in the above verse is “avod” and different from the word used in relating God's work of creation, melakha. Avod means “serve” and appears throughout the book of Exodus. The Israelites must serve the Egyptians; they become "serfs." Moses uses the root word "avod" asking the Pharoah to free the Israelites so they can serve God. The wording shows the transition of the Israelites from serving humans to serving the Divine. Thus, the work of mankind is to serve God.

     Placed into this land of pleasure, mankind is now given the guiding principle for maintaining life and avoiding death. 

“YHWH, God, commanded concerning the human, saying:

From every tree of the garden you may eat, yes, eat,

but from the Tree of Knowing of Good and Evil –

you are not to eat from it,

for on the day you eat from it, you must die, yes, die.”

Here is a occurrence of poetry with the word “eat.” Here, the phrase “eat, yes, eat” literally means “eating you may eat” (akhol tokhel) and produces its meaning when combined with the command: Every tree you may eat, but eat not from the Tree of Knowing of Good and Evil, the day you eat from it, you must die. The word eat here embodies choice, the choice of life or death ( for through the action of eating, they are rendered a choice). God proclaims near the end of Deuteronomy in verses 15 and again in 19, “See, I set before you today life and good, death and evil...” and “I call-as-witness against you today the heavens and the earth: life and death I place before you, blessing and curse; now choose life, in order that you may stay-alive, you and your seed...”. The didache begins, “There are two ways, one of life and one of death...”. The central principle around which God's commands revolve has never changed and has been hearkened to by all the prophets of God.

Directly after this central principle is established, God declares (for the first time) something not good. His created human is alone. God sets about making “him a helper corresponding (literally, “opposite”) to him.” This dispels the idea of an androgynous human, complete until God removes from him to create another. Instead, the picture drawn is that of a human who is in need, and God doesn't think this is good, instead God creates an opposite, absolutely equal and absolutely different, counterpart. The lone human, Adam, operates a function of his image-of-God function and names all living beings, whatever name he pronounces becomes its name. The power of the tongue is operated for the first time. While this powerful interaction took place, the human found no helper corresponding (opposite) to him. What comes next is one of the most beautiful pictures ever painted about the essence of sexual love... and a guidance for the sexual relationship.

     “...God caused a deep slumber to fall upon the human... He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. YHWH, God, built the rib that he had taken from the human into a woman and brought her to the human.” The ribs, located under the shoulder, protect the heart and lungs, the house of the breathe of life. The ribs are a curved bone and if you were to try and straighten it, it would break. A woman is not to be straightened, but encouraged to develop her opposite, yet complimentary, being. Her place is not on her knees, but under your arm and close to the your heart. She is a helper and an equal and, as Adam states next, the best there is!

“The human said:

This-time, she-is-it!

Bone from my bones,

flesh from my flesh!

She shall be called Isha (woman),

for from Ish (man) she was taken!

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and the become one flesh.”

Adam, the human, already realizes the profound connection implied, the coming together and clinging of bone and flesh, the becoming one flesh. One unit, one cohesive combination of opposites attracted together and meshed like polar opposites – fighting to stay connected, never apart.

     The central principle behind God's commandments: there are two ways, one of life and one of death, and God sets before you today life and good, death and evil. Now choose life, in order that you may stay-alive.

     This choice requires absolutely no prior knowledge of good and evil to understand. There is merely a right path, righteousness, and a wrong path, wickedness; translating into the simplest of terms, the choice of life and the choice of death. No disservice to you has been done by God, no inability on humanity's part to grasp the meaning of life and no life.

One can't walk away without realizing, God's first dissatisfaction with creation is a human being alone. And the best helper in this world, is your opposite. The key to a beautiful pleasurable relationship is this – Men, keep your woman as close to your heart (your life) as possible and do not force anything upon her, for she is opposite of you, and it is this nature which is central to helping you in the best of ways. Women, stay close to your man's heart (his life), protecting and holding it, and seek to help him in his goals with your unique qualities.

In my next blog, I will explore the next act of the story in humankind's creation account. The move from, “...the human and his wife, were nude (“arum”), yet they were not ashamed...” into “Now the snake was more shrewd (“arum”) than all living things...” and concluding with “The eyes of the two of them were opened and they knew then that they were nude (“arum”).”

Bereishit (at-the-beginning)

Not the beginning of time or creation itself, but the beginning of God's creating of the heavens and the earth. Starting with the creation of light and its subsequent separation from the darkness. Unlike commonly suggested by biblical theologians, I suppose who are worried to much with the realm of theory, the account of God's creating is not about ex nihilo (creation from nothingness) but God's bringing order out of chaos.

Let us begin with a fresh perspective. Genesis 1:1-2:4 renders an account “of God's creating the heavens [plural] and the earth” from a very interesting perspective, that of God Himself! Genesis 2:4b reiterates the creation account, but this time from the perspective of His creation - “At the time of YHWH (The Name, HaShem, Bismillah; a personal name from which creation can share a personal relationship with its Creator), God's making of earth and heaven...”. Notice the voice and perspective has shifted from God, who does not invoke His personal name when giving an account, to creation, who not only invokes their Creator's personal name but addresses the story of creation from their perspective – that of “God's making earth [first] and heaven (singular)...”

This perspective, of the first account, must be understood to be the perspective of the God's Spirit within Jesus as well; for Jesus had the Spirit of God (Ruah haKodesh, Ruhullah) within him. This demands a serious attention – What does God wish to share with us from His own perspective of creating the heavens and the earth?

The two creation accounts are commonly criticized by pseudo-scholastics for their clear differences, but this is a distinction of perspective and more importantly a distinction with a purpose, as all comprehensible stories deliver an intended message.

We are told: “At the beginning of God's creating the heavens (plural, God knows more than His creation) and the earth, when the earth (already existing) was wild and waste (tohu va-vohu – void, emptiness), darkness (already existing) over the face of Ocean (already existing; different word here from when it is later separated and gathered to become the seas – give attention to “the face of”), rushing-Spirit of God hovering [the word here suggests that of an eagle protecting its young (Deut. 32:11)] over the face of the waters...” - Gen. 1:1-2

Next comes the announcement of God's word – “God said: Let there be...! And there was...”. God's word is the vehicle through which He creates. “God saw the light: that it was good.” He looked upon His creating as a craftsman being pleased with His work. Notice here, that good is referred to – not created – and it is in reference to God's creating work – not with what already existed prior to the account.

“There was setting [erev], there was dawning [boker]: one day.” Dr. Benjamin Klar writes, "Early man viewed sunrise [boker] as 'leaving' and sunset [erev] as 'coming'. Even though normally we'd think it should be the opposite, they had the view that the sun slept in a 'tent' every night. It would leave the tent in the coming, and enter it in the evening." God entered [the state before He started creating], God left [this state]: one [calculable order] day.

God creates the light and looks upon it as good, then separates the darkness from the light and names them "Day" and "Night". God has addressed the “darkness over the face of Ocean.” Next, God addresses the face of the waters - “Let there be a dome [raki'a, literally “a beaten sheet of metal”] amid the waters, and let it separate waters from waters!” God literally beats apart the waters with His words, as a smith would beat a sheet of metal. “God made the dome and separated the waters... below the dome from... above the dome... God called the dome: Heaven! [singular, literally “the sky,” what creation addresses from their perspective in Gen. 2:4b]” Something very important to notice is God beating apart the face of Ocean, the face of the waters [the primeval waters, a common ancient Near Eastern mythology – symbolic of Chaos itself]. Second day.

We find in the account of creating, an attention to God bringing order out of the chaos. The next day sees two different acts of God speaking – God orders the gathering of the waters for the appearance of dry land, both of which He names. God has thus brought the face of the Ocean, the face of the waters, under His command (order). But God doesn't stop here, with the emergence of the dry land He brings forth growth (out of what was once chaos), “plants that seed forth seeds, fruit trees that yield fruit, after their kind, (and) in which is their seed...”. Third day – four acts of God's word.

Notice God does not just subdue the chaos, but brings forth growth from it. I like to call this part of the story – Act I.

God's attention returns to the beaten expanse – the dome. In it He creates lights (lamps) in the dome for the installment of day and night as signs for set-times, days and years, and light upon the earth. God placed the two great lights in the dome to rule the day and the night, “to separate the light from the darkness.” We witness God create the same separation of the light and the darkness, the same order, in the dome as in His presence. Fourth day.

God continues to address the beaten expanse – the dome – but this time directly to the groupings He created on the second day, the heaven and the waters! From the waters He brings forth life and the great sea-serpents [the rebellious primeval monster of Ps. 74:13 and much later those which arise in Daniel and Rev. to afflict the righteous of God] – these monsters were created by God and declared good. This is a peculiarity we must think very heavily upon. Within the heaven God creates all flying creatures. Here begins the first of three blessings in this creation account. “God blessed them, saying: 'Peru u-revu u-mil'u – Bear fruit and be many and fill...'.” Fifth day.

God's attention turns to the dry land – the earth – and we again witness two different acts of God speaking. God brings forth all wildlife life from the earth. But God doesn't stop here, with the triumph of life out of chaos God crowns His creation with humanity – and gives all of creation a glimpse of His image. “God said: Let Us make mankind, in Our image, according to Our likeness!” “So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God did He create it, male and female He created them.” Quickly, pulling from a injunction in the next creation account, Gen. 2:24 (after the humans naming of Woman and Man) - “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” This embodies our first glimpse of the image of God. A One-ness [hence the Shema] which implies a Unity. Our image, Our likeness to He create it, male and female He created them. A hint of why the disciple John says, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” God is Love – and love insinuates a unity. The second blessing with an addition, “Bear fruit and be many and fill... and subdue it!”

God order's the diet for all upon the earth - “all green plants for eating.” Upon looking at all His creating, God sees “it was exceedingly good!” “The sixth day.” – notice the two qualifiers “exceedingly” and “the” are deviations from the previous expressions in the account and underscore the sixth day as the crowning achievement and summary of creation. I like to refer to this as Act II - the end of creating, highlighting life out of order.

The last day contains only a blessing, the last of the three: “God gave the seventh day His blessing, and He hallowed it, for on it He ceased from all His work, that by creating, God had made. These are the begettings of the heavens and the earth: their being created.” I call this Act III - there was the three day unit of order and growth out of chaos, then the three day unit of life and God's image out of order, and now the giving of the three blessings.

God finalizes His act of creating with the installment of a numerically ordered week, a set-time, He bestows His blessing upon. God, indeed, is creating order out of chaos.

Our next account will be from the perspective of creation: “At the time of YHWH, God's making of earth and heaven...”