Genesis 1:1-2:42:1-4

September 12, 2021

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Initial Thoughts

• Repetition

• Order

• Poetry - like the prologue of John

• “Many in our time insist that it be read, not as theological reflection on God’s creative activity, but as reportage… The need is as great as ever to move beyond a reading of this majestic song to the creator God as narrative, and to understand it as an exclamation of praise.” (Walter Brueggemann, Texts for Preaching, Year A, p. 338)

Bible Study

• “When God began to create”- Robert Alter’s translation captures the continual creative acts of God beginning here, but by no means ending here

• “Formless void” or “welter and waste” the Hebrew, tohu wabohu denotes an emptiness or futility which has been associated with the “trackless vacancy of the desert” (Alter, Hebrew Bible)

• Order in the midst of Chaos

  • Context: Babylonian Exile

    • chaotic, unknown future

    • The very rhythms of nature are a promise of God’s presence

    • Formless void - eternal, chaotic, alone

    • God enters - relationship, order, separation

    • There is not a morality - God creates but does not condemn

    • Darkness is kept - not declared evil or bad

      • “goodness concerns the use to which it can be put for God's intention.” - Melinda Quivik

  • Context: Other competing contemporary creation myths

    • “The Priestly creation hymn appears to call into question the views concerning the origin of the world that prevailed among Israel’s neighbors, especially the Babylonians… ‘It was not Marduk (or some other god) who created the heavens and the earth,’ our text insists, ‘but Yahweh, the God of Israel!’”

    • Babylonian Creation Myth

      • Similarities

        • “In the beginning, there was only undifferentiated water swirling in chaos. Out of this swirl, the waters divided into sweet, fresh water, known as the god Apsu, and salty bitter water, the goddess Tiamat. Once differentiated, the union of these two entities gave birth to the younger gods.” 

      • Major difference

        • Genesis is the story of one God working in peace and transcendent power.

        • Full of “goodness” instead of violence

• Poetic Devices

  • Each stanza has a matched pair, except the seventh, which “lays emphasis on the human response to God’s creative activity.” (Brueggemann, Ibid)

    • 1st and 4th = God creates Day/Night and celestial bodies to rule them

    • 2nd and 5th = God creates sky and waters, and then the inhabitants of each

    • 3rd and 6th = God creates sea and dry land, and the vegetation, animals, and humanity, who “have dominion.”

• Relationship

  • God interacts with creation from the outset and fills creation with Ruach - wind/ breath/Spirit of God

• Goodness

  • Not a moral goodness, but an intrinsic goodness - Goodness describes the very nature of creation

  • Universal message of Genesis 1 (David Bland)

    • Torah does not begin with Israel, but with Creation

    • All of creation is blessed and good

    • Interdependent - no part of creation exists alone, not even God

    • Light is connected to the tides which is connected to the plant which are connected to the animals which are connected to humans which are connected to God

    • There are not isolated pieces in God’s creation

• Time

  • Which came first God or the beginning?

    • In the beginning/ when the beginning occurred - God was creating the beginning

    • May not be a specific moment but In beginning

    • Beginning may not be an exact moment but a general period of time - “Once Upon a Time…”

Thoughts and Questions

• How might we claim God’s presence in the midst of chaos? In what ways do we lift up the rhythms of nature and see God at work and in relationship with creation and us?

• How do we live out the interdependence of creation? What about the interdependence of the churches?

Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM

Closing Song by Bryan Odeen