Читать книгу Genesis 1-11 - David M. Carr - Страница 26

Gen 1:3–5. The creation of lightThis first creation act, like the others that follow in Gen 1, is initiated by a divine speech. With the exception of 1:26, these initial speeches by God (1:3a, 6, 9a, 11a, 14–15a, 20, 24a), are not addressed to anyone, but instead express God’s internal intention, highlighting how all of the creation of humans and their biome corresponded precisely to God’s plan. The speech in Gen 1:3a is distinguished by its unusual brevity, contrasting with the descriptions of created objects by its lack of a statement about the purpose of the created element (cf. 1:6, 9a, 14–15).⁶¹ Moreover, this divine speech is alone in featuring the same verb “to be” that occurs in the execution formula.

These divergences in Gen 1:3a, are but the first examples of how several elements in this first day contrast with similar elements in the following five days of creation.⁶² For example, the first statement of divine approval, “and God saw the light that it was good” (וירא אלהים את־האור כי־טוב; 1:4a) diverges from the statements of divine approvals for following days—“God saw that it was good” (וירא אלהים כי טוב), a divergence that—in this case—limits God’s approval exclusively to the “light” created on day one, while excluding such approval from the pre-existing (and soon to be named) darkness.⁶³ Then, in 1:4b, God himself distinguishes here between light and darkness, where in other parts of P the distinguishing is done by another created object or being, whether the heavenly plate (1:7), heavenly lights (1:14, 18), or (more distantly) humans (Lev 10:10; 11:47; 20:25; Ezek 22:26).⁶⁴ This is important because there are no heavenly bodies yet to enable the transition from day to night and back again, thus leaving only God as the one to power the transitions between day and night that precede the making of those heavenly bodies that are specifically oriented toward that end (1:14–18). God then names the light “day” and the darkness “night,” a naming that parallels the naming of other foundational elements of creation up through the naming of land and sea in Gen 1:10.⁶⁵

On one level, the appearance of light at the outset of the creation process, long before the creation of heavenly bodies (1:14–18), might seem odd, and it has troubled some previous commentators.⁶⁶ Yet, within the present text, the placement of “light” at the outset of Gen 1:3ff. is crucial in introducing the “day” and thus initiating the seven-day, Sabbath-oriented time structure that characterizes 1:3–2:3 as a whole.⁶⁷ In this sense, echoes of Sabbath already ring at the outset of creation.

Gen 1:6–8. The creation of the heavenly plateThe second day follows a sequence similar to the first and others, starting with the decisive divine speech where God expresses an intention to have a heavenly plate to divide the primeval waters (1:6; see 1:2). The plate that God then creates (1:7) creates a crucial air bubble in which the rest of creation can take place. This, following God’s creation of light on day one, represents the final, brand new building block of creation. From this point forward, much of the rest of God’s creation will involve creation components cooperating with God: waters gather (1:9), earth sprouts plants (1:11–12), waters are called on to swarm with living beings (1:20; cf. 1:21), and earth is called on to bring forth animals (1:24; cf. 1:25). A correspondence formula then follows (unless the LXX placement of this formula in 1:6b is original), “and it was so” (ויהי כן) emphasizing the correspondence of this creation act (1:7a) with God’s order (1:6), and this heavenly plate is then named “heaven” (1:8a) before the second day label is given (1:8b). As noted above, this creation act is the only one that has no statement, at least in textual witnesses other than the LXX, that God “saw that it was good” (cf. 1:4a, 10b, 12b, 18b, 21b, 25b, 31a).

Gen 1:9–10. The gathering of waters and revealing of dry ground-earthThe first part of day three involves the emergence of dry land, starting with God’s next creation speech calling on the waters to “assemble themselves” so that the dry land appears (1:9a). As a command for created order, this call relates not only to the initial execution of this order that follows, but also to the way that waters can be observed “assembling themselves” even today in an ongoing way into puddles, lakes, and oceans.

The text then continues with a correspondence formula, and—as noted above—probably included a Hebrew counterpart to the Septuagint’s report (possibly partially preserved in 4QGen^k) that “the waters under the heavenly plate assembled themselves into their gathering places, and the dry ground appeared.” Thus, in this initial execution of God’s creation order, the previously submerged and uninhabitable earth (1:2aα) is here opened to the air by God having the waters gather into various gathering places (Gen 1:9 LXX). Though there is a slight divergence between God’s order that waters assemble themselves into “one place” (מקום אחד; 1:9) and the report (in the plus reflected in the LXX) that they assembled themselves into their multiple gathering places (Greek συναγωγὰς αὐτῶν, probably translating מקויהם), both concepts contrast with the contemporary scientific concept of continents lying in oceans. Instead, the earthly biome is imagined in this text as dry land with water heaped up in spots within it.⁶⁸

This is the first locus in Gen 1 where parts of creation respond to and cooperate with God’s stated decrees. The featuring of waters responding to God’s orders corresponds to the idea in some pre-biblical cosmogonies that elements of creation, especially water figures like Tiamat or Apsu, have their own subjectivity. The Enuma Elish epic, for example, focuses on Marduk’s battle with and victory over Tiamat, a monster representing the ocean/salt water. More specifically, Psalm 104:6–7 describes the sound of Yhwh’s thunder powerfully forcing the waters covering the earth into a single place established for them. Nevertheless, Gen 1:9–10 contrasts with the Enuma Elish epic in lacking any personal characterization of the “waters” (no Tiamat here), and it likewise lacks some of the violent power seen in Psalm 104’s description of Yhwh’s restriction of the ocean. Instead, the “waters” in Gen 1 are not divine (cf. the Enuma Elish epic) or resistant natural forces (Psalm 104), but aspects of nature totally subservient to and cooperative with God’s divine will.

The description of this creation act concludes with God naming the revealed dry ground “earth” and the gathered waters “seas,” and then seeing that they were good (1:10). These are the last divine namings in Gen 1, marking the conclusion of the structural groundwork for creation: “light,” “darkness,” “heaven,” “earth,” and “sea.” There is no day formula here because day three features two creation acts, the next one following in 1:11.

Gen 1:11–13. The earth sprouting seed-bearing plants and fruit-bearing treesGod’s next speech, like the first one on day three, calls on an aspect of creation to participate in the creation process, and there may be echoes here of ancient Near Eastern ideas of earth as the mother of life. But those echoes are faint, only consisting in the obedience of earth to God’s initial statement of intention “let the earth sprout forth sprouting plants…,” with the figura etymologica match between verb (sprout, דשא) and initial description of plants (דֶשֶׁא) in the divine speech helping to emphasize, through language, the coherence of the creation event. The text goes on to focus on two types of self-replicating plants, those that bear seeds (מזריע זרע) versus those that have fruit whose seed is inside it (אשר זרעו־בו … עץ פרי עשה פרי), each “according to its kind.” This is followed by the correspondence formula and a description of how the earth did sprout forth seed and fruit-bearing plants (11:11b–12).

In this creation of the plant world we see the clearest differentiation yet between God’s speeches in Gen 1 that command an ongoing element of creation order and the following reports that narrate the beginning of the execution of God’s commands. God’s order that the “earth sprout forth vegetation” in Gen 1:11 does not just hold for the initial creation, but institutes a longer-term order where plants will come forth from the earth. When earth then sprouts forth plants, each with seeds “according to its kind” (1:12), provisions are in place for this order to continue. Indeed, the focus already in God’s speech on how and where each plant carries its seeds indicates this focus on the self-replicating character of plants, and this will reappear in the creation of other living parts of creation in Gen 1.⁶⁹ On the one hand, within Gen 1 there are the foundational, named, building blocks of creation—heaven, earth, seas featured in 1:6–13. On the other, there are the living elements that God has sprout from them and then self-replicate according to their kinds: plants, sea and air creatures, non-human animals, and humans. Seed and fruit-bearing plants are the first of the latter, self-replicating type. Yet they are distinguished from animals by the fact that they are fixed in place as earth’s plant covering, thus constituting a part of the cosmic house that God builds in contrast to the moving beings with which God later populates that house (Gen 1:21–27).⁷⁰

The focus on seeds and fruit thus begins an emphasis in Gen 1 on God’s creation of a human biome that can sustain itself long after God’s initial creation work is finished. Moreover, the plant-focused food instructions at the end of the chapter (1:29–30) indicate that plants are considered to be a food-providing aspect of earth. There it is stressed that humans have the privilege of eating the seeds and fruits that are particularly emphasized in Gen 1:11–12, while earth-based animals are restricted to the leafy portions of these plants. In this way, even the general description of creation of plants in Gen 1:11–12 anticipates the concluding focus of the chapter on humans.

The day concludes with now familiar elements of divine approval (1:12b) and the passing of day three (1:13). The naming element is absent by now because we have now moved to God’s enhancement of structural elements of creation (heaven, earth, sea) with additional elements of plant life, stars, etc.

Gen 1:14–19. The creation and placement of astral bodies in the heavenly plateGod’s speech about the creation of the sun, moon and stars in 1:14–15a is the most extensive, by far, of God’s creation speeches to this point. The main reason seems to be the elaboration of the purpose of these heavenly bodies, initially stated by God to be “to distinguish between day and night” (1:14aβ), “for signs, for festivals, for days and for years” (1:14b), and “serve as lights in the heavenly plate to illuminate the earth” (1:15a). This focus on the purpose of heavenly bodies is resumed twice more in the following, both when God makes them (1:16bαβ) and then when God sets them in the heavenly plate (1:17b–18). Some have seen a conflict between these statements, but Steck argues persuasively that—in addition to a more obvious parallel between the distinguishing function of the heavenly bodies (14aβ and 18aβγ) and their illumination functions under the heavenly plate (15a and 17b)—there is some parallel between the list “for signs, for festivals, for days and for years” (14b) and the otherwise unparalleled element specifying the function of God’s creation of the two larger bodies “the large light [sun] to rule over the day and the small light [moon] to rule over the night” (16bαβ).⁷¹

God’s creation speech 1:14–15	God’s making 1:16(purposes of sun, moon; stars nothing) 72	God’s setting in plate 1:17–18
to distinguish day and night	[see below]	to distinguish light and darkness
for signs—appointed times, days and years	large light to rule daysmall light to rule night	to rule over day and night
as lights inside the plate to illuminate the earth		to shine on the earth

The rather elaborate statements of purpose of heavenly bodies across 1:14b–18a coordinate the creation of these heavenly bodies with the creation of light in 1:3–4. Genesis 1:3b–4a has already asserted that God himself distinguished light and darkness through creating light, thus preparing for God’s naming of “day” and “night.” Therefore, the day-distinction function is not mentioned in the report of God’s creation of the heavenly lights in 1:16. Nevertheless, this function reappears and is highly focalized when God sets them in the heavenly plate (1:17a, 18aβ), implying that the light of the bodies set in the heavenly plate was necessary to mark days on earth after that plate had blocked the light created at the outset of creation. By this point any focus on “for signs, for festivals, … and for years” (1:14) or even on “stars” (cf. 1:16bγ) has fallen to the side. Instead, the focus in Gen 1:16–18 is exclusively on the day/night distinction introduced on day one, indeed a distinction doubly emphasized in God’s placement of them in the plate (1:17–18a) where they are to “rule” the “day” and “night” named on day one (1:5) and “distinguish” the “light” and “darkness” that were “distinguished” on day one (1:4b). In this way, Gen 1 continues the implicit Sabbath-oriented, day-oriented focus started in Gen 1:3–5, now with the heavenly bodies (1:16, 18) taking over God’s original role in distinguishing light/day and darkness/night (1:4b–5a).

This report of God’s creation of heavenly lights includes some anomalous elements that should be noted. In other parts of the Gen 1 creation account abstract descriptions of creation elements—e.g., the “plate” created in 1:7—receive their conventional names before the close of the creation day. Not so for the two biggest “lights” created and placed in the heavenly plate here, which retain their rather strange designations, “the big light” (המאור הגדול) and “the small light” (המאור הקטן), rather than the Hebrew words שמש (“sun”) and ירח (“moon”). One might argue that this is because they do not constitute the sort of basic creation building blocks that are given names in the initial acts of creation of Gen 1. Nevertheless, Gen 1, like other Near Eastern creation accounts, classifies sun and moon in broader categories as “big” and “little” lights, as part of a broader Near Eastern scholarly systematization of heavenly bodies and other aspects of creation.⁷³ It is a counterpart in Gen 1:14–18 of the various “kinds” of life mentioned in Gen 1:11–12, 21, 24–25.

In addition, the text mentions the purpose of these heavenly bodies to “rule,” both the role of the sun to rule the day and moon to rule the night when they are created (1:16) and the role of all these heavenly bodies to “rule” day and night when they are installed in the heavenly plate (1:18aα). The Hebrew word ממשלה used in both loci comes from a root, משל, that is used specifically for the exercise of power of a sentient being over another, used elsewhere specifically for the authoritative direction exercised by God over creation (e.g., Ps 22:29; 59:14), a king over a people (e.g., 1 Kgs 5:1), a husband over his wife (Gen 3:16), and even person over self (Prov 16:32). What is odd here is that Gen 1:14–18, especially with the absence of even the mention of conventional names of the heavenly bodies, gives no sense whatsoever that these bodies have a personality that could exercise such “rule” in any way. Indeed, its concept of astral bodies as affixed into the heavenly vault (Gen 1:17) somewhat militates against a concept—seen in some Greek and Near Eastern loci—of stars and planets as independent, acting beings.⁷⁴ Nevertheless, it appears that this otherwise unexplained “rule” (ממשלה) by non-personified heavenly bodies in 1:14–18 anticipates the (differently worded) “rule” (רדה) to which humans will be destined in 1:26, 28.

Gen 1:20–23. The creation of sea and air creaturesWith the fifth day, God begins to populate more nearby regions of the cosmos with living creatures, both the living beings in the seas and the birds in the sky. Where God once commanded the earth to “sprout forth sprouting plants” (תדשא דשא), now God commands that the sea “bring forth a swarm of living beings” (ישרצו שרץ נפש חיה) and “birds to fly about above the earth under the heavenly plate” (עוף יעופף על־הארץ על־פני־השמים). Again the text matches verbs with subjects from the same roots (עוף יעופף ,ישרץ שרץ; the figura etymologica) to create a picture of a swarming, whirring multitude of swimming and flying creatures, all inhabiting realms—sea and air—relatively distant from the earth habitat that is shared by animals and humans.

When the text turns to the initial execution of God’s creative will, it begins with a verb reserved for divine creation, ברא, that has not been seen since the first verse’s description of “when God created heaven and earth” and will not appear again until God creates the humans (1:27). In this case, God “creates” (ברא) the great “sea monsters” (תנינם), not specifically mentioned in God’s initial speech (1:20) before also listing the water and air creatures featured in God’s speech, albeit with slightly different terminology. Interestingly, these sea monsters appear to be one of a kind, since the other sea creatures and birds are created in different self-replicating species (“according their kinds” 1:21), much like the plants seen in 1:11–12.⁷⁵

A new element within Gen 1 first seen here is God’s blessing these sea and air creatures, which starts with a direct blessing of the sea creatures “be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas” before proceeding, almost as an afterthought, to include a wish that “the birds multiply in the earth.” Much as the “rule” of the stars on day four anticipated human rule, so this blessing, particularly the blessing of sea-swarming creatures, verbally anticipates God’s similar, though more extensive, blessing of humans (1:28). Both sea-air creatures and humans are “created” (ברא), and both are “blessed” (ברך), with the correspondence in the beginnings of both words ברא/ברך possibly implying a relationship between divine “creating” and “blessing” sea-air creatures and humans.⁷⁶

Gen 1:24–25. The Creation of (non-human) land animalsThe description of God’s creation of land animals, in contrast, seems designed to distinguish God’s making (עשה) of animals from God’s creation (ברא) of humans. The initial divine creation order in 1:24 describes their emergence more on the analogy of plants than even the sea and air creatures of 1:20–23, with God saying “let the earth bring forth living beings” (1:24), much like God had said on day three “let the earth sprout forth grassy plants” (1:11). Just as both God’s speech about plants (1:11) and their subsequent creation (1:12) focused on the creation of seed-bearing plants “each according to its kind” and fruit bearing trees “each according to its kind,” so also the creation of animals features a divine speech and following act outlining the creation of land creatures “each according to its kind.” Moreover, the three-part division among land creatures in Gen 1:24–25—domesticated animals (בהמה), creeping things (רמש 1:24; כל־רמש האדמה 1:25), and wild animals (חיתו־ארץ last in 1:24; חית הארץ first in 1:25)—corresponds to the three-part division among the sea/air creatures on day four—the great sea monsters (התנינם הגדלים), creatures swarming in the waters (נפש החיה הרמשת אשר שרצו המים), and all winged birds (עוף כנף).⁷⁷

Unlike the creation of plants, the initial execution of God’s creation order for land creatures does not describe the earth as extruding animals (cf. 1:12). Instead, God himself “makes” (עשה) the animals. This makes their creation more similar to the creation of sea-air creatures on the one hand (1:21) and humans on the other (1:27), though in both of these other cases the text uses the special divine creation word ברא for the creation process.

Finally, the land creatures do not receive the multiplication blessing given to both sea-air creatures (1:22) and humans (1:28). This may be because land creatures share their habitat with humans, and Gen 1 does not want to suggest that God originally intended for non-human land creatures to multiply and thus successfully compete for limited land with the humans who are the pinnacle of creation. Such considerations did not apply to swarming sea creatures, or even—to the same extent—for birds of the air that alight on land only part of the time.⁷⁸ This concern with distinguishing land creatures from the humans with whom they share habitat will resurface in 1:29–30, where God designates a different range of foods for each.⁷⁹

Gen 1:26–28. The Creation and Blessing/Commissioning of HumanityMuch of what preceded prepared for the description in these verses of God’s creation of “humanity.” Gen 1:3–24 does not describe the creation of the cosmos in general, but instead focuses on elements that contribute to the creation of the human biome: land apart from sea, the specific plants that will later be designated for human consumption (1:11–12, cf. 1:29), the heavenly bodies to help humans keep time (1:14–19), land animals (1:24–25), etc. In addition, the overall picture of God as in supreme control of the creative process (1:3–25) prepares for God’s commissioning of humanity in 1:26b, 28 for godlike rule over the cosmos that God has created. Finally, as noted across the discussion of Gen 1:3–25, specific elements of this creation description anticipate themes in 1:26–30. The somewhat unexplained (see above) “rule” of sun and moon (1:16) and then all heavenly bodies (1:18) anticipates human rule in 1:26, 28. God’s blessing of the sea and air creatures in 1:22 anticipates the longer blessing directly given to humans in 1:28. The focus on seed and fruit-bearing plants in 1:12 prepares for the eating instructions given to humans as opposed to animals in 1:29–30. In sum, Gen 1:26–30 is not only the final and most lengthy creation-act description, it is also the thematic endpoint of the preceding creation description.

At the same time, the description of humanity’s creation in Gen 1:26–30 diverges in numerous respects from what preceded. We see this already in the divine speech of 1:26. Though other creation acts all started with a divine speech, all of them used third person Hebrew jussive verbs to express God’s wish for a certain state of affairs: “let there be light” or “let the waters swarm.” In contrast, Gen 1:26 opens with a Hebrew cohortative where God calls on an unspecified group, probably to be understood as God’s divine council,⁸⁰ to join in this “making” (עשה): “let us make humankind.” Where other creation speeches stated God’s wish for a certain thing to happen, the verb “make” in 1:26 is an unusual and unprepared formation calling for direct divine involvement of the addressed beings (the council) in creation. The very uniqueness of this formulation, otherwise seen (within the Bible) in non-Priestly primeval history materials (Gen 3:22; 11:7), emphasizes from the outset the importance of God’s creation of humans.⁸¹

Other elements of Gen 1:26ff. similarly diverge from the narrations of preceding creation acts to highlight God’s creation of humans as the goal toward which the preceding chapter has been oriented. Where the other reports of creation of living things implied their indirect production by land or sea “according to their kind(s)” (Gen 1:11–12, 20–21, 24), God’s speech in Gen 1:26 describes God calling on God’s council to join in making humanity “as our image, similar to our likeness.”⁸² Where God’s previous creation speeches in Gen 1 are followed by formulae of correspondence and then narrations of how God’s intentions were executed, Gen 1:26 is followed by a doubled description of God’s own creation of humanity in 1:27, with this being a heightened, semi-poetic speech that highlights the importance of this event. The blessing then given to humans in 1:28 contrasts with that given to water and air creatures in 1:22 in being more explicitly addressed to humans (ויאמר להם “and said to them”), being longer, and including the call for humans to subdue the earth and rule other creatures. The instructions distinguishing human from animal food in Gen 1:29–30a have no precedent in the preceding chapter. Finally, the whole of 1:26–30a—including the blessing and instructions about food—is followed by the correspondence formula (ויהי כן; 1:30b) that previously in Gen 1 was just focused on the creation of elements in accordance with God’s instructions. In sum, virtually every part of Gen 1:26–30 diverges from corresponding parts of the descriptions of previous creation acts in Gen 1:3–25.

Perhaps the most remarkable element in Gen 1:26–31, certainly the most debated, is what is intended in the description of God’s creation of humanity as God’s image in 1:26–27. Though this commentary is not the context for thorough review of centuries of interpretation of this section, a few central insights can be summarized, especially on how this motif is subtly developed within Gen 1 and other parts of the Priestly primeval history (Gen 5:1b–2; 9:6) in relation to ancient Near Eastern precursors.

Before exploring Gen 1:26–27 more, it should be noted at the outset that this text is not as specific about its implications as many of its interpreters would have it be. For example, there has long been a major emphasis, particularly characteristic of traditional Christian theological interpretation of the text, to stress that Gen 1:26–27 does not imply any physical resemblance between divine beings and humans.⁸³ As will be argued below, this approach is only true in terms of what the text emphasizes. However much Gen 1:26–27 does presuppose some physical resemblance between the bodies of human beings and a God that is imagined (as in other biblical and many other Near Eastern texts) as having human form, the text is much more focused on how this physical resemblance to God is a reflection of the destiny of humans to exercise godlike rule over creation.⁸⁴

That said, it should be emphasized that the text does imply a physical resemblance between humans and God, even as it qualifies just how much humans are thought to be like God (more on this below). Indeed, the text privileges (in Gen 1:26 and 1:27) a term for humans as divine replicas of god(s), צלם, which is routinely used for three-dimensional statues, including cult statues of deities, the latter of which were typically given human-like form in the ancient Near East, including the Levant.⁸⁵ Moreover, the Hebrew Bible itself features numerous descriptions of God as having human(like) body parts, doing human things, and sometimes even being so similar in human form as to be confused with human beings (e.g., Gen 18:1–15; 32:23–33 [ET 32:22–32]).⁸⁶ All this would suggest that the description of God’s call to “let us make humans as our image [צלם]” and subsequent act “and God created humans as the/an image of God” includes as one of its implications an actual physical resemblance between divine beings/God and humanity even if other meanings are encompassed and even prioritized in the rest of the text. And P will then later describe the first human, Adam, passing this physical resemblance on to his son (5:1–3).⁸⁷