THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND

MANKIND

ByPrudencio García Pérez

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND MANKIND

(GENESIS 1-11)

1. GENESIS 1, 1-2, 4a: THE FIRST STORY OF CREATION

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (v. 1: Bereshith bará Elohim eth hashamayim weeth haarets). With only seven words (symbol of totality or complexion), the Priestly Document says everything about creation: the only God has created everything out of nothing.

The universe in its original situation is “formless and empty” (v. 2: tohu wabohu). This original chaos is described by three elements: formless and empty earth, the raging ocean and the darkness covering everything.

1.1. The creation of the world

The Spirit of God (ruah) was moving over the waters. In six days, it will transform this chaos into a wonderful world, filled with people and perfectly organized: 3 days to eliminate chaos and another 3 to embellish or decorate the emptiness.

Preface: the beginning of the creation

Day Action Separation (regions)

Decoration (dwellers)

Action Day

I 1 light-darkness(day & night)

Sun, moon, stars

5 IV

II2 Waters above,

waters below Fish, Birds6

V

III3

4

Sea & Land

Plants

Animals on the earthhumankind

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8VI

Conclusion: God rested on the seventh day

It is the scheme of a week with 8 works divided into two parts: 3 days to separate and 3 more to decorate. The world created by God looks like a 3 story palace.

The same formula is repeated every single day: God speaks and the thing is made, God sees that it is good, blesses and gives a name to it. And everyday concludes with a chorus: “evening passed and morning came, it was the first, second...” It is a liturgical hymn to God, creator of the universe. This literary style of dividing the

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poem in verses and chorus helps its memorization and recitation in the liturgical celebrations.

The image of the world in Gen 1 corresponds to the idea that the author and the readers had of the world at that time. They believed the earth was a big flat disk, placed on several columns that rested in the deep great ocean. Above the mountains, the firmament separated the waters above and those below, and the sun, moon and stars were hanging on it. Below the earth there was the Sheol, the dark mansion of the dead. Above the firmament there were the skies, symbols of the house of God. This idea of the world is shared by all the peoples of the past, but we cannot be forced to believe in this image just because it is written in the Bible. These questions lack of theological importance for Christians.

1.2. The creation of mankind

The best is always served last: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness” (Gen 1, 26). Man is going to be the cornerstone of creation, the mediator between God and the world. “Adam” (in Hebrew means “human”; used in the female form means “earth”), is not the name of the first man, but represents the entire humankind, humanity as a whole. That is why the verb is used in plural “let them have dominion”. Mankind was created by God in his own image, but is not equal to God in dignity and power; to believe that they were like God, not living creatures, was the cause of their sin.

What does it mean to be “image of God”? Man is God’s representative in looking after the visible creation. The use of this power and dominion requires intelligence and good-will, spiritual values that make God’s image to be seen everywhere. Because every man and woman is an image of God, they all enjoy an untouchable dignity (v. 27). That is why God blessed the first union between man and woman. Both genres, through procreation, contribute to spread life all over the world and through their intelligent work, develop the world created by God and make it a comfortable place for the entire human family.

1.3. The peace of paradise

Animals and people lived in peace, without eating one another: they enjoyed a vegetarian diet (vv. 29-30). This is not completely true. It is just a symbol to underline the peace and harmony at the beginning of creation. The prophets will use the same symbol to describe the messianic peace; it will be like returning to the lost paradise (Is 11, 6-9). “Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good” (v. 31). This phrase emphasizes that every creature made by God is good in essence. How can we explain evil in the world then? The physical evil exists because this world has a relative perfection; the absolute perfection will be achieved in the future life. The moral evil exists because the mankind used his freedom badly.

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1.4. God rested on the seventh day

“And He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done, blessed it and sanctified it” (Gen 2, 2-3). In a way, God puts the world into man’s hands and invites him to continue His work, but He never ceases to support and govern it with his providence. The Sabbath or weekly rest day was a costume in the Jew’s tradition. But at the time of the Priestly Document, this tradition was almost completely abandoned. We know that because the writings of the 6th century b. C. insist in promoting the observance of the Sabbath, as a sign of national identity, threatened during exile. In this view, the Priestly Document wants to present the working week of God as a model for human’s week. Mankind, while working imitates God’s work in the creation of the world; and resting rediscovers himself and his relationship with God. The Sabbath is a gift from God, is an institution that provides social and religious health for mankind. But this original happiness of the Sabbath tradition was transformed centuries later in a heavy weight impossible to bear for the people because everything was forbidden. That is why Jesus liberated his disciples from following the Sabbath tradition.

1.5. Interpretation of Genesis 1, 1-2, 4a

Until the last decades of the 19th century, this poem was interpreted literally, as if it was recorded with a camera and a microphone: the world was created in seven days of 24 hours each. Then, some problem arose when reading the text, for example: if God created the sun on the fourth day, what is the meaning of the “evening and morning” during the previous three days? And without the sun, how is it possible the existence of plants on the third day? These errors and the progress of science weakened deeply this traditional interpretation.

Nowadays, most of the scholars accept the historic-didactic or theological-liturgical interpretation. It makes a clear distinction between the message (faith revealed) and the form of expression (that has nothing to do with faith). From this perspective, the first account of creation (Gen 1) is a kind of parable in action which purpose is to teach a few basic religious truths:

a) There is only one God, almighty, wise and good.b) God created everything that exists: the sun, moon, stars, trees, animals

… These are not gods like other nations believed, but just simple creatures made by God to serve humankind.

c) Mankind is the king or cornerstone of creation: he depends on God and has to use the seventh day to worship him. Everything is at human service and human beings must serve God.

There are still some people who refuse to accept this view because they think that the Bible will disappear or will be considered as a famous novel of the past. We must not fear anything because the distinction between the message and the form will not lead us to deny the truth of the Bible; on the contrary, it will open the door to understand the main or basic truths of the Bible, the original message that

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remains as solid as a rock. On the other hand, if we just prefer the external form of the Bible (the six days of creation, the snake, the fruit, the ribs, the clay statue, the garden…), we will never comprehend the truths contained inside, and challenged by outsiders, we could lose our faith or at least doubt it.

1.6. The Origin of the world and mankind for Israel’s neighboring countries

Israel’s nearest countries (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Canaan, Phoenicia), when reflecting about the origin of the world and mankind, they concord on one point: at the beginning there was an eternal chaos and from it the gods were born (theogony); due to the fights among the gods, the world was formed. The most famous myth comes from Babylonia (XX b. C), and it is a mythological poem dedicated to Marduk, the national god. It was sung or read in the Babylonian temple the first day of the New Year, as a symbol of the first beginning. The poem is called “Emuna Elish”, taking the first two words of it as a title: “when up the sky did not have a name, and down, the earth did not have a name…” This is a short summary of the poem itself:

“At the beginning there was the eternal chaos formed by two principles: one male (Apsú = the sweet waters, rivers), and another female (Tiamat = the Great Ocean). From the union of them both, the gods were born. The most important gods were three: Anu = god of heaven; Enlil = god of the earth; Ea = god of the sea. A conflict arose between the elder gods and the young ones. Because of the noise of all the arguments of the gods, Apsú could not sleep anymore and decided to kill them all. But Ea got to know about this plan and using magic formulas, made Apsú fall sleep and killed him. Tiamat wants her revenge for what happened, so created 11 terrible monsters under the command of Kingu. In the fight, Kingu is defeated and taken prisoner. The wrath of Tiamat cannot be calmed, so she declares total war against the rebel gods and these accept the challenge, and make the dragon Marduk (symbol of order), son of Ea, the commander in chief of their troops. Marduk catches Tiamat in his net, breaks her skull and divides her body in two halves; with one half he made the heavens and with the other half, the earth, and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers spring up from her eyes. After that, he makes the elements of the sky (stars, moon, sun…) and the animals. Finally, he killed Kingu, and with his blood and mud makes the man. The poem finishes with a hymn of praise to the 50 names of Mardud, the supreme god of Babylonia”.

The author of the Priestly Document heard for sure in the Babylonian exile this mythological poem and reacted giving it the monotheist faith of Israel, their faith in the only God creator of all. That is the explanation for the similarities and diversities with Genesis 1:

- In Gen 1 and Emuna Elish appear the original chaos, but there is an essential difference: in the Babylonian poem, the first chaos is eternal substance from which the gods are born; in Gen 1, God is the creator of the original chaos.

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- In Emuna Elish, Marduk transforms the chaos into a formed and living universe by killing Tiamat; In Gen 1, God transforms chaos by playing, using only his word, without a fight or war.

- In Emuna Elish, there are many gods; In Gen 1 there is only one God, the God of Israel. God has neither rivals nor enemies, because everything has been created by him and nothing can escape his infinite power.

Because of this, Genesis 1 is not a mythological poem. The myth describes the birth, fights and adventures of the gods, who represent the forces of nature. In the Bible, on the other hand, it is recognized only one God, so it is not a myth. But we still can say that sometimes the authors of the poems thinking of the better way to spread their faith in God, they use the popular accounts found in other countries. In other words, they take advantage of the external form of their poems, but introduce the message inspired or revealed by God.

1.7. Creation and evolution

The account of Creation (Gen 1) does not want to teach us how and when the universe came to exist; it only says that God created the universe from nothing.

Up to now it is accepted the scientific theory of the “Big Bang” or great explosion, as the origin of the universe we know. That is not a problem, but there was anything before the Big Bang? Where did the first spark of life come from? Science has not answered these questions yet. The last answer can only be given by faith: the universe is not eternal, it has had a beginning due to a free action of God and it was called with the name of “creation”.

Then, there is no opposition between the initial creation revealed in the Bible and the following evolution suggested by science. Both integrate and complement each other.

2. GEN 2, 4B-24: THE SECOND STORY OF CREATION

2.1. Comparing the formation of both poems of creation

Differences Genesis 1 Genesis 2

Author Priestly Yahwist

Date VI b. C. X b. C.

Location Babylonia Palestine

Cosmology Humid, wet

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Initial Chaos: seaDesert, dryInitial Chaos: desert

Duration 6 days 1 day

OrderPlants, sky elements, animals, man and woman

Man, plant, animals, woman

SceneryUniversal: man is the cornerstone of the cosmic pyramid

Regional: man is the center of the family circle

StyleReflective, solemn,liturgical

Spontaneous, popular, painteresque

Anthropomorphisms

Sober: God said, saw and worked during 6 days and the seventh rested

Creative: God is a potter, gardener, surgeon, wedding godfather

Theology Transcendent (heavenly and supernatural)

Immanent (earthly and close to mankind)

The second account of creation (Gen 2) was written 400 years earlier than Gen 1. The differences can be easily seen on the scheme above. The redactor of the Pentateuch preferred Gen 1 as the beginning because it does not contain much anthropomorphism (presenting God with human characteristics). At the same time, he did not want to get rid of Gen 2, sending a message that both texts express in different forms the same truth revealed by God.

The Yahwist, redactor of Gen 2, is a great catechist or teacher because he knows how to explain the most difficult religious truths by using a simple and understandable language. He describes the creation of man and woman by using an oriental parable full of freshness and simplicity, like a nomad of the desert would tell the story to his family gathered under the tent.

2.2. The creation of man

“And Yahweh Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Gen 2,7). God is named with two divine titles: Yahweh, the God of Israel; Elohim, the universal God of Gen 1. The Yahwist presents God with human characteristics: He does not

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create man with his word, like in Gen 1, but with his own hands, like a potter moulds the man’s body (adam) with dust of the ground (adamah) and blows the breath of life (ruah).

The popular oriental tradition used to represent the divinity forming the man with mud, because it was know by experience that the human body, at the time of the death, would become dust again. We have seen already that Marduk formed the man with dust and the blood of Kingu. In Egypt, Luxor precisely, on a carved wall can be seen the god Khnum using a potter’s wheel to form the body of the prince Amenofis III, while the goddess Neith places an Egyptian cross (symbol of life) near to his nose. These extra-biblical examples confirm the symbolic meaning of the Yahwist story of the forming of man.

This biblical account emphasizes the fragility and greatness of man, a living creature made of clay and divine breath, flesh and spirit. He is not another animal of the creation; it is superior, sacred, mysterious … The biblical text does not speak directly of the spiritual soul, especially because it does not distinguish between body and soul, but between flesh and breath of life given by God.

2.3. The Garden of Eden

A few steps forward God stops being a potter and becomes a gardener: planted a garden and made every kind of trees grow, some beautiful and some filled with delicious fruits to eat; and in the middle, He planted the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

How is it possible to find such a fertile place in the middle of the desert? The writer answer that question saying that there was a river inside that watered the entire garden. The vv. 10-14 were added later on to stress the great amount of water of the river and how it divided into four other rivers that watered the entire earth: Pishon (Indo?), Gihon (Ganges?), Tigris and Euphrates.

Nowadays everybody accepts the symbolic use of the Garden of Eden. It is not a geographical place on a map, but a state of happiness (“being with God”), participating of His life as a gift of eternal happiness. The Garden-Paradise is God’s dwelling place and, as a gift from Him, it also becomes the dwelling place of mankind. In the Garden, mankind lived a happy life because he enjoyed a closed friendship with God. The fact that “God took the man by the hand and put him in the garden” indicates that the human being was created outside, but due to God’s love, man gets a higher position: is not only a creature, he is a God’s son. Mankind is the only being to possess the body, the spirit and the grace of God. For this, he became the son of God, the masterpiece of God’s wisdom and love.

If the Garden of Eden has a symbolic sense, we must say the same about the tree of life and tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life was a common symbol in the oriental literature to express immortality. In the epic poem of

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Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia, Mari) is mentioned that the tree of life had been planted in heaven, using a date palm as its symbol. This means that the gods keep eternal life for themselves. In the Bible, the tree of life is planted in the garden, where the man can reach it because God offers him access to immortality if he does not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In this way, mankind realizes that is not the owner of the garden, just can enjoy it as a free present given by God.

2.4. The creation of animals

The man, social and communicative person, needs company. The Yahwist writer once more presents God as a potter who moulds with mud the animals and the birds, and bring them to Adam to give them a name (v. 19). This literary fiction of the animal’s parade and the giving of the name mean, on one hand, the dominion of man over the animal kingdom; on the other hand, it means that there is no one which can be compared to him. He is still unique. He still lacks of the other half that will allow him to have a perfect relationship and will help to comprehend himself better as a person.

2.5. The creation of the woman

In this part the writer uses the beautiful image of God becoming a surgeon and a wedding best man. God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and took one of his ribs to form the first woman; then brought her to Adam and presented her as companion and wife. The author of the poem knows very well human psychology and wants to answer with this plastic image some of the people’s questions: what is a man? What is a woman? What is marital love?

The symbol of the rib, for this writer, is only an image to teach that men and women share the same nature and dignity. This equality is highlighted in the words used by Adam: “This is now bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man” (v. 23). Furthermore, for the Semitic people, “flesh” is a synonym of “person”. Then the most perfect communion of life is the one between two people that without losing their own identity become one by the mutual donation of their body and spirit. The verse 24 is the first hymn in the Bible about love inside the marriage.

The verse 24 presents the first monogamous couple (monogamy) as the model of marriage. By the way, we must say that the writer belonged to a society where polygamy was legal. Two last notes to conclude:

- The Yahwist account (Gen 2) about the creation of male and female in different moments must be interpreted according to Gen 1, written a few centuries later and reflecting a modern theology, where the human couple is created at the same time.

- Gen 2 outlines that mutual love is the goal of matrimony; Gen 1, instead, stresses procreation as the goal of the creation of both sexes. Both

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objectives, love and procreation, cannot be separated because they reflect the will of the Creator.

3. THE FIRST HUMAN FALL (GEN 3)

The Yahwist faces a dramatic theme: although God was good to mankind, they repay His generosity by committing a sin. The highest gift given by God to mankind is freedom (Sir 15, 14-17). The fact that God had forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, forced them to make a decision or choice: trust God and obey His command or rebel against Him. The success or failure of the existence of mankind depends on a free choice in relation with God.

3.1. The temptation

The serpent is the rival of God and mankind. The Yahwist chooses the image of the serpent because it is the most cunning of the beasts made by God and also because in Canaan and neighboring countries is the symbol of the fertility cult, spread also through Israel. Some centuries later, the serpent became the symbol of Satan (in Hebrew means “rival or adversary”) or the Devil (in Greek means “slanderer”). And Jesus called him “the father of lies”.

This scene represents the interior combat against temptation that we have to face during our lives. The Tempter attacks first the weakest to defeat the strongest later. The strategy used deserves a closer look: First exaggerates the divine command which objective is to get a replay from his counterpart, so that he can start a dialogue with the woman: Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”? (3, 1). The temptation begins by presenting the law of God as an intolerable limitation of the human freedom. Later, the tempter accuses God of being jealous and a liar. Finally, explains the true reason of the prohibition, which makes the woman feel really attracted to the forbidden fruit and desires with all her heart to have the hidden knowledge: to comprehend good and evil.

3.2. The sin

Once the woman has been seduced, she becomes the seducer of man. There is not come back, the fall is certain. What is that knowledge that God keeps for Himself? It is neither the intellectual progress nor the comprehension of good and evil. Mankind tries to cancel the frontier between what is permitted and prohibited, he wants to determine by his own choosing what is good and evil without being tied to a supreme law. In the end, man tries to free himself from the law of God and become his own law and god. Adam and Eve want to occupy the place of God to decide what is good or evil; they want to be the owners of their destiny; do not accept depending of their Creator and because of that they have changed the

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mutual relationship with God. The first fall was motivated by pride and disobedience. Man desired to become like God; be their own God.

The immediate consequence of the sin is the loss of their innocence and friendship with God. That is why they feel ashamed of themselves, experience the fear of God and try to hide from His sight. The disenchantment and dissatisfaction is the bitter fruit of sin. The tree of knowledge of good and evil became the tree that gave them conscience of their own guilt and sin. When opening the eyes, they realized that they were not gods, full of power and science, but had lost the divine friendship and their human dignity. The true nature of sin is not corporal, but spiritual.

3.3. God’s judgment

The scene is taken from the judicial process or human trials in court: there is a supreme judge, an examination of the facts and a final sentence against the characters involved in the happenings (man, woman and serpent).

- Serpent-devil: drag its body, eat dust and get bruised by man.- Woman: give birth with sorrow and be submissive to man (typical

example of a patriarchal society).- Man: the earth will produce thorns and thistles, so he will sweat to obtain

the bread of survival until he returns to the dust.

Did these sufferings exist before the sin? The traditional interpretation answered this question by saying that happiness in paradise was perfect: beauty, no need to work, knowledge, dominion on nature, no pain and death, no bad herbs, and the serpent, as Martin Luther said, walked erect as a rooster. The modern interpretation denies this by saying that there were sufferings and sorrows, but not in the same way we suffer today. Mankind was God’s friend.

The modern vision of the evolution of the world suggests that the first sin didn’t alter the biological laws of the world. The sin only changed the religious and moral relationship between God and mankind. Furthermore, nature and animals have maintained their creational status.

After the first fall, human sufferings remind us of the first sin and invite us to accept them with serenity. Through work, mankind creates and serves his brethren, but “fatigue” reminds his sinful situation. Sickness and death are not the prize of sin, but part of the natural existence of mankind. The theological death or the lost friendship with God instead is a direct consequence of the sin. We need to understand that for the Jewish mentality, which assumes that everything comes from God, death and sufferings were a divine punishment for the first sin.

3.4. The ejection from paradise

Paradise meant the state of friendship between God and mankind; the tree of life was the symbol of eternal life; the prohibition of eating from the tree of

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knowledge of good and evil was the only condition to enjoy all those free gifts. With his rebellion, man loses all the gifts. The lost friendship with God can be seen in the ejection from paradise, God’s garden. They lost the gift of eternal life because now don’t have direct access to the tree of life placed inside the garden. But God does not abandon those who have abandoned him. God becomes a tailor and make a leather-skinned dress for Adam and Eve. The image of “putting on the dress” means that they are given back their lost dignity. The rest of human history will be a “long march of hope” from the lost paradise to the paradise regained (revelation).

- Summary of Gen 1-3

These chapters are the pre-history of salvation. In them we find the classical scheme of the salvation plan (in three moments) believed in the religious experience of Israel.

- Generation: divine plan, order, all that has been created is good (order and divine laws).

- Degeneration: sin, chaos, the beginning of evil (rebellion of mankind).- Regeneration: God’s plan will succeed (punishment and reconciliation).

4. THE ASSASSINATION OF ABEL (GEN 4)

The Yahwist fills the time between Adam and Abraham with three key episodes: the assassination of Abel, the flood and the tower of Babel. With these episodes demonstrates that evil was growing faster and faster among humankind.

The story starts with an evident anachronism: “Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer”. These jobs (shepherd and farmer) were the main occupation of the Israelites at the time of the Yahwist writer, around the 10 th century b. C. The first men on earth (600000-12000 b. C) used to live on hunting, fishing and collecting the fruits from the trees and the land, in the same way some tribes do nowadays. This mistake is not important because we put our attention on the ethical-religious teachings shown in the episode.

According to the modern exegesis, Cain and Abel are not the closest sons of Adam and Eve. The term “Qayín” (spear), gives name to a nomad tribe of blacksmiths and musicians that have a special tattoo. The tradition thought that the origin of their nomad life (like the gypsies) was caused by a crime committed by their ancestor Cain, who killed his younger brother and had to flee to avoid the “blood avenger”. The Yahwist knew this tradition and placed the legend on a new context, at the beginning of humankind, with the purpose of obtaining a universal lesson: when mankind rebels against God, soon rebels against his brother; and every homicide is like the death of a brother.

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What is the reason of God’s preference for Abel? The story does not say it. Perhaps the author wanted to set up the nomad life of shepherds, more severe and closest to God, against the farmers’ life, more exposed to the religious corruption in the cities. In fact, the prophets longed and desired to abandon the cities and return to the shepherds’ life of the patriarchs in the desert (Os 2, 16-17; Jr 2, 2). For sure the cause of God’s preference was not the excellence of a job or the quality of the offerings, but something more important: the internal dispositions of Abel were good and Cain’s bad.

How did God show his like or dislike for the offerings? Probably making Abel’s flocks grow larger and Cain’s harvest bad, according to the Israelite tradition of retribution: blessings for the good and curse for the bad (Dt 28; Lv 26). God’s preference for Abel’s offerings unleashed Cain’s hatred and envy, and started to plan a sinister plot against his brother. Cain had the capacity to fight temptation. If he had done well, he could have resisted temptation and enjoyed the favor of Yahweh. But he prefers to silence God’s voice in his conscience and kill his brother. Immediately God calls the sinner to defend himself in a trial, but Cain’s answer shows that he had already rejected his brother’s love (am I my brother’s keeper?).

It is time for God’s sentence: Cain is expelled from the fertile land desecrated for the assassination and punished to conduct a wandering life. His punishment will not be final, because God put a signal to protect him from being killed (at that time was in use the private vengeance: an eye for an eye). This mark on Cain has a double meaning:

1. Human life is sacred, even the life of the assassins;2. Even the assassins enjoy the mercy of God, for He wants them

to repent and live.

- Summary of Gen 4

Until now we just have the descendants of Cain (assassins’ race). The author now introduces the race of Seth (son of Adam and substitute of Abel). This new race will honor God and follow his commandments. It means that humankind is not completely corrupted and far from God. The race of Cain will provoke the flood; the race of Seth, with Noah, will begin the human history again.

Gen 4 is the religious history of good and evil. It offers a series of teachings that still can be used in the present world:

- If the interior piety is lost, the external cult does not please God.- Every man is a brother to any man.- Who breaks his relationship with God, soon will break with his brother.- Man has the capacity to overcome temptation.- If the sinner abandons God, He will never abandon the sinner.- The material development and the spiritual progress not always walk

together.

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- THE GENEALOGIES (GEN 5 AND 11)

They are neither historical nor chronological. They have only a religious value: From Adam to Abraham there is a chain with the names of the heirs of God’s promise of a redeemer.

A very long life: it is not real; the Priestly Document plays with the symbolic value of the numbers.

The length of their lives decreases dramatically, maybe to symbolize the progressive distance between mankind and God: Adam-Noah (1000-700 years); Noah-Abraham (600-200 years).

5. THE UNIVERSAL FLOOD (GEN 6-9)

5.1. Corruption is growing faster

Gen 6, 1-4 introduces the living situation of human beings on earth. The classical interpretation identified the “sons of God” with Seth’s descendants and the “daughters of men” with Cain’s descendants. The interracial mixed for pleasure and the polygamy among those races was at the origin of the general corruption and the cause of human destruction.

The modern exegesis prefers to put its attention on the “nefilim or giants”. The Yahwist calls to mind an old legend about the origin or the “nefilim”, a race of tall and violent people. They were believed to be born by the union of heavenly beings and earthly women. The writer uses this legend, known by the people he is talking to, as an example of the growing wickedness and evil of mankind (longing for riches, pride and sensuality) which provoked God’s wrath and the deserved punishment, symbolized by the flood. This fiction story shows us the growing corruption of human nature. Even God felt sorry of having created them and decided to destroy them (Gen 6, 5-7).

Although the corruption had spread everywhere, there was still someone faithful to God, Noah and his family. They will be saved from the punishment.

5.2. The flood is at hand

Originally the story of the flood was narrated in two different episodes. Finally, the editor decided to merge both accounts to make only one story of the flood. Both episodes belong to the Yahwist (J) and the Priestly Document (P). We know that there were two writers because of the repetition of the same facts: God sees the wickedness of mankind twice (6, 5 J; 6, 12 P); the flood is announced twice (6, 17 P; 7, 4); Noah enters the ark twice (7, 7-9 J; 7, 13-16 P); The flood starts

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twice (7, 10 J; 7, 11 P); etc…There are also some differences: the duration of rain: 40 days (7, 12 J) and 150 days (7, 24 P); a pair of animals from every species (6, 19-20 P); a pair of the impure animals and seven of the pure ones (7, 2-3 J).

5.3. The flood, reality or legend?

Many nations have written down the memories of disastrous floods that happened in their ancient history. We still have 68 flood’s accounts: 13 in Asia; 4 in Europe; 5 in Africa; 9 in Australia and 37 in America. The most ancient written account of a flooding is contained in the epic of Gilgamesh, 20th century b. C. (found in Nínive).

This is a short summary of the episode: Seven gods decide to annihilate mankind with a flood (man is not evil; the decision is a whim of the gods). The god Ea violates the secret and warns his friend Utnapishtim, and advices him to built a boat to save himself. Utnapishtim builds a seven story boat in seven days and covers it with pitch. This is what Utnapishtim says:

“I put all my gold and silver in the boat; my family and relatives, animals from the fields, wild beasts and craftsmen. I made them get inside. I also entered the boat and locked the door. At dawn, a black cloud turned brightness into darkness and a great storm began to destroy everything. The gods were frightened and hid like dogs. During six days and nights the storm destroyed the earth. But the seventh day, the hurricane became silent and the flood stopped. The time passed, everything was quiet and humanity had become clay and mud. I opened a little window and the light of the day hit my cheek. I came down the boat, sat and cried; tears dropped down my cheeks. The boat stopped at the mount Nisir. One day, two days, three days, the fourth day the mount Nisir blocked my boat. The seventh day I released a dove; it left, did not find a place where to rest and returned. I sent a swallow: it left, found no place to rest and came back. I released a raven then; it left, saw that the waters were low already; eats, swims and squawks; it does not returns. Then I opened the gates and set everything free, and offered a sacrifice on the top of the mountain and drunk seven glasses of wine. The gods breathed the soft smell and like flies crowded around the one offering the sacrifice”.

The epic concludes with the transfer of Utnapishtim and his wife to the Paradise Island, which is located at the mouth of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, where Enlil donates them the gift of immortality saying: “Utnapishtim was human. From now on he and his wife will be gods like us! Let Utnapishtim dwell at the mouth of the rivers!”.

The only truth contained in this Babylonian account is the memory of a great flood that razed to the ground the valley of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. This catastrophe impressed the imagination of the people to the point to make a literary legend out of it. The main topic was embellished with folk and mythical elements until it acquired a universal dimension. Israel knew this myth because its ancestors were slaves in Babylonia. Then took away the mythological parts and kept the popular images that did not oppose their monotheistic faith and made the account more interesting: the building of the boat, the entering of animals of every

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species, the release of the birds, the stopping of the boat on the top of a mountain, the universal dimension of the account and the salvation of one family.

The biblical writer used this ancient legend to communicate a permanent religious teaching: God is just: punish the sinner and save the good. The biblical flood represents God’s judgment against mankind, symbol of the universal judgment; Noah’s ark is the symbol of God’s salvation.

Nowadays nobody accepts the universal dimension of the biblical flood for obvious reasons: there is not enough water in the world capable to cover the Mount Everest; it was impossible to place millions of species inside an ark smaller than Saint Peter’s Basilica; we cannot accept also that Noah and his family were the only survivors. In the Bible, these characters are introduced to symbolize that humankind is still a good and united family.

5.4. The universal covenant

The episode of the flood concludes with the establishment of a universal covenant between God and mankind: God promises not to destroy mankind and mankind promises not to shed human blood (Gen 9, 6). To seal this alliance, God chooses the most beautiful phenomenon of nature, the rainbow, the symbol that indicates the end of the storm and the beginning of a peaceful and bright day.

The literary image of the rainbow is very meaningful: is the symbol of the peace between God and humanity. God will always look at it to remember his promise and mankind look at it to trust in God’s covenant.

- THE NATIONS THAT DESCENDED FROM NOAH (GEN 10)

This is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. It includes 70 names that remind us to nations and cities more than people: Canaan, Sidon, Elam, Assur, Aram… The number 70 stands for totality, universality, but only that totality known until the 6th century b. C. (from the Middle East to Spain). The countries of Oceania, Far East and America are not included because were unknown at that time. This table of nations wants to teach us three important truths: diversity, equality and unity of the nations.

- Diversity of nations: languages and cultures are not a consequence of sin, but a blessing from God according to Gen 1, 28 and 9, 7: “Be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it”. Diversity manifests the multiform beauty of the creation.

- All the nations are equal in God’s eyes. There is not a country which is the center of the world and history. The superiority of the Jewish race does not appear in God’s revelation. Their superiority does not belong to the natural order; on the contrary, they have been chosen by God to be the recipients of His revelation and then to transmit it to the rest of the world.

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- Even though nations and races have some diversity, they are still united because they share the same origin and destiny. They are united by the blood of one family, they are brothers and God loves them all.

6. THE TOWER OF BABEL (GEN 11, 1-9)

The Yahwist writer explains the diversity of nations and languages as a punishment from God, which is the opposite of what the Priestly Document says in chapter 10. There is no contradiction anyway because a good thing could become bad if used in an improper way. The unity of nations is good in itself, but it could lead to arrogance and pride. Diversity is good too, because it shows the multiform beauty of creation, but it could degenerate into rivalry and envy, the cause of wars and divisions.

This is what really happened in the episode: a group of Semitic nations found a plain in the land of Shinar, dwelt there together and decided to build a city with the highest tower ever seen. The materials used were those found in Mesopotamia at that time: bricks and asphalt (tar). The name of the city was Babel (“God’s door”), the capital city of the Babylonian empire, famous for its tremendous buildings, hanging gardens and high tower. Every city in Babylon had its own tower (the archeologist have found remains of at least thirty). These towers-temples had seven floors, each one dedicated to one of the seven known planets. They had three stairs to get on the top of it: the side ones for the faithful and the middle one for the priests. The top of the tower was the place for the encounter between the people and the gods, when they came to visit the city. These towers have disappeared because the materials used (bricks and tiles) were weaker than the stones used in the pyramids of Egypt. Those towers could be seen from afar and seemed to join together heaven and earth.

In the Yahwist writer’s view, the tower of Babel was not an expression of piety, but a symbol of idolatry; and the city was a manifestation of their national pride. The diversity of languages inside the great city was also a sign of the future destruction of the empire. Perhaps the remains of one of those towers were the spark that inspired this episode. It symbolizes the failure of any human progress based on collective pride and arrogance.

In fact, the Yahwist introduces with irony the judgment of God against Babel, the city of pride and worshiper of idols: “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built” (Gen 11, 5). This means that the tower was so small that God has to come down to be able to see it. The Babylonian empire based its power on the political unity of many countries with many different languages. Then, God, confusing their languages, avoids the growth of their pride and will be the symbol of their division and loss of power.

What does really mean the “confusion of languages”? Traditionally it was understood that the sudden appearance of many different languages was due to an

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action from God. Nowadays, everybody believes that it is connected to the dawn of disagreements and divergences inside the city. Often we use the expression “we do not speak the same language” to say that we do not understand each other. When the Assyrian kings celebrated their victories over the enemies, they used to say this: “I have unified the language of the nations”. By using this expression they did not mean the unification of languages, but the political and administrative unification. Therefore, the expression “God confused their languages” means that God broke their social, economic and political stability, and they scattered all over the world. That is why new nations were born and many different languages appeared.

The literary genre of the episode is historic and didactic. The form of the story is historic (Babylon, Babel, the tower and the material used for the construction). The message is a free creation of the writer with the purpose of teaching some truths about God and mankind. The Yahwist is not interested in showing us the origin of languages, but in teaching us a religious lesson: the pride and arrogance of men or nations will lead them to self-destruction.

- SUMMARY OF GENESIS 1-11

Gen 1-11 is a story of sin and grace, justice and mercy. This is the key to understand the Bible as the history of salvation. When man falls, there is always a new gesture of grace, a new judgment of God: punishment and forgiveness. Above all, his merciful love always triumphs.

Adam and Eve are punished with the ejection from paradise, but God forgives them, gives them back their lost dignity and promises them descendants capable to overcome the power of evil.

Cain, the assassin of his brother Abel, is expelled from the fertile land, but he is also given a mark to protect him from those who may try to kill him.

The sensuality and lack of self control of the people at the time of Noah is punished with the flood, but God saves a few good people and makes a covenant of peace with them, symbolized by the rainbow.

God confuses and disperses the proud constructors of Babel and allows all the nations to follow their own path, but from all of them He chooses the family of Shem: in this family Abraham will be born and will be the fountain of benediction for all the families on earth. That is why the writer presents the genealogy of the ancestors of Abraham after the destruction of the tower (Gen 11, 10-32).

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