Bible Study 101, The Creation
This is the beginning of what will turn into a regular Bible study series which we will undertake together. My hope is that we can learn more about the Scriptures over the duration of this blog. Since it is important, and since it will become quite apparent, I am not going to use the KJV. Instead, I will use the Cepher Bible, which has been incredibly useful in my experience. This does mean, however, that many names may not sound the same as we are used to. For example, 'God' does not exist in this version. Instead, the Hebrew title 'Elohim' or 'El' is used. While I am on this topic, 'LORD' is also gone, since it was the translator's way of avoiding to mention the name of God, in accordance with Jewish Law. The Jewish people never utter the name of God, which is written by the four letters - YHWH (the Tetragrammaton)
The Name of God, written in Phoenician (top), Paleo-Hebrew (middle) and Modern Hebrew (bottom)
God's name is extremely important, for obvious reasons, and features on nearly every page of the scriptures, often multiple times. Jewish people avoid using it, calling him Adonai, meaning lord in English, instead. Hence, the translators of the KJV, and subsequent versions of it, remained true to this tradition and substituted YHWH for LORD. The writers of the Cepher, however, go back to the original, with the desire to bring back the personality and identity of God back into his Scripture. Therefore, we will often see Yahuah Elohim, or various other titles. I will help out by giving you the meaning of the title as we go along.
With this introduction, I hope that you enjoy this as much as I will!
Lets begin!
Also Called Genesis, The First Book of Moses
In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of God) moved upon the face of the waters. And Elohim said:
Let there Be Light!
And there was light. And Elohim saw the light, that is was good: and Elohim divided the light from the darkness. And Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And Elohim said "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters."
And Elohim made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And Elohim called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
And Elohiym said "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear". and it was so. And Elohim called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and Elohim saw that it was good. And Elohim said "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb ielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose see is in itself, upon the earth",
and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and Elohim saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
And Elohim said "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night;"
"and let them be for signs, and for appointed feasts, and for days and years; And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth" and it was so. And Elohim made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And Elohim set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and Elohim saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
And Elohim said:
"Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."
And Elohim created great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and Elohim saw that it was good. And Elohim blessed them, saying "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth." And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
And Elohim said:
"Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and the creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind,"
and it was so. And Elohim made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth, after his kind; and Elohim saw that it was good.
And Elohim said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
So Elohim created man in his own image, in the image of Elohim created he him; male and female created he them. And Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said unto them "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."
And Elohym said "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food." And it was so. And Elohim saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, Elohim ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it he had rested from all his work which Elohim created and made.
This has become a very long post. I will end it here, despite the fact I have done no commentary on the chapter above. I will mention only one thing - you have probably noticed I do not mention chapters or verse divisions. I have done that for a simple reason - they are distracting. I find it easier to get into the story if it flows as a narrative (especially since the original had no chapter divisions, or verse numbers; those were added later, for easier referencing). For those who may be curious, this was chapter 1 and we have gone a few verses into chapter 2, to complete the narrative.
I will do some commentary in the next blog. Until then,
let us rest.
Thank you for bringing the Cepher Bible to my attention. :D
😄😇😄
@creatr No problem! It's a beautiful edition, possessing all the beauty of the KJV, while lacking none of the details. ^_^
This is a beautiful representation of Genesis 1. In your chosen translatio does Genesis 2:4 begin "This is the story of the heavens and the Earth after their creation"?
I ask because some scholars argue a dual creation, one of "all people" ... "Man and woman he created them" and one of the Hebrew people (From Adamah). I would be interested in seeing your view as a scholar.
@timeshiftarts Hello! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this long post! Haha
To answer your first question, this is how it was translated in my version "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created,"
As for the second part of your question, I'm familiar with the view of the second creation in Genesis 2. My opinion on the matter is that it is a misinterpretation due to ignorance of the context.
As people read too much into the text, they lose the narrative thread, and so Genesis 2 begins to sound like a contradiction to Genesis 1. However, in context, it is something else entirely. The difference between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 is that the first deals with the creation of the world, while the second deals with the creation of the Garden of Eden: "And Yahuah Elohim planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made Yahuah Elohim grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food..."
What is happening in context is that God has made the world, and man as his final creation. Then, God plants a garden, a special place, 'eastward in Eden'. He brings the newly formed man there and causes every tree that is good for food to grow out of the ground in front of him. Later on, God also creates every beast in front of the man as well.
This is not a second creation, but merely the events given in more detail. If we imagine a timeline of the 6 days of creation, Genesis 2 would be a zoomed-in version of Day 6.
I also disagree that there are two creations of Mankind. There is only one mankind in the Bible, all the members of which are equal. Again, Chapter 1 is a summary, so the statement in Genesis 1 "Male and female created he them" does not contradict Chapter 2, since it summarises the creation of mankind. Chapter 2 zooms in on Day 6, and begins before the creation of Eve, with Adam being just being brought to life, when God leads him to the place where he creates the Garden before Adam's eyes.
I hope that this answers your question! I can only give the way I view scripture. ^_^ I will be making another post, to go into detail about these issues.
Thank you, that's a very thoughtful and well described viewpoint.
I personally follow the "dual creation" argument, but I do see and respect your point of view on it as well. I enjoy seeing how others explain their interpretations and which sources they use.
Of course, that is extremely important ^_^ In my view, these are issues which, while divisive, will be resolved one day when we can learn the truth from God himself. And, possibly, our original great, great, great grandparents, if we ever get to meet them! That would be a happy day, hahaha!
Until then, all we can do is agree to disagree and improve our understanding by learning from each other.
There is another perspective that the first creation story was written in response to the Babylonian creation myth Ennuma Elesh (In the Summit or In the Beginning), and the second creation story was actually older than the first creation story. There are echoes of Ennuma Elesh in the Genesis story, or it could be there are echoes in Ennuma Elesh from the Genesis story. The Babylonian creation myth is written in 7 tablets and depicts creation as resulting from struggle between order and chaos. The chaos, or potential, goddess Tiamat is defeated by Marduk with the weapon of the North Wind. In near spontaneous inspiration, Marduk rips apart the carcass of Tiamat and creates the world. He mixes the blood of defeated gods with clay and creates men to be his slaves to toil the earth. He builds the holy city (Babylon) through which the pole axis of the universe passes through.
The Genesis story is complete opposite in quality from the Babylonian narrative, The spirit or "breath" of God hovers over chaos (Tiat I think in Hebrew) in gentle dignity compared with violence and hatred of Marduk; God's plans are forethought and orderly compared with the spontaneous madness of Marduk. Men are created to prosper and rule, rather than be a slave race. God creates garden rather than city as His holy gift to man. The entire event occurs in 7 cycles of time.
From a scientific perspective the Genesis account with the creation of light as the first event is also quite fascinating. The speed of light as the constant, which is immutable in this physical universe allows for creation itself. Speed of light is not about "speed" of light, but rather the ultimate limit of information exchange; speed of light allows for locality and causality to exist. If information traveled at infinite speed, then events at one end of the universe will instantaneously affect events at another end of the universe - a singularity. Our universe is because of division and limits of information exchange. That the first act of creation is light (speed constant) and division (locality) speaks to unfathomable wisdom within the text.