Reading the Creation Stories Again

LECTURE 4
Prof. Sakkie Spangenberg

(Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, UNISA)

Introduction

In previous centuries most Christian theologians regarded Genesis 1–3 as a single creation story consisting of two episodes. There were even theologians who cherished the opinion that the so-called ‘fall of the angels’ occurred between the two episodes! They read Genesis 1–3 as if it communicates real history. However, most biblical scholars currently accept the view that Genesis 1–3 consists of two different stories called the P- and the J-narrative and that both should be classified as myths or etiological narratives (stories which give the reason for things—for example, why there is a sabbath).

The boundaries of the first creation story are defined as 1:1–2:4a, while the boundaries of the second one are 2:4b–3:24. The first story ends with the words: ‘Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created’ (2:4a), while the second one begins with the words: ‘When the LORD God made earth and heaven….’ (Gen 2:4b). Anyone who reads attentively will immediately recognise that the words ‘heaven and earth’ in the first narrative are reversed in the second one to read ‘earth and heaven.’

The first creation story: Genesis 1:1–2:4a

Since it is not possible to pay attention to all aspects of a narrative reading I will only focus on one or two. The first and foremost aspect which needs to be looked into is the narrator (or story teller). How should we classify the narrator of this story? Since he is a person who is able to tell us about what happened when God created heaven and earth, we cannot but classify the narrator as an omniscient narrator, who makes us share in events which no other person has witnessed. He even tells us how God delights in his own creative acts (Gen 1:4a, 10b, 12b, 18b, 21b, 31a) and how He deliberates with the divine council before making human beings (Gen 1:26).

The opening sentences of the narrative (Gen 1:1–2) are of utmost importance for understanding how the narrator conceives of God’s creative acts. Older translations of the Bible usually commence with the words: ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth…’ (Gen 1:1). Nowadays scholars prefer to translate the first three verses as follows: ‘When God began to create heaven and earth — the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep [water] and a wind from God sweeping over the water — God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.’

There is a definite parenthesis which reflects the state of affairs before God commenced with his work. According to this, chaos reigned before He started to create. He organized ‘chaos into cosmos’. The idea of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) which plays such an important role in Christian theological reflections is not rooted in the text.

Throughout the story it is evident that the narrator uses a minimum of expressions to inform the reader how creation unfolded. Each subsequent day exhibits the same pattern of events. The day commences with God commanding something to happen. Then it happens, or in some cases God creates what He has commanded. This is followed with narrative comments about God’s approval of what has transpired. What has been created is then given a name before the narrator informs the reader that yet another day has passed.

Apart from the repetitive expressions, the first three days and the last three form a symmetrical structure. Day four is related to day one; day five is related to day two, and day six is related to day three. On the first three days the ‘environments’ for the ‘inhabitants’ of the last three days are created. This structure may be described as follows:

DAY	ENVIRONMENT	DAY	INHABITANT
Day 1	Light	Day 4	Sun, moon & stars
Day 2	Sky and sea	Day 5	Birds & fish
Day 3a Day 3b	Dry land Vegetation	Day 6a Day 6b	Animals Humans
On the seventh day God finished the work that He had been doing

It is evident from the diagram that it took eight acts of God to bring everything in the cosmos into being. However, these eight acts are compacted into six days by placing two instalments on days three and six. The author deliberately did this so that his God-character was able to rest on the Sabbath. Genesis 1:1–2:4a is first and foremost a narrative concerning the Sabbath. The first creation story is told primarily to recount the origin of the Sabbath, and to legitimize its celebration.

The second creation story: Genesis 2:4b–3:24

The second creation story is thus not an etiological narrative about original sin and death as punishment, though many theologians in the West have read and interpreted it like this, ever since Augustine (354–430). Augustine committed a grave error by reading the narrative as an etiological narrative about original sin and by linking ‘original sin’ with sexual desire and thus denigrating sexuality. The two humans in the story were not a-sexual before they ate from the fruit. The narrator does not suggest that ‘knowing good and bad’ should be linked to the knowledge or consciousness of sexuality. Moreover, Augustine’s ideas contributed to the denigration of women in the church and in Western society. This is indeed part of the sad legacy of Christianity

The God character of this story differs considerably from the God character of the first narrative. Here He is very human-like. He walks around in the garden, visits the human beings, talks with them face to face and even makes them garments.

The second creation story may be classified as an etiological narrative. The narrator explains why humans possess divine knowledge, but not divine life, that is, they are able to distinguish between good and bad, but they do not live forever. The mentioning of the tree of life in the closing paragraph of the tale (Gen 3:22–24) has always perplexed scholars since it is only once referred to in the rest of the story (Gen 2:9). However, it takes up the exact position which the Sabbath occupies in the previous narrative, thus reflecting its importance. Although James Barr is hesitant to classify the story as an etiological narrative, his reading does bring him to the conclusion that ‘it is a story of how human immortality was almost gained, but in fact was lost’ (1992:4).

Bibliography

Barr, James 1992. The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality. London: SCM.

Borg, Marcus J. 2002. Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.

Pagels, Elaine 1989. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity. New York: Vintage Books.