19. RE - READING THE CREATION
STORY
Gen. 1 and 2
Jacinta Prakashappa
Creation ............. Indeed it was very good.
Let us see the creation through God's eyes and discover the
goodness.
Aims:
- To help members to re-read Genesis, chapters 1-2;
- To celebrate creation, love and respect life,
both animate and inanimate;
- To recognize that to be God-like is to become fully
human and fully alive.
I. The Present State of the Planet:
The earth is dying, she is being exploited and
plundered. Her resources are over used, wasted, drained and
destroyed. Down the ages the earth has been used for economic and
political power thirsty ends. Of late scientific technoculture
has laid its heavy hand on the earth systems to finish her off-- for
profit, through agricultural, industrial and commercial
exploitation. Scientists predict that we may be reaching a point
of no return--life on our planet may become unlivable. There is a
growing sense of hopelessness, demoralization and cynicism.
Destruction of the earth has drastic
repercussions. Have you experienced any of the following in your
area? Are you aware of some of the damages done to the earth?
1. The land is undergoing degradation through harmful
agrarian policies. Due to excessive cropping the earth is stuffed
with harmful agro fertilizers and pesticides. Without renewing
the soil, the earth is getting poisoned and her sustainability is
lost. Agro-chemicals pollute the ground water. Excessive
irrigation causes the water to reach the deeper layers of the soil and
further contaminate the ground water.
2. Land is experiencing ecological degradation
through urban development, the growing human greed for profit, and
mindless development projects. The luxury habits of the developed
countries are destroying renewable resources. Transnational
Corporations with their ideology of maximizing profit are excelerating
these destructive processes.
3. The earth’s life support systems are under
threat: Disappearing forest cover, lowering of ground water
leading to salination, draughts, erosion and spreading of the
desert. Population growth, urbanization, displacement of
population by dams, growth of slums, water and power scarcity, the
problem of handling waste -- all pose major problems.
4. Pollution: Excess of industrial emissions that
pollute the air and affect the atmosphere cause global warming and
depletion of ozone layer. Untreated industrial waste pollutes the
water sources of the earth.
5. Political irresponsibility such as unstable
governments, corruption, scams, debt trap, stockpiling of nuclear
weapons, granting permission to dump nuclear wastes of the developed
nations in the oceans, military conflicts and the arms race are bound
to destroy the eco-system.
6. In real life any one area becoming degenerated is
capable of destroying other areas. For instance inequality among
humans causes illiteracy, female infanticide, dowry deaths, rape,
prostitution, malnutrition, infant mortality, stunted personality,
poverty, subordination, oppression, violence, domestication,
commodification, stifling of the spirit and a host of other perennial
evils.
Let us recognize our inter wovenness in the web of
life, and work out strategies not just for environmental protection but
for environmental justice, to heal the wounds. Damage requires
restoration. As Patricia Hynes has stated that:
Justice requires that industrial nations pay back the environmental
debt incurred in building their wealth by using less of natural
resources. Justice insists that subordination of women and nature
by men is not only a hazard; it is a crime. Justice reminds us
that the earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth.
No nation can boast of advancement as long as one
section of human society is in want, nor can it boast of its
strength when it has made one section vulnerable. Gabriele
Deitrich points out how the inequality between the sexes impacts the
ecological crisis,
The sexual division of labour, next to the expansion of total market
and technocrat development concept, is one of the root causes of the
ecological crisis itself. Thus without tackling the sexual
division of labour and violence against women, the ecological crisis
cannot be solved.”
Today we need eco-theology. The earth is our body.
If we poison her we poison ourselves, by polluting the air, poisoning
the water, destroying the species of vegetation, and killing the
animals. This is sinful. We are heading for ruin.
Exploitation is desecration.
It is good to cultivate simplicity of life,
awareness, concern and love for the environment. The earth’s
resources are limited: what is rendered extinct in this one time of the
creation event never returns. It is time to wake up to save the
earth before it is too late. There is need to reconstruct our
ethical commitment to sustain life, personally, socially and
globally.
II. The Plight of Woman in our Days:
Women share their femaleness with nature. They are
life bearers and nurturers. Tradition says that the first
agriculturist was a woman. Deterioration of nature affects women
and vice versa. Both are survivors of patriarchy which has
dominated and exploited them for centuries. Men own land and
women. Though both are sustainers of life they are reduced to the
category of mere resources.
In the previous section we have seen the atrocities
meted out to mother earth. In this section we note some of
the causes that have de-humanized women.
Over the centuries there has emerged a system of
subordination of one group by another, based on sex and gender, which
continues to operate throughout the world in different forces. We
call this system “Patriarchy,” which includes both social structures
and the values which support it. [For a more detailed description, see
Appendix 2 on PATRIARCHY.] In India this hierarchy based on
gender interacts with hierarchies of caste, class, age, and ethnicity
to define our identities and our relations with others. So we
value the birth of a son over a daughter, we accept double standards of
behavior for males and females, we justify paying men more than women
for the same work and a host of other patriarchal values, which many
women too accept as “natural.” Society has internalized these
values and legitimized injustice to women.
Religion too, including Christianity, has endorsed
these values and stereotypes of male dominance and female
subordination, maintaining the status quo. Yet religion also has
the potential to motivate for social change and to challenge the status
quo. The question is: How can we recover from within our
Judeo-Christian religious tradition its liberative power for women?
III. The Stories of Creation:
In order to reorient our relations to other human
beings and to the earth, in terms of justice, equality and caring for
the earth, let us look at our faith tradition in order to better
understand God’s intention and plan for creation.
The book of Genesis has two stories of
creation. It is important to clarify that these are not meant to
be scientific explanations of how the earth was created, rather they
represent faith experience conveyed through artistic literary work
which could be interpreted in a variety of ways, with inexhaustible
meanings. The stories share common characteristics, but also have
striking differences. The two creation stories originated from two
sources, the Priestly and the Yahwist writers. Take time to read both
stories, listing similarities and differences.
First Story : Gen. 1:1-2:4a
It is taken from the Priestly tradition which is
orderly, hierarchical, scientific, harmonious through concrete images
which indicate abundance of life and continuity. When God
commands, the whole creation, animate and inanimate, comes into
being.
a. Humans are created as the climax of creation, a
little less than God’s own self (Ps. 8:5). God joyously approves
the work seven times as being good (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25,
31). God creates humans in God’s own image and likeness (Gen.
1:27). The image of God can be reflected in community
relationship: God is communion and community. Male and female
here is not individuals but an inclusive description of the human
family. Humans can reflect God only in communion and in
relationships of partnership and community.
b. God empowers humans with five special blessings:
- Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth,
subdue it, have
dominion over all creation (1:28)
According to biblical understanding, the power to
subdue and dominate is to be exercised for stewardship, to act with
benevolence and justice, like the Shepherd Kings of Israel (Ps. 72:12,
99:41, 116:12), and not for destruction (see also Is. 11:6-9).
Here leadership is exercised with compassion, concern and care, as that
of the Shepherd King who cares for his sheep with the graciousness of
an oriental host (Ps. 23). But the words “subdue” and “dominate”
have been misinterpreted to provide biblical justification for
exploitation. The humans in the image and likeness of God are
expected to sustain and love creation and humanity in the same way that
God does. The story does not justify possession, appropriation
and destruction of creation. There is no trespassing into the
domain of the deity to control creation.
c. Human strength has limits and the need for rest is
affirmed. If rest is good for God, the Sabbath day should be
hallowed because God made it so. It is a day set apart,
segregating the profane from sacred. But one profanes the Sabbath
by making it an excuse to avoid helping a neighbour in need (Jn.
5:10-18)
Second Story: Gen. 2:4b - 25
The second story of creation is from the Yahwist
tradition. This account of creation is vivid and picturesque. The
Yahwist is a story teller, using experiential, rational and emotional
themes abounding in anthropomorphisms. There are elements of
tension and mystery, and the prospect of death (2:17).
a. Genesis 2 refers to the earth as a garden with the
humans as its stewards. They are expected to tend, nurture,
protect, and cultivate the garden. The knowledge and desire for
autonomy exists in spite of the limits placed by the deity. The
gardeners have tempered their tendency to dominate.
The humans depend on the garden for their survival
and co-exist with it. The garden will always remain a place of
wonder, delight, and happiness which humans cherish and yearn
for. But it always eludes them. In Gen. 2, the web of life
is organically integrated and harmony prevails.
b. God plants a garden (2:8), and cultivates
it. Every tree in the garden is pleasant to the sight and good
for food (2:9). God is the owner; therefore, any form of
exploitation of the earth is an offense against God. God puts
“man” in the garden to till and keep it (2:15). Adam is the
“earth creature” who represents humanity, and Eve is “the mother of all
living,” a life continuity (3:20).
c. Humans are stewards and care takers of the garden,
neither man nor woman can monopolize responsibility. Responsible
stewardship refers to community effort, where there is healthy
interdependence for insight, inspiration and correction.
Responsibility is a community and not an individual effort. It is
characterized by harmony and interdependence.
d. God commands humans, “Of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, you shall not eat” (2:17). Knowledge, according to
Genesis, endangers and destroys relationships. Humans long to
gain knowledge in order to ignore their limitations. There is
grave danger when humans assume to know everything, both good and
evil. This desire is as ancient as it is modern. When
humans assume to know everything and become self sufficient they become
alienated from each other, from their context, and from their
creator. On the contrary knowledge tries to build superstructures
on the tombs of the poorest people of the world.
Creation Event is a Blessing to be Celebrated:
The story of creation reflects God as the author of
creation, with its awesome wonder and beauty. Both creation
stories reflect a deep sense of order and blessings. The earth,
her web of relationships and sustainability of life, is from God.
Both stories recognise the similarity and
relatedness of woman and man who embrace the whole creation sustained
by the creator. Humans are created in God’s image and they are
expected to reflect God’s nature and attitude in dealing with
creation. They live in community and tend, protect, and sustain
life in collegiality.
Though the stories of creation seem to be
repetitive, they are complementary. The first story blends with
the second, to reflect the inexhaustible mystery of God experience.
Controlling and commercializing is contrary to the
order of creation. This tendency will in no time reduce the
paradise to a desert, or with overdevelopment, stench and suffocation,
will chase away humans from the garden.
Let us not privatize religion. Let harmony
flow from our beings, with interdependence, not subordination.
Then woman will no longer be the second in creation and first in sin,
but she will become an image of compassion and an efficient steward.
It is God who whispers:
In those days there will be respect and reverence
for creation; there will be integrity and equality among humans, and
the creation will be restored to its original blessing, when the lion
will eat with the lamb and the little child will play with the cobra
(Is. 65).
IV. Imago Dei:
In the creation stories God deliberated before
making humans. Man and woman need each other to become the image
of God. The image of God, male and female, is the relatedness of
humankind in its diversity. Human persons are the images of God,
not as self sufficient individuals but as those who need each other to
find completion. The first chapter of Genesis affirms that
humans, as the last to be created, are the crown of God’s creation.
1. Humans made in God’s Image:
While writing the first story, the Priestly writer
may have experienced the atrocities meted out to women in exile and in
his own culture. It is in this situation the inspired writer
speaks of the “Image of God.” Here is an ideal world that never
existed, where the whole creation is in perfect harmony.
The humans in this world are God’s images. And
God looks pleased at God’s own images and speaks to them. So
here, at a time when temple images are no longer necessary, not even
the royal images at the entrance of the palaces, can any one think of
desecrating God’s image? Can anyone dare to call her, “Woman, you
are unequal, sinful, an object of pleasure”? The author describes
both male and female as made in God’s image and likeness, and therefore
equal and sacred.
2. The Dignity and Status of Woman:
The dignity of human persons consists in being
Godlike, in being sexually different, in caring for and nurturing
creation and in participation in the ongoing process of creation.
Woman and man are different but equal in dignity. This idea is
more spelt out in the second story where the Yahwist dreams of the
ideal relationship between man and woman, when he sees everywhere
broken relationships.
Man and woman before eating the fruit are mentioned
in plural (3:2-3), they have father and mother (2:24). It is a
reference to whole humanity. Their relationship grows into
conjugal relationship in a time of concubinage and polygamy. The
Yahwist upholds monogamy, restoring the dignity and status of woman
(2:23).
3. Humans are Created Equal by God:
The word “Adam” comes from the Hebrew word meaning
earth or dust, an earthling (2:7). The woman receives a
name only later (3:20). She is called “Eve, the Mother of the
living,” she is life and continuity. Both names are symbolic, not
denoting actual individuals. Man and woman are both God’s
creation and therefore man has no right or control over woman’s
existence. Adam is neither participant nor consultant at Eve’s
birth (2:21, 22). Gen. 2:23 makes no reference to superior or
inferior power, strength, dominance or subordination. Adam
joyfully recognizes the meaning of solidarity when he sings the love
poem, “the bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh” (2:23). This
poetic phrase affirms deep relationship. He finds in her a
counterpart.
Adam experiences ecstatic joy in discovering a human
like himself. He utters his first words and becomes aware of his
masculine identity when he encounters the woman. He recognizes
similarity and relatedness, not difference. This is affirmed by
both stories of creation.
4. They are Mutually Interdependent:
The story of creation is not advocating matriarchy
in Gen 2:24. Here stepping out of the security of both
father’s home and mother’s home is stressed. This passage is a
prophetic statement that strikes at the root of male domination and
lays the foundation for a just society that stresses equality.
The woman is created as a counterpart equal to man.
The word “helpmeet” (KJV) has been much maligned. “Helper” (RSV) means
more than a partner in Hebrew. Woman is thus called “helper as
his partner” in NRSV. The Hebrew word “ezer” can best be
translated as “counterpart, an equal.” The word “helper” (ezer)
also characterizes the Deity (Ps. 121:2, Ex. 18:4, Deut 33:7),
connoting psychic rapport. But in real life a helper could also
mean some one to depend upon, strong, who strengthens relationship.
To conclude, in the whole of the Bible there are a
few unconditional norms concerning the status of woman. The
theological statements about the nature of woman and man as equal in
the image of God, as seen in the creation story, are rare examples of
an unconditional norm (Gen. 1:27; 2:21-23).
Exercises and Questions for Discussion:
1. A Reflection:
Let us celebrate nature, enjoy its beauty and taste
its sweetness. How can we communicate more deeply and relate more
fully, rather than compete with it or exploit it for selfish gain?
A single mustard plant, in four months, can grow 378
miles of root system and 14 billion root hairs in one cubic inch of
soil. The length of these root hairs would total 6,000
miles. Let us marvel at the extravagance of nature’s ways.
Decide on two or three ways you can celebrate
nature, individually or as a group.
Prayer:
God, my mother and father, renew me as you renew your creation.
How glorious is the touch of your hand that gives life. Free me,
reconcile me with your creation. Sanctify me and transform me,
that I may experience your greatness. Amen.
2. Discussion:
Leader makes the discussion dialogic and evocative,
posing a few questions. Invite participation.
a. How do you experience the chain
of interdependence of humans and the earth?
b. How is it under threat?
c. Why has the earth been reduced
to a resource base?
d. How can we combine science and
faith for the good of the earth family?
e. Are the stories of creation
helpful in working out solutions to these problems?
3. What is the importance of equality between male
and female? Support it from Gen. 1 & 2.