An openingschapter explaining why things are like they are and why we may have hope for better things

The first eleven chapters of the Bereshith could be described as a survey of the world before Abraham. Even when there are no real parallels to the patriarchal stories in other literatures these books are of utmost importance to come to recognise what we are doing on olam hazeh. If we look at other literature of several peoples we can find similar stories. Those non-biblical works confirm what happened in the past and what is also recounted in the Holy Scriptures. By oral tradition all those stories were given from one generation unto the other. They became written down and later multiplied by printing.

From top to bottom, left to right: cylinder seal of a scene, block used for woodblock printing, Korean movable type, printing press, lithograph press, offset press used for modern lithographic printing, linotype machine for hot metal typesetting, digital printer, 3D printer in action.

The existence of traditional literature and folklore does not in any way challenge the authority or the inspiration of the Bereshith, the Book of the Beginning of all things. We can see that the non-biblical stories often stand in sharp contrast to the biblical account, and that there there is often a lot of confusing and many conflicts between several gods, which seem to be able to appear and disappear, to live and to be killed.

The Bereshith is the first book in a series of the Book of books that may help readers appreciate the unique nature and character of the biblical accounts of creation and the flood, the reason of mankind and of all the troubles we are facing, plus the reason why we should have hope for a better life than what overcomes the world at the moment.

In this world we do find lots of religions where people have more than one god, or worship a binary, trinary or multifold godhead. The Book of books makes it clear man should only worship One True God Who is One and Who requires that we should become one with Him and His creation. He is an eternal spiritual being that can not be seen by man, but since man his existence He has always been there for them, giving them advice and guidance (inclusive mitzvoth). Many think because there is written ‘Elohim‘, which can be translated as ‘gods‘, that He must be existing out of more than one person. But the human writers who had to write down the Words given by the Most High Godly Bore, knew they had to show all respect to their Highest Master, the Most High God or Elohim, i.e. the God of gods or Host of hosts. ’Elohim, is a title in the plural form to express majesty and highness, Him being above all. The same we find the Royal We or the Pluralis majestatis, also called the Pluralis excellentiae in phrases were the verb of what that personage is doing is in the singular form, like the verb “create” is singular, indicating that God is thought of as One Being. The Bereshith is consistently monotheistic in its outlook, in marked contrast to other ancient Near Eastern accounts of creation. There is only One God, though we shall see that people have created themselves other gods or false gods. The Hebrew verb bara’, “create,” is always used in the OT with God as the subject; while it is not always used to describe creation out of nothing, it does stress the Elohim or the God of gods His sovereignty and power.

The first chapter of the Bereshith brings, structured into seven sections, each marked by the use of set phrases, the entire episode of our world coming into bereshies, i.e. into being. The writer who was ordered by the Divine Bore to write everything down brings a conveying picture of the all-powerful, omnipotent, omniscient, all seeing transcendent God who sets everything in place with consummate skill in conformity to His grand design.

The author describes the six workdays or phases (1:3–31) and the seventh day or period of HaBri’ah, the Shabbes (2:1–3). It is clearly indicated that everything came into being by the Elohim speaking, expressing His intentions by His Word. Every time God spoke, that what He wanted to come into being came into existence. As such He revealed Himself also as the Bore or Divine Maker and Life Giver.

Schöpfung (Creation), by Johann Elias Ridinger (1698–1767)

Listening to the account of creation we come to know how Jehovah God created everything and how the Elohim has structured creation in its ordered complexity and that there was a reason or Plan for Him to do it that way. From the account we come to see how God, in his inscrutable wisdom, sovereign power, and majesty, is the Bore or Creator of all things that exist and why He as the Bore has the right to decide what to do with His creation, but also how He shows tzedek or righteousness and how He keeps to His Word even when that not always may result in something nice for man.
Because we also come to see how one of His creations revolted against Him and therefore he gave them the opportunity to fix their world themselves, but had to bring the kelalah or curse over them for which He had warned them beforehand. He had warned them that in the middle of the Gan there where two trees of which they ware not allowed to eat. They had everything else which they could use for their food and for their pleasure, but from the Etz HaDa’as Tov v’Rah (Tree of moral) and Etz HaChayyim (Tree of Life) they had to stay away.

In the hope to become like God the chavah followed her inner thoughts that this Etz HaDa’as Tov v’Rah could bring so much tevunah (or knowledge) to her as her Maker had. When she ate from the fruit knowledge of good and evil came unto her. She and her shidduch received (1) sexual awareness, (2) moral discrimination, (3) moral responsibility, and (4) moral experience. Their act of disobedience showed that they (1) did not believe their Maker and did not think what He had said would be true, (2) did not trust the Bore, (4) did not fear Him.

By experience now they had to learn that the fear of the God of gods is the beginning of knowledge. After eating from the etz they could feel how fools despise wisdom and instruction and how it makes them insecure and ashamed.

Mavet was to come to mankind, because God had said they would have to face death when touching or eating from those trees. When we look at the ish and isha and their zera we can see that physical and spiritual death has come over mankind by the act of disobedience to the Bore.

The nachash directly contradicted what God had said, but it was a very seductive thought to have the fruit of the tree as something worth having for oneself. The irony of isha her thoughts is that Adam and Eve were already made in the image of God (1:26–27). Though she wanted more. By nachash was she tempted to eat from it to be like God, knowing good and evil. In a way they were already “like God” expected to exercise authority over all the beasts of the sadeh. By giving in to her thoughts (the nachash) she betrayed the trust that God had placed in them. The idea of “You will not surely die.” is sometimes claimed that the tempter is correct when he says this, for they do not immediately “die.” Further, their eyes are in fact opened (3:7), and God acknowledges that “the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil” (v. 22).

Man must know that his thoughts do not always bring the full truth. In the Gan the chavah also may have had eye only for the speaking of only half-truths. Adham, taken out of the aphar ha’aretz now came to hear he had to return to the aphar, because from dust or clay he was made and now he had to undergo the ending of his life, with decay as a result, becoming again lifeless tiny very small dry particles of earth or sand or ‘dust‘.

Adam and Eve came to know the difference of good and evil and as such knew very well they had done something wrong. Their eyes were indeed opened, and gave themselves to look at each other in a different way. They also came to know that they were eirummim (naked), but had some differences which made them unsure of the other, who could see them like they were. Coming to know good and evil by experience, their sense of guilt made them not only afraid of each other but also made them afraid to meet the Bore. As such they started feeling the badness of their act and its consequences having become slaves to that evil they did not know before.

And while they did not cease to exist physically, they were expelled from the beautiful Gan or the garden-sanctuary and God’s presence. Cut off from the Source of life and the Etz HaChayyim, they came in the realm of the reality of life and death. Man from then onwards had to face the joy of the living but also the pains of bringing to life, and sorrow for the dead. Expelled from the Gan Eden, man can now experience not life as God intended, but physical and spiritual death. Though there is hope provided by the Bore to break the curse of death, but each individual shall have to make the personal choice,either choosing for the world or choosing for God.

We shall see in later chapters that spiritual death can already made to an end by the reversal point when people choose for going on the Path God provided to come back into a good relationship with Him.

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Additional reading

1. Reading to grow and to become wise concerning the most important thing in life 1 Times of reading
2. Genesis Among the Creation Myths
3. Necessity of a revelation of creation 12 Words assembled for wisdom and instruction
4. Organizing the Bible and the Talmud
5. I am that I am Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyehאהיה אשר אהיה
6. Hashem השם, Hebrew for “the Name”
7. Why think there’s a God? (1): Something from Nothing
8. Where did God come from?
9. Does He exists?
10. Attributes to God
11. El-Shaddai God Almighty Who no-one may see and live
12. See God’s wonderworks and hear His Voice
13. The very very beginning 2 The Word and words
14. Creation Creator and Creation
15. The Word being a quality or aspect of God Himself
16. Creator and Blogger God 1 Emptiness and mouvement
17. The very very beginning 1 Creating Gods
18. The very very beginning 2 The Word and words
19. Genesis 1 story does not take away an evolution
20. Creation Creator and Creation
21. Means of creations
22. From waste and void coming into being by God’s Word
23. Creation of the earth out of something
24. Man his beginnings or emerging, continuation, evolution and anthropology
25. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #1 Beginning of everything
26. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #2 Beginning of mankind
27. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #3 With his partner
28. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse
29. The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #6 Curse and solution
30. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
31. Between Alpha and Omega – The plan of creation
32. Scripture about Creation and Creator Deity
33. Genesis – Story of creation 1 Genesis 1:1-25 Creation of things
34. God’s Word Framing universe
35. People Seeking for God 7 The Lord and lords
36. Pluralis Majestatis in the Holy Scriptures
37. Orders for the first human beings and Rebellion against their Maker
38. Disobedient man and God’s promises
39. Moment of getting knowledge and its consequence
40. Scattered, broken, thwarted reflection of God
41. Sources of evil

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Further reading

1. Who is God?
2. Creator God
3. 2: The Literature of the Old Testament
4. What is the Bible and What is it For? – Part 2
5. The Pentateuch; The Five Books of Moses
6. Genesis; The Book of Beginnings
7. Creation, in light of today’s scientific teachings…
8. Evolution vs. Creation – What do you Believe?
9. The mother of all living
10. The consequences of sin for Eve
11. In the Beginning 2
12. In the Beginning 3
13. The Biblical Explanation of Creation
14. Man: A Unique Creation Of God
15. God Made Man To Rule Creation, Man Chose To Rebel And Placed Under Sin’s Bondage.
16. The Lord Gave Man A Blessed Position Of Rule Over Creation… Man Chose To Rebel !
17. Genesis 3:21
18. The Arrogance of Knowing

19. Acquiring a knowledge of good and evil is a normal process
20. God – not man – put the enmity in place Gen 3:15
21. Was there any death in the garden? Rom 8:20-21
22. Death Anxiety and the Curse of Genesis 3
23. Satan Beneath Your Feet
24. Lying Liars Telling Lies
25. “Did God Actually Say?” Brief Thoughts on Genesis 3
26. Loss of Innocence…
27. Breaking God’s Heart
28. God Hears Me
29. When God Sees Me
30. God’s Curse
31. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
32. Life from Death
33. Never Apart From God Are We
34. Can a nation, who turns away from God, recover?
35. Reflection – The Spiritual Selfie of Your Soul
36. God’s Promise
37. His Words Will Surely Come to Pass!
38. Imagination and the Problem of Evil
39. Day 62:From The Beginning
40. A Walk Through The Bible – Genesis 19 – The Certain Judgment Of God
41. “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.” ― Albert Einstein

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