So without further ado... my Advent devotional exercise this year is the completely unambitious project of going through the Bible in 25 days. That is, not reading the entire Bible (which would be pretty insane even if I were not working full time and a parent of small children!) but choosing 25 chapters from different parts of the Bible that I think fit together to summarize the story of the Bible as a whole. Ill be offering my own unscientific reflections on each chapter, and am more than interested in any thoughts, comments, or questions you might have to offer. For today, Ill start straightforwardly enough with Genesis 1, the creation story. (Or more accurately, the first of many creation stories.) Spolier alert: Evolution and Intelligent Design do not enter the discussion. :) I hope to try to fight with Wordpress a little more tomorrow, but if not, please feel free to follow along or ignore me on Facebook as you like. ----- Day 1 – Genesis 1. “Let us make humankind in our image…” (Genesis 1:26) Is there plurality in God? According to the Bible’s first and best known story of creation, the answer is apparently “yes”. Of course Christians, Jews and Muslims are always taught from an early age that there is only one God. And of course there are several passages later in the Bible that tell us in no uncertain terms that there is in fact only one God (one being Deuteronomy 6, which we’ll talk about in a few days). So why then the “let us” phrasing (which is as unambiguous in the Hebrew as it is in English) in Genesis 1? No, I don’t think that this one quotation is iron-clad proof of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). (Judaism, for one thing, has had this passage for far longer than has Christianity without seeing any such thing.) Nor, however, do I think that it is some sort of inconsistency or contradiction (which would have been a pretty remarkable oversight among many centuries of copyists and editors, were that the case)… nor do I think, as some contemporary scholars suggest, that it is a vestigial mark of an earlier polytheism that “evolved” into the monotheism we now know and love. (And yes, I do hold to the traditional Judeo-Christian-Islamic belief that God is indeed one.) So what, then, are we to make of these words? “Let US make humankind (NOT “man” - the word is not gender-specific) in OUR image…” Simply what I said in the beginning – God is plural, even as God is one. Or, to say it another way, plurality – and relationality – is part and parcel of the nature of God, just as it is part and parcel of the nature of humanity, which is created in the image of God. “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness.” Then, significantly, we are told not what “he” (the one human being) will do, but what “they” will do – collectively – which is, govern the earth and the animals and birds and fish and so forth. The very existence of humans as a “they” is a reflection of the reality of God as a “we”. Then in chapter 1, verse 27 we have a poetic triplet (which, it may go without saying, is far from the first or last bit of poetic language in the story of creation!) about what God’s creation of humanity actually means. I would translate it thus (and please note carefully the pronouns!): So God (singular!) created the human being in God’s (singular) image; In the image of God, God (“he”) created humanity (“him”, or “it”); Male and female God (“he”) created them. So humanity’s intrinsic plurality – and specifically, though not exclusively, our gender plurality - is itself part and parcel of the “image of God” in which we are created. So it should not surprise us greatly that just as “we” are a “we”, the God in whose image we are created is also a “we”. Sadly, we (the human race) have never been quite so unified in heart, mind, or purpose as we understand God to be – one of the many indicators that the creation is now not as it should be. (And maybe now it will also not surprise you why you may hear me groan so deeply every time I hear someone speak of God as though God were exclusively and definitively a “he”, and not equally a “she”.) Fill in your own blanks as to how this reality may apply to race relations, gender relations, generational relations, marriage, or any other aspect of human relationships. But remember above all else that we were not made to exist in a vacuum. Even more than that, to exist in relationship is not merely something ideal or desirable, but it is woven into the very fabric of our nature… and, if Genesis 1 is to be believed, of God’s nature as well.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 02:36:05 +0000
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