Looking at Creation

Hey All,

Today we welcomed back the always engaging and knowledgeable Rev. Dr. Mary Shields for for a few sessions on creation stories in the Bible. For those that have not participated in one of Mary's previous Adult Ed sessions at IPC, you're in for a real treat. I mentioned the blog to Mary this morning and she wanted me to send her the URL, which I will, and I'd like to see if we can continue some of the great Sunday morning discussions via the ATC site.

We began this morning with the first two chapters of Genesis, a text that we have examined before with Mary. I wasn't on the ball this morning and didn't bring paper/pen to take notes but here's my attempt to recall a few key points:

• There are two accounts of the story of creation are told in the book of Genesis. The first concerns Elohim creating the universe in six days. The second concerns Adam, Eve, and story of the Garden of Eden.
• Most scholars agree that Chapter 1 was written in time of the Babylonian exile. In fact, Mary suggested that the story was designed to be overlain on and/or as a response to the Babylonian creation myth (Enûma Elish) <--- refer to the link for more detail.
• Gen. 1: God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness..." an acknowledgment of the "divine council" way of thinking of Elohim as the "highest" deity among many deities.
• In Gen. 2. 7, "man" is translated from the Hebrew adam...formed from the ground (adamah). Mary noted a better translation probably is "earthling".
  

Mary also touched on a concept of "seed of seed" in reference to Chapter 1, but I had to leave a few minutes early and missed this discussion.

But what really struck me in looking at these two chapters again was the image from Gen. 2 of God creating humankind from the earth. I think this is a powerful image that can be very meaningful to us to today...think Wendell Berry's mantra that the health of the people is in direct relation to the health of the land. Healthy land = healthy people. In a sense we are re-made from the earth every time we eat, for what is our food other than earth (soil/air/water) with a bit of sunlight? Thoughts?