We travel volumes"
(Carlos Drummond de Andrade)
The Monkeys had to interrupt their discussion to hunt. If it is true that trying to kill the rare Birds that landed in the ruins in search of Insects could be called hunting. For the runs and jumps that the friends performed, in their effort to capture the volatiles, the ambushes they prepared to them, the chirps they imitated never reached the goal and only loosely mimicked the act of hunting. In the end, as many blows were tried as failed. And instead of slaughtering Birds, Glass and his companions had to share the local Insects with them. Each, therefore, swallowed as many as could and tried to enjoy the rest of the day.
But did not succeed, for the moon did not rise in the sky and, though many, the stars did not suffice to gild the night. Thus the clarity sequestration suppressed the opportunity of good conversations and jokes. And to complete their sense of defeat the dismal aspect of the place expanded, as a metal in the crucible, and the four kept around taciturn. Finally, finding no remedy for the hollow of the stomach and the weariness of the night, they went to sleep.
And if dinner was meager, and night insipid, the weakness the Monkeys had accumulated during the march subsidized their rest. A deep sleep fell upon all. And dreamed that Amphibians offered themselves to them as a meal, trees sprouted spontaneously from the soil and rocks flung plenty of water. So, they ate and drank, in dreams, all they had lacked during the days in the desert.
When woke up, they commented the dreams. But readily remembered the advice the rocks had given them to study the manuscripts, and began to do so.
Taking the larger scroll, Glass read the Latin "In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram." And translated it:
- "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
Since they knew the original verse was written in Hebrew, Glass immediately jumped to the verse in that language:
- "Bere'sit bara elohim et hasamayim we'et ha'ares."
And as all fell silent to hear him, the Monkey continued to read the following verses on the days of creation. When he got to the thirty-fifth, which is the fourth of Genesis 2, and met the words "Istae sunt generationes caeli et terrae quando creata sunt", his eyes glittered in a different way. Glass read the Latin verse to the others, as well as the corresponding verse in Hebrew: "eleh toledot hasamayim weha'ares behibare'am."
- These words mean "Such are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were created," he explained.
And continued in the same breath:
- The last verse is very similar to the first one we read.
Sherd approached the brother who had the scroll in his hand to compare the two verses. Once more he saw that the first one said: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth", and the other "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created."
- The words heaven and earth appear in both verses, Glass noted. And the verb attached to them is the same, bara, which means to create. The subject of the action of creating is also identical: God. Therefore, the two excerpts make the same statement.
- So we have a repeat? Sherd asked.
- Somehow, replied the other, without much conviction.
- I mean... It is undoubtedly a repetition, he completed.
- But the adjunctive in verse 1, "in principle," does not appear in the other verse, said Potsherd.
- The adjunctive doesn’t, but the phrase that is in its place, eleh toledot, has the very same meaning of origin or beginning. Therefore, the subjects, verbs, objects and time phrases of both verses are equal.
- Well, said Potsherd, if the first verse has the same meaning as the last one, doesn’t it refer to the days of creation, as the other one certainly does?
– That was the impression I had, and it shook me, when just read the fourth verse of chapter 2. When people think "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" refers to a time prior to the seven days, they deny the equivalence between this verse and the one that starts with the words "These are the generations." This procedure brings in the idea of a creation in two steps. For centuries, mainstream Christian theology has adopted this interpretive path.
Sherd interrupted:
- But theologians may have got confused, since Christianity became a universal religion and lost contact with the Hebrew language. An indication of this shift may lie in the fact that creation in two phases cannot be easily found in ancient Jewish literature. Josephus, for instance, interpreted "in the beginning" as the very first day of creation. He expounded the first verse of Genesis this way, in the beginning of his work on Jewish Antiquities. And his attitude was natural, since the text on creation in Hebrew paralleled the verses we studied.
Glass recalled:
- The two-phase creation was a Greek idea. Both primitive and Olympic religions taught that first a chaos was formed, and order followed it. But the Jews didn’t adopt this idea. The author of the 2nd Book of Maccabees, for example, admonished: "Son, look at the heavens, the earth and all things that are therein, and understand that God created them out of nothing, as well as men". Out of nothing doesn't mean out of chaos. So, in Maccabees, the creation of heaven and earth and all that is in them, including Men, is mentioned without distinctions or nuances, as one sequence. We don't see the two phases in it.
While the two dialogued, Ware had his eyes fixed on the manuscript. It was obvious at first glance that he was in an apex of concentration. Suddenly he shouted:
- The Hebrew verb, bara! Appears in both verses and also in versicles 21 and 27!
The others immediately reread the passages Ware cited.
- You're right, Sherd recognized. But where do you want to lead us by your statement?
- Chapter 1 deals with creation, but the verb to create appears only in verses 1, 21 and 27. Isn't it too little to accomplish the purpose of describing creation?
- I admit that it is a very parsimonious use, said Glass. Especially considering that bara is the term that best expresses the idea of creation.
Sherd intervened:
- If depart a bit from Josephus, we may conclude that the seven days don’t begin in verse 1, but in the third one. As the verse "These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were created" is a general closure, the words "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" form a general introduction, a preamble to the narrative. Don’t yet describe the seven days.
Tile, who had remained silent so far, expended a particular effort. He tried to understand and fit the ideas of the others in a general framework. But the intervention of Monkey Ware led him to anticipate his account:
- Two important points of the text attracted our attention this morning. The first one is the equivalence between the verse "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" and "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created." Bara appears in both. The other point is that, in verses 21 and 27, bara is used to describe the origin of particular beings of heaven and earth: Whales, Birds and Men.
- This is a very suitable summary! Sherd exclaimed. It induces understanding. Between the verses that open and close the narrative, the seven days describe particular acts of God. In them, the verb bara appears only twice. And in both cases it is associated with God's blessing. In addition to these two appearances of bara (to create), we have plenty of other verbs that express God's creative acts.
Sherd asked:
- Doesn’t this form a... pattern? If we isolate the seven days from the introduction and conclusion represented by "In the beginning" and "These are the generations", expressions such as let there be, separate, let be gathered, appear, make, swarm and bring forth are used to describe the creative acts of God, except the ones that appear associated with divine blessings. To these only the verb bara is connected.
Sherd had got from the text its extreme implication: the work of the seven days reveals a clear pattern consisting of the use of several verbs to describe the appearance of beings that are not blessed by God and of one single word (bara) for the blessed beings.
Glass recalled:
- Scholars have shown that the term toledot ("These are the generations") appears many times in the Hebrew text of Genesis. Verse 4 of chapter 2 is one of the cases. It’s actually the first one. In all other appearances, the term is employed to delimit a story which was originally transmitted separately. Therefore, toledot is a term of binding, a hinge wherein two portions of Genesis revolve. So, if the first verse of Genesis and the fourth of chapter 2 are equal and the last is a toledot, the other one must also be.
- Yes, and the story of the seven days was originally independent from the one which begins in verse 4 of chapter 2, Sherd confirmed. Each was written by a different author, in a different time. Even the name used for God in one story is Elohim, and in the other is Yahweh or Yahweh Elohim. This radical autonomy of chapters 1 and 2 allows us to consider the existence of different nuances of the idea of creation in the two texts. By the way, the pattern we have just identified in the first chapter may not appear in the work of the second author.
The idea of Sherd caused some shudder. Could two authors of biblical sources have different conceptions about creation? They could not rule out that doubt, unless they read chapter 2 of Genesis quite carefully. So, they gave themselves to that task. Read the entire chapter the way they had read the first one. And noted that the beings whose creation is designated by the word bara in chapter 1 were "formed" (wayiser in Hebrew) by God in chapter 2. Such was the case of Man, "formed from the dust of the ground" in verse 7, of Animals and Birds, also "formed from the ground" in the nineteenth, and of Woman, formed from the rib of Man at verse 22. There seemed to be no doubt: the pattern of chapter 1 did not appear in chapter 2, which confirmed the independent origin of the original texts. They also found that the association of bara with the blessing of God did not appear in scattered sections of the Bible about creation, which led Sherd to suggest:
- If the pattern is not seen outside of Genesis 1, it must have been adopted exclusively by the chapter’s author. He may have intended to communicate something that no other biblical author ever said. Just consider: if the pattern we’re talking about is based on the blessing, it brings in the idea that to create, for God, is to create and bless. Therefore, the beings which were created, but not blessed, within the seven days, must have been created before, when they were also blessed.
- But that doesn’t bring us back to the creation in two phases, which we have seen to be foreign to Jewish thought? asked Tile, and he had good reasons for doing so.
- Yes, it does, Sherd admitted. The author of Genesis 1 was a dissenting voice, in regard to the two phases. He may have been a forerunner of that idea among the Jews. And may have avoided disclosing it, in order not to be harassed by people who thought differently.
- Admittedly, Tile said. But where do these findings lead us? What’s their practical meaning?
- If Genesis 1:1-2 are an introduction to the narrative of creation, the seven days must begin when they end. Thus, the pattern of a single verb for the beings who receive the divine blessing and of various verbs for those who don’t becomes all the more evident. The pattern is an implicit message, a tacit testimony hidden in the text, which could not be manifest. In terms of Natural History, it indicates that the works of the seven days were preceded by other creative acts. No one can understand the message of creation in Genesis without considering these implied acts. But as he considers it, he discovers that the world was created long before the fourth or fifth millennium BC, in which Adam lived. And that the Bible doesn't start from that former creation, but from the latter.
- The little word bara... Sherd muttered. Is it not the key to the text we read? And does not this key open the door of its truth?
Ware went straight to the point:
- You mean someone hid the key for millennia?
And to these questions of Sherd and Ware Tile added others:
– Doesn’t the discourse of science contradict the Bible? Isn’t religion a mirage of benefits like those of the dreams we had last night? And the passion of science? Doesn’t it remove what ignites the flame of faith?
Glass accompanied them in the questioning, which was also a kind of catharsis:
- The passion of science... he murmured. The passion in general... Aren’t they the false Lyrics? Don’t we travel in vain the volumes of a science which has got lost?
