I would like to open this section with different renderings of the Creation stories as found in Genesis. I say “stories” rather than “story” because, as you we will see, whether there are to be found in the Bible two Creation stories rather than one is a very real, and important, question.
The Trinity
But before we do that, we need to discuss a bit the idea of the Triad, as Pythagoras used the term. The same idea has been called the Tetractys by Plato and the Neoplatonists, and this concept has come down to us as a most important part of the Christian doctrine known as the Trinity. This idea of a three-in-one composition of the Creator, and the symbolism and art meant to indicate it, is not unique to Christianity, and has appeared time and again in nearly all religious and cultural traditions, from ancient history to modern days. I head this section with one, and below I present a collage of similar representations:
All of these images (right click, “open in new window” to see larger…), different as they are, have distinct elements in common. All display a right, left, and common but different center, all display the characters as triune, most have or presume a cover, and right is different than left. Given that these tripartite renditions of the Most High have appeared in some form from very early times to the present, let us then try to understand why this Triad might make some sense, and what wisdom it might contain.
As the early philosophers knew even before Pythagoras, a monad, or single, indivisible thing, cannot be so much as recognized, let alone be said have any discernible “existence”, without the dyad, or a second thing, from which it must be be separated and distinguished. The original Monad, the Creator or God, while perhaps pre-existing before even time and space, cannot be manifest without a witness, and more than that, cannot act to create anything at all unless two other conditions exist. These are the requirements first of a “matter” or other medium with which to work and create out of, from, and into (even if this “matter” or “primary element” be, in the end, only light…), and second, a method, force, or as the ancient Greeks said, energeia, energy, or power to manipulate the matter. By representation, The Creator, identical at first with the idea of Creation Itself, uses a “personalized” mechanism derived from and part of Himself, called the Great or Holy Spirit, to bring the visible world into existence. The Godly ideas are, by the power of this Holy Spirit or “Holy Ghost” – or Karma, or Kismet – given reality, or “made flesh” through the Word, or the sound, the labeling of existence in a tangible world, the clothing of the idea, in short, the Son, also derived from the Creator. This Son is also, like the Spirit, distinct from, personalized, yet still identical to the Creator.
If we bear in mind the truth that at any moment Creation is continuing, becoming further refined, flowering like the lotus ever so slowly but surely coming-to-be into our reality, then we begin to see this kind of ordering of things, symbolized by the Trinity or Triad, in a better light.
In symbolic terms this tripartite aspect of the Divine or, when not considered inclusive, manifestation of all Life, has been represented in many ways, by not only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but also by, among many others, the Ra-Isis-Osiris trio of Egyptian gods, by the Brahma-Vishnu-Siva Trimurti deities of the Hindus, by Enlil-Anshar-Innana of the Sumerians, by the Yin-Yang-Unity of the Tao; by Vohu-Manah/Asha-Vahishta/ Khshathra-Vairya, the three aspects of Ormazd (or Ahura Mazda) of the Zoroastrian line, by Tinia, Uni and Menrva of the Etruscans, Tohil, Auilix, and Hacavitz of the Mayans, and so on and on.
Muslims, in the main, are notable for their refusal to accept the Trinity in any shape or form, and that this is one large factor contributing to the continued hostility between Muslims, Jews, and Christians cannot be denied. The Islamic argument is that God, Allah, is one and singular, in fact all things, and to suggest He would make himself into a Man, or live among human beings, or father a human son, is blasphemous. Mohammedans are also against pictorial idolatry in any form, so nothing showing how the Creator can be three-in-one will be found in the public art.
Notwithstanding the position of Islam, in most religious systems throughout history the multiple aspects of godhead is both evident and as well comprises the backbone for much of the theology in these systems. Instead of concentrating on the “One” part, as do the Muslims, the Jews, and as did, incidentally, Akhenaton (Ikhnaton, Amenhotep…) and Plotinus, religious representation has, in the main, concentrated instead on the “three”.
That this disagreement is an almost humorous misunderstanding can be no clearer than to say that God, being God, can divide himself as much as He wishes, and perhaps everything that exists, as the pantheists say, is nothing but the result of this dispersion, or we could better say, elaboration of God. Everything is from and connected to the Creator.
We can also see the side of those who see God as a unity. No matter how He operates, he is an indivisible All. The misunderstanding is the Muslim belief that the Trinity contains anything extrinsic to God as Creator. The Father and The Son they are one not so much as human father and human son, but more as limbs of an identical tree, separate in structure, identical in substance.
There is one very good argument against the Trinity concept and that is the resulting infinite number of ways God can therefore be divided. Invariably, the argument goes, the three leads to seven, and then soon, gods are multiplied further, eventually estranged from one another, and even made to act in conflict with one another, as if God’s right hand knows not what his left hand does. Indeed, much historical evidence exists to prove that, after a while, these sub-divided gods become erroneously worshiped as independent deities. If Ra, or Allah, or YWH, or the Tetragammaton be God, then Osiris, or the Elohim, or Jesus, or Mohammad, should only be worshiped in so far as they are seen as identical to God. Thus when one worships the Holy Spirit, or Siva, one ought recognize that this force one worships is just an extension and so part of God, or Brahma, and in that respect only worthy of divine praise.
The symbolic Trinities are meant to represent the various aspects of God or Creation as manifested by God, topics we will discuss in greater detail further down the road. For now, suffice it to say that in the center of a typical Trinity arrangement is the individual, the singular Existant, he who is possessed of free will; to the right, or left, is the darkness, death, male, positive, hate, destruction, devils, and repulsion; to the left, or right, is light, life, female, negative, love, construction, angels, and attraction.
The Genetic Creation
In Genesis we read the following, known as the “First” Creation:
Chapter 1:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the deep, and God’s spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And evening was and morning was: the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters separating the waters from the waters.” 7 And so God made the expanse, and he separated the waters beneath the expanse from the waters above the expanse. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “heaven.” And evening was and morning was: the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters beneath heaven be gathered into one place, and let dry ground appear.” And so it was. 10 And God called the dry ground “land” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees bearing fruit with their proper seed inside, on the land.” And so it was. 12 And the land produced vegetation: plants bearing the seed of their kind, and trees bearing fruit with their proper seed inside. And God saw that it was good.13 And evening was and morning was: the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to separate the day from the night, and let them be as signs for the seasons and the days and the years. 15 And let there be lights in the expanse of heaven to give light to the earth.” And so it was. 16 And God made the two great lights: the great light for governing the day, the lesser light for governing the night; [God made] the stars also. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heaven to give light to the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.19 And evening was and morning was: the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters teem with the breath of living creatures, and let birds fly above the land across the face of the expanse of heaven.” And so it was. 21 And so God created the great sea-creatures and every breath of living, moving creature with which the waters teem, according to their proper kind, and every winged bird, according to their proper kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and increase, and fill the waters in the seas; and the birds let increase upon the earth.” 23 And evening was and morning was: the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their proper kind: cattle, creatures that crawl on the ground, and wild animals, according to their proper kind.” And so it was. 25 And God made the wild animals according the their proper kinds, and the cattle according to its proper kind, and every creature that crawls on the ground according to their proper kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them reign over the fish of the sea, and the birds of air, and the cattle, and all the land, and all the creatures that crawl upon the earth.” 27 So God created man in the image of himself,
in the image of God he created him,
male and female he created them.28 And God blessed them, and he said to them, “Be fruitful, and increase, and fill the earth and conquer it. And reign over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the earth, and every tree that has fruit with seed inside it; for you they will be food. 30 And to every animal of the land and every bird of the air and every creature which crawls on the ground, every thing with the breath of life, [I give] every green plant for food.” And so it was. 31 And God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Evening was and morning was: the sixth day.
Chapter 2:
1 Thus heaven and earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 And God finished on the seventh day the work that he had been doing. So he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he had rested from all the work of creation that he had done.4 These were the origins of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
That is one version. Here is a very interesting “mechanical” translation of the same Biblical pages:
1 in the summit Elohiym fattened the sky and the land, 2 and the land had existed in confusion and was unfilled and darkness was upon the face of the deep sea and the wind of Elohiym was much fluttering upon the face of the water, 3 and Elohiym said, light exist and light existed, 4and Elohiym saw the light given that it was functional and Elohiym made a separation between the light and the darkness, 5and Elohiym called out to the light day and to the darkness he called out night and evening existed and morning existed one day.
6&and Elohiym said, a sheet will exist in the midst of the water and he existed making a separation between water to water, 7 and Elohiym made the sheet and he made a separation between the water which is under the sheet and the water which is upon the sheet and he existed so, 8 and Elohiym called out to the sheet, sky, and evening existed and morning existed a second day.
9 and Elohiym said, the water will be bound up from under the sky to one place and dry ground appeared and he existed so, 10 and Elohiym called out to the dry ground, land, and the collection of the water he called out, seas, and Elohiym saw that it was functional, 11 and Elohiym said, the land will make grass sprout, herbs making a sowing of seeds, trees of produce making produce to his kind which his seed is in him upon the land, and he existed so, 12 and the land brought grass out, herbs making a sowing of seeds to his kind and trees making produce which has his seed in him to his kind and Elohiym saw that it was functional, 13 and evening existed and morning existed a third day.
14&and Elohiym said, the luminaries will exist in the sheet of the sky to make a separation between the day and the night and they exist for signs and for appointed times and for days and years, 15 and they exist for luminaries in the sheet of the sky to make glow upon the land and he existed so, 16 and Elohiym made two of the magnificent luminaries, the magnificent luminary to regulate the day and the small luminary to regulate the night and the stars, 17 and Elohiym gave them in the sheet of the sky to make a glow upon the land, 18 and to regulate in the day and in the night and to make a separation between the light and the darkness and Elohiym saw that it was functional, 19 and evening existed and morning existed a fourth day.
20&and Elohiym said, the water will swarm, swarmers of beings of life and flyers will fly upon the land upon the face of the sheet of the sky, 21 and Elohiym fattened the magnificent taniyns and all of the beings of the life, the treading ones which swarm the water to their kind and all of the flyers of the wing to his kind and Elohiym saw that it was functional, 22 and Elohiym respected them saying, reproduce and increase and fill the water in the seas and the flyers increased in the land, 23 and evening existed and morning existed a fifth day.
24 and Elohiym said, the land will bring out beings of life to her kind, beasts and treaders and his living ones of the land to her kind and he existed so, 25 and Elohiym made living ones of the land to her kind and the beast to her kind and all of the treaders of the ground to his kind and Elohiym saw that it was functional, 26 and Elohiym said, we will make a human in our image like our likeness and he will rule in the swimmers of the seas and in the flyers of the sky and in the beast and in all of the land and in all of the treaders treading upon the land,
27 and Elohiym fattened the human in his image, in the image of Elohiym he fattened him, male and female he fattened them, 28 and Elohiym respected them and Elohiym said to them, reproduce and increase and fill the land and subdue her and rule in the swimmers of the seas and in all the living ones treading upon the land, 29 and Elohiym said, look, I gave to you all of the herbs sowing seed which are upon the face of the land and all of the trees which are in him, produce of the trees sowing seed for you will exist for food, 30 and to all of the living ones of the land and to all of the flyers of the sky and to all of the treading ones upon the land which is in him a being of life, all of the green herbs for food and he existed so, 31 and Elohiym saw all of which he made and look, it is much functional and evening existed and morning existed a sixth day.
1 and the sky and the land and all of their armies were finished, 2 and Elohiym finished in the seventh day his occupation which he did and he ceased in the seventh day from all of his occupation which he did, 3 and Elohiym respected the seventh day and he set him apart given that in him he ceased from all of his occupation which Elohiym fattened to make, 4 these are the birthings of the sky and the land in their being fattened in the day YHWH of Elohiym made land and sky…
The new mechanical translation is based on a simple premise of always translating, from the oldest existing documents, the same Hebrew words the same way, rather than adjust for context or expected meaning. Certainly, such an effort is bound to have errors, but some interesting differences observable by comparing the two versions of this seven-day creation immediately come to our attention. The simplest of phrases, for example one even the remotely religious among us know about – “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth” – has been translated, and so re-written, several ways, all based on the same existing evidence. When we translate this phrase more literally, to “At the summit Eloyhim fattened that sky and the land”, fattened in fact in the “image” of the Eloyhim, we begin to get a better idea, a “feel” for the language used at the time.
We should also mention that the ancient documents had no spaces between words, no punctuation, and no capital letters, and this in mind even the word “Elohim” or “Eloyhim”, needs further scrutiny since it is, in the first story of Genesis at least, very important to the origin of Man we seek. This word comes from ‘l, that is a lone L preceded by an apostrophe to stand for a vowel, translated often as El. “Elohim”, properly used, is a plural, meaning “the gods” or “those of the God” although later translations took this term as meaning something like “the All-God” perhaps seeking to dissolve (what would be) erroneous thinking, as that claiming there is therefore assumed more than one God.
“El” as such exists today in language and usually means “the” and we know “el” may also be “il” or “al” (aleph and lamed) as in the Arabic and proper Hebrew. The “ohim” means something like “of all” or “to all” or perhaps even just “all”. God in this sense is like the English word “Is”, all being or all existence; without “is” no comparisons can be made. El is also a main deity in Sumerian tradition. So “From the very beginning All That Is fattened the earth and the sky” makes it fairly clear that the best term for “elohim” seems to be “the Powers That Be”.
As I warned earlier, if it is the origin of Man story we want out of the unadulterated Genesis, we must sometimes pay close attention to the use of language in relaying the story. It is one thing to read the words of the book and make an evaluation, it is another to question the translation, search the possibilities, and then make a decision. Because of the sort of playing-with-meanings that has become symbolic of classical scholarship as of late, we see again why Plato was possibly right, correct as to why language can never adequately relay Truth.
As the Genesis goes, at the start the world was without form and void, until God came and said, “Let there be light”, which He separated from the darkness, calling the now distinct states by the names day and night. Then (6) God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters separating the waters from the waters”.
This is interesting because “waters” can be read in several ways. On the usual read this water is taken literally and the “separation” or “expanse” considered terra firma. In its probable more esoteric meaning, this should be read understanding one “water” to mean “outer space” or “ether” and the other the liquid waters of the Earth. The Mechanical Translation says this “division” was accomplished using some sort “sheet”:
…and Elohiym made the sheet and he made a separation between the water which is under the sheet and the water which is upon the sheet…
The waters above the sheet must be space, and those below it, the waters of the earth. The land is made to exist under separate cover, the word “heaven” used to describe this atmosphere in certain translations. But that this word should more properly be translated as “sky” is demonstrated by our new translation:
…and Elohiym called out to the sheet, sky, and evening existed and morning existed a second day…
The first waters are space or the vacuous ether, the second waters, those of the Earth, and the “expanse” separating the waters, the atmosphere, is like a sheet. Then, the Powers that Be were…
…gathered into one place, and let dry ground appear.” And so it was.
Finally then, now, we have stable ground, terra firma. This must mean that “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth”, or some translation of Genesis 1:1, is merely a summary for the information that later follows. The skies (“heavens”) and the earth (meaning “ground”) do not come until after light and darkness, time and space. We know this because now the word “waters” is not used, but rather “seas”; it should be noted that the ancient Greeks had different names, as well as gods, for Water and the Seas:
…And God called the dry ground “land” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
Now while the traditional version has God then telling the land to produce flora, our new version says the Powers that be, or Nature, made the Earth which would itself bring forth seeds.
…Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees bearing fruit with their proper seed inside, on the land.
After this a second set of lights, different from the light by which day and night were established, is created. While the previous light made possible the color and differentiation of things, the second light made real day and night, meaning it made the sun set and rise, possible only after the construction of the protective firmament, sheet, or atmosphere.
From the mechanical translation:
…and Elohiym said, the water will swarm, swarmers of beings of life and flyers will fly upon the land upon the face of the sheet of the sky, 21 and Elohiym fattened the magnificent taniyns and all of the beings of the life, the treading ones which swarm the water to their kind and all of the flyers of the wing to his kind and Elohiym saw that it was functional, 22 and Elohiym respected them saying, reproduce and increase and fill the water in the seas and the flyers increased in the land, 23 and evening existed and morning existed a fifth day, 24 and Elohiym said, the land will bring out beings of life to her kind, beasts and treaders and his living ones of the land to her kind and he existed so, 25 and Elohiym made living ones of the land to her kind and the beast to her kind and all of the treaders of the ground to his kind and Elohiym saw that it was functional…
What are these “taniyns” spoken of here? Well, not much literature exists about them, and were I to hazard a guess I would say they refer to the tiniest living things, bacteria, and other microorganisms and algae, perhaps even vitamins and amino acids essential to all life and which have a hand in forming all our nutrition. Compare for example the modern word tannin.
When everything then is perceived by God–or the Powers That be– as functional and working, then and only then does God create Man, giving him his origin:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them reign over the fish of the sea, and the birds of air, and the cattle, and all the land, and all the creatures that crawl upon the earth.” 27 So God created man in the image of himself…
In image of Himself meaning as both rulers and creators. Or, as our new version puts it:
4 these are the birthings of the sky and the land in their being fattened in the day YHWH of Elohiym made land and sky, 5 and all of the shrubs of the field before existing in the land and all of the herbs of the field before springing up given that YHWH of Elohiym did not make it precipitate upon the land and without a human to serve the ground, 6 and a mist will go up from the land and he made all of the face of the ground drink, 7 and YHWH of Elohiym molded the human of powder from the ground and he exhaled in his nostrils a breath of life and the human existed for a being of life, 8 and YHWH of Elohiym planted a garden in Eden from the east and set in place there the human which he molded, 9 and YHWH of Elohiym made all of the trees spring up from the ground being a craving to appearance and functional for nourishment and a tree of the life in the midst of the garden and a tree of the discernment of function and dysfunction, 10 and a river going out from Eden to make the garden drink and from there he will be divided apart existing to four heads, 11 the title of the one is Pishon, the one going around all of the land of the Hhawilah where there is the gold, 12 and the gold of that land is functional, there is the amber and the stone of the shoham, 13 and the title of the second river is Giyhhon, he is the one going around all of the land of Kush, 14 and the title of the third river is Hhideqel, he is the one walking eastward of Ashur and the fourth river he is Perat, 15 and YHWH of Elohiym took the human and he caused him to be deposited in the garden of Eden to serve her and to guard her, 16 and YHWH of Elohiym directed upon the human saying, from all of the trees of the garden an eating you will eat, 17 and from the tree of the discernment of function and dysfunction you will not eat from him given that in the day you eat from him a dying you will die, 18 and YHWH of Elohiym said, it is not functional for the human existing by himself, I will make for him a helper such as his opposite, 19 and YHWH of Elohiym molded from the ground all of the living ones of the field and all of the flyers of the sky and he brought to the human to see what he will call out for him and all of which the human will call out to him a being of life he was his title, 20 and the human called out the titles to all of the beasts and for the flyers of the sky and for all of the living ones of the field and for the human he did not find a helper such as opposite him, 21 and YHWH of Elohiym made a trance fall upon the human and he slept and he took a unit from his ribs and he shut the flesh under her, 22 and YHWH of Elohiym built the rib which he took from the human for a woman and he made her come to the human, 23 and the human said this time is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh for this she will be called out woman given that from man this was taken, 24 therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and he will adhere with his woman and they will exist a flesh unit, 25 and the two of them, the human and his woman, existed nude and they were not ashamed of themselves…
Now given this read it would seem there is no real “second” Creation Story as some have claimed. This is just a detail of the original story, stretched out to form Chapter 2. Since it concerns Man, one would almost assume such a Creation would be given further explanation, and indeed Chapter 2 of Genesis begins the story of Man, his lineage, and his movements on the Earth. The traditional interpretation is where we get into problems. Whereas we can see from the new version that “Yahweh” or YWH, also interpreted as “Lord” or “God”, appears only here for the first time, it is implicit that YWH is somehow to be considered distinct from Elohim. Specifically, He is the specific aspect of the Power That Be which was responsible for the actual Creation, and so origin of Man:
…And Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
8 Now Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man he had formed…
“Yahweh God” here is a euphemism for “Lord God” of traditional understanding. Kings and even superiors were also referred to as “Yahweh” and “my Lord” continues to thrive in England. What is important is that no mention of Yahweh is made in Chapter 1, only in Chapter 2 of Genesis, when the story of Man begins to unfold. Some scholars see in this rendering a new God. Rather than a God who gave Man everything for his uses, God now, at least this certain God responsible for creating Man out of dust, and breathing life into his nostrils, will take it upon himself to issue orders and restrictions on the original Man. By Chapter 2 we see that:
16 …Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat. 17 But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you must not eat, for on the day you eat of it you will die.”
And from this point on God commences with prescriptive advice. It is Yahweh Elohim now, not as before only Elohim. In this change many see the influence of later priests, Sumerian god-men, and books like the Talmud.
As I realize this is getting lengthy, I will break here, to continue the 2nd Creation, or Creation of Man, the Garden of Eden and so on, next time.
Truthopia 