Chapter 10 THE CREATION AND THE FALL

The Creation

The Bible opens with the creation of the world.^[1]Here is how it begins:

In the beginning,God created the heavens and the earth.The earth was without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep.And the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.Then God said,“Let there be light”;and there was light.And God saw that the light was good.And God separated the light from the darkness.God called the light Day,and the darkness he called Night.^[2]

This was the first day.On the second day God divided the heaven from the earth.On the third day He separated the earth from the seas,and vegetation appeared.On the fourth day He created the sun and the moon and the stars;on the fifth day,fish and birds;on the sixth day,the animals.Also on the sixth day:

God said,“Let us make humankind in our image,according to our likeness;and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,and over the birds of the air,and over the cattle,and over all the wild animals of the earth,and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”So God created humankind in his image,in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them.

God blessed them,and God said to them,“Be fruitful and multiply,and fill the earth and subdue it;and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”^[3]

On the seventh day,having completed the work of creation,God rested.And on account of this,He“blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.”^[4]

Immediately,in these few verses,there is much to notice.First,God creates the world in a very short space of time — just six days.Who can believe this today? If it is not believable,then how do we explain its appearance at the very start of the Bible? Does it mean that the Bible is not true?

Secondly,there is a clear statement here about the relationship between man and the animals.Mankind is given power over the animal world.Humans are therefore presumably regarded as superior to animals,who are provided for Man’s use and pleasure.^[5]Many people still take this for granted today.But there are also those who advocate animal rights and question these assumptions.Because the Bible says nothing about animal rights,^[6]does that invalidate them in the eyes of believers today?

Thirdly,God rested on the seventh day.Here what we have to notice is historical and cultural rather than philosophical.If Sunday is the first day of the week,the seventh day is Saturday.So Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath.^[7]The fourth of the Ten Commandments orders that the Sabbath be kept holy and that no work be undertaken on that day,for it was on that day that God rested.^[8]Christians,however,transferred the day of rest to Sunday,the first day of the week,because it was on the first day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead.Sabbath observance has been a feature of many zealous Jews and Christians.For example,the Christian“puritans”who left England for America in 1620 and many other strict Bible-based Christian groups have been hostile to work on the Sabbath,just as the Pharisees were in the time of Jesus in the New Testament.^[9]

In this way,what may appear rather trivial details from the biblical account raise important questions or have had a significant cultural impact in the West.

Many people reading the opening chapters of the Bible do not realize that it contains not one but two accounts of the Creation.After the one we have just summarized,there begins another,quite distinct one at Genesis 2:4.

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up … the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;and the man became a living being.And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden,in the east;and there he put the man whom he had formed.Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food,the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.^[10]

It is significant that there are two accounts.They are not identical.To begin with,in the later account“God”is always referred to as the“Lord God.”There is no six-day time frame in the second account.And the second account contains the description of the Garden of Eden and the“tree of the knowledge of good and evil”which will play such an important part in the story of the Fall.

The presence of two accounts that are not identical requires some explanation.Where there is contradiction,it is natural to argue that one must be wrong.We can go further than that and say that neither account should be regarded as literally true.This was proved beyond reasonable doubt by the development of science,in particular by the study of geology in the 19th century.

Nevertheless,there were those in the 19th century,and there are still people today,who reject the scientific explanation of Creation in favour of a literal reading of（usually）the first account of Creation in the Bible.These people are often called fundamentalists.They put faith first.They argue that every word of the Bible is literally true.Sometimes,they think,it may be difficult to understand or accept everything that we read in the Bible,but this they regard as a test of our faith：God works in mysterious ways and what we do not understand now may be revealed to us at some future date.

Such views are difficult to sustain.However,they are strongly held — in the southern states of the USA,in South Korea,increasingly in parts of South America.Why? Perhaps it is that people crave the sense of security that comes from certainty.But there are many things about which people have felt certain in the past and which have turned out to be false.We should never abandon our critical faculties.One of the great dangers of the human condition is the danger of the closed mind.

There is another reason why the debate over the Creation has been so heated.Western cultures have been built on religion,mostly the Christian religion.There has always been a strong sense that religious belief leads to responsible moral and social behaviour and therefore upholds social and political stability.When Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859,there was a fear that,by undermining one part of the Bible,he was casting doubt on the whole of it and that the Christian religion,and therefore social and political stability,were under attack.This accounts for the very vicious campaign against Darwin during his lifetime,and explains why in parts of the United States the teaching of evolution in biology classes is still contested.

But there is no need to discard the book of Genesis（or any other part of the Bible）simply because it does not stand up to modern scientific scrutiny.A sensible scholarly approach should lead us to acknowledge that the Bible needs to be interpreted,and that this is particularly necessary when what it says conflicts with scientific truth or modern moral and social values.We should regard the Bible as a Text which needs to be explained in terms of the social and religious customs and beliefs of the period when it was written.This is particularly necessary in the case of the Genesis accounts of the Creation.We should look at these not as literal truths but as the way in which writers in a much earlier and less scientific age expressed what many still believe to be true,namely that the existence of the universe can only be explained by a creative force,and that creative force is God.The ancient writers expressed this in a way that seemed convincing to them at the time they were writing.Today we would express it differently.This is why some scholars argue that the opening of the Bible should be regarded as“myth.”They are not arguing that it is untrue,just that it is not literally true.^[11]

The Fall

We turn next to the story of the Fall of Man.This,too,most people today will not regard as literally true.It is a myth,but a myth that asserts a truth about the human condition that has shaped the whole of western civilization.Here is how the story develops in Genesis chapters 2 and 3:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.And the Lord God commanded the man,“You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Then the Lord God said,“It is not good that the man should be alone;I will make him a helper as his partner.… So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man,and while he slept,he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.Then the man said,‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;this shall be called Woman,for out of Man this was taken.”Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife,and they become one flesh.And the man and his wife were both naked,and were not ashamed.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made.He said to the woman,“Did God say,‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”The woman said to the serpent,“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;but God said,‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden,nor shall you touch it,or you shall die.’”But the serpent said to the woman,“You will not die;for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,and you will be like God,knowing good and evil.”So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,and that it was a delight to the eyes,and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,she took of its fruit and ate;and she also gave some to her husband,who was with her,and he ate.Then the eyes of both were opened,and they knew that they were naked;and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.But the Lord God called to the man,and said to him,“Where are you?”He said,“I heard the sound of you in the garden,and I was afraid,because I was naked;and I hid myself.”He said,“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”The man said,“The woman whom you gave to be with me,she gave me fruit from the tree,and I ate.”Then the Lord God said to the woman,“What is this that you have done?”The woman said,“The serpent tricked me,and I ate.”

The Lord God said to the serpent,“Because you have done this,cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures;upon your belly you shall go,and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.”

To the woman he said,“I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing;in pain you shall bring forth children,yet your desire shall be for your husband,and he shall rule over you.”

And to the man he said,“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you,‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you;in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;and you shall eat the plants of the field.By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground,for out of it you were taken;you are dust,and to dust you shall return.”^[12]

The man named his wife Eve,because she was the mother of all who live.And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife,and clothed them.

Then the Lord God said,“See,the man has become like one of us,knowing good and evil;and now,he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life,^[13]and eat,and live for ever”— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden,to till the ground from which he was taken.He drove out the man;and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim,and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.^[14]

There is much to notice and puzzle over in this story.First,there is the role of the woman.The story reflects the ancient belief,still almost universally held,that companionship is essential to mankind,that Man is a social animal and that marriage is therefore a natural state.So God creates woman.^[15]But there are uncomfortable aspects of the story for the modern reader.First,it is presented as though woman is created for man rather than the other way round.Secondly,it is the woman who first succumbs to temptation and who then transgresses even further by causing her husband to follow her in her disobedience to God’s command.Thirdly,as part of her punishment,woman is made subject to man.What should have been pleasant — bearing children and her desire for her husband — become a source of pain and subjection.It is quite possible to see here the beginning of the sexual inequality that has continued down the ages.In the New Testament one of St Paul’s followers wrote:

Let a woman learn in silence with full submission.I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man;she is to keep silent.For Adam was formed first,then Eve;and Adam was not deceived,but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.^[16]

So this writer argued for the subjection of women to men on the basis of what had happened in the Garden of Eden.But,of course,it would be foolish to regard this inequality as divinely ordained.The story reflects the prejudices and perceptions of people living in primitive times.Today any story,or myth,about marriage and the relations between the sexes would be expressed quite differently.

There is then the most puzzling of all the aspects of the story：the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,the only tree in the garden whose fruit mankind is forbidden to eat.We read that God made Man“in his own image.”It is reasonable to assume that this means that He endowed Man with the dignity of freewill,and the responsibility that comes from freewill.That being the case,it seems reasonable to expect that God would wish Man to be fully aware,to be able to distinguish between Good and Evil.^[17]So why this restriction? It is a restriction most difficult to explain.The best we can do is once again to refer to the primitive times in which the story was written.They were not democratic times.God was perceived as an emperor figure whose chief intention was to secure unquestioning obedience and whose main concern was the fear of being challenged.The writer of the story sees God as a“jealous”God — and“jealous”is a word frequently used of God in the Old Testament.Obedience is therefore demanded of Mankind.It is not a very pleasant or modern idea of God that is here presented.Nor is he a very forgiving God,for Man’s punishment is severe — expulsion from Eden and back-breaking toil.

So these are unsatisfactory aspects of the myth of the Fall.None the less,it continues to play a hugely influential role in Western thinking and assumptions.This is not because of what it has to say about God but because of what is has to say about mankind.It contains the most valuable insight into human nature to be found in the Bible.That is,that Man,although he is not evil,is weak,foolish,fallible and easily tempted.He is often proud,selfish and disobedient when he should be humble,generous and cooperative.This might seem obvious to any student of history or any observer of the way men and women behave.Yet it is not an assumption made in all cultures.

Western culture and western social and political systems are grounded on this assumption.Although far fewer people go to church regularly in the West today than in the past,although people are far less intensely religious than they used to be,the Bible is a major part of their cultural heritage and has therefore shaped their view of human nature.By contrast,in the East,generally speaking,there is a more positive and optimistic view of human nature as basically kind and good.This is a very significant difference,and one that it is important to appreciate in order to develop cross-cultural awareness and understanding.To the Western mind,there can be no Utopia,^[18]only a channeling,directing,and controlling of Man’s selfish instincts in the hope that something productive and good can come out of them.

This biblical idea that human nature is prone to temptation and that human beings are sinners is a major contribution to world thought.Systems of government which are based solely on the assumption that human nature can be perfect if the right social organizations and political structures are put in place have often tragically failed.It can be argued that this is because their idealism has not taken human nature sufficiently into account.So taking into account the psychological truth about the human condition as revealed in these early chapters of the Bible is important for us today,both in our relations with one another and in the arrangements we make for the improvement of society.

The story of the Fall is important not only psychologically but also,for Christians,theologically.For Christians it provides the reason for the coming of Jesus.The writers of Genesis could not possibly have seen it that way,but that in turn is a reminder to us that the Bible as a text has served many different purposes in many different contexts.

So how do Christians see the Fall as leading to the incarnation,or God taking on human flesh in the form of Jesus? The idea was most clearly expressed at the end of the 11th century by the great Christian philosopher,Anselm,archbishop of Canterbury,in his book Cur Deus homo?（Why Did God Become Man?）.Anselm explained that Man’s sinfulness,his pride,his disobedience to the will of God,is so great that Man is not capable of paying the penalty incurred by it;he is incapable of redeeming himself by his own effort.Only God can pay the debt which Man has incurred by his sin.Since God loves Man,He takes on human flesh and human form（the Incarnation）and becomes man,so that He Himself can pay the debt or penalty for Man’s sin（often referred to as the“Atonement”）.God in human form is Jesus,and the death of Jesus on the cross is the payment or sacrifice made for Man’s sin.So Jesus is often called the“redeemer.”^[19]

The idea of God has here changed,or at least developed,from the one we find in the Genesis text.Here God is loving and forgiving and ready to sacrifice himself.He is not the emperor / dictator figure who demands unquestioning obedience.That in turn should remind us that the Bible was written by many different authors in many different historical and social contexts and that the idea of God in the Bible is not constant.It changes.It changes from one that is rather unattractive and unpalatable in parts of the Old Testament to one that is far more reassuring and loving in the New.

It is hardly surprising that stories so fundamental as those of the Creation and the Fall of Man have been a great inspiration to artists and writers.In the Middle Ages they were often told in the pictures in the stained glass^[20]which filled the windows of cathedrals and abbeys.At the Renaissance Michelangelo spent four years painting them on the ceiling of the pope’s chapel（the Sistine Chapel）in Rome.Paradise Lost,the greatest poem of the 17th century English poet,John Milton,written in blank verse,is about this.The English poet and artist William Blake produced many fine illustrations of the stories.

Discomfort with the picture of God portrayed in Genesis 2 and 3 is reflected in Milton’s great poem.The hero of the poem is Satan,not God.The defiance and pride of Satan,a fallen angel,have about them an almost noble quality.Commentators have often remarked on this.Such rebellion and defiance could only seem noble when directed against an autocrat.Yet Milton was one of the most religiously committed writers of the 17th century.This contradiction in his writing reflects how difficult it is to come to terms with a literal understanding of the idea of God as presented in Genesis.

After the Fall

After its description of the Creation and the Fall,the book of Genesis records three more stories before embarking on an account that claims to be historical.

First is the story of Cain and Abel,the two sons of Eve.

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep,and Cain a tiller of the ground.In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock,their fat portions.And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.So Cain was very angry,and his face fell.The Lord said to Cain,“Why are you angry,and why has your face fallen? If you do well,will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well,sin is lurking at the door;its desire is for you,but you must master it.”

Cain said to his brother Abel,“Let us go out to the field.”And when they were in the field,Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.Then the Lord said to Cain,“Where is your brother Abel?”He said,“I do not know;am I my brother’s keeper?”And the Lord said,“What have you done? Listen;your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground,which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.When you till the ground,it will no longer yield to you its strength;you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”Cain said to the Lord,“My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil,and I shall be hidden from your face;I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth,and anyone who meets me may kill me.”Then the Lord said to him,“Not so! Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.”^[21]

Second is the story of Noah and the Flood.Noah was“a righteous man,blameless in his generation.”^[22]But

God saw that the earth was corrupt … And God said to Noah,“I have determined to make an end of all flesh,for the earth is filled with violence because of them;now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.Make yourself an ark of cypress wood;… make it with lower,second,and third decks.For my part,I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth;everything that is on the earth shall die.But I will establish my covenant with you;and you shall come into the ark,you,your sons,your wife,and your sons’ wives with you.And of every living thing,you shall bring two of every kind into the ark,to keep them alive with you;they shall be male and female.”… Noah did this;he did all that God commanded him.

Then the Lord said to Noah,“Go into the ark,you and all your household,for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.… For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights;and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.^[23]

Then God unleashed a great Flood,which lasted 150 days and overwhelmed all who were not in the ark.After the rain ceased,another 150 days passed before the ark came to settle on Mount Ararat.After yet another 40 days,Noah sent out a dove,which returned because it did not find a dry place to land;a week later the dove returned with a fresh olive leaf in its beak,indicating the land had started to dry;another week passed and the dove did not return,indicating that the land was dry.The survivors left the ark and Noah built an altar and prayed and offered sacrifices to God.Smelling the sweet odour of the sacrifices,God promised never again to destroy the entire earth and gave the rainbow as a sign of his promise to all living things.^[24]This is the first time God binds himself by a covenant.

Third is the story of the Tower of Babel.Genesis Chapter 11 tells the story of how humans tried to build a tower which would reach heaven.God was angry,viewing this as a demonstration of human pride and an attempt to be equal to Him:

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower,which mortals had built.And the Lord said,“Look,they are one people,and they have all one language;and this is only the beginning of what they will do;nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.Come,let us go down,and confuse their language there,so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth,and they left off building the city.Therefore it was called Babel,because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth;and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.^[25]

If we take these in turn,the Cain and Abel story is a horrifying account of a fratricide.^[26]It raises questions that are not answered by the text.Why did God reject Cain’s offering and accept Abel’s?^[27]Is this another example of the capriciousness of the tyrant God? Or is it somehow connected to Cain not“doing right,”as God alleges? As with Adam and Eve’s transgression,Cain’s evil deed cannot be hidden from God.And what does it tell us about God that he shows mercy to Cain when Cain complains that his punishment is greater than he can bear?

Secondly,there is the story of Noah and the Flood.There are flood myths in other cultures.^[28]It is possible therefore to see the story of the Flood as representing a primitive human desire to explain natural disaster.A typical response to disaster is perceive it as divine punishment for wrongdoing.The story of Noah fits this model.To be sure,it is a very unsatisfactory model.The idea of divine punishment on such a scale suggests a peculiarly horrible God.But throughout history,natural disasters have been interpreted as divine punishment for sin.It is difficult to see why the innocent — children,in particular — should be caught up in an orgy of divine rage,and this was a major point of attack made on the Christian religion during the Enlightenment in the 18th century.The terrible earthquake in Lisbon in 1755,for example,was used by the French philosopher Voltaire to question sharply and very satirically the very idea of a benevolent God.^[29]

Did the Flood actually happen? Some speculate that Mount Ararat in northeastern Turkey is where the ark came to rest.However,there is no convincing archaeological evidence to back up the story,which,although it may have had some basis in a natural catastrophe at some point in time,should be read as myth rather than history.

As for the Tower of Babel,here we see presented an image of God very similar to that in the garden of Eden,a jealous God who sees human aspiration,intelligence and entrepreneurial activity as a personal threat and who responds to it like an insecure tyrant by dispersing mankind so as to stop the building of the city and the Tower.^[30]More than that,he guards against any future repetition of the project by confusing human beings with a diversity of languages.

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注释

[1]The most celebrated musical work describing these events is Haydn’s oratorio,The Creation,first performed in 1798.

[2]Genesis 1：1-5.

[3]Genesis 1：26-28.

[4]Genesis 2：3.

[5]However,it is only after the story of the Flood that it is explicitly stated that man may eat animals：Genesis 9：2.

[6]However,it should be noted that there is a lot in the Old Testament about man’s duty of care towards animals.See particularly the book of Jonah,which ends with a statement about God’s care for both humans and cattle.

[7]The word“Sabbath”is derived from the verb“cease”— hence the Sabbath is the day when God ceased his work of creation.

[8]Exodus 20：8-11 refers back to this passage in Genesis when laying down the Fourth of the Ten Commandments.In the version of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy Chapter 5,keeping the Sabbath is to“remember that you were slaves in Egypt,”which suggests that the Sabbath is to allow workers to rest.

[9]Until very recently many western countries had laws requiring shops to remain closed on Sundays.By the late 20th century the religious arguments for this were unconvincing to many people,and they were replaced by two other arguments：that shop workers should be guaranteed a day off work and so protected from exploitation;and that a day of rest was beneficial for bolstering family life.These arguments,however,were not enough to prevail against the power of the supermarkets,who lobbied for Sunday opening;and very many consumers supported them,finding week-end shopping a great convenience.

[10]Genesis 2：4-9.

[11]Fundamentalists are keen to point out that the theory of evolution is open to question in many ways,and that there is much which it leaves unexplained.And,of course,in the past,very many scientific theories which people have believed to be obvious and true have later been proved false.

[12]The words“Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return”are used in the funeral service in the Anglican（state Church of England）Book of Common Prayer（1662）.

[13]It is here clear that there are two important trees in the Garden of Eden：the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,and the tree of life.It is the former than makes Man wise,but the cause of the expulsion from Eden is God’s fear that Man will now eat from the latter.

[14]Genesis 2：15-18,21-24;3:1-14,16-24.

[15]Notice that in the first creation myth God creates man and woman at the same time,whereas in the second He only creates woman after reflecting that man was in need of companionship.

[16]1 Timothy 2：11-14.

[17]For this reason,in His Dark Materials（1995 / 2000）,Philip Pullman presents the fall as a positive development in which human beings obtain knowledge,self-awareness and freedom.

[18]The word“Utopia”comes from the Greek and literally means“no place”but has a double meaning as it sounds identical to“eutopia”meaning“a good place.”It was created by Thomas More as the title of his book,published in 1516,in which he described an ideal state.

[19]The word“redeemer”is also used to describe someone who buys a slave’s freedom or pays the ransom of a captive.

[20]Stained glass is colored glass.

[21]Genesis 4：2-15.

[22]Genesis 6：9.

[23]Genesis 6：12-14,16-19,22;7：1,4-5.

[24]Genesis chapters 6 to 9.

[25]Genesis 11：6-9.

[26]There are famous stories of fratricide in other cultures-for example,that of Romulus and Remus at the（mythical）foundation of Rome.

[27]Some see here a reflection of ancient competition between pastoral（Cain）and arable（Abel）farming.

[28]For example,there is a remarkably similar account of the Flood in the Babylonian epic,Gilgamesh.And one of the Greek myths tells how Zeus unleashed a flood which Deukalion,son of Prometheus,and his wife Pyrrha,daughter of Epimetheus,were alone able to survive,having been forewarned by Deukalion’s father,Prometheus,to build a large chest in which they sheltered from the flood for nine days and nights.

[29]For example,in his novel Candide（1755）.

[30]The Tower of Babel may also be the Jewish editors of Genesis in exile in Babylon poking fun at the Mesopotamian ziggurats（massive,sometimes pyramidal,structures built on a raised area）there.