Genesis 1

after reading the first two chapters of genesis, the first thing that occurred to me is that something very strange is going on. because I am a creation and a product of the world in which I exist, it is impossible to place myself in a context before creation, and all I am left with is the words on the page, my imagination, and the limits of logic and reason.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was a darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the waters."

God. Heavens. Earth. Formless Void. Darkness. Deep. Spirit. Waters. I have been saying these words to myself for the past 24 hours. these words come to me as poetry, and it is not natural to think something purely physical is happening. I read these words knowing that I will encounter them later in Scripture, so I seek for definition. God is plural, Eloyhim. "in the beginning the gods." who are the gods?? I wonder. and where are they before creation?? what are they doing? what is their substance, their form?? "Heavens." the hebrew word here is "shamayim" which refers to both the atmosphere above the earth and the invisible realm of God or the gods. "God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void."
I am tempted to read this chronologically, but I am constantly frustrated. Did the gods create the formless void, or was this the state before the earth was created....and yes, it seems that water either preceded the creation of the earth, or rather that the water was the canvas of the formless void. I do not know.

we read in verse 3 that light and subsequently night and day are created on the first day, yet it is not until day four that the sun, the greater light, and the moon, lesser light are created. how am I to understand the "light" created on the first day? perhaps this is merely repeition....but if that is the case, then this contradicts the chronology of the week, in which creation is unfolding. I don't know how to resolve this, other then to believe that my reading is faulty. I want to read this as literal, but I am faced with the limits of logic. it plainly doesn't make sense....unless that is, something spiritual is happening. "God's spirit is hovering over the face of the waters" my biggest clue is that the seventh-day is made sacred and blessed. this is something purely spiritual, because empirically, there is no difference between saturday and any other day of the week. God making saturday holy is arbitrary, that is, from a scietific perspective. science can't prove or disprove the sacredness of the sabbath. so, perhaps God is both creating physical and spiritual "things." the creation of the sabbath is not physical, but spiritual...that is: sacred and holy.

I also noticed that the diet of both animals and humans is vegan. "I give you all seed-bearing plants....and tress with seed-bearing fruits; this shall be your food." no where does it suggest that humans or animals ate meat or dairy. but then I wonder about the command to be fruitful and multiply. did animals and humans breast feed?? and does being fruitful and multiply imply the sex act??

in gen 1:28, the gods command the male and female to fill the earth and subdue it. what does it mean for humans to subdue the earth? I can only think of "subduing" as something done by force or violence, yet there is no evidence of this in the text. we are told that man's duty is to cultivate the garden and to name the animals. we are seemingly presented with a world where this is no violence, only harmony, because the gods have created everything "good." again, I do not understand. perhaps because the gods have made man in their image, they seek to assert his superiority over the animals....and to subdue means to be a good steward to both the land and to the animals....because man is imbued with something divine....because only man is made in the image of the gods.

more later,
raj