As explained in my introduction I am aiming to read the whole Bible in 2017 and comment on it here. There’s been a slight delay in starting as I got the blog set up. But here we go.
1 January. Genesis chapters 1-3
I never cease to be amazed at the insight that the anonymous writer of the creation story appears to have into the origins of “life, the universe and everything”. While modern science may explain it more precisely (but still with many uncertainties), this ancient near eastern wisdom understands the way in which this earth on which we live, and its many life forms, are intimately connected in themselves and with the rest of creation. I believe that someone, somewhere, received a revelation as astounding as that of St John at the end of the Bible, and that this is the form in which he (or she?) passed it down through the generations.
For example, this brief account echoes the order we now know of space-time, stars, planets, oceans, vegetation, animal then human life. Or take the references to “water” throughout the first ten verses of the creation story. We now know that water is present throughout our solar system, and may have been brought to earth on many asteroids and meteors over countless millions of years, and that without water there would be no life. How could that have been known in ancient times? But what a marvellously poetical account of God’s provision of this life-giving substance!
Another key verse for me is 1:27, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” So let’s hear nothing of men’s superiority over women: we are all equally bearers of the image of the creator, who must be all that it is to be truly masculine, feminine and far more. But in chapter 3 – a different and more human-centred account of creation – both male and female are guilty as charged in living disobediently. We are all in this together.