Introduction and Textual Background (Genesis 1-3)

Brad: ...of my backpack right before I left the house. So it's sitting on my dining table. So, today we're talking about Genesis one, two and three. And we'll, I'd like to spend a lot of time focusing really on Genesis two and three. But chapter one's not too bad either. So, we'll spend a little time there.

Brad: Well, so I guess I should tell you a couple of things about the text. So Genesis, written in Hebrew. And, not sure exactly of the date, but probably around 1000 BCE. Maybe. But, you know, as far as dating, the best we can do is kind of date when the text became sort of solidified in its current form. But for thousand years before, or for at least centuries before it was written down, it was exclusively an oral text. A text that, that, you know, was transmitted orally.

Oral Tradition, Memorization, and Writing Down the Text

Brad: Now one of the things that, that we find this, this is common, certainly in the Hebrew tradition, but also in the Hindu tradition that we'll look at later. The first thing you do is memorize the text. So the task of a young person, of a child, is to memorize the entire text. Even before you start learning the vocabulary, before you start learning the grammar, before you start learning what it means, before you start contemplating what, you know, how to interpret it or anything like that. Long, long, long before you start any sort of interpretation, the first step is to memorize the entire text, right? So for the Vedas, the Vedas is huge, as we'll study next week. And so memorizing the text takes, you know, 10, 12 years, you know, of very focused studied, attentive learning. Likewise in the Hebrew tradition, you know, to memorize, this is the, this is the Tanakh. So to memorize the entire thing, you know, that's a big, that's a big commitment, right? Take a lot of time.

Brad: But it also helps that, you know, the way a devotee, like a Jewish person in particular, would engage the text is they already have the entire text memorized before they even start to unpack like what does Genesis 1 mean, you know? So you can already see connections between this passage or this text and, you know, later, later sections of the text. So, the oral tradition is super important. The oral tradition, in part, it was forbidden to write the text down because of a number of reasons, but one was because there was a fear that if it was written down, people would stop memorizing it, right? And memorizing it was the whole point. Not only so that you could interpret it properly by having the whole thing in your mind, right? It's like having a giant context window, to put it in AI terms. But, so like, so then the question might be why was it written down at all? What started the, right? If you've got centuries and centuries and centuries of the text being never written down and kind of like low key forbidden to be written down. What do you think would cause, you know, a community of people to stop that tradition and to start writing it down?

Brad: Speculate. What do you think? Why would, yeah, Patrick?

Student 1: Like an existential threat, like if you're not sure if there's going to be someone to pass down the lineage maybe?

Brad: And that's, that's what most scholars, you know, recognize that that happened. So, particularly during the first century BCE, first and second centuries, the Jewish population was decimated. And so particularly adult men, you know, were decimated. And so the adult men were typically the ones that would teach the text to the children, to the next generation, right? So if it takes, you know, 10, 15 years from age like four or five to 15, 16 to memorize the text and, you know, all the people who have the text memorized are dying, that's the existential threat, right? So I mean it's the existential threat to the community, but then also like, for those that remain, you want to make sure the text is there to be learned and continued, right?

The Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Brad: So, what happened after the Maccabean revolt and some other, mostly, you know, mostly Roman occupation of Palestine. So when, when the Jewish population was especially decimated, then a small group of scholars that became known as the Essenes went off into some caves. They they hid, right? They literally hid, went off and found into the wilderness in a place where nobody was around, and they hid in caves with the primary function of writing down the text, right? So they all had it memorized. But also, when you have things memorized, you know, maybe Colin's memory is a little bit different than Riley's memory, different than my memory, right? So then people may have small differences and then so you have lots of debate or discussion over like, well is Lizzie's memory better than Jack's or what, right? So, so that's kind of what the Essenes were doing. And the text that they wrote down became known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. So the Essene community were in these caves, which are kind of basically across the street from the Dead Sea. And they went into those caves and and wrote down all these texts and then, you know, hid them so that they would be, you know, there for future generations or whatever.

Brad: Cool. One of the most famous, I guess, members of that community was a kid known to us today as John the Baptist. So he was one of the Essene community that was concerned with preserving the text and writing it down.

Textual Traditions and Names for God (Elohim, Tetragrammaton)

Brad: The text as we have it, and I'm speaking particularly, I'm really kind of speaking in general about the entire Hebrew scriptures. But they come to us from three primary, three different traditions, three different sort of, what we're really talking about is like different families, right? So like this family, this community would develop it this way, this other family and community would develop in this way, and then they would get together every once in a while and compare notes kind of things. You also have a tradition that develops over thousands of years and, you know, different parts of the text were written by different, you know, communities. And we see that, we don't have any sort of clear like historical record because it was a oral tradition at that time, right? So it's hard to trace the history of a oral tradition that gets passed along in that sort of way. But one of the ways that we have some evidence of which, which section came from which tradition is the language, the vocab that they use, right? Primarily the vocabulary they use. Particularly the name for God. And so there are, in the text that we read, you notice, the this translation includes the name for God, the Tetragrammaton. So you can look in the past in the sheet that I gave you. It's not none of them in chapter one. But in Genesis 2 verse 7, oh, you see it there, I guess verse five, maybe the first occurrence. After the word God, then you have the Hebrew. This is called the Tetragrammaton. Tetra meaning four and gramma meaning letters. So the four letters or the four symbols. And this is, this is according to Jewish tradition, the name of God. And the name of God is, in the text is prohibited. So you're not supposed to say the name of God. You can write the name of God, but pronouncing it is, pronouncing it is considered an abomination. So I try to avoid saying it. It is, so for observant Jews, since this name comes up quite frequently in the text, right? So you got to say something when the name comes up, if you're not going to pronounce the name. So typically there are two different things that are said when the name comes up. One is Hashem. Hashem is a Jewish, Jewish word. It's kind of two words together, but Jewish word, ha meaning the and shem meaning name. So Hashem just means the name. So instead of pronouncing the name, they'll say Hashem, which means the name, right? And the other one is Adonai. Adonai is typically translated as the Lord. So, so Adonai is just a Hebrew name that means, Hebrew word that means the Lord. So instead of pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, they will say either Hashem or Adonai. In English, it usually just gets translated as God. So it's translated God, whether it's the Tetragrammaton or, more commonly, and particularly in Genesis 1, all the times that it doesn't have the Tetragrammaton after it. The word there is Elohim. So El means, just E L, L means God, but kind of you would say like lowercase g God, so like a God. And Elohim is the plural form. Plural, there's different plural forms. Like, you know, in English we have, just picking words at random. We have weed, which means one thing, right? But then weeds mean, right? So weed and weeds, like singular and plural, right? But then you have words like water. We do have the word waters, but waters doesn't mean, you know what I mean? Like waters means like different bodies of water. So you don't have like a small body of water and a big body of water, you still use the same word water both ways, right? So, you have the same thing in Hebrew for certain words, like water, which you have in, in verse two. Also the heavens, Hashamayim. So those, Iim, is like a plur is the plural ending of that, but it's not just like any plural ending. It's not like adding an S, it's more like the plural of water or the plural of heaven, you know, so the sky, right?

Brad: Hopefully that makes sense. So Elohim is the word that's used primarily through Genesis 1.

Class Discussion: Genesis 1

Brad: So, why don't we, why don't we pass it over to you? I know this is a big ask on day two of the class when I still learning everybody's names to get people to jump in and have discussion. But maybe this will be a baseline for our discussion and then by the end of the semester, you'll be like, hey, remember day two when we were like so awkward and nobody wanted to talk in class. So let's focus on Genesis 1 for now. And what are some things that you noticed or surprised? Was there anything that surprised you? Anything, you know, whether this was your first time reading the text or, you know, hundredth or whatever. Was there anything that stuck out, stood out to you as particularly worth talking about or questioning or... so bad at coming up with discussion questions.

Brad: Yeah, great. Thank you.

Student 2 (Amber): I thought it was interesting that the phrase like, "And God thought it was good" is continually repeated throughout it because I feel like it sets the precedent that everything that God does is good and that everything that should be made by God is good. So I thought that was interesting.

Brad: Yeah, great. So then creation maybe all around us is good. Great. Good. Remind me your name?

Student 2: Amber.

Brad: Amber. Thank you, Amber.

Brad: Anybody else?

Brad: Yeah.

Student 3 (Henry): I thought it was interesting some of the contrast, like the response between light and dark and sea creatures and the birds. So kind of seeing like lighting up the greater light during the day and the lesser night at night. So I thought there was a focus on contrast and sort of the relationship between contrasting things.

Brad: Yeah, great. So a lot of sort of bifurcation, a dividing really. Yeah. Remind me your name?

Student 3: Henry.

Brad: Henry. Thank you, Henry. Yeah, others? Yeah, Rick?

Student 4: I thought it was interesting how there was a lot of like hard and real things that are in the world talked about in this, like light, darkness, plants, stuff like that. When last year we looked at God as a lot more of like a concept to people and then now we're kind of transforming or going a little bit more towards like real things in the real world. It's a little bit different than what we were doing a few months ago.

Brad: Okay, yeah. So not so more sort of hands-on tangible, material creator here. So yeah, good.

Brad: Yeah, great.

Student 5 (Catherine): Saying let us make humankind in our image after our likeness. So like God as a plural divine being just more than one person.

Brad: So this is not a way that in our sort of everyday talk, right? Everyday theology, that part gets kind of squashed, right? Doesn't it? I mean, the sort of, I mean, you're pointing to a certain equality of gender, but also the plural there, right? Our image. So in that case, the our is referring, I mean it's God speaking there, right? Let us make them in our image. And yeah, so that's something that, you know, translation, how you translate the text matters a great deal, right? And so that's one of those passages that is often the Hebrew, which is in plural, our image, gets translated sometimes as my image. So more in the singular. Great. Tell me your name?

Student 5: Catherine.

Brad: Catherine. Thank you.

Brad: Others? Yeah.

Student 6 (Lawyer): I think it's so interesting how this text is so old, but there's so many literary devices that we still use today, like repetition, contrast, and how it's still withstood the test of time.

Brad: Yeah, so it is, I mean, it is very poetic, right? In its structure. And remind me your name?

Student 6: Lawyer.

Brad: Lawyer. And in fact, this is, this is not the original original text. A more original text is sort of like a revamping or retelling, an updated version of one of the Psalms that we'll look at in a couple of weeks, which is pure poetry. So it's kind of and a lot of the poetic phrasing and things from Psalm 104 brought also in here. But it's also tapping into a much older mythical tradition, which I'll come back to in a moment. But great. Thank you, Lawyer. Uh, others?

Themes in Genesis 1: Goodness, Contrast, Plurality, Purpose, Problem of Evil

Brad: Yeah.

Student 7 (Tashar): I was going to say like since like it basically says like everything is like created based on like the image of God. It arises the question of like why does evil exist then and like why is like some groups discriminated in the church versus others if we're all the same and like created in the image of God?

Brad: Yeah, awesome. Remind me your name?

Student 7: Tashar.

Brad: Tashar? Uh spell it? T U S H A R. Thank you, Tashar. Yeah, so a lot of big theological questions there, right? As Amber was saying, if everything is, you know, everything is created good, there's nothing created there that was evil. So then, if everything was created as good, then where did that, where did that aspect come from, right? And Augustine's answer to that was that evil is just the absence of good. So evil is sort of non-being. So what is is good and what is not is not good. So, yeah, I don't know. It's, it's hard to, I don't know that it's like the most comforting or consoling thing when you're like the victim of injustice or something like that and be like, oh well, you know, injustice isn't real, it's just the absence of good. It's like, what does that actually help me right now, you know? So when you're pointing to like social injustice or, you know, prejudices or those kind of things, I don't know, it's not the super satisfying answer response or Augustine's response isn't so great. There is a passage, the book of Job, which we will not be looking at this semester, but Job chapter 37, where Job is, I mean, pretty much chilling with the God, they're hanging out talking, having this conversation and Job pretty much asks the same question that Tashar is like, what's up with evil, right? Like where did that, why'd you, where's that come from? You know? And God's answer is, where were you when I created the heavens and the earth? It's total non-answer. It's like I wasn't, you know, it's not, it's not for you to understand, right? Which is like, again, not very satisfying, right? But, but there at least in 37, God says, you know, where were you also when I created the great Leviathan? Leviathan is a great sea monster, which also is said to play. So we've got this aspect, maybe we'll come back to that playing aspect of the great Leviathan. Great, fantastic.

Human Dominion and Diet in Genesis 1

Brad: Yeah.

Student 8 (Hannah): I think it's interesting like right from the getgo, we're looking at what the purpose of humankind is. And for God, like the purpose is to increase and to fill the world with more humans. And to basically dominate the earth. So I just think that main focus of human is to reproduce and create more humans, which I think is just an interesting thing, especially right from the getgo.

Brad: Yeah, increase and multiply, right? Be fruitful and multiply. Yeah, there's also that, be fertile and increase, fill the waters. Wait, no, that wasn't it. Let's look at the text there.

Brad: Verse 28, chapter 1 verse 28. God blessed them and God said to them, be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it. So that master it, that maybe we're talking about too, right? Is that our, it seems like that our, what does that mean to master the earth? To rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and living things that creep on the earth.

Brad: Yeah.

Student 8 (Hannah): Yeah, I was gonna say I think it's interesting that our purpose is to have dominion over the earth and everything in it, but it's just kind of like where do you draw the line and when does it start becoming you're taking advantage of the earth instead of, you know, like ruling it. Yeah.

Brad: For sure. Yeah. And also like, even between us too, right? So like does you and I might dominate the earth in different ways, right? Or dominate the earth differently than those around us. I'm sorry, can you remind me your name?

Student 8: Hannah.

Brad: Hannah. Thank you, Hannah. And, yeah, great point Jack.

Brad: Yeah.

Student 9 (Matthew): I talked about how there's a lot of contrasting through this and like either this or that. But I found it interesting in verse 16, it kind of talks about how during day and at night, there's still light. And I just found that interesting considering if there's a lot of either this or that and then this scenario, there's lighting both scenarios.

Brad: Okay, wait, say that again. Okay, so verse 16. God made the two great lights. Okay, cool. The greater one to dominate the day and the lesser to dominate the night, and the stars. So yeah, okay, say more about what you, what what are you seeing there?

Student 9: I'm just saying it seems like we talked about how there's like contrasting and it's either like this side or that side. But in this verse, it's like there's still light in both the day and the night. And kind of see that how using this, basically no matter like what scenario it is, you can always see light through it.

Brad: Okay, yeah, word. Cool. I got you. And remind me your name?

Student 9: Matthew.

Brad: Matthew. Thank you. Great. Yeah.

Student 10 (Sean): Going along with the point before, about how humans were told to rule the the fish and the animals, but explicitly said in 30 that the green plants were for food. So I think it brings up the question for what being to rule means. For sure, yeah. Because doesn't explicitly say animals were for food, but ruling them kind of does mean the same thing, so.

Brad: Yes, yes. Remind me your name?

Student 10: Sean.

Brad: Sean. Yeah, there have been a lot of theologians, very many theologians have emphasized that particular fact that Genesis 1 seems to be very, you know, I guess what we'd say is more supportive of vegetarianism, right? And it's not really until the Covenant with Noah that, that it seems like it's okay to expand the your one's diet to to meet. But yeah, for sure, primarily seems to emphasize that green plants are for food. Yeah.

Transition to Genesis 2-3: Sabbath and Narrative Shift

Student 11 (Claire): I thought it was interesting how Genesis 1 really like is written, you know, very beautiful and very happy and harmonious and everything's going good. And I thought it was interesting how the day of rest or the break day was written into because it's kind of like an intermission before like everything goes like bad in the fall. And so like the fall sounds like it could be written by a completely different author just like in the words, in the way everything is described versus like what was supposed to be God's image, just like the contrast and the decision to make the rest day as like the break between the two. I thought that was really interesting.

Brad: Excellent. Thank you. Remind me your name?

Student 11: Claire.

Brad: Claire. So, yeah, great point, Claire. And I think maybe a great sort of segue. So we can shift towards talking about Genesis two and three. I want to, I will, we will come back towards the end and talk more about the image of God because this is a key point from today. So we'll come back to that. But, but let's, yeah, let's, on Claire's point, I mean, there is, there's so much to talk about. One is just the Sabbath, right? And the day of rest. And what does that mean for us and what does that mean for the land and those sort of things? But also, as you're saying this, we do sort of transition here, right? From, from one story to maybe a pretty different story. We've got very different vocabulary, particularly different name of God, as I said, in Genesis 2:3 versus Genesis 1.

Class Discussion: Comparing Genesis 1 and Genesis 2-3

Brad: What else sort of, you know, some people read this as one continuous story, others read it as differing stories that are kind of pulled together. Some read them as conflicting stories, some read them as non-conflicting. What do you, what do you think? What, what do you, when you read it, what do you notice any differences or what's some of the differences and things that you, that you notice? And can you just say your names as you're when you start? Yeah.

Student 12 (Brett): I'm Brett. Brett. And I thought it was interesting that in Genesis 1, he says, made them in the image of God, creating them male and female, but then in Genesis 2 chooses to create another human but separate that into woman rather than another one that is male and female. Right. Which was an interesting difference for me.

Brad: Yeah, so why not create two rather than create one and then create a second one out of that one? Is your point? Yeah, great. very good. Yeah. Yeah.

Student 13 (Mary): I'm Mary. Mary. And in terms of like how things you like changes throughout Genesis 1 and 2. I noticed that like in two, there's a lot more like tactile verbs. So like you see like God formed, God planted, whereas in one, it's more just like God or like let us do this opposed to like in two, it's like much more like hands-on.

Brad: Wow, yeah, really, really profound and important point. Thank you, Mary. So this, the the mode of creation is radically different, right? So Genesis 1, creation happens through language, through word. Let this happen, let this happen. So God speaks and it just happens, right? Just from word. Whereas, as you're pointing out in two and three, it's really super hands-on, right? God is like forming with God's hands, which is very different. So, yeah, great point. Yeah.

Differences: Creation Method, Order, Specificity, Formation of Woman

Student 14 (Ellie): I'm Ellie. And I feel like I read this as like pretty contradictory compared to Genesis 1 just because especially when it comes to like the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. I feel like, you know, in Genesis 1 it just talks about how everything he creates is good and like these green things are for humans to eat and then this kind of just goes against like everything that it said, like you can't eat it and it's, you know, not necessarily like good.

Brad: Mhm. Mhm. Yeah, so why that, also maybe just why, why make a tree that's like you can't eat, right? Like what's the what's the whole point with that, right? So I mean if everything is good, then why is like this good thing prohibited or this good thing forbidden? Yeah, Patrick.

Student 1: Well, I find it kind of interesting that he starts to develop on like the tree of good and evil and like what they're doing. And then we move back towards more of like the the actual physical life and you kind you kind of gives you a rough location of where the Garden of Eden would have been because it lists like the Tigris and Euphrates, which I think everybody knows roughly where it is in the world.

Brad: So again, yeah, back to Mary's point. I mean it's hands-on and it's like really specific, particular this spot, right? So, yeah, really great insight. Yeah. Shane?

Student 15: Kind of going like one of the similarities I found between the two, between one and two. 18 and two it says, it's not good for the human to be alone and God creates woman for man. And we see a lot of that like things having counterparts and whether they're contradicting or not in one everything that God like creates has a counterpart to it like land and sea, light and dark. So I just thought that was interesting between like creating earth having a counterpart to everything and then having humans also have counterpart.

Brad: Yeah, great. So, kind of Henry was saying about the bifurcation, right? And so, so that's sort of the dominant mode in Genesis 1 of separating and you've got all this balance and, but not so much in two and three, right? Quite quite different. Yeah, thank you, Shane. Yeah, Jack.

Student 16: I think it says in Genesis 2 where like God has the human like come up with all the names for the animals. And so that the sense like all all the animals we know today had had a name from the beginning. But how come like when like scientists discover like new species like they in the sense get to name it. Instead of there already be a name for it. We go back to Genesis.

Brad: Mhm. Well, I mean, maybe Adam, you know, just didn't keep good records, you know, so like Adam named them but we don't know, maybe. Yeah. I don't know. I don't have a response to that question. Good.

Brief Discussion on the Role of Woman

Brad: Yeah, Claire.

Student 11: I always thought the role of the woman was very interesting in these beginning chapters like how man or human was created and then human was created from the human like a woman was created from the human not like a woman never really had her own story in this Bible at all. It was just like Adam named Eve, like he was naming everything else. Like it was just like And then the woman did it because she was so like thoughtless. She just ate it and then convinced her husband to do it and he was a good husband. He did what the wife wanted like out of it just like flipped upside down. And I always wondered like if the first human was a woman would we still like have the setback we have in terms of gender like to this day in our society or you know, because the Bible wasn't written by God, it was written by man that it would these things happen like it's just like.

Brad: Yeah, word, excellent question. I think you would like Phil's Tribbles. Be happy to share that with you if you want. She writes wrestles with a lot of those questions, for sure. Those are great questions. I wish, yeah, and great points.

Context: The Babylonian Myth Enuma Elish (Tiamat, Marduk)

Brad: I want so, maybe maybe building on that a little bit or shifting gears really, but about how the texts were written and the context in which they were, which they come from. So, yeah, in the last 10 minutes, I'll give you a little bit of that. So the, the story of the Jewish people, the Hebrew people, you know, is one of periodic enslavement, really. And so during one of those periods of enslavement or exile, in Babylonia, so way back in like, you know, 900s, I don't know, I'm not good with dates and history, but 900 BC-ish, is where this text comes out of. And, or where this story is traced by scholars. And at that time, Babylonians had a myth called Enuma Elish. And the Enuma Elish creation story is one of the most ancient, and one of the most, you know, prolific or sort of like, repeated myths and stories. So you know, like an Uber myth, Uber, you know, paradigm. And it goes something like this, right? I'll give you the like the super fast version. There were, there was this, the first deity, the first, the mother of all, was female. So her name was Tiamat. And so Tiamat, the great mother, the the first mother, and she, from the great mother, comes all of creation, right? So creation comes from, she's she's the mother of all. She's the mother primarily of the gods. So she's the mother of gods. And she has a kid, she has bunch of kids. you know, being a mother just. And one of her kids is this, this jerk named Marduk. And Marduk, he's not the oldest or anything like that, but he's he's very, very ambitious, he's very driven, very power hungry, very selfish, very a lot of things. And Marduk wants to take over everything. So he kills his mom. So he kills Tiamat. And not only does he kill her, but he, her dead body becomes the earth, like the earth, the actual earth that we're living on, right? So the planet Earth, is is the dead body of Tiamat. And then as her body begins to decompose, it turns into, you know, because she's still the mother. So then all the living beings kind of emerge out and grow out of the mother Tiamat. And he also kills his father, and he, kills his father and then uses, he he's, very hands-on sort of creator. And Marduk takes the soil of the earth and turns it into, forms humans out of the soil of the earth, and then takes the blood from his father and uses the blood to animate the soil, right? So turn these clay, these clay, you know, beings into humans. And the reason that Marduk, this is super important. The reason that Marduk created humans, because this is maybe a question that we don't really get answered by the text is why is there something rather than nothing? What is the, why is, you know, why is there creation at all, right? I think Ellie brought up like, why are we here? What's our purpose? But in terms of like, why is anything there? It's not really answered by the text, I don't think. Maybe you have some something you could point to otherwise. But, but for Marduk, it's clear. Marduk created humans to be slaves to serve the gods, right? So gods have all these powers and they, you know, God's got to eat, God's got to do other things, right? Why not just create, you know, a race of humans that can do all the work for you, serve you, and then you live off of the service of the humans, right? So that's, that's the super fast version of the Enuma Elish story, right? So humans are created to be slaves for gods who get to enjoy the leisure of human service. Now, as far as creation myths go, this isn't like one that you're super stoked to tell your four-year-old at bedtime, right? This isn't like, hey, you know, you're created to be a slave and grow up to be a slave and this is your whole reason for being is to be in service to the gods that you can't see that don't seem to give you rewards or anything. You just maybe avoid punishment by being a slave to the gods, right? Who would tell this story? And more importantly, who would you tell this story to?

Brad: Yeah.

Student 19: Maybe some sort of leader like a king or something would tell the subjects this?

Brad: Yeah. So, in other words, I am like, I'm sort of like Marduk, right? Like I'm a human version of Marduk, and you're supposed to serve Marduk. And you can do that by serving me, right? So serve me and then I'll make sure Marduk gets, you know, their share, right? So way to motivate people to to serve you. Yeah. So king and, and what do you call it? People, the people that serve the king. Yeah.

Student 21: Well, and when you were saying that too, it kind of reminded me of how like some rulers are like, oh, this is my God-given right. And so it's to sort of, I guess, reinforce that power dynamic. Yeah. Because if that wasn't there, then it would be like, oh, well, why are we down here and you're out there?

Brad: Right. Yeah. So very hierarchical and like we're down here and, yep, good. Others?

Brad: It'd be a super handy, I mean, along those same lines that Mary was saying, I mean, be super handy story to tell to your slaves, right? If you had slaves, be like, well, the whole reason for humans to exist is to be slaves, right? And some slaves, some slaves are at the bottom and some slaves are higher up, but we're all slaves, right? But your job is to serve me and I serve, you know, Marduk, right?

Genesis 1 as a Liberative Counter-Narrative

Brad: So, so this was, this was a powerful tool enforced by the Babylonians on all of their slaves, which included at that time, the, you know, the the Hebrew people, the people that came, the Jewish community. So then reading it in that context, right? So with that context in mind, we might see, if we were to read the Enuma Elish story itself, I think you'd see there's far, far, far more parallels than I'm, than I'm kind of sharing with you now, between the story of Genesis, Genesis 1, 2 and 3, and and the Enuma Elish story. We don't have that here, right? We don't have the reason for your being is to be slaves, but in fact, humans aren't created as slaves, but as in the image and likeness of God, right? So then we could see that if if we read the text, I think, for me at least, when I, before I learned all of that, I didn't read Genesis 1 as a particularly liberative text. It wasn't like a text of freedom, text of liberation, right? But if you understand it within that context of like a reaction against the Enuma Elish, which is the whole point of the story is you're created to be slaves, and all of a sudden it's like, no, you're actually created to be in the image and likeness of God, not in service to God. See what I'm saying about it being very liberative in that sense, right? And so, and then, of course, ending with the the Sabbath and you're you're called not only to to work the to work the earth, but also to to enjoy it and to share, to rest. Yeah.

Discussion: Tending the Garden vs. Slavery

Student 20: This is kind of like a hypothetical question. Sure. In Genesis 2 verse 15, it says that God settled the human in the garden of Eden to till it and tend it. Mhm. So then like would he be a slave in that sense because he's working for God in the garden?

Brad: So, I mean, certainly working in the garden is, so I mean it's a it's a great question. I don't know how to answer it. You know, what, I guess, you know, how do you, how do any of us answer it? Working in the ground, working isn't slavery, right? Working isn't, so I can work the soil, I can grow food, like not being a slave doesn't mean I never have to do any work, right? But, slavery is like, I'm working, it's forced labor for the benefit of somebody else, right? But like growing my own food for myself and my family, it's not really, right? So, yes, tending the, tending the soil, but maybe that's the point is that, right? They have this ability to take care of themselves rather than working in service to somebody else is, I'm not sure if that was a good response to that very good comment or not.

Wrap-up and Next Assignment (Ṛgveda)

Brad: So we, we're out of time. Give me, give me 30 seconds. We didn't get to talk about the image of God, which is super important. So we'll come back to that next, next Thursday. For Tuesday, I will give you the text. I will share the text with you, same way as I did. I'll share them with you by tomorrow, for sure. But we're reading these, three very, very ancient hymns from the, from the, Ṛgveda. Word. Have a good weekend.