man, born of woman 1: the invention of religion

"and adam knew eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare cain, and said, i have gotten a man from the lord. and she again bare his brother abel. and abel was a keeper of sheep, but cain was a tiller of the ground. and in process of time it came to pass, that cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the lord. and abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. and the lord had respect unto abel and to his offering: but unto cain and to his offering he had not respect. and cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell." (genesis 4:1-5)

our history begins. the woman, now named eve, "the mother of all," mothers: ". . . she conceived, and bare cain, and said, i have gotten a man from the lord. and she again bare his brother abel, and able was a keeper of sheep, but cain was a tiller of the ground."

the first first born, the first two brothers, the first favourite son. now it is the woman who names, and cain's name is a proud statement of achievement while abel's means at best merely "brother" and perhaps merely "futile."

the futile second brother seems to ignore the curse on the ground, not eating of it but becoming a shepherd, precurser to david and the messiah.

hard-working, brow-sweating cain, however, tills the ground and invents religion: "cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offering unto the lord."

much of the strength of these stories is their spare emptiness. one of the few things helpful that i learned in seminary is that the why question is seldom helpful. this story does not present us with whys.

so we speculate, perhaps, why cain made this offering. he is not told to. leon cass, in one of the most insightful readings of genesis i have found, the beginning of wisdom, suggests that cain must have thought the holy one like himself, and hungry. (noah, released from the ark, also ". . . builded an altar unto the lord . . . and offered burnt offerings on the altar" (gen. 8:30), and in what can be seen as the ultimate ironic fulfillment of this passage as prophecy, jesus, released from the tomb, will prepare for the disciples "a fire of coals . . . , and fish laid thereon, and bread." (john 21:9))

"and abel, he also brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. and the lord had respect unto abel and to his offering: but unto cain and his offering he had not respect. and cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell."

i am tempted toward theodicy here, to quote later scriptures about the holy one's knowing the hearts of men (a theme which also crops in john's gospel (2:24-25)), but the text does not say anything about what the holy one knows about the brothers' hearts or why he respects one's sacrifice and not the others'. rather, i will suggest this story shows how limited man's knowledge is. we are, as eve said, "beguiled" by "shiny things" (the hebrew name for serpents), and nothing seems so shiny to us as our own good ideas about religion.

an excursus on eating

so much happens in these first chapters of genesis that it's easy to let some of the "most important themes slip by unheard. so, i want to take a moment to think about the role of eating in genesis.

the second commandment is about food:

"and god said, behold, i have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, i have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." (genesis 1:29-30)

(the first commandment, to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (genesis 1:28), is perhaps fulfilled, but in an unsatisfactory manner.)

so the man and the woman (it is not really accurate to call them adam and eve, since adam means both of them, male and female, and the name eve does not occur until after the fatal bite) sin by eating the forbidden fruit.

again and again eating, being fed, banqueting, or feasting will occur in the scriptural story. indeed the ultimate act of salvation will be celebrated in a holy meal.

songs between the acts: the begats

i try to be a minimalist, so i've never bought a copy, but my little branch of the one holy catholic and apostolic church publishes my pedigree. it lists my consecrating bishop richard's chief consecrator, and his chief consecrator adrian's chief consecrator, and so on all the way back to peter in antioch. peter was martyred in rome, and he may have been the bishop of rome, but he almost certainly was the bishop of antioch, and his chair is there to prove it. when each year in mid-january even the roman church celebrates the feast of peter's chair, it his chair in antioch that is remembered.

this is one of the meanings of apostolic succession: the physical reception of the power of the holy spirit to perform the office of a bishop by the laying-on-of-hands of previously consecrated bishops. there is another part, the nature of which can be a bit mor controversial: the passing on, the tradition, of the faith and teaching of the apostles. one of the specific parts of the teaching i received was the liturgy of sts. addai (thaddeus in the new testament) and mari (addai's barnabas, as it were). this liturgy, this work of the people of god, was widely spread in the first days of the church's going into all the world, being taken into persia, burma, and india. as we recite these ancient prayers still today, we gather "to remember that which we have received through tradition from [the father], rejoicing, glorifying, exalting, commemorating, and celebrating this great mystery of the passion, death, and resurrection of our lord jesus christ."

i take this somewhat backwards entry to discussing the "begats" because to many who call themselves christian they are perhaps even less interesting than the details of my apostolic succession. in the big church, however, apostolic succession is what assures church unity, and in a similar way it is the begats that assure the unity of the story of scripture. the new testament begins with the begats leading to jesus (and apostolic succession may be thought of as the spiritual begats after jesus). like themes in much great music, the begats start simply, and grow. so we find simply in the fourth chapter of genesis, "and adam knew eve his wife: and she conceived, and bare cain . . . ." (4:1) what follows is easy to understand as part of the same story that began innocently in the garden.

as the story grows longer, and more complicated, the acts are often separated by longer periods of time with fewer details. the begats that start matthew's gospel will lead all the way from abraham. luke's gospel takes them back to adam. but whever the song of the begats is sung, it reminds us that the acts it connects are part of the same great operatic story, assuring its unity. "and celebrating this great mystery of the passion, death, and resurrection of our lord jesus christ."

mis en scene: genesis 1:27-28

this passage says far more than one might wish.

"so god created man in his own image,
in the image of god created he him;
male and female created he them.
and god blessed them,
and god said unto them,
be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth and subdue it.
and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowls of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

this is one of the most commented-upon passages in all scripture. these few sentences, which to some readers have seemed to describe a more-or-less self-evident situation, can also be very controversial. for many non- or anti- or even professing-christian environmentalists, they seem to be the reason for western, nominally "christian" civilization's trashing of creation. then there are christian apologists who defend the bible and argue that modern westeners have it all wrong. in fact there is even a green bible (new york: harpercollins, 2008), with all the words in green which support an environmentally aware reading of the texts.

i would point out merely two examples to suggest that the text is not responsible for our greedy subduing without replenishment. first there is the demise of the anasazi, a native american culture which should act better if our idea of the noble savage is correct, but who apparently acted just as greedily as we do and over-consumed themselves right out of existence without the benefit of this story. then there was the necessity for nineteenth-century capitalists to free themselves from any restraints of scripture, a desire that expressed itself as darwinism, which was well-described by nietzsche, and which led to the modern wonders of the war to end all wars, and then endless war.

(please note that what was most helpful to the expanding capitalism of the nineteenth century was not a theory of evolution. indeed, gregory of nyssa, commenting on genesis in the creation of man, had assumed an evolutionary working out of creation in the fourth century. but gregory's understanding was of creation, with a creator. nineteenth-century darwinism removed the creator from the mix. no longer were all men created in the image of god. if, say, the zulu had to be destroyed for the species to make progress, it could be written off as the survival of the fittest.)

in this passage of genesis is expressed the biblical understanding of humanity's place in the universe, a place the psalmist would find quite remarkable:

"what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
thou madest him lower than the angels,
to crown him with glory and worship.
thou makest him to have dominion of the works of thy hands;
and thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet:
all sheep and oxen; yea, and the beasts of the field;
the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea;
and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas." (psalm 8:4-8)

it is a place we find difficult to accept, either yielding to the temptation to "be as gods" (genesis 3:5), or denying our responsibility: "am i my brother's keeper?" (genesis 4:9) these extremes of human behaviour are not limited to the early stories of genesis. still today we overreach ourselves, gleefully unleashing nuclear power, a force over which truly we are powerless. and we look around at global warming, demonstrably the result of human activity, and say, these are just natural cycles; no need for us to act responsibly.

"and god said unto them,
be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth and subdue it.
and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowls of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

it is possible to look at the bible as the story of how poorly we have carried out these first commandments, with jesus the ultimate example of how it should be done.

an interlude: the music and the song

when i was born, my father bought me two gifts: a set of the american educator encyclopedia, and a speedo swim suit; whether he was encouraging a penchant for knowledge and near-nakedness, or minimalism, i'm not sure, but i still find the excess baggage of baggy swimwear silly, and i remember the end-papers of the encyclopedia vividly.

the endpapers showed the relative size of objects in the universe, described in powers of ten, with a hydrogen molecule as the smallest, the galaxy as the largest, and man right in the middle. i don't know how accurate this was, but it does reflect a good theological understanding of man's place in the universe in the biblical tradition.

indeed it is not only in the biblical tradition, but widely, that a human being is seen as a microcosm. the imago dei of genesis chapter one is also an image of the cosmos. between all the parts of creation there is a harmonic relationship. the pythagoreans understood this, and found it the basis of how we understand the universe; students at st. john's college in annapolis and santa fe start their education with pythagoras until this day.

if, however, the very nature of creation is musical, it does not therefore follow that there is only one song. so if i take the writings of the christian scriptures very seriously, and find in them a great song of the holy one's revelation to us, i am not claiming that this is the only way we can know god. indeed, it is the harmony between the revelation of creation (see my blog cycles of praise), the revelation of scripture, and ultimate the revelation in god the son, jesus christ, which verifies the truth of the song heard in scripture.

not all knowledge was contained within the volumes of the encyclopedia my father gave me at my birth. not everything we can know of god is contained in the book we believe our heavenly father gave us, either. but such gifts can be very good starts.

enter discord

"now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the lord god had made. and he said unto the woman, yea, hath god said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? and the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, god hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: for god doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.


"and they heard the voice of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god amongst the trees of the garden. and the lord god called unto adam, and said unto him, where art thou? and he said, i heard thy voice in the garden, and i was afraid, because i was naked; and i hid myself. and he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof i commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? and the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and i did eat. and the lord god said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? and the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and i did eat. and the lord god said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. unto the woman he said, i will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. and unto adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which i commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

"and adam called his wifes name eve; because she was the mother of all living. unto adam also and to his wife did the lord god make coats of skins, and clothed them. and the lord god said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. so he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (genesis 3)

of course, i cannot begin to exhaust the many meanings, the many melodies that flow through this part of the story. i remember another time, a saturday, in which i found myself in four very different groups of people through the day, and each group found a reason to talk about this story. the groups ranged in "belief" from fairly orthodox christian to adamantly anti-religious folk who described themselves as "scientific" or "spiritual." all of them however found material for discussion and discovery in this story. no one simply dismissed the story as unworthy of consideration.

there are some things i would point out. one is that when the serpent and eve are talking about the holy one, they call him "god," the theoretical, transcendant god of the intellect. when the holy one returns in the cool of the evening to walk with his creatures, it is YHWH, the holy one who is a person with a name.

this holy one, i suppose, knows what has happened. but he is not sending his lightning bolts ahead of him to fry the miscreants. it is only when they first try to hide from him, adam blaming eve, eve blaming the serpent, that what we often call "original sin" is manifested. once again, this, you see, is the "the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, who dwells in the high and holy place, who also dwells with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite." (isaiah 57:15)

from this point onward, at least unto the resurrection accounts in the gospels, in which i would include the pentecost story of the acts of the apostles, the songs are about the high and lofty one's actions to restore that original and deep communion which our pride breaks.

back to the garden

the next story of creation in genesis is one of the most engaging works in all of literature. i suppose we should start by reading it:

"these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the lord god made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the lord god had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
and the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
and the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. and out of the ground made the lord god 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 knowledge of good and evil. and a river went out of eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. the name of the first is pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. and the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of ethiopia. and the name of the third river is hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of assyria. and the fourth river is euphrates.
and the lord god took the man, and put him into the garden of eden to dress it and to keep it. and the lord god commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
and the lord god said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. and out of the ground the lord god formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. and adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for adam there was not found an help meet for him. and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the lord god had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. and adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." (genesis 2:4-25)

i remember once going to a talk by a christian environmentalist at a baptist church, no less. i don't remember his name, except jim, but i remember the poster he distributed. it was of print of a painting by diana bryer showing adam and eve sitting under a tree, surrounded by animals of all kinds, with a caption saying "god's original intention was to hang out in a garden with a couple of naked vegetarians.

when i took the poster home to the community in which i was living, we stayed up for about three hours talking about the poster. it generated all sorts of responses, this depiction of only some of the images in this story. and several times the poster was "borrowed" by other friends who loved it so much they wanted to enjoy it in their own homes for a while.

i suspect the reaction so many of us had to the poster is a result of the intrinsic understanding we have that originally we were made for a very deep and intimate communion with god, an understanding that has been part of many human activities, and reflected in many poems and songs, such as crosby, stills, and nash's back to the garden.

unfortunately, human activity does not always bring about the results we want, as we find in this next chapter of genesis.