Genesis 1 as a liturgy

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Genesis 1 as a liturgy

Posted by Tim Jones on 1999-12-18
I hope this will clarify some of my ideas about the first chapter of
Genesis.   All I have done is to indent similar material by similar amounts,
in an attempt to see the underlying structure.   It looks very much like an
existing poem (containing 8 creative acts) arranged to fit a 6-day scheme,
with some insertions.

First, the actual text:

=================================================================

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.   The earth was
without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep;  and the
Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.

     And 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.

And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

     And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and
       let it separate the waters from the waters.
     And God made the firmament
       and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the
       waters which were above the firmament.
     And it was so.
     [Why didn't God "see that it was good"?]
     And God called the firmament Heaven.

And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

     And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together
       into one place, and let the dry land appear.
     And it was so.
     God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered
       together he called Seas.
     And God saw that it was good.

[Why isn't this the end of a day?]

     And God said, Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding
       seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each
       according to its kind, upon the earth.
     And it was so.
     The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to
       their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each
       according to its kind.
     And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

     And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens
       to separate the day from the night;  and let them be for signs and
       for seasons and for days and for years, and let them be lights in the
       firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.
     And it was so.
     And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon
       the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to
       separate the light from the darkness.
     And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

     And God said, Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures,
       and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the
       heavens.
     So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that
       moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and
       every winged bird according to its kind.
     And God saw that it was good.

          [This blessing interrupts the regular structure]
          And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply
          and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the
          earth.

And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

     And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to
       their kinds:  cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth
       according to their kinds.
     And it was so.
     And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds
       and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps
       upon the earth according to its kind.
     And God saw that it was good.

[Why isn't this the end of a day?]

     Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;
       and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
       birds of the air, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon
       the earth.
     So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created
       him;  male and female he created them.

          [This blessing interrupts the nice regular structure]
          And 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.
          And God said,  Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed
            which is upon the face of all the earth,and every tree with seed
            in its fruit;  you shall have them for food.
          And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air,
            and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that
            has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food

     And it was so.
     And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he
rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested
from all his work which he had done in creation.

=================================================================

Comments:

There seem to be 8 stanzas, which have been elaborated, commented on and put
into a 6-day framework:

  1.  God created light and saw that it was good
          End of Day 1

  2.  God created the firmament to separate the waters [but didn't say it
          was good]
          End of Day 2

  3.  God created seas and dry land, and saw that they were good
  4.  God created vegetation and saw that it was good
          End of Day 3

  5.  God created lights and saw that they were good
          End of Day 4

  6.  God created sea creatures and birds, and saw that they were good
          God blessed them
          End of Day 5

  7.  God created land creatures and saw that they were good
  8.  God created human beings
         God blessed them and told them their role in creation
         God saw that everything he'd made was good.
         End of Day 6.

The obvious anomalies are

(i)  Despite there being 8 creative acts, the pattern is broken by putting
two of them on Day 3 and two on Day 6.
(ii) "God saw that it was good" is mentioned after every creative act but
one.   Why was it missed out?

The first can be answered by saying that the editor wanted the material
to fit into a 7-day scheme, with the sabbath as the 7th day;  the second by
saying that the editor wanted "God saw that it was good" to be repeated 7
times - a nice symbolic number - rather than 8.

The pattern of each creative act is basically the same, but various
elaborations are added, which become lengthier as the chapter progresses.
I think there was probably originally a simpler poem or liturgy with a
regular structure along these lines:

  Priest:  "God said, 'let there be X'."
  People: "And it was so."
  Priest:  "God saw X."
  People: "And it was good."

Or maybe Genesis 1 is a liturgy based on an earlier poem.

What I don't believe is that the structure of the chapter, and in particular
its irregularities, can be explained by saying it is a historical record of
how things happened.

I haven't done anything artificial to the material:  all I've done is lay it
out in a way which enables me to see the pattern into which it falls, then
try to explain the pattern.   I didn't know what the pattern would be until
I did the exercise (a number of years ago), and I found the result
fascinating.   Personally I think that prose with such a clearly defined
structure should be called poetry.