Partnering with the Creator: A Deeper Look into the Creation Story of Genesis Chapter One

By Donald Repsher

Does the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis tell us about how our planet was created, or is it a message of hope declaring that the Creator can take what is worthless, even a life that has encountered the worst circumstances possible, and transform it into a life that is of great worth? This book shows that the first chapter of Genesis emerges from the hopeless experience of Jewish exiles in ancient Babylon and powerfully introduces the most essential message of the Bible: the Creators initiative invites human beings into a life-changing partnership intended to sustain and care for all of the Creators good creation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503584303

Donald Repsher

Donald R. Repsher was born in the small town of Bangor, Pennsylvania, and is an alumnus of Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, with a BS degree in psychology and United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, with an MDiv. degree in ministry. Throughout his career with United Methodist and Presbyterian congregations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York State, he has developed a background in Biblical history, possibilities of friendship between science and religion, and the Creator’s desire for a well-balanced diversity on planet Earth in partnership with human life. We are created to look beyond ourselves to how we can best serve God by serving our fellow human beings and the best interests of our common home, planet Earth.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Donald R. Repsher.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations contained here are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

The paraphrase of Genesis chapter one (in italics) is my own. It may be quoted, reprinted, or used in group worship without written permission if it is accompanied by this statement: "Paraphrased by Donald R. Repsher from his book, Partnering with the Creator, and used by permission."

The quotations from Pope Francis’ On care for our common home that follows this page can be found in pages 4, 150, 40 and 41 of his encyclical.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/18/2015

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Directory

1. Returning To Ancient Paths

Allegory, metaphor, and the Bible

Jesus and the Hebrews

At the crossroads

Josephus

Philo of Alexandria

St. Augustine of Hippo

Looking ahead

2. Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow

Languages and attitudes

Attitudes toward time

Time in the original language of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey

The Hebrew language and its understanding of time

The disappearing now

The past enters the 21st century

A passionate language

Yesterday = today = tomorrow

3. Too Many Goddesses And Gods

Religion in the ancient Biblical world

Abraham’s acquaintance with idols

An enlightened pagan ruler

Religion and the idolization of violence

Idols of the 21st century – and an important alternative

4. The Name In Genesis Chapter One

Elohim’s ancient origins

I. Elohim sees human needs

II.Elohim hears

III.Elohim provides strength

IV.Elohim is merciful and compassionate

V.Elohim jealously protects

VI.Elohim is faithful

VII.….Now combine them

5. Face To Face With The 21St Century

Part One: Solid foundations for a good life

Part Two: Building on good foundations

Individuality

Part 3: When can a person be considered successful?

6. Into A World Of Darkness

PART ONE Moses and the nation that could have been

How does the Bible describe a genuinely great nation?

Punishments attributed to Moses

The prophetic vision

Darkness – and spiritual enlightenment

The final convulsion – and total darkness

PART TWO Into the depths

Introducing hope

Genuine leadership and success

7. One Day: A New Beginning

The Light begins

The light on Day One

Insight beyond the limitations of words

One day, any day, light will come

Enlightenment and action

Risk takers

Where can I see the Light of Elohim?

8. Second Day: Look To The Sky!

The protective sky beyond ourselves

What kind of a person is it who would harm such a precious gift?

What does the word day mean in Genesis One?

The prophetic role of 21st century science

Elohim’s speech

9. Third Day: Look To The Earth!

The earth within our hearts

Sacrifice and the well-balanced life

Gratitude for the living planet

Why is the creation good?

Another way of looking at it

10. Fourth Day: Moonlight And Daylight

Understanding the sequence of events

Psalm 104

Psalm 136

Psalm 148

Living the spiritual life

Serving instead of getting

Every day is Elohim’s day

11. Fifth Day: Return To Earth!

Our spiritual journey brings us back to earth

Our spiritual journey takes us beyond ourselves

We are all related

The fantastic diversity of plant life

Salvation and Planet Earth

Finding our place within creation

12. Sixth Day: Questions Of Authority

Authority and responsibility

Women with Biblical authority

Authority and the use of power

Competition and cooperation

Elohim’s initiative

Greatness without grandeur

13. And On The Seventh Day… .

A worthwhile society

Gratitude

Friends and partners

When it’s finished it’s ready to begin

14. Eighth Day Reflections

Goodhearted servants in Elohim’s likeness

Sacred doubts

The value of gratitude

Bringing life to the desert

Carrying the sacred creation in one’s heart

Empathy in economics

Empathy through service

Decisions

15. Weather Reports And What Anyone Can Do

Becoming well-informed

Climate change: Global warming or global cooling?

Decades of change instead of centuries

Personal experiences

So what can we do?

The most obvious conclusions

APPENDIX A Who might have written such a far-reaching document?

APPENDIX B Genesis One and the seven-day sacred week

APPENDIX C A word with Christians

AFTERWORD My mention of Lenape Indians: a personal note

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RESPONSIVE READING: GENESIS 1:1 TO 2:3

In grateful appreciation I am dedicating this book to the memory of my professor in Hebrew, Dr. George Frey, for his patience and encouragement through my seminary years; and thank my wife, Pamela Repsher, my children, Terry Ann Modica, Karen Kaufman, and Kurt Repsher, and all the friends who have encouraged me along the process of writing this book. The book cover for this book was done by Karen Kaufman.

In dialogue with Pope Francis’ encyclical, On care for our common home

Acknowledging with gratitude the 2015 encyclical letter of Pope Francis, I dedicate my book, Partnering with the Creator, to all those concerned for the health of Planet Earth and the magnificent diversity that exists upon it. Faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, Pope Francis writes, I wish to address every person living on this planet…. I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home.

Speaking as a Protestant, and specifically as a Presbyterian pastor, I agree with Pope Francis that many voices addressing legitimate concerns about the health of Planet Earth can be helpful. In this book, Partnering with the Creator, you will discover fresh insight into the spiritual message within Genesis chapter one, whose writer reaches all the way through time and space into our own 21st century and beyond.

Political and economic circumstances from which this opening chapter of the Bible emerged speak to 21st century environmental, political, and economic as well as spiritual needs in ways that have been overlooked. The first chapter of Genesis with its historic background and creation narrative is worth investigating more deeply than has usually been done before.

When people become self-centered and self-enclosed, Pope Francis writes, their greed increases…. Our politics are subject to technology and finance. There are too many special interests, and economic interests easily end up trumping the common good and manipulating information so that their own plans will not be affected…. Whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market.

This book, Partnering with the Creator, focuses on what Genesis One can tell us about the needs of both Planet Earth’s environment and economics, and how spiritual foundations found in the first chapter of Genesis can provide hope for the future. – Donald R. Repsher

"[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

        but to do justice,

        and to love kindness,

        and to walk humbly with your God?"

                                                    (Micah 6:8)

Jesus said to them,

"Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven

is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure

            what is new

            and what is old."

                                                                    (Matthew 13:52)

GENESIS CHAPTER ONE

(paraphrased by Donald R. Repsher)

From the beginning

    Elohim¹ creates the heavens and the earth.

When the world becomes a trackless waste

    Elohim creates something new.

Think! Everything – a useless waste!

    Everything – worthless!

Nothing makes sense!

    Nothing has any purpose!

The earth? – Nothing!

    Life itself? – Nothing!

No light!

    No relief from darkness!

Only a bottomless abyss which no light enters!

    And yet….

The glory of Elohim knows no boundaries, no limits –

    everywhere, anywhere and forever!

Everything past and everything yet to come

    encounters the Spirit of Elohim!

The Spirit of Elohim

    penetrates gloom and darkness!

The Spirit of Elohim

    never departs from turbulent, raging storms!

When the voice of Elohim says Light,

    Light appears.

Elohim knows this Light is appropriate, useful and therefore good

    and enters into darkness and Light.

Elohim names the time for darkness Night

    and the time for Light Day.

Evening comes – but morning will follow.

    This is one day in a sacred week.

Elohim speaks again: "Let the sky appear

    and protect the world from harm."

Elohim stretches out the sky

    like a canopy over our heads.

Elohim gives it a name:

Sky.

Night gives way to a new day;

    and this is the second day in a sacred week.

Elohim speaks again: "Water must roll back

    and make room for land."

Elohim names the land Earth.

    And Elohim names the water Ocean.

Elohim declares this is appropriate, useful and good,

    and speaks again:

"Let the earth produce vegetation,

    all kinds of trees and plants."

Trees and plants burst into bloom,

    their seeds bear a bountiful harvest.

Elohim knows

    this is appropriate, useful and good.

Night gives way to a new day;

    and this becomes the third day in a sacred week.

Elohim speaks again: "Let there be lights in the sky

    and they will separate day from night.

They will be signs for seasons, days, and years,

    and they will provide light for the earth."

The brighter light presides over Day.

    The lesser light presides over Night.

From the sky they shine upon the earth

    and Elohim declares they are appropriate, useful and good.

Night gives way to Day.

    This is the fourth day in a sacred week.

Elohim speaks again: "Let the waters be filled with life,

    and birds fly across the sky."

Elohim creates great creatures that swim through the sea –

    and all the birds that grace the sky with their flight!

Everything is appropriate, useful and good,

    and Elohim blesses all of them.

Enlarge your population, spoke Elohim,

    fill the waters on earth and the sky above the earth with life!

Night is followed by day.

    This is the fifth day in a sacred week.

Elohim speaks again: "Let the earth bring forth animals,

    all kinds of domestic and wild animals."

From the earth come all domestic and wild animals;

    in Elohim’s sight this is appropriate, useful and good.

Elohim speaks again: "We’ll create human life like Elohim;

    and they will have authority over fish,

    and birds,

    and domestic animals and wild animals

    and everything that crawls upon the earth."

Elohim creates human life to live in the likeness of Elohim –

    male and female they are created.

Elohim blesses and consecrates human beings

    with Elohim’s own gracious Spirit.

And Elohim speaks to them:

    "Occupy the land; maintain it under appropriate control.

Have respectful, thoughtful authority over fish and birds,

    and take care of everything that moves upon the earth."

(Elohim says, "Green plants and fruit trees provide for food.

    These are gifts for humans

    and for everything that moves and breathes on earth.")

Elohim creates everything. Elohim observes everything.

    Everything that Elohim creates is appropriate, useful and good.

Night gives way to another new day –

    and this is now the sixth day in a sacred week.

A worthless void is transformed into a good creation!

    Elohim rests.

Life has a time for work

    and a time for rest.

Elohim’s world is finished,

    complete and ready

for human beings

    to make life worthwhile.

1. Returning To Ancient Paths

Many years ago I attended an inter-congregational meeting where the annual Lenten offering for One Great Hour of Sharing was introduced in a new way. One of the clergy entered, dressed in old clothes and carrying a large globe of Planet Earth. He talked about the old song titled He’s got the whole world in his hands. He suggested that we could also sing that we’ve got the whole world in our hands. And ever since then I’ve often thought about this.

Both are correct. Throughout the Bible, God’s people thought of themselves as servants of God. But the first, introductory chapter to the entire Bible describes something more. Human beings are not only servants, but created in the likeness of the Creator (Genesis 1:26-27). Sharing together – partnering together in as close a relationship as possible – maintaining and sustaining a good, wholesome, healthy world.

That beautiful song has it right. The whole world is in God the Creator’s hands. But also in our hands. The sky above us, the earth at our feet with all the surrounding sea, and the lives of our fellow human beings: everything is in our hands, God the Creator and human beings together. This creation story is a message of how a world can be transformed by the love of a beneficent God – with human beings sharing identities and partnering together. The creation story in Genesis is a very old story but with a message that is of vital importance for life in our 21st century and beyond.

Jeremiah the prophet invited the people of his time –

"Stand at the crossroads, and look,

    and ask for the ancient paths,

where the good way lies; and walk in it,

    and find rest for your souls." (Jeremiah 6:16)

He wanted his people to return to the origins of their faith, a long-ago time when they had been called Israelites and pledged allegiance to the God of Abraham and Moses.

An ancient path also exists for interpreting the first chapter of Genesis. It has been ignored for a long, long time. This path was opened by three scholars two thousand years ago whose books, after all these years, are still valued and in print: Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and St. Augustine. Their suggestion, if used carefully, provides an alternative to the familiar idea that the only way to understand Genesis One is by creating a quarrel with science. This ancient suggestion is called allegory, along with its twin sister metaphor. They are symbols used to describe another kind of reality. We’ll discuss Josephus, Philo of Alexandria and St. Augustine later. For now, let’s look at the ancient path they described for interpreting Genesis chapter one.

Allegory, metaphor, and the Bible

There are good reasons why allegory and metaphor have been ignored. They can merge into extremes that leave discernment and good judgment behind. But if traveled with care the path they opened can lead into new appreciation for the Bible as well as relevance for the times in which we live now. If this introduction to the book of Genesis and the entire Bible is not made relevant for the 21st century it will become discredited and eventually the entire Bible with it.

The Bible itself is full of allegories and metaphors. In fact, they were common ways of communication. Everybody in Bible times used them all the time. And we continue to use them. When a pounding rainstorm poured down my parents would exclaim, It’s raining cats and dogs! People refer to certain illegal drugs as crack and snow. When we drive along an interstate highway for a long distance we sometimes pull into a rest stop to use a rest room – in Canada it’s called a wash room. But neither resting nor washing is what we have in mind. They are, like allegories and metaphors, symbols for another reality.

Jeremiah used a symbol, not to be taken literally, when he told his people it was time to make a decision that would change the course of their lives. Stand at the crossroads, and look, he said. You have more than one choice. Which direction will you go? He was not referring to a street corner. He was talking about a turning point in life when an important decision is made that will either result in a life that is better or a life that is worse.

Jesus and the Hebrews

Jesus used allegories and metaphors over and over again. The kingdom of heaven, he said, can be compared to someone who sowed good seed in a field. Again, The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field. Again, The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. And again, The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. And again, The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. And again, The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind. All these are found in the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.

Messages with hidden meanings were immensely popular among teachers of the Jews. Jesus himself is frequently referred to as the lamb of God. The description of Jesus, found in the first chapter of the book of Revelation, is absolutely bizarre if taken literally: His head and his hair were white as white wool … his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze … and his voice was like the sound of many waters (Revelation 1:14).

In the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament, the book of Daniel describes one dream after another. The book begins with King Nebuchadnezzar’s strange dream. All the Babylonians thought it meant something but they couldn’t understand. Daniel, well versed in Jewish allegory and metaphor, supplied the interpretation.

The prophet Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon, described his vision of a valley covered with dried-up bones. And then God speaks. "Thus says the Lord God: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ Ezekiel repeats the words and the bones become a vast multitude" standing on their feet, very much alive (Ezekiel 37:1-14). A Babylonian hearing this would have thought it weird. The Jews with Ezekiel understood its meaning very well. It brought hope for a new life to people who had lost everything.

While some scholars believe the document that became the first chapter of Genesis may have appeared about the same time Ezekiel received his vision, others say it was written half a century or more later. I’m inclined to agree with those who think it was either written or made public about the same time as Ezekiel was giving his message of hope to hopeless people.

In other words: the creation story about a hopelessly dark and worthless world coming alive with goodness and grandeur and Ezekiel’s story about the valley of hopelessly dead bones coming alive tell one and the same message. Both stories carry hidden meanings of promise that were not understood by outsiders but were of great significance for hopeless, helpless people trapped in dire circumstances.

But when non-Jews became attracted by Jewish and Christian faiths they brought with them a lot of baggage from their own background. And soon people missed the boat and became trapped in their own failure to fully appreciate the Jewish use of allegory and metaphor.

At the crossroads

Many people in our time turn to Genesis chapter one and read what is thought to be a story about how the earth was created. Then they turn away and say, We know better. The sun and moon could not have been created on the fourth day as the Genesis story tells it, because the way we know the difference between night and day is by the moon and sun. They should have been created at the beginning because they reveal the difference between night and day. How could night and day appear without the sun and moon? The problem is baffling, and those who notice this disparity lose interest in the entire Bible. Instead of successfully defending the Bible, well-intentioned people inadvertently bring the Bible into disrepute.

Would it be better to find an alternative, especially since an alternative was already found two thousand years ago? Is it time to return to some ancient paths and discover insights that have been neglected for so many centuries and adapt this for what can be learned for the 21st century?

The influence of foreign nations had always influenced and been influenced by Jewish culture in one way or another. Even those who were sympathetic to Jewish traditions did not always have the benefit of the Jewish mind-set. Jewish tradition used stories and parables to illustrate wisdom.

Jesus complained about the difficulty his people were experiencing in understanding the messages within his stories. When his disciples asked why he taught in parables and allegories (even though rabbis were also teaching the same way) he quoted from the prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before: This people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing (Matthew 13:10-16, cf. Isaiah 1:3 and 6:8-13).

Leaping forward two thousand years we come to the 20th and 21st centuries and the continuing controversy between religion and science. Attention has been fixated entirely too much on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. No time has been spent examining how scholars at the dawn of the Christian era had interpreted the first chapter of Genesis. Why?

Too much time has been lost, too many people have turned away from rich insights that could have empowered their life with much good and could make the world a better place. Is it time to return to some ancient paths and discover insights about the nature of allegory and metaphor because they are found so frequently within the Bible itself?

We mentioned Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, and St. Augustine. They opened windows to a breath of fresh air instead of being confined to the literalism that influenced so much of the non-Jewish population. Let’s examine these scholars from long ago and ask if their ideas could be of value for understanding the real merit of Genesis One and how this can make the first chapter of Genesis (which was chosen to introduce the book of Genesis and in turn the entire Bible) astonishingly relevant for our 21st century.

Josephus

Josephus was a Jew and a scholar of Jewish history who wrote for a non-Jewish audience. Born in the year 37, a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus, he died in or around the year 100 A.D. At the beginning of his lengthy book, Antiquities of the Jews, he referred to the first chapter of Genesis. We’ll use William Whiston’s translation of the Greek language used by Josephus:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. But when the earth did not come into sight, but was covered with thick darkness, and a wind moved upon its surface, God commanded that there should be light: and when that was made, he considered the whole mass, and separated the light and the darkness; and the name he gave to one was Night, and the other he called Day; and he named the beginning of light and the time of rest, the Evening and the Morning. – And this was indeed the first day."²

Josephus writes in his preface to The Antiquities of the Jews: "Our legislator [Moses]