What does the Bible’s first chapter really mean? Understanding only comes when you first understand the religion of the original audience. 4000 years ago in the ancient Near East most people thought there were many gods, jealously and lustfully feuding and carousing, mirroring human society. People thought there had been numerous bloody wars in the heavens, divine juntas and revolutions between the gods. In the process the gods had slaughtered one godess in battle, butchered her body and made the parts of the cosmos from that. Then the gods got tired of all the work involved in running the world so made humans to be their slaves.
The Bible opens with a markedly different picture. There are no other gods. There is only the One who has always existed. There is no gory pantheon, no wasted battlefield from former eons of divine conflict. No. This One simply speaks into being all that is, and it is perfect from the start. And humans are not a mere after thought, slaves created by the cruel pantheon motivated by laziness. No. Where the religions of the day thought their wood and bronze sculptures were manifestations of the capricious pantheon, the Bible’s first chapter takes a radically different track: it is HUMANS whom the ONE God has created to be His instrument and representative in the world. Rather than slaving for the gods, dressing and feeding idols of wood, stone and bronze; the Bible instead introduces humanity as the noble representatives of the One, who delegates to them the benevolent care and good governance over all creation.
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