I’ve always found the two creation narratives an endless source of inspiration and trouble. They were placed at the start of the text for a reason, as if they are the key to all that follows, but in themselves they are an abyss for speculative minds.
So what is the key to understanding these texts, so that the rest can be understood?
I want to unlock the first narrative by linking it up with a subsequent story where Abraham is visited by the three strangers. Abraham is initially at rest in the shade, but as soon as he notices the men he runs to meet them. “Let me bring you water and bread; sit in the shade as I have a lamb prepared” he says to them as he works to provide for their needs.
The story is reminiscent of the beginning, where God says “Let there be this and that”, so the idea is to link God to Abraham in this scene, and in the process bring the cosmological abstraction of Genesis 1 into relatable terms. Doing so puts God in the role of hospitable host, who has jumped to prepare for a guest in need. God works until everything is good, until the guest is provided for, and then God rests and enjoys the company.
This interpretation has significant consequences for common sense theology which takes the events of Genesis 1 to be the point of transition from nothing to something or the instigation of history. This take says otherwise, for God exists with God’s property already in tact just as the guests exist with theirs. God is not so much creating like an artist creates in this scene but rather God is serving those in need, even complete strangers.
To refer to another post, the beginning wasn’t the beginning of being or history, but rather of goodness and life. It is the beginning of hospitality, and caring for our neighbours, by which I include complete strangers and even enemies.
Thoughts? Other senses of the events described in Genesis 1?