Reading Genesis

Something happened, once, so far as we can tell, that eventuated and continues to eventuate in Being as we know it and do not know it, as we will and will not know it, all its consequences borne along in time, which may be, as Einstein said, our most persistent illusion. The vast cosmos was infinitesimal at its origins, presumably a particle, but t

In the Hebrew narrative, Creation is unified by the recurrent phrase “and it was so,” evoking again the sense of the instantaneous efficacy of God’s will, a sense of the marvelous particularity of each enrichment of the living world, and also a kind of reverent amazement on the part of the unimaginable knower, in effect observer, of this emergence

When I think there was a day when a human hand first wrote those words, I am filled with awe. This sentence is a masterpiece of compression. It approximates as closely as words allow the instantaneous realization of an intent, the bringing into being of the diversity of things that make up the world of fundamental human experience.

It is the centrality of humankind, exceptional among the myths of neighboring cultures, that draws down this order of attention to the great mystery of the origins and meaning of individual actions, and the meaning of individual lives. If questions arise about my illustrating points about the Hebrew Bible with instances from the New Testament, I th

All this is related to the fact that the Bible does not exist to explain away mysteries and complexities but to reveal and explore them with a respect and restraint that resists conclusion.

Adam and Eve disobeyed, doubted, tried to deceive. These are all complex acts of will. The old Christian theologies spoke of felix culpa, the fortunate fall. This is in effect another name for human agency, responsibility, even freedom. If we could do only those things God wills, we would not be truly free, though to discern the will of God and act

Genesis acknowledges a crucial variable that is not present in the Babylonian epics—human culpability.

The narrative introduces the idea of divine purpose, relative to humankind, its intention to be realized over vast stretches of time.

The very great tact with which God enters the human world through Abraham, respecting its expectations, is entirely consistent with the centrality He has given humankind in His Creation.