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Creation, Vocation, Crisis and Rest Review and Expositor, 103, Spring 2006

Creation, Vocation, Crisis and Rest: A Creational Model for Spirituality By Robert R. Ellis*

ABSTRACT

People of the church today join with persons of every generation in asking the fundamental questions of life: "Who am I?/'"What should I do?/'"How can I cope?/' "Where can I find wholeness?" These are spiritual questions that go to the heart of human existence. This article proposes a creational model based on Genesis 1-3 for addressing these questions in a practical manner in the church. The model considers four contexts for the experience of human spirituality: Creation, Vocation, Crisis and Rest. Each context relates to one of the fundamental questions above: (1) "Who am I?"ln the context of Creation, spirituality involves being what God has created us to be: persons of worth who have a unique relationship with God, who enjoy God's creation, and who find belonging in community; (2) "What should I do?" In the context of Vocation, spirituality involves doing what God has created us to do: promote order/stability and life/creativity within divinely-set boundaries; (3) "How can I cope?" In the context of Crises, spirituality involves coping by means of trusting God and remaining faithful to our creational identity and calling; and (4) "Where can I find wholeness?' In the context of Rest, spirituality requires movement into the sacred time of Sabbath where God re-creates life within us, moving us toward wholeness.

The creation stories in the opening chapters of Genesis provide some foundational stones for building a concept of spirituality in the church.

* Robert R. Ellis is Associate Dean and Phillips Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Logsdon Seminary, Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas.

Everything begins in Genesis, including spirituality. The creation stories in the opening chapters of this remarkable book provide some foundational stones for building a concept of spirituality in the

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church. The second verse of the Bible announces that " the spirit/wind (ΓΠΠ— rûah) of God was moving" over the primal stuff of the cosmos to begin the creation of all things. In Genesis 2 we learn of God's breathing the breath/spirit (ΠΟΕ?] C T I —nismat hayyîm) into clay-made-flesh so that the flesh became a h u m a n being. Genesis 3

dramatizes the primal moral failure of humanity and its consequences. Spirituality is palpable in these creational stories, offering rich resources for the church to speak about the spiritual life.

My objective in this article is to provide one model for thinking about human spirituality from the creational texts of Genesis 1-3. The goal is a practical one: to provide a framework for teaching and preaching about some significant spiritual issues. The creation stories of Genesis 1-3 offer a model based on four contexts for understanding the spiritual life; the contexts are Creation, Vocation, Crisis, and Rest.1

On a methodological note, Genesis 1-3 contains two creation stories, traditionally identified as the Priestly (l:l-2:4a) and Yahwistic (beginning at 2:4b).2 While the two accounts have important differences, this article will focus on the consensus of ideas one finds in reading the two stories side by side as they appear in the canon. I also assume that the creation accounts have a paradigmatic value, which is to say they communicate some things about the spirituality of every human life.3

Creation

Creation of Humans in Genesis 1-2

First, we consider the context of Creation in developing a model for spirituality, beginning with an overview of Genesis 1-2 that highlights a few relevant motifs. Following the heading in 1:1, the Priestly account of creation describes the "earth" as a dark, watery abyss in a state of tohu waböhu, "formlessness and emptiness" (1:2a).4 The images offer a faint allusion to the ancient Near Eastern notion of primeval water as chaos, but the text describes neither the origin of the abyss nor the source of the chaos. It is unconcerned with those issues.5

The rûah, "spirit/wind," of God moves over the dark abyss and the drama of creation begins. In six days, divine words and actions focus on

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the creation of order and life. God replaces the formlessness (tôhû) with order by creating the physical structures of the cosmos: light/dark, air/ water, land/sea. Then God forms "creatures" to fill the cosmic s t ruc tures wi th life —with generative vitality, obliterating the emptiness (bohû) of verse 2a. The sun, moon and stars fill the light; birds and sea creatures fill the air and water; and the other animals and humans fill the land. Thus in six days God brings order and life into the chaotic, empty abyss.6

The Priestly account also emphasizes the interrelatedness of the order and life of creation. The structures of creation—light, water and land— provide essential resources for the survival of living things. Plants provide food for the other creatures. Humans in turn care for the plants and animals. The result is an interplay of the static, structured order of creation with the dynamic, creative life of the cosmos.7 And God said of the harmonious order and life: "It is very good."

When the Priestly account arrives at the point of the creation of humans, the pace of the narrative slows, and the rhetoric becomes more expansive, calling attention to the importance of the subject matter. God creates the humans in God's own image - male and female. Part of what imago Dei ("image of God") suggests is that humans are uniquely connected to the divine. They possess a capacity to reflect

and represent something of God's nature, and, as a consequence, they have intrinsic worth.8

While the first account of creation is cosmic in scope, the second is intimate. In the first, relationships are abstracted; in the second, they are personalized. So, the Yahwist depicts God as a potter who dirties divine hands in fashioning a human from the clay of the earth. Then God personally breathes life into the mortal. Rolf Knierim notes that in the Old Testament, all creatures—animal and human alike—are spiritual beings, for they all possess the breath/spirit that comes from God.9 All creatures are also dependent upon God for the continuation of this spirit of life. Humans, though, have a unique connection with the deity, which the animals do not share, for God directly breathes the life spirit into human flesh.10

As imago Dei, humans possess a capacity to reflect and represent something of God's nature, and, as a consequence, they have intrinsic worth.

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Besides giving the spirit to humans, God also gives them an ideal environment. Eden (meaning "bliss") is a true pleasure garden that abounds in over-abundant water, food, and beauty. But the first human has one other need—community. So, God creates the woman to be a helper who is kënegdô, that is, "an opposite who is corresponding to

him."11 The natural connectedness of the woman and the man is the theme of the first love song: "Bone of my bones.. .flesh of my flesh." They indeed find intimate community together.12

Spiritual Identity: Being

This partial summary of Genesis 1-2 provides the first context for exploring spirituality—what creation implies about human identity. People in every generation ask: "Who am I?," "Where do I belong?," and "What am I worth?" These are questions of identity, of being, and their answers shape one's basic view of spirituality. The creation texts offer at least three ways of describing human identity—that is, what humans are created to be.

(1) "Who am I?" We are spiritual creatures who are uniquely connected to God in a relationship of dependency. God gives us life as spiritual beings; relates to us intimately through words and actions; and provides for our needs, either directly or indirectly.13

(2) "Where do I belong?" The creation texts indicate that we find identity, we find - , . , . , - J . We are human when we belonging, within the human community e n j o y relationships with and within a world of order and life (that other creatures and the is, a world which has a basic character of beautiful bounty of the stability and vitality). We are human when cosmos. we enjoy relationships with other creatures and the beautiful bounty of the cosmos.

(3) "What am I worth?" We are created to have an essential goodness, which we share with the rest of creation, and to possess a unique value as God's image.

I remember when my eldest daughter began kindergarten her teacher told us that her goal was for each student to feel good about herself or himself by the end of the year. My reaction was to wonder, "Is that all?" I wanted Katherine to learn at least a little about reading, math, and science,

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too. The teacher, though, had her objectives in order. She was focused on the central issue. By "feel good" she did not mean that she wanted to make every student happy; she meant that she wanted each to have a sense of self worth. Some of us in the church failed to learn everything we needed to know in kindergarten, and we are still trying to figure out if we have any value. Spiritual fulfillment depends on the acceptance of the self-worth God has given each person in creation.

Genesis 1-2 provides the church with a definition of human identity. God has made us to be spiri tual creatures who are uniquely and dependently related to God; who find community and enjoyment in a world of order and life; and who accept God's gift of personal value. Spirituality, then, begins with embracing this identity. Or to say it another way, spirituality means in the first place being what God has created us to be.

Vocation

Divine Calling in Genesis 1-2

A second context that the creation texts suggest for talking about spirituality is that of Vocation.14 The related spiritual question is "What are humans supposed to do?"

Genesis 1 speaks of God blessing animals and humans by giving them the power to multiply, to participate with God in the creative process. Thus, one part of the human vocation is to help fill the earth by reproducing. Humans, along with other creatures, are "co-creators" with God in generating new life.15 God also calls the humans to tasks that they do not share with the animals—tasks that facilitate the orderliness and vitality of the other living things. The Yahwist indicates that God placed the humans in Eden to cultivate the ground. In the Priestly account the description of the human management of resources is much more assertive, for God instructs them to have dominion over the creatures of the earth, at least so far as it is within their power to do so.16

The description of humans as the image of God is relevant at this point. As stated earlier, part of what imago Dei implies is that people reflect something of God's na ture . That reflection includes being God's

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representative rulers on earth. Such is suggested by the structure of Gen 1:26, in which the statement about being in the "image of God" is followed immediately by the instruction to "have dominion," as if the lat ter defines the former. This interpretat ion is suppor ted by ancient-Near-Eastern parallels wherein a king is described as the

image of his deity in the sense of being his god's representative ruler. The Priestly story of creation seems to appropriate and democratize the concept with its claim that the divine image is in every human, so that each person is a representative ruler for God. Such representation implies that humans are to imitate God's governance of creation with the result that their management of the earth preserves its goodness.17 As rulers representing God, humans are called to fulfill a role of serving creation, rather than exploiting it for self-centered ends.18

The fact that humans have a divine calling implies they are also accountable—accountable to God for using their power to contribute to the stability and creativity of the earth. Human accountability for the use of the earth's resources arises in another way in the Yahwist's story. There God's instructions allow them to eat any of the beautiful, delicious fruit of Eden except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The implication is that humans fulfill their vocation in a world that has not only a physical order but also a moral order.

The Spirituality of Vocation: Doing

The people of the church struggle with vocational issues. We start the questions early when we ask children, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Young people wonder, "What career should I choose?" as they make decisions about which profession will bring fulfillment. Middle age often renews vocational questions; median adults ask, "Has my life made a difference?" And older persons wonder, "What shall I do in retirement?" as they attempt to redefine vocation after leaving their professions.

Genesis 1-2 p rov ides a context for addressing the questions of vocation at a Genesis 1-2 provides a spiritual level. These texts do not necessarily context for addressing the tell i nd iv idua l s which professions to questions of vocation at a

_ , _ r . . spiritual level, choose—whether to be nurses, or chefs, or

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engineers; nor do they identify the careers that are rewarding. But they do suggest a broad vocational purpose that brings fulfillment: God has called every h u m a n to the vocation of promoting the order and life of creation. The goal of such a spiritual vocation is to contribute to the goodness that God has placed within creation.19

This perspective suggests that our creational vocation transcends chosen professions or retirement from them. The promotion of the earth's stability and creative vitality is a life-long pursuit that we choose each day, regardless of the work we do.

Another way to talk about the issue is in terms of how we use power. The creation texts indicate that God has endowed every human with a degree of power through the gifts of divine image and spirit.20 Genesis calls us to use this power within certain boundaries, so that we contribute to order and life and respect God's freedom to prohibit certain actions—to say, "That fruit, that behavior, is 'off limits.'"

One can imagine profitable discussions among parishioners that explore the practical implications of Genesis 1-2 with regard to chosen vocations. The discussion might consider what it means to promote order/stability and life/creativity as a musician or marketing consultant, as a chemist or English teacher. Or the group might discuss the use and abuse of creational powers in chosen professions—in law enforcement, journalism, athletics, ministry, or some other area.

To summarize this second issue of vocation, spirituality involves doing what God has called us to do. We are called to a vocation of promoting and generating order and life, while respecting divinely-set boundaries on the use of power.

Crisis

Crises in Genesis 3

The third context for talking about spirituality in Genesis 1-3 is that of Crisis. In chapter 3 the first humans face crises related to how they cope with threats to their well-being.21 The first threat appears through the woman's conversation with the serpent, who stimulates in her an anxiety about whether following God's instructions will promote or limit future

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^ξ"ί h a p p i n e s s . The serpent suggests that the

prohibition regarding the tree of the knowledge of

good and evil is an unfair restriction. Theories

k ^ ^ ^ ^ p ^ l abound concerning the meaning of the phrase

I p f ^ "knowledge of good and evil," one of the most

intriguing ambiguities of the text. The most helpful

approach understands the tree's fruit as a symbol

for wisdom—a kind of wisdom that belongs to God and that God alone

has the prerogative to control.22 The story gives no moral justification for

the prohibition of this fruit of wisdom. The failure to provide an obvious

rationale creates space for the humans' anxiety and allows the serpent to

supply the explanation. The serpent implies that the divine prohibition is

unfair and that God is personally threatened by the humans' potential

should they eat of the fruit. In short, God cannot be trusted to look out for

the welfare of the humans. 2 3

When confronted with the anxiety the serpent raises, the humans

conclude the divine limitation is indeed a threat to their well being. Since

God cannot be trusted, they act autonomously to protect their own interests.

In eating the fruit, they reject their identity as creatures in a relationship

dependent upon God. They demonstrate dissatisfaction with their place in

creation. They also reject their vocation of using divinely-shared power

within boundaries.2 4 Their choice winds up being a choice for chaos and

death, rather than for order and life.

One consequence of their disobedience is expulsion from Eden. While

life outside the garden is dramatically different, the humans retain their

identity. They still have worth in God's eyes, for God chooses to leave the

breath of life within them and even aids in covering their new insecurity.

They remain spiritual creatures who are dependent upon and accountable

to God. However, east of Eden, they must

live with a degree of fear and alienation

from the divine; never again will they

enjoy meeting God on those walks in the

pleasure garden. The humans still have

community east of Eden, even though the

re la t ionships wi th one another are

skewed, having shifted from the intimacy

of corresponding-ness to the pain of

patriarchalism.25 The vocation of the humans also remains the same outside

the garden. The tasks of managing the earth's resources and creating new

The humans still have community east of Eden, even though the relationships with one another are skewed, having shifted from the intimacy of corresponding-ness to the pain of patriarchalism.

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life continue—though toil and pain are now part of the job. Thus, the new crisis, the new anxiety, for the humans becomes how to cope with life east of Eden, where the threats to well being are not just imagined (as they were in Eden), but real.

The Spiritual Invitation of Crises: Trusting

The crises of Genesis 3 offer a context for helping the church think about the spiritual implications of the ways we cope with threats to our well being.

1. Like the humans in Genesis 3, we face the crisis of whether we will accept the divine definition of our creational identity and vocation. We choose whether we will be satisfied with our status as creatures who live within divinely-set boundaries or whether we will attempt to exert unbounded autonomy. We choose whether we will follow God's calling to use power and resources to promote order and life within our worlds, or to focus all our energies on self. We choose whether to enjoy the structures and bounty of the world God has created or try to create a world of our own design where chaos, anxiety and enmity skew the dimensions of our existence. The choices we make are driven by the degree of trust we have in God—whether we think God's agenda will lead to our well being or will deny the realization of our full potentials. If we find ourselves in the Yahwist's story in such a way that it helps to interpret reality for us, then the story has the potential to encourage trust in the Creator and rejection of the surrealistic world of self-focused autonomy.

2. Of course, we in the church also face the crisis of living with the consequences of our own moral failures— with damage to relationships with God, communi ty and the ear th . Genesis 3 illustrates two unsuccessful attempts to cope. Hiding from God in fear and refusing to accept responsibility only exacerbate alienation. The opposite approach, which the God of Eden invites humans to follow,

is one of accepting accountability, seeking reconciliation, and opening one's self to the grace that covers shame.

3. Besides dealing with the direct consequences of our own sin, we who are in the church face other crises that come with life east of Eden. We

We in the church also face the crisis of living with the consequences of our own moral failures—with damage to relationships with God, community and the earth.

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struggle to cope with the pain, toil and death that are part of the world in which we live. The creation texts imply the strategy of coping by maintaining a sense of creational identity and vocation—by tenaciously being and doing what God has created us to be and do.

In crises, we are keenly aware of our identities as creatures—fragile creatures. Genesis calls us also to remember our identities as spiritual beings who are valuable to God and who are created to depend upon divine provision. The invitation to trust God in the midst of crisis becomes a dominant theme in many other biblical texts, finding its most poignant expression in Psalms of lament.

Another part of the strategy for coping with crisis is to maintain one's involvement in the human vocation of contributing to order and life. Even when crises deplete our creational resources and our power to act is diminished, continuing to promote order and life, as far as it is possible, is a movement toward stability and vitality in the midst of chaos. A remarkable illustration of this point comes from the Bosnian conflict of the last decade.

On May 27,1992, a bakery in Sarajevo—one of the few that still happened to have a supply of flour—was making bread and distributing it to the starving, war-shattered people. At 4 pm, a long line stretched out into the street. Suddenly a shell fell directly into the middle of the line, killing 22 people instantly and spattering flesh, blood, bone, and rubble over the entire area. Not far away... lived a 37-year-old man, a musician named Vedran Smailovic. Before the war he had been the pr incipal cellist of the Sarajevo Opera....When he saw the carnage from the massacre outside his window, he was pushed past his capacity to absorb and endure any more. Driven by his anguish, he decided to take action, and he resolved to do the thing he could do best. He made music . . .

Every day thereafter, at 4 pm precisely, Vedran Smailovic put on his full, formal concert attire, took up his cello, and walked out of his apartment into the midst of the battle raging around him. He placed a little camp stool in the middle of the crater that the shell had made, and he played a concert. He played to the abandoned streets, to the...burning buildings, and to the terrified people who hid in the cellars while the bombs dropped and the bullets flew.

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Day after day, he made his unimaginably courageous stand for human dignity,...or compassion, and for peace. Although the shellings went on unabated, and death and destruction stalked the streets, he was never hurt; he seemed to be protected by a divine shield, even during his darkest hour when his beloved cello was itself destroyed.26

Smailovic provides an extreme example of acting on behalf of order and life in one of the darkest corners to be found anywhere east of Eden. His action imitates the divine behavior of bringing stability, vitality and beauty out of a formless void. It illustrates courageous spirituality in the face of chaos.

The crises of living east of Eden can become opportunities of spiritual growth for the people of the church. When well being is threatened the Genesis texts invite us to trust in God and remain faithful to creational identity and calling. By so doing, we discover, out there on the fringes of our capacities to cope, a new depth of intimacy with God and a deeper sense of belonging in

The crises of living east of Eden can become opportunities of spiritual growth for the people of the church.

the world community.

Rest

Divine Rest in Genesis 2

The fourth and last context for thinking about spirituality in Genesis 1-3 is the context of Rest. The idea appears at the end of the Priestly creation account, which states that when the creative work of the first six days was completed God rested, blessed and sanctified the seventh day. While the seventh day of creation is not called "Sabbath" in Genesis 2, the idea is certainly present, and the root for "Sabbath" (sbt) appears in the verb translated "rest" (wayyisböt [Gen 2:2]).

This seventh day of creation is the climax of the Priestly account. While making humans is a climactic event within the span of the first six days, it

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is not the pinnacle of the creation week. The fulfillment of the week comes wi th the sanctification of the seventh day. God's act of

k'i0^ÉÊ^ÈÊk m a k i n g the seventh day holy moves it uniquely to lÉP^ the realm of the divine, making it sacred time. As

Nahum Sarna says, the sun, moon and stars rule over day, month and year, but God is sovereign over

the week that finds its culmination in the seventh day.27

The relevance of the seventh day for humans is not defined in Genesis 2; however, the description of the divine day of rest anticipates what comes later. We know, just as the Priestly writer did, that the Decalogue commands humans to participate personally in the sacred time of the seventh day (Exod 20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15). On the Sabbath, they are to imitate God by making the day holy, setting aside the six-day routine of work in order to rest in the sacred time of communion with God.28 In fact, all of creation enjoys the sacredness of the seventh day: the land rests as humans refrain from cultivating it, and animals rest as they are released them from any dominion of work. Sabbath, then, is a human imitation of the divine act of resting and sanctifying the seventh day, as the Exodus table of the Decalogue clearly indicates in 20:11.

Sabbath Rest: Re-Creation

The people of our churches are often exhausted from weeks that are overfilled with activities. Many of us struggle with how to schedule time and sometimes make poor choices. We are often broken by personal failures and fragmented by crises. Restlessness frequently overcomes us, leaving us with a nagging need for wholeness, while lacking a clear sense of where to find it.

Sabbath rest offers a natural context for discussing how we can move toward shalom, or spiritual wholeness. Consideration of several texts, along with Genesis 2, suggests that Sabbath rest is a withdrawal from the normal vocation of promoting order and life and from the anxiety of crises into sacred time where God re-creates the person.29 This re-creation involves a recovery of identity—or at least a movement in that direction. In Sabbath rest, sin can be forgiven and alienation from God reconciled, so that God breathes again the breath of the spirit, re-newing life.30 When we enter the Sabbath rest of communion with God, the pretense of human autonomy

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Creaf/οα Vocation, Crisis and Rest Review and Expositor, 103, Spring 2006

can no longer be sustained, thereby allowing God

to move toward a reformation of the image of

God's self within us. In such rest, a sense of self-

worth can be

When we enter the Sabbath rest of communion with God, the pretense of human autonomy can no longer be sustained, thereby allowing God to move toward a reformation of the image of God's self within us.

r e c l a i m e d ,

and we can

r e d i s c o v e r

enjoyment of

the goodness of creation. In the context

of Sabbath rest, we can hear again God's

call to promote order/stability and life/

creativity in the other six days of the week. There is also the possibility of

renewing trust in the goodness of God to work within the crises that remain

"out there"—outside sacred time.

We can suggest that the people of the church think about this concept

of Sabbath rest in various temporal denominations. There is the sacred

time of Sabbath day, Sabbath year, and Jubilee. There is also the possibility

of entering sacred time by meditation and prayer at any moment of any

day where rest in communion with God makes re-creation possible.

The re-creative energy of Sabbath rest, in whatever time installments it

may come, does not have an immediately perfective quality to it. One

experience of Sabbath cannot completely clarify our sense of creational

identification or vocation. A few moments of being in sacred time does not

obliterate the crises of life East of Eden. The Sabbath day is not a final leap

forward to shalom, but Sabbath is instead a regular pattern of stepping—or

sometimes inching—toward the sacred reality of God's own kind of

creational Rest. That is why the commandment calls for Sabbath one day

in seven, every week. And perhaps that is why the Priestly creation story

is cast within a creational week, to set a cosmic rhythm of returning again

and again to the place of re-creation until the time comes when we finally

are perfected in the New Heaven and New Earth.31

The rest that allows for re-creation is something that is literally outside

of human control.32 We often engage in the kind of recreation over which

we have control, where we determine the game to be played. The temptation

is to substitute such recreation for true Sabbath rest. The recreation over

which we have control may serve to renew a part of the self, but not the

whole. Re-creation through Sabbath rest is something only God can do in

sacred time where God alone is sovereign to form shalom within us. To

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quote Augustine, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee."33

The Big Picture

The creational model offered here as a resource for the church to think about spirituality focuses

on four contexts suggested by Genesis 1-3: Creation, Vocation, Crisis and Rest. Each context raises particular issues of the spiritual life. To be more specific:

Spirituality involves being what God has created us to be: persons of worth who have a unique relationship with God, who enjoy God's creation and who find belonging in community;

Spirituality includes doing what God has created us to do: promote order and life within certain boundaries;

Spirituality involves coping with crises by means of trusting in God and remaining faithful to our creational identity and calling; and

Spirituality requires finding rest through communion with God in sacred time where we experience a divine re-creating of life within us.

This creational model for spirituality has a tantalizing potential for reaching beyond Genesis 1-3. With a little imagination it can be found in stories throughout the Bible, as one considers the many moments in scripture of creating new life, hearing God's calling, facing the crises of trust, and finding Sabbath times of re-creation. The model can also be relevant at numerous points in the lives of the people of the church, ^ S T t ^ t í l for we keep asking the questions: "Who am beinQi doingf trusting/

I?," "What should I do?," "How can I cope with and re-creating that this crisis?," "Where can I find wholeness?" In leads toward Shalom. the face of these spiritual questions, the church finds direction from the creational stories: they point us to the way of being, doing, trusting, and re-creating that leads toward Shalom.

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1 The model described here certainly does not touch on all the important elements of spirituality; instead it attempts to provide a broad creational "geography" of the spiritual life in the sense of identifying some "places" or contexts conducive to formative spirituality. Perhaps there are as many definitions of spirituality as there are definers. The conception of spirituality I work with in this article is shaped by my own discipline, the Hebrew Bible. By "sp i r i tua l i ty" I mean "f inding fulfillment in the development of healthy, dynamic relationships with God, other people and the rest of creation." This definition includes the OT concept of righteousness (sedäqäh), which in its broadest sense involves fulfilling the demands of relationships. See E. R. Achtemeier, "Righteousness in the OT," Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, ed. George Arthur Buttrick, vol. 4 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), 80-5.

2 For a succinct overview of critical issues in Genesis, see Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentary, ed. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker, vol. 1 (Waco, TX: Word, 1987), xxv-xlii.

3 For an exploration of the historical and paradigmatic dimensions of Gen 1-2, see Terence E. Fretheim, God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation (Nashville: Abingdon, 2005), 31. Fretheim's book, the most recent theology of creation in the OT, is thorough and readable, offering many theological insights for the church.

4 For a thorough overview of various hermeneutical approaches to Gen 1:1, see Claus Westermann, Genesis 1-11, A Continental Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994), 93-97.

5 For seminal explorations of creation as the defeat of chaos, see Hermann Gunkel, "The Influence of Babylonian Mythology Upon the Biblical Creation Story," in Creation in the Old Testament, ed. Bernhard W. Anderson, Issues in Religion and Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 25-52; and Bernhard W. Anderson, Creation Versus Chaos, The Reinterpretation of Mythical Symbolism in the Bible (New York: Association, 1967). For a convenient presentation of ancient Near Eastern texts related to creation, see Victor H. Matthews and Don C. Benjamin, Old Testament Parallels: Laws and Stories from the Ancient Near East, 2d ed. (New York: Paulist Press, 1997), 3-45.

6 For a discussion of the meaning of the pattern of seven days, see Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 88-90.

7 Paul R. Sponheim comments on the dynamic nature of the created order: "if we speak of God the creator as a God of order, we will need to speak of a mutable order, indeed of change within the order." The Pulse of Creation: God and the Transformation of the World (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999), 25. Colin Gunton describes creation "as something God creates not as a timelessly perfect whole, but as an order of things that is planned to go somewhere, to be completed or perfected, as so projected into time. It may be that it is right to see an anticipation of this in the divine rest of the seventh day." "Atonement and the Project of Creation: An Interpretation of Colossians 1:15-23," Dialog 35 (Winter 1996): 36. Fretheim notes that "elements of unpredictability and open-endedness.. .are an integral d imension of the ways things work in God's creation. Not everything has been predetermined; genuine novelty is possible...for God and God's creatures." He also says that "each created entity is in symbiotic relationship with every other and in such a way

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that any act reverberates out and affects the whole." Therefore, creation exhibits an "ordered freedom" (Fretheim, God and World, 7, 19, 32).

8 See Gen 9:6. For a thorough and theologically insightful discussion of the image of God, see J. Richard Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2005).

9 Rolf Knierim, The Task of Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 274-75.

10 As Gerhard von Rad notes, the distinction between the lifeless human and the breathing human in an OT sense is not between body and "soul" but between body and life. "The divine breath of life wrhich unites with the material body makes.. .a 'living soul'" {Genesis, A Commentary, 2d ed., OT Library, ed. G. Ernest Wright and others [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1972], 77).

11 Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, trans, and ed. Μ. E. J. Richardson, vol. 2 (New York: Brill, 1995), 666-67.

12 William P. Brown says, "The man's jubilant cry is the eureka of kinship" (The Ethos of the Cosmos: The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999], 142). For hermeneutical guidance regarding gender issues in Genesis 1-3, see Phyllis Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, Overtures to Biblical Theology, ed. Walter Brueggemann and others (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978), 72-139.

13 Pascal's eloquent wrords come to mind. Writing about the emptiness of a person who is disconnected from God, he said that such an individual "in vain tries to fill [the void] from all [one's] surroundings, seeking from things absent the help [one] does not obtain in things present...But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself." Blaise Pascal, Pensées, no. 425, trans. W. F. Trotter, in Great Books of the Western World, ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins, vol. 33 (New York: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952), 244. Eugene H. Peterson describes spirituality as "transcendence.. .intermingled with intimacy" ("Why Spirituality Needs Jesus: Missing Ingredient," Christian Century 120 [March 22, 2003]: 30).

14 See Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, Interpretation, ed. James Luther Mays (Atlanta: John Knox, 1982), 52.

^ Fretheim, God and World, 20, 48-50.

16 In the Priestly account humans are called to have dominion over the animals, not the earth in general. In Gen 1:26 the phrase "and over all the earth" in the MT should be corrected by the Syriac version to read "and over all the living [i.e., wild] creatures of the earth." See Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 77-79,159. Ronald A. Simkins provides an insightful analysis of the ambiguity in the OT with regard to human dominion of creation versus human subjugation under creation (Creator & Creation: Nature in the Worldview of Ancient Israel [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994], see especially 252-55).

17 See Phyllis A. Bird, "'Male and Female He Created Them': Gen 1:27b in the Context of the Priestly Account of Creation," Harvard Theological Review 74 (April 1981): 140-44; Robert R. Ellis, "Divine Gift and Human Response: An Old Testament Model for

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Stewardship," Southwestern Journal of Theology 37 (Spring 1995): 4-5; and Middleton, Liberating Image, 204-12.

18 Note that in the Yahwistic creation story the role of the human is to "serve" (from the root 'abad) and "keep" (from shamar) the garden (2:15). Fretheim says, "The verb shamar ('keep, observe') has a primary reference to keeping Torah (e.g., Exod 13:10; 20:6). What it means to 'keep' the soil is akin to what it means to keep the commandments....And so to 'keep' the land is to promote its well-being and keep it from being violated through human misuse" (God and World, 53).

19 The vocational idea of promoting order and life in creation has a counterpart in the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, which focuses on repairing the world or setting in order what has been corrupted through sin. The concept derives from the word tikkun ("setting straight, setting in order") in Eccl 1:15; 7:13; 12:9. For general discussions of the concept see h t tp : / /www.j r f .org/adatsmd/ t ikunola .h tml or h t tp : / /www.newkabbalah .com/ index3.html.

20 Jürgen Moltmann speaks of the space God creates in divine power-sharing: "God does not create merely by calling something into existence, or by setting something afoot. In a more profound sense he 'creates' by letting-be, by making room, and by withdrawing" (God in Creation [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993], 88).

21 The story of Adam and Eve eating the fruit is remarkably complex. As a result, interpreters have proposed dramatically divergent readings of the text. At one end of the interpretive spectrum are the Augustinian-style approaches that view Genesis 3 as a historical account of "The Fall" through which "Original Sin" impacted creation ontologically. At the other extreme are the approaches that turn Augustine on his head with the claim that the text is not about sin at all, but rather about humanity "coming of age"—or "falling up." For example, some read Genesis 3 as an account of humans nobly seeking maturity, moving from childhood to adulthood, or searching for immortality. Such readings sometimes conclude that the wise serpent was a trustworthy guide to human liberation from an oppressive deity. Both ends of the interpretive spectrum—the Augustinian approach and the coming of age approach—can be faulted for the agendas they impose on Genesis 3 and the factors in the story they choose to ignore. As I read the account these issues seem to be at its core: (1) God is a good Creator who provides for the welfare of humans; (2) as Creator, God has the freedom to set boundaries as God chooses; and (3) disobeying God's will is a moral failure that threatens the stability and vitality of human existence. I admit that an approach based on these presuppositions has its own interpretive difficulties, but it seems to accommodate more adequately the intention of the story within its canonical context. For helpful summaries, evaluations and bibliographies of various hermeneutical approaches to Genesis 3, see James Barr, The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 1-20; Mark E. Biddle, Missing the Mark: Sin and Its Consequences in Biblical Theology (Nashville: Abingdon, 2005), 2-15; Fretheim, God and World, 70-71; Simkins, Creator & Creation, 184-92; Wenham, Genesis 1-15, 90-91; and Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 275-78.

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http://www.jrf.org/adatsmd/tikunola.html

http://www.newkabbalah.com/

22 See Brown, Ethos of the Cosmos, 152-54; Howard N. Wallace, The Eden Narrative, Harvard Semitic Monographs (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985), 115-32; Wenham, Genesis 1-15, 63-66; and Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 242-45.

23 Brueggemann suggests that the serpent turns God into an object of theology and thereby becomes the first to substitute the practice of theology for obedience to God! (Genesis, 48). For examination of the serpent's character as malevolent or morally neutral, see Brown, Ethos of the

Cosmos, 146-8 (for the malevolent view); and Fretheim, God and World, 73-75 (for the morally neutral view).

24 Brueggemann, Genesis, 51-54.

25 An important question that goes beyond the scope of this article is whether the divine pronouncement of consequences for the sin in 3:14-19 is prescriptive or descriptive. See the helpful summaries in Fretheim, God and World, 75-76; Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, 123; and Westermann, Genesis 1-11, 256-73.

26 Paul Sullivan, "The Cellist of Sarajevo," HOPE (March/April 1996): 52-54.

27 Nahum Sarna, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 14-15.

28 Discussions of the Sabbath commandment frequently emphasis the injunction of rest to the neglect of the command to "Remember ["keep" in the Samaritan Pentateuch and in Deut 5:12] the Sabbath day to make it holy [causative Piel verb]" (Exod 20:8). The action of resting is not an end in itself but a means to making the day sacred. Refraining from normal activities of the six-day work week allows a person to make the seventh day sacred—that is, given over to God—by moving that day of human time into the realm of the divine. (If something is made sacred/holy, it is by definition specifically and exclusively related to the divine.) The point that the essential focus of the commandment is on devoting time to God is also made explicit by the language of Exod 20:10: "the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God."

29 See Jon D. Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 100-20.

30 See for example Ps 51:10, where forgiveness is linked with re-creation and spiritual renewal.

31 Levenson notes, "It is no wonder that the Mishnah can call the eschatological future 'a day that is entirely Sabbath and rest for eternal life'....The reality that the Sabbath represents—God's unchallenged and uncompromised mastery, blessing, and hallowing— is consistently and irreversibly available only in the world-to-come. Until then, it is known only in the tantalizing experience of the Sabbath" (Creation and the Persistence of Evil, 123).

32 Arthur Waskow describes Sabbath as abandoning human mastery over creation in order to celebrate mystery—that which is beyond human comprehension (¿'Tikkun Olam: The Adornment of the Mystery," Religion and Intellectual Life 2 (Spring 1985): 111).

33 Augustine Confessions 1.1.

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