not three Incomprensibles, but one Incomprehensible

 

Trinity Sunday, and our OT reading is the creation story that runs from Genesis 1:1 through 2:4a. It could be called the "E" story because it features Elohim the Creating God creating all that is, seen and unseen; and creating by Word alone, "YeHi," "Let there be." The Christian lore of the Gospel according to John takes up a Greek philosophical slant about The Logos (the Word), where the Logos is the primal force driving creation's origins and ongoing existence; somewhat like Jesus as both Shepherd and Sheep (the Lamb of God), in the Genesis 1 Creation Story as Gospel John has it, Logos the Word is both God the Speaker and the Word that is spoken; which is to say theologically that Jesus Christ the Logos is known to us in and as the Word of God.

Some scholars call this (Genesis 1:1-2"4a) the "P" story because it seems to have been written by a priestly intellectual in Jerusalem after the Judeans' return from the Babylonian Exile; written because the returnees found that the Judeans left behind in Judea while the upper classes were taken away into Babylon those years - - those left behind, basically, let's say the simple peasants, had intermingled and intermarried with the Canaanites and melded into their pagan religion of many gods: for example, a Sun God, a Moon God, a Sea God, a God of the Land and Seasons who made crops grow, a fearsome God of the Sky who sent rain when pleased, and when displeased might send droughts or violent storms. The P Writer's Creation Story was written to rebut, debunk and ridicule the pagans' belief in many Gods and call back to Elohim those who had strayed while the priests and kings were away in the Babylonian Exile.

The "P" creation story of Genesis 1 is my favorite Bible story, but along with the older story, what scholars someTimes call the "J" (JHVH or YHWH) story in Genesis 2, as it folds into the "JE" (Yahweh Elohim) story that continues into Genesis 3, the creation of Adam and all animals, the Eve, then the serpent and the forbidden fruit, and The Fall of Mankind story of how sin came into God's perfect creation: through God's creature the serpent.

Though I prefer C S Lewis and his Chronicles of Narnia, in which the Evil One is unintentionally brought by the two humans in their passage from London into Narnia by the witch clinging to the Lamppost. 

Anyway, there you have it, the Genesis One Creation Story is below. 

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry landappear: and it was so. 10 And God called the dry landEarth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it wasgood.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.

And that's enough for this morning. Linda and I went to early church at eight o'clock, then came home for our customary perfect Sunday morning breakfast of scrambled cheese-eggs.

For life and love,

RSF&PTL

T90

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Michelangelo, "The Creation of Adam,"  Sistine Chapel, Rome