M3 Special (Conference edition) Genesis 1

To all of my conference friends, I hope you enjoy this humorous, special edition of the Genesis Creation . . . Facebook style.

M3 Bible: First Brothers

            I took my time going through the Biblical creation and the Garden of Eden, and now it’s time to tackle life outside of Eden. We come at last to Cain and Able. As a story, it’s surprisingly short. They both make sacrifices, Able gives the best he has, and his sacrifice is accepted. The implication is that Cain did not, and his sacrifice is not accepted. Cain murders Able. God asks Cain about Able, and throws out the line about brother’s keeper. God curses Cain and casts him out.

            Now, there are a number of things that can be discussed from even this short a story. The first of which that always comes to mind is, where did Cain’s wife come from? Well, we don’t know for sure. There are two possibilities that I’ve been able to come up with.

M3 Norse Creation

            Right away, the Norse creation begins with conflict. Ice and fire mingle together from the realms of Nifleheim and Muspell. A river forms, and the ice melts to reveal Ymir and a cow. Yes, a cow. The cow (by name of Audhumla) licked at the ice until it uncovered three brothers: Vili, Ve, and Odin. The three of them killed Ymir, and then . . . recycled him. It’s common in ancient cultures not to let anything go to waste, especially in a creation myth. The three needed to create the world, and, well, Ymir’s body was there, so they used it. This is similar to how the Chinese myth used the giant Pangu to create the world (though these cultures had no connection in ancient times to influence one another).

M3 Greek Creation I (Olympian).

            The first thing I need to say is that the Greeks have multiple creation myths, and they are not variations on a theme. They have completely different characters and plotlines to the story. I will be tackling all of them, but not rapid-fire. The Olympian myth is generally regarded as the predominant myth, and makes the most sense in terms of the body of Greek mythology.

            I have to also warn that this myth is one of the reasons I put a sex disclaimer in my class syllabus. So, do not proceed unless you’re prepared to deal with sex, some disturbing kinds of it, too.

M3 Japanese Creation

            I enjoy the Japanese creation myth. There’s an innocence to it that makes it endearing. Whereas many creation myths are visceral, even violent (especially when it comes to sex) the Japanese myths adopts a childlike purity. Izanagi (the male god) and Izanami the (female goddess) approach sex in its simplest (almost mechanical) form with innocent curiosity. The observe the differences between their two bodies, and wonder what would happen if they joined together.

M3 Bible: Language: Creation & Eden

            Yeah, you thought we were done with Eden, didn’t you. One last bit.

            Okay, we’ve been through all of four chapters of Genesis and a smidgen of the Talmud to talk about Lilith. All told, we haven’t been through that much material, but it’s densely packed with story metaphors, and implications. And that was just separately. Now let’s tackle them together.

M3 Lilith

            So, I alluded to her, and now we’re going to take an in-depth look at her. I have scoured the web, and looked at many, many, many people’s interpretations of Lilith, but very few have any kind of original text. I will offer caution to anyone looking for deeper information about Lilith that the false information vastly outnumbers the truth.

M3 Bible: Creation: Peoples

            Okay, day six, when God finally gets around to people—

            Time out!

            I know, the story hasn’t really started yet, but I’ve got to address something before we get too deep. See, Genesis has two creations of mankind.

M3 Bible: Creation: Refinement

            As I said last week, the creation takes place over several days. The breakdown of the creation into individual steps shows off the great organization involved. No other creation story I’ve come across (and I’ve read a lot of them) is as organized as that as the Genesis story. Each day is broken down with separate creative steps that move everything forward.

M3 Bible: Creation: Days

            The Creation moves forward as a series of days witch each day devoted to a particular set of agenda items, after which God declares it all good, then moves on. Two important ideas stand out in this.

First, a day is not defined. The text goes about declaring “evening and morning” make up a day, which seems backwards to most people. Morning should come first, but that’s not how it’s stated. And an examination of the Jewish calendar and their holy days reveal that they follow the same pattern. What can we truly make of this? Should we all reverse our thinking and adopt this same procedure in order to understand the timeline? No, not at all.

Bible: Creation: Method

            Those expecting more about vampires, well, I’m taking a short break. Most of the remaining weaknesses are tied directly to Christianity, so I thought we’d take a foray into the Bible.

            Okay, this is it. The big one. The Biblical creation is one of the most well-known stories of all time. Or is it? Maybe there are some nuggets of information we can get out of this previously untapped.

M3 Creation Myths: The Big Bang Theory (AKA Chinese)

            First, before all the science people start screaming for me to be burned as a witch, I need to clarify a little piece of terminology. Contrary to the popular show Mythbusters (which I dearly love), a myth is not something to be proven true or false.

M3 Creation Myths: Hindu

            I would say I really like the Hindu creation more than the others, but the fact is that I really enjoy all of these myths. I will say that the Hindu creation is unique in my experience.

            It begins with Brahma off by himself. And then he has a random thought. And that thought becomes reality. And so it continues. His very thoughts give birth to reality; however, what’s most interesting is that he cannot control these thoughts. Unbidden, he’ll have an evil thought, and it creates something evil, even though he does not wish for that to be created. This is a sharp contrast to other creation myths, which sought to consciously create the world and everything. Brahma, though, is at the mercies of his own random thoughts.

M3 Creation Myths: Celtic

            Sorry. I can’t do the Celtic creation. It would have been great to do given the proximity to St. Patrick’s Day, but not a lot of their mythology actually survived. What are out there are recreations based on fragments or speculation. We just don’t have enough surviving text for a complete picture.

M3 Creation Myths: Iranian (Persian)

            The Iranian Creation myth is fascinating for an approach that somehow bridges several different cultures. It is the Zoroastrian story of Ormazd and Ahriman. Incidentally, fans of the latest Prince of Persia game on the PS3 and Xbox360 got a taste of this myth from that game. While not completely accurate, it’s still entertaining and fun.