It All Began...

The question had been on people's minds for at least two thousand years, and many attempts were made to answer it.  Never had it been so simply asked as when Leibniz, three hundred years ago, queried, "Why something, why not nothing?"  Earlier inquirers, the Greeks, recognized the problem, saying "Niholo ex Niholo fit". . .or "nothing comes out of nothing." 

The Hebrews were acutely conscious of this imponderable question.  Their answer, or rather answers, were rooted in the conviction  that God initiated the process.  They did not try to explain the transition from nothing to something, but assumed God was shaping something that already existed.

Thus we have in scripture three different stories of creation, each one arising from a different perspective:

  The Priestly answer. The question was framed, "How did the elements of the universe come into existence?"  That sequence needed to include oceans, the sun and moon, birds, animals, man, and so on.  This sequence was based on the eight-act decree of Tiamat in the Babylonian poetic legend. The Hebrew priests, eager to enhance their solemn seven-day week, compressed these eight acts of "creation" into six days.  So we have the result in the first chapter of Genesis.

The humanistic answer.  The question was framed, "How did the first human beings come into existence"? Into an already existing garden, God deposited a man.  In order for the man to generate children, a woman was created.  Two children were born, one a crop farmer and the other a shepherd.  How these two men fathered children and where their wives came from is not covered. The story seems to suggest that agriculture of settled farmers was replacing  the hunter-gatherer plan for obtaining food. The story is found in the next three chapters of Genesis.

The anthropologist answer.  The question was framed, "How did the races of man arise?"  The story was composed when three recognizable distinct races were visible.  The tale begins with a man, Noah, being commissioned to build a boat large enough to carry his family and a pair of every existing animal.  Then an immense flood destroys every living thing outside the boat.  In our Bible there are two different versions of the epic lying side by side, but the results of the flood are that Noah becomes drunk and is sexually seduced by his three daughters, producing the three races of mankind: Europeans, Asians and Africans.  This story is found in Genesis 6 - 9.

Each story satisfies an aspect of creation.  As T. S. Eliot writes, "nobody likes to live with a mystery", and a resolution of that dilemma remains hidden after centuries of creative imaginative efforts. The mystery remains.  Neither scientific investigation or logic is capable of a satisfying answer.  The biblical answers are partial and inconclusive.  Our minds are not capable of answering the question.  Poetry, drama, dance, art and music are our efforts to address the issue, perhaps more perceptive than the sheer exercise of the mind.