THE CREATION OF THE

WORLD AND
MANKIND

By
Prudencio García Pérez
 THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND
MANKIND
(GENESIS 1-11)

1. GENESIS 1, 1-2, 4a: THE FIRST STORY OF CREATION

• “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (v. 1: Bereshith bará
Elohim eth hashamayim weeth haarets). With only seven words (symbol of
totality or complexion), the Priestly Document says everything about creation: the
only God has created everything out of nothing.

• The universe in its original situation is “formless and empty” (v. 2: tohu wabohu).
This original chaos is described by three elements: formless and empty earth, the
raging ocean and the darkness covering everything.

1.1. The creation of the world

• The Spirit of God (ruah) was moving over the waters. In six days, it will
transform this chaos into a wonderful world, filled with people and perfectly
organized: 3 days to eliminate chaos and another 3 to embellish or decorate the
emptiness.

Preface: the beginning of the creation

Day Action Separation Decoration Action Day

(regions) (dwellers)
I 1 light-darkness Sun, moon, 5 IV
(day & night) stars
2 Waters above, 6
II waters below Fish, Birds V
3 Sea & Land Animals on 7
III the earth VI
4 Plants humankind 8

Conclusion: God rested on the seventh day

• It is the scheme of a week with 8 works divided into two parts: 3 days to separate
and 3 more to decorate. The world created by God looks like a 3 story palace.

• The same formula is repeated every single day: God speaks and the thing is made,
God sees that it is good, blesses and gives a name to it. And everyday concludes
with a chorus: “evening passed and morning came, it was the first, second...” It is
a liturgical hymn to God, creator of the universe. This literary style of dividing the

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 poem in verses and chorus helps its memorization and recitation in the liturgical
celebrations.

• The image of the world in Gen 1 corresponds to the idea that the author and the
readers had of the world at that time. They believed the earth was a big flat disk,
placed on several columns that rested in the deep great ocean. Above the
mountains, the firmament separated the waters above and those below, and the
sun, moon and stars were hanging on it. Below the earth there was the Sheol, the
dark mansion of the dead. Above the firmament there were the skies, symbols of
the house of God. This idea of the world is shared by all the peoples of the past,
but we cannot be forced to believe in this image just because it is written in the
Bible. These questions lack of theological importance for Christians.

1.2. The creation of mankind

• The best is always served last: “Let us make man in our image, according to our
likeness” (Gen 1, 26). Man is going to be the cornerstone of creation, the
mediator between God and the world. “Adam” (in Hebrew means “human”; used
in the female form means “earth”), is not the name of the first man, but represents
the entire humankind, humanity as a whole. That is why the verb is used in plural
“let them have dominion”. Mankind was created by God in his own image, but is
not equal to God in dignity and power; to believe that they were like God, not
living creatures, was the cause of their sin.

• What does it mean to be “image of God”? Man is God’s representative in looking

after the visible creation. The use of this power and dominion requires intelligence
and good-will, spiritual values that make God’s image to be seen everywhere.
Because every man and woman is an image of God, they all enjoy an untouchable
dignity (v. 27). That is why God blessed the first union between man and woman.
Both genres, through procreation, contribute to spread life all over the world and
through their intelligent work, develop the world created by God and make it a
comfortable place for the entire human family.

1.3. The peace of paradise

• Animals and people lived in peace, without eating one another: they enjoyed a
vegetarian diet (vv. 29-30). This is not completely true. It is just a symbol to
underline the peace and harmony at the beginning of creation. The prophets will
use the same symbol to describe the messianic peace; it will be like returning to
the lost paradise (Is 11, 6-9). “Then God saw everything that he had made, and
indeed it was very good” (v. 31). This phrase emphasizes that every creature made
by God is good in essence. How can we explain evil in the world then? The
physical evil exists because this world has a relative perfection; the absolute
perfection will be achieved in the future life. The moral evil exists because the
mankind used his freedom badly.

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1.4. God rested on the seventh day

• “And He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done, blessed
it and sanctified it” (Gen 2, 2-3). In a way, God puts the world into man’s hands
and invites him to continue His work, but He never ceases to support and govern
it with his providence. The Sabbath or weekly rest day was a costume in the Jew’s
tradition. But at the time of the Priestly Document, this tradition was almost
completely abandoned. We know that because the writings of the 6th century b. C.
insist in promoting the observance of the Sabbath, as a sign of national identity,
threatened during exile. In this view, the Priestly Document wants to present the
working week of God as a model for human’s week. Mankind, while working
imitates God’s work in the creation of the world; and resting rediscovers himself
and his relationship with God. The Sabbath is a gift from God, is an institution
that provides social and religious health for mankind. But this original happiness
of the Sabbath tradition was transformed centuries later in a heavy weight
impossible to bear for the people because everything was forbidden. That is why
Jesus liberated his disciples from following the Sabbath tradition.

1.5. Interpretation of Genesis 1, 1-2, 4a

• Until the last decades of the 19th century, this poem was interpreted literally, as if
it was recorded with a camera and a microphone: the world was created in seven
days of 24 hours each. Then, some problem arose when reading the text, for
example: if God created the sun on the fourth day, what is the meaning of the
“evening and morning” during the previous three days? And without the sun, how
is it possible the existence of plants on the third day? These errors and the
progress of science weakened deeply this traditional interpretation.

• Nowadays, most of the scholars accept the historic-didactic or theological-

liturgical interpretation. It makes a clear distinction between the message (faith
revealed) and the form of expression (that has nothing to do with faith). From this
perspective, the first account of creation (Gen 1) is a kind of parable in action
which purpose is to teach a few basic religious truths:
a) There is only one God, almighty, wise and good.
b) God created everything that exists: the sun, moon, stars, trees, animals
… These are not gods like other nations believed, but just simple
creatures made by God to serve humankind.
c) Mankind is the king or cornerstone of creation: he depends on God and
has to use the seventh day to worship him. Everything is at human
service and human beings must serve God.

• There are still some people who refuse to accept this view because they think that
the Bible will disappear or will be considered as a famous novel of the past. We
must not fear anything because the distinction between the message and the form
will not lead us to deny the truth of the Bible; on the contrary, it will open the
door to understand the main or basic truths of the Bible, the original message that

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 remains as solid as a rock. On the other hand, if we just prefer the external form
of the Bible (the six days of creation, the snake, the fruit, the ribs, the clay statue,
the garden…), we will never comprehend the truths contained inside, and
challenged by outsiders, we could lose our faith or at least doubt it.

1.6. The Origin of the world and mankind for Israel’s neighboring
countries

• Israel’s nearest countries (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Canaan, Phoenicia), when

reflecting about the origin of the world and mankind, they concord on one point:
at the beginning there was an eternal chaos and from it the gods were born
(theogony); due to the fights among the gods, the world was formed. The most
famous myth comes from Babylonia (XX b. C), and it is a mythological poem
dedicated to Marduk, the national god. It was sung or read in the Babylonian
temple the first day of the New Year, as a symbol of the first beginning. The poem
is called “Emuna Elish”, taking the first two words of it as a title: “when up the
sky did not have a name, and down, the earth did not have a name…” This is a
short summary of the poem itself:

“At the beginning there was the eternal chaos formed by two principles: one male
(Apsú = the sweet waters, rivers), and another female (Tiamat = the Great Ocean).
From the union of them both, the gods were born. The most important gods were
three: Anu = god of heaven; Enlil = god of the earth; Ea = god of the sea. A conflict
arose between the elder gods and the young ones. Because of the noise of all the
arguments of the gods, Apsú could not sleep anymore and decided to kill them all. But
Ea got to know about this plan and using magic formulas, made Apsú fall sleep and
killed him. Tiamat wants her revenge for what happened, so created 11 terrible
monsters under the command of Kingu. In the fight, Kingu is defeated and taken
prisoner. The wrath of Tiamat cannot be calmed, so she declares total war against the
rebel gods and these accept the challenge, and make the dragon Marduk (symbol of
order), son of Ea, the commander in chief of their troops. Marduk catches Tiamat in
his net, breaks her skull and divides her body in two halves; with one half he made
the heavens and with the other half, the earth, and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
spring up from her eyes. After that, he makes the elements of the sky (stars, moon,
sun…) and the animals. Finally, he killed Kingu, and with his blood and mud makes
the man. The poem finishes with a hymn of praise to the 50 names of Mardud, the
supreme god of Babylonia”.

• The author of the Priestly Document heard for sure in the Babylonian exile this
mythological poem and reacted giving it the monotheist faith of Israel, their faith
in the only God creator of all. That is the explanation for the similarities and
diversities with Genesis 1:
- In Gen 1 and Emuna Elish appear the original chaos, but there is an
essential difference: in the Babylonian poem, the first chaos is eternal
substance from which the gods are born; in Gen 1, God is the creator of
the original chaos.

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 - In Emuna Elish, Marduk transforms the chaos into a formed and living
universe by killing Tiamat; In Gen 1, God transforms chaos by playing,
using only his word, without a fight or war.
- In Emuna Elish, there are many gods; In Gen 1 there is only one God, the
God of Israel. God has neither rivals nor enemies, because everything has
been created by him and nothing can escape his infinite power.

• Because of this, Genesis 1 is not a mythological poem. The myth describes the
birth, fights and adventures of the gods, who represent the forces of nature. In the
Bible, on the other hand, it is recognized only one God, so it is not a myth. But we
still can say that sometimes the authors of the poems thinking of the better way to
spread their faith in God, they use the popular accounts found in other countries.
In other words, they take advantage of the external form of their poems, but
introduce the message inspired or revealed by God.

1.7. Creation and evolution

• The account of Creation (Gen 1) does not want to teach us how and when the
universe came to exist; it only says that God created the universe from nothing.

• Up to now it is accepted the scientific theory of the “Big Bang” or great

explosion, as the origin of the universe we know. That is not a problem, but there
was anything before the Big Bang? Where did the first spark of life come from?
Science has not answered these questions yet. The last answer can only be given
by faith: the universe is not eternal, it has had a beginning due to a free action of
God and it was called with the name of “creation”.

• Then, there is no opposition between the initial creation revealed in the Bible and
the following evolution suggested by science. Both integrate and complement
each other.

2. GEN 2, 4B-24: THE SECOND STORY OF CREATION

2.1. Comparing the formation of both poems of creation

Differences Genesis 1 Genesis 2

Author Priestly Yahwist

Date VI b. C. X b. C.

Location Babylonia Palestine

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 Humid, wet Desert, dry
Cosmology
Initial Chaos: sea Initial Chaos: desert

Duration 6 days 1 day

Plants, sky elements, Man, plant, animals, woman

Order
animals, man and woman

Universal: man is the

Regional: man is the center
Scenery cornerstone of the cosmic
of the family circle
pyramid
Reflective, solemn, Spontaneous, popular,
Style
liturgical painteresque

Anthropom Sober: God said, saw and Creative: God is a potter,

orphisms worked during 6 days gardener, surgeon, wedding
and the seventh rested godfather

Theology Transcendent (heavenly Immanent (earthly and close

and supernatural) to mankind)

• The second account of creation (Gen 2) was written 400 years earlier than Gen 1.
The differences can be easily seen on the scheme above. The redactor of the
Pentateuch preferred Gen 1 as the beginning because it does not contain much
anthropomorphism (presenting God with human characteristics). At the same
time, he did not want to get rid of Gen 2, sending a message that both texts
express in different forms the same truth revealed by God.

• The Yahwist, redactor of Gen 2, is a great catechist or teacher because he knows

how to explain the most difficult religious truths by using a simple and
understandable language. He describes the creation of man and woman by using
an oriental parable full of freshness and simplicity, like a nomad of the desert
would tell the story to his family gathered under the tent.

2.2. The creation of man

• “And Yahweh Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Gen 2,7). God is
named with two divine titles: Yahweh, the God of Israel; Elohim, the universal

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 God of Gen 1. The Yahwist presents God with human characteristics: He does not
create man with his word, like in Gen 1, but with his own hands, like a potter
moulds the man’s body (adam) with dust of the ground (adamah) and blows the
breath of life (ruah).

• The popular oriental tradition used to represent the divinity forming the man with
mud, because it was know by experience that the human body, at the time of the
death, would become dust again. We have seen already that Marduk formed the
man with dust and the blood of Kingu. In Egypt, Luxor precisely, on a carved wall
can be seen the god Khnum using a potter’s wheel to form the body of the prince
Amenofis III, while the goddess Neith places an Egyptian cross (symbol of life)
near to his nose. These extra-biblical examples confirm the symbolic meaning of
the Yahwist story of the forming of man.

• This biblical account emphasizes the fragility and greatness of man, a living
creature made of clay and divine breath, flesh and spirit. He is not another animal
of the creation; it is superior, sacred, mysterious … The biblical text does not
speak directly of the spiritual soul, especially because it does not distinguish
between body and soul, but between flesh and breath of life given by God.

2.3. The Garden of Eden

• A few steps forward God stops being a potter and becomes a gardener: planted a
garden and made every kind of trees grow, some beautiful and some filled with
delicious fruits to eat; and in the middle, He planted the tree of life and the tree of
knowledge of good and evil.

• How is it possible to find such a fertile place in the middle of the desert? The
writer answer that question saying that there was a river inside that watered the
entire garden. The vv. 10-14 were added later on to stress the great amount of
water of the river and how it divided into four other rivers that watered the entire
earth: Pishon (Indo?), Gihon (Ganges?), Tigris and Euphrates.

• Nowadays everybody accepts the symbolic use of the Garden of Eden. It is not a
geographical place on a map, but a state of happiness (“being with God”),
participating of His life as a gift of eternal happiness. The Garden-Paradise is
God’s dwelling place and, as a gift from Him, it also becomes the dwelling place
of mankind. In the Garden, mankind lived a happy life because he enjoyed a
closed friendship with God. The fact that “God took the man by the hand and put
him in the garden” indicates that the human being was created outside, but due to
God’s love, man gets a higher position: is not only a creature, he is a God’s son.
Mankind is the only being to possess the body, the spirit and the grace of God. For
this, he became the son of God, the masterpiece of God’s wisdom and love.

• If the Garden of Eden has a symbolic sense, we must say the same about the tree
of life and tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life was a common

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 symbol in the oriental literature to express immortality. In the epic poem of
Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia, Mari) is mentioned that the tree of life had been
planted in heaven, using a date palm as its symbol. This means that the gods keep
eternal life for themselves. In the Bible, the tree of life is planted in the garden,
where the man can reach it because God offers him access to immortality if he
does not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In this way, mankind
realizes that is not the owner of the garden, just can enjoy it as a free present
given by God.

2.4. The creation of animals

• The man, social and communicative person, needs company. The Yahwist writer
once more presents God as a potter who moulds with mud the animals and the
birds, and bring them to Adam to give them a name (v. 19). This literary fiction of
the animal’s parade and the giving of the name mean, on one hand, the dominion
of man over the animal kingdom; on the other hand, it means that there is no one
which can be compared to him. He is still unique. He still lacks of the other half
that will allow him to have a perfect relationship and will help to comprehend
himself better as a person.

2.5. The creation of the woman

• In this part the writer uses the beautiful image of God becoming a surgeon and a
wedding best man. God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and took one of his
ribs to form the first woman; then brought her to Adam and presented her as
companion and wife. The author of the poem knows very well human psychology
and wants to answer with this plastic image some of the people’s questions: what
is a man? What is a woman? What is marital love?

• The symbol of the rib, for this writer, is only an image to teach that men and
women share the same nature and dignity. This equality is highlighted in the
words used by Adam: “This is now bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she
shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man” (v. 23). Furthermore,
for the Semitic people, “flesh” is a synonym of “person”. Then the most perfect
communion of life is the one between two people that without losing their own
identity become one by the mutual donation of their body and spirit. The verse 24
is the first hymn in the Bible about love inside the marriage.

• The verse 24 presents the first monogamous couple (monogamy) as the model of
marriage. By the way, we must say that the writer belonged to a society where
polygamy was legal. Two last notes to conclude:
- The Yahwist account (Gen 2) about the creation of male and female in
different moments must be interpreted according to Gen 1, written a few
centuries later and reflecting a modern theology, where the human couple
is created at the same time.

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 - Gen 2 outlines that mutual love is the goal of matrimony; Gen 1, instead,
stresses procreation as the goal of the creation of both sexes. Both
objectives, love and procreation, cannot be separated because they reflect
the will of the Creator.

3. THE FIRST HUMAN FALL (GEN 3)

• The Yahwist faces a dramatic theme: although God was good to mankind, they
repay His generosity by committing a sin. The highest gift given by God to
mankind is freedom (Sir 15, 14-17). The fact that God had forbidden to eat from
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, forced them to make a decision or choice:
trust God and obey His command or rebel against Him. The success or failure of
the existence of mankind depends on a free choice in relation with God.

3.1. The temptation

• The serpent is the rival of God and mankind. The Yahwist chooses the image of
the serpent because it is the most cunning of the beasts made by God and also
because in Canaan and neighboring countries is the symbol of the fertility cult,
spread also through Israel. Some centuries later, the serpent became the symbol of
Satan (in Hebrew means “rival or adversary”) or the Devil (in Greek means
“slanderer”). And Jesus called him “the father of lies”.

• This scene represents the interior combat against temptation that we have to face
during our lives. The Tempter attacks first the weakest to defeat the strongest
later. The strategy used deserves a closer look: First exaggerates the divine
command which objective is to get a replay from his counterpart, so that he can
start a dialogue with the woman: Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every
tree of the garden”? (3, 1). The temptation begins by presenting the law of God as
an intolerable limitation of the human freedom. Later, the tempter accuses God of
being jealous and a liar. Finally, explains the true reason of the prohibition, which
makes the woman feel really attracted to the forbidden fruit and desires with all
her heart to have the hidden knowledge: to comprehend good and evil.

3.2. The sin

• Once the woman has been seduced, she becomes the seducer of man. There is not
come back, the fall is certain. What is that knowledge that God keeps for Himself?
It is neither the intellectual progress nor the comprehension of good and evil.
Mankind tries to cancel the frontier between what is permitted and prohibited, he
wants to determine by his own choosing what is good and evil without being tied
to a supreme law. In the end, man tries to free himself from the law of God and
become his own law and god. Adam and Eve want to occupy the place of God to

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 decide what is good or evil; they want to be the owners of their destiny; do not
accept depending of their Creator and because of that they have changed the
mutual relationship with God. The first fall was motivated by pride and
disobedience. Man desired to become like God; be their own God.

• The immediate consequence of the sin is the loss of their innocence and
friendship with God. That is why they feel ashamed of themselves, experience the
fear of God and try to hide from His sight. The disenchantment and dissatisfaction
is the bitter fruit of sin. The tree of knowledge of good and evil became the tree
that gave them conscience of their own guilt and sin. When opening the eyes, they
realized that they were not gods, full of power and science, but had lost the divine
friendship and their human dignity. The true nature of sin is not corporal, but
spiritual.

3.3. God’s judgment

• The scene is taken from the judicial process or human trials in court: there is a
supreme judge, an examination of the facts and a final sentence against the
characters involved in the happenings (man, woman and serpent).
- Serpent-devil: drag its body, eat dust and get bruised by man.
- Woman: give birth with sorrow and be submissive to man (typical
example of a patriarchal society).
- Man: the earth will produce thorns and thistles, so he will sweat to obtain
the bread of survival until he returns to the dust.

• Did these sufferings exist before the sin? The traditional interpretation answered
this question by saying that happiness in paradise was perfect: beauty, no need to
work, knowledge, dominion on nature, no pain and death, no bad herbs, and the
serpent, as Martin Luther said, walked erect as a rooster. The modern
interpretation denies this by saying that there were sufferings and sorrows, but not
in the same way we suffer today. Mankind was God’s friend.

• The modern vision of the evolution of the world suggests that the first sin didn’t
alter the biological laws of the world. The sin only changed the religious and
moral relationship between God and mankind. Furthermore, nature and animals
have maintained their creational status.

• After the first fall, human sufferings remind us of the first sin and invite us to
accept them with serenity. Through work, mankind creates and serves his
brethren, but “fatigue” reminds his sinful situation. Sickness and death are not the
prize of sin, but part of the natural existence of mankind. The theological death or
the lost friendship with God instead is a direct consequence of the sin. We need to
understand that for the Jewish mentality, which assumes that everything comes
from God, death and sufferings were a divine punishment for the first sin.
3.4. The ejection from paradise

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 • Paradise meant the state of friendship between God and mankind; the tree of life
was the symbol of eternal life; the prohibition of eating from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil was the only condition to enjoy all those free gifts.
With his rebellion, man loses all the gifts. The lost friendship with God can be
seen in the ejection from paradise, God’s garden. They lost the gift of eternal life
because now don’t have direct access to the tree of life placed inside the garden.
But God does not abandon those who have abandoned him. God becomes a tailor
and make a leather-skinned dress for Adam and Eve. The image of “putting on
the dress” means that they are given back their lost dignity. The rest of human
history will be a “long march of hope” from the lost paradise to the paradise
regained (revelation).

- Summary of Gen 1-3

• These chapters are the pre-history of salvation. In them we find the classical
scheme of the salvation plan (in three moments) believed in the religious
experience of Israel.
- Generation: divine plan, order, all that has been created is good (order and
divine laws).
- Degeneration: sin, chaos, the beginning of evil (rebellion of mankind).
- Regeneration: God’s plan will succeed (punishment and reconciliation).

4. THE ASSASSINATION OF ABEL (GEN 4)

• The Yahwist fills the time between Adam and Abraham with three key episodes:
the assassination of Abel, the flood and the tower of Babel. With these episodes
demonstrates that evil was growing faster and faster among humankind.

• The story starts with an evident anachronism: “Abel was a shepherd and Cain
was a farmer”. These jobs (shepherd and farmer) were the main occupation of the
Israelites at the time of the Yahwist writer, around the 10th century b. C. The first
men on earth (600000-12000 b. C) used to live on hunting, fishing and collecting
the fruits from the trees and the land, in the same way some tribes do nowadays.
This mistake is not important because we put our attention on the ethical-religious
teachings shown in the episode.

• According to the modern exegesis, Cain and Abel are not the closest sons of
Adam and Eve. The term “Qayín” (spear), gives name to a nomad tribe of
blacksmiths and musicians that have a special tattoo. The tradition thought that
the origin of their nomad life (like the gypsies) was caused by a crime committed
by their ancestor Cain, who killed his younger brother and had to flee to avoid the
“blood avenger”. The Yahwist knew this tradition and placed the legend on a new
context, at the beginning of humankind, with the purpose of obtaining a universal
lesson: when mankind rebels against God, soon rebels against his brother; and
every homicide is like the death of a brother.

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 • What is the reason of God’s preference for Abel? The story does not say it.
Perhaps the author wanted to set up the nomad life of shepherds, more severe and
closest to God, against the farmers’ life, more exposed to the religious corruption
in the cities. In fact, the prophets longed and desired to abandon the cities and
return to the shepherds’ life of the patriarchs in the desert (Os 2, 16-17; Jr 2, 2).
For sure the cause of God’s preference was not the excellence of a job or the
quality of the offerings, but something more important: the internal dispositions of
Abel were good and Cain’s bad.

• How did God show his like or dislike for the offerings? Probably making Abel’s
flocks grow larger and Cain’s harvest bad, according to the Israelite tradition of
retribution: blessings for the good and curse for the bad (Dt 28; Lv 26). God’s
preference for Abel’s offerings unleashed Cain’s hatred and envy, and started to
plan a sinister plot against his brother. Cain had the capacity to fight temptation. If
he had done well, he could have resisted temptation and enjoyed the favor of
Yahweh. But he prefers to silence God’s voice in his conscience and kill his
brother. Immediately God calls the sinner to defend himself in a trial, but Cain’s
answer shows that he had already rejected his brother’s love (am I my brother’s
keeper?).

• It is time for God’s sentence: Cain is expelled from the fertile land desecrated for
the assassination and punished to conduct a wandering life. His punishment will
not be final, because God put a signal to protect him from being killed (at that
time was in use the private vengeance: an eye for an eye). This mark on Cain has
a double meaning:
1. Human life is sacred, even the life of the assassins;
2. Even the assassins enjoy the mercy of God, for He wants them
to repent and live.

- Summary of Gen 4

• Until now we just have the descendants of Cain (assassins’ race). The author now
introduces the race of Seth (son of Adam and substitute of Abel). This new race
will honor God and follow his commandments. It means that humankind is not
completely corrupted and far from God. The race of Cain will provoke the flood;
the race of Seth, with Noah, will begin the human history again.

• Gen 4 is the religious history of good and evil. It offers a series of teachings that
still can be used in the present world:
- If the interior piety is lost, the external cult does not please God.
- Every man is a brother to any man.
- Who breaks his relationship with God, soon will break with his brother.
- Man has the capacity to overcome temptation.
- If the sinner abandons God, He will never abandon the sinner.

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 - The material development and the spiritual progress not always walk
together.

- THE GENEALOGIES (GEN 5 AND 11)

• They are neither historical nor chronological. They have only a religious value:
From Adam to Abraham there is a chain with the names of the heirs of God’s
promise of a redeemer.

• A very long life: it is not real; the Priestly Document plays with the symbolic
value of the numbers.

• The length of their lives decreases dramatically, maybe to symbolize the

progressive distance between mankind and God: Adam-Noah (1000-700 years);
Noah-Abraham (600-200 years).

5. THE UNIVERSAL FLOOD (GEN 6-9)

5.1. Corruption is growing faster

• Gen 6, 1-4 introduces the living situation of human beings on earth. The classical
interpretation identified the “sons of God” with Seth’s descendants and the
“daughters of men” with Cain’s descendants. The interracial mixed for pleasure
and the polygamy among those races was at the origin of the general corruption
and the cause of human destruction.

• The modern exegesis prefers to put its attention on the “nefilim or giants”. The
Yahwist calls to mind an old legend about the origin or the “nefilim”, a race of tall
and violent people. They were believed to be born by the union of heavenly
beings and earthly women. The writer uses this legend, known by the people he is
talking to, as an example of the growing wickedness and evil of mankind (longing
for riches, pride and sensuality) which provoked God’s wrath and the deserved
punishment, symbolized by the flood. This fiction story shows us the growing
corruption of human nature. Even God felt sorry of having created them and
decided to destroy them (Gen 6, 5-7).

• Although the corruption had spread everywhere, there was still someone faithful
to God, Noah and his family. They will be saved from the punishment.

5.2. The flood is at hand

• Originally the story of the flood was narrated in two different episodes. Finally,
the editor decided to merge both accounts to make only one story of the flood.
Both episodes belong to the Yahwist (J) and the Priestly Document (P). We know

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 that there were two writers because of the repetition of the same facts: God sees
the wickedness of mankind twice (6, 5 J; 6, 12 P); the flood is announced twice
(6, 17 P; 7, 4); Noah enters the ark twice (7, 7-9 J; 7, 13-16 P); The flood starts
twice (7, 10 J; 7, 11 P); etc…There are also some differences: the duration of rain:
40 days (7, 12 J) and 150 days (7, 24 P); a pair of animals from every species (6,
19-20 P); a pair of the impure animals and seven of the pure ones (7, 2-3 J).

5.3. The flood, reality or legend?

• Many nations have written down the memories of disastrous floods that happened
in their ancient history. We still have 68 flood’s accounts: 13 in Asia; 4 in Europe;
5 in Africa; 9 in Australia and 37 in America. The most ancient written account of
a flooding is contained in the epic of Gilgamesh, 20th century b. C. (found in
Nínive).
• This is a short summary of the episode: Seven gods decide to annihilate mankind
with a flood (man is not evil; the decision is a whim of the gods). The god Ea
violates the secret and warns his friend Utnapishtim, and advices him to built a
boat to save himself. Utnapishtim builds a seven story boat in seven days and
covers it with pitch. This is what Utnapishtim says:

“I put all my gold and silver in the boat; my family and relatives, animals from the fields,
wild beasts and craftsmen. I made them get inside. I also entered the boat and locked the
door. At dawn, a black cloud turned brightness into darkness and a great storm began to
destroy everything. The gods were frightened and hid like dogs. During six days and
nights the storm destroyed the earth. But the seventh day, the hurricane became silent
and the flood stopped. The time passed, everything was quiet and humanity had become
clay and mud. I opened a little window and the light of the day hit my cheek. I came
down the boat, sat and cried; tears dropped down my cheeks. The boat stopped at the
mount Nisir. One day, two days, three days, the fourth day the mount Nisir blocked my
boat. The seventh day I released a dove; it left, did not find a place where to rest and
returned. I sent a swallow: it left, found no place to rest and came back. I released a
raven then; it left, saw that the waters were low already; eats, swims and squawks; it
does not returns. Then I opened the gates and set everything free, and offered a sacrifice
on the top of the mountain and drunk seven glasses of wine. The gods breathed the soft
smell and like flies crowded around the one offering the sacrifice”.

The epic concludes with the transfer of Utnapishtim and his wife to the Paradise
Island, which is located at the mouth of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, where Enlil
donates them the gift of immortality saying: “Utnapishtim was human. From now on he
and his wife will be gods like us! Let Utnapishtim dwell at the mouth of the rivers!”.

• The only truth contained in this Babylonian account is the memory of a great
flood that razed to the ground the valley of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. This
catastrophe impressed the imagination of the people to the point to make a literary
legend out of it. The main topic was embellished with folk and mythical elements
until it acquired a universal dimension. Israel knew this myth because its

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 ancestors were slaves in Babylonia. Then took away the mythological parts and
kept the popular images that did not oppose their monotheistic faith and made the
account more interesting: the building of the boat, the entering of animals of every
species, the release of the birds, the stopping of the boat on the top of a mountain,
the universal dimension of the account and the salvation of one family.

• The biblical writer used this ancient legend to communicate a permanent religious
teaching: God is just: punish the sinner and save the good. The biblical flood
represents God’s judgment against mankind, symbol of the universal judgment;
Noah’s ark is the symbol of God’s salvation.

• Nowadays nobody accepts the universal dimension of the biblical flood for
obvious reasons: there is not enough water in the world capable to cover the
Mount Everest; it was impossible to place millions of species inside an ark
smaller than Saint Peter’s Basilica; we cannot accept also that Noah and his
family were the only survivors. In the Bible, these characters are introduced to
symbolize that humankind is still a good and united family.

5.4. The universal covenant

• The episode of the flood concludes with the establishment of a universal covenant
between God and mankind: God promises not to destroy mankind and mankind
promises not to shed human blood (Gen 9, 6). To seal this alliance, God chooses
the most beautiful phenomenon of nature, the rainbow, the symbol that indicates
the end of the storm and the beginning of a peaceful and bright day.

• The literary image of the rainbow is very meaningful: is the symbol of the peace
between God and humanity. God will always look at it to remember his promise
and mankind look at it to trust in God’s covenant.

- THE NATIONS THAT DESCENDED FROM NOAH (GEN 10)

• This is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. It includes 70
names that remind us to nations and cities more than people: Canaan, Sidon,
Elam, Assur, Aram… The number 70 stands for totality, universality, but only that
totality known until the 6th century b. C. (from the Middle East to Spain). The
countries of Oceania, Far East and America are not included because were
unknown at that time. This table of nations wants to teach us three important
truths: diversity, equality and unity of the nations.
- Diversity of nations: languages and cultures are not a consequence of sin,
but a blessing from God according to Gen 1, 28 and 9, 7: “Be fruitful and
multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it”. Diversity
manifests the multiform beauty of the creation.
- All the nations are equal in God’s eyes. There is not a country which is the
center of the world and history. The superiority of the Jewish race does not
appear in God’s revelation. Their superiority does not belong to the natural

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 order; on the contrary, they have been chosen by God to be the recipients
of His revelation and then to transmit it to the rest of the world.
- Even though nations and races have some diversity, they are still united
because they share the same origin and destiny. They are united by the
blood of one family, they are brothers and God loves them all.

6. THE TOWER OF BABEL (GEN 11, 1-9)

• The Yahwist writer explains the diversity of nations and languages as a

punishment from God, which is the opposite of what the Priestly Document says
in chapter 10. There is no contradiction anyway because a good thing could
become bad if used in an improper way. The unity of nations is good in itself, but
it could lead to arrogance and pride. Diversity is good too, because it shows the
multiform beauty of creation, but it could degenerate into rivalry and envy, the
cause of wars and divisions.

• This is what really happened in the episode: a group of Semitic nations found a
plain in the land of Shinar, dwelt there together and decided to build a city with
the highest tower ever seen. The materials used were those found in Mesopotamia
at that time: bricks and asphalt (tar). The name of the city was Babel (“God’s
door”), the capital city of the Babylonian empire, famous for its tremendous
buildings, hanging gardens and high tower. Every city in Babylon had its own
tower (the archeologist have found remains of at least thirty). These towers-
temples had seven floors, each one dedicated to one of the seven known planets.
They had three stairs to get on the top of it: the side ones for the faithful and the
middle one for the priests. The top of the tower was the place for the encounter
between the people and the gods, when they came to visit the city. These towers
have disappeared because the materials used (bricks and tiles) were weaker than
the stones used in the pyramids of Egypt. Those towers could be seen from afar
and seemed to join together heaven and earth.

• In the Yahwist writer’s view, the tower of Babel was not an expression of piety,
but a symbol of idolatry; and the city was a manifestation of their national pride.
The diversity of languages inside the great city was also a sign of the future
destruction of the empire. Perhaps the remains of one of those towers were the
spark that inspired this episode. It symbolizes the failure of any human progress
based on collective pride and arrogance.

• In fact, the Yahwist introduces with irony the judgment of God against Babel, the
city of pride and worshiper of idols: “The Lord came down to see the city and the
tower which the sons of men had built” (Gen 11, 5). This means that the tower
was so small that God has to come down to be able to see it. The Babylonian
empire based its power on the political unity of many countries with many
different languages. Then, God, confusing their languages, avoids the growth of
their pride and will be the symbol of their division and loss of power.

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 • What does really mean the “confusion of languages”? Traditionally it was
understood that the sudden appearance of many different languages was due to an
action from God. Nowadays, everybody believes that it is connected to the dawn
of disagreements and divergences inside the city. Often we use the expression “we
do not speak the same language” to say that we do not understand each other.
When the Assyrian kings celebrated their victories over the enemies, they used to
say this: “I have unified the language of the nations”. By using this expression
they did not mean the unification of languages, but the political and
administrative unification. Therefore, the expression “God confused their
languages” means that God broke their social, economic and political stability,
and they scattered all over the world. That is why new nations were born and
many different languages appeared.

• The literary genre of the episode is historic and didactic. The form of the story is
historic (Babylon, Babel, the tower and the material used for the construction).
The message is a free creation of the writer with the purpose of teaching some
truths about God and mankind. The Yahwist is not interested in showing us the
origin of languages, but in teaching us a religious lesson: the pride and arrogance
of men or nations will lead them to self-destruction.

- SUMMARY OF GENESIS 1-11

• Gen 1-11 is a story of sin and grace, justice and mercy. This is the key to
understand the Bible as the history of salvation. When man falls, there is always a
new gesture of grace, a new judgment of God: punishment and forgiveness.
Above all, his merciful love always triumphs.

• Adam and Eve are punished with the ejection from paradise, but God forgives
them, gives them back their lost dignity and promises them descendants capable
to overcome the power of evil.

• Cain, the assassin of his brother Abel, is expelled from the fertile land, but he is
also given a mark to protect him from those who may try to kill him.

• The sensuality and lack of self control of the people at the time of Noah is
punished with the flood, but God saves a few good people and makes a covenant
of peace with them, symbolized by the rainbow.

• God confuses and disperses the proud constructors of Babel and allows all the
nations to follow their own path, but from all of them He chooses the family of
Shem: in this family Abraham will be born and will be the fountain of benediction
for all the families on earth. That is why the writer presents the genealogy of the
ancestors of Abraham after the destruction of the tower (Gen 11, 10-32).

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