A Tiny Bit on Genesis

So you know: Genesis? Funny. Plus, it reads like a soap opera, minus the alien abduction.

It starts with two creation stories. I just attended a three-hour lecture partly focusing on this and I’ll share some of the more academic gems with you all soon (when I’m not coming off a twelve-hour day). But I wanted to just note this one thing, because I kinda love it.

The second creation story has this really sweet verse (for those who are following along at home, this is Genesis 2:19):

¹⁹So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

The thing I love about this is that it is as if God is playing with her new creation – like she’s all excited to see what the man is going to call each animal. I imagine it, God totally having fun and cracking up when man comes up with things like platypus or orangutan (or whatever they are in the “original” translation…)

The context of the verse is also funny (here’s the whole thing 2:18-20):

¹⁸Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” ¹⁹So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

I also think it’s kind of endearing that the God in this section is not only worried about the man being alone, but that his first move is to create animals and birds. It’s only after the man names and rejects all the animals as helper/partner that woman was made. Now I know there is a lot of possibility for snark here, but that’s not why I brought it up. Sometimes it’s fun to think of a God that doesn’t know the whole plan first and is having a wicked good time experimenting.