Genesis 1:1 - 1:5

In principles the
powers that be
conceive the universe.

When the waters, dark and deep
veiled earth, the virgin wilderness
breathed alhim
the breath of life
upon the waters' face.

Sang alhim
for light to be
and light it came to be.

Saw alhim the light was mixed
and parted them,
the light from dark,
calling light to shine in day
and dark to cloak the night.

Diversity was unity
on the day of one.

Key Words

Principles

The ancient scripture states something we now know to be true. Everywhere from the far reaches of the universe down to sub-atomic particles, fundamental principles govern all matter and energy. For centuries on end, in every field from mathematics to music theory, from genetics to economics, scientists and scholars have discovered an intertwined network of organizing principles.


Powers-that-be/alhim

Biblical scholars agree that the ancient Jews believed in many gods, but chose to worship only one. To identify the power(s) that formed the Universe, the ancient scripture uses a word with no synonym in the English language. It can be pronounced elohim or alhim but is difficult to translate, because it is both singular and plural.

Mainstream translations, like the King James Bible, turn alhim into two different words – sometimes making it into ‘God’, as in: “God created the heaven and the earth” and sometimes into ‘gods’, as in: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Translating alhim as ‘God’ hides its plurality, just as translating alhim as ‘gods’ hides its singularity, while using two different words obscures alhim’s fundamental meaning and profound beauty.

The concept of alhim is captured in the phrase ‘powers that be’ – a phrase which reflects the word’s ancient Aramaic/Hebrew roots.


For the most part the Bible pairs alhim with singular verbs – indicating that the powers/gods act as one. But when alhim speaks, the verbs are first person plural: “let us make light” or “we make human beings” - showing alhim speaking for all.

The Bible’s authors did not presume to define what alhim is, they simply observed that alhim exists and described what alhim did and does. In Genesis One, the powers-that-be visualize, vocalize and execute a series of covenants to promote the common good. Genesis One shows nature’s powers and elements working together to create and develop the world.


Conceive

The process of creation begins in conception. The powers-that-be will enter into and execute into a series of covenants whereby they jointly visualize, annunciate, and fulfill a common plan.


Waters

Technically, this is an accurate depiction of the time water covered the earth’s surface. Lyrically, the verse evokes images of the powers-that-be sweeping across the seas in a thundercloud and breathing our world’s first life onto the face of the waters.


Light

Genesis One avoids mentioning the names of heavenly bodies. This leaves it up to you to figure out whether the source of the first light was the sun.


Mixed

In this passage, the King James Bible translates the word tob to mean ‘good’. Sure ‘good’ fits here – light is good. And ‘good’ makes sense in other passages - after the oceans, continents, plants and all creatures great and small come to be, the powers-that-be call each of them tob.

But tob can also mean ‘mixed’ or ‘joined’. And that translation is the key to understanding the entire passage - light and dark are mixed together and the powers-that-be ask them to separate and then take on their individual responsibilities.

Again, in Genesis Two and Three, when King James’ translators read of the forbidden tree deep that gives knowledge (hdet) of tob and re, they decide that tob means ‘good’ and conclude that re must mean ‘evil’

But, again, translating tob as ‘mixed’ or ‘joined’ unlocks the meaning of the entire passage.

The word re does not only mean ‘bad’ it can also mean friend, associate, intimate companion etc.

And that word hdet does not only mean ‘knowledge’ it also means sexual relations.

So the hdet, tob, and re of the forbidden tree really refers to sexual union with an intimate companion.

Regardless of whether the Adam and Eve story actually happened, its principal lesson remains timeless and true – do not have sexual relations until you are ready to leave childhood behind, because childbirth is painful and fatherhood is hard work.


Light and Darkness

In a literal reading of this passage, the powers that be all agree that darkness would have the job of cloaking the night and light the job illuminating the day. In other words, darkness and light agree to and receive callings. Not only to do they get names; they also take on responsibilities.


Calling

In ancient times, your name and your job went hand in hand. Mr. Smith worked with metal; Mr. Baker baked bread. To our ancestors, calling someone a name meant assigning them a job.


Diversity and Unity

If you want to believe that the Bible is hopelessly inconsistent with geology, all you have to do is translate the word iom as day and insist that it refers to the 24-hour period of time it takes for the Earth to spin once on its axis. Then you can show geological evidence proving – by any rational measure – that the events of the first four days of the Bible lasted for billions of years.

And, if you want to believe that the Bible is internally incoherent, all you have to do is cite King James’ translation of the phrase, oihi erb oihi obkr iom as ‘and the evening and the morning were the first day’. Then you can point out that the Sun was not created until the fourth day so that this passage makes no sense at all.

Or, if you like, you can let the ancient scripture speak for itself and marvel at its wisdom. The creation story, like the history of the Earth, and life on Earth, revolves around the process of organization, growth, reorganization and more growth. This particular passage marks the end of the first cycle in which the primal elements began the process of congress and progress.

Overview, Days 1 - 6

Genesis One – the first chapter of the Bible’s first book shows how we can build a better world for ourselves and our children through a process so simple, practical and natural that all we’ll need to do to make it work is to work together.

Genesis One starts by recounting how nature’s powers and elements worked together to create and develop the world. Here’s what happened:

This really did happen – the Bible’s creation story is astoundingly consistent with our modern measured scientific understanding of the origins of the earth.

This really does happen – everywhere from the far reaches of the universe down to sub atomic particles, all matter and energy is governed by physical principles which help make the world more orderly and moral.

According to Genesis One, after guiding the creation of the earth and the seas and of the plants and the animals, the powers-that-be created human beings and cast us in their role. They then gave us three guiding principles:



Now here we are on the precipice of global disaster – facing seemingly insurmountable problems- financial and economic ruin, overpopulation and starvation, ecological destruction and genocidal war. And here we have the first chapter of the first book of the Bible urging us to follow the example given to us by the powers-that-be and showing us how to build a better world. All we need to do is to follow their example and heed their advice.



Then, step by step, we can evaluate what we have done and repeat the process of envisioning the future, stating our agreements, and executing the next step of the plan. We will find that this process comes so naturally to us that all we’ll need to do to make it work is to leave behind our personal selfishness and childishness and try thinking, planning and working together.

God is Goodness

The Unified Universe

As a child, I was carefully taught, by people who were scrupulous about telling the truth, that God is omniscient (all–knowing), omnipotent (all–powerful) and male. These people insisted that the Bible says that one God, the Father Almighty, created heaven and earth out of nothing but His thoughts and words.

As a child, I believed them, but as a teenager, my mind stopped envisioning God in human form and I could no longer accept the concept of a super-powered God creating and ruling the universe by giving orders from His throne in the sky.

At age 13, I understood the simple truth: there is no such thing as super-power. So, mentally, I classified the Bible as a literary work and spent the next 43 years learning science from science books.

It was not until I decided to decode the Leningrad Codex and let the ancient text speak for itself that I began to understand what the Bible says – not just about Adam and Eve, but about the nature of God and the science of nature. I could envision the original ideas:

Genesis One depicts a collective intelligence which it identifies simply as the ‘powers-that-be’. The powers-that-be are not a separate being from earth, wind, fire and water; the powers-that-be are earth, wind, fire and water. God was and is the essence of the whole that made it greater than the sum of the parts. In and through Genesis One, I saw a vision of God that my mind could embrace — a perfectly natural, scientifically verifiable reality.

Collective Intelligence Is Not Polytheism

The Bible suggests that God is both universal and individual. God is within everything and therefore vastly plural; God unifies everything and is therefore intensely singular. The scripture advances a concept more sophisticated than either polytheism or monotheism. Both of those are anchored to an ancient world view in which natural forces are personified in the form of super-human beings. Polytheism and monotheism are not really opposites, because they share an anthropomorphic view of the supernatural.

Genesis One leaves childish things behind. It is not a campfire story about a super-powered male being. This is a grown-up account of the creation of the universe which portrays the collective intelligence as the unifying spirit that brings all of the individual elements of the universe together as one. This idea transcends linguistics and pushes the envelope of human comprehension.

The Bible does not say what God is; it simply maintains that God is and asks us to understand God, based on what God did and does. And, this account is both naturally and surprisingly consistent with the most advanced scientific theories that (i) matter can organize itself and (ii) when matter does organizes itself, it does so pursuant to naturally and surprisingly efficient principles.

***

Personally, I accept, embrace and try to live by the fundamental teachings of the First and Second Testaments. There are those who say that this is not enough – that a philosophical mind and moral lifestyle is not sufficient to make me – or you – a Christian or a Jew. They say that we must also accept the Bible’s literary metaphors as literal truths for us to be full-fledged members of their religions.

I can live with that. To a great degree, the people who fully embrace the Bible as historically true are also the people who do the heavy lifting needed to build and maintain religious communities and places of worship. As a father and husband who spends important family time in and around Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Jewish churches and temples, I have no wish to offend any of the devoted members of these communities.

The purpose of the Freeware Bible website and Genesis Rejuvenated book is to add light, not heat, to our common search for moral and spiritual guidance. Biblical scholars agree that Genesis One was composed centuries after the later chapters. Those later chapters portray God with a human personality and relate stories of super-human exploits. The people who added Genesis One to the beginning of the Bible did not go on to edit out the talking serpents and demigods or overwrite the age-old image of God in the rest of the stories. What they did do was present an alternative theology that reflected the collective wisdom of their time. In Genesis One, their wisdom shines through the ages into our own.

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