Genesis

"Genesis" proves to be a text that provides a basic background to view the many possible explanations on how the world began, the origin of all things created; possible insights into an unknown area of knowledge which is important to man as man is always interested in knowing plausible alternatives from which to choose from in his quest to understand the concepts of creation, God, evil etc. As a Classical Narrative, Genesis succeeds in providing the reader with one such explanation, to the origin of earth, man and consequent civilization in itself, with an introduction to the person of God whose “power” was moving over the water “in the beginning”.

The text as the name “Genesis” in itself implies “origin”, refers to the beginning of creation in itself, with a poetic description of the very beginning of how the rain, the sea, the sky, the land, plants, creatures both on land and water as well as in the air and finally man and woman, came into existence. A reader would be familiar with all that is, but everyday occurrence in his environment and would find even the creation of man from the soil of the earth, one out of many mythical explanations that form possible world views on creation. However, the text grapples with more philosophical issues with the introduction of the sections in Chapters 2 and 3, as it plunges deeper into issues on disobedience, sin, suffering, consequences of actions and the concepts of good and evil with the story of the snake who tempts the woman to disobey God’s instructions in Chapter 1, and succeeds

Thus Genesis is as a Classical Narrative, intriguing in its description of the story of mankind and his inevitable fall as detailed in its story, for a reading of the text causes the reader to see to understand, interpret and make sense of the deeper meaning to the narrative, as it deals with a topic that is neither alien to man (as it deals with questions to do with the origin of man) nor easiest to understand at first reading which itself makes the text a valuable narrative as it leaves things “open” to the reader who is challenged to look into the deeper meanings of the text because of the poetic nature of narration. For example – whether or not the trees actually existed in order to make the fall occur etc is never explained. The text is direct and tells the story simply, without a view or interpretation included in the writing, which helps the reader to enjoy “Genesis” all the more, because of its ambiguity.

The possible reason behind the labour pain/pregnancy pains women face when giving birth, man having to work for a living in order to survive (physically when he toils the land) and all the more unpleasant facets to human existence being accounted as arising from the consequences of disobedience further help make “Genesis” a text that explain.

“The Origin” is what this Classical Narrative is essentially about.

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