The “Problem”
In Genesis 2:1-3, following the creation week depicted in chapter 1, the Bible says that God rested on the seventh day. So what exactly does that mean?
Well, I don’t think it means that God was physically exhausted. So if that’s not it, then what is it? My thought is that its got a lot to do with the concept of God’s cosmic temple and the forces of chaos He abolishes to establish it.
From the Waters… A Temple
I’ve written here previously about how the creation narrative in Genesis 1-2 is replete with temple imagery. Here are two quick examples. First, the words in Genesis 2:15 to describe Adam’s job to “work” (av’ad) and “keep” (sha’mar) the garden are the same ones used to describe the role of the priests in Numbers 3:7-8. Second, the cherubim which guard the way to the tree of life in Genesis 3:22-24 are the same creatures which were stitched into the curtain blocking access to the holy of holies (Exod. 25:18-22, 26:31; 1 Kings 6:23-29). These, among other literary clues within the Pentateuch1, reveal that God made the earth to be a cosmic temple where we could enjoy His presence and reign with Him as bearers of His image (Gen. 1:26-28).
But here’s a crucial question: How does the Bible depict the way God goes about building this temple? The answer is…
Through acts of separation.
Genesis 1 begins with God’s Spirit (ru’ach) hovering over the waters, which are described as “without form and void” (toh’hoo va voh’hoo). And what did He do with these waters? He separated them (verse 6). Then, following the initial acts of separation, the way is prepared for their to be land and sky and sea and animals and, as the pinnacle, people.
But an ancient Hebrew would’ve picked up on more that what we see.
Throughout the Ancient Near East, different creation accounts all described the precreation state as a mass of conglomerated chaos.2 And order was established when the deity sought to separate the conglomerate elements out. For instance, consider these two examples (from Mesopotamia and Egypt respectively):
(1) In the Mesopotamian myth, Enuma Elish, the precreation state existed as a conglomerated mix of Tiamat (who represented the primordial sea) and Apsu (who represented ground water) whose waters were said to be “mingled” together.3 As the story goes on, Tiamat is eventually killed by leading supreme Babylonian god, Marduk, who then separates her body for the different elements of creation.4 These acts of gruesome separation, in other words, are what brought about an ordered cosmos.5
(2) The Egyptians conceived of the precreation state as a mass of water separated when the god of the air, Shu, came into being and thus also created the earth.6 From that point on, they saw the cosmos as three-tiered: the earth sandwiched between the primordial ocean above (Nun) and the waters which were underneath it.7 Again, note that creation happens through an act of separation which brings order.
So why does Genesis 1 carry such similarities? I would argue that the text is polemicizing against these myths in order to relate the correct account of our cosmological origins.8 That is to say, Genesis 1 aims to tell us how it really happened.9
And the purpose of God’s acts of order-establishing separation was so that He might make a Garden Temple where humanity could enjoy fellowship with Him even as they reigned under Him (see above). And come to find out, temple building following creation is another concept with ancient Near Eastern parallels. Scholar J.R. Middleton explains…
The notion of the cosmos as temple has its roots in the ancient Near Eastern worldview, in which temples were commonly understood as the royal palaces of the gods, in which they dwelled and from which they reigned. Furthermore, creation, followed by temple building and then divine rest, is a central theme in Mesopotamian, and perhaps Ugaritic, mythology (both Marduk and Baal have temples built for them after their conquest of the chaos monster).10
The rest in Genesis 2:1-3 then is not because God was tired. It’s because rest indicated that all was right with the world. Chaos was dispelled and order was ushered in. And in that state of affairs, God was able to rest in His cosmic temple. And enjoying that rest with Him were His human creatures. What a glorious picture, huh?
But sadly, things didn’t stay that way. In Genesis 3, chaos re-enters the picture with humanity’s fall into sin. And so, moving forward, one way you could describe the storyline of the Bible is God’s plan to make the world His temple again where He and His people can enjoy rest — i.e. a place free from the chaos of sin and underneath the good order of God’s reign.
And I hope to sketch out how this plays out in the Old Testament in next month’s edition of Research Notes.
Thank you for reading!
Drew
For more details on this idea, check out my earlier article Eden: Episode 1 or pick up a copy of T. Desmond Alexander, From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012).
John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 184.
COS, 1.111, tablet 1:3-5.
COS, 1.111, tablet 4:135-138. The same idea of creation by separation was also known in ancient Egypt. See Walton, Ancient Near Eastern The god Shu made space for the earth by also separating the waters.
This myth functioned as a Babylonian justification for exalting Marduk to the head of the pantheon.
Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought, 188.
Ibid.
This can be defined as “passages that showed an awareness of a particular ancient Near Eastern text (or texts) and are constructed to refute what that text (or texts) affirms”; see John Walton et al., Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), 334.
The account of Genesis 1 truly does stand in stark contrast when set against the backdrop of these other myths which betray an obvious fictitious character (e.g., the elements being created from Tiamat’s body parts).
J.R. Middleton, The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2005), 81.