Where is my Antiptosis?: Genesis 1:4 and its significance for understanding the story.of Creation

Making Exegesis Upon Correct Translations 

In the previous post, The Conception of the Intelligence Designer is as Old as Genesis, we saw how the author of Genesis 1 conceived God as concerned with every detail of His Divine Creative act conforming to some design for the emergence of human life.

We mentioned that verse 1:4 contains a rhetorical device, in particular an antiptosis: God saw the light, that it was good. By using this figure of speech as the first in a series of God saw that it was good, the author has his readers pay attention to God's expression of concern for the emergence of goodness as contrary to evil. 

Recognizing this unusual construction and translating it properly is very important since the author uses it again in other parts of Genesis. i.e 6: 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; 12: 4   So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.  and 13: 10  And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere. (New King James Version: NKJV) Once again, however, not all translations give credit to this construction and water down the intended effect the author had in mind with translations like that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful... Trying to make a translation that is easy to read and understand we take out important cultural and rhetorical elements of the original writing; elements that were placed there with a definite intention. 

In each of the above cases the incident has to do with a person choosing between alternatives. In fact, the word 'chose' in Hebrew appear in the second part of verse 6:2 (and they took them wives all which they chose.); and in verse 13:11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan,... In all three of these stories, the subjects decide to keep whatever it was that they saw, for even in chapter 12 the princes of Pharaoh who saw the woman-Abraham's wife- took her and brought her to Pharaoh. This usage may help us in making conclusions regarding God's actions in Genesis . For instance, we could argue that God had alternatives to choose from, not between good and evil but between degrees of good. This idea agrees with modern science which has found that the creation of the universe required an incredible degree of adjustment on several critical factors. Books by George Greenstein, The Symbiotic Universe, and Roger Penrose, i.e. The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics, and several other scientist demonstrate the delicate balance that exists between the things of the universe as a precondition for life to emerge.

That these degrees of goodness exist is attested by the same Genesis story in verse 1:31 where after God has concluded all his labor the author says that Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. Whereas the work of each the previous days had been just good, finally when God ends his part in the creative process he sees that everything together fits very well for the accomplishment of His will. The final part was left up to His children, whom God entrusted with making a reality the Blessings he gave them and with keeping the commandment.

We can see how a correct, instead of a more 'readable' one, translation of the biblical texts can help us shed light on the depiction of God in Genesis 1. The author of this chapter not only has God acting in a manner that does not perfectly conform to the traditional teaching about the person of God, but it challenges even our concern with certain characteristics of God that traditional teaching focuses on.

The Nature of the God of Genesis 1-3 In Genesis, the author seeks that his readers see God's amazing concern for them since before he began to create. Everything that was brought about had to meet certain standard before God proceeded with his creation. 

Even if we take for granted that a good God inevitably will create good things the author focuses on God's interest in making sure that everything was good. The writer does not depict God as taking as gospel the goodness of whatever he creates. Even as the God of Genesis appears supremely confident and self-assured as he proceeds to create through the power of His spoken word, He nevertheless checks on a daily basis that everything is going according to His plan. God's ultimate plan seems to be of such immense value to Him that He takes a personal interest in overseeing His own work. 

a. God's Omniscience In other words, our author does not worry with the apparent contradiction in the idea of an Omniscient God looking over the things he had created to see that they stand up to His standard of goodness. Had that characteristic of God had been of so much value for the author to present, he would have written a very different story about God's act of creation.

The Institute for Creation Research affirms that: "The message of Genesis is not confusing. The repetitive information throughout the rest of Scripture is consistent. The universe was created by an omnipotent, omniscient, and transcendent Being. "(emphasis mine) Yet, the writer of chapter 3 does not depict God as being omniscient. After the first ancestors disobey God and eat of the forbidden fruit, they hid from Him when they hear Him walking on the garden. Then the story continues: Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (emphasis mine)

The questions may be rhetorical, but that is precisely the point. The author fashioned a story in which through rhetorical devices God's omniscience is not accounted for, but instead it is dismissed. 

Clearly, the assumption of God's Omniscience is not present anywhere in the first chapter nor in the chapters including the fall of the first ancestors. 

The writer could have composed a different story in which God's Omniscience is displayed. Instead he chose to take another route. He wrought a story that leads the readers to focus on God's motivation for creation, on God's constant concern with the condition of mankind, both during the preparatory stages for its arrival and later with mankind's moral state. Also, just as Jesus would later do, the author has readers pay more attention on God's concern or love for them than on incomprehensible characteristics such as Omniscience. 


b. God's Self-Sufficiency  The entire idea of the God who is totally self-sufficient does not take part on this creation story either. For, why would He have to check on the goodness of anything, unless He has a need for ensuring that everything was good? Hence, contrary to what many sites say about the biblical description of a self-sufficient God (gotquestions.org for instance) that image does not appear in here. In the mind of the author of the story of creation, the "I Am Who I Am" of Exodus 3:14 needs that everything be good. Moreover, the care he put into making sure that everything meets his moral standard was for the sake of the realization of the ultimate purpose of bringing about Adam and Eve. Doesn't this reveal some type of need for them? After all we have learned through the different lists of types of human needs, i.e. Maslow's, Robbin's, that we do not just have physical needs but also have psychological, and emotional needs. God certainly does not have any need for food, or sleep. The depiction of God in the beginning of Genesis suggest that he has a need for seeing good things and a need for relating with his children.

The writing requires that the readers study the text conscientiously. For in its lines God demonstrates an special interest in humans. We represent: the only creation that is God's image.  He created with three objectives in mind: 1) for us to bear only good fruits, 2) to establish God-centered families (multiply) and 3) to bring about a world of happiness for everything (take control). God seems to have invested a lot in our creation, and then placed the culmination of everything on our hands
 Though discussing this idea is no doubt important, that is a discussion for another post. (The Divine Principle explains this very clearly in the presentation The Principle of Creation, pages 2-50.)

Talking about God's Heart for creating Rev. Moon says: 

God did not create mankind out of His whim, but rather as an unavoidable necessity. He had to create human beings. His love was so great that He could not help but to create sons and daughters.There is not anything which the omnipotent God does not own, but though God can have anything else if He really wants to, even God cannot have love without having an object of love. Alone, He cannot have love, therefore He created his sons and daughters for the give and take of love and beauty and the relationship of true love. As a son needs a father in order to exist, a father needs a son in order to be a father.

Conclusions a) Some bibles do not correctly translate Genesis 1:4 and the parallel verses and consequently. grasping the importance of God's daily examination of his creation may not be as obvious then. One may simply think that what the author wants to portray is that anything God creates must be of necessity good, but we may fail to perceive the idea of God wanting to keep His eyes on the results of his creation for the sake of what will come next, and what will ultimately be revealed. If God has been made to forget His own Omniscience, and to need certain things, what other figure of speech hides some symbolic meaning or contains some unusual insight on the nature of God, or some other important theological issue?

b)If we have discovered that God deeply cares for mankind just from analyzing the significance of the antiptosis and the list of phrases associated with it, perhaps many other important messages on the relationship between mankind and God, are lying covered by the veil of cultural expressions, and other figures of speech contained in this narrative.

The idea of God's great love for mankind is biblical. The foundation for that has been laid not just in Genesis 1:28 where God grants humans the role of controllers of the universe, Already in Genesis 1:4 the writer lays the groundwork for his readers grasping the idea of God's great concern of preparing everything with a parental heart and ensuring that the entire environment for his children is perfectly fit for life. 

What inspires you more God's Parental Love for you and knowing that He invested everything for the sake of creating an entire universe for your sake, or knowing that God is Omniscient?