Alter: Genesis
Genesis
p.36.1
Genesis is divided naturally by the repetition of the 'toledoth' which is translated erroneously as 'these are the generations of'. Late archeological discoveries and observation of the format of writing on clay tablets has been largely ignored by scholars, though treated in great detail in R. K. Harrison's massive tome "Introduction to the Old Testament". There is a tendency among modernists to give favor to those theories which cast doubt on scripture, rather than those which support it's most 'bizarre' claims. [1]
P.J. Wiseman's "Toledoth theory" warrants closer consideration in it's claim of internal evidences that Genesis was written by eye witnesses on clay tablets. The implication is that the tablets were passed from father to son until Joseph, who put them in Pharaoh's Library, where Moses obtained a copy transcribed onto papyrus.
This multiple-author theory explains much of the 'multi-formity' described by Fokkelman. The greatest objection to Wiseman is that it would appear that Esau wrote Jacob's account, and Jacob wrote Esau's account. The same scholars who object to this, also observe that the Bible unabashedly records the humanness and frailties, unlike other 'hero myths'. However, they ignore the obvious motivation of Esau to record for posterity, the duplicity of Jacob.
The mystery of Genesis is hidden in a fractal pattern of revelation, with the story repeated at many levels within itself. The fractal begins with the answer to an ancient riddle: why does God's revelation to man begin with the second letter of the alphabet, rather than the first?
The riddle exposes presuppositions required to unpack the mystery:
- God is
- he invented an alphabet before he spoke
- letters have meaning
- patterns have meaning
- God desires to be known
The answer to the riddle requires a knowledge of the formation of the letters, and a trust that the numerical order (letters are also numbers) is by design. Much of what is believed about Hebrew is wrong.
It is said that Hebrew has no vowels. This is wrong on several levels. The Sephir Yetsirah describes how consonants are formed out of vowels, so they have an embedded vowel within them. Vowels are like 'joker' cards. They change the position of the embedded vowel. To say 'bah' one only needs a bet ב, but to say 'ab', you must add the vowel aleph: אב. [2] [3]
The aleph א is a silent letter. It doesn't really have a sound of it's own, but merely is the slightest breath. Now back to the riddle.
In Genesis 1:1, the first word is 'bereshith' beginning with the second letter of the alphabet. It is translated: In the beginning. The riddle asks what comes before the beginning. The hint is from the alphabet. Only the aleph precedes the bet. One meaning of the aleph is: God spoke and created the heavens and the earth. The meaning of the bet is: a revelation to man.
In Genesis 1:1, the aleph before the bet is both silent and invisible. From this we derive that before the revelation to man; the beginning of the word of God to man, God spoke and created the heavens and the earth when there was no one there to see or hear him do it.
This is the beginning of the first fractal revelation. The same idea is repeated by the letters within 'bereshit': A revelation to man ב it is revealed ר that God spoke and created the heavens and the earth א his word did not return void ש what he intended to do י he completed with a a new life returning to him ת.
The same idea is repeated in the first verse: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". The fractal expands and the first chapter tells how God created the heavens and the earth in six days. With each day being like a table of contents entry, the rest of scripture is divided into six parts with the purpose of telling us that God is the creator. God being the creator is so central to the purpose of the revelation that God says he is angry if we don't acknowledge that truth [4]
Should we doubt the fractal nature of the revelation, or the validity of notarikon, we see how is begins to expand with in 'bereshit'. If, instead of reading it letter by letter, we read it by splitting it in half, it says that in the beginning he created 'bara' ברא six 'shith' שית. By dividing bereshit various ways, seeds to other fractal motifs are displayed:
- created six ברא-שית
create, cut down ברא
|
appointment, six, cloak, indemnity finished שית
|
- ב-ר-א-ש-י-ת - a revelation to man ב it is revealed ר that God spoke and created the heavens and the earth א his word did not return void ש his plan for creation י was finished ת
- ב(ראשי)ת The daughter בת has her head ראשי in her heart (by position). A riddle that the daughter of God loves God (her head). ב(ראשי)ת ↬ Christ incarnate loving the Father, in the voice of the priest. And ☇↬ of the church loving Christ, in the voice of the prophet.
p.36.2
Fokkelman is enamored with the multiformity and discord in Genesis. Earlier, Alter suggests a superiority of Literary Critics over theologians, saying that theologians impose a doctrinal position upon the text and miss the literary aspects. We might note that Fokkelman has missed the literary aspects because he has imposed a secular doctrine upon the text.
His bias is common, and pervasive. The doctrine being imposed is that Genesis has a singular author or compiler. The internal evidence, the very evidence of multiformity and discord, suggests otherwise. It suggests multiple authors.
The traidic line in Ge 1:27 would have been written by God upon tablets which were handed to Adam. With this divine example of writing, Adam wrote his own work, including the two-lilne strope in 2:23.
Shem wrote the strophe in 8:22. Ismael wrote 14:19. Esau wrote the three line poem in 25:23, where Adam wrote the one in 4:6-7 and 4:23-24.
Without the popular 'dogma' of Genesis having a single author, it is doubtful that a Literary critic would marvel at the 'multiformity' and 'discord'.
How does Adam's writing influence Seth's? Is there evidence of invention as each successive author expanded the record? These would be topics for a new generation of literary critics.
References
- ↑ Such as creation, the flood, etc.
- ↑ Hebrew is written right to left
- ↑ the proper pronunciation of 'ab' is like whispering 'father' His name 'Yahweh' is spelled with all vowels: יהוה , and is is said in a hushed tone, as with reverence.
- ↑ Ge 1:18-21
