Birth Pangs (1)
Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” Genesis 1:6 NASB
Expanse – Genesis chapter 1 is undoubtedly the least understood and most misunderstood chapter in all the Bible. Oh, it’s so familiar to us that we think we know what it’s all about, but what we know is just the translated religious language and the doctrines that come from them. We don’t really know the depths of the “deep.” Rabbis and scholars have mined these verses for centuries and still they haven’t reached the end of the vein. So, it’s good for us to step back from our pat answers and reconsider these words. When we do, we find some radical, and perhaps exciting, alternatives to our “Bible Answer Man” approach.
Take this verse, for example. A medieval midrash asks us to look again:
“Thus it is written: ‘God said, let there be an expanse (raki’a)’ (Genesis 1:6)—do not read ‘expanse’ (raki’a), but ‘tear’ (keri’a).”[1]
“The Hebrew keri’a is an anagram of raki’a. This is quite an impressive Midrash, coming from the early medieval collection known as Midrash Konen. This passage makes obvious analogies between God’s creation and human birth. Both involve waters breaking, both involve pain and a tear. The tear in the waters was necessary to create space in which life could develop, and the tear of birth is necessary for the baby to begin an independent life. Keri’a is the rite of the dead, when Jewish law requires the tearing of clothing. The message then is twofold: the tear of death is just the continuation of the tear of birth. Both are necessary for life to continue, and we are powerless to change that. The other message is that God is as much bound by these truths as we are. God also could not create without a day of division and tearing, and thus we and God are both in need of comfort and strength in the wake of the cruelties of nature.”[2]
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” or maybe it should be read, “When God began to create He had to make a tear in the heavens and the earth.” Maybe the birth story of the creation is really the macrocosmic representation of our microcosmic entry into the world—and our departure from the world. Maybe life is just everything that happens in the tear.
Perhaps you’ll recall Avivah Zornberg’s insight that expulsion from the Garden was more like an act of birth than a punishment for sin. It seems as if creation itself experienced “groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22 NIV). Now we notice that Paul didn’t say, “Since the Fall, creation has been groaning.” He said it has always been in the pangs of childbirth. We just read the text the wrong way.
This leads to another critical paradigm shift. “The common element in all these legends is this: the idea that the sin of the first human being was not the first of the sins; prior to his sin, some of the forces of nature had already become corrupted. It would seem that the problem of evil should not be forced entirely into the human realm alone. There is a defect in the work of creation.”[3] Paul says much the same thing. “ . . . just as through one man sin entered into the world . . .” (Romans 5:12). The verb Paul chooses (“entered”) is ĕisĕrchŏmai, a combination of Greek words that suggests sin was somewhere else and Adam opened the door to let it come in. The tear in the universe.
There’s more—much more, but this might be all we can really grip today. Just wait.
Topical Index: midrash, tear, expanse, raki’a, keri’a, birth, death, Garden, Romans 8:22, Romans 5:12, Genesis 1:6
[1] Midrash Konen, Otzar Midrashim, p. 254.
[2] Gordon Tucker, in Abraham Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations (ed. and trans. by Gordon Tucker, Continuum International Publishing Group, New York, 2007), p. 124, fn. 46.
[3] Abraham Heschel, Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations, pp. 125-126.
