Introduction
The account of creation in Genesis, is
it just an introduction to biblical scripture? What are its verses hiding? Myth,
invention or scientific truth? This book attempts to address an issue about
which both scientists and religious people feel uncomfortable.
Science flatly dismisses the story, first with a smirk and then with anger, and
the Catholic Church has relegated it to a mere introduction to the Scriptures. "The
tale of Creation is a religious text with religious teachings," they say. "There
is no science in it", "we should not seek scientific explanations", of course.
But...
I must admit that I have always been a harsh critic of the Genesis. I was always
among those we tried to conceal a smile and changed the subject in order to
avoid discussing it. Talking about Genesis and Creation in particular seemed
unthinkable to me…, until a few months ago.
It is about a year since my youngest son asked me about God with great interest,
more than he used to have.
At the time we chatted, I explained everything I could within my knowledge and
we agreed to read the holy books of the major religions to expand concepts. So
we began to read, first the Bible [1] , as the main book of Catholicism-Judaism-Islam,
to then continue with the Bhagavad Gita [2] of Hinduism-Buddhism [3] .
When I read him the Bible, when we were moving forward with the book of Joseph,
I had what we might call a revelation. I understood then the reason for the
Bible, the reason for the creation of the Chosen People, the reason for the
coming of the Messiah, The Creation, Eden, the policies of the Catholic Church,
the momentous task of the Jewish people, polytheism, monotheism, and much more.
This revelation caused me such a shock that I decided to write it down and I
poured it in my book One God (Un Único Dios).
The explanation of the Creation story of Genesis was to be part of that book,
but after analyzing it with my editor and literary adviser we decided it was
better to leave it for a separate book as it warranted special treatment.
When I finished the book One God, in August 2011 I returned to the account of
creation in Genesis and devoted myself to solve it.
It was clear to me that the Genesis story was real; they were facts that could
have happened but were somehow masked.
What was the key? What was the Rosetta stone that would allow me to interpret
the narrative?
The key, I discovered, was that the story -the text- was a narrative of someone
who was telling what he was seeing. That was the key -the board, so to speak- on
which I had to assemble the pieces of this puzzle.
In the text of Creation there was an observer, a narrator. They were not just
verses, no, it was clear that it was a narration: the narration of an observer.
By introducing this variable, the narrator-observer, all made sense. From then
on the rest was just a case of looking for the right questions: Was it a vision
or a revelation? Or both? How long did the vision take? Who was he? Where did he
live? What was his location?
The location, the location was crucial.
The observer and its location were the cornerstones for understanding the story
of Creation.
This book describes the journey I had to make from the Bible to science in a
permanent back and forth until I managed to unravel the mystery.
I encourage you to join me in my discovery.
Let's have a cup of coffee, find a comfortable chair, and leave the
preconceptions aside for a moment.
Let us open our minds and look at what mysteries have been hidden in the verses
of Genesis for over three thousand years.
The version I have used for this comparison is The Jerusalem Bible.
The Jerusalem Bible (Bible de Jerusalem) is a version of the Bible published in
installments between 1948 and 1953 that the French Biblical and Archaeological
School of Jerusalem published later as the result of the translation to French
of the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. It was later translated into other local
languages, and to the Spanish language. The approach they took was to compare
the translation with the original texts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
1 - See appendix I
2 - Bhagavad-Gita, the most important Hindu scripture. It is considered one of
the most important religious texts in the world. The term Bhagavad-Gita means
Bhagawan's song (Bhagawan, God, who has [all]opulence). Often the Bhagawad-Gita
is simply called Gita (Gi-tá-). Although the Sanskrit noun is feminine Gita ("Song"),
in Spanish it is often translated as masculine can be viewed many times as male
("el canto" instead of "la canción"), and the stress can also change (from gi:'t?a
to 'gi:t?a:). It is part of the epic text Mahabharata (possibly from the third
century BC.) and consists of 700 verses. It contains a conversation between
Krishna-whom the Hindus consider an incarnation of Vishnu (while krisnaÃstas
consider it the origin of Vishnu), or as the main personality of God- and his
cousin and friend Arjuna on the battlefield in the moments before the start of
the Kurukshetra war. In response to the confusion and moral dilemma of Arjuna,
Krishna explains to him all the mysteries of spirituality. During his speech,
Krishna reveals his identity as the "God himself" (suaiam Bhagawan), blessing
Arjuna with an impressive view of his divine universal form among other
teachings.
3 - Although much of Buddhism denies that their doctrine has its essence in the
Bhagavad Gita, and therefore in Hinduism, it is undeniable that Buddha's
teachings are based on or are the same as those of Hinduism: dharma (right
action) and the end of samsara (cycle of birth) to attain nirvana (enlightenment).
Index
Introduction
1 THE BIBLE, THE GENESIS, CREATION
1a Seven days?
2 BILLIONS
3 AND IN THIS CORNER… LIVE!
4 Behold...GENESIS
5 LOCATION AND ENVIRONMENT
5.1 Babylonians
5.2 Egyptians
5.3 Hebrews
6. THE SACRED WRITER
7 THE OBSERVER Contemplating the creation
8 MESSAGE AND TEACHING
9 TRANSCENDENTAL CONTENT
10 EDEN
10 a Human nature in a controlled environment.
11 THE SPIRITUAL PATH
11 a Religions
APENDIX I
a The Bible
b Enuma Elish
c Garden of Eden
d Bit-Adini
d The Vulgate
e LXX
f Cain and Abel
APENDIX II
a Valley of the Whales
APENDIX III
a The location of Eden
The author