The heavens -- הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם

"In the beginning, God created the heavens..."  The heavens -- the sky or universe as seen from the earth; the firmament.  I find this another tell... the heavens are defined by the human perspective.  Clearly, this creation story is from and for humans.  From Plato's explanation of the heavens to the description of the heavens as a dome in which the stars are set, humans continue to explore, to imagine, to wonder about the heavens in much the same way as we continue to explore, to imagine, to wonder about God.  And while our science indeed continues to provide a better understanding of what the heavens are, science only provides a description of that which God has created for us.  We can explore, experiment, and expound all we want, but that only gives us a better description of the creation, not the Creator.  Because while we in human existence can probe the heavens, we can only surmise, based upon the Bible's teachings, of how me may enter Heaven where God resides.  At least where God resides based upon human conceptions.

  

ברא bara

   ברא   Bara -- the Hebrew word for creation of which only God is capable  How very useful a word "bara" is because when we think of "creation" we impose human conceptions of the word.  Like measures of time and space, words are limited by our human conception.  From now on, I will try to remember that "In the beginning, God  ברא bara..."  "Created" is too limiting a concept to signify that of which God is capable.  Our conception of "creation" is far too simplistic.

Thank you to Couboo for the picture.

God Eternal

Thank you to Sheri Edwards & her blog "My God Is" for the photo

“In the beginning…”  My inclination was to dismiss this phrase as being a literary device much like “Once upon a time…,” not that I believe that this is the beginning of a fairy tale.  However as I continued to puzzle over the phrase a question came to mind.  Why a reference to a time frame?  Certainly, this is not the beginning for God, an infinite entity (my belief).  No, this is “the beginning” within a human time frame.  The human mind needs a time reference.  Time is an illusion to help give some meaning to human experience and to facilitate human comprehension of that experience. 

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...."

“These words, with which Holy Scripture begins, always have the effect on me of the solemn tolling of a great old bell, which stirs the heart from afar with its beauty and dignity and gives it an inkling of the mystery of eternity.” (In the Beginning...." : A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall (Eerdmans, 1986, 1995) A commentary on Genesis 1-3 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (English translation by Boniface Ramsey) (http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/p81.htm)

“The mystery of eternity” a concept created by the human mind to understand an entity that does not exist in time as we experience it.  We have developed a concept of limitless time as “eternity,” but this will always remain only a concept because no human can experience it.  Time is a human conception relevant only to human life and human experience.  To argue the existence of God within a time frame is similar to arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.  To argue the existence of God within a concept of time would be like trying to measure God using inches or milimeters, another human concept used for comprehending human experience.  Would we argue that God must be measurable because all things within human experience are measurable?  No, eternity and infinity are concepts humans have created to indicate that which is beyond human experience, consequently beyond total human comprehension, to describe a God that has no beginning, middle or end as  we know it, nor any physicality as we understand it.  We use man-made concepts to help us describe a God and a God’s presence that we  would not otherwise be able to describe.  

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

א  בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ. Torah

وقال انه خلق السماوات والأرض في الحقيقة.

He created the heavens and earth in truth.  Qur'an

by Philip Ratner