Genesis 1 26 interpretation. Being. Development of the Genesis Narrative

Comments by Lopukhin A.P. to the Old Testament / Genesis / Chapter 1

1 At the beginning. Like St. Fathers, and in all subsequent interpretive literature, there are two main typical interpretations of this word. According to the prevailing opinion of some, this is a simple chronological indication “of the beginning of the creation of visible things” (Efrem the Syrian), i.e. all that, the history of the gradual formation of which is outlined immediately below. According to the allegorical interpretation of others (Theophan of Antioch, Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, etc.), the word “in the beginning” has an individual meaning here, containing a hidden indication of the pre-eternal birth from the Father of the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity the Son of God, in whom and through whom all creation was made perfect (John 1:3; Col. 1:16). The biblical parallels related here give the right to combine both of these interpretations, i.e. How can one find here an indication of the thought of the birth of the Son or Logos co-eternal with the Father and the ideal creation of the world in Him (Heb. John 1:1-3,10; 8:25; Ps 83:3; 1 Peter 1:20; Col 1: 16; Rev 3:14), and with even greater right to see here a direct indication of the external implementation of the eternal plans of the divine universe at the beginning of time or, more precisely, together with this time itself (Ps 101:26; Heb 1:10; Ps 83 :12-13; 85:5-6; 145:6; Proverbs 8:22,23; Isa 64:4; 41:4; Sir 18:1, etc.).

God created the word bara is used here, which, according to the common belief of both Jews and Christians, as well as all subsequent biblical usage, primarily serves as an expression of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdivine work (Genesis 1: 1; 2: 3,4; Is 40:28 ; 43:1; Ps 149:5; Ex 34:10; Num 16:30; Jer 31:22; Mal 2:10, etc.), has the meaning of creative activity or creation from nothing (Num 16:30; Isa 45 :7; Ps 103:25-26; Heb 3:4; 11:3; 2 Macc 7:28, etc.). This, therefore, refutes all materialistic hypotheses about the world as an original essence, and pantheistic ones about it as an emanation or outflow of a deity, and establishes a view of it as the work of the Creator, who called the whole world from non-existence to existence by the will and power of His divine omnipotence .

Heaven and earth. Heaven and earth, as two specific opposite poles of the entire world globe, usually serve in the Bible to designate “the whole universe” (Ps 101:26; Isa 65:17; Jer 33:24; Zech 5:9). In addition, many find here a separate indication of the creation of the visible and invisible world, or angels (Theophan of Antioch, Basil the Great, Theodoret, Origen, John of Damascus, etc.). The basis for the latter interpretation is, firstly, the biblical use of the word “heaven” as a synonym for the inhabitants of heaven, i.e. angels (1 Kings 22:19; Matthew 18:10, etc.), and secondly, the context of this narrative, in which the subsequent chaotic disorder is attributed to only one earth, i.e. the visible world (2 art.), by which “heaven” is separated from “earth” and even, as it were, opposed to it as a well-ordered, invisible heavenly world. Confirmation of this can be found both in the Old Testament (Job 38:4-7) and especially in the New Testament (Col 1:16).

2 But the earth was formless and empty. The concept of “earth” in the language of the Bible often embraces the entire globe, including the visible sky as its outer atmospheric shell (Gen. 14:19,22; Ps. 69:35). It is in this sense that it is used here, as is obvious from the context, according to which the chaotic mass of this “earth” subsequently separated from itself firmament and water (Gen. 1:7).

The words “formless and void,” which characterize the primitive mass, contain the idea of ​​“darkness, disorder and destruction” (Isa. 40:17; 45:18; Jer. 4:23-26), i.e. give the idea of ​​a state of complete chaos, in which the elements of the future light, air, earth, water, and also all the embryos of plant and animal life did not yet lend themselves to any distinction and were, as it were, mixed together. The best parallel to these words is a passage from the book. Wise One Solomon, which says that God created the world from “formless matter” (Wis. 11:18) and 2 Peter 3:5.

And darkness over the abyss. This darkness was a natural consequence of the absence of light, which did not yet exist as a separate independent element, having been isolated from the primeval chaos only later, on the first day of the week of creative activity. “Above the abyss” and “above the water.” In the original text there are two related Hebrew words (tehom and maim), meaning a mass of water forming an entire “abyss”; this thereby indicates the molten liquid-like state of the primordial, chaotic substance.

And the Spirit of God moved. In the explanation of these words, interpreters differ quite strongly among themselves: some see here a simple indication of an ordinary wind sent by God to drain the earth (Tertullian, Ephraim the Syrian, Theodoret, Aben-Ezra, Rosenmüller), others - an angel, or a special intelligent force, appointed for the same purpose (Chrysostom, Caietan, etc.), still others, finally, on the hypostatic Spirit of God (Basily the Great, Athanasius, Jerome and most other exegetes). The latter interpretation is preferable to others: it indicates the participation in the work of creation of the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit of God, who represents that creative and providential power which, according to the general biblical view, determines the origin and existence of the whole world, not excluding man (Gen. 2:7; Ps 32:6; Job 27:3; Isa 34:16; Acts 17:29, etc.). The very action of the Holy Spirit on chaos is likened here to the action of a bird sitting in a nest on eggs and warming with its warmth to awaken life in them (Deuteronomy 32:11). This, on the one hand, makes it possible to discern in chaos some action of natural forces, analogous to the process of gradual formation of an embryo in an egg, on the other hand, both these same forces and their results are placed in direct dependence on God.

3 And God said... And there was light. For the omnipotent Creator of the universe, a thought or word and the implementation of this thought or deed are completely identical with each other, since for Him there are no obstacles that could interfere with the fulfillment of the incipient desire. Hence, His word is the law for being: “He who spoke and was, He commanded and was created” (Ps 33:9). Following many Church Fathers, Metropolitan. Filaret believes that in the word “said”, not without reason, one can find the mystery of the hypostatic Word, which here, just as before the Holy Spirit, is secretly supplied by the Creator of the world: “this fortune-telling is explained by David and Solomon, who, obviously, adapt their expressions to Moses" (Ps 33:6; Proverbs 8:22-29).

Let there be light. Ap. gives a clear indication of this. Paul, speaking of God as “who ordered the light to shine out of darkness” (2 Cor 4:6). The creation of light was the first creative and educational act of the divine universe. This primordial light was not ordinary light in the perfect sense of the word, since before the fourth day of creation, on which the night luminaries appeared, the sources of our light did not yet exist, but was that luminiferous ether, which, being in an oscillatory state, dispersed the primordial darkness and thereby creating the necessary conditions for the future appearance of all organic life on earth.

4 And I saw... that he was good. Thus, according to the Psalmist, “the Creator will rejoice in His works” (Ps 103:31). Light is called “good” here because it is a source of joy and happiness for millions of different people.

And God separated the light from the darkness. By this, God did not completely destroy the original darkness, but only established the correct periodic replacement of it with light, necessary to maintain life and preserve the strength of not only humans and animals, but also all other creatures (Ps 103:20-24; Jer 33:20 -25; 31:35).

5 And God called the light day and the darkness night. Having divided light from darkness and established the correct alternation of them among themselves, the Creator gives them corresponding names, calling the period of domination of light day, and the time of domination of darkness night. Holy Scripture gives us a number of indications of the origin of this divine institution (Ps 103:20-24; 148:5; Job 38:11; Jer 33:20). We are deprived of the opportunity to judge positively about the nature and duration of these primitive days: we can only say that at least in the first three days before the creation of the sun, they, in all likelihood, were not identical with our real days.

And there was evening and there was morning. Many of the interpreters, on the basis that the “evening” is placed first, and then the morning, want to see in the first nothing more than that chaotic darkness that preceded the appearance of light and thus preceded the first day. But this will be an obvious stretch of the text, since before the creation of light there could have been neither such a distinction between the days, nor the very name of their two main components. Another misconception is based on this: that the counting of the astronomical day should supposedly begin in the evening, as Ephraim the Syrian, for example, thinks. But Chrysostom more correctly believes that the calculation of the day should proceed from morning to morning, since, we repeat, the very possibility of distinguishing day and night in a day began no earlier than from the moment of the creation of light or from the time of day, i.e., in modern language , from the morning of the first day of creation.

Day one. In the Hebrew original there is not an ordinal number, but a cardinal number, “day one,” for in fact, the first day of the week of creation was still the only one in it. Concluding our speech about the first day of the creative week, we consider it appropriate to speak here in general about these days. The question of them constitutes one of the most difficult exegetical problems. Its main difficulty lies, firstly, in a certain understanding of the biblical days of creation, and secondly, and even more, in the agreement of these days with modern data from astronomy and geology. We have already seen above that it is quite difficult to apply our usual astronomical measure with its 24-hour duration to the first days of creation, preceding the appearance of the sun, which, as is known, depends on the movement of the earth around its axis and on its rotation either one or the other. the other side towards the sun. But if we assume that this relatively insignificant obstacle was somehow eliminated by the power of divine omnipotence, then all the rest, the biblical data itself, and the division of these days into morning and evening, and a certain number, and their strict sequence, and the historical nature of the narrative itself, all this speaks for the strictly literal meaning of the biblical text and for the astronomical duration of these biblical days. Much more serious is another objection coming from science, which, based on the analysis of the so-called geological layers, counts a whole series of geological eras required for the gradual formation of the earth’s crust and several millennia for the successive appearance of various forms of plant and animal life on it. The idea of ​​an agreement in this point of the Bible with science greatly occupied the fathers and teachers of the Church, among whom representatives of the Alexandrian school Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius of Alexandria and others even stood for an allegorical interpretation of biblical days in the sense of more or less long periods. Following them, a number of subsequent exegetes tried in one way or another to modify the direct, literal meaning of the biblical text and adapt it to the conclusions of science (the so-called periodistic and restitutive theories). But the direct, literal meaning of the biblical text, the ancient Christian tradition and Orthodox interpretation generally do not allow such free treatment of the biblical text and, therefore, require a literal understanding of the term “day” contained in it. So, the Bible speaks of ordinary days, and science speaks of entire periods or eras. The best way out of this contradiction is, in our opinion, the so-called “visionary” theory. According to the meaning of this theory, the biblical account of the creation of the world is not a strictly scientific and actually detailed reproduction of the entire history of the actual process of world formation, but only its most important moments, revealed by God to the first man in a special vision (visio). Here the entire history of the origin of the world, which developed in a time unknown to us, passed before the spiritual gaze of man in the form of a whole series of pictures, each of which represented known groups of phenomena, and both the general character and the sequence of these pictures were a true, albeit instantaneous, reflection of the actual stories. Each of these visionary pictures formed a special group of phenomena that actually developed during the same period, which in the vision was called one or another day. The question of why the geological eras of creation received the name of an ordinary “day” in the biblical cosmogonic vision is relatively easy to answer: because “day” was the most convenient, simplest and most easily accessible chronological measure to the consciousness of primitive man. Consequently, in order to introduce into the consciousness of the first man the idea of ​​the sequential order of the creation of the world and the separateness of its processes, it was most expedient to use the already familiar image of the day as an integral and complete period of time. So, on the issue of the days of creation, the Bible and science do not at all clash with each other: the Bible, meaning ordinary days, thereby marks only various moments of the cosmogonic vision in which God deigned to reveal to man the history of the universe; science, pointing to geological epochs and long periods, means to investigate the actual process of the origin and gradual structure of the world; and such an assumption of scientific hypotheses does not in the least shake the divine omnipotence, for which it was completely indifferent whether to create the entire world in the twinkling of an eye, whether to spend a whole week on it, or, having put known expedient laws into the world, to allow them to flow more or less naturally, leading to continued world formation. The latter, in our opinion, is even more consistent with the idea of ​​​​the divine wisdom and goodness of the Creator. The visionary history we have indicated here, finding its defenders among the fathers and teachers of the Church (John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Theodoret, Junilius Africanus), is shared by many of the newest exegetes (see. More about this in the dissertation of A. Pokrovsky “Biblical teaching on primitive religion”).

6 Let there be firmament. Firmament - literally from the original “spread out”, “cover”, for this is how the Jews imagined this heavenly atmosphere surrounding the globe, as is especially clearly expressed in the famous words of the Psalmist: “stretch out the sky like a skin” (Ps 103:2; 148: 4; cf. Isaiah 40:22). This firmament or atmospheric shell of the earth, according to the general biblical view, is considered the birthplace of all winds and storms, as well as all kinds of atmospheric precipitation and weather changes (Ps 149:4,8; 135:7; Job 28:25-26; 33:24 -26; Isa 55:10; Matthew 5:45; Acts 14:17; Heb 6:7, etc.).

7 And he separated the water that was under the firmament from the water that was above the firmament. The last waters here obviously mean water vapor, with which the celestial atmosphere is usually saturated and which, thickening over time, pours out onto the earth in various forms, for example in the form of rain, hail, frost, fog or snow. The first, of course, means ordinary water, which penetrated the entire earthly chaos and on the next, third day of creation, collected in special natural reservoirs - oceans, seas and rivers. The apostle also says something similar about the role of water in the process of world formation. Peter (2 Peter 3:5). To the naive mind of the primitive Jew, the celestial atmosphere was depicted in the form of some kind of solid tire, separating the atmospheric waters from the earthly waters; from time to time this solid shell opened up in one place or another, and then the heavenly waters poured out onto the earth through this hole. And the Bible, which says, according to St. Fathers, speaking the language of the sons of men and adapting to the weakness of our mind and hearing, does not consider it necessary to make any scientific amendments to this naive worldview (Chrysostom, Theodoret, etc.).

8 Sky. In the language of the Jews there were three different terms for expressing this concept, according to their belief that there were three different celestial spheres. That sky, which is called here, was considered the lowest and closest habitat of birds, accessible to direct vision (Ps 8:4; Lev 26:19; Deut 28:23).

9 Let the waters be gathered... and let the dry land appear. By virtue of this divine command, the two main components of the primeval chaos, earth and water, were separated from each other: the waters united into various water basins - seas and oceans (Ps 32:7; 103:5-9; 135:6; Proverbs 8: 29), and the dry land formed islands and continents, covered with various mountains, hills and valleys (Ps. 64:6; Isa. 40:12).

10 And God called the dry land earth, and the meeting of the waters he called seas. The Bible does not tell us anything about how and for how long this process of separation of water from land and the self-formation of the earth’s crust took place, thereby opening up full scope for scientific research. In the cosmogonic vision with which the Bible deals, only the general character and final result of this third period of world formation or, in the language of the biblical vision, the third day of creation, is noted.

11-12 And God said, Let the earth bring forth... and the earth brought forth grass, grass, seed sown according to its kind, and a tree bearing fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind. These few words of the cosmogonic vision display a whole grandiose picture of the gradual emergence on earth of different types of plant, organic life, produced by the earth not due to spontaneous generation, but according to the special forces and laws given to it by the Creator. However, the indication that the covering of the earth with plants and trees was not an instantaneous miraculous act, but was directed by creative force along a natural course, seems to lie in the very nature of the biblical text in question, as in the address of God to the earth with the command for it to produce various types plants according to their inherent laws, and in the sequence with which a list of various types of this vegetation is kept, which fully corresponds to the data of modern geology: first, generally greenery or grass (geological ferns), then flowering vegetation (giant lilies and, finally, trees (primitive shrubs and trees), 1 Kings 4:33. The omnipotence of the Creator, of course, did not suffer at all from this, since the primary source of the vital energy of the earth was none other than God himself, and His highest wisdom in such a purposeful arrangement of the world was revealed in all its strength and obvious clarity, which the Apostle Paul expressly points out in a well-known place from the Epistle to Romans 1:20.

14-15 Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven (to illuminate the earth and) to separate the day from the night. Here is a cosmogonic vision of a new peacemaking period, in which the earth separated from the solar system. The most biblical story about this is again adapted to the infantile worldview of primitive man: thus, the luminaries seem to be fixed on the outer firmament of the sky, as they are, in fact, depicted in our everyday, non-scientific imagination. Here, for the first time, the actual reason for the distinction between day and night is indicated, which consists in the influence of the luminaries. This, as it were, gives indirect confirmation of the idea that the three previous days of creation could not, therefore, have been ordinary astronomical days, but that they received such a character in the biblical narrative later, as well-known specific moments of the cosmogonic vision. The Bible shows us the threefold purpose of the heavenly bodies: firstly, they should separate day from night, and the sun should shine during the day, and the moon and stars should shine at night; secondly, they must serve as time regulators, i.e. the various phases of the sun and moon were supposed to show the periodic change of months and seasons of the year; finally, their immediate purpose in relation to the earth is to illuminate it. The first and last purpose of the heavenly bodies are completely clear and understandable in themselves, but the middle one requires some explanation.

For signs. By these signs one should not at all understand any superstitious veneration of the heavenly bodies or similar astrological fortune-telling, which was widespread among the peoples of the ancient East and cruelly condemned among the chosen people of God (Deut. 4:19; 18:10). But this, according to the interpretation of the blessed. Theodoret means that the phases of the moon, as well as the rising and setting times of various stars and comets, served as useful guidelines for farmers, shepherds, travelers and sailors (Gen. 15:5, 37:9; Job 38:32-33; Ps. 103:14-23; Matthew 2:12; Luke 21:25). Very early on, the phases of the moon and the position of the sun began to serve as signs of the division of the year into months and the unification of the latter into the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter (Ps 73:16-17). Finally, subsequently the phases of the moon, especially the new moon, began to play a very prominent role in the cycle of sacred biblical times or Hebrew holidays.

16 And God created two great lights. Although these great luminaries are not named here, they are from the entire context of the narrative, as well as from the corresponding biblical parallels related here (Ps 103:19; 73:16; 85:7-9; 148:3-5; Jer 31: 35), it is quite clear that the sun and moon are meant here. But if such a name is fully justified by science in relation to the sun as the astronomical center of the entire world system, then it does not at all stand up to scientific criticism in relation to the moon, which, according to accurate astronomy data, is one of the relatively small planets, far inferior in this respect even to the earth . Here we have new proof that the Bible does not set forth the principles of science, but speaks in the language of the sons of men, i.e. the language of everyday thinking, based on direct sensory perceptions, from the point of view of which the sun and moon really appear to be the largest quantities on the celestial horizon.

And the stars. The general name of stars here refers to all those millions of other worlds that, being removed from our Earth over vast spaces, appear to our naked eye only in the form of small luminous points scattered throughout the sky. No wonder the contemplation of the majestic firmament touched and inspired many Old Testament biblical writers to glorify the wisdom and goodness of the Creator (Ps 8:3-4; 18:1-6; Job 38:31-33; Isa 40:21,22,25-26; 51:13; 66:1-2; Jer 33:22; Rev 5:8, etc.).

18 And rule day and night. The Creator, as the Psalmist says, placed the moon and stars in the region of the night” (Ps 85:7), and determined the sunrise to be the beginning of a working day for man (Ps 104:22-23). The prophet Jeremiah expresses this idea even more clearly, glorifying the Lord Almighty as “who gave the sun for the light of the day, and the moon and stars for the light of the night” (Jer 31:35).

20 Let the water produce. The term “water,” as is obvious from the context, is used here in a more general and broader sense - it means not only ordinary water, but also the air atmosphere, which, as is already known, in the language of the Bible is also called “water” (6- 7 art.). Here, just as before (verse 11), in the very image of the biblical expression “let the waters produce” (or, as should be more accurately translated from the original, “let them multiply in the waters”), again there is a hint of the participation of natural agents in the creative process, in this case, water and air as the environment in which the Creator determined to live and reproduce corresponding to the types of animal life.

Reptiles, living soul; and let the birds fly. The appearance of plants on the third day was the beginning of organic life on earth, but still in its most imperfect, primary form. Now, in full agreement with the data of science, the Bible notes the further course of development of this life on earth, specifically indicating the emergence of two vast, related animal classes: the inhabitants of the water element and the kingdom of birds that fill the airspace. The first of these classes in Heb. The original name is sheretz, which does not mean only “reptiles or water reptiles,” as our Russian and Slavic texts translate it, but also includes fish and all aquatic animals in general (Lev 11:10). Likewise, by “feathered bird” we mean not only birds, but also insects, and in general all living creatures equipped with wings, even if at the same time they are not deprived of the ability to walk and even on four legs (Lev. 11:20 -21).

If, as we noted above, the preceding verse retains some indication of the action of natural forces in the process of the generation of new species of animal life, then the present verse leaves no doubt that all these so-called natural acts ultimately have their supernatural source in God Who alone is the Creator of everything, in the strict sense of the word.

21 Large fish. The Slavic text calls them great “whales,” closer to the original, which contains the word tanninim, which generally means water animals of enormous size (Job 7:12; Ps 73:13; Eze 29:4), large fish, including whales (Ps. 103:25; Jer. 51:34; Jn. 2:11), the great serpent (Is. 27:1), and the crocodile (Eze. 29:3), in short, the whole class of large amphibians or amphibians (Job 41:1) . This gives a clear indication that the original species of amphibians and birds were distinguished by their gigantic sizes, which is confirmed by the data of paleontologists, who discovered a whole vast class of extinct antediluvian animals striking in their colossal sizes (ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, gigantic lizards, etc.).

22 And God blessed them, saying. The appearance of the first real life (animal as opposed to plant) is marked by a special extraordinary act of the Creator - His blessing. By virtue of this creative blessing, all creatures newly created by Him receive the ability to reproduce “according to their kind,” i.e. each type of animal to reproduce its own kind.

Be fruitful and multiply. From the Hebrew original, both of these words have the same meaning, and their very combination, by the nature of the Hebrew language, indicates a special strengthening of the idea contained in them about the natural reproduction of living beings through birth.

And let the birds multiply on the earth. A subtle new feature: previously, the element of birds was called air, as the area in which they fly (Art. 20), now the earth is also added on which they build their nests and live.

24 Let the earth produce. Here again, as in the two previous cases (Art. 11, Art. 20), some influence of natural forces of nature is indicated, in this case directly from the earth.

25 And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the kinds of cattle thereof, and every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth according to their kinds. The general concept of “animal soul” here is divided into three main types: the first of them is “animals of the earth” - these are wild animals or animals of fields and forests, such as, for example, wild cats, lynxes, bears and all other animals of the desert (Ps. 79: 14; 103:20-21; 49:10; 78:2; Isa 43:20). The second type of these animals includes a fairly significant class of domestic animals, i.e. domesticated by man, which includes: horses, oxen, camels, goats and in general all large and small livestock (Gen. 34:23; 36:6; 47:18; Num. 32:26); in a broader sense, sometimes larger wild animals are included here, for example, the elephant and rhinoceros (Job 40:15). Finally, the third class of these animals consists of all those that reptile on the ground, crawl on it, or have such short legs that, walking on the ground, they seem to creep along it; this includes all snakes, worms (Lev 11:42), lizards, foxes, mice and moles (Lev 11:29-31). Sometimes, in a shorter and less strict speech, all three of the above classes of earthly animals are united in the first of them, namely in the concept of “beasts of the earth” (Gen. 7:14). All these animals were divided into two sexes, which is evident both from their ability to reproduce each in accordance with its kind, and from the fact that the example of their life opened the eyes of the first man to his sad loneliness and, thus, served as the reason for the creation of a helper similar to him -wives (Genesis 2:20).

26 And God said, Let us make man. From these words it is clear that before creating man, this new and amazing creature, God held a council with someone. The question of who God can confer with was already faced by the Old Testament prophet: “Who understands the mind of the Lord, or who is His counselor?” (Isaiah 40:13-14; Rom 11:34) and the best answer to it is given in the Gospel of John, which speaks of the Word who was with God from time immemorial and in union with Him created all things (John 1:2-3). This Logos, the eternal Son of God, is called the “great Counselor” by the same prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 9:6). Elsewhere in Scripture, He, under the guise of Wisdom, is directly depicted as the closest participant of God the Creator in all places of His creation, including in the creation of the “sons of men” (Proverbs 8:27-31). This idea is further clarified by those interpreters who attribute this advice to the mystery of the incarnate Word, who deigned to perceive the bodily nature of man in unity with His divine nature (Phil 2:6-7). According to the unanimous opinion of the majority of St. Fathers, the divine council considered here took place with the participation of the Holy Spirit, i.e. between all the persons of the Holy Trinity (Ephraim the Syrian, Irenaeus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret, Augustine, etc.).

As for the content of this very advice, then by its name, according to the explanation of Metropolitan Philaret, and consequently by the action of advice, God’s foreknowledge and predestination are depicted in Holy Scripture (Acts 2:23), i.e. in this case, the implementation of the idea of ​​​​the creation of man, which has existed from time immemorial in the divine plan of the universe (Acts 15:18). Thus, here we find one of the most ancient traces of the existence of the mystery of the Trinity in the antediluvian world, but then, according to the best interpreters, it was darkened in the consciousness of the first people as a result of the Fall, and then, after the Babylonian pandemonium, it completely disappeared from the consciousness of the Old Testament for a long time humanity, from which it was even deliberately hidden for pedagogical purposes, precisely so as not to give Jews, always prone to polytheism, unnecessary temptation in this regard.

Human. In the original text the word adam appears here. When this word is used without a member, it does not express the proper name of the first husband, but serves only as a common noun for “man” in general; in this sense it applies equally to both man and woman (Acts 5:2). As can be seen from the subsequent context, this is the sense in which this word is used here too, denoting the entire primordial couple, who are given divine blessings for reproduction and dominion over nature (Gen. 1:27). By using the singular number of the common noun “man,” the writer of everyday life thereby more clearly emphasizes the truth of the unity of the human race, about which the writer of the book. Acts says: “God made the whole language of man from one blood” (Acts 17:26).

In Our image, (and) in Our likeness. Here two words are used that are related in meaning, although they contain some shades of thought: one means an ideal, a model of perfection; another implementation of this ideal, a copy from the specified sample. “The first (κατ " εικόνα - according to the image), argues St. Gregory of Nyssa, we have by creation, and the last (καθ " ομοίωσιν - according to the likeness) we do according to our will.” Consequently, the image of God in a person constitutes an integral and indelible property of his nature, while God-likeness is a matter of free personal efforts of a person, which can reach quite high degrees of its development in a person (Matthew 5:48; Eph 5:1-2), but can sometimes and be completely absent (Gen. 6:3,13; Rom. 1:23; 2:24).

As for the very image of God in man, it is reflected in the many different powers and properties of his complex nature: in the immortality of the human spirit (Wis 2:23), and in the original innocence (Eph 4:24), and purity (Ecc 7:29 ), and in those abilities and properties that the primordial man was endowed with to know his Creator and love for Him, and in those royal powers that the first man possessed in relation to all lower creatures (Gen. 1:27,29) and even in in relation to his own wife (1 Cor 11:7), and, in particular, in the trinity of his main spiritual powers: mind, heart and will, which served as a kind of reflection of the divine trinity (Col 3:10). Scripture calls only the Son of God a complete and all-perfect reflection of the divine image (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15); man was a comparatively very weak, pale and imperfect copy of this incomparable example, but nevertheless he stood in an undoubted family connection with Him and hence received the right to the name of His family (Acts 17:28), son or child of God (Luke 3:38) , and also directly “the image and glory of God” (1 Cor 11:3).

27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. In the very repetition of parallel commemorations “in His image”, “in the image of God” one cannot help but see some hint of the participation of various Persons of the Holy Trinity in the act of human creation, mainly of God the Son, who was His direct performer (in His image) . But, due to the fact that the Son is the radiance of the glory of God and the image of His Hypostasis, creation in His image was at the same time creation in the image of God the Father (in the image of God). What also attracts attention here is that man was created only “in the image” of God, and not in addition “in the likeness”, which finally confirms the correctness of the above-mentioned opinion that only one image of God constitutes an innate property of his nature, and God-likeness something different from this consists in one degree or another of free, personal development by man of the properties of this divine image along the path of their approach to the Prototype.

Man... husband and wife he created them. Erroneously interpreting this passage, some (especially rabbis) want to see in it the basis for the theory of androgyny of the first person (i.e., the combination of male and female in one person). But this misconception is best refuted by the pronoun “them” found here, which, if we were talking about one person, should have had the singular form “him”, and not the plural “them”. number.

28 The power of creative blessing, once already bestowed upon the lower animals, applied only to their reproduction; man is granted not only the ability to reproduce on earth, but also the right to own it. The latter is a consequence of the high position that man, being the image of God on earth, was supposed to occupy in the world.

The Creator, in the words of the Psalmist, which the Apostle also repeats, “crowned man with glory and honor and placed His hand over his work: You have subdued all things under his nose; but always put all things in subjection to him, but leave nothing subject to him” (Ps. 8:5-7; Heb. 2:7-9). This is one of the best expressions of the thought about the greatness and beauty of the primordial Adam (i.e., man), restored to his primitive dignity, lost through the Fall, by the second Adam our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:9-10).

The very dominion of man over nature must be understood both in the sense of man’s use for his benefit of the various natural forces of nature and its wealth, and in the sense of direct service to him by various species of animals, counted here only in the order of their sequential origin and according to their most general groups. This thought is perfectly expressed in the following inspired lines of John Chrysostom: “How great is the dignity of souls! Through her powers, cities are built, seas are crossed, fields are cultivated, countless arts are discovered, wild animals are tamed! But what is most important is that the soul knows God, who created it and distinguishes good from evil. Man alone from the entire visible world sends prayers to God, receives revelations, studies the nature of heavenly things and even penetrates into divine secrets! For him the whole earth, the sun and the stars exist, for him the heavens are open, for him apostles and prophets were sent, and even the angels themselves; for his salvation, finally, the Father sent down his Only Begotten Son! »

29-30 Here is the most ancient news about the primitive food of humans and animals: various herbs with their roots and trees with their fruits served for humans, and herbal greens served for animals. Based on the writer’s silence about meat as a food item, most commentators believe that in the early days before the flood, or at least the Fall, it was not consumed not only by people, but even by animals, among which, therefore, not there were birds of prey and animals. The first news of the introduction of meat and wine into human food dates back to the era after the flood (Gen. 9:3). One cannot help but see in this a special divine thought about all newly created beings, expressed in concern for their preservation and maintenance of their lives (Job 39:6; Ps 103:14-15,27; 135:25; 143:15-16; Acts 14:14, etc.).

31 The final formula of divine approval of the entire work of creation differs significantly in the degree of its power from all the others that preceded it: if earlier, after the creation of various species of plants and animals, the Creator found that their creation satisfied him and was “good” (4, 8, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25 art.); then now, looking over with one general glance the whole picture of the already completed creation and seeing its complete harmony and purposefulness, the Creator, as the Psalmist says, rejoiced in his creation (Ps 103:31) and found that, considered as a whole, “very good” , i.e. fully corresponds to the eternal plans of the divine economy for the creation of the world and man. Day six. This day was the last act of cosmogonic vision and the conclusion of the entire creative six-day period. The deeply historical antiquity of the biblical cosmogony is confirmed by its rather consonant traces preserved in the language of antiquity (argumentum ex consensu gentium). Among them, the most ancient traditions of the Chaldeans, the inhabitants of Ur of the Chaldeans, from where Abraham himself, the ancestor of the Jewish people, later came, have special significance and value. We have these traditions of the Chaldeans in the fragmentary records of the Chaldean priest Berosus (in the 3rd century BC) and, what is even more valuable, in the recently discovered wedge-shaped tablets of the so-called. “Chaldean genesis” (in 1870 by the English scientist George Smith). In the latter we have a parallel, striking in its closeness (albeit permeated with polytheism), to the biblical history of creation: here, as in the Bible, the division into six successive acts, of which each is dedicated to its own special table, approximately the same content of each of these tables, as in the history of each of the biblical days, their general sequence is the same and, what is especially curious, the same characteristic techniques, expressions and even individual terms. In view of all this, the comparison of biblical cosmogony with the data of Chaldean genesis receives high interest and great apologetic importance (for more information on this, see the dissertation of A. Pokrovsky “Biblical teaching on primitive religion,” pp. 86-90).

In the beginning God created heaven and earth, that is, the essence of heaven and the essence of earth. No one should think that the six-day creation is an allegory; It is also inadmissible to say that what according to the description was created over the course of six days was created in one instant, and also as if in this description only names are presented, either meaning nothing, or meaning something else. On the contrary, one must know that just as heaven and earth, created in the beginning, are really heaven and earth, and not anything else is meant by the name heaven and earth, so what has been said about everything else that was created and brought into order after creation heaven and earth, does not contain empty names, but the very essence of created natures corresponds to the power of these names.

In the beginning God created heaven and earth. This was the end of the work of the original creation; because nothing else was created along with heaven and earth. Even the natures created on the same day were not yet created then. And if they were created together with heaven and earth; then Moses would have spoken about this. He does not say so as not to suggest that the name of natures is older than their existence. From this it is clearly revealed that heaven and earth were created from nothing, because neither water nor air had yet been created, neither fire, nor light, nor darkness had yet come into being: they were produced later than heaven and earth. Therefore, they are creatures, for they came into existence after heaven and earth; and are not eternal, for they did not exist before heaven and earth.

After this, Moses speaks not of what is above the firmament, but of what is between the firmament and the earth, as if in the depths of some. He did not write to us about spirits, he does not tell us on what day they were created. About the earth he writes that

was uneducated and empty, that is, she had nothing on herself and was deserted. And he said this, wanting to show that emptiness existed before nature. However, I am not saying that emptiness is something that really exists, but I only want to show that at that time there was only one earth, and besides it there was nothing else.

Having spoken about the creation of heaven and earth and pointing to emptiness (since time is older than the natures created in time), Moses turns to the description of the natures themselves and says: and darkness at the top of the abyss. This shows that the depths of water were created at the same time. But how was she created on the day on which she was created? Although she was created on this day and at this time, Moses did not write in this place how she was created; therefore, we must accept that the abyss was created at the time it is written, and how it was created we must expect an explanation from Moses himself. Some consider the darkness at the top of the abyss to be the shadow of the sky. If the firmament had been created on the first day, then their opinion could have taken place. And if the heavens above were like the firmament: then there was deep darkness between the heavens and the heavens; because light had not yet been created and installed there, which with its rays would disperse the darkness there. If the heavenly region is light, as Ezekiel, Paul and Stephen testify, and the heavens disperse darkness with their light; then how did they spread darkness over the abyss?

If everything that was created (whether it is written or not written about the creation of it) was created in six days; then the clouds were created on the first day. Fire was created together with air, although it is not written about it, so the clouds were created together with the abyss, although it is not written about them that they were created together with the abyss, just as it is not written about the creation of fire along with air. For it was necessary that everything should be created in six days. The origin of the clouds is known to us, and therefore we must believe that the clouds were created together with the abyss; for they are always born from the abyss. And Elijah saw cloud ascending from the sea(1 Kings 18:44), and Solomon says: in his feeling the abyss opened up, and the clouds shed dew(Proverbs 3:20). That the clouds were created at this particular time, that is, on the first night, is convinced not only by the essence of the clouds, but also by their very action, for we believe that they produced the first night. Just as the clouds spread over Egypt for three nights and three days, and created night, the clouds spread over the whole world on the first night and on the first day of creation. If the clouds were transparent; then the first day was not without some illumination, because the radiance of the heavens was sufficient to replace the light created later on the first day.

After the end of the night and day, in the second evening the firmament was created; and from that time on, with her shadow, she produced the following nights. Thus, on the evening of the first night, the heavens and the earth were created, the abyss was created with them, the clouds were created, and they, spreading over everything, brought about the dark night. And after this shadow covered everything for twelve hours, light was created, and it dispelled the darkness that was spread over the waters.

Having said about the darkness that the darkness was spread out top of the abyss, Moses continues: and the spirit of God was floating on top of the water. The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit of God the Father, emanating from Him timelessly, and in essence and creative power equal to the Father and His only begotten Son. This Spirit, in fact, specifically and independently distinguished from the Father, is called in the Divine Scripture the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit. It says about Him: worn over the waters to put generative power into the waters, into the earth and into the air; and they were fertilized, gave birth to and produced plants, animals and birds. It was fitting for the Holy Spirit to be carried about as proof that He was equal in creative power to the Father and the Son. For the Father spoke, the Son created; It was fitting for the Spirit to bring His work. And He revealed this wearing, clearly showing that everything was brought into being and accomplished by the Trinity. Moreover, we should know that Scripture, when it talks about the creative power of the Divine, does not present us with a spirit that, as something created and produced, would hover over the waters together with God, but speaks of the Holy Spirit. He warmed, fertilized and made the waters fertile, like a bird when it sits on its eggs with outstretched wings, and during this prostration, with its warmth it warms them and produces fertilization in them. This Holy Spirit then presented to us the image of holy baptism, in which, by His presence over the waters, He gives birth to the children of God.

Having spoken about the creation of heaven, earth, darkness, the deep and the waters at the beginning of the first night, Moses turns to the story of the creation of light on the morning of the first day. So, after twelve hours of the night, light was created among the clouds and waters, and it dispelled the shadow of the clouds that hovered over the waters and caused darkness. Then began the first month of Nizan, in which days and nights have an equal number of hours; the light had to remain for twelve hours, so that the day would contain the same number of hours as the measure and length of time the darkness remained. For although the light and the clouds were created in the twinkling of an eye, both the day and the night of the first day lasted twelve hours.

The light that appeared on earth was like a bright cloud, or a rising sun, or a pillar that illuminated the Jewish people in the desert. In any case, what is certain is that the light could not have dispelled the darkness that embraced everything if it had not spread its essence or rays everywhere, like the rising sun. The original light was spread everywhere, and not confined to one known place; he scattered darkness everywhere, without movement; all his movement consisted of appearance and disappearance; upon its sudden disappearance, the dominion of the night began, and with its appearance its dominion ended. This is how the light produced for the next three days. So that the light would not turn into nothing, as having come from nothing, God especially testified about it, saying:

like goodness. And by this he testified that very kind all the creatures that came into existence before the light, of which it was not said that they were good. For although God did not say this about them, at the very creation of them from nothing; however, later, when he formed all of them, he confirmed this about them too. For to everything created, i.e. everything that was created in six days includes the words spoken at the end of the sixth day:

This original light, called good after creation, took three days to ascend. He is said to have contributed to the conception and generation of all that the earth was to produce on the third day; the sun, established in the firmament, had to bring to maturity what had already happened with the assistance of the original light. They say that from this light scattered everywhere and from fire, created on the first day, the sun, which is in the firmament, was built, and that the moon and stars are from the same original light, so that, like the sun that rules the days, illuminating the earth, together with thus bringing her works to maturity, so the moon, which rules the nights, not only moderated the heat of the night with its light, but also helped the earth to produce fruits and works inherent in its original nature. And Moses in his blessings says: from the fruit that the moon produces (Deut. 33:14).

It is noted about light that it was created on the first day, among other things, for earthly works. But although the earth, through the medium of this light, produced everything that happened on the third day, while the light was in its original state; however, all the fruits of the earth through the moon, as well as through the light, had to receive a beginning, and through the sun they had to come to maturity.

So, the earth produced everything from itself with the assistance of light and waters. Although God could have produced everything from the earth without them; however, such was His will, and by this He wanted to show that everything created on earth was created for the benefit of man and to serve him.

The waters that covered the earth on the first day were unsalted. Although there was an abyss of water above the earth, there were still no seas. The waters became salty in the seas, but before they were gathered into the seas they were not salty. When the waters were poured over the face of the earth to irrigate it; they were sweet then. When on the third day they were gathered into the sea; Then they became salty, so that, from copulating in one place, they would not rot, and so that, receiving the rivers flowing into them, they would not overflow. The water of the rivers flowing into the sea was sufficient nutrition for him. To prevent the sea from drying up from the heat of the sun, rivers flow into it. And so that the sea does not increase, does not go beyond its borders and does not drown the earth, taking into itself the waters of the rivers, their waters are absorbed by the salinity of the sea.

If we assume that with the creation of the waters the seas were created together and were covered with waters, and that the waters of the seas were bitter; then even then we must say that the waters above the seas were not bitter. For the seas were and were covered with water during the flood, but they could not impart their bitterness to the sweet waters of the flood that were over the seas. And if the seas could make the flood waters bitter, how would olives and all other earthly plants survive in them? Or how would Noah and those with him drink them during the flood? Noah was commanded to bring food into the ark for himself and for everyone with him, because there was nowhere to get food; But no water was commanded to be brought in, because those in the ark could drink the water that surrounded the ark everywhere. Thus, just as the flood waters were not salty, although they covered the seas, so the waters collected on the third day were not bitter, although the waters of the seas that were under them would have been bitter.

But since the meeting of the waters did not occur before God said:

gathering of waters called the sea. Therefore, the seas, at the same time as they received a name and occupied their container, changed and received a salinity that they did not have before they occupied their container. And the very container of the seas became deep at the very time when it was said: , that is, either the bottom of the seas became lower than the rest of the earth, and together with the waters that were above it, it took in the waters that were above the whole earth, or the waters swallowed each other so that there was enough space for them, or the bottom of the sea split, and a great thing happened deepening, so that the waters rushed down the slope of the bottom in the blink of an eye. Although the waters were gathered into one by God's command; however, even at the very creation of the earth, a door was opened for them so that they could gather into one container.

Just as when the waters of the first and second were collected, there was no such enclosed place from which they could not come out; so subsequently they come out from different streams and sources, and gather into their seas along the paths and paths that they have laid out from the first day.

And the waters of the mountains, on the second day, separated from the other waters by the firmament stretched between them, were as sweet as the waters of the valley; They are not the same as the waters that were salted in the seas on the third day, but they are the same as those separated from them on the second day. They are not salted because they are not subject to rotting. They are not on the ground, from which they could rot; there the air does not serve to give birth to and produce reptiles. For these waters it is unnecessary for rivers to flow into them; they cannot dry up, because there is no sun there to dry them up with its heat; they remain there as a dew of blessings, and are reserved for the outpouring of wrath.

It is also impossible to assume that the waters above the firmament are in motion, for what is brought into order does not swirl without order, and what is is not set in motion by what is not. What is created in something else, then during the creation itself receives for itself everything, both movement, and ascent, and descent in that in which it was created. And the mountain waters are not surrounded by anything; therefore they cannot flow down or swirl; for there is nothing for them in which they flow down or whirl.

Thus, according to the testimony of Scripture, heaven, earth, fire, air and water were created from nothing, but light was created on the first day, and everything else that was created after it was created from what was before. For when Moses speaks of being created out of nothing, he uses the word: create; God create heaven and earth. And although it is not written about fire, water and air that they were created, it is also not said that they were produced from what was before. And therefore they are from nothing, just as heaven and earth are from nothing. When God begins to create from what has already been, then Scripture uses an expression similar to this: God says, let there be light and everything else. If it is said:

And fire was created on the first day, although its creation is not written, because it is contained in something else. As existing not by itself and not for itself, it is created together with that in which it is contained. Since it does not exist for itself, it could not exist before that which constitutes the final cause of its existence. Fire is in the earth; nature itself testifies to this; But Scripture does not declare that fire was created together with earth; it simply says: in the beginning God created heaven and earth. Therefore, although now the fire will not be in the earth, but in the waters, wind and clouds, yet the earth and waters are commanded at all times to generate it from their bowels.

And darkness is not something eternal, it is not even a creature; because darkness, as Scripture shows, is a shadow. It was not created before the sky and not after the clouds, but together with the clouds and generated by them. Its existence depends on something else, because it does not have its own essence; and when that on which it depends ceases to be, then along with this, and like this, darkness ceases to be. But what ceases together with something else that ceases to be is close to non-existence; because something else serves as the fault of his existence. Therefore, could the darkness that was with the clouds and firmament, and which did not exist with the original light and the sun, be independent when one gave birth to it by its prostration, and the other dispelled it by its appearance? And if one produces darkness and gives it existence, and the other turns it into nothingness; then is it possible to consider it eternal? For behold, the clouds and the firmament, created in the beginning, gave birth to darkness, and the light created on the first day dispelled it. If one creature produced it, and another scattered it, moreover, one constantly, together with itself and at the same hour, brings it into visibility, and the other turns it into nothing at the very time when it turns into nothing; then it is necessary to conclude that one gives rise to its existence, and the other ceases its existence. Therefore, if creatures give existence to darkness and cease it, then it follows that darkness is the work of creatures (for it is the shadow of the firmament), and that darkness ceases to exist with another creature (for it disappears with the sun). And this darkness, which is completely enslaved to creatures, is considered by some teachers to be hostile to creatures - it, which does not have its own essence, they recognize as eternal and independent!

Moses, having spoken about what was created on the first day, proceeds to describe the creation on the next day, and says:

between the water that is under the firmament, and between the water that is above the firmament. The firmament, established between waters and waters, had the same extent as the waters were spread over the earth's surface. Because there are waters above the firmament as there are above the earth, and under the firmament there is earth, water and fire; then the firmament is contained in this, like a baby in its mother’s womb.

Others, believing that the firmament is in the midst of all created things, consider it the depths of the universe. But if the firmament had been created as the middle of the universe; then the light, darkness and air that were above the firmament when the firmament was created would remain above the firmament. If the firmament was created at night, then, together with the waters remaining there, darkness and air would remain above the firmament. And if it was created during the day, then, along with the waters, light and air would remain there. If they remained there; then those who are here are already different. Therefore, when were they created? But if you didn't stay there; then how did the natures, which were above the firmament when the firmament was created, change their place and find themselves under the firmament?

The firmament was created on the evening of the second night, just as the sky was created on the evening of the first night. Along with the origin of the firmament, the shadow of the clouds disappeared, which, during the night and day, served instead of the firmament. Since the firmament was created between light and darkness, darkness took its place above the firmament, just as soon as the clouds were removed, the shadow of the clouds was also removed. But the light did not remain there; because the measure of his hours was fulfilled, and he sank into the waters that were under the firmament. So, along with the firmament, nothing moved upward, because nothing remained above the firmament: it was appointed to separate the waters from the waters, but it was not appointed to separate the light from the darkness.

So, there was no light on the first night of the universe, but on the second and third nights, as we said, the light sank into the waters that were under the firmament and emerged from them. On the fourth night, when the waters were collected in one place, as they say, light was brought into the device; and then from it and from the fire came the sun, moon and stars. And these heavenly bodies have their places assigned; the moon is placed in the west of the firmament, the sun in the east, the stars are at the same hour scattered and located throughout the firmament.

About the light that was on the first day, God said: like goodness; about the firmament created on the second day, he did not say this, because the firmament was not yet completely perfect, did not receive complete structure and decoration. The Creator delayed to utter a word of approval until the luminaries appeared, so that when the firmament was decorated with the sun, moon and stars, and these lights, shining on the firmament, dispelled the deep darkness on it, then he could say about it the same thing that He said about other creatures , namely, that they very kind.

Having spoken about the firmament produced on the second day, Moses turns to the story of the gathering of waters, also about the grains and trees that the earth produced on the third day, and says this:

and God said: let the waters that are under heaven be gathered together into one, and let the dry land appear. Said: let the waters be gathered into one congregation, makes it clear that the earth supported the waters, and there were not abysses under the earth, holding on to nothing. So that same night, as God quickly spoke, the waters gathered together, and the surface of the earth was dried up in the blink of an eye.

When did both things happen? In the morning God commands the earth to produce all kinds of grain and grass, as well as various fruitful trees. The grains, at the time of their creation, were the products of one moment, but in appearance they seemed to be the products of months. Likewise, trees, at the time of their creation, were the offspring of one day, but in their perfection and in the fruits that loaded the branches, they seemed to be the offspring of years. For grains were prepared as needed as food for the animals that were created two days later, and grains as needed as food for Adam and Eve, who were expelled from paradise four days later.

Having spoken about the gathering of waters and about the growth of the earth on the third day, Moses turns to the story of the luminaries created in the firmament and says:

and God said: let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to separate between day and night, i.e. let one of them rule over the day, and the other over the night. God said: let them be signs, that is, hours, may there be times, that is, in the indication of summer and winter, let there be in the days, that is, the days are measured by the rising and setting of the sun, let them be in the summer, because years are made up of sunny days and lunar months.

God created two great lights: the great light at the beginning of the day, the lesser light at the beginning of the night, and the stars. In the days preceding the fourth day, the creation of the creatures was in the evening, but the bringing into being of the creatures of the fourth day was in the morning. After the third day ended, it was said:

Since the following days followed the same order as the first day, the night of the fourth day, like the previous nights, preceded the day. And if the evening of this day was earlier than the morning; then it follows that the luminaries were not created in the evening, but in the morning. To say that one of the luminaries was created in the evening, and the other in the morning, is not allowed by what has been said:

let there be lights, And: . If the luminaries were great at the very time they were created, and they were created in the morning; then it follows that the sun was then in the east, and the moon opposite it was in the west; the sun was low and partly submerged, because it was created at the place where it rose above the earth, and the moon was higher, because it was created where it happens on the fifteenth day. Therefore, at the time the sun became visible on the earth, both luminaries saw each other and then the moon seemed to sink. And the very place where the moon was at its creation, and its size and brightness show that it was created in the form in which it appears on the fifteenth day.

Just as trees, grass, animals, birds and people were together both old and young: old in the appearance of their members and their compositions, young in the time of their creation; so the moon was both old and young; young because she was barely created, old because she was full as on the fifteenth day. If the moon had been created, as it is on the first or second day, then in its proximity to the sun it could not shine and even be visible. If the moon had been created as it is on the fourth day; then, although it would be visible, it would not shine, and what was said would turn out to be incorrect: God create two great luminaries, and: may there be lights in the firmament of heaven to illuminate the earth. As the moon was created, as it is on the fifteenth day; so the sun, although it was the first day, at its creation had four days, because all days were and are counted according to the sun.

The eleven days by which the moon is older than the sun, and which are added to the moon in the first year, are the same days that are annually added to the moon by those who use lunar reckoning. The year of Adam was not an incomplete year, because the missing number of days of the moon was replenished at its very creation. According to this year, the descendants of Adam learned to add eleven days to each year. Therefore, it was not the Chaldeans who instituted the counting of times and years in this way, but this was instituted before Adam. Ps.49:11

Grow and multiply and fill, it doesn't say heaven, but earth, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and all livestock. But how could the ancestors possess the fish of the sea when they were not near the sea? How could they have possessed birds that flew to all ends of the universe, if the descendants of the ancestors were not subsequently to populate the ends of the universe? And how could they possess all the beasts of the earth if their race were not subsequently to live throughout the whole earth?

Although Adam was created and blessed to possess the earth and everything that is on it; but God settled him in paradise. So God, having pronounced a blessing on the progenitor, showed His foreknowledge, and by settling him in paradise, He showed His goodness. Lest they say: heaven was not created for man, God settled him in paradise, and lest they say: God did not know that man would sin, He blessed man on earth. And moreover, God blessed man before he transgressed the commandment, so that the crime of the recipient of the blessing would not withhold the blessings of the Blesser, and so that the world would not be returned to insignificance by the recklessness of the one for whose sake everything was created. Therefore, God did not bless man in paradise, because both paradise and everything in it are blessed. He blessed them before moving into heaven on earth, so that with the blessing that preceded goodness, they could weaken the power of the curse with which truth soon struck the earth. The blessing was only in the promise, because it was fulfilled after the expulsion of man from paradise; grace was in reality, because on the same day it settled man in paradise, adorned him with glory, and gave over to him all the trees of paradise.

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Filaret (Drozdov Vasily Mikhailovich; Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna; 1782-1867). Commentary on the Book of Genesis / Saint Filaret (Drozdov). – M.: Rus. chronograph, 2004 (Type. JSC Mol. Guard). – 702, p.; 21 cm.

The first edition of individual books of the New Testament translated from Central Slavic into Russian, undertaken through the efforts of the Russian Bible Society (1819), was an event of great importance for the entire Russian Orthodox Church, since it formed the basis for the creation of the Synodal Translation of the Bible (circa 1876), which we now use for home reading. Today we clearly feel the need for a manual that will help us understand one of the most important books of Holy Scripture, especially since Met. Philareta is not only one of the first, but also one of the main and most interesting works on the interpretation of Holy Scripture translated into Russian. When interpreting, not only the Greek translation of 70 interpreters (Septuagint), but also the later Masoretic (Jewish) list is taken into account, helping us to penetrate more deeply into the meaning of the Book of Genesis. The saint himself in the “Pre-Notice” considered it necessary to note that “all the expressions of the text that are found here, not word for word consistent with the Slovenian text, as well as the indications according to which the Slovenian text does not represent the sought word or thought, correspond to the Hebrew text, but in sayings quoted from the New Testament - Greek." This is one of the main advantages of Metropolitan’s work. Philaret, who developed the basic criteria for translating the Bible into Russian, and whose example in creating the Commentaries was repeatedly followed by later commentators. The book will be of interest to all readers and students of the Holy Scriptures and those seeking to become more deeply acquainted with the history of the creation of the world and man.

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And I gave my heart to himto exploreand try everything with wisdom, what is happening under the sky:it's hard workGod gave to the sons of men, so that they practice it.

I. NAME OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS - page 13
II. HER WRITER - page 14
III. RELIABILITY OF THE SCRIPTURES OF MOSES FROM HIS SIDE - page 16
IV. TIME OF ORIGIN OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS - page 17
V. ITS SUBJECT - page 18
VI. HER GOAL - page 19
VII. LOCATION OF ITS PARTS - page 20

CREATION OF THE WORLD - page 23

THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD IN GENERAL - page 23
SIX-DAY CONTINUATION OF CREATION - page 27
DAY ONE - page 29
DAY TWO - page 36
DAY THREE - page 39
DAY FOUR - page 42
DAY FIVE - page 46
DAY SIX - page 49
THE CELEBRAL END OF CREATION - page 60

THE CREATION OF MAN - page 72

A LOOK AT THE CREATION OF THE WORLD BEFORE THE CREATION OF MAN - page 73
THE IMAGE OF THE CREATION OF MAN - page 76
THE FIRST PLACE OF MAN - page 79
COMMANDMENT GIVEN TO ADAM - page 86
THE CREATION OF THE WIFE - page 90
ESTABLISHMENT OF MARRIAGE - page 95
STATE OF INNOCENCE - page 97

THE FALL AND RESTORATION OF MAN - page 101

TEMPTATION OF THE FIRST PEOPLE - page 101
THE FALL - page 108
REVOCATION - page 112
JUDGMENT OF GOD - page 115
NAMING A NEW NAME FOR YOUR WIFE - page 130
START OF CLOTHING - page 131
EXILEMENT FROM PARADISE - page 133

THE LIFE OF CAIN AND ABEL - page 140

THE BIRTH OF CAIN AND ABEL - page 141
LIFESTYLE - page 144
SACRIFICES - page 144
FRATRICIDE - page 153
CONSEQUENCES OF THE CRIME FOR CAIN - page 154

SPREAD OF THE REJECTED TRIBE - page 164
SPREADING THE SEED OF THE BLESSED - page 173
GENEALOGY AND RECORDING OF THE WIFE'S SEED - page 177
THE DEATH OF THE FIRST WORLD - page 185

REASONS FOR EXTERMINATION - page 186
FIRST WORLD - page 186
PREDESTINATION ABOUT THE FLOOD - page 191
NOAH'S CHOICE AND PREPARATION - page 193
ENTRY INTO THE ARK - page 201
IMAGE OF THE GROWING FLOOD - page 208
THE END OF THE FLOOD - page 213
DESCENT FROM THE ARK - page 221

Part two THE ORIGINAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD AND THE CHURCH AFTER THE FLOOD. ORIGIN OF THE CHOSEN PEOPLE IN ABRAHAM RENEWAL OF THE WORLD - page 229

SACRIFICE - page 229
PROMISE - page 231

RENEWAL OF THE CHURCH - page 235

UPDATING THE STATE OF NATURE AND HOSTEL - page 236
RENEWAL OF THE KINGDOM OF GRACE - page 243

THE HISTORY OF NOAH AND HIS SONS BY THE FLOOD - page 246

THE RUITS OF THE HUMAN KIND AFTER THE FLOOD - page 246
NOAH'S LIFESTYLE - page 247
FALL - page 248
PROPERTIES OF THE SONS OF NOAH - page 248
THE FATE OF THE SONS OF NOAH - page 249
RECORDING OF NOAH - page 253
THE PROGRESS OF JAPHETH - page 255
DESCENDANTS OF HAMA - page 260
PROGRESS OF SIM - page 269

THE DISPERSION OF NATIONS - page 276
GENEALOGY AND RECORDING OF THE DESCENDANTS OF SIMOV - page 288
THE LIFE OF TERAH - page 291
ABRAM'S RESETTLEMENT TO THE PROMISED LAND - page 297

REASON FOR RELOCATION - page 297
CIRCUMSTANCES OF RESETTLEMENT - page 301
IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF RESETTLEMENT - page 304

ABRAM'S JOURNEY TO EGYPT - page 313
SEPARATION OF ABRAM AND LOT - page 322
CAPTIVITY AND RELIANCE OF LOT - page 332

WAR OF THE NINE KINGS - page 333
LOT'S TROUBLE AND ABRAM'S HELP - page 337
ABRAM'S TRIUMPH - page 338

REVELATION TO ABRAM ABOUT THE FATE OF HIS DESCENDANTS - page 346
THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL - page 363

ABRAM'S MARRIAGE WITH HAGAR - page 363
DISAGREEMENT OF SARAH AND HAGAR - page 366
HAGAR'S REVELATION - page 368
THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL - page 373

TESTAMENT - page 379

PREPARATION FOR THE COVENANT - page 380
A NEW STATEMENT OF THE PROMISE - page 382
VISIBLE COVENANT - page 386
PROMISE TO SARAH - page 393
ABRAHAM'S CONCERN - page 394
Petition for Ishmael - page 395
THE FATE OF ISAAC AND ISHMAEL - page 396
FULFILLMENT OF THE COVENANT - page 398

DIVINE VISITATION WITH THE LAST PREDICTION OF THE BIRTH OF ISAAC - page 403

THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND THE RELATED ADVENTURES OF LOT - page 414

REVELATION OF SODOM - page 415
PRAYER CONVERSATION ABOUT THE WAYS OF JUSTICE AND MERCY - page 419
HOSPITALITY LOT - page 422
THE EXTREME CORPTIVITY OF THE SODOMLANES - page 423
THE LAST SERMON OF SALVATION IN SODOM - page 426
RECORDING LOT FROM SODOM - page 427
CONSERVATION OF TSOAR - page 428
EXECUTION OF SODOM - page 430
MISTRESS OF LOTOVA'S WIFE - page 433
CONCLUSION OF THE PREVIOUS NARRATION - page 434
ADDENDUM ABOUT LOT'S PROGRESSION - page 435

THE TEMPTATION OF ABRAHAM IN GERAR - page 440

THE BIRTH AND INHERITANCE OF ISAAC - page 452
UNION OF ABRAHAM WITH ABIMELECH - page 466
THE GREAT TEMPTATION AND PROMISE - page 473

THE DEATH OF SARRA AND THE MARRIAGE OF ISAAC - page 493

HOUSE OF NAHOR - page 494
THE DEATH OF SARRA - page 496
ISAAC'S MARRIAGE - page 503

THE LAST ADVENTURES OF ABRAHAM - page 519

ABRAHAM'S MARRIAGE WITH KETURAH - page 520
ABOUT THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM - page 523
ABOUT THE LIFE OF ISHMAEL - page 524

Part three ISAAC, JACOB, JOSEPH
BIRTH AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ISAAC'S TWO SONS - page 529
ISAAC'S TEMPTATIONS DISSOLVED BY CONSOLIATIONS - page 538
THE BLESSING OF THE SONS OF ISAAC AND THE CONSEQUENCES FROM IT - page 548

OCCASION AND PREPARATION FOR THE BLESSING - page 549
REBEKAH'S CLICKH - page 551
BLESSING TO JACOB - page 555
BLESSING TO ESAU - page 558
CONSEQUENCES - page 562

JACOB'S JOURNEY TO MESOPOTAMIA - page 568

ASPECTIVE REVELATION - page 569
VOW - page 576
JACOB'S ENTRY INTO LABAN'S HOUSE - page 578
THE TWO MARRIAGES OF JACOB - page 580
THE FRUITS OF JACOB'S TWO MARRIAGES - page 584
JACOB'S HOUSE BUILDING - page 591
DEPARTURE FROM MESOPOTAMIA - page 598
PERSECUTION - page 603
AN ENCOURAGING REVELATION - page 611
FEAR - page 613
FIGHT WITH GOD - page 618
JACOB'S DATE WITH ESAU - page 626
ENTRY INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN - page 629

DINA'S MISCELLANEOUS AND REVENGE - page 639
WORSHIP AND THEOPHANY AT BETHEL - page 646
SOME FAMILY INCIDENTS AND THE KIND OF JACOB - page 653
GENEALOGY OF ESAU - page 657

CHILDREN AND TRIBES FROM ESAU - page 658
GENEALOGY OF SEIR - page 661
IDUMEAN DYNASTS - page 662
JOSEPH'S HOME ACCIDENT - page 667

THE ADVENTURE OF JUDAH AND TAMAR - page 678
THE TEMPTATION AND RISE OF JOSEPH IN EGYPT - page 690

TEMPTATIONS ACCOMPANIED BY CONSOLIATIONS - page 691
INGRATEFULNESS AND RELIEF OF HOPE - page 696
ACCIDENTAL RISE - page 702
PROVIDENCE THROUGH JOSEPH ABOUT EGYPT - page 711

RESETTLEMENT OF THE JEWS TO EGYPT - page 716

THE FIRST VOYAGE - page 718
SECOND JOURNEY - page 728
RESETTLEMENT - page 748
LIST OF RESETTED - page 751
DETAILS OF THE COMING TO EGYPT - page 757
RETREAT - page 761
CONCLUSION - page 766

JACOB'S TESTAMENT TO JOSEPH - page 767
ADOPTION BY JACOB AND BLESSING OF THE SONS OF JOSEPH - page 772
THE LAST PROPHECY AND THE DEATH OF JACOB - page 782

INTRODUCTION - page 783
PROPHECY ABOUT REUBEN - page 783
ABOUT SIMEON AND LEVI - page 784
ABOUT JUDAS - page 788
ABOUT ZABULON - page 793
ABOUT ISSACHARA - page 793
ABOUT DAN - page 794
ABOUT GAD - page 795
ABOUT ASIR - page 795
ABOUT NEPPHALIM - page 796
ABOUT JOSEPH - page 796
ABOUT BENJAMIN - page 798
CONCLUSION - page 799

BURIAL OF JACOB - page 805
THE LAST DAYS OF JOSEPH - page 809
NOTES - page 812

NOTICE

In interpretative works on Holy Scripture, it is usually assumed that the reader will have it before his eyes when reading the interpretation. This was also assumed in this book when it was first published. But now it has been decided to include in it the very text of the book of Genesis in the Russian dialect, both for the convenience of the readers, and so that the ongoing passage of Holy Scripture from the ancient, not understandable to everyone, into a new intelligible dialect, if possible, prepare the way further. Only the passages of Holy Scripture that serve to confirm interpretations are for the most part not written out, but indicated by the numbers of chapters and verses, for including their text in this book would increase it excessively. Analysis of some Hebrew words can be left to those who have the need and means to engage in research of this kind. The rest, such as it is, is brought before everyone's judgment. All the expressions of the text found here that do not agree word for word with the Slavic text, as well as the indications according to which the Slavic text does not represent the desired word or thought, correspond to the Hebrew text, and in the sayings cited from the New Testament - to the Greek. The pronunciation of proper names, as far as possible, is retained as used in the Slavic translation, as already familiar. It was deviated from in those cases where, in order to prevent errors or misunderstandings, it was necessary to strictly follow the Hebrew pronunciation. There is no doubt that all real experience, and especially that part of it where the spirit is sought letters And cases antiquities are considered as predetermined images(1 Cor. X. 11) of the future, have a need for the readers’ condescension to the shortcomings of the writer. If, however, this experience gives some an opportunity for reflection and an incentive to more successfully test the Scriptures, then this will already be a great reward for the one who worked.

PUBLISHER NOTICE

The publication of the Holy Books of the Old Testament in Russian translation attracted special attention to them from zealots of piety. But we have very few experiences of interpretation of the books of the Holy Scripture in Russian, and, moreover, only of certain books of the Holy Scripture ((For example, Irinea, Archbishop of Pskov, “Interpretation of the 12 Prophets,” 1821, and an unknown author on the book of Job , 1860)). Among these experiments, the first place in dignity is occupied by Notes on the Book of Genesis, compiled by the rector of the St. Petersburg Academy, Archimandrite, now Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret, but they, published in the second printing forty-eight years ago, have now become an extremely rare book. Taking into account the urgent need of the children of the Orthodox Church for a tool for understanding the most important of the books of Scripture, which tells about the origin of the world and man, the Society of Lovers of Spiritual Enlightenment petitioned the author of the Notes on the Book of Genesis for permission to print them in a new edition. Permission was given with love and readiness to serve the good of the Church, and a new edition of the Notes is offered to the attention of pious readers. May it serve the children of the Orthodox Church as a guide to understanding the true history of the beginning of the world and man! And if it is permissible to desire some kind of reward for the work of publishing, then the publishers ask readers to combine their prayers with their prayers for the preservation of the precious life of the writer. July 3, 1867

Where the story is told about the mythological way of creating the Universe, the Planet, and humanity. Plus this is the history of the Jews.

I should probably remind you that each book in the Pentateuch of Moses has its own title. And it is slightly different from the original source. Because a huge number of translations suffered.

Russian name "Genesis" does not fully reflect the Greek translation – "Genesis"(“Book of Birth”, or “Book of Formation”). It is its Greek name that indicates that the book talks about:

• the origin of the world,
• first people
• the first human societies of patriarchal times.

But among the Jews the book was named after the first word of its contents - "At first".

This book speaks of what was “in the beginning of the world” in order to connect one “beginning” with another and derive one beginning from another; in other words, to interpret a person’s place among people as his place in the Universe.

Since the name of “Genesis” has a random origin, it coincides with its content.

In this book of Moses, a name synonymous with the word “Genesis” appears several times totedoth (“generation, origin of offspring”).

The Jews knew their genealogical lines along with historical and biographical documents, thanks to which history took shape.

This can be found on the first pages of the book itself, where the expression “ origin of heaven and earth” (Genesis 2:4), “genealogy of Adam” (Genesis 5:1), “life of Noah” (Genesis 6:9); “genealogy of the sons of Noah” (Genesis 10:1)“Genealogy of Shem” (Genesis 11:10), “genealogy of the macaw” (Genesis 11:27), “genealogy of Ishmael” (Genesis 25:12), “Genealogy of Isaac” (Genesis 25:19), “genealogy of Esau” (Genesis 36:1), “life of Jacob” (Genesis 37:1).

Thus, we can conclude that the Book of Genesis is a book of genealogies, giving us the concept of the Heavenly world as the first genealogy of the world and man.

Children are our continuation

As for the division of the book, the most correct one must recognize its division into two parts: one, consists of eleven chapters, consists of an introduction to world history, as it concerns the history of mankind;

other, consisting of thirty-nine chapters, already tells about one Jewish people, in the person of its ancestors - the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

The authenticity of this book is proven by analyzing its contents. Studying its content more deeply, one cannot help but notice the sequence of events, where one story follows from another, there are no contradictions, and everything is intact and in harmony. The reason for such a finely constructed harmony in the writing of the book is the division into ten “genealogies” that make up the main parts of the book, from which more genealogies flow.

The authenticity of a work has both internal and external grounds.

The internal provisions also include a language that bears traces of deep antiquity. The book contains quite a large number biblical archaisms.

External evidence should include those ancient historical information that are associated with written monuments of other peoples of the Ancient East and archaeological data testifying to the extreme antiquity of this book.

For example, archaeologists have proven the connection of the patriarchs with Mesopotamia, especially with Haran, in the period preceding the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, that is, before 1200 BC. e., which is confirmed, in particular, by the coincidence of the names of the patriarchs with toponyms in the Kharana district. With Jacob's return to Canaan, this connection is suddenly interrupted.

Creation of the world according to the Book of Genesis

But what was in the “beginning?”

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was empty and idle, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God said:

“...Let there be light!” – and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness..." (Genesis 1:1-40).

This beginning has many similarities with the Babylonian cosmogonic stories, but is opposite to them in meaning. Here the one God acts as the creator, concentrating in himself all the fullness of the forces for the creation of the world, and not the patriarchal clan of gods, in a series of marital intercourses, conceiving the personified possibilities of the future universe; that is, here cosmogony is completely separated from theogony. God is already opposed by his equal feminine principle, with whom he could fight in a cosmogonic battle, like the Babylonian Marduk fighting Tiamat. Perhaps the biblical Abyss (“Tehom”) is a memory of Tiamat, but then it is important to note the radical demythologization of the image. There is not a single word about the mother of monsters with an open mouth, like Tiamat, only “depth” or “abyss” - a mysterious image, perhaps mythological. But here this is understood differently than the actual mythological figure of Babylonian cosmogony. It is significant that in the biblical account of creation there is neither the effort of work nor the effort of battle; every part of the cosmos is created by a free act of will, expressed in the formula - “let it be.”

Indeed, numerous cases of external similarity between the plot of the story of the creation of the world in the book of Genesis and the plots of the cosmological myths of other peoples of the Ancient East leave no doubt about the material that influenced the biblical narrative. But the significant differences between these myths and the Genesis narrative are so great that the latter must be considered an original work.

For example, the pagan pantheon inevitably includes many forces and rulers in a state of struggle and rivalry in nature and in human society. The narrative of “Genesis” is based on the thesis of the existence of one God, standing outside the cosmos, the world and nature, which are His creation and therefore are completely subordinated only to His will.

The red line traces the religious goal in the description of the formation of the world. God is the primary source of everything on earth. Everything that is on the planet is not an accident, but the will of the Creator. And the Lord created man in the likeness of God, endowing him with an immortal soul. God created man for a great purpose - to do good.

The devil is the tempter and the cause of the fall of man. God has always cared about man and his actions in the world. The Lord guides him on the right path.

The Book of Genesis describes stable canons that a person must follow.

Such a concept and phenomenon as “” is revealed on the pages Genesis. “Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (2:24).

Theme of prohibition and taboo shown in the story of the Fall of Adam and Eve; the idea of ​​a taboo, the violation of which is associated with expulsion from the sacred space of the “Garden of Sweets” (Eden) and the loss of original harmony, is presented very clearly and freed from any detail.

Eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil also marks a “beginning”: the experience of good and evil begins with it, history begins with it as a confrontation between good and evil. Not only good, but also evil, have prototypes raised to a normative beginning; hence the importance of the figure of the first murderer on earth - Cain. He is such a sinner that he belongs directly to the judgment of Yahweh; he is marked with the proverbial “Mark of Cain.”

A little about the Mark of Cain

For his murder and unrepentant sin, Cain was cursed by God, a special distinctive mark was placed on him: “...And the Lord made a sign for Cain, so that no one who met him would kill him” (Gen. 4:15).

The Bible does not tell us what exactly it was, but it is probably not as important as the sign looked outwardly. The main thing is whether you and I today do not bear this mark of sin on ourselves: in our soul, character, actions, thoughts. Are we not the spiritual children of the eldest son of Adam: envious, rebellious, earning salvation by our own works, without needing Christ. “And Cain went away from the presence of the Lord; and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden” (Gen. 4:16). Since then, Cain's family began to live separately. It was his descendants who invented musical instruments, discovered the secrets of obtaining metals, and built the first cities (see Archaeological commentary on this chapter). But among his descendants, polygamy also appeared for the first time: “And Lamech took for himself two wives...” (Gen. 4:19) and the sins sown by Cain flourished.

Biblical story about the Flood

The biblical account of the Flood is the most exciting. Noah's family of 8 was righteous. Perhaps members of Noah’s family also had some sins. But they did not lead them to death. Now the human race is already beginning to descend from this family.

Thus, the grace of the Lord can be traced, since humanity, in the person of the Noah family, survived the Flood, leading to complete destruction and destruction. And God gave his grace to Noah and his family, and subsequent descendants, by the way, to us too.

“…And all the other living things from the ark were also blessed" ( Genesis 9).

“...And the whole planet is blessed by God.” ( Genesis 9-10).

“...We live thanks to God's Grace. We even breathe, move and exist by the grace of God, and not by ourselves.” ( Acts 24-28).

The first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis depict the “beginning” in the most literal sense of the word: the beginning of the universe, the beginning of humanity.

Starting from the 12th chapter, another theme of the book is revealed - the prehistory of another beginning - the people of Yahweh. The heroes of the story, the biblical “patriarchs”, or “forefathers”, are Abraham, a native of Mesopotamia, the chosen one of God and the founder of a new people, his relatives, sons, grandsons and great-grandsons. Of the two sons of Abraham, God rejects Ishmael and chooses Isaac (Genesis, 7-8, 19, 21; 21:14; 25:6; 26:3-4); the process of election is then repeated for the descendants of Isaac (Genesis 35:9-12). The divine blessing received by Isaac's second son, Jacob, ends the period of the patriarchs and opens the era of the formation of the Israeli nation, for which God has destined a special party in the history of the world.

They are depicted as elders of small family-tribal communities wandering in the spaces of Canaan between Mesopotamia and Egypt. According to the biblical narrative, the distant descendants of these clans were destined to become the core of the Jewish people in 500 years.

The hypothesis has been repeatedly expressed that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are mythological figures in the narrow sense of the word, that is, local or tribal deities of pagan Palestine, only later “humanized” in accordance with the principle of monotheism. However, this hypothesis is becoming inconclusive as a result of recent archaeological evidence.

In general, the world of the biblical patriarchs corresponds quite closely to what has recently become known about northern Mesopotamia and Canaan of the Middle Bronze Age. Establishing the real basis of the saga of the patriarchs allows us to determine the genre affiliation of the corresponding eyes of the Book of Genesis. The whole nature of the presentation says that this is a saga, a family tradition, a historical legend, sometimes a historical fairy tale, but no longer a myth in the proper sense of the word.

Among the stories about the patriarchs, the episodes dedicated to Joseph stand out, they are very large in volume (chapters 37-50) and are distinguished by their novelistic details. These chapters describe how the virtue of the wise Joseph is rewarded by God and Divine Providence turns evil into good ( Genesis 50:20 ).

The image of Joseph has become widespread in literature, since his biblical story has had an exceptionally wide influence on entire eras of literary creativity in line with the Judaic, Islamic and Christian traditions.

Syrian literature of the 4th century gave the “Word of Joseph the Beautiful” by Ephraim the Syrian (Aphrem), where the image of an innocent sufferer developed its expressive capabilities, turning out to be a symbol and prototype of the suffering of Christ. The famous 12th sura of the Koran is dedicated to Yusuf (the Arabic version of the name Joseph), to which the poets of Islam looked back, singing the love of the biblical hero and Zuleika. For the entire range of literature of the Christian Middle Ages from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, “Chaste Joseph” is one of the popular characters; It is worth special mentioning the rich folklore tradition of Russian “spiritual poems” - folk tales, laments and lamentations about the sorrows of a righteous man sold to his brothers, dating back to the “Word” of Ephraim the Syrian.

Modern European literature also reflected a variety of stories related to the life of Joseph. In just a decade after 1532, many plays about Joseph appeared ( S. Birkk, T. Garth). A young man wrote about the development of this topic Goethe. At the beginning of the 20th century he turned to her T. Mann(novel tetralogy “Joseph and his brothers”, 1933-1943), turning the biblical topic into a subject for the application of psychoanalytic and religious scholarship and at the same time into a tool for the affirmation of liberal humanism.

The end of Genesis leaves the family of Jacob in Egypt; “ “ begins with this situation.

The problem of authorship

The most mysterious question remains who is the author of this scripture, since the author of the text is not precisely indicated.

Scholars suggest that Genesis was written by Moses. It is believed that the first five books of the Bible were written down by him during the forty-year wandering of the Jews in the Sinai desert. Initially, all the writings of Moses constituted one collection of God's revelations, the book “TORAH”, which means: Law, or under the name “book of Moses”

But it is necessary to take into account the fact that perhaps before Moses there was some person who wrote this story (Genesis 9: 1-17). Since the text reports events that occurred shortly after the Flood, that is, long before Moses. The author's name is not given in the text itself.

“Genesis” could have been written by Noah and his immediate circle. If the author of the text is Noah or a person from Noah’s inner circle, then the immediate addressee was Noah’s family.

After all, God somehow communicated His righteous truths to people. Perhaps through direct communication (Genesis 3:8-11; Genesis 4:4; Genesis 18:1-3) or some other form of revelation. (For example, a dream, a vision - Genesis 15: 1-2; Genesis 28: 10-16;).

The first chapters of Genesis are inspired by God, as is all of Scripture. Then the Lord continued to communicate His righteous truths. The chosen ones were able to complete what 50 chapters of Genesis look like now. That is, the first chapters of Genesis could have been written before Moses. And, for example, 34:5-12 was written by inspiration, but not by Moses. And after the death of Moses. All parts of Scripture were written not by human will, but by divine inspiration.

Conclusion

The book “Genesis” is a scripture about the creation of the world and man, the history of the Israeli tribes and a description of the process of their transformation into a single people.

The Genesis concept of God, man, the world and their relationships is unique and most essential for understanding these events.

At the same time, Genesis teaches a sublime concept of man. The creation of man represents the apogee of the cosmogonic process. Man is created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:26, 27) ; he is entrusted with the right to use natural resources (1:26, 28, 29) . The creation of man requires the special efforts of God; man directly receives the breath of life from Him. (Genesis 2:7).

One of the most significant aspects of Genesis is the concept of the relationship between God and man.

In the book of Genesis, man is the crown of God's creation, and the relationship between God and man, who undertakes to fulfill Him, is the result of the union between them.

Book title. The first sacred book of our Slavic-Russian Bible is called “Genesis”. This name is a literal translation of the Greek inscription of this book in the text of LXX, indicating the content of the first sacred book (in the narrow sense - its first two chapters), inscribed in its Hebrew original with the first word of the text of the 1st verse - בראשית - bereschith.

Origin and meaning of its name. From what has been said, it is already clear that the key to unraveling the name of the first book of the Bible must be sought in the text of its original. Turning to the latter, we see that each of the first five books of the Bible, forming the so-called Torah (“book of the Law”) or the Pentateuch of Moses, received its name from the first or two of its first words; and since the initial book in the Hebrew original opens with the words בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא , then these very words were set by the Jews as its title. Book 1 (or Genesis) in the Hebrew text is called bereschith ("in the beginning"); 2nd (Exodus) – elleh-schemoth (“these names”); 3rd (Leviticus) – vajigra (“and called”); 4th (Numbers) – vajedabber (“and said”; another name is bemidbar – “in the desert”, cf.); 5th (Deuteronomy) – elleh-haddebarim. But although the name of the book of Genesis is of accidental origin, it surprisingly coincides with its essential content and is full of broad meaning. In the 1st book of Moses, the name toldoth, synonymous with the word “Genesis,” appears many times. Under the name תוֹלְדוֹת toldoth - “begetting, origin, offspring” (from the Hebrew chapter תלד “to give birth”), the Jews knew their genealogical tables and the historical and biographical records that were with them, from which their history itself was subsequently compiled. Clear traces of the existence of such “genealogical records,” corrected and consolidated by the hand of their inspired editor Moses, can be found in the book. Genesis, where no less than ten times we meet with the inscription תוֹלְדוֹת toldoth, namely "origin of heaven and earth" (), "Genealogy of Adam"(); "life of Noah" (); "genealogy of sons her But I" (); "Genealogy of Shem" (); "Genealogy of Terah" (); "Genealogy of Ishmael" (); "Genealogy of Isaac" (); "Genealogy of Esau"(); “The Life of Jacob” (). From here it is obvious that the first book of the Bible is primarily a book of genealogies and that its Greek and Slavic-Russian names best introduce us to its inner essence, giving us the concept of heaven as the first genealogy of the world and man .As for the division of the book of Genesis, the most profound and correct should be its division into two far unequal parts: one, embracing its first eleven chapters, contains, as it were, a universal introduction to world history, since it concerns the starting points and initial moments of primitive history all humanity; the other, extending over all the remaining thirty-nine chapters, gives the history of one God-chosen Jewish people, and then only in the person of its ancestors - the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. The unity and authenticity of the book of Genesis is proven primarily from the analysis of its contents. Delving deeper into the content of this book, we, with all its conciseness, cannot help but notice the amazing harmony and consistency of its narratives, where one follows from the other, where there are no real disagreements and contradictions, and everything stands in complete harmonious unity and purposeful plan. The basic scheme of this plan is the above-mentioned division into ten “genealogies” (toldoth), which make up the main parts of the book and combine more or less minor ones, depending on the importance of one or another genealogy. The authenticity of the book of Genesis has both internal and external reasons. The first, in addition to all that has been said above about the content and plan of this holy book, should include its language, which bears traces of deep antiquity, and especially the biblical archaisms found in it. To the second we consider the agreement of the Bible data with natural science and ancient historical news drawn from various external scientific sources. At the head of all of them we place the most ancient tales of the Assyro-Babylonian Semites, known under the name of “Chaldean genesis,” which provide rich and instructive material for comparison with the stories of biblical genesis. Finally, the importance of the book of Genesis is clear by itself: being the oldest chronicle of the World and humanity and giving The most authoritative resolution of the world's questions about the origin of everything that exists, the book of Genesis is full of the deepest interest and has the greatest significance in matters of religion, morality, cult, history and in general in the interests of truly human life.