Papus practical magic read part 2. Powerful rituals to fulfill desires: Papus, Maria Lenormand, Lissy Moussa, Natalya Pravdina. General interpretation of Papus's activities
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate water from water.
7 And God made the firmament, and separated the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament. And so it became.
8 And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning: the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And so it became.
10 And God called the dry land earth, and the meeting of the waters he called seas. And God saw that [it] was good.
11 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, grass yielding seed, fruitful trees, bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth.” And so it became.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind, and tree yielding fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind. And God saw that [it] was good.
13 And there was evening, and there was morning: the third day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years;
15 And let them be lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light on the earth. And so it became.
16 And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars;
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth,
18 And to rule the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that [it] was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning: the fourth day.
20 And God said, Let the water bring forth living things; and let the birds fly over the earth, across the firmament of heaven.
21 And God created the great fish and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that [it] was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.
23 And there was evening, and there was morning: the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things and wild beasts of the earth after their kinds. And so it became.
25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to their kinds. And God saw that [it] was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moves on the earth.
27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed; - [this] will be food for you;
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every thing that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food. And so it became.
31 And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.
The narrative of the Bible begins with the creation of the world and man.
Datings of the Creation according to different churches and church leaders:
- 5969 BC e. September 1 - Antiochian date (according to Theophilus);
- 5872 BC e. - 70 interpreters;
- 5624 BC e., 5501 BC e., 5493 BC e. May 25, 5472 BC e. - Alexandrian and Byzantine dates;
- 5551 BC e. - according to Augustine;
- 5515 BC e. and 5507 BC e. - according to Theophilus;
- 5508 BC e. March 21 (later September 1, 5509 BC) - Byzantine dating (Constantinople, Orthodox);
- 5500 BC e. - according to Hippolytus and Sextus Julius Africanus;
- 5199 BC e. - dating according to Eusebius of Caesarea,
- 4700 BC e. - Samaritan;
- 4004 BC e. October 23 - according to James Ussher (9:00 - clarification by Bishop Lightfoot);
- 3761 BC September 6-7 - Jewish;
- 3491 BC e. - dating according to Jerome;
- and many others.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth".
First day: creation of light, division into day and night.
Second: the division of water and the creation of the firmament of heaven.
Third: the creation of continents and islands, vegetation.
Fourth: the creation of luminaries: stars, sun, moon.
Fifth: birds, fish, reptiles (not to be confused with modern concept reptiles: these are both moles and insects... more on that in Leviticus 11:20).
Sixth: reptiles, animals, people
“And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”, - note: “very good.”
Some notes:
First the earth is created, then the stars, the sun. Some believers consider this not literal, and therefore for them the creation of heaven implies the creation of the spiritual, and the earth - the creation of the material.
The division into day and night occurs before the creation of the sun. Light is created before the luminaries (since until the 17th century it was believed that the sun did not give light, but let it through, like a hole in the sky). I foresee objections from neo-theosophists: the creation of earth corresponds to the creation of matter, the creation of light corresponds to the creation of energy. Their right.
The greenery is created before the luminaries are created. All luminaries are created only to shine on the earth. Quite arrogant.
The word "yom" means both day and time, so there may be six days of creation and six eras of creation. Whoever likes it. By the way, the fact that plants were created a day before the luminaries is an argument of some believers who consider Creation to be a matter of six literal days. After all, plants would not survive for a long period without light.
I will also pay attention to the original language. It says there “In the beginning Elohim created...” Elohim - plural, gods. "And he created And gods He created man in His own image, in the image of God And his; created man and woman And their". Many researchers are inclined to believe that El and Asherah, the ancient Semitic spouses-gods who created man and woman in their image and likeness, were previously inscribed here.
Although this is the first chapter of the Bible, it must be borne in mind that it is by no means the oldest. This legend was modified, and perhaps even created after the Babylonian captivity, when monotheism was finally formed among the Jews.
; etc.), matters creative activity or creation from nothing (; ; ; ; 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 entire universe” (; ; ; ). In addition, many find here a separate indication of the creation of the visible and invisible world, or Angels (Theoph. Ant., 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 celestial beings, i.e. angels (; etc.), and secondly, the context of this narrative, in which the subsequent chaotic disorder is attributed to only one earth, that is, the visible world (verse 2), 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 (), and especially in the New Testament ().
. The earth was formless and empty,
The concept of “earth” in the language of the Bible often embraces the entire Earth, including here the visible sky as its outer atmospheric shell (; ). 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 the firmament and water ().
Words "formless and empty", which characterize the primitive mass, contain the idea of “darkness, disorder and destruction” (;), i.e., they give the idea of a state of complete chaos, in which the elements of future light, air, earth, water and also all the embryos of plant and animal life did not yet lend itself to any distinction and were, as it were, mixed together. The best parallel to these words is the passage from the Book of Wisdom of Solomon, which says that he created the world from "ugly substance"() And .
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 hovered over the waters.
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 - of an Angel, or a special intelligent force, appointed for the same purpose (Chrysostom, Caizetan, etc.), still others, finally, to 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 is that creative and providential force which, according to the general biblical view, determines the origin and existence of the whole world, not excluding man (; ; ; ; and 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 them with its warmth to awaken life in them ().
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.
. And God said: Let there be light. 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: “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it appeared.”(). 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" (; ).
let there be light.
The Apostle Paul gives a clear indication of this when he speaks of God as "who commanded the light to shine out of darkness"(). 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 fourth day creation, in which the night luminaries appeared, the sources of our light did not yet exist, but was that luminiferous ether, which, being in a vibrational state, dispersed the primeval darkness and thereby created the necessary conditions for the future appearance of all organic life on earth.
. And I saw the light that he was good,
Thus, according to the Psalmist, “The Lord rejoices in His works”!() It is said here that light is “good” because it is a source of joy and happiness for all living things.
. And God called the light day and the darkness night.
Having separated light from darkness and established the correct alternation of them among themselves, the Creator also gave them corresponding names, calling the period of domination of light day, and the time of domination of darkness night. Holy Scripture gives us whole line indications of the origin of this divine institution (; ; ). 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 put 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 would be an obvious stretch of the text, since before the creation of light there could have been neither such a distinction between the day, nor the very name of the two main components their. 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 Saint John 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., speaking 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 from one side to 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 strictly literal meaning 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 earth's crust and several thousand years for the successive appearance on it various forms plant and animal life.
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, Saints 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.
Third day of creation
. And God said: Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.
By virtue of this divine command, the two main components of the primeval chaos, earth and water, separated from each other: the waters united into various water basins - seas and oceans (;), and the land formed islands and continents, covered with various mountains, hills and valleys ( ; ).
. And God called the dry land earth, and the collection of 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 revealing full space scientific research. In the cosmogonic vision with which the Bible deals, only general character and the final result of this third period of world formation or - in the language of the biblical vision - the third day of creation.
. And God said: Let the earth produce greenery, grass yielding seed [according to kind and like: her , and] a fruitful tree, bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And so it became.
And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind [and likeness], and a tree [fruitful] bearing fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind [on the earth].
These few words of cosmogonic vision display a whole grandiose picture of the gradual emergence on earth different types 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 the list is kept various types this vegetation, fully consistent with the data of modern geology: first, generally greenery or grass (geological ferns), then flowering vegetation (giant lilies) and, finally, trees (primitive shrubs and trees), (). The omnipotence of the Creator, of course, did not suffer at all from this, since the primary source vital energy earth was none other than God himself, and His highest wisdom in such a purposeful arrangement of the world was revealed in all its power and obvious clarity, as the Apostle Paul expressly points out in famous place from the Epistle to the Romans ().
Fourth day of creation
. And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens [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 solar system. The biblical story itself about this is again adapted to the infant’s worldview primitive man: thus, the luminaries seem to be established as if they were established on the outer firmament of the sky, as they are, in fact, depicted in our everyday, non-scientific idea. It is indicated here for the first time efficient cause dividing the day into day and night, which consists of the influence of luminaries. This, as it were, provides 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 should serve as time regulators, that is, the various phases of the sun and moon should 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.
and for signs,
By these signs one should not at all understand any superstitious veneration of 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 (). But this, according to the interpretation of Blessed Theodoret, means that the phases of the moon, as well as the times of rising and setting of various stars and comets, served as useful guidelines for farmers, shepherds, travelers and sailors (; ; ; ; ). Very early, the phases of the moon and the position of the sun began to serve as signs of dividing the year into months and uniting the latter into the seasons - spring, summer, autumn and winter (). 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.
. And God created two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night,
Although these great luminaries are not named here, it is quite clear from the entire context of the narrative, as well as from the corresponding biblical parallels related here (;), that the sun and moon are meant here. But if such a name is fully justified by science when applied 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 regard even to 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, that is, in the language of ordinary 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 stars.
Under common name stars here mean 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 glowing points, scattered throughout the sky. It is not without reason that the contemplation of the majestic vault of heaven touched and inspired many Old Testament biblical writers to glorify the wisdom and goodness of the Creator (; ; ; ; etc.).
. and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth and to rule the day and the night,
The Creator, as the Psalmist says, the moon and stars - to control the night (), but the rising of the sun determined to be the beginning working day for person(). The prophet Jeremiah expresses this idea even more clearly, glorifying the Lord Almighty, who “gave the sun for illumination by day, statutes to the moon and stars for illumination at night” ().
Fifth day of creation
. And God said: Let the water produce
The term "water", as is obvious from the context, is used here in a more general and in a broad sense– means not only ordinary water, but also air atmosphere, which, as is already known, in the language of the Bible is also called “water” (). Here, just as before () in the very image of the biblical expression - “let the water produce” (or, “let them multiply in the waters”), again there is a hint of the participation of natural agents in creative process, in this case, water and air as the environment in which the Creator determined the corresponding types of animal life to live and reproduce.
reptiles, living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, across the firmament of heaven.
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 is called in the Hebrew text Sheretz, which does not mean only “reptiles or aquatic reptiles,” as our Russian and Slavic texts translate it, but also includes fish and all aquatic animals in general (). 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” ().
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.
. And God created big fish
The Slavic text calls them great “whales,” closer to the Hebrew text, which contains the word: tanninim, which generally means aquatic animals of enormous size (; ;), large fish, including whales (; ), big snake(; ) and crocodile () - in a word, the entire class of large amphibians or amphibians (). This gives a clear indication that the original species of amphibians and birds were distinguished by their gigantic sizes, which is confirmed by paleontological data, which reveals a whole vast class of extinct antediluvian animals, striking with their colossal sizes (ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, gigantic lizards, etc.).
. And God blessed them, saying:
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,” that is, each species of animal - to reproduce its own kind.
be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas,
In the Hebrew text, both of these words have the same meaning, and their very connection, by its nature, 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 (), now the earth is also added on which they make their nests and live.
Sixth day of creation
. And God said, Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things, and wild beasts of the earth according to their kinds.
Here again, as in the two previous cases (), some influence of the natural forces of nature, in this case directly of the earth, is indicated.
. And God created the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps 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 (;). The second type of these animals embraces a fairly significant class of domestic animals, that is, those domesticated by humans, which include: horses, oxen, camels, goats, and in general all large and small livestock (;); in a broader sense, this sometimes includes larger wild animals, for example, elephant and rhinoceros (). 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 (), lizards, foxes, mice and moles (). Sometimes, in a shorter and less strict speech, all three of the above classes of earthly animals are combined in the first of them, namely in the concept of “beasts of the earth” (). 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 ().
Creation of Man
. And God said: Let us create 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 understood the spirit of the Lord, and was His counselor and taught Him? Who does He consult with?? (;) and the best answer to it is given in the Gospel of John, which speaks of the Word, which from time immemorial was with God and in union with Him created everything (). This points to the Word, the Logos, the eternal Son of God, also called the “wonderful Counselor” by the prophet Isaiah (). In another place 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 “sons of men” (). 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 (). According to the unanimous opinion of the majority of the Holy Fathers, the divine council considered here took place with the participation of the Holy Spirit, that is, 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 - consequently, by the action of advice, God's foresight and predestination (), i.e. in this case, the implementation of the idea of the creation of man, which has existed for centuries, is depicted in the Holy Scriptures. divine plan of the Universe (). Thus, here we find one of the most oldest traces existence in the antediluvian world of the mystery of the Trinity, 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 for a long time from the consciousness of Old Testament humanity, from which it was even deliberately hidden according to pedagogical purposes, namely, so as not to give Jews, always prone to polytheism, unnecessary temptation in this regard.
person
In the Hebrew text the word appears here adam. When this word is used without an article, it does not express own name first husband, but serves only as a common noun for “man” in general; in this sense, it applies equally to both men and women (). As can be seen from the subsequent context, this word is used in this sense here too - denoting the entire primordial couple, to whom divine blessings are taught for reproduction and dominion over nature (). 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: "He is of one blood(God) produced the entire human race" ().
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; the other is the implementation of this ideal, a copy from the specified sample. “The first (κατ᾿ εἰκόνα - according to the image), - argues Saint Gregory of Nyssa, - we have by creation, and the last (καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν - 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 its development in man (;), and purity (), 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 () and even in relation to his own wife (), and, in particular, in the trinity of his main mental strength: mind, heart and will, which served as some kind of reflection of the divine trinity (), and also directly - “the image and glory of God” ().
. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;
In the very repetition of parallel concepts - “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, while God-likeness is something different from this and consists in one degree or another of free, personal person development 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 (that is, the combination of male and female in one person). But this misconception is best refuted by the pronoun “them” standing here, which, if we were talking about one person, would have to have the singular form - “him”, and not “them” - the plural.
. And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea [and over the animals], and over the birds of the air, [and over every livestock, and over all the earth,] and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
The power of creative blessing, once previously imparted to 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, according to the Psalmist, which the Apostle also repeats, “He crowned him with glory and honor; You have made him ruler over the works of Your hands; He put everything under his feet: all the sheep and the oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, everything that passes on the paths of the sea.”(; ). This is one of the best expressions thoughts about the greatness and beauty of the primordial Adam (i.e., man), restored to his primitive dignity, lost through the Fall, by the second - our Lord Jesus Christ ().
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 I. 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 penetrates even into divine secrets! For him the whole earth, the sun and the stars exist, for him the heavens were created, for him the apostles and prophets were sent, and even the Angels themselves; for his salvation, finally, the Father sent down his Only Begotten Son!”
. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed; - to you: this will be for food;
and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every [creeping thing] that moves on the earth, in which there is a living soul, gave I use all my greens for food.
Here is the most ancient news about the primitive food of man and animals: for humans it was various herbs with their roots and trees with their fruits, for animals it was herbal greens. 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 (). One cannot help but see in this a special divine providence for all newly created beings, expressed in concern for their preservation and maintenance of their lives ( ); 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 over his creation () and found that it, considered as a whole, was “very good”, i.e. . fully corresponds to the eternal plans of the divine economy for the creation of the world and man.
And there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.
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, later came, have special significance and value. Jewish people. 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 biblical history creation: here the same as in the Bible, the division into six successive acts, each of which 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 same general sequence and - what is especially curious is 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 details, see the dissertation of A. Pokrovsky: “ Bible teaching about primitive religion", p. 86–90).
Reading Holy Bible superficially (that is, one who understands what is written in it literally) “comes into great bewilderment,” says St. John Chrysostom. The very first pages of the Bible cause bewilderment, extremely simple in form, but extremely difficult to understand. The first chapter of Genesis talks about the creation of the world:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the abyss, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.
And God said: Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness night. And there was evening and there was morning: one day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate water from water. [And it became so.] And God created the firmament, and separated the water that was under the firmament from the water that was above the firmament. And so it became. And God called the firmament heaven. [And God saw that This good.] And there was evening, and there was morning: the second day.
And God said: Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And so it became. [And the waters under the sky gathered into their places, and dry land appeared.] And God called the dry land earth... And God said: Let the earth produce greenery, grass yielding seed [according to its kind and likeness her, and] a fruitful tree, bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And it became so... And there was evening, and there was morning: the third day.
And God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven [to illuminate the earth and] to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years; and let them be lamps in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth. And it became so... And there was evening, and there was morning: the fourth day.
And God said: Let the water bring forth living things; and let the birds fly over the earth, across the firmament of heaven. [And it was so.] And God created the great fish and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good... And there was evening, and there was morning: the fifth day.
And God said, Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things and wild beasts of the earth after their kinds. And it became like this...
And God said: Let us make man in Our image and after Our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing. on the ground. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, [and over the animals], and over the birds of the air, [and over every livestock, and over all the earth, ] and over every living thing that moves on the earth... And God saw everything that He had created, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning: the sixth day” (Gen. 1. 1–9, 11, 13–15, 19–21, 23–24, 26–28, 31).
At first glance it seems that this ancient narrative does not correspond to modern scientific ideas about the origin of the world. But the Bible, as has already been said, is not a textbook on natural sciences; it does not contain a description of how the creation of the world took place from a physical, scientific point of view. For The Bible teaches us not natural scientific truths, but religious truths. And the first of these truths is that it was God who created the world out of nothing. It is incredibly difficult to imagine such a thing for human consciousness, because creation from nothing lies beyond the limits of our experience.
Wanting to comprehend the mystery of the beginning of the existence of the physical world, people fell (and still fall) into one of three misconceptions.
One of them does not distinguish between the Creator and creation. Some of the ancient philosophers believed that God and His creation are one substance, and the world is an emanation of the deity. According to these ideas, God, like a liquid that overflowed a vessel, poured outward, forming the physical world. Therefore, the Creator is literally present by His nature in every particle of creation.
Such philosophers were called pantheists.
Others believed that matter always existed on a par with God, and God simply fashioned the world from this eternal matter. Such philosophers who recognized the original existence of two principles - the Divine and the material - were called dualists.
Still others denied the existence of God altogether and asserted the eternal existence of matter alone. These were called atheists.
Errors in comprehending the essence of Divine creativity are explained by the fact that this creativity was carried out outside the reality of human experience. People have experience of creativity through science, technology, art, economics and other practical activities. However, science, technology, art, and any other type of activity initially have material for creativity, dealing with an objective principle - the surrounding world. Based on the experience of their own creativity, people tried to comprehend the creation of the Universe.
God created the world, the Universe out of nothing- By His Word, by His Almighty power, by Divine will. Divine creation is not a one-time act - it occurs over time. The Bible talks about the days of creation. But we are, of course, not talking about 24-hour cycles, not about our astronomical days, for, as the Bible tells us, the luminaries were created only on the fourth day. We are talking about other time periods. “With the Lord,” the Word of God proclaims to us, “one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day” (2 Pet. 3:8). God is outside of time. And therefore it is impossible to judge how long this Divine creation took place.
But something else is quite obvious. The Lord Himself speaks in Divine Revelation that the creative Divine act still continues: “Behold, I am making all things new” (“I am making all things new” - Rev. 21.5). This means that God, in an implicit and incomprehensible way for us, continues the work of creation, supporting his Divine energy the universal world order in a balanced and viable state. God is the Creator of the world, and His providence for the world and man, His creative creation in relation to the world and man is not completed.
It was the first lines of the Book of Genesis that became a stumbling block for many, especially in the 18th–19th centuries, during the era of rapid development of natural science. But let's think about it: could almost three thousand years ago the ancient prophet Moses, addressing the nomadic people, tell about the creation of the world in the language modern science? But what Moses told in the language of his time is clear to mankind even to this day. Millennia have passed, but there is no people on earth who would not be able to understand these ancient words. For modern man these are beautiful symbols, images, metaphors - a wonderful language of antiquity, figuratively conveying to us the hidden secret, the religious truth that God is the Creator of the world.
These images do not paint us a fantastic picture of the universe. They reveal the process of the emergence of spiritual and material worlds. “God created heaven...” - the traditional church interpretation of these words sees in them evidence of the creation of the supersensible angelic world; “... and the earth” - here is an indication of the creation of matter. Even if we evaluate the Bible's account of the creation of the world from the point of view modern views on the origin of the cosmos, then here too - of course, with adjustments for the language and imagery of presentation - one can find something that seems very logical and understandable. The transformation of matter begins with the creation of light: “And God said: Let there be light. And there was light...” Today we know that light is electromagnetic vibrations, it is energy. So, the basis of the creative act that transforms chaotic matter is the creation of energy. Then - the creation of the inanimate and living world. In the beginning there were plants, then waterfowl, reptiles, and flying; then mammals. As the Bible says, God did not directly create all this, but water and earth produced it. This indicates the involvement of all of nature in the mystery of the creation of the new. And at the end of the creation of the world - the creation of man.
Ancient images and metaphors should not be an obstacle to the perception of the truth about God’s creation of the world and man. At the same time, we must remember that the purpose of the biblical narrative is not to provide scientific answers to the question of the origin of the world, but to reveal important religious truths to man and to educate him in these truths.
God created the world in time and space, calling it from nothingness to life by His almighty power. God created man and destined him for special communication with Himself, elevating him above all creation and determining for him the main goal of his existence - life in complete harmony with the Creator, in other words, religious life. The eternal verbs of the Bible testify to this.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.
First day of creation. Artist Y. Sh von KAROLSFELD
4 And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light day and the darkness night. And there was evening and there was morning: one day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate water from water. [And it became so.]
7 And God made the firmament, and separated the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament. And so it became.
8 And God called the expanse heaven. [And God saw that it was good.] And there was evening, and there was morning: the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And so it became. [And the waters under the sky gathered into their places, and dry land appeared.]
10 And God called the dry land earth, and the meeting of the waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good.
Second day of creation. Artist Y. Sh von KAROLSFELD 11 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, grass yielding seed [after its kind and after its likeness, and] a fruitful tree bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth.” And so it became.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind [and likeness], and a tree [fruitful] bearing fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind [on the earth]. And God saw that it was good.
13 And there was evening, and there was morning: the third day.
Third day of creation. Artist Y. Sh von KAROLSFELD 14 And God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven [to illuminate the earth and] to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years;
15 And let them be lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light on the earth. And so it became.
16 And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars;
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light on the earth,
18 And to rule the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning: the fourth day.
Fourth day of creation. Artist Y. Sh von KAROLSFELD 20 And God said, Let the water bring forth living things; and let the birds fly over the earth, across the firmament of heaven. [And it became so.]
21 And God created the great fish and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.
23 And there was evening, and there was morning: the fifth day.
Fifth day of creation. Artist Y. Sh von KAROLSFELD 24 And God said, Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things and wild beasts of the earth after their kinds. And so it became.
25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing, reptiles on the ground.
27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea [and over the animals], and over the birds of the air, [and over every livestock, and over all the earth, ] and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Sixth day of creation. Artist Y. Sh von KAROLSFELD 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed; - This will be food for you;
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every [creeping thing] that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food. And so it became.
31 And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.