The Bible and Its Lamp - A Prismatic Perspective of Genesis 1 by Carol Wimmer

Lamp

The Bible and Its

A Prismatic Perspective of Genesis 1

Carol S. Wimmer

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“The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright, 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” www.p r i s m a t i ct h e o l o g y. c o m

Note from Author On October 18, 1996, while my husband and I drove from Tulsa, OK to Eureka Springs, AR, an image appeared between the windshield of our car and my mindʼs eye. The vision came to me from beyond myself and I have no rational explanation for it. The only thing that I can say for certain is that the vision came with a sense of understanding. During the next four years, 1996 - 2000, I experienced a continuous supernatural influx of instruction. At times the intensity of the teaching and the amount of information was beyond what I thought I could handle. By the end of the fouryear period of time however I had an awareness of three tools for future ministry within the Judeo-Christian faith tradition. All three tools were connected to the account of Creation in Genesis1; the image of a wheel; and the visible spectrum of light. I firmly believe that insights and personal revelations are honest methods of communication that must be backed up with logic and credible human knowledge in order to be appreciated by the general public. Thus I spent the next four years, from 2000 to 2004, conducting full-time biblical research regarding the insights I had received. When my research was complete, I joined the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion in order to present my theories and conclusions to those within the academic community. This book is a simplified overview of the prismatic perspective of Genesis 1. It is intended to provide an introductory glimpse into a realm of inquiry called, “Prismatic Theology.” Carol Wimmer www.pr ismatict h e o l o g y. c o m

Introduction This short book illuminates a circular structure for the account of Creation in Genesis 1. At the present time many biblical scholars accept a linear model of literary structure and balance in the text. Thus the circular structure proposed in this book offers a different perspective of Genesis 1 – a perspective that combines the visible spectrum of light with the words of Scripture.

Was the story of Creation originally depicted visually in order to reach an illiterate society? Did the author use the colors of the rainbow as a time-keeping method in order to help the people of ancient Israel turn away from the idolatrous worship of sun gods, moon gods, and stars? Asking these and many other questions would add several layers of insight into the text of Genesis 1.

Perceiving an accurate model of structure and balance is important because it brings the reader one step closer to the thoughts, inspirations, and intentions of the priestly author of Genesis 1. If the author had a circular structure in mind when writing about the account of Creation, then the circle itself becomes part of the story.

The illustration to the right depicts the circular structure and its relationship to the visible spectrum of light. More importantly the colors form the basis for a priestly theology of time. Thus this book also reveals a time-keeping method made possible when the seven days in the Genesis text are separated into seven circles of light.

If the author had the visible spectrum of light in mind, then the spectrum becomes another part of the story. And the complementary relationships between the images of Creation depicted around the rim of the circle or wheel become yet another part of the story.

Through the repeated words, “And there was evening, and there was morning” a sense of forward momentum is established. The momentum provides a literary environment for an eighth circle of light and time during which the remainder of Scripture is written and fulﬁlled.

Additional information can be found at www.prismatictheology.com. www.p r i s m a t i ct h e o l o g y. c o m

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Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path Psalm 119: 105

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In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.

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Day 1 Then God said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Let there be light,â&#x20AC;? and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day and the darkness God called Night.

And there was morning

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And there was evening

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Day 2 And God said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters.â&#x20AC;? So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky.

And there was morning

And there was evening www.p rwww.pr i s m a t i ct ismatict h e o l o g y. com heology.com

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Day 3 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God call the dry land, Earth, and the waters that were gathered together God called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with seed in it.” And it was so. And God was that it was good.

And there was evening www.p rwww.pr i s m a t i ct ismatict h e o l o g y. com heology.com

And there was morning

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Day 4 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for day and years, and let them give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God make the two great lights – the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night – also the stars. And God saw that it was good.

And there was morning

And there was evening www.p rwww.pr i s m a t i ct ismatict h e o l o g y. com heology.com

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Day 5 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds ﬂy above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea of every kind and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and ﬁll the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

And there was morning

And there was evening www.p rwww.pr i s m a t i ct ismatict h e o l o g y. com heology.com

www.pr ismatict h e o l o g y. c o m

Day 6 And God said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of very kind.â&#x20AC;? And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps along the ground of every kind. And God saw that is was good.

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Day 6

continued

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to 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 wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created humankind in Godʼs image; male and female God created them. God blessed them and 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 upon the earth.”

God said, “See I have given you every green plant yielding seed that is upon the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that was made, and indeed, it was very good!

And there was morning

And there was evening www.p rwww.pr i s m a t i ct ismatict h e o l o g y. com heology.com

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Day 7 Thus the heavens and the earth were ďŹ nished and all their glory. And on the seventh day God ďŹ nished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that was done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it because on it God rested from all the work of creation.

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Day 8 The priestly author of Genesis 1 must have had an eight-day perspective of time long before creating the text of Genesis 1. The forward momentum of time established in Genesis 1 quite naturally leads to the creation of an Eighth Day of time. The eighth day is featured in the same deep violet-blue color as the ďŹ rst day. Time simply repeats itself within the spectrum. Thus on the eighth day God would help humankind separate darkness from light just as God had separated darkness from light on the ďŹ rst day. But this time around, humans are experiencing the process.

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Through an eight-day perspective of time the priestly author is able to write about circumcision on the eighth day of a male childʼs life. Spiritually speaking the covenant of circumcision demonstrates that the men of Israel understood the loss of a right relationship with God near the end of the ʻpurple dayʼ or the seventh day of time.

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The priestly author uses the word “between”, (Hebrew “bâne”), twelve times to establish the covenant of the rainbow and ten times to establish the covenant of circumcision. But one needs the color wheel in order to understand the importance of both covenants in restoring a right relationship with God.

With the restoration of purple light on the eighth day, the image and likeness of God is restored within the red range of light. This in turn restores God始s eternal presence within the lifeblood of the human creation. Through the Abrahamic covenant, God is able to reveal God始s own self to the human creation once again!

Thus Israel始s covenantal future is set into motion through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For the most part, these spiritual details have been perceived through the words of Scripture. But how much easier it is to have the colored wheels that depict a priestly theology of time!

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A theology of time The preceding pages have depicted a time-keeping method established through a prismatic perspective of Genesis 1. In her book, Time and Eternity – The Question of Time in Church, Science and Theology, author Antje Jackelén quotes the following: “Many problems of the modern age have been diagnosed and addressed as a ʻtime sickness.ʼ” Jackelén devotes her ﬁnal chapter to the notion that itʼs time to develop a theology of time.1 I wholeheartedly agree. But as demonstrated on the previous pages the priestly author has already established such a theology; designed a time-keeping method that set the theology into motion; and tied the theology to the rainbow covenant as well as the covenant of circumcision.

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It is evident through scholarship that the Jerusalem priests inherited a collection of writings at some point in time with which they were not entirely satisﬁed. The picturesque description of a lush garden in Genesis 2 leaves the reader thirsting for forward momentum which simply isnʼt there. The missing ingredient is a genesis of time! But in order for the Jerusalem priests to create a genesis of time they would have been forced to develop a theology of time – one that would widen Israelʼs lens from a 3,000year history to ʻan eternal perspective of past timeʼ and ʻa covenantal perspective of future time.ʼ Jackelén, Antje. Time and Eternity: The Question of Time in Church, Science and Technology. Philadelphia, London; Templeton Foundation Press, 2005 1

To address the importance of an eternal past and a covenantal future one must recall the cultural issues in play long before the priestly author began to write the text of Genesis 1. It is safe to say that the whole of ancient Middle Eastern society had adopted an unhealthy theology of time due to polytheistic practices intrinsic to speciďŹ c images of Creation and the measurement of time. Polytheism was everywhere and the practices had hijacked the images of sun, moon, and stars as idols of worship. While the science of horology may have originated as a harmless idea thousands of years earlier, it had become a spiritual nightmare for anyone interested in promoting the worship of one God,

creator of all things seen and unseen â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the latter being the entity of time itself! In the midst of this intermingling of polytheism and the science of horology, the role of the priesthood was to promote a spiritual healthy environment! Education was the key to unlocking the door to monotheism. But how do you teach a largely illiterate people that one God created light itself which made the celestial lights possible? How do you show people that GodĘźs power is greater than the combination of all other deities? How do you demonstrate the idea that God created time itself? And how do you help people deal with the idea that a time-sickness had befallen the whole human race?

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A theology of time

I suggest that questions like these motivated the priestly author to create a visual timekeeping method that relied on an image of light that had not been hijacked by polytheism. And the rainbow was the only image of light that no one worshipped! Thus the rainbow became the logical sign to begin teaching the idea that God desired a covenantal relationship with all people on earth for the remainder of time! But to the critical eye of the priestly educators the rainbow offered something more – an order of color; a speciﬁc number of colors; and the possibility of creating a time-keeping method with which to convey the deeper spiritual ideas associated with a monotheistic faith perspective. To the naked eye of the priestly author, seven identiﬁable color bands were, and still are, visible. Thus the colors of the rainbow became the perfect foundation on which to build a theology of time.

The depth of this theology is revealed in the priestly description of three separate colors – blue, purple, and scarlet – woven together in the ﬁrst covering over the tabernacle, Ex 24. These three colors bind Godʼs eternal light to the image and likeness of God in humankind. The gifts of dominion and freedom occupy the purple space in-between blue and scarlet. Therefore these three colors are critical to the priestly theology of time.

A primary aspect of this theology of time is disclosed on the first day of Creation when light is separated from darkness to create the concept of day and night. The common Hebrew words for day and night are sufficient to mark the spiritual difference between: living in the presence of Godʼs light (day) or living in the absence of Godʼs light (night). The colors of the rainbow allow the days in Genesis 1 to become seven separate journeys through time, illuminated solely by Godʼs divine light. This time-keeping method is unrelated to celestial images or ancient cosmological perspectives. Time is infinite as long as one is in the presence of the Divine.

As time passes on the seventh day, darkness enters the garden according to Genesis 3. I suggest that the only form of darkness possessing the power to trump an eternal perspective of time is the darkness of a temporal perspective of time. I would also suggest that the Jerusalem priesthood not only understood the serpentʼs true identity – they were living it – as are we! The passage of time on the seventh day plunged the human creation into the darkness of the deep where the need to measure time became a never-ending obsession. The illustrations that follow provide a 15,000-year perspective of time which corresponds to everything we see in our museums of natural history throughout the world.

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Carol is the author of the poem, When I say, “I am a Christian,” which has been published in numerous books, magazines, and church newsletters throughout the world. For many years Carol served as a music and theatrical director in three different churches. During her earlier ministry she composed original songs and wrote several theatrical scripts for children. More recently Carol began researching the priestly writings within Scripture and their relationship to the subjects of light, time, color, and the language of Creation. Her research has opened up a realm of spiritual inquiry known as “Prismatic Theology” which will be featured in The Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions; Springer, forthcoming 2012.

Forthcoming: The Bible and Its Clock – A Prismatic Perspective of Time The Bible and Its Key – A Prismatic Perspective of Language The Bible and Its Net – A Prismatic Perspective of Government For additional information visit www.carolwimmer.com or www.prismatictheology.com