The Lost World of Genesis One (13 page)

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Andreasen, N.-E. The Old Testament Sabbath: A Tradition-Histor-
icalInvestigation. SBL Dissertation Series. Missoula, Mont.:
Society of Biblical Literature, 1972.

Laansma, J. I Will Give You Rest. Tubingen: Mohr, 1997.

IN SOME OF THE ANCIENT Near Eastern texts, a temple is built as
a conclusion to cosmic creation. But typically these are distinct,
though related acts. The natural association between them is that
the creative acts are expressions of authority, and the temple is the
place where authority will continue to be exercised. Beyond this
textual and ideological association, we can see that texts link creation and temple building by noting the absence of temples along
with the absence of cosmic order as they recount the acts of creation. Thus the absence of a temple was sometimes part of the
description of the precosmic condition. This is clearest in the preamble to a prayer that concerns the founding of Eridu:1

Then Marduk settles the gods into their dwelling places, creates
people and animals, and sets up the Tigris and Euphrates.

In a prayer to dedicate the foundation brick of a temple it is
obvious that the cosmos and temple were conceived together and
thus are virtually simultaneous in their origins.

This close connection between cosmic origins and temple
building reinforces the idea across the ancient Near East that the
temples were considered primordial and that cosmic origins at
times were defined in terms of a temple element. It is important
to reiterate that I am not suggesting that the Israelites are borrowing from these ancient literatures. Instead the literatures
show how people thought in the ancient world, and as we examine Genesis, we can see that Israelites thought in similar ways.

We can draw the connection between temple and cosmos more
tightly when we observe that temples in the ancient world were
considered symbols of the cosmos. The biblical text as well as the
literature of the ancient Near East makes this clear. Ancient Near
Eastern evidence comes from a variety of cultures and sources. First, temples had cosmic descriptions in the ancient world. The
earliest example is in the Sumerian Temple Hymn of Kes, one of
the oldest pieces of literature known.4

The Sumerian text of Gudea's construction of a temple shows
the temple serving a cosmic function. Toward the end of Cylinder
B, the god Ningirsu, speaking to Gudea, suggests that it is the
temple that separates heaven and earth, thus associating it with
that most primordial act of creation:

Many of the names given to temples in the ancient world also
indicate their cosmic role. Among the dozens of possible examples,
note especially the temple Esharra ("House of the Cosmos") and
Etemenanki ("House of the Foundation Platform Between Heaven
and Earth").

In Egypt temples were regarded as having been built where the
primeval hillock of land first emerged from the cosmic waters.

The temple recalled a mythical place, the primeval mound. It
stood on the first soil that emerged from the primeval waters,
on which the creator god stood to begin his work of creation.
Through a long chain of ongoing renewals, the present temple was the direct descendant of the original sanctuary that the creator god himself had erected on the primeval mound.
An origin myth connecting the structure with creation is associated with each of the larger late temples.6

Both Sumerian and Egyptian texts identify the temple as the
place from which the sun rises: "Your interior is where the sun
rises, endowed with wide-spreading plenty."7 The Egyptian temples served as models of the cosmos in which the floor represented
the earth and the ceiling represented the sky. Columns and wall
decorations represented plant life. Jan Assmann, presenting this
imagery, concludes that the temple "was the world that the omnipresent god filled to its limits."' Indeed, the temple is, for all intents and purposes, the cosmos.' This interrelationship makes it
possible for the temple to be the center from which order in the
cosmos is maintained.10

In the biblical text the descriptions of the tabernacle and temple contain many transparent connections to the cosmos. This
connection was explicitly recognized as early as the second century A.D. in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, who
says of the tabernacle: "every one of these objects is intended to
recall and represent the universe."11 In the outer courtyard were
representations of various aspects of cosmic geography. Most
important are the water basin, which 1 Kings 7:23-26 designates
"sea," and the bronze pillars, described in 1 Kings 7:15-22,
which perhaps represented the pillars of the earth. The horizontal axis in the temple was arranged in the same order as the
vertical axis in the cosmos. From the courtyard, which contained
the elements outside the organized cosmos (cosmic waters and
pillars of the earth), one would move into the organized cosmos
as he entered the antechamber. Here were the Menorah, the
Table of Bread and the incense altar. In the Pentateuch's descriptions of the tabernacle, the lamp and its olive oil are pro vided for "light" (especially Ex 25:6; 35:14; Num 4:9). This word
for light is the same word used to describe the celestial bodies in
day four (rather than calling them sun and moon). As the Menorah represented the light provided by God, the "Bread of the
Presence" (Ex 25:30) represented food provided by God. The
altar of incense provided a sweet-smelling cloud across the face
of the veil that separated the two chambers. If we transpose
from the horizontal axis to the vertical, the veil separated the
earthly sphere, with its functions, from the heavenly sphere,
where God dwells. This latter was represented in the holy of
holies, where the footstool of the throne of God (the ark) was
placed. Thus the veil served the same symbolic function as the
firmament. To review then, the courtyard represented the cosmic spheres outside of the organized cosmos (sea and pillars).
The antechamber held the representations of lights and food.
The veil separated the heavens and earth-the place of God's
presence from the place of human habitation.12