"So God created humankind in his image,
"in the image of God he created them;
"male and female he created them.
"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 upon the earth.' God said, 'See, I have given you every living thing that moves upon the earth.' God said, 'See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.' And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
"These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created" (Genesis 1:-2:4; NRSV).
In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, I want to say that the author of that account of creation is singing a song about the power of the word.
But you say, "The cosmos began with a big bang."
No problem. The author will update the story and say, "On the first day, God said, 'Let there be a big bang.' And there was a big bang."
Regardless of any scientific theory that might ever be formulated and articulated, the author will always be able to top any possible scientific theory by attributing the action imagined in the theory to God on the first day.
TEXT (3): PHILO THE JEW OF ALEXANDRIA
Critical biblical scholar claim that the story of creation in the prologue of the Gospel According to John was influenced by a passage in the writings of Philo the Jew of Alexandria. I the book FROM JESUS TO CHRIST: THE ORIGINS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IMAGES OF JESUS (1988), Paula Fredriksen quotes the relevant passage from Philo:
"To his Logos, his chief messenger, highest in age and honor, the Father of all has given the special prerogative to stand on the border and separate the creature from the Creator. This same Logos both pleads with the Immortal as suppliant for afflicted mortality and acts as ambassador of the ruler to his subject. He glories in this prerogative and proudly describes it in these words: 'I stood between the Lord and you'" (quoted on page 9; quoted from the Loeb translation of Philo's treatise titled quis rerum divinarum heres, 42.205).
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