Lesson 3

The Main Characters

Painting of an allegory of the Old and New Testaments by

(Cropped photo by Lluís Ribes Mateu on Flikr)

Synopsis

In this lesson we will study how Genesis chapters 1 to 3 introduce us to the five main characters of the story. Three appear in the story from the beginning: God, as the protagonist; the serpent, as the antagonist, and Adam and Eve, representing all of mankind. The two remaining characters, a woman and her offspring, are just mentioned in prophecy, but they will appear later on in the story.

Learning Objectives

You will have successfully completed this lesson when you can name and describe in your own words the five main characters in the History of Salvation and explain how they fit into the biblical story.

Introduction

In the previous lesson we saw how the first eleven chapters of Genesis are truly a great introduction. The text masterfully draws us into the story by establishing the setting and the plot. It ends with a cliffhanger that invites us to continue reading to find out how the story will end. As good character development is essential for any story, an introduction must also introduce us to the main characters. This is what we will now study in this lesson. The protagonist in the History of Salvation is God, of course. The other main characters are humankind, the serpent, later identified as Satan, and the redeemer and his mother.

God

As would be expected, God is the protagonist. Throughout the narrative, we get to know him better and better as he gradually reveals himself through his deeds and words. The Catechism teaches:

The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously “by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other” and shed light on each another. It involves a specific divine pedagogy: God communicates himself to man gradually. (CCC 53)

What can we know about God in the first eleven chapters? First, God’s existence is just assumed. The author never attempts to prove his existence through theoretical speculation. Faith comes from an experience of God, more than from theories. The authors of the Bible describe their experiences with God. In general, they assume God’s existence as a matter of fact and don’t try to prove it. To understand the story of the Bible, it is helpful to read it with the same faith as it was written.

God is portrayed in Genesis as the supreme personal being having no equal. His supremacy is expressed in many ways. The Hebrew word Elohim used for God in chapter 1 implies superiority and might. God is the “Almighty One.”

God’s supremacy is also expressed by the Hebrew word bara which means “to create”. This word is used in the Bible exclusively with God as its subject. When the Bible speaks of man-made creations it uses a different verb. People “create” things simply by rearranging the matter of already existing things. But God’s creative act is different. The word bara implies no previously existing matter. Although the text doesn’t affirm it explicitly, it implies a creation out of nothing and thus manifests God’s preeminence because only he can do this.

God is supreme because he created everything that exists (“the heavens and the earth”). Before creation, nothing else existed except for God. When he created the heavens and the earth, he did not consult anybody else or ask for their help. Neither was the creation the result of a war between various gods, as in other religions. God simply acted and brought that what he wanted into existence through his Word. He spoke, and things came into being. This all shows that God omnipotence, that is, his power is infinite. God is also eternal; he has always existed and will therefore always exist.

In light of the above, it is evident that God transcends his creation. This means that he is above, other than, and distinct from all that he has made. This Biblical worldview is opposed to pantheism. Pantheism is the belief that all things in nature are divine or contain divinity. Pantheists believe that God is the sum of all things, or put another way, God is nature as a whole. For us Christians, God transcends the natural world.

But, despite being the supreme and transcendent being, God is not closed in on himself. Aristotle described God as being the unmoved mover, who spends eternity thinking only about himself. Others describe God as an impersonal cosmic force or energy. The God of the Bible is different. He is a personal being, who speaks and sees and who created us precisely because he wanted to enter into a personal relationship with us.

The Trinity

As Christians, we believe in the Trinity. That is, we believe that there is only one God. But we also believe that there are three distinct persons in God. God doesn’t have a son. He is Father, he is Son, and he is Holy Spirit. Each divine person is truly distinct from the other—the Father is not the Son, nor is the Son the Father, and neither of them is the Holy Spirit. Yet at the same time, they are all of the same substance so that there is only one God. How can one God be three persons? We will never be able to comprehend or explain this. We believe it, not because we understand it, but because Jesus has revealed it to us.

The Book of Genesis doesn’t teach this doctrine of faith, but, when we read the book in as Christians who already believe, we can discover certain suggestive hints for the Trinity. For example, in the word Elohim which appears in the very first verse.

In the beginning God [Elohim] created the heavens and the earth...

It takes on verbs and adjectives in the singular. That is why it is translated as “God” and not “gods.” However, according to Hebrew grammar, it is plural in form. The implication is that while God is one in essence, there is also a plurality in him. We can find another example in Gn 1:26 that confirms this interpretation:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

The subject of this sentence, God, is singular, but the possessive pronoun “our” is plural.

God, the Father

Genesis does not teach that God is a father, but once again, it does hint at it. God created us in his image and likeness. What does this mean? Philosophers and theologians have been discussing this for centuries. We will look at some of their answers shortly. But Genesis 5:3 gives us an insight.

When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Just as Adam is a father to the son he begot in his image and likeness, so too, can we conclude, when we read the text as Christians, that God is a father to those whom he created in his image and likeness.

Genesis presents God as good and caring. He cares for his creation, especially for mankind. The phrase “God saw that it was good” is constantly repeated. The whole creation narrative can be read as God lovingly creating a home for mankind. He wants what is good for us. God “made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Gn 2:9). He cared for Adam and created the animals and then Eve because “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gn 2:18). After the fall, he did punish Adam and Eve, but he didn’t abandon them to their fate. He still cared for them. He “made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them” (Gn 3:21). And he promised them a redeemer.

In summary, the creation accounts in first two chapters show us that God is a personal being; he is also a good and fatherly creator, sovereign, powerful, intelligent, and orderly.

Humankind

What does Genesis teach us about us? Pope Francis, in his encyclical letter Laudato si’ gives a very good synthesis of the Biblical teaching on man.

In the first creation account in the Book of Genesis, God’s plan includes creating humanity. After the creation of man and woman, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good” (Gen 1:31). The Bible teaches that every man and woman is created out of love and made in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26). This shows us the immense dignity of each person, “who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons.” Saint John Paul II stated that the special love of the Creator for each human being “confers upon him or her an infinite dignity”. Those who are committed to defending human dignity can find in the Christian faith the deepest reasons for this commitment. How wonderful is the certainty that each human life is not adrift in the midst of hopeless chaos, in a world ruled by pure chance or endlessly recurring cycles! The Creator can say to each one of us: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jer 1:5). We were conceived in the heart of God, and for this reason “each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary” (Laudato si’, 65).

The creation accounts in the book of Genesis contain, in their own symbolic and narrative language, profound teachings about human existence and its historical reality. They suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor and with the earth itself (Laudato si’, 66).

Why did God create mankind? We have already seen that God created us to live in a loving communion with him. God lovingly created for us the garden as a home and a temple, that is, as a place of encounter between him and us. What is the nature of our relationship with God? In short, it is family.

As we have seen, being created in God’s image and likeness establishes a father-son relationship between God and Adam, just like it established a father-son relationship between Adam and Seth. This idea is confirmed in Luke chapter 3, which narrates Jesus’ genealogy. It starts with Joseph and goes all the way back to Adam. In verse 38 we read: “The son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

Since Adam is both the son of God and the father of all mankind, we can deduce that all his descendants are also children of God, created to live in a relationship with him. Therefore, the expression “created in the image of God” has been understood by philosophers and theologians to mean everything that makes us capable of establishing an interpersonal relationship with God. This includes the capacity of will or freedom of choice, self-consciousness, self-transcendence, self-determination, rationality, moral discernment for good and evil, righteousness, holiness, and worship. Without these qualities, it would be impossible for us to enter freely into a loving relationship with God.

However, our relationship with God is not the only relationship that defines us. We are also called to live in a loving relationship with each other. A special form of this relationship is that one between husband and wife. Not finding an adequate helper among the animals, God put Adam to sleep and created Eve from one of his ribs. When Adam saw the woman, he exclaimed:

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Gn 2:23–24)

The word helper does not necessarily imply subordination. The Bible itself calls God a helper.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Ps 46:2)

The language suggests a profound affinity between the man and the woman and a relationship that is supportive and nurturing. In God’s created order, both men and women are created in his image. Both are persons who, although different and complementary, have equal dignity.

Male and female he created them. (Gn 1:27)

A third fundamental relationship is that between mankind and the earth. In chapter 1, mankind is presented as the pinnacle of creation. We read:

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.” (Gn 1:28)

In chapter 2, God placed all of creation under mankind’s stewardship to look after and care for it.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. (Gn 2:15)

Some have criticized the Judeo-Christian perspective on nature as being anthropocentric, that is, it places man in the center of creation and allows us to use and dispose of everything else as we wish. Pope Francis responds to this criticism:

We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judaeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man “dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church. Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts are to be read in their context, with an appropriate hermeneutic, recognizing that they tell us to “till and keep” the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15). “Tilling” refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while “keeping” means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations. “The earth is the Lord’s” (Ps 24:1); to him belongs “the earth with all that is within it” (Dt 10:14). Thus God rejects every claim to absolute ownership: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Laudato si’, 67).

Together with our obligation to use the earth’s goods responsibly, we are called to recognize that other living beings have a value of their own in God’s eyes: “by their mere existence they bless him and give him glory”, and indeed, “the Lord rejoices in all his works” (Ps 104:31). By virtue of our unique dignity and our gift of intelligence, we are called to respect creation and its inherent laws, for “the Lord by wisdom founded the earth” (Prov 3:19). In our time, the Church does not simply state that other creatures are completely subordinated to the good of human beings, as if they have no worth in themselves and can be treated as we wish. The German bishops have taught that, where other creatures are concerned, “we can speak of the priority of being over that of being useful”. The Catechism clearly and forcefully criticizes a distorted anthropocentrism: “Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and perfection… Each of the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of God’s infinite wisdom and goodness. Man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things” (Laudato si’, 69).

The world God created is good. In fact, after the creation of man and woman we are told that God found “it very good” (Gn 1:31). All was good until we sinned.

According to the Bible, these three vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations. This in turn distorted our mandate to “have dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), to “till it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). As a result, the originally harmonious relationship between human beings and nature became conflictual (Laudato si’, 66).

In the story of Cain and Abel, we see how envy led Cain to commit the ultimate injustice against his brother, which in turn ruptured the relationship between Cain and God, and between Cain and the earth from which he was banished. This is seen clearly in the dramatic exchange between God and Cain. God asks: “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain answers that he does not know, and God persists: “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground” (Gen 4:9-11). Disregard for the duty to cultivate and maintain a proper relationship with my neighbor, for whose care and custody I am responsible, ruins my relationship with my own self, with others, with God and with the earth. When all these relationships are neglected, when justice no longer dwells in the land, the Bible tells us that life itself is endangered. We see this in the story of Noah, where God threatens to do away with humanity because of its constant failure to fulfil the requirements of justice and peace: “I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them” (Gen 6:13). These ancient stories, full of symbolism, bear witness to a conviction which we today share, that everything is interconnected, and that genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others (Laudato si’, 70).

Although “the wickedness of man was great in the earth” (Gen 6:5) and the Lord “was sorry that he had made man on the earth” (Gen 6:6), nonetheless, through Noah, who remained innocent and just, God decided to open a path of salvation. In this way he gave humanity the chance of a new beginning. All it takes is one good person to restore hope! The biblical tradition clearly shows that this renewal entails recovering and respecting the rhythms inscribed in nature by the hand of the Creator. We see this, for example, in the law of the Sabbath. On the seventh day, God rested from all his work. He commanded Israel to set aside each seventh day as a day of rest, a Sabbath (Laudato si’, 71).

The Serpent

The serpent is the third character to appear in the story. He is the antagonist, and he makes his grand entry in chapter 3. A plot wouldn’t be a plot without the bad guy causing problems. As we are still at the beginning, we are not given much information about him. We don’t know where he came from as his existence is given as a matter of fact.

Modern readers want to know this. They also wonder how a good God would allow the serpent to deceive Adam and Eve? We are not given the answer to this question. Remember what we saw in the BibleProject video, Ancient Jewish Meditation literature. A key feature of this genre is that it lacks a lot of the details modern readers would expect. Although this makes it seem simple, it is very sophisticated literature. Every detail that is given, matters. The ambiguity forces us to keep reading and interpret each part in light of the others.

What the text does say about the serpent is that it “was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made” (Gn 3:1). That is why he was capable of deceiving Adam and Eve—and us—into distrusting and disobeying God.

The serpent is not yet named, but Christians have traditionally identified it with Satan, who is mentioned in Revelation 12:9. “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.” In John 8:44 Jesus calls the devil the father of all lies and a murderer from the beginning.

The Redeemer and his Mother

The text also presents two other characters in an important prophecy. When Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, they lost his friendship, not only for themselves but also for all their descendants. Confronted with this situation, they could have easily fallen into despair, so God, in his goodness, lifted them up to hope for salvation by the promise of redemption. He did this in the form of a prophecy.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel. (Gn 3:15)

This prophecy speaks of a future battle between the woman and her seed against the serpent. Ancient Jewish texts show us that this text was understood to be a prophecy of the future messiah.

I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your sons and her sons… For her sons, however, there will be a remedy, but for your, O serpent, there will not be a remedy, since they are to make appeasement in the end, in the day of King Messiah. (Targum Neofiti on Genesis 3:15)

Since a woman would also be involved in the battle—“I will put enmity between you and the woman”—, ancient Christians saw it as a prophecy of both the Messiah and his mother. This woman is Mary, and her seed is Jesus. Because this prophecy promises a redeemer, it was called the Protoevangelium, that is, the first (proto) good news (evangelium). God had promised to send a redeemer who would set things right. Although the redeemer and his mother will only appear in the story later on, they are foretold right from the beginning.

This oracle was given at the dawn of human history, right after the fall but before Adam and Eve’s children were born. This could explain why other religions also speak of a God-sent redeemer born of a virgin. It is reasonable to think that Adam and Eve would have told their children about God’s promise, and they, in turn, would have passed it on to their descendants, thus reaching every culture that has ever existed, although deformed.

The Protoevangelium also foreshadows the way in which the redeemer will defeat the serpent. He will crush the serpent’s head, but the presumably poisonous serpent will also bite his heel. This prophecy, therefore, also points to Jesus’ death on the cross.

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