Bible Study, Part 1

Creation of Light (אוֹר)
By Gustave Doré

Genesis, Chapter I |
Sunday – June 21, 2026

I am delighted to be able to announce the inauguration of yet another series on this blog, after my newly published "Answering Readers series": namely my new Bible Studies series which will cover the Bible in whole, form Genesis (The Old Testament) to the Book of Revelations (The New Testament). Now, I have yet to work out the exact details of how I am going to go about covering the Bible, but in this first inaugural post I have decided to start with Genesis Chapter 1; I have also decided that I am going to cover the Bible in chronological order, that is, again, from the book of Genesis to the Book of Revelations. The Bible that I am using in this series is the Catholic New Revised Standard (NRSV-CE) published for the first time in 1991. Now, I am not going to take any position on what Bible should or should not be used in order to fully understand the words of God according to the Judaic and Christian traditions, and of course there is also a distinction that must be made between the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible, depending on the particular revealed tradition being examined, and for anyone studying the Judaic corpus and tradition, I would recommend the use of the Tanakh (תָּנָ״ךְ) and not the NSRV or any other Bible used by Christians. Again, these may or may not be choices based on personal preference, but I hold that it is important to rely on strict and orthodox methodology when dealing with any revealed tradition. Also, the argument that the Jews and the Christians belong to the same tradition—the so-called Judeo-Christian tradition—is also something that is highly disputed and something that I do not intend to dwell on here, but I will state this: in my view it would be perfectly legitimate to create a distinction between the Judaic tradition and the Christian tradition in the same way that it would be legitimate to create a distinction between the Roman Catholic Church and all the breakaway sects, especially the Protestant sects who are numerous and have been growing for some time; however, I should add that the distinction between the Judaic tradition and the Christian tradition is more profound on the level of both initiation and revelation, and therefore I hold that there is no such thing as a "Judeo-Christian" revelation as these are separate traditions with separate doctrine and separate initiation, also the same applies to Islam when we consider the even greater corpus of the so-called "Abrahamic traditions", but for the most part it seems that not too many people have yet to make a connection that amounts to identity or equivalence between Islam and the Judeo-Christian branch; and lastly I will make yet another distinction that here, for it must be made: I do believe that one can talk quite legitimately about a Judeo-Christian branch, but again the distinction here lies in the fact that a branch of the Abrahamic tradition does not amount to a shared tradition. In short: it would be wrong to rely on the Hebrew Bible in the context of this particular Bible study as the intention is to cover the Christian corpus; if you intend to cover the Hebrew/Judaic corpus I would implore you to instead rely on the Hebrew Bible. While these distinctions may seem silly and overly crude, they must be made, read "The Problem of Borders".

    If we consider the Bible the word of God—I am going to refer to God as Yahweh (יהוה) from this point and onward—we must first establish whether or not the Bible should be understood as the literal word of Yahweh or merely as a kind of relay of the intentions of Yahweh; and further we must also establish what kind of knowledge we are dealing with when we study the Bible; the fact is that these two considerations hinge on each other and it would be impossible to gain any proper understanding of the Bible without treating them correctly. From the historical point of view, it is clear that the Bible consists of qualified writing and that it requires qualified reading (qualified readers) to be properly understood, read "Qualification", and this means that in order to properly relay and disseminate the knowledge, read "Navigating the Informational Landscape", of the Bible a class or group of individuals, generally referred to as a clergy, that are trained to properly deal with the information being relayed in the Bible is required; further, this clergy must be truly qualified, read "Hierarchy", which means that they must be granted this position by divine right; it is simply not good enough to base this clergy on persons—of the male gender in full accordance with Christian tradition—that simply prefer to be "in this line of work", because every member of the clergy must be properly ordained, read "What is Divine Inspiration?" in order for them to be able to receive divine instruction. Therefore, it is perfectly legitimate to refer to the Bible as the literal word of Yahweh, with the added caveat that only an elect group of men are able to properly access these words. I will also add that the point of understanding the Bible has very little to do with actually spreading the word as such; indeed, what Christians think of as spreading the word has much more to do with the faith (exoteric) rather than the actual core of the tradition (esoteric). This is not to say that the word of Yahweh is exclusive, but it is to say that the word, the true word, is veiled and truly qualified, privileged if you will.

    With those important points out of the way we may now consider the first chapter of Genesis consisting of 31 verses. I will refer to the Bible according to Chapter and Verse in that order: Chapter X: Verse Y, or Chapter X:Y whenever possible as it is not required to emphasize the verse every time some verse is being referred to; really this should be understood.

    Genesis 1:1 – 13: "In the beginning when [Yahweh] created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from [Yahweh] swept over the face of the waters." Here I would point out that the "waters" is an important leitmotif in the creation story of all revealed tradition, and that further in verses 6 through 10 Yahweh creates a dome that separates the waters from the waters, this dome is sometimes referred to as a firmament, and that further this dome separates the heavens—the waters above the dome—from the waters below the dome; the waters above the dome should be understood as the primordial waters and the waters below the dome should be understood as the waters that gave life and form to the Earth, verses 11 – 13.

    Genesis 1:14 – 19: "And [Yahweh] 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 days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. [Yahweh] made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. [Yahweh] set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And [Yahweh] saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day." Here it is important to note the emphasis on the greater and lesser light as well as the night and day. It is also important to note that Yahweh created light and darkness in order that they hinge on each other and really so that they complement one another, which is typical as well of most revealed traditions, although this complementarism tends to be more expressed in Eastern traditions. Essentially this passage can be understood from multiple points of view, but the most important point of view is that while two things may complement each other, it is important to not allow this complementarism to function as an equivalence, and further still it must be noted that this complementarism can be be seen in the intercommunication between the benefic forces, read "Destruction!", and the malefic forces, and this is why the benefic forces are associated with the day (lightness) and the malefic forces are associated with the night (darkness). While the Sun constitutes the greater light and the Moon constitutes the lesser light, they both play important roles, and wherever light is to be found there has to be a shadow following it; this shadow is not equal to the light but it is a necessary component of the light, and really without both, as was shown in the passages referred to above, the manifested world would simply not exist. I would further note that this leitmotif of the greater and the lesser will reoccur in the Bible as well as in other revealed scriptures. While we stride towards greatness, it is often hard for most of us to distinguish between the principles of the light and the subordinate principles of the shadow, and this is perhaps in particular why Egalitarianism is such a seemingly, in the purview of many men, righteous idea, when the facts are that Egalitarianism by definition seeks to erase the distinction between higher principles and lesser subordinate principles—in the case of the modern world the distinction between the sacred and the corporeal—and the nature of the shadow is that of absorption while the nature of the light is that of reflection, this as well in full accordance with profane science. Really, the second that the first light appeared, the first shadow appeared as well, for in the creation of life death must lurk in its shadow.

    Genesis 1:20 – 31: "Then [Yahweh] said, 'Let us make [man]kind 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.'" The last part of chapter 1 should be understood as Yahweh creating a distinction between mankind and the rest of the animal kingdom, and this seems clear enough, but the fact that mankind is created in the image of Yahweh is a passage in particular that must be dealt with: the meaning of this passage can also be understood from multiple points of view, but what is clear is that indeed mankind has a special standing in the world and that he has not only been granted dominion over the every living creature of the world but that also within this dominion he holds a certain responsibility, really the raison d'être for consciousness, without which humanity would not be required and the level of the beast would be all that there was. Is there a probable difference between man and the beast, and is this difference not the difference between the supra-individual order and the material order? By being made in the image of The Creator (Yahweh) it has been made clear that mankind has access to the world beyond that which is immediate, that which can only be sensed, and this is also why there is yet another distinction to be made between the multiplication of one kind and another: for Yahweh commands both animal kind to be fruitful and mankind to be fruitful, but without mankind to hold dominion over the Earth there can be no reason for animal kind; and really this is yet another pattern in keeping with greater and lesser subordinate principles, for Yahweh created the Earth for the benefit of mankind, and the lesser subordinate principles must always proceed from higher principles, in this case there would be no reason for the animal kingdom without mankind, and really in the end there would be no reason for consciousness as a higher principle and there would be no need for a separation between inanimate objects and living beings, there would be no need for stones to furnish a world void of distinction and in the end meaning, read "My Views on the Bodhicitta", for everything would truly be identical in such a world and that world would not stand in violation of the identity of indiscernibles and the world would truly be a homogeneous void, a world without the creation. Would this even be a world?

    You have reached the end of this part of the Bible, or rather my examination of the Bible. For more on this series, follow the label "Bible Study series". If you are interested in me, read my "About me page" and my "Who Am I" post.

Reginald Drax (AKA, M. C. Dutt) – June 21, 2026.