Creation: Good or Beautiful?
Posted by
Bryan
Jan
24
Today I was taking a look of the idea of “blessing” in the book of Genesis and found some interesting facts- like the fact that the term is used in Genesis 1 – 11 as an action of God five times, and then used five more times in Genesis 12:1-3. Certainly an interesting literary device to connect the primordial narrative with that of the narrative of the Abrahamic covenant which basically is the rest of the book (as it gets repeated to Isaac and Jacob).
I also stumbled across an interesting discussion in Walter Brueggemann’s INT commentary
, in his section on “Blessing Theology.” Brueggemann argues that in God’s blessing of creation, where he proclaims it “Good” and “Very good,” that he is not giving it a moral/ethical value, but an aesthetic value. He says that the word טונ should actually be translated “beautiful” instead of “good.” This is the first I’ve heard anyone mention this that I can remember- unless I just passed over it in skimming a page. Jenni-Westermann lists this within its semantic range, as does TWOT , though I am unfamiliar with this use in the Old Testament (by this I mean, I don’t know enough to know when this is the word behind my translation). What do you guys think? Anyone else put this forward as their interpretation of the creation account?
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Filed under:
Exegesis, Hebrew, OT
3 comments
Comment by Alex S. Leung on January 25, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Is there a Bible translation that translates it as “beautiful” instead of good?! This is very interesting… While I currently do not know Heb, it would be understandable that beautiful would be in its semantic range.
However, letting Scripture inform Scripture, 1 Tim 4:4-5 does not contain any implication of aesthetic value in the passage or the context. The reference is rather to moral/ethical “good”:
Thus, I cannot see how there is a reference to aesthetic value in Gen 1:31 or 1 Tim 4:4; I do not understand how the context can allow this :S
Comment by Bryan on January 25, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Ah, but there is the rub. καλός also means beautiful. Though I agree, the context of 1 Timothy 4:4 seems to point to an ethical value. Though, I can see it being beautiful there as well. It’s a huge stretch though.
The problem is, I think Brueggemann is wrong not because he says it means “beautiful,” but because he limits the idea to aesthetics only. I think its a case of both/and. Certainly, creation was orginally both good and beautiful, and there may even be overlap here.
As far as I know, no english translation has it as “beautiful.”
Comment by matthew r malcolm on January 29, 2009 at 6:49 am
Interesting thoughts… I guess that when we greet someone with ‘boqr tov’/'good morning’ we are not intending any moral/ethical element, but rather wishing that it will be pleasurable for the person we are greeting.