Back in my first Bible post I mentioned that I intended to read all the apocrypha as well as the Bible. Since then I've realised (a) how much apocrypha there is, (b) how unpleasant a lot of is to read (it's fragmented, badly written, or poorly translated: there isn't a big demand for streamlined translations of apocryphal works), (c) there's also the Talmud, the other Jewish sacred scripture, which expands on the Torah, and (d) a nice guy called Louis Ginzberg spent a long time going through all the apocryphal and Talmudic expansions of the Bible stories and rewrote them into a single coherent fun-to-read narrative in The Legends of the Jews, so I've got a copy of that and am reading it instead of the Old Testament apocrypha.
The stories become a lot more detailed. And a lot more epic. The expanded creation story begins with:
'In the beginning, two thousand years before the heaven and the earth, seven things were created: the Torah written with black fire on white fire, and lying in the lap of God; the Divine Throne, erected in the heaven which was later over the heads of Hayyot; Paradise on the right side of God, Hell on the left side; the Celestial Sanctuary directly in front of God, having a jewel on its altar graven with the Name of the Messiah, and a Voice that cries aloud, "Return, ye children of men."'
(Before you read further, I feel I need to remind you that this story is actually adapted from the Talmud and apocrypha; I am not making it up. It is also worth pointing out that since the Ginzberg crams as much apocryphal and Talmudic content into one narrative, it isn't very consistent.)
God feels like creating something to rule over, so he has a chat with the Fire Torah about the value of an earthly world. The Fire Torah points out that a king needs subjects to rule, but is sceptical about whether created beings would be loyal to their creator. God calms her doubts (the Fire Torah is female) by explaining that he can throw any of his bad creations into this pit of eternal suffering to his left, and reward the good ones by putting them into the paradise to his right.
God had never made an earthly world before, so he needed to practice:
‘Nor is this world inhabited by man the first of earthly things created by God. He made several worlds before ours, but He destroyed them all, because He was pleased with none until He created ours.”
The First Day
God creates light: the first light was not the same as the light of the Sun or Moon; that light did not appear until the 4th day. This was a brighter, purer light.
Seven heavens were created:
Heaven 1 covers the sky and has no function beyond separating the earth from heaven.
Heaven 2 contains the other planets.
Heaven 3 is God’s manna farm.
Heaven 4 contains the Celestial Jerusalem and the Temple, in which the Archangel Michael is high priest.
Heaven 5 is angel accommodation.
Heaven 6 is God’s armoury, containing his storms, hail, fire, ‘noxious dew’, etc; doors of fire separate the rooms of God’s armoury, and the whole complex is presided over by the archangel Metatron.
Heaven 7 is the home of the Divine Throne and the souls of the pious.
Seven earths were created, separated from each other by a great abyss:
Erez, the lowest earth, empty.
Adamah, ‘the scene of the magnificence of God’.
Arka, the underworld, where the souls of the wicked are guarded by the Angels of Destruction.
Harabah, a world of brooks and streams.
Yabbashah, a world of rivers and springs.
Tebel, the first earth inhabited by living things: 365 species, all different to those on our earth. There's also a human species: ‘Tebel is inhabited by human beings with two heads and four hands and feet, in fact with all their organs doubled excepting only the trunk. It happens sometimes that parts of these double persons quarrel with each other, especially while eating and drinking, when each claims the best and largest portions for himself. This species of mankind is distinguished for great piety, another difference between it and the inhabitants of our earth.’
Heled, our earth, which is protected by the angel Ben Nez the Winged.
God also made 196,000 other worlds which we don’t need to know the names of.
The Second Day
The Second Day of creation was not a good day.
First God created the firmament to separate the primordial water and create an expanse, then he wanted the waters below the gather together in one place so that dry land could appear; however, in certain parts the water refused to obey, and Rahab, the Angel of the Sea, was sick of being commanded around by God.
“I have had enough,” said Rahab.
This angered God, so he killed Rahab and threw his body into the sea; his rotting corpse on the sea floor is responsible for sea’s foul smell and taste. Then God summoned the Angel of the Face to destroy everything; the angel shot fire out of his eyes and set about destroying everything.
But another angel pacified God, and he cancelled the command to destroy the world.
‘The second day of creation was an untoward day in more than one respect that it introduced a breach where before there had been nothing but unity; for it was the day that also saw the creation of hell. Therefore God could not say of this day as of the others, that He “saw that is was good.” A division may be necessary, but it cannot be called good, and hell surely does not deserve the attribute of good.’
(This is where the use of multiple sources becomes obvious: Hell was created 2000 years before heaven and earth; Hell is Arka, created on the 1st day; Hell was created on the 2nd day.)
Hell has seven divisions: Sheol, Abaddon, Beer Shahat, Tit ha-Yawen, Sha’re Mawet, Sha’re Zalmawet, and Gehenna. Ninety thousand Angels of Destruction supervise Hell. There are giant scorpions in Hell, the venom of which causes humans to explode.
'There are also five different kinds of fire in Hell. One devours and absorbs, another devours and does not absorb, while the third absorbs but does not devour, and there is still another fire, which neither devours nor absorbs, a furthermore a fire which devours fire.’
Then God created the angels. There are ten ranks of angels; the most exalted rank serves God around the Divine Throne, under the leadership of Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael. The angel Sham’iel descends to Heaven 1 every night and listens out for prayers and songs of praise.
‘The reason they had not been called into being on the first day was, lest men believe that the angels assisted God in the creation of the heavens and the earth.’
The Third Day
God created plants, and Paradise: where every just man is served by sixty angels, where everyday the human denizens pass through the joys of a whole lifetime. Paradise is divided into seven districts. Beyond Paradise: Eden, ‘containing three hundred and ten worlds and seven compartments for seven different classes of the pious”.
The Fourth Day
The Sun and Moon are fixed into place. The Moon wanted to be brighter than the Sun, but God was in no mood for that attitude.
‘When God punished the envious moon by diminishing her light and splendour, so that she ceased to be the equal of the sun as she had been originally, she fell, and tiny threads were loosed from her body. These are the stars.’
The Fifth Day
God created the fish and the birds, ‘for these two kinds of animals are closely related to each other’. He created Leviathan to rule the sea, and Ziz to rule the sky.
“Originally he [Leviathan] was created male and female like all the other animals. But when it appeared that a pair of these monsters might annihilate the whole earth with their united strength, God killed the female.”
“But Leviathan is more than merely large and strong; he is wonderfully made besides. His fins radiate brilliant light, the very sun is obscured by it, and also his eyes shed such splendour that frequently the sea is suddenly illuminated by it. No wonder that this marvelous beast is the plaything of God, in whom he takes his pastime.’
Ziz (AKA Renanim, Sekwi) is as big as Leviathan.
‘His ankles rest on the earth, and his head reaches the very sky.’
‘His wings are so huge that unfurled they darken the sun.’
‘Once an egg of Ziz fell to the ground and broke. The fluid from it flooded sixty cities.”
At the end of days, both Leviathan and Ziz will be killed, cooked and served to the pious.
The Sixth Day
God created the land animals, and Behemoth to rule over them. Behemoth and Leviathan will, at God’s command at the end off time, fight each other to the death to entertain the pious.
God created the Reëm, giant animals of which there are only two. They reproduce every seventy years to produce twins, one male and one female, then die. Only two, there are; no more, no less.
And He created the Adne Sadeh:
‘His form is exactly that of a human being, but he is fastened to the ground by means of a navel-string, upon which his life depends. This animal keeps himself alive with what is produced by the soil around about him as far as his tether permits him to crawl.”
And God created the Phoenix, which was the only bird that refused to eat some of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, when Eve went around handing it out to everyone, and so was rewarded with eternal life. Every thousand years the Phoenix’s body shrinks, it’s feathers fall, it becomes an egg. Phoenixes are purple, with a head similar to a crocodile, tail and feet similar to a lion. They accompany the sun on its voyage round the earth.
Then there’s quite a few explanations about how animals have changed since Creation: cats & dogs used to be friends, but they quarrelled when they both lived in Adam’s house; cats & mice used to be friends, etc.
‘The serpent, too, is other than it was at first. Before the fall of man it was the cleverest of all animals created, and in form it resembled man closely. It stood upright, and was of extraordinary size. Afterwards, it lost the mental advantages it had possessed as compared to the other animals, and it degenerated physically, too; it was deprived of its feet, so that it could not pursue other animals and kill them.’
I’m gonna leave it there for today. Next time: The Fall of Adam & Eve, Extended Edition.
The stories become a lot more detailed. And a lot more epic. The expanded creation story begins with:
'In the beginning, two thousand years before the heaven and the earth, seven things were created: the Torah written with black fire on white fire, and lying in the lap of God; the Divine Throne, erected in the heaven which was later over the heads of Hayyot; Paradise on the right side of God, Hell on the left side; the Celestial Sanctuary directly in front of God, having a jewel on its altar graven with the Name of the Messiah, and a Voice that cries aloud, "Return, ye children of men."'
(Before you read further, I feel I need to remind you that this story is actually adapted from the Talmud and apocrypha; I am not making it up. It is also worth pointing out that since the Ginzberg crams as much apocryphal and Talmudic content into one narrative, it isn't very consistent.)
God feels like creating something to rule over, so he has a chat with the Fire Torah about the value of an earthly world. The Fire Torah points out that a king needs subjects to rule, but is sceptical about whether created beings would be loyal to their creator. God calms her doubts (the Fire Torah is female) by explaining that he can throw any of his bad creations into this pit of eternal suffering to his left, and reward the good ones by putting them into the paradise to his right.
God had never made an earthly world before, so he needed to practice:
‘Nor is this world inhabited by man the first of earthly things created by God. He made several worlds before ours, but He destroyed them all, because He was pleased with none until He created ours.”
The First Day
God creates light: the first light was not the same as the light of the Sun or Moon; that light did not appear until the 4th day. This was a brighter, purer light.
Seven heavens were created:
Heaven 1 covers the sky and has no function beyond separating the earth from heaven.
Heaven 2 contains the other planets.
Heaven 3 is God’s manna farm.
Heaven 4 contains the Celestial Jerusalem and the Temple, in which the Archangel Michael is high priest.
Heaven 5 is angel accommodation.
Heaven 6 is God’s armoury, containing his storms, hail, fire, ‘noxious dew’, etc; doors of fire separate the rooms of God’s armoury, and the whole complex is presided over by the archangel Metatron.
Heaven 7 is the home of the Divine Throne and the souls of the pious.
Seven earths were created, separated from each other by a great abyss:
Erez, the lowest earth, empty.
Adamah, ‘the scene of the magnificence of God’.
Arka, the underworld, where the souls of the wicked are guarded by the Angels of Destruction.
Harabah, a world of brooks and streams.
Yabbashah, a world of rivers and springs.
Tebel, the first earth inhabited by living things: 365 species, all different to those on our earth. There's also a human species: ‘Tebel is inhabited by human beings with two heads and four hands and feet, in fact with all their organs doubled excepting only the trunk. It happens sometimes that parts of these double persons quarrel with each other, especially while eating and drinking, when each claims the best and largest portions for himself. This species of mankind is distinguished for great piety, another difference between it and the inhabitants of our earth.’
Heled, our earth, which is protected by the angel Ben Nez the Winged.
God also made 196,000 other worlds which we don’t need to know the names of.
The Second Day
The Second Day of creation was not a good day.
First God created the firmament to separate the primordial water and create an expanse, then he wanted the waters below the gather together in one place so that dry land could appear; however, in certain parts the water refused to obey, and Rahab, the Angel of the Sea, was sick of being commanded around by God.
“I have had enough,” said Rahab.
This angered God, so he killed Rahab and threw his body into the sea; his rotting corpse on the sea floor is responsible for sea’s foul smell and taste. Then God summoned the Angel of the Face to destroy everything; the angel shot fire out of his eyes and set about destroying everything.
But another angel pacified God, and he cancelled the command to destroy the world.
‘The second day of creation was an untoward day in more than one respect that it introduced a breach where before there had been nothing but unity; for it was the day that also saw the creation of hell. Therefore God could not say of this day as of the others, that He “saw that is was good.” A division may be necessary, but it cannot be called good, and hell surely does not deserve the attribute of good.’
(This is where the use of multiple sources becomes obvious: Hell was created 2000 years before heaven and earth; Hell is Arka, created on the 1st day; Hell was created on the 2nd day.)
Hell has seven divisions: Sheol, Abaddon, Beer Shahat, Tit ha-Yawen, Sha’re Mawet, Sha’re Zalmawet, and Gehenna. Ninety thousand Angels of Destruction supervise Hell. There are giant scorpions in Hell, the venom of which causes humans to explode.
'There are also five different kinds of fire in Hell. One devours and absorbs, another devours and does not absorb, while the third absorbs but does not devour, and there is still another fire, which neither devours nor absorbs, a furthermore a fire which devours fire.’
Then God created the angels. There are ten ranks of angels; the most exalted rank serves God around the Divine Throne, under the leadership of Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael. The angel Sham’iel descends to Heaven 1 every night and listens out for prayers and songs of praise.
‘The reason they had not been called into being on the first day was, lest men believe that the angels assisted God in the creation of the heavens and the earth.’
The Third Day
God created plants, and Paradise: where every just man is served by sixty angels, where everyday the human denizens pass through the joys of a whole lifetime. Paradise is divided into seven districts. Beyond Paradise: Eden, ‘containing three hundred and ten worlds and seven compartments for seven different classes of the pious”.
The Fourth Day
The Sun and Moon are fixed into place. The Moon wanted to be brighter than the Sun, but God was in no mood for that attitude.
‘When God punished the envious moon by diminishing her light and splendour, so that she ceased to be the equal of the sun as she had been originally, she fell, and tiny threads were loosed from her body. These are the stars.’
The Fifth Day
God created the fish and the birds, ‘for these two kinds of animals are closely related to each other’. He created Leviathan to rule the sea, and Ziz to rule the sky.
“Originally he [Leviathan] was created male and female like all the other animals. But when it appeared that a pair of these monsters might annihilate the whole earth with their united strength, God killed the female.”
“But Leviathan is more than merely large and strong; he is wonderfully made besides. His fins radiate brilliant light, the very sun is obscured by it, and also his eyes shed such splendour that frequently the sea is suddenly illuminated by it. No wonder that this marvelous beast is the plaything of God, in whom he takes his pastime.’
Ziz (AKA Renanim, Sekwi) is as big as Leviathan.
‘His ankles rest on the earth, and his head reaches the very sky.’
‘His wings are so huge that unfurled they darken the sun.’
‘Once an egg of Ziz fell to the ground and broke. The fluid from it flooded sixty cities.”
At the end of days, both Leviathan and Ziz will be killed, cooked and served to the pious.
The Sixth Day
God created the land animals, and Behemoth to rule over them. Behemoth and Leviathan will, at God’s command at the end off time, fight each other to the death to entertain the pious.
God created the Reëm, giant animals of which there are only two. They reproduce every seventy years to produce twins, one male and one female, then die. Only two, there are; no more, no less.
And He created the Adne Sadeh:
‘His form is exactly that of a human being, but he is fastened to the ground by means of a navel-string, upon which his life depends. This animal keeps himself alive with what is produced by the soil around about him as far as his tether permits him to crawl.”
And God created the Phoenix, which was the only bird that refused to eat some of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, when Eve went around handing it out to everyone, and so was rewarded with eternal life. Every thousand years the Phoenix’s body shrinks, it’s feathers fall, it becomes an egg. Phoenixes are purple, with a head similar to a crocodile, tail and feet similar to a lion. They accompany the sun on its voyage round the earth.
Then there’s quite a few explanations about how animals have changed since Creation: cats & dogs used to be friends, but they quarrelled when they both lived in Adam’s house; cats & mice used to be friends, etc.
‘The serpent, too, is other than it was at first. Before the fall of man it was the cleverest of all animals created, and in form it resembled man closely. It stood upright, and was of extraordinary size. Afterwards, it lost the mental advantages it had possessed as compared to the other animals, and it degenerated physically, too; it was deprived of its feet, so that it could not pursue other animals and kill them.’
I’m gonna leave it there for today. Next time: The Fall of Adam & Eve, Extended Edition.
NEXT TIME: Noah and the Great Flood, Extended Edition.
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