The Balance

In Jacques Ellful’s article, “How the Science Versus Religion Debate Has Missed the Point of Genesis 1 and 2,” he argues that the Book of Genesis must not be read literally but as a metaphor for man’s relationship with God, and that relationship sets the stage for the rest of the Bible. As I read it, as well as the Flood Narrative, I thought of the balancing nature of water. Ellful argues that to the ancient Jews, water “is the power of annihilation, of nothingness, which seeks to reconquer the creation and which causes everything to lose its created form…It must not be concluded that water designates evil. It is a kind of negative power that tends to reduce the creation to nothing” (433). This is a peculiar attitude. True, given enough time, oceans will grind rocky cliffs to sand, or “dissolve” them as Ellful notes (433). But it also gives life as well. People can only live three days without it. Plants can’t grow and produce fruit and vegetables to eat without it. So in essence, water is not solely a force that destroys creation, but rather, it is a force that balances creation.

Through this lens, I read the Flood Narrative. In the Bible, we are told the world is full of wickedness and that God wants to destroy it. The apocryphal Book of Enoch elaborates on what is meant by wickedness; angels have defiled themselves and humans by impregnating women, and those women give birth to a race of “giants” who become cannibals. But in addition, those same angels have taught man how to make and use weapons to kill each other, and they have taught women how to dress immodestly and to use and wear makeup. They even taught humans magic spells. The earth, therefore, is in need of a good bath. God tells Noah:

“Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made” (Genesis 7:4, New American Bible, St. Joseph Edition).

The “floodgates of the sky” were opened as promised, and the entire world, save Noah and his family, were purged from it. This seems like a cruel overreaction from a vengeful God, but when the waters recede, the world is clean once more and is reborn into more holy ways. This reminds me of the rite of baptism, particularly of older baptism candidates; when water is poured over their heads, they are symbolically washing the sins of the past from their soul and freeing themselves from evil. Essentially, the Flood Narrative could be interpreted as the baptism of the earth. By destroying the earth, then, water paradoxically creates a new one.

Elsewhere in the Bible, water is a positive force. Joseph is thrown into a water cistern and spared his death at his brothers’ hands. In Exodus, Moses leads the Israelites through the Red Sea, and in so doing them leads them out of slavery. In the New Testament, Jesus is baptized, but he also washes his apostles’ feet. This act represents the purification of evil, but it also represents humility. Water is even described extensively in Revelations; first, the curses God levels at the waters of the earth (like Wormwood poisoning them and the oceans turning to blood) are catastrophic to humanity. But after the world is destroyed, John sees a holy river:

“Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of its street. On either side of the river grew the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month; the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations” (Revelations 22:1, New American Bible, St. Joseph Edition).

In the Bible, water represents physical and spiritual rebirth, the Word of God, purification, and spirituality. It is not solely a destroyer of worlds. It cleanses the earth when it needs to, but it also gives life to the earth and the inhabitants of it. In doing so, it provides balance.