Ain Soph - The Unknown God
Chapter Six
F. J. Mayers
Genesis I, v.3.
“And God said: Let there he light; and there was light.” (English R.V.)
We have here the first desire or purpose which God ever gave expression to. It was for “Light.”
As regards the word “said,” which has caused so much discussion at times-so materialistic have been the thoughts of people, and so narrow the “literalism” of their understanding of the Scriptures that they could actually ask such questions as: “To whom did God speak?”; “With what voice did he speak?”; “What language did He speak?,” etc., etc. It seems incredible that any human being to-day could ask questions revealing such a lack of Spiritual perception. Yet the writer has come into personal contact with many such people, who yet were in other respects quite intelligent men and women. It is bard to realise that there are still people in whose minds “God” is still the patriarchal, bearded, benevolent old gentleman pictured in childish imaginations. Even in the olden days when there was little of what we now call “learning,” or “knowledge,” and “thought” itself appeared in the form of picture images, the ideaswithin the “pictures” were spiritual An expression such as “God said,” or “God spoke,” or “God talked” with anyone would offer no difficulty to them. The phrases were just the simplest way they had of expressing the spiritual fact. They had inner experience of their own and they knew that God does speak to men, in a speech that needs no human words-and yet speaks “to every man in his own language.” And millions know to-day that God still “speaks,” and that men can still “hear” the still, soundless voice.
The Hebrew word for “said,” “amor,” like all the words we have been dealing with, holds quite wide meanings. It is very closely related to the word for “light,” “aor.” Both words start from the same root: “AR” or “ER,” which we have already explained as signifying the “primal element” of all things. The sign of “light,” “intelligence,” “action,” (O) is inserted in the root and it becomes “aor”- “light.” It is not limited to the idea of “physical” light, such as the light of the sun, or of a lamp, by any means. There is also mental light; when something is explained to us, and we understand, we say “I see.” When spiritual light opens on us, we know what the “light” which “lighteth every man” is. In the present case there is no question at all of physical light, as no physical source of light had yet been created or formed. It refers to “Intelligence” which is the Spiritual prototype of all “light.” Spiritually, “light” and “intelligence” are always Synonymous. When we make a “verb” of the word, it means to “enlighten”; to “bring to light”; to “make anything clear or manifest”; to explain”; to “elucidate”; to “make anything known.” These are the ideas conveyed in the word “said.” A little consideration will show that it covers any and every means that can be taken to express Will or Purpose. God makes known His will by the Simple fact that it instantly becomes realised. This is brought out in a very graphic way in the Hebrew text of this verse by the use of a very curious grammatical expedient, which has no counterpart in any other language: When the letter vav is used as a consonant (pronounced “va” or “wa”), it is a little word of itself with exactly the meaning of our conjunction “and.” It is then called the “conversive” sign because if it is prefixed to a verb in the “future tense,” it has the effect of converting the “future” into the “past”; or vice-versa, if prefixed to a ‘past tense” verb it converts the “past” into “future” without any change being made in the verb itself. In the present instance we have “ye-he” (which we can only render in English by “let there be” or “there shall be”) in the first place, followed by “va ye-he,” which we must translate: “and there was.” The verb in the Hebrew is the same in each case. The effect that this grammatical construction has on the reader is to give him the suggestion that, in the very act of the Creator expressing His will for “light” to be - “light” already was. “Light” in the meaning we have tried to make clear appears to have been the great dominant idea in ail the great ancient religions.
Let us turn aside from the direct line of our studies and pay a visit to one of the great temples of antiquity. The digression will bring us back to our subject, but the path we shall take will have a very definite signification for any readers who may be initiates of one great spiritual Brotherhood, at least.
Most of the great ancient religions - even far back beyond the records of history, were remarkable for their great temples. These temples were much more than places of worship for the people. They were great training colleges. They had large populations of priests and priestesses. The priesthood was the Supreme “caste.” It comprised practically the whole intelligentsia of the nation. The kings themselves were priests of the highest rank. Yet in one way the priesthood was very democratic. Any man might knock at the temple door and ask to be admitted to their community, and if he could prove himself worthy of admission, he was never refused. There were, of course, conditions to be complied with. He must come as a “free” man. He must apply for admission entirely of his own free will and accord; he must be of sufficiently mature age to understand what he is undertaking; he must be of good intelligence, high moral character, and sound judgement. If he satisfied his examiners on these points, whether he were highborn or low-born, rich or poor, mattered nothing; he was deemed a fit and proper candidate for initiation into the “mysteries.” He was warned that the trials he would have to undergo were not without danger, and once entered upon, they must be gone through to the end; there could be no turning back, and failure at any stage would be “fatal.” The word “fatal” was not a figure of speech in those days. He was told that fear or hesitancy on the one hand, or over-rashness on the other, would be equally fatal. If, after careful consideration, he felt any doubt of his courage or ability to proceed, he was still perfectly free to withdraw from the enterprise and return to the outer world. If he decided that he would accept all the risks and would proceed, he was allowed to do so and his “initiation” began-and it began in darkness-total darkness to him. He set out on his path not knowing whither or to what any step would lead him. But he was never alone. Every step he took was guided by an unseen Guide. They take a pace or two together and halt. A question comes to the candidate: “When you find yourself in difficulty or danger, to whom or to what do you turn for help?” The reply he gives is always the same as is given in many a familiar psalm: “The Lord is my refuge and strength.” And again the voice speaks to him: “I am glad to know that your faith is so well founded, with His help you may follow your guide in calm confidence, and we trust, in safety.” So his guide leads him on through the darkness, a long strange orbital path. There are many pauses, and many questions on the way. He very vaguely understands the meaning of it all. He is aware only that each pause and questioning results in something to help him on his way, just some suggestive word or some little tangible sign, all rather chaotic to him. Yet he is dimly conscious that influences and powers unknown are active about him, and that they are shaping something in his soul, fitting him for something. Then comes a moment when the voice that first addressed him from the distant darkness speaks again, this time quite close to him, and as if the speaker were reading his inmost thoughts, the questions is put to him: “What is your first and greatest wish just at this moment, and in your present circumstances?” He answers: “Light-to see and understand.” “It shall be given you.’,
We need not follow him any further at present. He had been led to feel and to express that very need which God Himself first felt and expressed-the need for “light.” And as with God, so with man, the feeling and expression of the desire was in itself the first manifestation of Intelligence.
We can now go on to the completion of this first section of the Creation story.
V. 4. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
We have already seen the meaning of “darkness,” and how it covered and permeated the “vasty deep” in which lay latent the infinite “potentialities” of all that could ever be-that boundless and fathomless ocean of “Spirit-Matter” in which everything was confused, undifferentiated, indefinable, unintelligible nothingness-yet potentially everything.
Words are useless to give any “idea” of that “chaos”; there was nothing to give form to an idea. It was just the absolute negation of anything conceivable--the polar opposite of “being.” The awakening powers and attributes of the Eternal One first seek the means of transforming this “nothingness” into “being”; this confusion into order; this universal indifferentiation into infinitely individualised existences, possessing form and attributes. God had to find within Himself, in the powers of “Elohim” the needed means. He felt that the first necessity was “Light”- “Intelligence.” He “willed” Light, and the Divine Intelligence flashed into active being. As a man may look in upon himself and consider the capabilities and qualities of his own mental powers, so we are told, did God look in upon Himself and “considered carefully”-(that is the meaning of the Hebrew word which our English Version translates by saw’) the “Intelligence” He had Willed into being. He saw that it was “Good’ ‘-suited to carry out His purposes and powerful, for the task. So He set it in opposition to the “darkness, separated it absolutely from the darkness as a “Being of Light” to shine into the darkness. Thus the Divine Intelligence becomes, within chaos, a separative, selective, ordering Force. It draws forth from the “deep” all He needs (and as he requires it) for the “realisation” of His every purpose. Thus Universal “Intelligence” was the first manifestation of Divinity.
Going on to verse 5. God gives, as it were, a “name” to this Intelligence, characterising it as “day”-not “a” day, but the very essence, the spiritual nature of all that “day” means or implies, or suggests for us. The Hebrew word for “day” is IOM (yom). It means quite clearly “a manifestation of light universally.” To apply it to a “day” in the sense of a 24-hour period, even in the lowest, most material acceptation of the word, is not in agreement with the essential meaning of the word itself. It can only apply properly to the light hours of the period; the dark hours are not “day” but “night.” The use of the word for a period of 24 hours has, however, become so universal that it is not likely to be corrected now, but we must not on any account think of it in that sense in connection with the word in our text. We must think of it only as the antonym of “night.” It has nothing whatever to do with any period. Chaos was the universal “night” in which God was unmanifest, unknown. “Day” is the “Light” in which and through which He becomes manifest, knowable.
“And there was evening, and there was morning. Day one.” The word translated “evening,” “ereb,” means something which is “over”; finished; past. The word “morning,” “boker,” means something which “arises” or “commences.” It is frequently used in Hebrew as a synonym of “light” itself. We must note also that “evening” and “morning” do not in any way represent two different periods. As we have already said many times, we are dealing with universal spiritual processes in which time has no part. They are processes which are eternally at work, and like everything in the “sovereign work, “ “melacheth” of God, they are always progressive. As, and in proportion as, the Divine Intelligence shines forth, chaos and darkness pass away. “Evening” is the darkness which passes away, and “morning” is the arising of the Divine Light; they are just two coincident aspects of the same thing. The rising light destroys the darkness by its rising. It is just this flashing into existence of Divine Intelligence that constitutes, in itself, the first great manifestation of Divinity and it is this “manifestation” which God calls “Day one.” And “Day one” is an eternal day ; it has lasted and will last as long as God is working out His purposes.
Yet a great divine like Dr. Driver can tell us in his commentary on “Genesis” that if the word “day” does not mean a day of 24 hours he does not see what it can mean! How utterly blind the materialistic mind can be; and how little a very learned Christian scholar sometimes may understand the wonderful language of the Bible.
