This content was published as part of the article about the movie The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky
The Bible
The Christian Bible consists of a total of 66 books and it is divided into two major sections.
The first section (39 books) consists of the Old Testament, which includes the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh) plus some Greek writings. The Old Testament deals with the story of creation, as well how God relates to humankind.
The second section (27 books) comprises the New Testament, and it consists of a collection of Christian scriptures. The New Testament focuses mostly on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
In this article, I’ll only focus on the very first book of the Old Testament: Genesis.
Book of Genesis: the primeval and patriarchal period
Genesis means the “origin of everything” and it is divided into 2 sections:
1) the primeval period (chapters 1-11), which deals with the creation of the world by God and the origin of humanity.
2) the patriarchal period (chapters 12-50), which revolves around the travels of Abraham and Sarah, as well as the exploits of their descendants.
Only the primeval period is of interest for the analysis of The Fountain, so that’s what I will be discussing next.
Creation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
That’s literally the very first sentence of the book of Genesis. So, according to the Bible, God creates the entire universe out of his good will.
The initial two chapters of the Genesis also tells us that the universe begins with darkness and void. Out of this chaos, God gives order and purpose over the course of 7 days. Light, day, sky, sea, moon, stars, vegetation, animals and finally humans all spring into existence.
God creates humans on the 6th day, “in his own image”. God’s idea is to allow humanity to pretty much govern itself. God then takes a break on the 7th day.
I would like to make two observations. The first is that God creates things simply by speaking, which, as we will see below, resembles Maya creation myths. The second is that God envisioned a world inherently “good” (e.g., as can be read in Genesis 1:31), and it is with good intentions and deeds that this goodness is promoted.
Then, Genesis 2:8 tells us that God created the Garden of Eden, a paradise with streams and plants that are suitable for food. The Garden of Eden is perfection itself, a place of beauty and harmony. In the middle of the garden there are two very important trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
There is a discrepancy now in that God is supposed to have already created mankind (see above). However, Genesis 2:7-23 mentions that God forms Adam (which means man in Hebrew), the very first human, out of dust and breathes into his nostrils, giving him life.
Seeing that Adam needs a companion, God puts him to sleep and creates Eve (meaning “life” in Hebrew) from one of Adam’s ribs.
Adam and Eve had been created without sin, as God wishes to relegate them the responsibility to govern Earth and rule over the animals. They are instructed to tend to the garden and animals, as well as to reproduce.
God allows them to eat the fruit from the Tree of Life, granting Adam and Eve the power of immortality. However, God forbids them to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as that will only end in pain and death.
Since Adam and Eve were formed from the same body (from Adam’s body), some believe this represents God’s intention of a marriage for life and in communion with God.
But then, in Genesis 3:1, a serpent insinuates that God must be concealing something great, and that by eating the fruit from the the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they may become Godlike. Driven by lust, Eve eats the fruit and gives some to Adam. Right away, they become aware of their nakedness and feel ashamed, quickly covering their privates with leaves.
God is unforgiving. He punishes the serpent, he warns Eve that she and her descendants will suffer pain in childbirth, and tells Adam he, from now on, will always need to toil for food.
Adam is expelled from the Garden of Eden and Eve follows him.
Un-creation
As you might have noticed, the Bible starts with a fairly positive mood: God creates Earth, he produces a paradise on Earth, Adam and Eve connect. Things look pretty good. Gradually, however, the mood starts to darken.
Once Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden, humans are barred to eat the fruit from the Tree of Life, so they turn mortal. God stations a cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the path towards the Garden.
Humankind is now in constant danger, and will be tormented by evil, suffering, pain and death.
Adam and Eve eventually have two sons: Cain, a farmer, and Abel, a shepherd. Cain and Abel make regular offerings to God, who favours the offerings brought by Abel.
Cain becomes increasingly jealous of Abel, and despite God’s warnings to quell sinful temptations, Cain murders his brother.
God finds out what Cain had done and banishes him to the land of Nod, but not before branding him (the mark of Cain) as a sign of protection.
Re-creation
It doesn’t take long until God becomes disappointed with how things are turning out, by how corrupted and mean people have become. He decides it’s time to wipe out all creatures from the face of the Earth, so that he can remake the world.
Only one man seems worth saving, and that is Noah.
So God orders Noah to build an ark and board along with his family and one male and female member of each animal species. As soon as they are all safe inside the ship, God floods the entire planet, killing everything but the passengers of the ark.
After the deluge wanes off Noah leaves the ark, effectively becoming a second Adam in a renewed and cleansed world. He and his descendants procreate, eventually populating the Earth with multitudes of peoples.
Some of these travel to the land of Shinar, where they begin to build a tower in the shape of a pyramid with the intent to reach the heavens – the tower of Babel.
They are proud of this achievement, which Gods sees as a sign of arrogance and thirst for power.
He then decides to split the people of Shinar and scatters them around the world. By doing so, God is really preventing the people to complete the tower.