Etchings of Marcus van Loopik

Days of creation

(Etching M. van Loopik)

The third day of creation

And God said: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas; and God saw that it was good. And God said: Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, herb, yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind, and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

An unusual sequence
The third day of creation brings the separation between land and water. Trees and plants proceed from the earth. On the etching you see the soft transition from the blue colour of water to the green colours of plants and trees.Creation is cosmogenesis as well as evolution and a continual process Therefore living plants and fossilised plants are pictured side by side. At the command of God the waters fled to the place which was assigned for them. Ps.104 gives a living description of this happening: You did cover it with the deep as with a vesture; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the voice of Your thunder they hasted away (Ps. 104:6-7) On this day the force of the primeval waters is driven back further, in order that man has not only a roof above his head but also firm ground under his feet. It is striking that the words 'and God saw that it was good', which return again and again, are missing on the second day. Not until now on the third day they are mentioned. Only now the waters are driven back to the extent that a common living space is created for plants, man and animal. Only now the Supreme One is content with the results of His activities of separation. Notice the sequence of creation: animals and plants first, after that man. The rabbis smartly remark that dead nature and all other living creatures precede man. When man would become arrogant even the fly could say to him: 'Take into consideration that I have been created before you were brought into the world (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin).
How much pain and failures have been the result of a wrong understanding of man as the king of creation. We, mortal human beings, may not turn the tables. The creation is not only made for us, but above all we have been placed on earth to serve the world.
The Torah tells us how after the creation of dry land, God ordered the flora to grow on it. He divided plants and trees into separated species. All these species propagate themselves by means of fruit, which is yielding seed. At first sight it looks like a scientific report, but on closer examination it appears to be totally different. The biblical history of creation is no scientific description of how the world came into being. The succession of day and night already existed before the creation of the sun and the moon. Also the plants did grow before the warming light of the sun shined over them. Only on the fourth day the sun was created. Jewish commentators like Abrabanel have explained how the Torah wants to learn us a lesson by this strange order of things. Creation is not an automatic process. Just by this illogical sequence of happenings the story of creation learns us that all things depend on the ever continuing creativity of the Creator. The story does not so much  learn us about the way our world came into being, as  about the religious dimension of our human existence in the here and now. Just the common things of every day enclose the greatest wonders and mysteries

The fourth day of creation

And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it was so. (...)  And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day  (Gen. 1:14-19). (Etching M.van Loopik)

Signs of festival times
The etching of the fourth day of creation pictures the creation of the sun, the moon and the stars. According to the creation-story these celestial bodies function as signs, for seasons, days, years and festive times (compare Gen. 1:14-15). Sun, moon and stars make it possible to celebrate the festivals in due time and to count the days of history. So Israel was the first people that experienced messianic history and broke through the senseless circle of time and nature.  
On the etching of this fourth day you see a laid table for the Sabbath day. The two Sabbath lights (oil-lamps) remind us how God gave us the two great lights, the sun and the moon. The beloved glimmer of these lights grants us a glance at the light of the messianic future. In a symbolic way the Sabbath-lights drive away the darkness of the night in our broken creation. They are the silent signs of God's mercy. For the Jewish community sunset and the appearance of the stars mark the beginning of the Sabbath day, a day which gives us already an impression and foretaste of  the World to Come. God furnishes His creation as a father who fits up a festive room for the bride of his son. God the father not only provides this room with a firm dance floor and a watertight roof, but also with green shrubs and beautiful lights.
The image, which God made of Himself,  is a man of flesh and blood. He shares the world with the animals and plants, and like them he needs the light and warmth of the sun. The night covers him and the other creatures as with a blanket, and she grants him rest. When he is on his way, the stars lead him and the moon gives him a light. For Israel the celestial bodies fulfil an even more important task. 'Let them be for signs (Gen. 1:14) - this refers to the Sabbath-days; and for seasons (times of gathering) - this refers to the (three) pilgrimage-festivals; and for days - this refers to the beginning of the months; and for years - this refers to the sanctification of the years (the official proclamation of the day of New Year)' (Be-resjiet Rabba VI,1).

It is difficult for the fragile and mortal man to break through the fatal circle of his existence. Even Israel, the apple of God's eye, must keep fighting against the heathen feeling of being exposed to blind fate. The words of the prophet Jeremia give evidence of this struggle: Learn not the way of the nations. And be not dismayed at the signs of heaven (Jer. 10:1-2). The wise have repeated these words many times, struggling against the ominous signs of 'moira', the fate that even ruled over the gods of the Greek.
An old tradition shows the fear of Israel for the stars and their signs. But this fear is overruled by the warning and reassuring words of Jeremia: 'And the Israelites are not content with merely reckoning by the moon, but once every thirty days they lift up their eyes to their father in heaven (in performing the ceremony of Blessing the New Moon). And so when the sun is eclipsed, it is a bad omen for the Gentiles since they reckon by the sun, and when the moon is eclipsed it is a bad omen for the "enemies of Israel" (i.e. for Israel) since they reckon by the moon. Rabbi Meir says: If the sun is eclipsed in the east, it is a bad omen for the inhabitants of the east; if in the west, it is a bad omen for the inhabitants of the west … Rabbi Jonathan says: All the signs may be left to the Gentiles, for thus is said: Thus says the Lord: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the nations are dismayed at them (Jer. 2:10) (see  Mechilta de-Rabbi Jishma'el Pisha, parashah 2; ed. M. Kadushin, New York  1969, 18-19).        

©  2000 dr. Marcus van Loopik
Al rights reserved. Text and the pictures of the etchings may not be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, without my prior permission.

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continuation: day 4 + 5  back to day 1 + 2