have particularly questioned the human-animal dichotomy developed in Gen 1, even as they have noted ways that parts of Gen 1 celebrate the intrinsic worth of non-human beings and depict God’s concern for them.137 So also, Deryn Guest’s transgender interpretation of Gen 1 argues against interpretive collusion with the text’s unquestioned celebration of gender and other forms of order, advocating instead a resistant reading of Gen 1 that highlights and finds the divine in elements like the primeval ocean (תהום).138 In each case, these resistant postmodern readings draw on and benefit from historical analysis of elements in Gen 1, even as they critique any claim by such a reading to provide a definitive account of the meaning and significance of the text.
Universal aspects of the SabbathFinally, this exegesis should not overlook the implicit emphasis across Gen 1:1–2:3 on anticipating the Sabbath. Christian ambivalence toward the Sabbath has contributed to a tendency among non-Jewish interpreters to read the Bible’s first creation account if it ended with the creation of humans. Indeed, this tendency was enshrined in the chapter-structure of Genesis when thirteenth-century Christian theologians introduced the present chapter division, placing the first six days of creation into chapter one (Gen 1:1–31) while relegating God’s blessing and sanctification of the seventh day to the outset of chapter two (Gen 2:1–3).139 This chapter division obscured the way Gen 1:1–2:3 as a whole emphasizes the idea that a seven-day, Sabbath-oriented time system is built into the very structure of creation (see also Exod 16:4–5, 22–30). Moreover, even though subsequent biblical texts treat this creation-founded Sabbath as a practice exclusive to Israel (e.g., Gen 20:8–11; 31:12–17), the Gen 1 description of all humans as God’s representatives on earth (Gen 1:26–27) suggests that God’s cessation of work in Gen 2:2–3 may have implications for all humans. Overall, having such a prominent Sabbath emphasis in the Bible’s programmatic introduction provides a biblical foundation to readings, such as that of Abraham Heschel, of the relevance and significance of the biblical Sabbath to humanity as a whole.140
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