In God's Image

Sunday, October 20, 1996 at 6 p.m. (E.T.) (Check local listings.) The second episode goes back to the beginning -- to the story of God's creation of the world and of the first humans in God's image. Says Bill Moyers: "I once saw a sculpture in the great cathedral of Chartres so striking it stopped me in my tracks. The artist depicts Adam, the first man, emerging as an idea from the side of God's head; God is thinking us into being. With such a beginning we human beings were destined ever after to think upon our existence, to imagine and argue about what it means to be made in God's image. Our participants in this discussion come from different cultures and persuasions, demonstrating once again that being made in the likeness of God does not mean we were made to think alike." Featuring Walter Brueggemann, Roberta Hestenes, John Kselman, Hugh O'Donnell, Burton L. Visotzky, Renita Weems, Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg. See Biographies for more information about the participants. Burton L. Visotzky ©Duane Michals Mandy Patinkin RealAudio See more information on audio downloads or on obtaining a RealAudio player. For RealAudio, we recommend 2.0 or later. Singer, performer and actor Mandy Patinkin has lent his voice to the GENESIS television series as a storyteller. You may listen to the actual sound recording of this story either as RealAudio or as a download. Narrative written by Elizabeth Swados. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. God made the heaven and the earth, the waters and the dry land, the sun and the moon, and all the creatures of the air, the sea, the earth. And God saw that it was good. And God said, "Let us make man in our image. Let him rule over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air and every living thing. Yes, God created humankind in God's image. Male and female, God created them and God blessed them and said, "I have given every living thing life and food to eat." And God saw it was good. It was very good. And when God finished the work of creation, God rested. On the seventh day, God rested. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy. God saw that the seeds and the plants hadn't grown yet. God hadn't caused it to rain and there was no one to till the soil. But a mist rose and watered the whole face of the earth. And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul. Then God put man into a garden, Eden. And God told him to eat freely, but not to take from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. "If you eat from that tree you will die. Yes, die." God made animals in Eden and told Adam to name every one of them. And Adam named the beasts, fowl and cattle but there was no helpmate for him. And God said, "It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate." So God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. And God took one of his ribs, closed the flesh around it, and made woman. And God brought her to the man. And the man said to the woman, "You are bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh and you will be called woman because out of man you were taken." So now a man will leave his mother and father, cleave to his wife, and together shall be one flesh. And the man and his wife were naked, but they were not at all ashamed.