Facilis descensus Averno:
Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hic labor est.


What is the work? What is the labour?
The descent is easy but to retrace your steps back to the stars is very difficult.
This is our task.

St Peter's Golden Key
(personal thoughts/reflections on the Bible)

I've been mulling on the Bible recently.

Traveling & other things interrupted my plan to cull data from Genesis - though I haven't forgotten about that - but when it came down to it, I only had Bullinger's 'How To Enjoy The Bible' to keep the pot warm. (Don't be fooled by the unfortunate title of that book, it's anything but a 'happy-clappy' book).

There's an autumnal scent in the air, it was around this time - a little later in the year - but almost 12 months now since I began reading the Bible. It was some struggle for me. Never quite enjoyable, yet always there was a sense of a romance, reading this book, a feeling of connecting with something rare. Still it was never easy, never truly a pleasure, almost always a slog, a real effort. Like I couldn't wait to put it behind me intoning with satisfaction such things as 'done', 'finished', 'never-again'.

I think back now, trying to understand what it was, what it is - because if I were to make another reading NOW, like starting tonight - I don't expect it would really be all too different. It would still be effort all the way, I'd still feel that romance. Everything would be stood as it was a year ago. Difficult to communicate - it's not even straight forward, saying what I got out of that reading. It was just this far mountain. I've been there & now that it's a done thing - unlike the done things in life - I know nothing about it. I know only interior things, I mean states that I experienced on the way.

It's like listening to a piece of music, hearing the same piece over & over again. Yet just as soon as it stops playing you can't recall how it goes. It niggles because you know you know it but you can't remember it - it's there & you can feel it, but you can't hear it anymore, you can't sing it. It's just out of reach. The Bible strikes me as being similar. Then occasionally it's there.

I feel it.

What I feel on these occasions is a peculiar thing. If generally I'm thinking, what was that, what kind of book was that, what exactly was that all about? Then in these rarer moments, it's ... different, though it conveys something, yet still an elusive thing.

Maybe what it does is change, at least hone one's perceptions of & relationship to the World, the creation in which one lives as a part of - having some role in it all (though I say this implying nothing grandiose or important, but simply in the sense that a fly eating dung has a role).

During that first reading of the Bible I acquired this interest in reading 'history' - & on reflection it seems this is something the Bible gives, an unexpected & intense sense of one's own history. I don't simply mean the 30 + years I've been glibly skipping around in this body - personal history - but rather a much greater history that precedes, in some sense, this time now - & goes beyond it, beyond Time. This is definitely in the category of mystery - the Bible is a mysterious thing. I don't think one actually needs to read it to know that, but to feel it as part of one's own being, then it must be read.

It's September 11th 2002, the sky is blue, away in the distance are large cumulus clouds. Sunlight streams down through the foliage of a mature ash. A cut crystal hangs in the window, diffracting the light in umpteen shades of rose. Between the window panes & the verdant background, tufts of 'fluff' from seeding rosebay willow drift on the air while flying insects whizz in every direction. This man sits on a chair, his lower back aching, listening to JS Bach's C major Suite. Before him, a picture of William Morris's 1865 stained glass design (for the restoration of St Nicholas's Church, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire) of St Peter holding the Golden Key. A sense of creation happening. Everything - all this solar matter - going about it's business in the only way it can. All life & all death is here. Knowing whence I came, and whither I go. What the Knight doesn't want is a horse that will throw him to the floor.

REV 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,

The nations after the flood

GEN 10:1 the generations of the sons of Noah,
Shem, Ham, and Japheth:

GEN 10:2 The sons of Japheth;
Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras.
GEN 10:3 the sons of Gomer;
Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah.
GEN 10:4 the sons of Javan;
Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Dodanim.

GEN 10:6 the sons of Ham;
Cush, Mizraim, Phut, Canaan.
GEN 10:7 the sons of Cush;
Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabtechah:
the sons of Raamah;
Sheba, Dedan.
GEN 10:8 Cush begat Nimrod:

GEN 10:13 Mizraim begat Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
GEN 10:14 Pathrusim, Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim) Caphtorim.
GEN 10:15 Canaan begat Sidon, Heth,
GEN 10:16 the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,
GEN 10:17 the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
GEN 10:18 the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite:

GEN 10:21 Shem, father of all the children of Eber,
GEN 10:22 children of Shem;
Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, Aram.
GEN 10:23 children of Aram;
Uz, Hul, Gether, Mash.
GEN 10:24 Arphaxad begat Salah;
Salah begat Eber.
GEN 10:25 unto Eber two sons:
Peleg; Joktan.
GEN 10:26 Joktan begat Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
GEN 10:27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
GEN 10:28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
GEN 10:29 Ophir, Havilah, Jobab:

GEN 10:32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

GEN 11:10 the generations of Shem: Shem begat Arphaxad
GEN 11:12 Arphaxad begat Salah:
GEN 11:14 Salah begat Eber:
GEN 11:16 Eber begat Peleg:
GEN 11:18 Peleg begat Reu:
GEN 11:20 Reu begat Serug:
GEN 11:22 Serug begat Nahor:
GEN 11:24 Nahor begat Terah:
GEN 11:26 Terah begat Abram, Nahor, Haran.
GEN 11:27 the generations of Terah:
Haran begat Lot.
GEN 11:29 Abram and Nahor took wives:
Abram's wife was Sarai;
Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, the father of Iscah.

Adam knew Eve

GEN 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
GEN 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

There are two genealogies to consider, Cain’s & Seth’s. Eve’s first child was Cain. Her second child was Abel. Cain murdered Abel & lied to God. Seth was born to Eve as her third son, “another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”

The first genealogy is Cain’s:

GEN 4:17 Cain knew his wife; she bare Enoch
GEN 4:18 Enoch begat Irad
Irad begat Mehujael
Mehujael begat Methusael
Methusael begat Lamech
GEN 4:19 Lamech took two wives: Adah, and Zillah
GEN 4:20 Adah bare Jabal
GEN 4:21 his brother's name was Jubal
GEN 4:22 Zillah bare Tubalcain
the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah

The second genealogy is Seth’s:

GEN 4:25 Adam knew his wife again; she bare a son, named Seth
GEN 4:26 to Seth a son named Enos
GEN 5:9 Enos begat Cainan
GEN 5:12 Cainan begat Mahalaleel
GEN 5:15 Mahalaleel begat Jared
GEN 5:18 Jared begat Enoch
GEN 5:21 Enoch begat Methuselah
GEN 5:25 Methuselah begat Lamech
GEN 5:28 Lamech begat a son
GEN 5:29 named Noah
GEN 5:32 Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth

The Days of Creation

Day 1 – Genesis 1:1 – 1:5 (God created Heaven & Earth, Light, Division of Light from Darkness)

Day 2 – Genesis 1:6 – 1:8 (made the firmament, divided the waters from the waters)

Day 3 – Genesis 1:9 – 1:13 (gathered together the waters, called the dry land Earth, brought forth grass, herb, fruit tree yielding seed)

Day 4 – Genesis 1:14 – 1:19 (lights in the firmament, to rule the day, to rule the night, creation of stars - signs for seasons, days, years)

Day 5 – Genesis 1:20 – 1: 23 (the waters bring forth every living creature, and winged fowl, God blessed them)

Day 6 - Genesis 1:24 – 1:31 (the earth bring forth the living creature, the beast of the earth, every thing that creepeth upon the earth, created man in his own image – male & female, gave man dominion, God blessed them)

Day 7 - Genesis 2:1 – 2:3 (God rested from all his work & sanctified it)

Day 8 - Genesis 2:4 – 2:25 (there was not a man to till the ground - the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils, man became a living soul, Creation of the Garden, Adam names the creatures, creation of man’s helpmeet - woman)

With only limited available time I only managed to squeeze in one reading of Genesis this last week. With that done I now aim to collate data. Basic stuff, genealogies, timelines, etc. I'll sift what I can. The real benefit of this type of exercise is fixing things in mind. Getting a who, what, where & when type perspective. Basic stuff obviously but preliminary & necessary to a deeper understanding.

Useful now to state how I intend to realize this aim to know & understand the Book of Genesis. It’s not a small book, containing 50 chapters, it covers a number of themes & accounts. These are presented as two primary divisions:

1. Primeval History – The Creation, Adam & Eve, The Fall, Sin, Genealogies of Pride & Death, Pre-Flood, The Flood, The Nations.

2. Patriarchal History – The Life & Descendants of Abraham, Ishmael, Jacob, Esau, Joseph.

My first reading of Genesis ran from the 13th to the 15th October 2001. After such a long period it will be most useful now that I make a straight through 'refresher' reading over the next 7 days. If I complete it then I’ll read it again. In the unlikely event I finish that, then I’ll just read it again. That’s my task for the following 7 days - to read the Book of Genesis with directed attention. To do this whilst self remembering. This is my aim.

Where Next

Actually, maybe even before I began reading the bible I had conceived this as a life project. To study the bible, the language & relevant related literature etc – that’s no glib task & requires an ongoing long term commitment. As the Living Word of Our Creator it’s correct to understand this as a relationship. Though it was enough at that time, getting started, to set my sight simply on completing a first reading. Now that’s done, finished on Friday 26/07/02 at 2323 BST.

I have allowed a 7-day interval before opening a new phase. It has taken 3 days but I now understand what this new phase needs to be - a return to Genesis. This is foundational. If this book remains unknown or misunderstood, all that precedes will also be unknown & misunderstood. Everything begins here. Everything belonging to this earth age in which we exist NOW has its roots in the bedrock Book of Genesis.

The aim in the second phase of this bible study project is to come to an understanding of the meaning of the Book of Genesis. I’m already aware that this is very much about the attempt by the Father of Lies to corrupt a bloodline. It details the purpose our being down here walking around under the sun in these flesh bodies, sleeping in the dust of the earth.

Daniel 12:3
And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament;
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.