ABSTRACT
The Genesis story in the Hebrew Bible, with its account of a beautiful garden forfeited by a descent into sin and violence, is often taken as the paradigmatic narrative of creation for Christendom. It is not the only biblical account of creation, nor the only one in which we find the ambiguities of violence and beauty. The prophet Isaiah, for example, describes a vision of a new creation, made by God to replace the present world of trouble, destruction and pain. He declares the proclamation of God:
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy …
There follows a description of a Utopian Jerusalem – so different from that conflict-ridden city in Isaiah’s time or in ours – in which there is no more distress or violence. It is a beautiful city where people live together in peace and harmony. Even the wolf and the lamb are at peace. All flourish together. Violence has no place, for:
They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord. (Isaiah 65.17-25)
Similar accounts of a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ also occur elsewhere in the Bible, notably in the book of Revelation, where the writer describes ‘the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband’ (Revelation 21.2). All God’s enemies have been defeated and shut out, and the people of God live with him in unimaginable beauty and splendour. The city has ‘the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal’.
