The Trace of God.

The story of the first eight chapters of Barachit is tragic but simple.

Creation followed by decreation followed by re-creation.

God creates order.

Humans then destroy that order to the point where the world was filled with violence and all flesh

had corrupted its way on earth. God brings a flood that wipes away all life until, with the exception

of Noah, his family and other animals, the earth has returned to the state it was in the beginning

of the terror when the earth was waste and void.

Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Vowing never again to destroy all life, though not guaranteeing that humanity might not do so of its own

accord, God begins again, this time

with Noah in place of Adam, father of a new start to the human story. Genesis 9 is therefore

parallel to Genesis 1, but there are two significant differences. In both there is a key word repeated seven times, but it's a different

word. In Genesis 1, the word is Tov, good. In Genesis 9, the word is Brit covenant. That's the

first difference. The second is that they both state that God made the human person in his image, but they do so in markedly different ways.

In Genesis 1 we read, and God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness,

and let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heaven, and the cattle over all the earth,

and over every moving thing that moves upon the earth.

So God created man in his image. In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.

And this is how it stated in Genesis 9. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God he made man.

The difference here is fundamental. Genesis 1 tells me that I am in the image of God.

Genesis 9 tells me that the other person is in the image of God. Genesis 1 speaks about the dominance of

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