Dust of the Ground and Breath of Life (Gen 2:7): The Notion of ‘life’ in Ancient Israel and Emergence Theory

Abstract

This essay explores the way emergence theory could render the intuitive notions concerning human life found in ancient Israelite literature more precise and persuasive. In ancient Israel, life was granted by God to a lump of structured earthly material (Gen 2:7). The ‘living soul’ denoted the living being as a whole, which collapses when life is withdrawn by God (Gen 3:19). Life did not, therefore, represent an independent ontological reality, but a process triggered at the beginning, sustained while it lasted, and terminated at the end. Platonic dualism, in contrast, posited a pre-existent and post-existent soul that was incarnate or entrapped in the earthly body, but which could, in principle, subsist outside the body or without a body. In terms of emergence theory, Platonic dualism has become untenable. Emergence theory is able to update the more realistic Israelite concept of life as a process involving structured matter, and subject to the constraints of time, space and energy. A number of Israelite anthropological concepts are then juxtaposed with their modern scientific counterparts. This exercise does not ignore the difference between the scientific view of reality from within immanent reality and the believer’s view of the same reality from a transcendent perspective.