Genesis 16

标题：Genesis 16
年份：2020
尺寸：47.28 x 70.85 cm

Title: Genesis 16
Year: 2020
Dimension: 47.28 x 70.85 cm

「Genesis」系列作品，一共五十幅，对应《圣经》创世纪的五十章。

The "Genesis" series consists of 50 works, corresponding to the 50 chapters of the Bible's Genesis.

16 / 50.

16:1 亚伯兰的妻子撒莱，没有为他生孩子。撒莱却有一个婢女，是埃及人，名叫夏甲。16:2 撒莱对亚伯兰说：“请看，耶和华使我不能生育，求你去亲近我的婢女，或者我可以从她得孩子。”亚伯兰就听从了撒莱的话。16:3 亚伯兰在迦南地住满了十年，他的妻子撒莱，把自己的婢女埃及人夏甲，给了她的丈夫亚伯兰为妾。16:4 亚伯兰与夏甲亲近，夏甲就怀了孕。夏甲见自己有了孕，就轻看她的主母。16:5 撒莱对亚伯兰说：“我因你受屈；我把我的婢女送到你的怀中，她见自己有了孕，就轻看我。愿耶和华在你我之间主持公道。”16:6 亚伯兰对撒莱说：“你的婢女在你手中，你看怎样好，就怎样待她吧。”于是撒莱虐待夏甲，她就从撒莱面前逃走了。16:7 耶和华的使者在旷野的水泉旁边，就是在到书珥路上的水旁边，遇到了她，16:8 就问她：“撒莱的婢女夏甲啊，你从哪里来？要到哪里去？”夏甲回答：“我从我的主母撒莱面前逃出来。”16:9 耶和华的使者对她说：“回到你主母那里去，服在她的手下！”16:10 耶和华的使者又对她说：“我必使你的后裔人丁兴旺，多到不可胜数。”16:11 耶和华的使者再对她说：“看哪，你已经怀了孕，你要生一个儿子；你要给他起名叫以实玛利，因为耶和华听见了你的苦情。16:12 他将来为人，必像野驴。他的手要攻打人，人的手也要攻打他。他必住在众兄弟的东面。”16:13 于是，夏甲给那对她说话的耶和华，起名叫“你是看顾人的　神”，因为她说：“在这里我不是也看见了那位看顾人的吗？”16:14 因此，这井名叫庇耳．拉海．莱，是在加低斯和巴列之间。16:15 夏甲给亚伯兰生了一个儿子，亚伯兰就给夏甲所生的儿子，起名叫以实玛利。16:16 亚伯兰八十六岁的时候，夏甲给他生了以实玛利。

创世记 16

16:1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar;16:2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.16:3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.16:4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”16:6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.16:7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.16:8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.16:9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”16:10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”16:11 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael,(Ishmael means God hears.) for the Lord has heard of your misery.16:12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward(Or live to the east / of) all his brothers.”16:13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen(Or seen the back of) the One who sees me.”16:14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi(Beer Lahai Roi means well of the Living One who sees me.); it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.16:15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.16:16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Genesis 16

在科学可以近乎解释一切的这个时代，我们已经倾向于习惯这个世界发生的一切和周围的一切，无论它有多不可思议，甚至习以为常到不再思考它的不可思议性。

宇宙为何以及如何诞生？为何宇宙大爆炸有一个从无到有的“开始”？为何生命会从“无”诞生到“有”？为何会有复杂、精密的生命的存在？为什么人体内的 DNA 和细胞像微观世界一样复杂而精确，却以高度有序的方式完成其工作，就像被设计和编程的另一个宇宙一样？

无论是哈雷彗星的椭圆运行轨道，笛卡尔浪漫的心形函数，人体曼妙的黄金分割，天空飘零的六边雪花，甚至一片落叶飘落，都是一段美妙的函数方程。大如宇宙，小如雪花，都能在这些公式之中看到神性的秩序。

爆炸带来的皆是毁灭。最初，什么都没有，“大爆炸”却产生了时间、物质和空间，没有逐步的生成，没有过渡的形态，只是一种二元翻转，从“不存在”到“存在”。宇宙复杂且广阔，却能用高度有序的数学公式来描述，诞生了秩序甚至生命。仅凭这一点就令人难以置信，足以使人们终生寻求真理。

“存在可以从不存在而来”的这种“自然发生论”观念的证据何在？怎么从非生命体获得生命？为何我们还是不知道如何切实地从死物质创造出生命，却坦然地默认生命可以从非生命诞生？

宇宙背后的真理如此令人惊叹又神秘，生命是如此不可思议，我们却如此地习以为常，甚至不再感叹这一切的神奇。

「自从造天地以来，神的永能和神性是明明可知的，虽是眼不能见，但藉着所造之物就可以晓得，叫人无可推诿。」罗马书 1:20

“科学的尽头是神学。” 我认为，尽管科学有其局限性，而神学提供了答案，但神学并不是要解释科学的不足，仅靠科学也无法触及神学的核心。然而，科学和神学并非对立面，也并不妨碍我们在探索求知的路上保留着一颗敬畏之心。

「诸天述说神的荣耀，穹苍传扬祂的手段。」诗篇 19:1

大自然的壮丽景色，很容易让人心生敬畏，但是我发现即便日常最被人忽视的细微之景，也是“穹苍”的一部分。从“大”可以很自然地想到“大”，但如果从“小”也能看到“大”，“大”则更显荣耀。

在这个系列，我不是在试图回答上述问题或者阐述我对上述问题的世界观和立场，我只是在一些我们习以为常甚至忽略的细微场景中看到了“创造者”留下的“痕迹”和“威严”。

因此，我制定了一条规则：试图通过被忽视的日常细微之景，从敬畏和好奇中看到“大”与“小”之间的关系，以小尺度为窗口，探索和思考宇宙，生命，永恒与创造之间的关系。

In an era where science can nearly explain everything, we have become accustomed to everything that happens in this world and everything around us, no matter how incredible it is, or even accustomed to stop thinking about its incredibility.

Why and how did the universe come from? Why does the universe's big bang have a "start" from nothing? Why is life born from "nothing" to "life"? Why is there complex, sophisticated creatures? Why is the DNA and cells in our body as complex and precise as a microcosm, but complete its work in a highly orderly manner, just like another universe designed and programmed?

Whether it is the elliptical orbit of Comet Halley, the romantic heart-shaped function of Descartes, the graceful golden section of the human body, the Six-sided snowflake falling from the sky, or even a leaf falling, all are wonderful function equations. As big as the universe and as small as snowflakes, divine order can be seen in these formulas.

The explosion brought about destruction. Originally, there was nothing, but the "Big Bang" produced time, matter, and space. There was no gradual development, no transitional forms, but a binary flip, from "non-existence" to "existence." The universe is complex and vast, but it can be described by highly ordered mathematical formulas, gave birth to order and even life. This alone is unbelievable enough to let people explore the truth throughout their lives.

What is the evidence for the "abiogenesis", which is "something can come from nothing"? How to get life from non-life? Why do we still not know how to actually create life from dead stuff, but frankly assume that life can be born from non-life?

The truth behind the universe is so incredible and mysterious, life is so incredible, we are so accustomed to it, we are no longer lamenting the incredibility of all this.

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Romans 1:20

"The end of science is theology." I believe that although science has its limitations and theology provides the answer, theology is not to explain the deficiency of science, and science alone cannot reach the core of theology. However, science and theology are not opposites, and they do not prevent us from remaining awed on the road to exploring knowledge.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Psalm 19:1

The magnificent scenery of nature can easily make people awe-inspiring, but I find that even the most slight sceneries that are most overlooked in daily life are also part of the "skies". You can think of "big" naturally from "big", but if you can also see "big" from "small", "big" is even more glorious.

In this series, I am not trying to answer the above questions or to express my views and positions on the above questions. I just saw the "traces" and "majesty" left by the "creator" in some slight scenes that we are accustomed to and even ignore.

Therefore, I created a rule: trying to see "big" from "small" - with awe and curiosity, through daily neglected slight scenes, with “small scale” as the window, to explore and think about the relationship between the universe, life, eternity and creation.

- Boshan Zhou