Genesis 26

标题：Genesis 26
年份：2020
尺寸：47.28 x 70.85 cm

Title: Genesis 26
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.

26 / 50.

26:1 从前在亚伯拉罕的时候，曾经有过一次饥荒，现在那地又有饥荒，以撒就到基拉耳去，到非利士人的王亚比米勒那里。26:2 耶和华向以撒显现，说：“你不要下到埃及去，要住在我所指示你的地方。26:3 你要寄居在这地，我必与你同在，必赐福给你，因为我要把这全地都赐给你和你的后裔，履行我向你父亲亚伯拉罕所起的誓。26:4 我必使你的后裔增多，好象天上的星那样多；我必把这全地都赐给你的后裔；地上的万国都必因你的后裔得福。26:5 这是因为亚伯拉罕听从了我的话，遵守了我的吩咐、我的命令、我的条例和我的律法。”26:6 于是，以撒就住在基拉耳。26:7 那地方的人问起他的妻子，他就回答：“她是我的妹妹。”因为他不敢说：“她是我的妻子。”他心里想：“恐怕这地方的人，因利百加的缘故把我杀了，因为她容貌美丽。”26:8 以撒在那里住了很久。有一天，非利士人的王亚比米勒从窗户里向外观望，看见以撒正在爱抚他的妻子利百加。26:9 亚比米勒于是把以撒召了来，对他说：“你看，她实在是你的妻子，你怎么说是你的妹妹呢？”以撒回答他：“因为我心里想：‘恐怕我因她的缘故丧命。’”26:10 亚比米勒说：“你向我们作的是甚么事呢？人民中间险些有人与你的妻子同睡，那你就把我们陷在罪恶里了。”26:11 于是，亚比米勒吩咐全国人民，说：“凡是触犯这人或是他的妻子的，必被处死。”26:12 以撒在那里耕种，那一年丰收百倍，耶和华实在赐福给他。26:13 他就日渐昌大，越来越富有，成了个大富翁。26:14 他拥有羊群、牛群和很多仆人，非利士人就嫉妒他。26:15 他父亲亚伯拉罕在世的时候，所有由他父亲仆人挖的井，非利士人都塞住了，填满了土。26:16 亚比米勒对以撒说：“你离开我们去吧，因为你比我们强大得多了。”26:17 以撒于是离开那里，在基拉耳谷支搭帐棚，住在那里。26:18 他父亲亚伯拉罕在世的时候，仆人所挖的水井，在亚伯拉罕死后都被非利士人塞住了。以撒重新挖掘这些井，仍然照着他父亲所起的名字叫它们。26:19 以撒的仆人在山谷里挖井，在那里挖得一口活水井。26:20 基拉耳的牧人与以撒的牧人争闹起来，说：“这水是我们的。”以撒就给那井起名叫埃色，因为他们与他相争。26:21 以撒的仆人又挖了另一口井，他们又为这井争闹起来，因此以撒给这井起名叫西提拿。26:22 以撒离开那里，又挖了另一口井；他们不再为这井争闹了，他就给那井起名利河伯，因为他说：“现在耶和华给我们宽阔的地方，我们必在这里繁盛起来了。”26:23 以撒从那里上到别是巴去。26:24 那天晚上，耶和华向他显现，说：“我是你父亲亚伯拉罕的　神；你不要怕，因为我与你同在；我必为了我仆人亚伯拉罕的缘故，赐福给你，使你的后裔增多。”26:25 以撒就在那里筑了一座祭坛，呼求耶和华的名；又在那里支搭帐棚；以撒的仆人也在那里挖了一口井。26:26 亚比米勒和他的朋友亚户撒，以及他的军长非各，从基拉耳来到以撒那里。26:27 以撒问他们：“你们既然恨我，把我从你们中间赶出来，为甚么又到我这里来呢？”26:28 他们回答：“我们实在看见耶和华与你同在，因此我们想：‘不如我们双方起誓。’让我们与你立约吧；26:29 你不要伤害我们，正如我们从来没有触犯你，只有善待你，让你平平安安地离开。现在你是蒙耶和华赐福的了。”26:30 以撒就为他们摆设筵席，他们就一起吃喝。26:31 第二天，他们清早起来，彼此起誓；以撒就送他们走，他们平平安安地离开他走了。26:32 那一天，以撒的仆人来把他们挖井的事告诉他，说：“我们找到水了。”26:33 以撒就给那井起名叫示巴，因此那城名叫别是巴，直到今日。26:34 以扫四十岁的时候，娶了赫人比利的女儿犹滴，和赫人以伦的女儿巴实抹为妻。26:35 她们二人常使以撒和利百加伤心难过。

创世记 26

26:1 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar.26:2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live.26:3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.26:4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring(Or seed) all nations on earth will be blessed,(Or and all nations on earth will use the name of your offspring in blessings (see 48:20))26:5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”26:6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.26:7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”26:8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.26:9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”26:10 Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”26:11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”26:12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.26:13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.26:14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.26:15 So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.26:16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”26:17 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled.26:18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.26:19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there.26:20 But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek,(Esek means dispute.) because they disputed with him.26:21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.(Sitnah means opposition.)26:22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth,(Rehoboth means room.) saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”26:23 From there he went up to Beersheba.26:24 That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”26:25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.26:26 Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces.26:27 Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”26:28 They answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you26:29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.”26:30 Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.26:31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.26:32 That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!”26:33 He called it Shibah,(Shibah can mean oath or seven.) and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.(Beersheba can mean well of the oath and well of seven.)26:34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.26:35 They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Genesis 26

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