The first and last words of Genesis set side by side. It opens 'in the beginning God' and closes 'in a coffin in Egypt' - and the one placed in the coffin is man, called Joseph, who died at a hundred and ten, was embalmed and laid in a coffin. Neville reads the two ends as one statement: 'I am the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega, the first and the last.' God made an image which had no power in itself, and the image becomes alive and responsive only by God sinking himself into it; so the beginning is God and the end is God buried in man. The Hebrew word for coffin is the same as the word for ark. And the burial is not a misfortune but the method - the only way an image that was merely made responsive can be turned into a life-giving being.
Kind
Formula
Interpretive layers
Biblical typology
Psychological interpretation
Collections
Lectures
Bible wordings
Genesis 1:1 | In the beginning God
Genesis 50:26 | In a coffin in Egypt
Own wordings
The word “coffin” is the same as the word “ark.”
Occurrences
LectureNo Other Foundation
The book begins, “In the beginning God…” and it ends “…in a coffin in Egypt.”
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“In the beginning God” - that is the beginning. The end of the book: “In a coffin in Egypt.” “In the beginning God - in a coffin in Egypt.” And the one placed in a coffin is man.
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the image has no power in itself. It only becomes animate and alive and responsive if God sinks himself in his image.
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It is divine imagining and divine imagining buries itself in man, in a coffin in Egypt. The word “coffin” is the same as the word “ark.”
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LectureMoses Elijah Jesus
Egypt is not in the Near East; you are Egypt. Joseph – which is your own wonderful human imagination – is buried in Egypt, (the body).
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LectureMoses Elijah Jesus
“In the beginning God” and the book ended on the note: “In a coffin in Egypt.” The one in the coffin was called Joseph. Joseph is human imagination
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