Many ancient peoples have preserved among their myths an account of
the creation of the world. Distorted though such stories may be, they
do contain certain basic elements common to other, more reliable
ancient documents. The Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the ancient
Quiche Maya of Guatemala, for instance, contains a creation story
very similar to that found in the Bible. It opens with a vista of
emptiness very much like that of Genesis 1:2:
“The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the
calm sea and the great expanse of the sky. There was nothing . . . .
There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the
night” (Popol Vuh, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950,
p.81).
In this expanse of water and chaotic gloom, then, creation began.
But unlike the conventional concept of a Creator doing all the work,
the Maya account speaks of two beings. Tepeu and Gucumatz, the
“Creator” and the “Maker,” known as the
“Fore-fathers,” combined their efforts for the task:
“Tepeu and Gucumatz came together in the darkness . . . and
talked together . . . discussing and deliberating; they agreed, they
united their words and their thoughts . . . . Then they planned the
creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets, and the birth
of life and the creation of man.
The story proceeds then with "Let there be light,” the
appearance of dry land, plants, animals and man, much as in
Genesis.
Notice that the Mayas speak of two creating beings instead of
one.
They have actually retained a detail not commonly understood outside
the original Hebrew context of the Genesis record. For the Bible,
too, shows there were two .distinct personalities involved in
creation, not one as commonly assumed.
When Genesis 1:1 opens with: “In the beginning God ...,“
the Hebrew word for “God” used here is Elohim. It is in the
plural form which can designate more than one. Note that Genesis 1:26
was correctly translated from the original Hebrew: “And God
said, Let us make man in our image.”
Most professing Christians would find it alien to conceive of more
than one being as the creator. Yet Elohim can express plurality. The
word in Genesis One means “God,” but in a family
relationship. The New Testament speaks of “God the Father”
and “God the Son,” the One who became Jesus. They are two
distinct beings, but both are God. Both of them have been together
since eternity. “In the beginning was the Word [the
Son], and the Word was with God [the Father], and the
Word was God” (John 1:1). Together they planned the creation,
and God the Son carried it out (John 1:3; Col. 1:1 6). Notice
Ephesians 3:9: “. . . God [the Father], who created all
things by Jesus Christ.”
Thus the Bible reveals that there were actually two spirit beings
— two distinct personalities who united their efforts in the
creation — exactly as the Maya account so surprisingly
relates.