Braiding Sweetgrass reveals surprising parallels between Indigenous and biblical creation myths

By Nick Gier | FaVS News Columnist

“One story led to the generous embrace of
the living world, the other to banishment.”
—Robin Wall Kimmerer

I have been reading “Braiding Sweetgrass:Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, professor of environmental biology at the State University of New York. Early in the book the author, a member of the Potawatomi Tribe, tells the story of Sky Woman, a legend found in her own Haudenosaunee tradition and other Great Lakes people.

In the beginning the earth was covered in water and darkness. The only creatures there were those who lived in the water such as otters, beavers, muskrats, swans, ducks, geese, loons and all the fish.

One day the Great Spirit sent his daughter Sky Woman on a risky mission. She was instructed to fall through a hole in the sky and descend to the world below. Swans flew up to help break her fall, and one swan offered a place on her back. Rising out of the water, a huge turtle provided Sky Woman a safe landing.

Sky Woman carried with her a packet of seeds gathered from the Tree of Life in the spirit world. She asked the animals if there was some soil in which to plant these precious gifts. The animals had heard of mud below the waters in which they swam.

Each in turn, the animals dove down, in vain, to gather it. Only a muskrat, the weakest of divers but the most determined, succeeded. Sadly, the overexertion led to her death, but a small amount of mud was found in a clenched fist.

The mud was placed on the turtle’s back, and, as Sky Woman performed a dance of thanksgiving, the new soil began to spread all over his shell. Sky Woman planted her seeds and a veritable garden of plants, shrubs and trees began to grow throughout North America. The indigenous people still call it Turtle Island to this day.

Sky Woman’s twins and biblical parallels

Sky Woman was also pregnant, and soon she gave birth to twins. One was a good child but the other constantly caused trouble among the tribe. The parallel to the biblical Eve is instructive: Cain and Abel were not twins but Cain “belonged to the evil one (Satan) and murdered his brother” (1 John 3:12).           

The origin of the Genesis creation story is a Babylonian myth about a battle between a sky god Marduk and Tiamat, a goddess of watery chaos. The Hebrew version is found in Genesis 1:2, which says, “The earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

A reader might say that a hole in the sky is a fantastical thing, but the Hebrew cosmology has a solid sky dome (the “firmament”), and there are “flood gates” through which God rained down a deluge from heaven. (Genesis 7:11) 

Conservative evangelical Joseph Dillow argues convincingly that God’s storehouses of rain are not just clouds or ocean basins; rather, they most definitely have a celestial location. (See Section E. of chapter, “Three-Story Universe,” from my “God, Reason, and the Evangelicals” book, here: bit.ly/3JPw75z.)

Adam and Eve were instructed to “till and keep” the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15), but God forbade them from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil on pain of death. As a vegetarian, I note with delight that God gave them vegetables and fruit (not meat) for food (Genesis 1:29).

In Genesis 3:20, Adam “named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” The traditional view is that she is just the mother of humanity. However, an alternative argument can be made that she is the mother of all living beings.

Pastor James Tippins submits that Adam “does not name her ‘the one who fell’ or ‘the one who tempted.’ He names her life (chava).” Significantly, he adds: “That doesn’t just refer to human life.”

The phrase “all life” (kol chi) is found, for example, in God’s promise to Noah: “I will never again destroy all life, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21) As the scholars at Abarim Publications assert: “Eve is the mother of the biosphere; all living things.”

A reader might ask: “How can a human mother give birth to animals”? My response is that Eve is not a real person any more than Sky Woman is. I prefer to see them as fertility goddesses or symbols of the life force.

“Adam” is not a proper name either, but the word literally means “made from the earth.” (The Apostle Paul called him the “Dust Man.”) Adam stands for a generic humanity; neither male nor female. Adam is an androgyn, and the female part does not individuate until Eve emerges, as an equal, from his side.

From grace to banishment: contrasting falls

Sky Woman “fell” into the garden that she would create, but Adam and Eve “fell” from grace and were banished from their garden forever. It is significant to note that the concept of original sin originated with Tertullian and St. Augustine, and it is not a Jewish doctrine.

Because of Eve’s alleged disobedience, she has been generally condemned in the Christian tradition. The Church Father Tertullian called Eve and her daughters “the devil’s gateway.” Here is the origin of the destructive misogyny that has infected Christianity to this day. 

Eve as the mother of all the living could be a symbol for a Judeo-Christian environmental theology. Afterall, the most common toast at Jewish gatherings, “To Life” (l’chaim), is essentially a salute to Mother Eve.

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.

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