Page - 98 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:1–2) and “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” (Gen. 22:17). “In the beginning God created” – marks the beginning of time. In the argu- ment over the question of whether the universe had a beginning, and if so what that beginning was, there are two main schools of thought. The first, which in- cludes Judaic, Christian and Muslim thought, claims that the universe was creat- ed ex nihilo, out of nothing, and that humanity must constantly make progress, as that is its essence. Saint Augustine recorded, “But there was nothing cor- poreal before heaven and earth … For whatsoever that were of which such a voice was made, unless it was made by thee, it could not be at all.”6 The second school is the one expressed by Plato and Aristotle’s conception of God, accord- ing to which God is a designer and an architect, but not a creator. The material world is perceived as eternal rather than created. “If now this universe is fair and its Artificer good, it is plain that he looked to the eternal”;7 “God … having received all that is visible not in a state of rest, but moving without harmony or measure, brought it from its disorder into order”;8 “So the universal design of the ever-living God … and he made it a sphere in a circle revolving, a universe one and alone”;9 “For the pattern is existent for all eternity; but the copy has been and is and shall be throughout all time continually.”10 “The last days” marks the end of time. The first verse of Genesis also lays the foundation for the end, possibly even for the Apocalypse. If there is a genesis, there must be an apocalypse. The Bible’s linear perception of time leads from the creation to the end of days, and it is along this timeline that history runs its course.11 The arrow of time presents generation after generation, event after event, up until the present moment, from which there stretches a direct, contin- uous line towards the end point – the last days, the Apocalypse.12 The prophets of Israel had much to say about the end of days, and about its dependence on the conduct of the community and the nation: “But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains; it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it” (Mic. 4:1); “Thus saith the Lord: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work will be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy” (Jer. 31:16). 6 Augustine 1950, 238. 7 Plato 1888, 89. 8 Plato 1888, 93. 9 Plato 1888, 103–105. 10 Plato 1888, 123. 11 Dan 2000, 19. 12 Zeligman 1992, 102–103. 98 | Bina Nir www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 95–116