In the 26th chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy there is a liturgical answer to the question of who we are and where we came from. It is part of the instructions about offering thanksgiving gifts after the people of Israel came into the promised land. In the Book of Deuteronomy it is presented as a speculation: “When you finally get to this land and possess it and settle in it, this is what you will do.” The liturgical response was probably in use for a long time before the book became a written document. It is likely that the phrase had been repeated by many generations before it was incorporated into the Bible. Some scholars believe that it is among the most ancient parts of the Bible. Here is what it says, translated into English in the New Revised Standard Version:

“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Deuteronomy 26:5b-9 NRSV)

For a long time this liturgical response was used as the origin story of our people. When asked who we were and where we came from, this was our answer.

Later, the answer of origins evolved into a more complex story. Often it was accompanied by a partial genealogy list that started with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Many generations later in Biblical history came the events that have been recognized as the dividing point in Old Testament History. The Babylonian Exile (586-538 BCE) saw the elites from Jerusalem taken away from the city and disbursed all around Babylon. Although there was a core of common laborers left in Jerusalem, those who had been wealthy and powerful prior to the exile were spread out among people with different languages, culture and religion than theirs. They began to fear the loss of their traditional ways. Among other things, the exiles got serious about bringing together sacred texts and stories into a written document that we know as scripture. The people among whom the exiles lived, and with whom their children intermarried and mingled, had a long and complex story of how the earth came to be known as Enuma elish. This was a story of multiple gods and battles between different gods. The exiled Jews did not believe that this story was the truth. Over the years of exile and following years they developed their own more complex stories of origin. The Hebrew Scriptures, called the Old Testament, begin with two of those stories.

The first begins this way, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light: and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3 KJV)

The second starts as if it might be a genealogy. It is the story of Adam and Eve and begins like this: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day the the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, . . .” (Genesis 2:4 KJV)

These two stories from the beginning of Genesis have been used by some Christians as if they were scientific texts about the origins of the universe. They have tried to reconcile biblical timelines with the fossil record, and impossible task. They have created debates and tried to use scripture to refute scientific theory. The texts were never intended to be used that way. They are liturgical texts - formal answers to questions about our origins to be repeated in worship. They existed for centuries before scientific methods were developed.

Now, so many generations and centuries later, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have discovered a new pentaquark and two tetra quarks. This takes the total number of the tiniest particles known to humankind to 21. Each is unique. Excited scientists have begun to speculate on other subatomic particles might exist and how they might behave. It took a long time for theories about subatomic particles to be developed. The Greek philosopher Democritus speculated that the world is made up of indivisible particles which he called atoms. By the end of the 19th and early 20th century, scientists knew that atoms were not indivisible. In fact they are made up of smaller particles: electrons, neutrons and protons. Neutrons and protons themselves are mad from smaller particles, called quarks. Scientists now believe that understanding the interaction of quarks might reveal the nature of the entire universe. These sub-atomic particles have a fleeting existence. They last less than a hundred billionth of a second. And they travel quickly at close to the speed of light. That makes they difficult to study.

Particle physics is still at the stage of learning and developing ideas. Their stories of the origins of the universe have not yet been codified into liturgy that is memorized and repeated by many as an answer to “Who are we and where did we come from?” It could take millennia for sufficient discoveries to be made and sufficient agreement to be found for there to be a group of people who describe sub atomic behavior in a consistent and liturgical fashion.

It is not possible with the knowledge humans currently possess to make a rational argument between our scriptures and current scientific theory. They operate in two different areas of human endeavor. We can cherish the ancient texts without giving up our curiosity about current scientific discovery. The stories are not incompatible. They play different functions in our community.

I have no interest in so called debates between scripture and science. I’m comfortable studying the ancient texts and also to read of the discoveries of scientists. I find nothing in their discoveries that challenges the value of sacred texts.