God of the King James

¶ … God of the King James Bible and Maheo, of the Cheyenne Myth "How the World Was Made"

The King James Bible's version of the Genesis myth of creation and the Cheyenne myth "How the World Was Made" as retold by Alice Marriott and Carol C. Rachlin are both origin myths that detail how the world began from nothing. The stories chronicle the beginning of the earth, the animals, and humanity. They also detail humanity's relationship with the divine, creating force. Their plots are fairly similar, in that they explain how the world and humanity came to be, even though the relationship between the creator god and humanity is very different. Maheo of Cheyenne legend is a very human, very anthropomorphic god. This stands in primary contrast to the God of the Hebrew Bible of Genesis who has very little emotional resemblance to Adam or Eve, even though he created humanity in his image. Secondly, Maheo is a much emotionally needier god. Maheo is not all-powerful, and all-seeing like the confident God of Genesis. And unlike the God of Genesis, Maheo is capable of changing his mind, of taking advice, and learning, while the God of Genesis has no need to learn from the world that has been created solely as a result of his efforts.

The God of the King James Bible precedes all other things in the world, and thus is super-human. The Bible begins with the phrase "in the beginning God created the heavens" (163). What came before is unknowable. God is the beginning force behind all things. The Cheyenne myth seems to begin with a similar sense of nothingness, described as a "void" (11). However, the description of Maheo's emotional experience void is far more resonant with human experience, as if Maheo had an emotional life that preceded the creation of the world. The void is not simply nothing, but sounds more like a lonely room. "He looked around but there was nothing to see. He listened, but there was nothing to hear. There was only Maheo, alone in nothingness" (11). Of course, a reader might protest that the creation of Eve arises from God's apprehension of loneliness: "And the Lord God said, 'it is not good that man should be alone, I will make him a helpmeet'" (165). But God does not feel lonely, he only sense Adam's loneliness. God is not even described as being angry at Man's disobedience, although he punishes Adam and Eve. He merely says that the man "is become as one of us" and drives the couple from Eden (167). In contrast, Maheo is filled with human emotions as he creates the world: "How beautiful it all is, Maheo thought in his heart," as he created (11).

The omnipotence of the God of Genesis is conveyed by his stated approval "it was good," noting his creation of the light (163). However, this goodness is self-evident, it is never in question that a good God is making good things, and this good God knows 'what he is doing.' God knows what the world will resemble in minute detail, even before it occurs: "let the earth bring forth grass, the earth yielding seed,' he says (163). In contrast, Maheo is taken surprise by all of the creations that delight his eye and heart. There is a creation but the animals and beings that transpire from his creative process take him by surprise: "I should like to see the things that have been created" he says, upon surveying the animals (11). For Maheo, the beings he meets are also much more powerful than Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve have no knowledge, not even of their own nakedness. God gives them free will to choose to eat of the tree and to Fall, but he knows that they have fallen and what they will do before they do it. The beings Maheo confronts have knowledge that Maheo does not have, even though Maheo existed before their origin and Maheo is the creator God: "I do not see You, but I know that you exist," says a goose, who takes him by surprise. "I do not know where You are but I know that you must be everywhere" (11).

The goose gives Maheo good advice about reforming the world: "birds are not fish!" she cries, noting that the creatures he has created get tired and need a place to rest (11). Maheo complies with the goose's demand. In contrast, the God of Genesis does not tailor his request to the demands of Man and Woman, even though when he perceives demands, like Adam's loneliness, he compassionately addresses them. God "planted a Garden eastward in Eden," and planted Adam there, Adam did not have to advise him to create an appropriate habitat for man, like the animals of the Cheyenne myth (165). "To make such a place, I need all of your help, all of you," cries Maheo to the animals as he finishes the world (12). In contrast, the God of Genesis needs nor solicits no aid and judges harshly any being that deviates from His will, like the serpent to whom he says: "upon thy belly thou shall crawl and dust shall thou eat all the days of they life" (167). There is no question that eating from the Tree of Knowledge, because God prohibited it, was wrong of Adam and Eve, and it was wrong of the serpent to question God. Maheo does create a woman from man's rib like the God of Genesis, but he continues to creatively intervene in human affairs, not to punish, but to create buffalo, and he acts without judgment: "Maheo is still with us" and taking human advice as well as giving needed gifts to humanity (15).