Reviewing Claus Westermann's Creation

Claus Westermann “Creation”

This had a profound effect on my thinking when I read it in the 1980s.

A bit of background story.   Claus Westermann (7 October 1909 – 11 June 2000) was a German Protestant Old Testament scholar. He taught at the University of Heidelberg from 1958 to 1978. Westermann is considered one of the premier Old Testament scholars of the twentieth century. 

Westermann’s observation that God never interrogates the serpent is one of the most important, and easily overlooked, features of Genesis 3. It shapes his entire understanding of how the text treats evil, responsibility, and the limits of human knowledge:

The serpent’s silence before God

In Genesis 3, God questions:
Adam: “Where are you?”
Eve: “What is this you have done?”

But God never asks the serpent anything. There is no “Why did you do this?” or “What is your purpose?” The serpent receives only a sentence, not a dialogue. 

For Westermann, this is not an accident. It is a literary and theological signal: the serpent’s origin, motive, and inner nature are deliberately withheld. Evil as a mystery, not an explained mechanism.

Westermann argues that Genesis 3 refuses to give an origin story for evil. The serpent simply appears - a creature within creation, cunning, speaking, but unexplained. This is consistent with the Hebrew Bible’s general approach:

· Evil is real.
· Evil is not metaphysically grounded.
· Evil’s origin is not revealed.

This is why Westermann insists that Genesis 3 is not a myth of cosmic rebellion or a metaphysical Fall. It is a story of human disobedience within a world where the possibility of temptation already exists, but whose deeper source remains beyond human grasp.

Westermann stresses that the serpent is introduced as:

“one of the animals the LORD God had made”

So cunning, but still a creature, neither divine nor demonic in the later Christian sense. By refusing to question the serpent, the text avoids turning it into a cosmic antagonist. It remains a creature, not a metaphysical enemy. This keeps Genesis 3 firmly within the worldview of the Hebrew Bible, not later dualistic or mythic systems.

The move to read the devil back into the serpent is a later development in Jewish and Christian interpretation, not something present in Genesis itself. The ancient text gives no hint that the serpent is anything other than a creature “that the LORD God had made.”. I have always thought that narrative re-interpretation comes dangerously close to a dualistic outlook.

Westermann famously argues that "the narrative of Genesis 2–3 does not speak of a fall" in the traditional dogmatic sense. Instead, he views it as a "primeval event" that describes the ongoing reality of being human.

He asserts that the word "fall" is inaccurate and deceptive because the text does not describe a move from a "perfect" state to a "ruined" one, but rather the introduction of disobedience and limits.
Alienation, Not Separation: He interprets the expulsion from Eden as alienation from God, not a definitive separation. He emphasizes that God continues to care for and give meaning to human life outside the garden.

(a) Agreement with Jewish Thought

Westermann’s work often mirrors the Jewish perspective that humans were created with two inclinations: the Yetzer HaTov (good) and Yetzer HaRa (evil/selfish). Like Jewish scholars, Westermann argues that humans remain God’s creatures after the garden. There is no "stain" passed down; instead, there is an ongoing choice between obedience and rebellion.

He agrees with the Rabbinic view that Genesis 3 explains why life is difficult (toil, pain, mortality) rather than why humans are inherently "evil."

Focus on the Narrative: Both prioritize the literal text over later systematic dogmas like the "Fall of Man."

(b) Agreement with Eastern Orthodoxy

Westermann’s "primeval history" approach resonates with the Orthodox concept of Ancestral Sin (as opposed to Original Sin) and Mortality vs. Guilt: Eastern Orthodoxy teaches that we inherit Adam’s mortality, not his guilt. Westermann similarly focuses on the "limits" placed on humanity (death and toil) as the primary consequence of the garden narrative.

The Goal is Still Union: Westermann’s idea that God remains "at work" in the world after the garden mirrors the Orthodox view that the Imago Dei (Image of God) was darkened but not destroyed.
Process over Event: He views the "fall" as a description of human frailty, which aligns with the Orthodox view of humanity as being created in an "infant" or "developing" state rather than a state of static perfection.