Searching for the Sword of the Cherubim

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims,
and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. - Genesis 3:24

So concludes the brief story of humans in Paradise as related in Genesis. The rest of the Bible is concerned with human history and redemption in a fallen world. Cherubim do reappear as artwork on the Ark of the Covenant, and as angelic creatures in Ezekiel, but the flaming sword is not mentioned again, although it is implied to be present so long as this world endures.

In an age which has seen expeditions searching for the remains of Noah's Ark, one might expect that someone would have sought some manifestation of this flaming sword as a clue to this story of Paradise. However, if such an effort has been made, it has not been covered extensively enough to leave a public impression.

On the other hand, this does not mean that such a structure does not exist. It is the premise of this essay that within the last century that we have indeed become aware of something fitting the sword's description in Genesis. However it is so grand in scope, and so omnipresent, that the similarities have been overlooked. Yet, it not only has the properties suggested in Genesis, but it has additional traits which could be said to render this world less than Paradise. Furthermore, it may suggest ways in which the story of Genesis can be reconciled with the world described by modern science.

The Light Cone

Following Einstein's development of the Special Theory of Relativity in 1905, Herman Minkowski demonstrated that the theory could be pictured in a particularly elegant way by considering space and time as a unified, four-dimensional structure. Time is added to the common three dimensions of our everyday spatial experience, and the resulting four-dimensional spacetime is now viewed as the fundamental container of our reality, or our world.

In this four-dimensional structure, there exists at every point, a structure now known to physicists as the light cone. According to physics, all electromagnetic radiation emitted at a point will pass along the forward cone into the future. All such radiation received at a point passes into the point from the past along the backward cone. Heat and light (flame) are forms of electromagnetic radiation. In a very real sense, the cone's surface flames. Furthermore, as pictured in our three-dimensional space, the radiation leaving an open flash at a point is emitted in every direction, and so it turns every way. As already noted, in the broader four-dimensional view, the cone is also present at every point, or everywhere in our universe.

But what about keeping the way? Today, almost everyone will have heard of how Einstein's theory prevents travel faster than light. In terms of the light cone, this is equivalent to saying that any line inside the light cone which describes the possible motion of a physical object must always remain inside that object's light cone. No such trajectory can pass through the wall of its cone, and reach the region outside that cone (although a line for a separate object can pass through the walls of my cone, it cannot pass through the walls of its own cone). The wall of the cone really does represent a physical barrier that we cannot breach. That barrier also divides our experience into regions which must be in the future from those that must be in the past, and both of those regions are separated from an additional spacetime region which we can never reach. That last item even affects our notions of cause and effect in that we say we cannot affect events in that exterior region, nor can our point be affected by them. Equally important is the fact that we cannot twist a line around in four dimensions to travel first to the future, and then back to the past. To do that we would have to pass through the impenetrable walls of the cone, which we cannot do. Thus, we cannot warn the past about events in the future. In a very real sense, the light cone even defines our notion of time itself, and our concepts of cause and effect. It also leaves us vulnerable to the unexpected in the future¹.

Beyond restricting our motions in this world, it is worth noting that the light cone spans the entire known universe. It is a magnificent structure embracing all of the billions of galaxies with their billions of stars. It defines some of the most fundamental attributes of this universe. In its scope, it is truly an entity grand enough to be worthy of the Hand of God.

The Fall

If the light cone were to be identified with the sword of Genesis, then the narrative of Genesis suggests it was not always present². In order for any sense to be made of this, we would assume that "time" in the first few sections of Genesis is something quite different (perhaps some sort of hypertime) from time in the universe as we know it, because time as we know it is closely related to the light cone. Furthermore, cause and effect would not necessarily be perceived in the same manner either, without the light cone.

These points raise the image of the universe as we now know it as being some sort of exile realm, perhaps more akin to the walls of Plato's cave than as the fundamental seat of existence. Time as we now experience it, as well as cause and effect, would be like shadows of the world of the pre Fall realm. In this sense then, the models of our universe as conceived by science could be accurate within their own framework without being inconsistent with the narrative of Genesis. Our measure of time, and our perception of causes need not be the same as those of Genesis, without there being any contradiction.

In particular, the current debate over the accuracy of the Theory of Evolution may be misguided. The scientist may indeed accurately measure items that point to a planet Earth that is 4.5 billion years old in the time of this universe, as well as detect a long history of evolving life forms. Not only need these not be inconsistent with Genesis, but the entire concept of, "Survival of the fittest," can be viewed as an affirmation of the fallen state of this universe, and its separation from God. The believer need only contrast that law of nature with the injunction from both the 37th Psalm and the Beatitudes that, "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." In that verse, the faithful accept the fact that this world is not so structured as it stands now, and they look forward to a restoration of that higher law in a new Paradise.

¹In contrast, Genesis states that Adam and Eve were clearly warned of consequences to be expected from their actions.

²Interestingly enough, it is possible to form a consistent theory of electromagnetism without a light cone.

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