Genesis, Epigenetics, and the Law of the Sabbath
Written by Timeout Taumua, Award-Winning Author
On behalf of Brainz Magazine, let us introduce Timeout A. Taumua, a multi-award-winning author of The Magnificence of the 3, an expository book about the scientific nature of the Bible. The book and the author had been dubbed by some prominent editorial reviewers as "a rare work constructed by a rare being" and "a rare book by a rare person".
One of the most confusing passages in the biblical creation account appears in Genesis 2:1-8, leading some scholars to propose that it is a second creation account.[1] However, as I propose in The Magnificence of the 3, these verses may instead preserve, parabolically, profound insights into brain development.[2]
Behind these verses, I found three significant elements of neurological design:
The first example of neurological epigenetic design.
A neurological safeguard: sleep or rest.
A symbolic representation of the Bible’s first scientific expression of “memory.”
These three elements led me to a deeper question: How could a biblical practice preserve a memory across generations without being encoded directly in DNA? To explore that possibility, I turned to the relatively new field of epigenetics.
What is epigenetics?
Epigenetics is a relatively new field of science. Although complex, its basic principles helped me develop a claim about the scientific meaning of one controversial biblical commandment.
It is well established that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) carries inherited genetic information, including traits such as eye and hair color and aspects of facial development, and passes it forward. Epigenetics, however, examines how environmental and behavioral factors can influence gene expression without altering the underlying DNA sequence.[3]
For example, researchers studying C. elegans exposed the worms to harmful bacteria. Their descendants later avoided the bacteria despite never being exposed to it, suggesting that an environmentally induced response can be transmitted across generations through what is now known as epigenetics, without altering the underlying DNA.[4]
Beyond the worm studies, researchers have found that descendants of people exposed to severe trauma, including genocide, can exhibit altered stress and anxiety responses associated with their ancestors’ experiences.[5] Stress and anxiety may affect descendants who have never experienced a genocide themselves.
In simple terms, it appears that repeated experiences connected to survival may influence the brain and, in some circumstances, potentially affect biological responses across generations through epigenetic mechanisms.
Coming across this field helped me understand one of the Bible’s most controversial commandments. In the Second Commandment, God warns that He would punish descendants of an idol-worshipping parent to the third and fourth generations.[6] This raises a legitimate question: Why would a fair, merciful, and loving God punish innocent children for their fathers’ sins?
Epigenetics offers a possible way to understand the commandment’s parabolic meaning. Rather than a display of authoritarian power, it preserves a warning about another aspect of brain design: repeated behaviors can strengthen neural pathways associated with survival and influence subsequent generations. If idol worship became a repeated cultural behavior, its effects could potentially be carried forward for generations. What the Bible presented as a generational consequence, science now gives us a possible framework for examining through epigenetics.
The epigenetic memory of God in the Sabbath law
This brings us to the Law of the Sabbath. After the six days of creation, God rested on the seventh day, blessed it, and made it holy.[7] When the Ten Commandments (Tree of Life) were issued later, God mandated the seventh day as the Sabbath, a day of rest for parents, children, servants, animals, and strangers living among us.[8]
While searching for clues as to whether God left an imprint in the DNA of His Image and Likeness as He did with the atom, I came across several scholarly works, such as Dr. Dean Hamer’s The God Gene, which claims that an inclination to religious faith is due to our genetic makeup.
However, I propose that our inability to find irrefutable scientific evidence of God embedded in human DNA may be explained by epigenetic design. This may have been the purpose behind the Law of the Sabbath.
It was meant to keep the memory of God alive through cultural practice and potentially pass that memory forward epigenetically. The more frequently a behavior is practiced, the more its neural pathways are reinforced. It is the same for the idol-worshipping parent, and God warned of the danger to descendants because He designed the brain to pass memories accepted by the brain as useful for survival.
The law of the Sabbath and free will
Understanding this design suggests that perhaps a “God gene” has not been found because God’s memory was never meant to be genetically hardwired. God does want us to know Him, but there is an element of free will attached to the plan. If the Law of the Sabbath was designed to preserve memories of the Creator, then it also preserves the freedom to choose, unlike a hypothetical God-DNA sequence that would biologically link everyone to God. In my view, the epigenetic design leaves each person free to choose whether to follow the Creator by honoring the Sabbath. The same applies to the idol worshipper, which is why God left the warning in the Commandment.
The design seems to suggest that knowing God is not a fundamental right per se, but a privilege earned for survival purposes. By dedicating one day of rest to honor God, we keep His memory alive. Since God designed the brain with plasticity to adapt through experiences, this enables descendants of idol worshippers to adjust and return to God of their own free will.[9]
I propose that the Law of the Sabbath was designed to strengthen memories epigenetically, rather than as a case about honoring God alone.
Brain rest and memory formation
To be clear, there was only one creation. Genesis 2:1-4 establishes that creation was done, and God rested on the seventh day. However, verses 5-6 record something that was not included in the first six days of creation: a mist that first watered the ground.
“No shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground; but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.”[10]
These verses have contributed to claims that Genesis contains two creation accounts. I propose, however, that placing the “mist” immediately after God rested was intentional and denoted three things:
The first biblical expression of what we now associate with memory.
The connection between rest and memory.
The importance of the “mist” in the design of Earth.
Genesis is a record of first instances. Therefore, I propose that Genesis 2:1-6 preserves the Bible’s first symbolic connection between rest and memory. Although the “mist” might seem more appropriate in the first chapter, its appearance immediately after God rested may be precisely what gives the passage its significance. Here are a few reasons rest and sleep act as safeguards in maintaining the brain:
Sleep supports the formation and storage of long-term memory. A lack of sleep impairs cognition, especially memory.[11]
Furthermore, sleep gives the brain a chance to clean itself by flushing away waste products built up during the day.[12]
After three days without sleep, a person may experience delusions, paranoia, psychosis, and cognitive impairments.[13]
These are just a few examples of what I suggest was behind the inclusion of the Sabbath in the overall design of the human brain. Sleep allows the brain to maintain and restore its structure by cleaning it. The Sabbath was not simply about honoring God, but about ensuring that people rest so the brain can clean itself and, while doing so, create a memory of the Creator and pass it forward.
The key, for me, is the connection between God’s rest and remembrance of the “mist.” He was so busy that He forgot to add it in the first chapter. By remembering after He rested, the passage symbolically connects “rest” to the formation and preservation of long-term “memory.” The fact that even God had to rest reinforces the principle’s importance. This was the first case of scientific/biblical memory recorded and of epigenetic design.[14]
“… Overall, this book is more than a philosophical treatise; it challenges readers to reconsider the links between knowledge, morality, and existence, making it an enlightening read for anyone interested in the fusion of science and spirituality. Very highly recommended.”
Read more from Timeout Taumua
Timeout Taumua, Award-Winning Author
Timeout decided to join our community to share the scientific meaning of biblical stories that God revealed to him, such as the identities of the Ark of the Covenant, the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge, and the Tree of Life, including parabolic tales depicting the splitting of the atom. In light of the 26 book awards, a Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award, and the nature of our community, these discoveries should be of interest to some of us, if not all.
References:
[1] Halvorson-Taylor, n.d.
[2] Taumua, 2023, pp. 500-07
[3] Associates, 2019
[4] Duddy, 2020
[5] Curry, 2005
[6] Exodus 20:5-6 (NKJV)
[7] Genesis 2:2-3 (NKJV)
[8] Exodus 20:8-11 (NKJV)
[9] Taumua, 2023, pp. 500-508
[10] Genesis 2:5-6 (Hebrew English Version (HEV))
[11] Blumberg, Dragoi, & Mazure, 2022
[12] Team N. E., 2026
[13] Vandergriendt, 2018
[14] However, the significance of the “mist” will be explored in the third book of the series.
