What is

beautiful?

Erasmo da Rose
2022
 Introduction
When I was at the age of 19, I started architecture and
urbanism, feeling lost like any freshman. Soon I had my first project,
designing a cultural center. Following the teacher's guidance, I
identified the visual axes, and the pedestrian flows and gave the first
traces. I joined the buildings under a large slab and the space in the
middle of them formed a large ramp that could be used as an
amphitheater. I finished the drawings and took them to orientation.
It seemed like a good start but there was a problem, the slab was
unguarded. I went back to the drawings and had an idea, fill the sides
of the slab with those rounded columns. I returned to the orientation
and soon heard: banisters?! You ruined the project!
The banisters were a great frustration, but they brought me
this question: what makes something beautiful? It was the beginning
of a long journey through art history and architecture, philosophy
and semiotics. But what surprised me most was finding answers in
the Holy Book, the Bible.
 What already
exists?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth (Gen. 1:1).

Before thinking about the beautiful, we need to reflect on

what exists, to situate ourselves. The Bible gives us a good idea of this
subject in its first chapter, the creation account.
The text begins with the expression “in the beginning,”
introducing the notion of time, but in this principle, God is already
there, so the first thing that exists, according to the text, is God.
The text says that God “created the heavens and the earth.”
Here we have two things that have come into existence by the power
of God: the heavens, which is what we see when we look up, space;
and the earth, which is what we see when we look down, a mixture of
the chemical elements.
Then the text gives us some more information about the
earth and introduces the figure of the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2), then
begins the week of creation with God saying, “Let there be light”(Gen.
1:3). He said, and it was done. This shows that God's power not only
creates but moves things.
On the first day, God separated light from darkness, called
light day and darkness night (Gen. 1:4). On the second day he created
the firmament, separated the waters below and above the firmament,
and called it heaven (Gen. 1:6-8). On the third day, he gathered the
waters that were below into one place and caused the dry part to
arise. The dry part he called land, and the whole of the waters he
called seas (Gen. 1:9, 10). We see that in these early days, God
separated and named chemical elements. This organization we can
call information.
 On the fourth day, God said, “Let the earth be covered with
vegetation.” And so it was (Gen. 1:11). He also made the two great
luminaries and the stars (Gen. 1:14-19). On the fifth day, he created
the aquatic animals, and all the birds (Gen. 1:20-23). On the sixth
day, he created the land animals and also the man and woman, which
we will address below (Gen. 1:24-31). These days we see that, in
addition to creating the luminaries, God filled the earth with life. Life
is not just an organization of chemical elements, it is something
different, self-organizing, a mystery.
So these are the things that exist in Genesis 1: God, time,
space, the mixing of chemical elements, information, and life.
 The Human
Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness (Gen. 1:26).

The beautiful is closely linked to our nature, so let's look at

the creation of man.
God created man in a special way, formed him from the dust
of the earth and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, also
formed the woman from a man's rib (Gen. 2:7, 18, 21-22). But what
does it mean to be made in His image and likeness? Adam and Eve
had characteristics in common with God. They felt the chemical
elements, like animals, but they also understood the information
because they spoke to God, speaking is a way of thinking. Adam
named the animals (Genesis 2:19), that is, he also created
information. They were in a relationship with God. He asked them to
obey him but gave them freedom of choice.
Another characteristic in common with God is that they
judged. God said at the end of creation that “everything had become
very good” (Gen. 1:31), and when Eve approached the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, she “saw that the tree seemed pleasant to
the palate” (Gen. 3:6). In the original Hebrew, the word translated
good is tov [‫ ]טוֹב‬. The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon defines it as
something that is pleasant, but it is also translated as beautiful and
well.
We come now to our question, let us analyze some of these
texts to understand their meaning.
 Excellent
Eat honey, my son. It's good (tov). The comb is sweet to the palate
(Pr 24:13)

This verse gives us a first impression of the meaning of the

word tov, when he relates it to the sweetness of honey. God created a
variety of foods that give us the nutrients we need, but He also made
them in ways that please our taste buds.
The Bible also relates the word tov to the fragrance of
perfumes (So 1:3), the shade of trees (Ho 4:13), and the kisses of the
beloved (So 1:2). These are impressions of the chemical elements we
feel with taste, smell, and touch, and they give us physical pleasure.
This is the first meaning of the word tov, which pleases our
physical nature.
 Beautiful
Then the Lord God brought forth from the ground all manner
of trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food
(Gen. 2:9).

In this verse we see the expression “pleasing to the eyes”, it

explains what is beautiful, but how is it pleasing to the eyes?
A teacher once told us that a beautiful project has a clear
intention. Vision, just like hearing (sometimes touch), does not feel
the chemical elements like the other senses, what they capture are
information, so we perceive the author's intentions through
relationships and patterns. They may please or displease us as we
agree or disagree with them. They also cause us good or bad feelings
depending on the relationships we establish with our past
experiences.
Information is as important to us as food, it is the
constitution of our mind. This is the second meaning of the word tov,
which pleases our mental nature.
 Well
And the Lord God commanded man, “Eat freely of any tree
in the garden, but do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
(tov) and evil, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen.
2:16-17).

The word tov has a third meaning, in this verse we see it as

opposed to evil.
God is good (Psalm 119:68). In our relationship with Him,
He reveals His will. In this sense, tov is what pleases God. Adam and
Eve lived happily in Eden, but they listened to the serpent and
brought a curse on humanity. But God gave them hope, he told them
that the woman's descendant would bruise the serpent's head, and
the serpent would bruise his heel (Gen. 3:15). it wasn't over yet.
Jesus came into the world to fulfill this prophecy and also to
reveal God in his teachings and in his life.
Jesus once told the Pharisee Nicodemus, “No one can enter
the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John
3:5). And the Apostle Paul also said: “Whoever does not have the
Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God,
because they are folly to him; and he is not able to understand them,
because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).”
Therefore this is the third meaning of the word tov, which
pleases God, and also us, when we are moved by the Spirit.
 Conclusion
As we have seen, God created the physical world (of chemical
elements), the mental world (of information), and the spiritual world
(of God's purposes). And he made us with a physical, mental, and
spiritual nature. These natures need to be nurtured. And God gave us
these pleasant sensations and feelings (tov) to help us and make us
enjoy life.