Self-Consciousness

“The Bible is interested not on physis, but in nomos: not in the laws that govern nature, but in the moral laws that should govern humankind. The Greek translation of Torah, the Jewish name for the Mosaic books, is Nomos, ‘law’. Hence the Bible does not begin with the birth of Homo sapiens, a biological species, hundreds of thousands of years ago, but much later, with the discovery of monotheism some six thousand years ago. The critical moment seems to have been the dawn of individual self-consciousness.”

The Great Partnership, p. 230