Genesis Creation Myth

The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity, told in the book of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. While the Jewish and Christian tradition is that the account is one comprehensive story, modern scholars of biblical criticism identify the account as a composite work made up of two different stories drawn from different sources.

The first account, in Genesis 1:1–2:3, is from what scholars call the Priestly source (P), largely dated to the 6th century BC. In this story, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word for "god") creates the heavens and the Earth in six days, and then rests on, blesses, and sanctifies the seventh (i.e., the Biblical Sabbath). The second account, which takes up the rest of Genesis 2, is largely from the Jahwist source (J), commonly dated to the 10th or 9th centuries BC. In this story, God (now referred to by the personal name Yahweh) creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. There, he is given dominion over the animals. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam's side as his companion.

The first major comprehensive draft of the Pentateuch (the J source) is thought to have been composed in either the late 7th or the 6th century BC, and was later expanded by other authors (the P source) into a work much alike to Genesis as known today. The authors of the text were influenced by Mesopotamian mythology and ancient near eastern cosmology, and borrowed several themes from them, adapting and integrating them with their unique belief in one God. The combined narrative is a critique of the Mesopotamian theology of creation: Genesis affirms monotheism and denies polytheism.

Composition

Genre

Scholarly writings frequently refer to Genesis as myth, a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is in contrast to more vernacular usage of the term "myth", which refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the veracity of a myth is not a defining criterion.

Authorship and dating

Although Orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Christians attribute the authorship of the book of Genesis to Moses "as a matter of faith", the hypothesis of Mosaic authorship has been questioned since the 11th century and rejected in scholarship since the 17th century. Scholars of biblical criticism conclude that it, together with the following four books (making up what Jews call the Torah and biblical scholars call the Pentateuch), is "a composite work, the product of many hands and periods".

The creation narrative consists of two separate accounts drawn from different sources. The first account, in Genesis 1:1–2:3, is from what scholars call the Priestly source (P), largely dated to the 6th century BC. The second account, which is older and takes up the rest of Genesis 2, is largely from the Jahwist source (J), commonly dated to the 10th or 9th centuries BC.

The two stories were combined, but there is currently no scholarly consensus on when the narrative reached its final form. A common hypothesis among biblical scholars today is that the first major comprehensive narrative of the Pentateuch was composed in the 7th or 6th centuries BC. A sizeable minority of scholars believe that the first eleven chapters of Genesis, also known as the primeval history, can be dated to the 3rd century BC based on discontinuities between the contents of the work and other parts of the Hebrew Bible, after their conquest of Babylon in 538 BC, agreed to grant Jerusalem a large measure of local autonomy within the empire, but required the local authorities to produce a single legal code accepted by the entire community. According to this theory, there were two powerful groups in the community: the priestly families who controlled the Temple and the landowning families who made up the "elders", which were in conflict over many issues. Each had its own "history of origins", but the Persian promise of greatly increased local autonomy for all provided a powerful incentive to cooperate in producing a single text.

Two stories

The creation narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the two first chapters of the book of Genesis (there are no chapter divisions in the original Hebrew text; see chapters and verses of the Bible).

In the first story, the Creator deity is referred to as "Elohim" (the Hebrew generic word for "god"), whereas in the second story, he is referred to with a composite divine name; " L God". Traditional Jewish and evangelical scholars such as Collins explain this as a single author's variation in style in order to, for example, emphasize the unity and transcendence of "God", who created the heavens and Earth by himself, in the first narrative. Critical scholars such as Richard Elliot Friedman, on the contrary, take this as evidence of multiple authorship. Friedman states that the J source originally only used the "L" (Yahweh) title, but a later editor added "God" to form the composite name: "It therefore appears to be an effort by the Redactor (R) to soften the transition from the P creation, which uses only 'God' (thirty-five times), to the coming J stories, which use only the name YHWH."

The first account employs a repetitious structure of divine fiat and fulfillment, then the statement "And there was evening and there was morning, the 'n''^thday", for each of the six days of creation. In each of the first three days, there is an act of division: day one divides the darkness from light, day two the "waters above" from the "waters below",, and day three the sea from the land. In each of the next three days, these divisions are populated: day four populates the darkness and light with the Sun, Moon, and stars; day five populates seas and skies with fish and fowl; and finally, land-based creatures and humanity populate the land.

In the second story, Yahweh creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. There, he is given dominion over the animals. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam's rib as his companion.

A literary bridge joins the primary accounts in each chapter in Genesis 2:4, reading, "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created." This echoes the first line of Genesis 1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth", and is reversed in the next phrase, "...in the day that the God made the earth and the heavens". This verse is one of ten "generations" ( ') phrases used throughout Genesis, which provide a literary structure to the book. They normally function as headings to what comes after, but the position of this, the first of the series, has been the subject of much debate.

The overlapping stories of Genesis 1 and 2 are usually regarded as contradictory but also complementary, with the first (the P story) concerned with the creation of the entire cosmos while the second (the J story) focuses on man as moral agent and cultivator of his environment.

Mesopotamian influence

Comparative mythology provides historical and cross-cultural perspectives for Jewish mythology. Both sources behind the Genesis creation narrative were influenced by Mesopotamian mythology, borrowing several themes from them but adapting them to Israelite religion and establishing a monotheistic creation in opposition to the polytheistic creation myth of ancient Israel's neighbors.

Genesis 1 bears striking similarities and differences with '' Enuma Elish'', the Babylonian creation myth. The myth begins with two primeval entities: Apsu, the male freshwater deity, and Tiamat, the female saltwater deity. The first gods were born from their sexual union. The younger gods killed both Apsu and Tiamat. Marduk, the leader of the gods, builds the world with Tiamat's body, which he splits in two. With one half, he creates a dome-shaped firmament in the sky to hold back Tiamat's upper waters. With the other half, Marduk forms dry land to hold back her lower waters. Marduk then organises the heavenly bodies and assigns tasks to the gods in maintaining the cosmos. When the gods complain about their work, Marduk creates humans out of the blood of the god Kingu. The grateful gods build a temple for Marduk in Babylon. This is similar to the Baal Cycle, in which the Canaanite god Baal builds himself a cosmic temple over seven days.

In both Genesis 1 and ''Enuma Elish'', creation consists of bringing order out of chaos. Before creation, there was nothing but a cosmic ocean. During creation, a dome-shaped firmament is put in place to hold back the water and make Earth habitable. Both conclude with the creation of a human called "man" and the building of a temple for the god (in Genesis 1, this temple is the entire cosmos). In contrast to ''Enuma Elish'', Genesis 1 is monotheistic. There is no theogony (account of God's origins), and there is no trace of the resistance to the reduction of chaos to order (Greek: theomachy, lit. "God-fighting"), all of which mark the Mesopotamian creation accounts. The gods in ''Enuma Elish'' are amoral, they have limited powers, and they create humans to be their slaves. In Genesis 1, however, God is all-powerful. He creates humans in the divine image and cares for their wellbeing, and gives them dominion over every living thing.

''Enuma Elish'' has also left traces on Genesis 2. Both begin with a series of statements of what did not exist at the moment when creation began; ''Enuma Elish'' has a spring (in the sea) as the point where creation begins, paralleling the spring (on the land; Genesis 2 is notable for being a "dry" creation story) in that "watered the whole face of the ground"; in both myths, Yahweh/the gods first create a man to serve him/them, then animals and vegetation. At the same time, and as with Genesis 1, the Jewish version has drastically changed its Babylonian model: Eve, for example, seems to fill the role of a mother goddess when, in , she says that she has "created a man with Yahweh", but she is not a divine being like her Babylonian counterpart.

Genesis 2 has close parallels with a second Mesopotamian myth, the Atra-Hasis epicparallels that, in fact, extend throughout , from the Creation to the Flood and its aftermath. The two share numerous plot details (e.g., the divine garden and the role of the first man in the garden, the creation of the man from a mixture of earth and divine substance, the chance of immortality), and have a similar overall theme: the gradual clarification of man's relationship with God(s) and animals.

Cosmology

Genesis 1–2 reflects ancient ideas about science: in the words of E. A. Speiser, "on the subject of creation biblical tradition aligned itself with the traditional tenets of Babylonian science." The opening words of Genesis 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth", sum up the belief of the author(s) that Yahweh, the God of Israel, was solely responsible for the creation and had no rivals. Later Jewish thinkers, adopting ideas from Greek philosophy, concluded that God's Wisdom, Word and Spirit penetrated all things and gave them unity. Christianity, in turn, adopted these ideas and identified Jesus with the creative word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" ( John 1:1). When the Jews came into contact with Greek thought, there followed a major reinterpretation of the underlying cosmology of the Genesis narrative. The biblical authors conceived the cosmos as a flat disc-shaped Earth in the centre, an underworld for the dead below, and heaven above. Below the Earth were the "waters of chaos", the cosmic sea, home to mythic monsters defeated and slain by God; in Exodus 20:4, God warns against making an image "of anything that is in the waters under the earth". There were also waters above the Earth, and so the ''raqia'' (firmament), a solid bowl, was necessary to keep them from flooding the world. During the Hellenistic period, this was largely replaced by a more "scientific" model as imagined by Greek philosophers, according to which the Earth was a sphere at the centre of concentric shells of celestial spheres containing the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets.

The idea that God created the world out of nothing (''creatio ex nihilo'') has become central today to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism – indeed, the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides felt it was the only concept that the three religions shared – yet it is not found directly in Genesis, nor in the entire Hebrew Bible. According to Walton, the Priestly authors of Genesis 1 were concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into the habitable cosmos), but with assigning roles so that the cosmos should function. John Day, however, considers that Genesis 1 clearly provides an account of the creation of the material universe. Even so, the doctrine had not yet been fully developed in the early 2nd century AD, although early Christian scholars were beginning to see a tension between the idea of world-formation and the omnipotence of God; by the beginning of the 3rd century this tension was resolved, world-formation was overcome, and creation had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology.

Alternative biblical creation accounts

The Genesis narratives are not the only biblical creation accounts. The Bible preserves two contrasting models of creation. The first is the "logos" (speech) model, where a supreme God "speaks" dormant matter into existence. Genesis 1 is an example of creation by speech.

The second is the "agon" (struggle or combat) model, in which it is God's victory in battle over the monsters of the sea that marks his sovereignty and might. There is no complete combat myth preserved in the Bible. However, there are fragmentary allusions to such a myth in Isaiah 27:1, Isaiah 51:9–10, Job 26:12–13. These passages describe how God defeated the forces of chaos. These forces are personified as sea monsters. These monsters are variously named Yam (Sea), Nahar (River), Leviathan (Coiled One), Rahab (Arrogant One), and Tannin (Dragon).

Psalm 74 and Isaiah 51 recall a Canaanite myth in which God creates the world by vanquishing the water deities: "Awake, awake! ... It was you that hacked Rahab in pieces, that pierced the Dragon! It was you that dried up the Sea, the waters of the great Deep, that made the abysses of the Sea a road that the redeemed might walk..."

First narrative: Genesis 1:1–2:3

Background

The first creation account is divided into seven days during which God creates light (day 1); the sky (day 2); the earth, seas, and vegetation (day 3); the sun and moon (day 4); animals of the air and sea (day 5); and land animals and humans (day 6). God rested from his work on the seventh day of creation, the Sabbath.

The use of numbers in ancient texts was often numerological rather than factual – that is, the numbers were used because they held some symbolic value to the author. The number seven, denoting divine completion, permeates Genesis 1: verse 1:1 consists of seven words, verse 1:2 has fourteen, and 2:1–3 has 35 words (5×7); Elohim is mentioned 35 times, "heaven/firmament" and "earth" 21 times each, and the phrases "and it was so" and "God saw that it was good" occur 7 times each.

The cosmos created in Genesis 1 bears a striking resemblance to the Tabernacle in , which was the prototype of the Temple in Jerusalem and the focus of priestly worship of Yahweh; for this reason, and because other Middle Eastern creation stories also climax with the construction of a temple/house for the creator god, Genesis 1 can be interpreted as a description of the construction of the cosmos as God's house, for which the Temple in Jerusalem served as the earthly representative.

Pre-creation (Genesis 1:1–2)

:1 In the beginning God [Elohim] created the heaven and the earth.
:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit [] of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The opening phrase of Genesis 1:1 is traditionally translated in English as " in the beginning God created". This translation suggests (). The Hebrew, however, is ambiguous and can be translated in other ways. The NRSV translates verses 1 and 2 as, "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void..." This translation suggests that earth, in some way, already existed when God began his creative activity.

Biblical scholars John Day and David Toshio Tsumura argue that Genesis 1:1 describes the initial creation of the universe, the former writing: "Since the inchoate earth and the heavens in the sense of the air/wind were already in existence in Gen. 1:2, it is most natural to assume that Gen. 1:1 refers to God's creative act in making them." Other scholars such as R. N. Whybray, Christine Hayes, Michael Coogan, Cynthia Chapman, and John H. Walton argue that Genesis 1:1 describes the creation of an ordered universe out of preexisting, chaotic material.

The word "created" translates the Hebrew , a word used only for God's creative activity; people do not engage in . Walton argues that does not necessarily refer to the creation of matter. In the ancient Near East, "to create" meant assigning roles and functions. The which God performs in Genesis 1 concerns bringing "heaven and earth" from chaos into ordered existence. Day disputes Walton's functional interpretation of the creation narrative. Day argues that material creation is the "only natural way of taking the text" and that this interpretation was the only one for most of history.

Most interpreters consider the phrase "heaven and earth" to be a merism meaning the entire cosmos. Genesis 1:2 describes the earth as "formless and void". This phrase is a translation of the Hebrew (). by itself means "emptiness, futility". It is used to describe the desert wilderness. has no known meaning, although it appears to be related to the Arabic word ('to be empty'), and was apparently coined to rhyme with and reinforce . The phrase appears also in Jeremiah 4:23 where the prophet warns Israel that rebellion against God will lead to the return of darkness and chaos, "as if the earth had been 'uncreated'".

Verse 2 continues, "darkness was upon the face of the deep". The word ''deep'' translates the Hebrew (), a primordial ocean. Darkness and are two further elements of chaos in addition to . In ''Enuma Elish'', the watery deep is personified as the goddess Tiamat, the enemy of Marduk. In Genesis, however, there is no such personification. The elements of chaos are not seen as evil but as indications that God has not begun his creative work.

Verse 2 concludes with, "And the of God lohimmoved upon the face of the waters." There are several options for translating the Hebrew word (). It could mean 'breath', 'wind', or 'spirit' in different contexts. The traditional translation is "spirit of God". In the Hebrew Bible, the spirit of God is understood to be an extension of God's power. The term is analogous to saying the "hand of the Lord" (). Historically, Christian theologians supported "spirit" as it provided biblical support for the presence of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, at creation.

Other interpreters argue for translating as "wind". For example, the NRSV renders it "wind from God". Likewise, the word ' can sometimes function as a superlative adjective (such as "mighty" or "great"). The phrase ' may therefore mean "great wind". The connection between wind and watery chaos is also seen in the Genesis flood narrative, where God uses wind to make the waters subside in Genesis 8:1.

In ''Enuma Elish'', the storm god Marduk defeats Tiamat with his wind. While stories of a cosmic battle prior to creation were familiar to ancient Israelites , there is no such battle in Genesis 1 though the text includes the primeval ocean and references to God's wind. Instead, Genesis 1 depicts a single God whose power is uncontested and who brings order out of chaos.

Six days of Creation (1:3–2:3)

Creation takes place over six days. The creative acts are arranged so that the first three days set up the environments necessary for the creations of the last three days to thrive. For example, God creates light on the first day and the light-producing heavenly bodies on the fourth day.

Each day follows a similar literary pattern:
# Introduction: "And God said"
# Command: "Let there be"
# Report: "And it was so"
# Evaluation: "And God saw that it was good"
# Time sequence: "And there was evening, and there was morning"

Verse 31 sums up all of creation with, "God saw every thing that He had made, and, indeed, it was very good". According to biblical scholar R. N. Whybray, "This is the craftsman's assessment of his own work... It does not necessarily have an ethical connotation: it is not mankind that is said to be 'good', but God's work as craftsman."

At the end of the sixth day, when creation is complete, the world is a cosmic temple in which the role of humanity is the worship of God. This parallels ''Enuma Elish'' and also echoes Job 38, where God recalls how the stars, the "sons of God", sang when the corner-stone of creation was laid.

First day (1:3–5)

The process of creation illustrates God's sovereignty and omnipotence. God creates by fiat; things come into existence by divine decree. Like a king, God has merely to speak for things to happen. On day one, God creates light and separates the light from the darkness. Then he names them. God therefore creates time.

Creation by speech is not found in Mesopotamian mythology, but it is present in some ancient Egyptian creation myths. While some Egyptian accounts have a god creating the world by sneezing or masturbating, the Memphite Theology has Ptah create by speech. In Genesis, creative acts begin with speech and are finalized with naming. This has parallels in other ancient Near Eastern cultures. In the Memphite Theology, the creator god names everything. Similarly, ''Enuma Elish'' begins when heaven, earth, and the gods were unnamed. Walton writes, "In this way of thinking, things did not exist unless they were named." According to biblical scholar Nahum Sarna, this similarity is "wholly superficial" because in other ancient narratives creation by speech involves magic:

Second day (1:6–8)

On day two, God creates the firmament (), which is named ( or ), to divide the waters. Water was a "primal generative force" in pagan mythologies. In Genesis, however, the primeval ocean possesses no powers and is completely at God's command.

is derived from , the verb used for the act of beating metal into thin plates. Ancient people throughout the world believed the sky was solid, and the firmament in Genesis 1 was understood to be a solid dome. In ancient near eastern cosmology, the earth is a flat disc surrounded by the waters above and the waters below. The firmament is a solid dome that rests on mountains at the edges of the earth. It is transparent, allowing men to see the blue of the waters above with "windows" to allow rain to fall. The sun, moon and stars are underneath the firmament. Deep within the earth is the underworld or Sheol. The earth is supported by pillars sunk into the waters below.

The waters above are the source of precipitation, so the function of the was to control or regulate the weather. In the Genesis flood narrative, "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth" from the waters beneath the earth and from the "windows" of the sky.

Third day (1:9–13)

By the end of the third day God has created a foundational environment of light, heavens, seas and earth. God does not create or make trees and plants, but instead commands the earth to produce them. The underlying theological meaning seems to be that God has given the previously barren earth the ability to produce vegetation, and it now does so at his command. "According to (one's) kind" appears to look forward to the laws found later in the Pentateuch, which lay great stress on holiness through separation.

In the first three days, God set up time, climate, and vegetation, all necessary for the proper functioning of the cosmos. For ancient peoples living in an agrarian society, climatic or agricultural disasters could cause widespread suffering through famine. Nevertheless, Genesis 1 describes God's original creation as "good"the natural world was not originally a threat to human survival.

The three levels of the cosmos are next populated in the same order in which they were createdheavens, sea, earth.

Fourth day (1:14–19)

On the first day, God makes light (Hebrew:). On the fourth day, God makes "lights" or "lamps" (Hebrew:) set in the firmament. This is the same word used elsewhere in the Pentateuch for the lampstand or menorah in the Tabernacle, another reference to the cosmos being a temple. Specifically, God creates the "greater light", the "lesser light", and the stars. According to Victor Hamilton, most scholars agree that the choice of "greater light" and "lesser light", rather than the more explicit "sun" and "moon", is anti-mythological rhetoric intended to contradict widespread contemporary beliefs in sun and moon deities. Indeed, Rashi posits that the account of the fourth day reveals that the sun and the moon operate only according to the will of God, and so demonstrates that it is foolish to worship them.

On day four, the language of "ruling" is introduced. The heavenly bodies will "govern" day and night and mark seasons, years and days. This was a matter of crucial importance to the Priestly authors, as the three pilgrimage festivals were organised around the cycles of both the sun and moon in a lunisolar calendar that could have either 12 or 13 months.

In Genesis 1:17, the stars are set in the firmament. In Babylonian myth, the heavens were made of various precious stones with the stars engraved in their surface (compare Exodus 24:10 where the elders of Israel see God on the sapphire floor of heaven).

Fifth day (1:20–23)

On day five, God creates animals of the sea and air. In Genesis 1:20, the Hebrew term () is first used. They are of higher status than all that has been created before this, and they receive God's blessing.

The Hebrew word (translated as "sea creatures" or "sea monsters") in Genesis 1:21 is used elsewhere in the Bible in reference to chaos-monsters named Rahab and Leviathan ( Psalm 74:13, Isaiah 27:1 and 51:9). In Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythologies (''Instruction of Merikare'' and ''Enuma Elish''), the creator-god has to do battle with the sea-monsters before he can make heaven and earth. In Genesis, however, there is no hint of combat, and the are simply creatures created by God. The Genesis account, therefore, is an explicit polemic against the mythologies of the ancient world.

Sixth day (1:24–31)

On day six, God creates land animals and humans. Like the animals of the sea and air, the land animals are designated (). They are divided into three categories: domesticated animals (), whild herd animals that serve as prey (), and wild predators (). The earth "brings forth" animals in the same way that it brought forth vegetation on day three.

In Genesis 1:26, God says "Let us make man..." This has given rise to several theories, of which the two most important are that "us" is majestic plural, or that it reflects a setting in a divine council with God enthroned as king and proposing the creation of mankind to the lesser divine beings. A traditional interpretation is that "us" refers to a plurality of persons in the Godhead, which reflects Trinitarianism. Some justify this by stating that the plural reveals a "duality within the Godhead" that recalls the "Spirit of God" mentioned in verse 2; "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters".

The creation of mankind is the climax of the creation account and God's implied purpose for creating the world. Everything created up to this point was made for humanity's use. Man was created in the "image of God". The meaning of this is unclear but suggestions include:
# Having the spiritual qualities of God such as intellect, will, etc.;
# Having the physical form of God;
# A combination of these two;
# Being God's counterpart on Earth and able to enter into a relationship with him;
# Being God's representative or viceroy on Earth;
# Having dominion over Creation like the angels in ;
# Moral excellence and the possibility of glorification (cf. ; ; ).

When in Genesis 1:26 God says "Let us make man", the Hebrew word used is ; in this form it is a generic noun, "mankind", and does not imply that this creation is male. After this first mention the word always appears as , 'the man', but as Genesis 1:27 shows ("So God created man in his wnimage, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them."), the word is still not exclusively male.

God blesses humanity, commanding them to reproduce, 'subdue' () the earth and 'rule' () over it, in what is known as the cultural mandate. Humanity is to extend the Kingdom of God beyond Eden, and, imitating the Creator-God, is to labour to bring the earth into its service, to the end of the fulfilment of the mandate. This would include the procreation of offspring, the subjugation and replenishment of the earth (e.g., the use of natural resources), dominion over creatures (e.g., animal domestication), labor in general, and marriage. God tells the animals and humans that he has given them "the green plants for food"creation is to be vegetarian. Only later, after the Flood, is man given permission to eat flesh. The Priestly author of Genesis appears to look back to an ideal past in which mankind lived at peace both with itself and with the animal kingdom, and which could be re-achieved through a proper sacrificial life in harmony with God.

Upon completion, God sees that "every thing that He had made ... was very good" (). According to Israel Knohl, this implies that the materials that existed before the Creation (, "darkness", ) were not "very good". He thus hypothesized that the Priestly source set up this dichotomy to mitigate the problem of evil. However according to Collins, since the creation of man is the climax of the first creation account, "very good" must signify the presentation of man as the crown of God's creation, which is to serve him.

Seventh day: divine rest (2:1–3)

These three verses belong with and complete the narrative in chapter 1. Creation is followed by "rest". In ancient Near Eastern literature the divine rest is achieved in a temple as a result of having brought order to chaos. Rest is both disengagement, as the work of creation is finished, but also engagement, as the deity is now present in his temple to maintain a secure and ordered cosmos. Compare with Exodus 20:8–20:11: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the thy , in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

Second narrative: Genesis 2:4–2:25

Genesis 2–3, the Garden of Eden story, was probably authored as "a discourse on ideals in life, the danger in human glory, and the fundamentally ambiguous nature of humanity – especially human mental faculties". The Garden in which the action takes place lies on the mythological border between the human and the divine worlds, probably on the far side of the cosmic ocean near the rim of the world; following a conventional ancient Near Eastern concept, the Eden river first forms that ocean and then divides into four rivers which run from the four corners of the earth towards its centre. According to Meredith Kline, who represents covenant theology and the framework interpretation, the narrative establishes the site of the "climactic probation test", which is also where the "covenant crisis" of Genesis 3 occurs.

The pericope that constitutes the second narrative is generally taken to begin at ("These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the God made the earth and the heavens",) because it is widely recognized as a chiasmus (in the following quote, each subject of the chiasmus is preceded by " 'x'' to denote its place in the chiastic configuration; "These are the generations 'a''of the heavens 'b''and of the earth 'c''when they were created 'c''in the day that the God made 'b''the earth 'a''and the heavens").

The origin of humanity and plant life (2:4–7)

The content of the verse 4 opening is a set introduction similar to those found in Babylonian myths. Before the man is created, the earth is a barren waste watered by an (); of the King James Version has the translation "mist" for this word, following Jewish practice. Since the mid-20th century, Hebraists have generally accepted that the real meaning is "spring of underground water".

In Genesis 1 the characteristic word for God's activity is , 'created'; in Genesis 2 the word used when he creates the man is ( ), meaning 'fashioned', a word used in contexts such as a potter fashioning a pot from clay. God breathes his own breath into the clay and it becomes (), a word meaning 'life', 'vitality', "the living personality"; man shares with all creatures, but the text describes this life-giving act by God only in relation to man.

The Garden of Eden (2:8–14)

The word "Eden" comes from a root meaning "fertility": the first man is to work in God's miraculously fertile garden. The "tree of life" is a motif from Mesopotamian myth: in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' (c. 1800 BC) the hero is given a plant whose name is "man becomes young in old age", but a serpent steals the plant from him. Kline regards the tree of life as a symbol or seal of the reward of eternal life for successful fulfilment of the covenant by humanity. There has been much scholarly discussion about the type of knowledge given by the second tree. Suggestions include: human qualities, sexual consciousness, ethical knowledge, or universal knowledge; with the last being the most widely accepted. In Eden, mankind has a choice between wisdom and life, and chooses the first, although God intended them for the second.

The mythic Eden and its rivers may represent the real Jerusalem, the Temple and the Promised Land. Eden may represent the divine garden on Zion, the mountain of God, which was also Jerusalem; while the real Gihon was a spring outside the city (mirroring the spring which waters Eden); and the imagery of the Garden, with its serpent and cherubs, has been seen as a reflection of the real images of the Temple of Solomon with its copper serpent (the nehushtan) and guardian cherubs. Genesis 2 is the only place in the Bible where Eden appears as a geographic location: elsewhere (notably in the Book of Ezekiel) it is a mythological place located on the holy Mountain of God, with echoes of a Mesopotamian myth of the king as a primordial man placed in a divine garden to guard the tree of life "in the midst of the garden" (2:9).

God's covenant with Adam (2:15–17)

Kline states that the terms of the covenant (a divine legal transaction with divinely sanctioned commitments), specifically the Covenant of Works, are summarised in verses 15-17. In verse 15, humanity is to "dress" and "keep" the garden (KJV), or to "work it" and "take care of it" ( NIV). In verse 17, God gives the "focal probationary proscription", that Adam must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which refers to "judicial discernment" (cf. ; ) and a curse is attached if the proscription is transgressed, which is said to be death, although Kline interprets this to be spiritual death or eternal perdition rather than physical death. The Hebrew behind this is in the form used in the Bible for issuing death sentences. "Good and evil" can also be interpreted as a merism, so in this case it would mean simply "everything".

A suitable helper (2:18–25)

After God's observation that it is "not good that man should be alone" in , but before he causes Adam to sleep, then creating Eve from his side in verses 21–22, Adam's first recorded action is carried out alone, his naming of each of the other creatures brought to him by God (). This appears to be an exercise of the authority and the dominion given to Adam in . Verse 20 also states that, among all the animals, none was found to be a suitable helper for him, which leads into the account of the creation of Eve.

The first woman is created out of one of Adam's ribs to be ( ) – a term notably difficult to translate – to the man. means "alongside, opposite, a counterpart to him", and refers to active intervention on behalf of the other person. God's naming of the elements of the cosmos in Genesis 1 illustrated his authority over creation; now the man's naming of the animals (and of woman) illustrates Adam's authority within creation.

The woman is called ( ), 'woman', with an explanation that this is because she was taken from ( ), meaning 'man', but the two words are not in fact connected.

Adam rejoices at being given a helper, exclaiming (or singing) that she is "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh". Henri Blocher refers to Adam's words as "poetry"; Alistair Wilson proposes that they should be treated as "song".

Later, after the story of the Garden is complete, the woman receives a name: (, Eve). This means 'living' in Hebrew, from a root that can also mean 'snake'. Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer connects Eve's creation to the ancient Sumerian myth of Enki, who was healed by the goddess Nin-ti, "the Lady of the rib"; this became "the Lady who makes live" via a pun on the word , which means both "rib" and "to make live" in Sumerian. The Hebrew word traditionally translated "rib" in English can also mean "side", "chamber", or "beam". A long-standing exegetical tradition holds that the use of a rib from man's side emphasises that both man and woman have equal dignity, for woman was created from the same material as man, shaped and given life by the same processes.

Interpretations

Hexameral literature

The Genesis creation narrative inspired a genre of Jewish and Christian literature known as the Hexameral literature. This literature was dedicated to the composition of commentaries, homilies, and treatises concerned with the exegesis of the biblical creation narrative through ancient and medieval times. The first Christian example of this genre was the '' Hexaemeron'' of the fourth-century theologian Basil of Caesarea, and many other works went on to be written by authors including Augustine of Hippo, Jacob of Serugh, Jacob of Edessa, Bonaventure, and so on.

Framework interpretation

The framework interpretation (also known as the "literary framework" view, "framework theory", or "framework hypothesis") is a description of the structure of the first creation narrative (more precisely, ). Biblical scholars and theologians present the structure as evidence that the first creation narrative constitutes a symbolic rather than literal presentation of creation.

Two triads and three kingdoms

Kline's analysis divides the six days of creation in Genesis into two groups of three ("triads"). The introduction, Genesis 1:1–2, "In the beginning… the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep…", describes the primal universe containing darkness, a watery "deep", and a formless earth, over which hovers the spirit of God. The following three days describe the first triad: the creation of light and its separation from the primal darkness (Genesis 1:3–5); the creation of the "firmament" within the primal waters so that the heavens (space between the firmament and the surface of the seas) and the "waters under the firmament" can appear (Genesis 1:6–8); and the separation of the waters under the firmament into seas and dry land with its plants and trees. The second triad describes the peopling of the three elements of the first: sun, moon, and stars for the day and night (Genesis 1:14–19), fish and birds for the heavens and seas (Genesis 1:20–23), and finally animals and man for the vegetated land (24–31). This framework is illustrated in the following table.

Differences exist in classifying the two triads, but Kline's analysis is suggestive: the first triad (days 1–3) narrates the establishment of the creation kingdoms, and the second triad (days 4–6), the production of the creature kinds. Furthermore, this structure is not without theological significance, for all the created realms and regents of the six days are subordinate vassals of God, who takes his royal Sabbath rest as the Creator on the seventh day. Thus, the seventh day marks the climax of the creation week.

Supporters and critics

The framework interpretation is held by many theistic evolutionists and some progressive creationists. Some argue that it has a precedent in the writings of the Church Father Augustine of Hippo. Arie Noordzij of the University of Utrecht was the first proponent of the Framework Hypothesis in 1924. Nicolaas Ridderbos (not to be confused with his more well-known brother, Herman Nicolaas Ridderbos) popularized the view in the late 1950s. It has gained acceptance in modern times through the work of such theologians and scholars as Meredith G. Kline, Henri Blocher, John H. Walton and Bruce Waltke. Old Testament and Pentateuch scholar Gordon Wenham supports a schematic interpretation of Genesis 1 as described in the following quote.

The framework view has been successful in the modern era because it is seen as a resolution of the traditional conflict between the Genesis creation narrative and contemporary science. It presents an alternative to literalist interpretations of the Genesis narratives, which are advocated by some conservative Christians and creationists at a popular level. Creationists who take a literalist approach reject symbolic or allegorical interpretations of the Genesis creation narrative as conceding to scientific authority at the expense of biblical authority. Advocates of the framework view respond by noting that scripture affirms God's general revelation in nature (see ; ); therefore, in the search for the truth about the origins of the universe, we must be sensitive to both the "book of words" (scripture) and the "book of works" (nature). Since God is the author of both "books", we should expect that they do not conflict with each other when properly interpreted.

Opponents of the framework interpretation include James Barr, Andrew Steinmann, Robert McCabe, and Ting Wang. Additionally, some conservative systematic theologians, such as Wayne Grudem and Millard Erickson, have criticised the framework interpretation, deeming it an unsuitable reading of the Genesis text. Grudem states that "while the 'framework' view does not deny the truthfulness of scripture, it adopts an interpretation of scripture which, upon closer inspection, seems very unlikely".

Literal interpretations

The meaning to be derived from the Genesis creation narrative will depend on the reader's understanding of its genre, the literary "type" to which it belongs (e.g., creation myth, historical saga, or scientific cosmology).

While biblical criticism has deconstructed many traditional views on the Bible, conservative evangelical traditions have tended to interpret the Genesis creation narrative in a literal way but have also engaged in (sometimes heated) disputes on the interpretation of Genesis.

According to Biblical scholar Francis Andersen, misunderstanding the intention of the author(s) and the culture within which they wrote will result in a misreading. Reformed and evangelical scholar Bruce Waltke cautions against one such misreading: the "woodenly literal" approach, which leads to "creation science", but also to such "implausible interpretations" as the " gap theory", the presumption of a " young earth", and the denial of evolution. Scholar of Jewish studies Jon D. Levenson goes further in doubting whether historicity can be attributed to Genesis at all:

Another scholar, Conrad Hyers, summed up the same thought by writing, "A literalist interpretation of the Genesis accounts is inappropriate, misleading, and unworkable ecauseit presupposes and insists upon a kind of literature and intention that is not there."

See also

* Adapa
* Anno Mundi
* Apollo 8 Genesis reading
* Allegorical interpretations of Genesis
* Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
* Babylonian mythology
* Biblical chronology
* Biblical cosmology
* Biblical criticism
* Christian mythology
* Creation–evolution controversy
* Creation mandate
* Cultural mandate
* Eridu Genesis
* Genesis flood narrative
* Hexameron
* Islamic mythology
* List of creation myths
* Ningishzida
* Religion and mythology
* Sanamahi creation myth
* Sumerian literature
* Theistic evolution
* Tower of Babel
* Tree of the knowledge of good and evil

Notes

References

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External links

Framework interpretation

Biblical texts

(Hebrew–English text, translated according to the JPS 1917 Edition)

Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3
(Hebrew–English text, with Rashi's commentary. The translation is the authoritative Judaica Press version, edited by Rabbi A. J. Rosenberg.)


(New American Bible)


(King James Version)

Chapter 1Chapter 2
(Revised Standard Version)

Chapter 1Chapter 2
(New Living Translation)

Chapter 1Chapter 2
(New American Standard Bible)

Chapter 1Chapter 2
(New International Version (UK))

Mesopotamian texts

Summary of Enuma Elish with links to full text.

ETCSLText and translation of the Eridu Genesis

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford


"Epic of Gilgamesh" (summary)


British Museum: Cuneiform tablet from Sippar with the story of Atra-Hasis

Framework interpretation

* (advocating the framework view).
* (describing the framework view and its general agreement with Catholic teaching).
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Related links

Human Timeline (Interactive)
– Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).

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