Primal Myths
Page 19
—Encyclopedia Britannica. Vol 3 (14th ed.). London and New York: 1929, p. 460.—Quoted in Alexander Heidel. The Babylonian Genesis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942, pp. 66–67.
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT MYTHS
Genesis 1–2:3 The first five books of the Old Testament—the Torah or Pentateuch—were compiled and edited over five centuries by four main groups of authors, and Bible scholars have worked arduously to determine which groups wrote which passages. Each of the four main traditions has certain notable characteristics, and the first account of the creation in Genesis 1–2:3 bears most of the marks of the “P” or Priestly school: among others, a use of Elohim—the generic Hebrew term for “divine being”—when referring to God; a great interest in genealogical or other lists (often used to trace the precise line through which God’s purpose was effected); a God-centered point of view coupled with little interest in human personalities; and a general flatness of tone and austerity of prose.
Dating the Priestly tradition is difficult, because there seems to have been many separate groups of authors working within it. Most scholars place the tradition after the Babylonian Exile (c. 400 B.C.), but others feel it to be a long process stretching from the post-Exillic period back into pre-Israelite times.
The opening book of the Old Testament was called Genesis by the third-century B.C. Greek translators who made the Septuagint version of the Bible; its proper Hebrew name was Bereshit (“In the beginning….”), referring to its opening words in the same fashion as the Mesopotamian creation epic, the Enuma Elish, is named after its first words. The parallels between the first creation account in Genesis and the Mesopotamian epic are not confined to their naming process. Not only are there marked similarities in specific details but also the order of creation events is the same, leading many to presume a dependence of the Old Testament account on that of the Enuma Elish or similar Babylonian documents. (The relative ages of the documents and their civilizations precludes dependence of the Enuma Elish on Genesis.)
The differences between the two myths are clearly evident as well. Most important, while the Enuma Elish is a story of many gods struggling with each other for supremacy through the process of creation, the Old Testament account proclaims simply that Elohim created the world and all its creatures.
When God set out to create the universe, all was in a dark and watery chaos. Out of this, God created day and night, sky, earth and vegetation, the sun, moon and stars, the reptiles and birds, and animals and people by calling them into being. In addition, he ordered the creatures of the earth by making people his overseers and commanded them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on earth.”
(1:1) IN THE BEGINNING God created the heavens and the earth. (2) The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
(3) And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. (4) And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. (5) God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
(6) And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” (7) And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. (8) And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
(9) And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. (10) God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. (11) And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seeds bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth. And it was so. (12) The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (13) And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
(14) And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, (15) and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. (16) And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. (17) And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, (18) to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. (19) And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
(20) And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” (21) So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (22) And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (23) And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
(24) And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures, according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. (25) And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(26) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (28) And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (29) And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. (30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. (31) And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
(2:1) Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
(2) And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. (3) So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.
—Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1952.
Genesis 2:4–23 The second creation account in the Old Testament follows directly after the first and offers a very different vision of the beginning. Displaying many characteristic features of the “J” tradition of authorship, it has been so attributed by Bible scholars. “J” uses the personal appelation “Jehovah” (or “Yahweh” as it has come to be transliterated for the name of God) and is the most vivid writer of the four main Pentateuch authors. His style is lively, bold, and economical. And whereas other traditions, such as the “E” or Elohistic one, tend to depict God as remote, filling the distance between him and man with intermediaries like angels or even dreams, “J” envisions the relationship of man and God as very close, almost informal. Unlike the Priestly authors of the opening creation account, “J” is people-oriented:
not only are individuals shown in all their complexity, their responses rich in emotion and vividly spontaneous, but God is largely anthropomorphized. “J” ’s sophistication in analyzing human motivation, his regard for human freedom with both its strengths and weaknesses, and his flair for revealing the drama of situations are all present in this creation account.
Whereas the “P” tradition has been assumed to be the work of one or more groups of individuals, all the characteristics of “J” point to lone authorship. It is thought that “J” probably wrote in the tenth (or ninth) century B.C.
The difference in focus between the first and second creation accounts is clear from the start: while the subject of the first was God’s creation of the universe, here it is his making of man. On the day he made heaven and earth, God fashioned a man, Adam, from the dirt (’adama) and breathed life into him. And God planted a garden in Eden (the Sumerian word for “plain” or “steppe”) in the East where the four rivers Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates join—presumably at the head of the Persian Gulf, an area known for its fertile, silt-enriched soil. And he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden.
God also prohibited man’s eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for without its knowledge Adam was indeed innocent. He was unaware even of his own goodness and the purity of his connection with God. Obtaining that knowledge rendered him aware of himself as relative and separate from God and as capable of choosing between good and evil, dualities of the relative world. Ultimately, that knowledge revealed to him his own creatureliness and mortality, and the myth articulates this as God’s refusal to let him eat from the tree of life.
To provide Adam with helpers, God first fashioned out of the earth all the animals and birds and had Adam name them (thereby giving them functions and purpose). Finally God made a woman for Adam out of his own rib, and Adam was pleased: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”
(2:4) IN THE DAY that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, (5) when no plant 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 no man to till the ground: (6) but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground—(7) then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (8) And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (9) And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
(10) A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. (11) The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Hav’ilah, where there is gold; (12) and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. (13) The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. (14) And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
(15) The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. (16) And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
(18) Then the Lord God said, “If it not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (19) So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. (20) The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. (21) So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; (22) and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. (23) Then the man said,
This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.
—Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1952.
Psalm 33:6–15 The Psalms of the Old Testament were used in public worship in Israel, probably during the period of the monarchy before the Babylonian Exile (586 B.C.). Their poetic form and many of their themes were borrowed from older Near Eastern cultures, but the individual psalms were adapted and changed by the Hebrews to fit specific circumstances over the centuries. Specific dating and determination of authorship is therefore, in most cases, impossible.
Although the particular theme of Psalm 33—God’s creation of the universe by his word—was relatively common in Egyptian and even Babylonian thought, it is emphasized here in a new way: the divine word itself made the world. “He spoke and it came to be; he commanded and it stood forth.”
And, after Yahweh created the heavens and gathered the sea, he involved himself in the ordering of political life and the judging of his creatures. Of course, no meaningful separation of political and religious life can be made here. God’s involvement in “politics” is one sign of its religious nature, but also it must be remembered that both Israel and the neighboring states were theocracies, religiously grounded and understood. The concept of being the “chosen” people is almost universal and seems to bespeak a feeling of closeness to one’s god rather than exclusivity. People are “chosen” to the extent they feel themselves to be in direct relation to their creator.
(33.6) BY the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
(7) He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
he put the deeps in storehouses.
(8) Let all the earth fear the LORD,
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
(9) For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood forth!
(10) The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nought;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
(11) The counsel of the LORD stands for ever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
(12) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
(13) The LORD looks down from heaven,
he sees all the sons of men;
(14) from where he sits enthroned he looks forth
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
(15) he who fashions the hearts of them all,
and observers all their deeds.
—Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1952.
Psalm 104 Psalm 104 is typical of the “hymn” type of psalms in that it includes a call to worship, an explanation of the reason for worship, and a further statement of praise. It was used in many cultic situations, from sacrifices to festivals and daily worship.
Unlike psalms of lament, where the focus is on the human condition, the hymns are thoroughly God-centered—so much so that it is not for his relation to people nor for his gifts that he is praised, but for what he is and does independent of them. In this case, God is praised for being the creator of the world.
He is envisioned as spreading out the heavens like a tent over the chaotic waters and taming the winds and fires. Most importantly, he controlled the primeval sea, fixing its limits so that earth could appear. Having accomplished these basic acts of creating and ordering, God then provided for the creatures with sustinence (water and food even for the wild beasts), time (night and day), and ultimately life.
(104:1) BLESS THE LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, thou art very great! Thou art clothed w
ith honor and majesty,
(2) who coverest thyself with light as with a garment,
who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent,
(3) who hast laid the beams of thy chambers on the waters,
who makest the clouds thy chariot,
who ridest on the wings of the wind,
(4) who makest the winds thy messengers, fire and flame thy ministers.
(5) Thou didst set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be shaken.
(6) Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
(7) At thy rebuke they fled;
at the sound of thy thunder they took to flight.
(8) The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place which thou didst appoint for them.
(9) Thou didst set a bound which they should not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
(10) Thou makest springs gush forth in the valleys;