Source: Douglas A. Knight and Amy-Jill Levine, The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us (HarperOne, 2024).
This podcast delves into the creation narratives found in the Hebrew Bible, primarily focusing on Genesis 1-11, and compares them to other ancient Southwest Asian myths. It highlights how Genesis moves from initial order to subsequent disorder brought about by human actions, introducing themes of wrongdoing and estrangement. The podcast emphasizes that the early Genesis stories are considered myths in the scholarly sense, conveying transcendent truths about reality and human nature rather than literal historical accounts, and explores their rich imagery and themes such as the relationship between humanity and the divine.
Genesis 1–11 as Mythic Primeval History: The initial eleven chapters of the Hebrew Bible describe a period before recorded history, often referred to as a "time before time" or a "primeval period." These chapters cover events from the creation of the world and life to the fragmentation of humanity at the Tower of Babel. The source emphasizes that these narratives should be understood as myths rather than straightforward historical accounts. Myth, in this context, does not mean false or fictitious; rather, it describes a story that conveys a fundamental truth transcending specific time and the empirical world. These myths are typically set in primeval times or at the beginning of a culture and explain the essential traits of the world or culture. Genesis 1-11 illustrates a movement from primordial chaos to pristine order, followed by a return to new forms of chaos triggered by human actions, such as the first wrongdoing, fratricide, and the conspiracy at Babel. The stories are seen as true in an essential manner, aiming to explain aspects of human reality and the world in a way that a story set in historical time cannot.
The Two Distinct Creation Narratives in Genesis 1-2: The book of Genesis opens with not one, but two different creation accounts presented in the first two chapters. The first account spans Genesis 1:1–2:4a and is characterized by a highly structured, seven-day pattern with substantial repetition and creation occurring mostly by divine command ("Let there be light"). This account depicts God as a cosmic architect, bringing order out of chaos and establishing roles and boundaries in the entire cosmos, reflecting perhaps an urban or royal perspective. The second account, found in Genesis 2:4b–25, has a more narrative flow, depicts God actively forming creatures with hands-on artisanship (like forming humans from dust), lacks a specific chronology, and focuses on a smaller, terrestrial environment—the Garden of Eden. This second account has a more agrarian feel, centering on soil, water, plants, animals, and the immediate divine-human relationship. While differing in style, focus, sequence of creation events, and the divine name used (Elohim in Gen 1, YHWH Elohim in Gen 2), these two accounts are not necessarily in conflict but are presented as complementary mythic pictures offering different perspectives on reality and life.
3. Literal vs. Mythic Interpretation of Genesis Creation: The interpretation of Genesis 1-11 is a significant topic, with the source contrasting literal historical views with a mythic understanding. Many, particularly in areas dominated by Christianity, take Genesis 1–11 as a literal historical account, believing in a real Adam and Eve, a talking snake, people living to nearly 1000 years, a universal flood, and the Tower of Babel as the direct cause of language diversity. This literal interpretation is evident in the modern creationist movement. However, the source argues that this view misses the point of the biblical narratives. Attempts to calculate the date of creation based on the biblical text (leading to dates like 3761 BCE or 4004 BCE) are described as prescientific notions that don't align with the text itself, which offers no such calculations. A mythic interpretation, conversely, understands these stories as symbolic narratives conveying profound truths about existence, human nature, and the relationship between humanity and the divine, emphasizing their timeless relevance rather than their historical factuality. Focusing on historical literalism can divert from plumbing the deeper meanings the narratives convey.
Comparing Genesis Creation with Other Ancient Near Eastern Myths: The Genesis accounts are situated within the broader context of ancient Southwest Asian cultures, which also had numerous creation myths. The source draws parallels and contrasts, particularly with the Babylonian Enuma Elish and the Egyptian "Great Hymn to the Aten." Similarities include the important role of water, the separation of land from water, and the presence of wind over the water of chaos. The Babylonian epic, Enuma Elish, describes creation arising from a cosmic battle between gods (Tiamat and Marduk) and the creation of humans from the blood of a rebellious god to serve the deities. Genesis 1, while not depicting combat or sex, shares the motif of bringing order out of a watery chaos (tehom, cognate to Tiamat). The Egyptian "Great Hymn to the Aten" shares similarities with Psalm 104, expressing belief in a sole deity (Aten) as creator and sustainer of the world. The concept of creating humans from earth is also found elsewhere, such as in the Egyptian god Khnum, depicted as a potter forming humans on a wheel. Despite these shared motifs, the biblical story in Genesis offers distinct theological messages, such as depicting a sovereign God who is not in competition and creating humanity in God's likeness rather than as slaves for the deities.
Key Themes and Concepts Within the Genesis Primeval History (1-11): Beyond the creation accounts themselves, Genesis 1-11 introduces several core concepts and themes. The primordial state of chaos is described by the memorable Hebrew phrase tohu vavohu ("formless void") and tehom ("Deep"), linguistically related to the Babylonian Tiamat. The source discusses the meaning of the Hebrew word adam, arguing that in most occurrences in Genesis 1-3, it refers generically to "human being" or "humankind," of unstated sex, rather than exclusively to a male named Adam. The creation of humankind "in our image, according to our likeness" (Genesis 1:26) is interpreted not in a physical sense, but possibly regarding humanity's role as God's representatives with dominion over creation, intended as just rule rather than exploitation, although this concept has been misused to justify environmental damage. The narratives also contain etiological elements, offering popular explanations for phenomena like snakes having no legs, labor pains, the need for hard work, and the multiplicity of languages (Tower of Babel). The primeval history details the increase of wickedness (from disobedience to murder to widespread corruption) and a corresponding decrease in human longevity, illustrated through genealogies that mark time and population growth while also demonstrating human degradation. The story of the snake in Genesis 3 is presented as a mythic device symbolizing the lure of transgression, with humans solely responsible for introducing disobedience, not Satan or "original sin" in the later theological sense.
Creation Accounts Beyond Genesis: Creation is not a theme limited to Genesis 1-11 in the Hebrew Bible. Other texts offer different perspectives and imagery. Psalm 104 celebrates God as the creator and sustainer of the world, with passages showing remarkable parallels to the Egyptian "Great Hymn to the Aten," suggesting a common tradition of acknowledging a sole deity as creator. The book of Job, particularly chapters 38-41, uses vivid, poetic language to describe God's power demonstrated in creation, including laying the earth's foundation, containing the sea, controlling celestial bodies and weather phenomena, and ruling over powerful creatures like Behemoth and Leviathan. These descriptions are also understood as mythic and poetic, emphasizing divine superiority and creativity in response to Job's questioning of justice. The prophet in Isaiah 40-45 also employs creation rhetoric, portraying God as the creator of the heavens and the earth. Distinctively, Second Isaiah uses creation language not only to affirm God's past creative power but also to announce a "new thing," a future act of creation, particularly the return of the exiles from Babylon and the transformation of the landscape, linking creation with redemption and deliverance. These varied accounts demonstrate that the biblical tradition depicts creation as both a past event and a continuing process, using diverse imagery and rhetoric to express understanding about origins and God's relationship to the world.
How does Genesis 1–11 depict the transition from primordial chaos to the world as we know it?