Come Follow Me (CFM) through the Hebrew Bible (HB) Week of 1/3

 If you were in charge of writing a creation myth–a story about the foundation of the world that would guide how people think about the world for millennia–what would you include? Yes, you could pray about it and seek what God wants you to write, but imagine he is leaving the task mostly to you. You don’t know how the earth was REALLY, scientifically formed. Shoot, you don’t even know what it looks like from a distance. You just have your imagination, your philosophy of life, and the hope that your myth will explain what’s important and promote what is good at both individual and societal levels. 

This was essentially the task of the writers of Genesis 1 and the writers of Genesis 2. Scholars widely believe that these stories, written by distinct individuals or groups and separated by centuries, were not meant as word-for-word scientific or historical accounts, but rather as mythological means of transmitting Truth (with a capital T), not just the facts. I’ve been thinking about what I would include, and I’m not sure I have any unique ideas yet, so here are some things that it appears the Biblical authors were including that I found insightful. 

Responses to non-Israelite Creation Accounts

There is a lot of evidence that the Biblical accounts included, excluded, and changed various elements from other creation myths of the Ancient Near East. Two texts that were definitely sources for Genesis include the Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation myth that was itself derivative of similar Messopotamian myths, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Elements shared between the Bible and these works include

• A watery void organized into a world, 

• A dome or firmament dividing water from water, 

• The wind of God blowing over creation, 

• The idea of Ex nihilo nihil fit, or that nothing comes from nothing and therefore creation as an act of organization

• Seven distinct periods of creation

• Food as a source of wisdom but also rebellion

• A global flood with only one man or family surviving

But perhaps more interesting is how the Hebrew stories diverge from their neighbors’ mythos. In the Enuma Elish, for example, Earth is created from the corpse of a slain goddess. In Genesis, there is not such violence against women in the foundation of earth and instead, the formation of Woman is God’s crowning acheivement. Also in the Enuma Elish, humans are created as slaves to the god Marduk, the storm-deity-creator. In Genesis, the whole of creation is for humanity, and God is in our service–not because he is subservient to us, but because he cares for us. 

In the words of Podcaster James Jones (Beyond the Block), “These are protest religions. They are protesting violence. They are protesting empire, enslavement, inequality, bloody warmaking, and  hierarchy, and just all manner of injustice. That is the story against which we are going to be reading the Hebrew Bible and the story of the creation.”

Responses to each other

The creation narrative in Genesis 1 is also responding to the Genesis Narrative in Genesis 2. 

Genesis 2 is written in a distinct style, with a distinct name of God (Yaweh or Jehovah) that most likely pre-dates the account of Genesis 1. In it, God is personal and human-like. His thought process is articulated. He seems to make mistakes, like offering animals to Adam as companions. The style of Genesis 2 will be found throughout the Pentateuch so watch for the word LORD which in most translations is used to signify the name Yaweh in translation as opposed to GOD which generally is a translation of Elohim, a generic Hebrew name for God. 

The post-exilic priest or priests who wrote Genesis 1 is likely trying to correct some of what this earlier author wrote, presenting a God who is always sure, who speaks and is obeyed, and who has little concern for the personal affairs of women and men. Perhaps the cadence of creation in Genesis 1 is because it was used in liturgical worship settings (it certainly is in LDS temples today). We’ll also see this author or authors throughout the Pentateuch, so watch for elements of this priestly attitude. 

I think both versions of the story have value and teach different things–even if I have a slight preference for the non-priestly Yawist style. 

Order amid Chaos

In Genesis 1, God establishes order from the previous disarray of the cosmos. The author establishes that “the earth was a formless void” and that “darkness covered the face of the deep.” And these are the very problems he solves. He first illuminates the entire project, then one step at a time gives form to that which was formless and then fills the empty voids of creation with inhabitants of purpose. 

I personally see a lot of use in this pattern. There still is a lot of chaos across the cosmos. And we would do well to establish our path through the chaos in the way that God does in this creation account. 

1st, turn on the lights. Illuminate your space and make clear what you are working with, your limitations, and the problems and opportunities requiring action. 

2nd, choose one thing to give form to. Then fill the form with something meaningful. Call it good. 

3rd, repeat step 2 as many times as necessary until amid the chaos, you have established a home and a plan for what you care about most. 

And don’t forget to rest. 

A Gender Reveal

Gender differences among otherwise mostly similar groups of people is an apparent feature of humanity worth exploring in a creation myth. 

In Genesis 2, God creates the first human being from the dust of the ground. In most translations the word for that first human is translated to “man.” But the word isn’t necessarily gendered, leading some feminist Biblical scholars to postulate that that first creation was androgynous. It was only after God “took one of his sides (often translated as ribs)” and “he made into a woman and brought her to the man,” that clear distinction between genders appears. The creation of woman and man, as split from the original human in the text is the crowning achievement of God, not that a single being is created, but that beings can and should find “a helper as their partner.” Relationships are central to what it means to be human, and building in a however nuanced relationship dynamic into the text of Genesis offers a lot of paths to understanding human relationships from the creation-myth starting point. 

The case for an androgynous first creation is strengthened by Genesis 1, which perhaps in conversation with Genesis 2, has God creating “Humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them” at the same time. 

Righteous Rebellion. 

This gets into next weeks’ reading a bit, so I’ll just say a little. Read the text closely and you might realize that the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden perhaps wasn’t such a bad thing. The talking snake isn’t identified with satan (in fact, it most likely had a positive connotation to the text’s first readers). The punishments for disobedience are not all that unnatural. And Adam and Eve do not “surely die” in the day they partake of the fruit. 

I find it enlightening to have a creation story where order is established, but where rebellion from order is perhaps the inciting incident into most of what is good in the world. There’s something in that. 

Sources and Resources this week: 

https://beyondtheblockpodcast.com/

A History of the Bible, by John Barton

Women in Scripture: A Dictionary of Named and Unnamed Women in the Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, and the New Testament

https://www.sefaria.org/texts (Torah text in-line with original Hebrew and Talmudic and other rabbinical commentaries)