CLT 3378: Ancient Mythology: East and West

Spring 2017

Lecture Outline: Creation in Genesis

Culture: Israelite (or Hebrew)

Works read: selections from the Hebrew Bible
Type of work: mostly prose (with some poetry)
Date of work: for Genesis = ca. 950-550 BCE
Language of work: Hebrew

I. Name of Israelite God

a) ’elohim = “god”
1. title
2. cf. Canaanite ’el
3. ’elohim = Genesis 1-2.4

b) Yahweh
1. Yahweh ’elohim = Genesis 2.5-3
2. Yahweh = name
3. YHWH (Hebrew)
a. in Persian period (after 538) =Yahweh too holy to say
b. Hebrew would say ’adonay (“lord”)
c. thus, YHWH = “Lord”

II. monolatry to monotheism

a) Israelite monolatry vs. Canaanite polytheism

1. polytheism = belief in and worship of many gods
2. monolatry = belief in many gods, but worship of only one god

b) Yahweh = one god of Israelites/Hebrews

c) after Babylonian Exile (586-538 BCE)

1. Israelites/Hebrews = now called Jews
2. Jews = are now monotheistic
3. monotheism = belief in and worship of only ONE god

d) Yahweh likened to
1. El = creator
2. Baal = conqueror

III. God (Yahweh) vs. the sea

a) storm god vs. primordial waters (or sea)

 1. cf. Marduk vs. Tiamat; cf. Baal vs. Yam
2. combat myth
3. order vs. chaos

b) Yahweh vs. the sea

1. defeats sea (cf. Marduk, Baal)
2. storm god (cloud, thunder, lightning)
3. sea
a. Leviathan
b. Rahab
c. river, serpent, dragon (cf. Yam)
4. “Rahab’s helpers” (Job 9.13)

IV. Genesis

a) bereshith = “in the beginning” (Hebrew)

1. title (ANE convention)
2. cf. Enuma Elish

b) genesis = “origin” (Greek)

c) written ca. 950-550 BCE

d) mostly prose (cf. Baal Cycle, Enuma Elish, etc.)

V. Genesis 1-3

a) two creation myths

b) JEDP Theory (as in Reader intro.): discrepancies = different sources

c) contra JEDP Theory: Genesis 1-3 = literary unity

VI. Genesis 1-2.4 (first creation myth)

a) creation of universe

b) cf. Enuma Elish

c) contra polytheistic models

d) demythologizes natural forces

e) 1.14-19: “two great lights”

f) Hebrew shemesh (“sun”) vs. Akkadian Shamash/Ugaritic Shapash

 g) Hebrew yareah (“moon”) vs. Ugaritic Yarikh

VII. God and the primordial waters

a) primordial waters in ANE

1. assoc. with chaos, disorder
2. evil

b) 1st, 3rd-6th days = “it is good”

c) God = goodness

d) 2nd day: waters (sky)

e) cf. Marduk and Tiamat

1. “deep” = Hebrew tehom
2. tehom and Tiamat

f) preexisting waters = primordial waters

g) 1.3: beginning of creation

VIII. Cosmocentric creation

a) order of creation

1. light
2. sky
3. earth, sea, plants (geocentric)
4. sun, moon, stars
5. animals
6. human beings

b) man, woman = created at same time

c) job of humans = dominion

IX. Genesis 2.5-3 (second creation myth)

a) anthropocentric creation

b) order of creation

1. earth
2. man
 3. Garden (plants)
4. animals
5. woman

b) “heavens and earth” (1.1, 2.1, 2.4) vs “earth and heavens” (2.5)

c) anthropomorphic God (walks, potter, father)

d) woman created from man

X. Serpent

a) later Judeo-Christian reading: serpent = Satan

b) original Israelite author/audience

c) serpent = trickster (amoral)

d) eating of Tree of Knowledge (= like gods? or like humans?)

e) man, woman, nakedness

f) God angry at serpent

g) “pain/toil” (’itsavon)
1. childbirth (woman)
2. toiling in soil (man)
3. ’adam vs. ’adamah
a. verbal play = pun
b. false etymology

h) serpent and trickster myth

1. trickster = transforms himself and world around him
2. serpent also a culture hero?

i) knowledge and Tree of Life (= immortality)

j) Mesopotamian search for immortality

XI. Divine Council Myth in Genesis 3.22

a) Israelites
1. prob. originally polytheistic
2. then, monolatrous
3. then, monotheistic
 b) divine council myth = how two or more gods meet to discuss the fate of one or
more humans (i.e., whether the gods will help or harm that human)

c) Genesis 3.22
1. “Behold, the man has become like one of us . . .”
2. Yahweh to other gods
3. discusses fate of Adam (and Eve) = Tree of Life
4. expels Adam/Eve from Garden

XII. Genesis 1-3

a) two complementary myths

b) cosmocentric view + anthropocentric view

c) fuller view of creation