Lecture Outline Creation in Genesis I Name of Israelite God a elohim god 1 title Not name title 2 cf Canaanite el 3 elohim 1 2 4 b Yahweh 1 Yahweh elohim 2 5 3 2 Yahweh name Name not title 3 YHWH Exact translation we are not sure what the vowels would have been Yahweh is our guess Yahweh is too holy for human beings to utter so they substituted it with adonay a in Persian period after 538 too holy b adonay lord c thus YHWH Lord II monolatry to monotheism a Israelite monolatry vs Canaanite polytheism 1 polytheism belief in many gods 2 monolatry worship of one god Acknowledgement that other gods exist but only worship one god b Yahweh god of Israelites Hebrews c after Babylonian Exile 586 538 BCE 1 Israelites Hebrews now Jews 2 Jews monotheistic 3 monotheism worship belief in 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 Ancient idea 1 cf Marduk vs Tiamat cf Baal vs Yam 2 order vs chaos Metaphorically b Yahweh vs the sea Sea is not a god different from other myths but sea is considered to be naturalistic 1 defeats sea cf Marduk Baal 2 storm god cloud thunder lightning 3 sea a Leviathan b Rahab c river serpent dragon cf Yam Either other names for the sea or monsters associated with the sea 4 Rahab s helpers Job 9 13 cf Tiamat s monster army or Anat helping Baal a bereshith in the beginning Hebrew First word also the title of the Book of Genesis 1 title 2 cf Enuma Elish b genesis origin Greek c written c 950 550 BCE d mostly prose cf Baal Cycle Enuma Elish etc Different from other books in the bible however there are snippets of poetry Why did the Israelites do this when most mythology is in poetry Possibly to distinguish themselves from the other cultures of the time poly vs mono a two creation myths c JEDP Theory as in Reader intro discrepancies different sources Every time there is discrepancies in stories there are two different stories IV Genesis V Genesis 1 3 d contra JEDP Theory Genesis 1 3 literary unity Author is putting the two stories together for a literary effect VI Genesis 1 2 4 first creation myth creation of universe a Responding to polytheistic models of creation b cf Enuma Elish b contra polytheistic models Written before Jews became monotheistic c demythologizes natural forces e 1 14 19 two great lights Ex two great lights one over the day one over the night aka sun and moon aka demythologizing natural forces e Hebrew shemesh sun vs Akkadian Shamash Ugaritic Shapash Sounds too similar author wanted no confusion god did not create binatural gods 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 God declares what he creates to be good Declares to be good d God goodness e 2nd day waters sky And god said let there be light and there was evening and there was morning one day And God said let there be a firmament and there was evening and there was morning a second day He does not declare what he does on the second day to be good Why See below e cf Marduk and Tiamat 1 deep Hebrew tehom 2 tehom and Tiamat Author is uneasy of what god does and that it is too similar to what Marduk does to Tiamat Genesis 1 1 2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth moving over the face of the waters f preexisting waters primordial waters ANE idea that at the start of the universe there are waters that precede creation g 1 3 beginning of creation Creation begins with 1 3 he brings light to the deep dark waters a lot like what Marduk does to Tiamat Tiamat is primordial waters or he brings light to the darkness aka polytheistic cultures Primordial waters are also associated with evil god cannot create things that are not good VIII Cosmocentric creation Universe centered creation a order of creation 1 light 2 sky 3 earth sea plants geocentric 4 sun moon stars 5 animals 6 human beings Why are humans last Possibly saving the best for last or because human beings depend on all these things before The author doesn t tell us b man woman created at same time Created and given a specific job c job of humans dominion They are supposed to master everything on earth they rule it IX Genesis 2 5 3 second creation myth a anthropocentric creation Focuses on humans and their relationships with god rather than the cosmos cosmocentric b order of creation 1 earth 2 man 3 Garden plants 4 animals 5 woman We are not told why man is created before man b c Reverses order in the second story heavens and earth 1 1 2 1 2 4 vs earth and heavens 2 5 Genesis 2 3 4 or 5 So god bleed the seventh day made the earth and the heavens In the second story the first thing he creates is the earth and puts things on it and vice versa author signals to us that these stories are different anthropomorphic God walks potter father Hard to imagine him in the first story there is no description however in the second story he is shaped and behaves like a human being Father to Adam worried about him concerned he doesn t have good companions reason for creation of animals and woman d woman created from man Men and women are formed from the same body and are reunited in marriage Created out of the ribs X Serpent a later Judeo Christian reading serpent Satan b original Israelite author audience Going back to original tellers of this story c serpent trickster amoral Operates on their own moral codes e eating of Tree of Knowledge like gods or like humans What do they become like Serpent says gods but maybe they become more like humans Genesis 3 1 5 The serpent said to the woman You will be like god knowing good and evil Genesis 2 16 17 And the Lord God commanded the man for in the day that you eat of it you shall die God doesn t say that you can t touch it Eve does we don t know why f man woman nakedness Woman eats the fruit gives some to the man Do they die No They do now realize that they are naked and hide from god more human g God angry at serpent Curses the serpent and man and woman Serpent now has to crawl on his belly and forever an enemy of man and woman g pain toil itsavon 1 childbirth woman 2 toiling in soil man 3 adam vs adamah How he curses man and woman with pain becoming more human Adam man adamah soil Adam created from …
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