Precursors to the Priestly Creation Account (Gen 1:1–2:3)

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-29
Author(s):  
David M. Carr
Keyword(s):  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Creation Story ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Enuma Elish

This chapter looks at potential precursors to the Priestly creation account, both within the Bible and outside it. It starts by building a case that Genesis 1 shows a particular engagement with the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish epic, claiming a dominance of the Israelite God superior to that which is claimed for Marduk in that epic. It then turns to signs that Genesis 1 also seems to reflect knowledge of the cosmological tradition reflected in Psalm 104, which in turn reflects nonbiblical traditions about origins from Canaan and (perhaps earlier) Egypt. In addition, despite the arguments of some recent studies that Genesis 1 preceded Genesis 2–3, select parts of Genesis 1 appear to be incompletely adapted elements (“blind motifs”) that originated in the non-Priestly story of creation in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:4b–3:24). This suggests that this non-Priestly creation story likely also stands among the texts that preceded and were engaged by the author of Genesis 1. The chapter concludes with brief consideration of the possibility that the Priestly creation account may also preserve, embedded within itself, an earlier literary precursor. The most likely possibility in this case is that the day-structure and final Sabbath focus now found in Gen 1:1–2:3 was a later addition to it, possibly by an author-redactor associated with what is often termed the “Holiness School.”

scholarly journals implementasi peranan wanita dalam konteks gereja di toraja pada masa kini

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evriyani Lambang Mandi'
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Creation Story ◽  
Women In The Bible ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
The Church

Seeing from the creation story, it can be said that gender equality has been determined according to God's own standards "Genesis 1:26 God said: "Let us make humans..." This passage refers to the understanding that men and women have the same equality, even though they have fallen. into sin but humans are required to be in their place and role even though in today's practice there are still gender differences that occur. This paper focuses on the implementation of the role of women in the church and the role of women in the Bible by referring to the two women in the OT and NT.

scholarly journals A Meatless Dominion: Genesis 1 and the Ideal of Vegetarianism

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Patrick Mclaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Moral Ideal ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Unique Manner ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Enuma Elish ◽  
The Ideal

I argue that a strand of biblical tradition, represented in Genesis 1:26–29, depicts a nonviolent relationship between humans and nonhumans—indicated by the practice of vegetarianism—as a moral ideal that represents the divine intention for the Earth community. This argument is supported by four claims. First, the cultural context of Genesis 1 suggests that the “image of God” entails a democratized royal charge of all humans to make God present in a unique manner in the created order. Second, this functional role must be understood in light of the unique deity (Elohim) in Genesis 1, a deity whose peaceful and other-affirming creative act is distinctive from violent creative acts of deities in other ancient Near Eastern cosmologies such as the Enuma Elish. Third, Genesis 1 provides an exegesis of humanity's dominion over animals in verse 29, which limits humanity's food to vegetation. Finally, juxtaposing Genesis 1 with Genesis 9 reveals a nefarious shift from human dominion, which is meant to be peaceful and other-affirming, to something altogether different—a relationship that is built upon terror.

scholarly journals The Impossible Spaces: A Commentary on Gen. 2:8–15

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 656
Author(s):  
Santiago García-Jalón
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Text ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Narrative Device ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
Structural Differences

A close analysis of the text of Gen. 2:8–15, pertaining to the Garden of Eden, shows the structural differences between said text and others from ancient mythologies that mention or describe a paradise. Likewise, that analysis suggests that the data provided by the Bible to locate paradise are merely a narrative device meant to dissipate all doubts as to the existence of a garden where God put human beings. Similar to other spaces that appear in the Bible, the Garden of Eden is, in fact, an impossible place. Throughout the centuries, however, recurring proposals have been made to locate paradise. As time went by, those proposals were progressively modified by the intellectual ideas dominant in any given era, thus leading the representations of the location of Paradise to be further and further away from the information provided by the biblical text.

scholarly journals Jung, the Pentateuch and ethics

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 653-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eben Scheffler
Keyword(s):  
Modern Human ◽  
Analytical Psychology ◽  
Carl Jung ◽  
Ethical Behaviour ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Biblical Criticism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Psychological Biblical Criticism ◽  
Genesis 1

This article reflects on the contribution  that can  be made to the interpretation of the Bible by employing the analytical psychology of Carl Jung. After some relevant biographical considerations on Jung, his view of religion and the Bible is briefly considered, followed by a look into Genesis 1-3 in terms of his distinction of archetypes. It is suggested in the conclusion that Jungian psychological Biblical criticism can lead to a changed, but fresh view on the ‘authority’ or influence of the Bible in the lives of (post)modern human beings and their (ethical) behaviour.

The Moral Amnesia of Modernity: The Scholarship of Ernest Fortin

1998 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-354
Author(s):  
Glenn Tinder
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
Great Pleasure ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
History Of

Walking in Ernest Fortin's scholarly universe is a great pleasure. One breathes an atmosphere of serenity, good sense, and profound erudition. Fortin is at once highly serious yet often amusing; he is both learned and unpretentious; he is frequently skeptical but never unpleasant or destructive. The traveler in his universe encounters not only a great number of interesting discussions but also particularly brilliant pieces, such as “The Bible Made Me Do It: Christianity, Science, and the Environment,” where the author fully exposes the absurdity of the claim that Genesis 1, in which God grants humanity dominion over the rest of creation, bears responsibility for the damage done in recent times to the physical environment. In bringing together the essays and reviews that make up these volumes, Brian Benestad has performed an important service not only for the community of Christian scholars and thinkers but for all who are interested in the history of philosophy and political theory.

scholarly journals Mystifying moments in Bible interpretation: An exploration of some implied backgrounds to three kinds of unusual Bible readings

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoffel Lombaard
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Direct Support ◽  
Bible Interpretation ◽  
To Come

This contribution is part of a series on Methodology and Biblical Spirituality. In this, the fourth contribution, the scope is widened; more practical-analytically oriented, three thoroughly different but nevertheless all unusual kinds of interpretations of the Bible are described, characterised and contextualised. Namely:• In order to explain what are perceived as textual anomalies, some Old Testament authors have been described by US-based medical practitioners as having suffered psychiatric dysfunctions.• The Garden of Eden from Genesis 2 and further has been located by a recently diseased Nigerian scholar as having been in her home country, with a Nigerian race having been the predecessors of biblical Adam and Eve.• Rastafarians, primarily Jamaica-based, regard marijuana as a holy herb and find direct support for their religious use of this plant in the Bible.However strange such ‘mystifying’ interpretations may seem within the theological mainstreams of Judeo-Christianity, there is more to these kinds of interpretations than simple whim. Certain cultural conditions along with personal, particularly spiritual, commitments enable these interpretations, which must be taken seriously in order to come to a fuller understanding of the text–interpreter dynamic. These then can cast at least some form of reflective light on the more usual current biblical-interpretative mainstreams within Judeo-Christianity, posing in a new light the question of what constitutes legitimate interpretations, also within mainstream interpretations, as religiously inclined people try to live their lives in the light of Scripture.

How to Start a Cosmogony: On the Poetics of Beginnings in Greece and the Near East

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-48
Author(s):  
Carolina López-Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Enuma Elish ◽  
The Universe

AbstractIn this essay I explore the beginning lines of the most relevant cosmogonies from the eastern Mediterranean, focusing on theEnuma Elish, Genesis 1 and Hesiod’sTheogony. These opening lines reveal some of the challenges faced by the authors of these texts when committing to the written word their version of the beginning of the universe. Hesiod’sTheogonywill be treated in more length as it presents an expanded introduction to the creation account. This close reading is followed by a few reflections on the question of authorship of these and other Greek and Near Eastern cosmogonies.

Recasting Genesis in Bronze: Ghiberti's Visual Exegesis in The Gates of Paradise

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 126-155
Author(s):  
Joel M. LeMon
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
First Century ◽  
Renaissance Art ◽  
Composite Image ◽  
Creation Story ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Visual Exegesis ◽  
The Mind

AbstractThe bronze doors of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455) on the east side of the Baptistery at Florence are composed of ten “Albertian Renaissance windows” that depict scenes from the Old Testament in stunning detail. From an art-historical perspective, these panels demonstrate a significant development in Renaissance art. Rather than depicting a single instant in a biblical narrative, Ghiberti's panels combine multiple scenes into one composite image that conveys critical elements of long and complex stories. In the first of these panels, Ghiberti illustrates God's creation of Adam and Eve, the act of disobedience at the tree, and the expulsion from the garden. Ghiberti's organization of these events, his rendering of the characters, and the various details he includes (and omits) provide a window into the mind of a sophisticated exegete. When modern biblical scholars peer through this window, we note that Eve emerges as the central figure, while Adam is a largely peripheral one. We also note how Ghiberti establishes the literary pericope for his visual exegesis in a way that generally accords with modern source-critical hypotheses about Genesis 1-3. Indeed, by illustrating certain elements of the creation story and excluding others, Ghiberti is practicing de facto source criticism. Furthermore, Ghiberti's portrayal of the various characters in the text presaged twentieth- and twenty-first-century feminist readings of Genesis 1-3, as well as modern literary-critical analysis and ethico-theological critiques.

scholarly journals Economics of Genesis: On the Institutional Economic Deciphering and Reconstruction of the Stories of the Bible

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto
Keyword(s):  
Social Exchange ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Institutional Economic ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Incentive Structures ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
To Come ◽  
Book Of Genesis

The article traces in the book of Genesis (1) theoretical and (2) methodic elements of an institutional economics: (la) the idea of capital contribution-distribution interactions as model of social exchange; (lb) the idea of incentive structures as model of an institutional regulative for social exchange; (1c) the practical-normative goal of pareto-superiority (mutuality of gains) as desired interaction outcome; (2a) the methodic concept of conflicting and common interests in contribution-distribution interactions (the idea of a dilemma structure, or “war of all”, as Hobbes called it); and (2b) the methodic concept of self-interested choice behaviour (the homo economicus, or “methodological individualism” as Hayek referred to it). On these grounds, Genesis is deciphered and reconstructed in institutional economic terms. The article develops and explores the hypotheses (i) that the stories of Genesis reflect an intense interest and attempt to come to terms with the institutional problem: of how to ensure cooperation in social interactions, and (ii) that the stories of Genesis address the institutional problem in economic terms, examining social conflict as capital contribution-distribution interactions, advising on the pareto-effectiveness of conflict resolution in relation to incentive structures, and methodically grounding analysis in the ideas of the dilemma structure and the homo economicus. An economic reconstruction of Genesis questions conventional theological suggestions on the role and extent to which the Bible invokes metaphysical concepts and metaphysical intervention for analyzing and solving social problems.

scholarly journals Teologi Keluarga: Kajian Terhadap Kejadian 1-3 Sebagai Dasar Pemahaman Esensi Keluarga Kristen

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-103
Author(s):  
Bakhoh Jatmiko
Keyword(s):  
The Bible ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
The Church

Family is an intersting entity to study. Theologically, a family is a God established intitution in the marrital bound between a man and a woman. The family that designed by God himself has been through many threads and challenges from the world that promoting new values for the family that makes the family origin values put by God are being faded out. Many distortions in the family have become challenges for the church and the believers to set the focus to a family as mentioned in the Bible especially Genesis 1-3 as a resources where Christians capture the picture of the first family that have ever existed.

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