Creation story
Rich Elias – Humanities-Classics
First Considerations
• Genesis is a sacred text. Define!
• First book of Jewish Torah and of the
Christian Bible.
• Its importance and interpretation(s) are
different in Judaism and in Christianity.
• By studying it as a myth text, we increase
our understanding without necessarily
affecting our beliefs.
Implications
What assumptions may prevent us from
examining the text in its historical context?
– Is the serpent Satan? Who is Satan?
– Was the fruit an apple? Why do we think it is?
– Did mankind “fall”? In what sense?
– What is “original sin”? Where and why did this
idea develop?
Looking for Satan and Eve . . .
• Search a concordance for “Satan”
 click
• Search a concordance for “Eve”
 click
• How do references in the Old Testament differ
from references in the New Testament?
• What do these differences suggest about the
possible meanings of the Genesis stories?
Two Creation Stories
• Genesis as we have it includes two
different creation stories: The JahwistElohist and the Jahwist.  look this up!
• These were written at different periods in
the centuries before the common era.
• The first in sequence (Gen. 1 to 2:4) is NEWER
than the second 2:4 to end of Gen. 3)
• WHAT ARE THE KEY DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN THE TWO ACCOUNTS?
Differences?
Genesis and Middle Eastern Myth
• Strong parallels to Enuma Elish which you
will read next.
• These parallels can be found in both the
J-E and J accounts.
• Enuma is more concerned with theomachy
and cosmogony. Genesis is more
concerned with humankind’s relationship
with God and with the created world.
The Ancient Middle East
Comparison of sequence of creation in Enuma Elish and the 1st account
in Genesis.
-- From E.A. Speiser, Genesis. Anchor Bible.
Genesis and Enuma Elish?
• Conrad Hyers, from Princeton Theological Seminary, argues
that the composition of the Genesis 1 creation account is not
"a matter of borrowing, as one might borrow an egg here and a
cup of sugar there, or even a new recipe. The aim is not to
appropriate a superior form, or to make an eclectic
compromise, or even to improve upon pagan cosmologies. It is
rather to repudiate the divinization of nature and the attendant
myths of divine origins, divine conflict, and divine ascent. Even
the great Marduk, who was said to be born of the gods,
victorious over chaotic forces, and elevated to supremacy
among the gods, was no god at all."
Conrad Hyers, The Meaning of Creation: Genesis and Modern Science, John Knox, 1984.
Folklore Motifs and Themes
• Creation from dust of the earth (J-E) vs. “in his
image” (P)
• Creation in a garden. Compare Enuma Elish.
• Aetiologies: of death, pain in childbirth, etc.
• Myth of decline? Compare Hesiod’s five ages.
• A test? Folklore theme? Something to do vs.
something not to be done?
• Serpent as trickster?
Is There Folklore in the Bible?
• Analysis: Sir J.G. Frazer’s interpretation of
the story of mankind’s fall in Genesis.
• One premise: the two trees mentioned in
the story.
• A second premise: similarities between
motifs in Genesis and two common
folktale themes:
• The perverted message
• The cast skin
Two Trees?
• Frazer’s hypothesis:
Indeed, far from being prohibited to eat of the tree of life, man was implicitly
permitted, if not encouraged, to partake of it by his Creator, who had told him
expressly, that he might eat freely of every tree in the garden, with the single
exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus by planting the tree of
life in the garden and not prohibiting its use, God apparently intended to give
man the option, or at least the chance, of immortality, but man missed his
chance by electing to eat of the other tree, which God had warned him not to
touch under pain of immediate death. This suggests that the forbidden tree was
really a tree of death, not of knowledge, and that the mere taste of its deadly
fruit, quite apart from any question of obedience or disobedience to a divine
command, sufficed to entail death on the eater. The inference is entirely in
keeping with God s warning to man, " Thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Accordingly we may suppose that in the
original story there were two trees, a tree of life and a tree of death ; that it was open
to man to eat of the one and live for ever, or to eat of the other and die ; that God,
out of good will to his creature, advised man to eat of the tree of life and warned
him not to eat of the tree of death ; and that man, misled by the serpent, ate of the
wrong tree and so forfeited the immortality which his benevolent Creator had
designed for him. -- from Folklore in the Old Testament, Vol 1 (1918)
Frazer’s Analysis
• Perverted message: humans had the chance to
eat the fruit of immortality but the messenger
(the serpent) deliberately distorted the message.
• The cast skin: animals can rejuvenate by
shedding their old skin, but humans missed this
chance. Excerpt from Frazer
• Both of these motifs focus on how mankind lost
the chance at immortality.
• Frazer’s comparative approach: pluses and
many minuses.
J.G. Frazer, Folklore in
the Old Testament.
This is his retelling of
the tree story.
Adam’s Wives
• Two creation stories = two wives?
• Conflicting ideas on procreation?
• Folk legends about
Lilith  click
Wife #2
Eve
• Is Eve a demoted goddess?
Is Eve a Demoted Goddess?
• Hebrew monotheism? True or not?
• Rigid patriarchy. Example: Eve is born from Adam!
• Genesis’ emphasis on “be fruitful” versus the
punishment of pain in childbirth and “your desire
shall be for your husband.”
• Ancient Judaism often defined its beliefs in
contradistinction to beliefs of neighbors in the
ancient near and middle east.
• Everybody else has a Great Goddess. Why not the
Jews?
• Asherah and El?
Why a Serpent?
Minoan Snake Goddess
(Crete)
Neolithic Snake Goddess
Astarte (= Ishtar = Aphrodite)
Playboy cover
Snakewitch stone (Sweden)
Michelangelo, Fall
of man. Sistine
Chapel ceiling in
the Vatican.
Notice how the
serpent is
depicted.
Robert Alter: The
name “Eve” is
said to be similar
to the Aramaic
word for serpent.
Eve: Scapegoat or Hero?
• The “Fall of Man”? How does Eve figure
in Christian interpretations? Why is Mary
called “the second Eve”?
– Misogyny in the Old Testament
• Eve as culture hero? Knowing good and
evil enables freedom of will. Expulsion
from Eden is a kind of birth.
Additional References to Examine
• Quick overview of Dundes’ ideas
• Wikipedia on Ancient Near Eastern context
• Ancient Near Eastern Texts, ed. Pritchard
• Myths from Mesopotamia, ed. and trans. S.
Dalley
• Video interview w/Richard Elliot Friedman on
Who Wrote the Bible?