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The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth[a] of both Judaism and Christianity,[1] told in the Book of Genesis ch. 1–2. While the Jewish and Christian tradition is that the account is one comprehensive story[2][3] modern scholars of biblical criticism identify the account as a composite work[4] made up of two stories drawn from different sources.[b]
The first account, in Genesis 1:1–2:3, is from what scholars call the Priestly source (P), largely dated to the 6th century BCE.[5] In this story, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word for "god") creates the heavens and the Earth in six days, then rests on, blesses, and sanctifies the seventh (i.e. the Biblical Sabbath). The second account, which takes up the rest of Genesis 2, is largely from the Jahwist source (J),[6][7] commonly dated to the 10th or 9th centuries BCE.[5] In this story, God (now referred to by the personal name Yahweh) creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. There he is given dominion over the animals. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam's rib as his companion.
The first major comprehensive draft of the Pentateuch[c] is thought to have been composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BCE (the Jahwist source) and was later expanded by other authors (the Priestly source) into a work much alike to Genesis as known today.[8] The authors of the text were influenced by Mesopotamian mythology and ancient near eastern cosmology, and borrowed several themes from them, adapting and integrating them with their unique belief in one God.[9][10][d] The combined narrative is a critique of the Mesopotamian theology of creation: Genesis affirms monotheism and denies polytheism.[11]
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- ^ Leeming & Leeming 2004, p. 113.
- ^ Baden 2012, p. 13.
- ^ Friedman & Dolansky Overton 2007, p. 734.
- ^ Speiser 1964, p. xxi.
- ^ a b Coogan & Chapman 2018, p. 48.
- ^ Collins 2018, p. 71.
- ^ Bandstra 2008, p. 37.
- ^ Davies 2001, p. 37.
- ^ Sarna 1997, p. 50.
- ^ Klamm & Winitzer 2023.
- ^ Wenham 2003b, p. 37.