Tag: Genesis
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The Bible and Babylonian Myth (ii)
My previous post showed how the Hebrew Bible writers made use of the Babylonian myth ‘Enuma Elish’ in finalising their own great national epic, and how the conflict between the god Marduk and the goddess Tiamat, hinted at in Genesis 1:2, finds clear parallels in the books of the Psalms and Job. In the Babylonian […]
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The Bible and Babylonian Myth
The scrolls of the Hebrew Bible most probably reached their final form after the Israelites’ 6th century BCE return from exile in Babylon. While there, they’d have encountered the ‘Enuma Elish’, the Babylonian myth of creation and the rise of the storm god Marduk to become the chief of their gods. In those days, the […]
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Let There Be Light !
The Greek philosopher Thales had an idea that was right and wrong. He thought there must be one thing from which all others were made, and decided this was water. It’s one thing, yet it can be solid, liquid or gas, and it’s essential for life – dead things dry up. That was a reasonable […]
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The Bible – Window or Mirror?
In the early verses of Genesis, the story goes that God said, “let’s create humans in our own image”. “Our” is taken to refer to God plus his divine council of supernatural underlings. It’s a bit like a prime minister and his cabinet (no, not the drinks one!) A great deal of ink can be […]
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The Tower of Babel – or Babble?
This story begins by stating that “the whole earth had a common language and a common vocabulary”, which is a splendid example of ‘never let the facts get in the way of a good story’ since we’re told, in the previous chapter, that the nations had been “separated into their lands, every one according to […]
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Genesis 6 – Who were the Nephilim?
Following on from the Cain and Abel tale of blood-stained misadventure, here is an even more ambiguous, if not totally obscure, story. It concerns dubious goings-on involving, of all people, the “sons of God”. The phrase בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים (beney haʾelohim) is found only here and in the Book of Job, but occurs outside the Hebrew Bible […]
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Cain and Abel – A Different Slant
Why, in Genesis 4, does this strangely ambiguous and shockingly bloodthirsty story make its appearance, about the two brothers Cain and Abel? Cain was not, of course, a historical person but an invention, a character in a story intended to portray something ‘true to life’. Needing to find him a name, the storyteller came up […]
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Original Sin goes into the Bin (ii)
At first sight, Eve and Adam sampling the fruit of a tree in the Garden of Eden might seem to be no big deal. There should have been, however, a sudden ferocious burst of lightning and an ear-splitting drum roll of thunder, to mark the fact that the recently made, ‘perfectly’ good Earth, had suddenly […]
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Original Sin goes into the Bin (i)
With regard to the first 11 chapters of Genesis, I’m inclined to agree with Professor John J. Collins of Yale Divinity School, that “more than most stories, these chapters have been overlaid with theological interpretations that have little basis in the Hebrew text”. (*) This certainly applies, in my view, to the concept of “original […]
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Genesis 3 – That Damned Snake
In Genesis 3 there’s a snake in the garden, but a most unusual one. He has legs (soon to be amputated), a brain capable of reasoning, and a vocal system productive of human speech. Although he asks Eve a ‘sneaky’ question, which invites a reassessment of the words, hence, character of God, nothing he says […]
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