Genesis creation myth

The Genesis creation myth[note 1][1] is the biblical account of the beginnings of the Earth, life, and humanity as described in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. It is considered a sacred narrative[2]:p.9 in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Written by Jews and adopted by Christians, the Genesis creation narratives have had an exceptionally long and complex history of interpretation. Until the latter half of the 19th century, they were seen as one continuous, uniform story with Genesis 1:1-2:3 outlining the world’s origin, and 2:4-2:25 carefully painting a more detailed picture of the creation of humanity. However, recent scholarship opines that there are two unique accounts of creation, persuaded by the use of two different names for God the creator, two different emphases (physical vs. moral issues), and a different order of creation (plants before humans, plants after humans). Today, it is nearly universally accepted that Genesis contains two distinct creation narratives, written many years apart by two different sources, each of which experienced a distinct historical climate.[3]

The first narrative, Genesis 1:1-2:3, begins with the indeterminate period in which God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing (ex nihilo) or out of primordial waters / chaos.[4] Next it describes the transformation of creation in six “days” from chaos to a state of order that culminates with God’s creation of two humans “in his own image.” The seventh “day” is sanctified by God as a day of rest (Biblical Sabbath).

The second narrative in Genesis 2:4-2:25 follows a different sequence of creation. It tells of God planting a garden in which he forms the first man from dust, then creates the plants and animals and finally woman, and culminates in the sanctification of marriage.

The two narratives are linked by a short bridge and form part of a wider narrative unit called the Primeval History.[5]

Important theological ideas introduced in the two chapters include the concept of humanity being in the image of God (imago Dei) and the activity of the Spirit of God.[6]

Its genre has been variously described as a literal historical narrative account; as a mythic history in a symbolic representation of historical time; as ancient science as understood by the original authors; and as theology.[7]
Contents

* 1 Narratives
o 1.1 Prologue
o 1.2 First narrative: Creation week
o 1.3 Literary Bridge
o 1.4 Second narrative: Eden
o 1.5 Genesis 1-11: Primeval History
* 2 Ancient Near East context
* 3 Structure and composition
o 3.1 Structure
o 3.2 Composition
* 4 Exegetical points
o 4.1 Creation myth
o 4.2 “In the beginning…”
o 4.3 The Names of God
o 4.4 “Without form and void”
o 4.5 The r?»ach of God
o 4.6 The “deep”
o 4.7 The firmament of heaven
o 4.8 Great sea monsters
o 4.9 The number seven
o 4.10 Man and the image of God
* 5 Theology and Judaeo-Christian interpretation
o 5.1 Questions of genre
o 5.2 Theology of Genesis 1-2
o 5.3 Creationism
* 6 See also
* 7 Notes
* 8 References
* 9 Bibliography
* 10 External links
o 10.1 Sources for the Biblical text
o 10.2 Sources for earlier related Mesopotamian texts
o 10.3 Other resources

Narratives
God creating the land animals (Vittskvle Church fresco, 1480s).

The modern division of Genesis into chapters dates from c. AD 1200, and the division into verses somewhat later; the distinction between Genesis 1 and 2 is therefore a relatively recent development.[8] Structurally, the division between two contrasting narratives Genesis 1:1-2:3 and Genesis 2:4-2:25 is of far more historical significance.[9]
Prologue

Genesis 1:1-2

see main articles Ex nihilo and Chaos.

Genesis 1:1-2 has traditionally been seen as an indeterminate moment when God created space and time ex nihilo (out of nothing)[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] or out of primordial waters / chaos.[21][22][23]

Two common translations begin with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (KJV) or the alternate “When God began to create the heavens and the earth” (TEV). Either the subject is the beginning of time (the first translation) or the beginning of creation (the second). The result is “without form and void.”

This has been interpreted in at least two ways:

1. Verses 1 and 2 form the basis for all subsequent formation. Chaos is not the precursor of creation, as in Babylonian myths, but the result. The two subsequent narratives do not merely repeat or demythologize oriental creation myths, but use this to polemically repudiate them.[24]
2. Verses 1 and 2 together summarize the entire first creation narrative, allowing the presupposition of ‘the existence of matter, of raw material for God to use’.[23]

First narrative: Creation week

Genesis 1:3-2:4

The remainder of the creation narrative more closely parallels the Mesopotamian accounts, detailing the formation of unique features out of a separation of waters, an understanding reflected even in the New Testament [2 Pet 3:4-7] in which it is understood that ‘earth was formed out of water and by water'[25] Jungian mythologists, such as Joseph Campbell, find this creation out of water to be a possible holdover from neolithic matriarchal goddess religions, in which the universe is not created, but born (i.e., the water as amniotic fluid).[26]

The creation week narrative consists of eight divine commands executed over six days, followed by a seventh day of rest.

* First day: God creates light (“Let there be light!”)[Gen 1:3]- the first divine command. The light is divided from the darkness, and “day” and “night” are named.
* Second day: God creates a firmament (“Let a firmament be…!”)[Gen 1:6-7]- the second command- to divide the waters above from the waters below. The firmament is named “skies”.
* Third day: God commands the waters below to be gathered together in one place, and dry land to appear (the third command).[Gen 1:9-10] “Earth” and “sea” are named. God commands the earth to bring forth grass, plants, and fruit-bearing trees (the fourth command).
* Fourth day: God creates lights in the firmament (the fifth command)[Gen 1:14-15] to separate light from darkness and to mark days, seasons and years. Two great lights are made (most likely the Sun and Moon, but not named), and the stars.
* Fifth day: God commands the sea to “teem with living creatures”, and birds to fly across the heavens (sixth command)[Gen 1:20-21] He creates birds and sea creatures, and commands them to be fruitful and multiply.
* Sixth day: God commands the land to bring forth living creatures (seventh command);[Gen 1:24-25] He makes wild beasts, livestock and reptiles. He then creates humanity in His “image” and “likeness” (eighth command).[Gen 1:26-28] They are told to “be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it.” Humans and animals are given plants to eat. The totality of creation is described by God as “very good.”
* Seventh day: God, having completed the heavens and the earth, rests from His work, and blesses and sanctifies the seventh day.

Literary Bridge

Genesis 2:4

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

The phrase “These are the generations (Hebrew ?°; tledt) of the heavens and the earth when they were created” lies between the creation week account and the account of Eden which follows, and the first of ten phrases (“tledt”) used to provide structure to the book of Genesis.[27] Since the phrase always precedes the “generation” to which it belongs, the “generations of the heavens and the earth” should logically be taken to refer to Genesis 2; a position taken by most commentators.[28] Nevertheless, other commentators from Rashi to the present day have argued that in this case it should apply to what precedes.[29]
Second narrative: Eden

Genesis 2:4-25

Painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The move from the Priestly account of creation in Genesis 1 to the Yahwist account in Genesis 2 is a transition to a different world as well as to a different historical and literary context.[30]:p.107 Chronologically it was written after the experiences of the Babylonian exile. It is considered far more modern for its time than the polytheistic cosmogonies of Mesopotamia could have been. The second narrative represents a partial demythologizing of nature, interpreting both nature and myth differently. Its presentation uses imagery reflective of the pastoral tradition of Israel that is difficult to interpret today: the world of the shepherd.[30]:p.107 The Eden narrative addresses the creation of the first man and woman:

* Genesis 2:4b- the second half of the bridge formed by the “generations” formula, and the beginning of the Eden narrative- places the events of the narrative “in the day when YHWH Elohim made the earth and the heavens….”[31]
* Before any plant had appeared, before any rain had fallen, while a mist[32] watered the earth, Yahweh formed the man (Heb. ha-adam ? ) out of dust from the ground (Heb. ha-adamah ??²), and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. And the man became a “living being” (Heb. nephesh).
* Yahweh planted a garden in Eden and he set the man in it. He caused pleasant trees to spout from the ground, and trees necessary for food, also the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Some modern translations alter the tense-sequence so that the garden is prepared before the man is set in it, but the Hebrew has the man created before the garden is planted. An unnamed river is described: it goes out from Eden to water the garden, after which it parts into four named streams. He takes the man who is to tend His garden and tells him he may eat of the fruit of all the trees except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in that day thou shalt surely die.”
* Yahweh resolved to make a “helper”[33] suitable for (lit. “corresponding to”)[34] the man.[35] He made domestic animals and birds, and the man gave them their names, but none of them is a fitting helper. Therefore, Yahweh caused the man to sleep, and he took a rib,[36] and from it formed a woman. The man then named her “Woman” (Heb. ishah), saying “for from a man (Heb. ish) has this been taken.” A statement instituting marriage follows: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” The lack of punctuation in the Hebrew makes it uncertain whether or not these words about marriage are intended to be a continuation of the speech of the man.
* The man and his wife were naked, and felt no shame.

Genesis 1-11: Primeval History

Genesis 1-2 opens the “primeval history” of Genesis 1-11. This unit within Genesis forms an introduction to the stories of Abraham and the Patriarchs, and contains the first mention of many themes which are continued throughout the book of Genesis and the Torah, including fruitfulness, God’s election of Israel, and His ongoing forgiveness of man’s rebellious nature. It is therefore impossible to understand either Genesis 1-2 or the Torah as a whole without reference to this introductory history.[37]
Ancient Near East context
Cuneiform tablet with the Atra-Hasis Epic in the British Museum
The Sumerian god Ningizzida accompanied by two gryphons. It is the oldest known image of snakes coiling around an axial rod, dating from before 2000 BCE.

The worldview which lies behind the Genesis creation story is that of the common cosmology of the Ancient Near East:[38] To civilizations of the Ancient Near East, the Earth was conceived as a flat disk with infinite water both above and below. The dome of the sky was thought to be a solid metal bowl (tin according to the Sumerians, iron for the Egyptians) separating the surrounding water from the habitable world. The stars were embedded in the lower surface of this dome, with gates that allowed the passage of the Sun and Moon back and forth. The flat-disk Earth was seen as a single island-continent surrounded by a circular ocean, of which the known seas- what we call today the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea- were inlets. Beneath the Earth was a fresh-water sea, the source of all fresh-water rivers and wells.[38]

The two Genesis creation narratives- Genesis 1:1-2:3 and Genesis 2:4-2:25- are both comparable with other Near Eastern creation myths- notably Narrative I has close parallels with the En?»ma Eli[39][40] and Narrative II has parallels with the Atra-Hasis[41]

According to the En?»ma Eli the original state of the universe was a chaos formed by the mingling of two primeval waters, the female saltwater Tiamat and the male freshwater Apsu.[42] The opening six lines read:

When skies above were not yet named
Nor earth below pronounced by name
Apsu, the first one, their begetter
And maker Tiamat, who bore them all
Had mixed their waters together,
But had not formed pastures, nor discovered reed-beds[43]

Through the fusion of their waters six successive generations of gods were born. A war amongst the gods began with the slaying of Apsu, and ended with the god Marduk splitting Tiamat in two to form the heavens and the earth; the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers emerged from her eye-sockets. Marduk then created humanity, from clay mingled with spit and blood, to tend the Earth for the gods, while Marduk himself was enthroned in Babylon in the Esagila, “the temple with its head in heaven.”

Adapa (cognate with Adam) was a Babylonian mythical figure who unknowingly refused the gift of immortality. The story[44] is first attested in the Kassite period (14th century BC). Mario Liverani[45] points to multiple parallels between the story of Adapa, who obtains wisdom but who is forbidden the ‘food of immortality’ whilst in heaven, and the story of Adam in Eden.

Ningishzida was a Mesopotamian serpent deity associated with the underworld. He was often depicted protectively wrapped around a tree as a guardian. Thorkild Jacobsen interprets his name in Sumerian to mean “lord of the good tree”[46]

Despite apparent similarities between Genesis and the En?»ma Eli, there are also significant differences. The most notable is the absence from Genesis of the “divine combat” (the gods’ battle with Tiamat) which secures Marduk’s position as king of the world, but even this has an echo in the claims of Yahweh’s kingship over creation in such places as Psalm 29 and Psalm 93, where he is pictured as sitting enthroned over the floods[42] and Isaiah 27:1″In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword; his fierce, great and powerful sword; Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.” Thus this creation account may be seen as either a borrowing or historicizing of Babylonian myth[47] or, in contrast, may be seen as a repudiation of Babylonian ideas about origins and humanity.[48]
Structure and composition
Michelangelo’s painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel shows the creation of the sun, moon and earth as described in the first chapter of Genesis.
Structure
See also: Framework interpretation

Genesis 1 consists of an indeterminate time period that God created space and time ex nihilo (out of nothing)[49][10][11][12][13][14][15][17][18][20][50] followed by eight acts of creation within a six day framework. During the indeterminate time period described in verses 1 and 2 there is no division in time. In each of the first three days there is an act of division: Day one divides the darkness from light; day two, the waters from the skies; and day three, the sea from the land. In each of the next three days these divisions are populated: day four populates what was created on day one, and heavenly bodies are placed in the darkness and light; day five populates what was created on day two, and fish and birds are placed in the seas and skies; finally, day six populates what was created on day three, and animals and man are place on the land. This six-day structure is symmetrically bracketed: On day zero primeval chaos reigns, and on day seven there is cosmic order.[51]

Genesis 2 is a simple linear narrative, with the exception of the parenthesis about the four rivers at 2:10-14. This interrupts the forward movement of the narrative and is possibly a later insertion.[52]

The two are joined by Genesis 2:4a, “These are the tledt (?° in Hebrew) of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” This echoes the first line of Genesis 1, “In the beginning Elohim created both the heavens and the earth,” and is reversed in the next line of Genesis 2, “In the day when Yahweh Elohim made the earth and the heavens…”. The significance of this, if any, is unclear, but it does reflect the preoccupation of each chapter, Genesis 1 looking down from heaven, Genesis 2 looking up from the earth.[53]
Composition
Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam (1512) is the most famous Fresco in the Sistine Chapel

According to the tradition the first five books of the Bible were written by Moses, but today most scholars accept that the Pentateuch “was in reality a composite work, the product of many hands and periods.” [54] In the first half of the 20th century the dominant theory regarding its origins was the documentary hypothesis, which supposes that the Torah was produced about 450 BC by combining four distinct, complete and coherent documents, with Genesis 1 from one source (called Priestly source [P]), and Genesis 2 from another (Jahwist [J]).[9] The renewed emphasis on the final form of the biblical text has also tended to redirect attention to its overarching theological coherence.[55]

Exegetical points
Fertile Crescent
myth series
Mark of the Palm
Mesopotamian
Levantine
Arabian
Mesopotamia
7 gods who decree
The great gods
Demigods & heroes
Spirits & monsters
Tales from Babylon
Primordial Beings

Aps?» & Tiamat
Lahmu & Lahamu
Anshar & Kishar
Mummu

Creation myth

In academics, the Genesis creation narrative is often described as a “creation myth” or cosmogonic myth. From its Greek origin, myth is simply defined as a story or legend that has cultural significance in explaining the how’s and why’s of human existence, using metaphorical language to express ideas beyond the realm of our five senses. It refers to a culture’s theory of its originsa supernatural story or explanation that describes the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe, as viewed by that culture or religious group. It does not imply made up works of the imagination.[56]

In its popular definition “myth” has become synonymous with “not true”.[56] Theologian N.T. Wright, while defending the technical designation of the Genesis creation accounts as mythical, explains that the characterization of Genesis 1-3 as a “mythic” text is offensive to many Christians and Jews who consider their Bible to contain “sacred text.” But to suggest that Genesis is both a mythic text as well as the “inerrant Word of God” may require a leap of faith for some, he says. The popular “not true” conceptualization of myth, even if disclaimed by an author, is seen as negatively affecting the reputation of the validity of scripture, historically considered by both Jews and Christians to be the revelation of God.

Biblical scholars exegete incidents in Genesis and other Hebrew Bible passages as containing prefigurations (prototypes) of cardinal New Testament concepts, including the Passion of Christ and the Eucharist.[57]

A non-literal and non-historical reading of Genesis has negative implications for an evangelical understanding of the New Testament. This is largely because the New Testament, for example in Matthew 19:4, also refers to Adam and Eve as literal historical characters. A primary reason for fundamentalist opposition to the whole idea of evolution is a literalist reading of scripture- especially the text detailing the creation of the earth and its inhabitants in Genesis 1-3.[56]

The issue for Christians is a dual hermeneutical issue: how do we understand Genesis in a way that is in honest conversation with what we know today scientifically and in terms of ancient Near Eastern religious texts that parallel Genesis? Then, how do we handle Paul’s understanding of Genesis when he was not aware of the very factors that force our own reconsideration of Genesis. Evangelicalism is not well equipped to address this issue because of its polemical history, some of which N.T. Wright alludes to.[56] To both Jews and Christians, the creation account provides an introduction to the Sinai covenantinformation that makes the author’s view of the Sinai covenant understandable.[58]

Wright suggests that the mythological part has been misunderstood and discarded by many evangelicals in favor of a reading based entirely on questions of historicity. Wright suggests that questions concerning the historicity of Genesis and the historicity of Adam and Eve get caught up in contemporary cultural issues and miss the larger story. He argues that…

…to flatten that [the text of Genesis] out is to almost perversely avoid the real thrust of the narrative “¦ we have to read Genesis for all it’s worth and to say either history or myth is a way of saying ‘I’m not going to read this text for all its worth, I am just going to flatten it out so that it conforms to the cultural questions that my culture today is telling me to ask’.[56]

“In the beginning…”
Main article: Genesis 1:1

The first word of Genesis 1 in Hebrew, “in the beginning” (Heb. bert °¨?©), provides the traditional Jewish title for the book. The inherent ambiguity of the Hebrew grammar in this verse gives rise to two alternative translations, the first implying that God’s initial act of creation was before time was created and ex nihilo (out of nothing),[49][10][11][12][13][14][15][17][18][20][50][59] the second that “the heavens and the earth” (i.e., everything) already existed in a “formless and empty” state, to which God brings form and order:[60]

1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void”¦. God said, Let there be light!” (King James Version).
2. “At the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth, when the earth was (or the earth being) unformed and void…. God said, Let there be light!” (Rashi, and with variations Ibn Ezra and Bereshith Rabba).

The Names of God

Two names of God are used, Elohim in the first account and Yahweh Elohim in the second account. In Jewish tradition, dating back to the earliest rabbinic literature, the different names indicate different attributes of God.[61][62] In modern times the two names, plus differences in the styles of the two chapters and a number of discrepancies between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, were instrumental in the development of source criticism and the documentary hypothesis.
“Without form and void”

The phrase traditionally translated in English “without form and void” is t?h?» w?b?h?» (Hebrew: -). The Greek Septuagint (LXX) rendered this term as “unseen and unformed” (Greek: ?± ±?½? ±±?±), paralleling the Greek concept of Chaos. In the Hebrew Bible, the phrase is a dis legomenon, being used only in one other place.[Jer. 4:23] There Jeremiah is telling Israel that sin and rebellion against God will lead to “darkness and chaos,” or to “de-creation,” “as if the earth had been -uncreated.'”[63]
The r?»ach of God

The Hebrew r?»ach (?¨·) has the meanings “wind, spirit, breath,” but the traditional Jewish interpretation here is “wind,” as “spirit” would imply a living supernatural presence co-extent with yet separate from God at Creation. This, however, is the sense in which r?»ach was understood by the early Christian church in developing the doctrine of the Trinity, in which this passage plays a central role.[60]
The “deep”

The “deep” (Heb. ° tehm), is the formless body of primeval water surrounding the habitable world. These waters are later released during the great flood, when “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth” from under the earth and from the “windows” of the sky.[Gen. 7:11] [28] Even the conservative Christian scholar, Gordon Wenham, accepted that tehm is cognate with the Babylonian Tiamat,[28] believing its occurrence here without the definite article ha (i.e., the literal translation of the Hebrew is that “darkness lay on the face of tehm) indicates its mythical origins.[64] However, David Tsumura has demonstrated, from standard linguistic methodology, that it is impossible to derive tehm from Tiamat directly.[65]

Tehom cannot linguistically derive from Tiamat since the second consonant of Ti’amat, which is the laryngeal alef, disappears in Akkadian in the intervocalic position and would not be manufactured as a borrowed word. This occurs, for instance, in the Akkadian Ba’al which becomes Bel. … Tiamat and tehom must come from a common Semitic root *thm. The same root is the base for the Babylonian tamtu and also appears as the Arabic tihamatu or tihama, a name applied to the coastline of Western Arabia, and the Ugaritic t-h-m which means “ocean” or “abyss.” The root simply refers to deep waters. [66]

The firmament of heaven

The “firmament” (Heb. ?¨§· r?qa) of heaven, created on the second day of creation and populated by luminaries on the fourth day, denotes a solid ceiling[38] which separated the earth below from the heavens and their waters above. The term is etymologically derived from the verb r?qa (?¨§?·? ), used for the act of beating metal into thin plates.[28][67]
Great sea monsters

Heb. hatanninim hagedolim (··   ·°? ) is the classification of creatures to which the chaos-monsters Leviathan and Rahab belong.[68] In Genesis 1:21, the proper noun Leviathan is missing and only the class noun great tannnim appears. The great tannnim are associated with mythological sea creatures such as Lotan (the Ugaritic counterpart of the biblical Leviathan) which were considered deities by other ancient near eastern cultures; the author of Genesis 1 asserts the sovereignty of Elohim over such entities.[67]
The number seven

Seven denoted divine completion.[69] It is embedded in the text of Genesis 1 (but not in Genesis 2) in a number of ways, besides the obvious seven-day framework: the word “God” occurs 35 times (7 5) and “earth” 21 times (7 3). The phrases “and it was so” and “God saw that it was good” occur 7 times each. The first sentence of Genesis 1:1 contains 7 Hebrew words comprised of 28 Hebrew letters (7 4), and the second sentence contains 14 words (7 2), while the verses about the seventh day[Gen. 2:1-3] contain 35 words (7 5) in total.[70]
Man and the image of God

The meaning of the “image of God” has been much debated. The ancient Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria and the medieval Jewish scholar Rashi believed it referred to “a sort of conceptual archetype, model, or blueprint that God had previously made for man;” his colleague Maimonides suggested it referred to man’s free will.[71] Modern scholarship still debates whether the image of God was represented symmetrically in Adam and Eve, or whether Adam possessed the image more fully than the woman.
Theology and Judaeo-Christian interpretation
Questions of genre

The genre of Genesis 1-2 (and Genesis 1-11, the larger whole to which the two chapters belong) remains subject to differences of opinion, and modern scholars can only make informed judgments. One inevitable conclusion is that Genesis 1-2 represent theology: the chapters concern the actions of God and the meaning of those acts. The story is also presented with a clear chronological progression as part of a history that leads from the moment of first creation to the destruction of the First Temple, leading mythologist Thorkild Jacobsen to classify it as “mythical history”.[72]

It has been variously described as historical narrative[73][74] (i.e., a literal account); as mythic history (i.e., a symbolic representation of historical time); as ancient science (in that, for the original authors, the narrative represented the current state of knowledge about the cosmos and its origin and purpose); and as theology (as it describes the origin of the Earth and humanity in terms of God).[7]
Theology of Genesis 1-2

Jewish and Christian theology both define God as unchangeable since he created time and therefore transcends time and is not affected by it.[17][20][50]

Traditional Jewish scholarship has viewed it as expressing spiritual concepts (see Nachmanides, commentary on Genesis). The Mishnah in Tractate Chagigah states that the actual meaning of the creation account, mystical in nature and hinted at in the text of Genesis, was to be taught only to advanced students one-on-one. Tractate Sanhedrin states that Genesis describes all mankind as being descended from a single individual in order to teach certain lessons. Among these are:

* Taking one life is tantamount to destroying the entire world, and saving one life is tantamount to saving the entire world.
* A person should not say to another that he comes from better stock because we all come from the same ancestor.
* To teach the greatness of God, for when human beings create a mold every thing that comes out of that mold is identical, while mankind, which comes out of a single mold, is different in that every person is unique.[75]

Among the many views of modern scholars on Genesis and creation one of the most influential is that which links it to the emergence of Hebrew monotheism from the common Mesopotamian/Levantine background of polytheistic religion and myth around the middle of the 1st millennium BC.[76] The “Creation week” narrative forms a monotheistic polemic on creation-theology directed against gentile creation myths, the sequence of events building to the establishment of the Biblical Sabbath (in Hebrew: ?©?·?, Shabbat) commandment as its climax.[77] Where the Babylonian myths saw man as nothing more than a “lackey of the gods to keep them supplied with food,”[78] Genesis starts out with God approving the world as “very good” and with mankind at the apex of created order.[Gen. 1:31] Things then fall away from this initial state of goodness: Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree in disobedience of the divine command. Ten generations later in the time of Noah, the Earth has become so corrupted that God resolves to return it to the waters of chaos sparing only one man who is righteous and from whom a new creation can begin.
Creationism

Part of a series on
Creationism

History of creationism
Neo-creationism
Types of creationism

Young Earth creationism
Old Earth creationism
Gap creationism
Day-Age creationism
Progressive creationism
Intelligent design
Mythology and theology

Creation myth
Genesis creation myth
Framework interpretation
Genesis as an allegory
Omphalos hypothesis
Creation science

Baraminology
Flood geology
Intelligent design
Controversy

History
Public education
Politics of creationism
Teach the Controversy
Particular religious views

Deist · Hindu · Islamic · Jewish
Pandeist

See also: Creationism and Creation-evolution controversy

The ideology of creationism springs from the belief that if one element of the biblical narrative is shown to be untrue, then all others will follow: “Tamper with the Book of Genesis and you undermine the very foundations of Christianity…. If Genesis 1 is not accurate, then there’s no way to be certain that the rest of Scripture tells the truth.”[79] Thus a literal genre, Genesis as history, is substituted for the symbolic Genesis as theology, and the text is placed in conflict with science.[80] “Young Earth” creationists believe that the seven “days” of Genesis 1 correspond to normal 24-hour days while Day-age creationists, more willing to adjust their religious beliefs to accommodate current scientific findings, hold that each “day” represents an “age” of perhaps millions or even billions of years. Creationists read Genesis 2 as history, holding that God breathed into the nostrils of a being formed out of dust, and from his side (or rib) the first woman was formed.[81]
See also

* Allegorical interpretations of Genesis
* Babylonian mythology
* Biblical criticism
* Christian mythology
* Hexameron
* Jewish mythology
* Mesopotamian mythology
* Religion and mythology
* Sacred history
* Sumerian creation myth
* Sumerian literature
* Tree of life
* Timeline of the Bible

Notes

1. ^ While the term myth is often used colloquially to refer to “a false story”, this article uses the term “creation myth” in the formal sense, common in academic literature, meaning the symbolic literary structure of “a religious or supernatural story or explanation that describes the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe.”

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