9/8: Two Creation Accounts, Source Criticism, Possible Adventures

Here's the clip we watched from ventriloquist Taylor Mason , and here is another clip you'll enjoy.  Remember our important conversation: Why do most Christian ventriloquists say they relate to Moses?



Great job, wonderful conversation today, noting differences in the two creation accounts, Genesis 1 and 2. What do you remember, as far as literary differences?

If you  missed class today, make observations about; compare and contrast,  the two stories of creation: Gen 1:1 – 2:3 and Gen. 2:4-25). 

Greg Camp and Laura Roberts (FPU faculty) note:

The two accounts are separate but complementary, like the four gospels. They can be read at different levels, from literal to figurative, with no bearing on the truth of it. Poetry is not less true than a newspaper, just a different kind or mode of truth. And, one must always ask the question what the implied author intended and what the implied audience would have understood. Ancient notions of history are very different from ours.

Genesis 1:

repetitious, tabular, formal

days of creation reported in the same way, formulaic

authority and brevity

style of ordering material into a series of similar solemn commands are unchallenged

content presents major divisions of creation known to writer

catalog or tabulation of events and commands

vocabulary = create (bara), humanity as likeness/image, male/fernale

God = Elohim, characterized as powerful cosmic organizer, speaks things into being, stands outside of cosmos and controls it

Humanity = created as vice regent, created in image gives representative status

polemic against mythical concepts of life and creation

Genesis 2:

relationship of characters emphasized

language is picturesque and flowing, poetic terms, colorful

God's actions more interrelated than separated by divisions of time or set expressions (idioms)

no two acts are alike and none are preceded by divine command

vocabulary = form (yasar), humanity as living being, man/woman

God = Yahweh, characterized by immanence, personal nearness, involvement on human scene, intimate master, depicted humanly (hands, walking, digging)

Humanity = ready contact with and immediate responsibility to God. Humanity's creation linked to ground (word play on adam = man and adamah = ground) and curse is alienation from the land, is distinctive because Yahweh personally addresses him

polemic against fertility cults in Canaan

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Compare Genesis accounts to Babylonian Creation story (read an excerpt here). Significant similarities – Genesis is not written in a vacuum. Significant differences – lack of violence, struggle, multiple gods, etc.

Enuma Elish:

a.     creation by word - Marduk has this power. They tell him to open his mouth. At the word of his mouth XXX vanishes or reappears.

b.    command over elements - Marduk enlists wind and storm to defeat Tiamat, but battles with elements too.

c.     Tiamat is split in two and body is used to retain waters and set firmament and ground.

d.    sets stars in their place, gives moon and sun jurisdiction, setting days 

e.     creation of man - "blood I will make and bones I will cause to be" new idea like Genesis but he creates out of a dead god's body and for the purpose of "the relief of the gods".

In Genesis, we see a carefully structured account, bringing order out of chaos. The sea and darkness are elements of chaos in the ancient world. No work can be done in the dark; salt water kills agriculture; unknown depths and sea creatures are in the sea. God has ability to control and limit these. Chaos is not eliminated or bounded. God creates out of nothing (vs. other creation myths of the day), and the verb used for "create" (bara) is something no human ever does in the Old Testament. Only God does this action. There are also no elements of struggle or battle to create, which is typical of other contemporary creation myths. God simply speaks or shapes things into being. There are also no birthing images, which are common in other myths, and quickly lead to a confusion between Creator and creature (vs. God as wholly other), and to fertility cults. Also, most other creation myths were a people’s story (how the Mesopotamians came to be, for instance). Genesis is not presented as Israel’s story, but as the story of the world. ( to really appreciate the beauty and brilliance of these chapters, one has to read Hebrew. These verses are packed with wordplays and puns. It may not immediately occur to one that puns are a good form of theological education, but…)

          -Camp and Roberts

This helped introduce a topic key in studies of the Pentateuch as a whole, and for our purposes, Exodus and Deuteronomy: Source crticism  (brief intro here)  and the "Documentary Hypothesis, commonly called:
 JEDP:
 A brief explanation is  here .
Be familiar with what your textbook says about this: Pages  461-463 ("Source Theory).




We noted different names of God used, and focused on the covenant name God gave to Moses:


"I AM"

A top Old Testament scholar has suggested that perhaps a good translation would be:

"I am 
what my next action is about to reveal me to be"

What would that imply about God?  How does this help us understand God, and God's actions, in Exodus?
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This led to discussion of possible "Adventure" assignment topics:

• -Source Criticism/ JEDP,  your own observatiuons on different literary styles, sources, terms in Exodus or Deuteronomy
• -"Justifying God": reckoning honestly with how to understand God doing apparently "unGodlike" things in Exodus ( allowing enslavement, killing, advocating killing, judgement on Egyptians, intending to kill Moses, etc.)
• -Janzen's thesis that Exodus is fundamentally about ":a change of masters" (see p.  for starters

• Case study/analysis of Moses: as a leader, or as a person; perhaps as a case study as a leader in communitas (definition here, see also  "Moses aqnd communitas articles here  and liminality (see definition here, also see "40 years of liminality") More on those terns next week.  Though: Why is Moses (unexpectedly) not mentioned as often as one would think in the text?

• A book report/review/critique of Bruce Feiler's "America's Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America."  Lots of starter info on the "Moses and America" tab above, and video here:
  

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Next week: Have read:

• Exodus chapter 1 through chapter 7:7
• Janzen, Parts 1 and 2