Creation Myths
Overview

Topics covered in this document:

• Introduction
  • Genesis Account
    • Moral Framework
    • Standoffish God
  • Procreation vs Construction
• Two Genesis Accounts
  • First Creation Account
    • Babylonian Template
    • Spring Ritual
  • Second Creation Account
    • Canaanite Template
    • Autumn Ritual
    • Prepare, Then Create
    • Life-Death Cycles of Earth
  • Jewish New Year
• Discrepancies in Genesis
  • Creation Events
  • Infallability Argument
  • Not Borrowed or Embellished
  • Akkadian Creation Epics
  • Bible as Myth-Based Stories
• World Ages
  • Pre-Creations
  • Pre-Adam People
  • Destruction by Meteors
    • Meteor Impact Sites
    • Holy of Holies Meteor Fragment
    • Immanuel Velikovsky
  • Justice and Mercy
• Archangels Protect Israel
• Equinox and Solstice Events

Introduction

Genesis presents the Hebrew version of the creation of the world ... and of man ... and of those who are the ancestors of the Hebrew people.

Genesis Account

The Genesis stories are different on several points compared to other contemporary creation myths.

Moral Framework

Unlike many of the other creation stories of the time, Genesis provides a distinctly moral framework within which the Hebrew God operates.

By contrast, the gods of most other cultures often acted irrationally or on a whim ... much like humans do.

Standoffish God

Other cultures usually involved their gods directly in the act of creation, expecting them to manipulate and to mold the various elements by hand into the final form. In the case of people, goddesses often gave birth to the human race.

The Hebrews, on the other hand, tell us that their God distanced himself from the acts of creation and created everything from the sidelines ... simply by speaking aloud the action which was to be done. When he voiced his desire, it became so.

Unlike all the other things created, however, the creation of humans was done in the manner of other cultures ... that is, by God being actively involved in creation ... molding man from clay and manipulating a rib so that it becomes a woman.

It's as if the author couldn't forsake older, established traditions completely. Another possibility is that it was two different authors who wrote the creation story ... one who broke with tradition and one who kept the status quo. (More on this topic is found below.)

Procreation vs Construction

Prior to the Biblical view, Hebrews often saw creation as an act of procreation, instead of construction. In fact we find that before the patriarchal God came on the scene, the Hebrews worshipped the Goddess, a matriarch who gave birth to her creations.

But among the Hebrews, she was soon replaced by her warrior-consort (the God of the Old Testament).

But she didn't go easily ... for the Bible tells us she was still being worshipped in the groves to the very end of the reign of the Judean monarchy.

As you might guess, the montheistic editor of Genesis couldn't allow the Creatrix to enter the Hebrew cosmogony. Instead, the goddess was merged into the abstractions of Chaos, Darkness, and the Deep. The Hebrew words for these abstractions share roots with the names of the goddesses, however.

Two Genesis Accounts

Biblical scholars today divide the Genesis account of the creation into two major parts, apparently written by two different authors and at two different times. No one knows the names of these authors, so the scholars simply designate them as P and J.

NOTE: Neither author appears to be Moses, the author commonly assigned to the Book of Genesis.

First Creation Account

The first creation account (Gen. 1:1-2:3) was written by P shortly after the Jews had returned from their Babylonian Exile. In this account, God is named Elohim (translated as God). See the Elohim parchment for further details about Elohim.

Babylonian Template

This account presents the things which God created on each of the days of creation. Several scholars have commented on how closely it follows the order of the planetary gods in the Babylonian week (just as our days are named mostly after planetary gods today). It reflects a Babylonian geography and climate.

Spring Ritual

The Babylonian cosmogony begins with the emergence of earth from a primeval watery chaos (an allegory of how dry land emerges annually from the winter floods of the Tigris and Euphrates). Thus creation is represented as a Springtime flowering after the primeval watery chaos, when the birds and beasts of the field begin their mating season.

Second Creation Account

The second creation account (Gen. 2:4-22) was written by J prior to the Exile. That is, the second account is actually older than the first account. In this account, God is named Yahweh (translated as the Lord) ... although a priestly editor later changed it to Yahweh Elohim (translated as the Lord God) to be more in line with the first account. See the Yahweh parchment for further details about Yahweh (Jehovah).

Canaanite Template

This account reflects a Canaanite geography and climate.

Autumn Ritual

The earth is sun-scorched, parched, dusty, and barren ... as if it had just gone through a long summer. Finally, Autumn approaches with the first mists of rain ... bringing life to the desert.

And as a final act, man is created from the dust of the ground.

Prepare, Then Create

Whereas the the first account is specific and organized, this account is vague and haphazard. It refers to a prior creation (for example, the trees were created before they were planted on the earth). In doing so, it parallels other Near Eastern cosmogonies, in which God first prepares the things which will eventually be placed on the Earth and then, as the second part of creation, places them there for the use of mankind.

Life-Death Cycles of Earth

Another interpretation of this phenomenon maintains that this account is an attempt to delineate various world ages that the Earth has gone through. According to this train of thought, the Earth has been created and destroyed many times, forming a cycle of creation and destruction. (See the World Ages section below for more details.)

Jewish New Year

The Jewish New Year originally began in the Autumn, aligning with the second account. Remember, the second account was actually written prior to the first account.

Later, the Jewish New Year changed to align with the first account, which was written after the second account. Today the Jewish New Year begins in the Spring.

Sounds confusing? Don't worry, scholars have been confused by it too.

Discrepancies in Genesis

When putting together the Book of Genesis, the author(s) or editor(s) did not attempt too rigorously to eliminate the contradictory details between the two accounts.

Creation Events

For example, the order of creation events is different in each account:

Infallability Argument

For centuries, Jewish and Christian disciples of the Bible have attempted to explain away these contradictions. For the believers, their explanations are sacrosanct.

These theologians maintain that the Genesis account of creation was inspired by God ... infallable ... and not open to debate. End of discussion.

Not Borrowed or Embellished

Furthermore, they claim that the Biblical creation story is not a myth and is in NO way a "borrowed" or an "embellished" version of any of the other creation myths popular among contemporary neighboring cultures.

As a matter of fact, they fiercely defend their claim that the traits of their One God are absolutely unique among all the gods and mythologies of the "heathens."

Akkadian Creation Epics

Since 1876, however, several versions of Akkadian Creation Epics have been excavated and published. Among them is one known as the Enuma Elish, which was written during the early part of the second millennium BC.

These and other discoveries have shattered the fundamentalist view. Now all but the die-hard advocates have abandoned that extreme view ... at least among the Bible scholars.

The non-scholars often hold fast to their old views and regard all this scholarly research as being flat-out wrong!

Bible as Myth-Based Stories

Now Bible scholars know that a great deal of the Old Testament is based on the myths and legends of cultures with whom the Hebrews came in contact.

It's important to note, however, that this in no way proves the Bible stories to be false ... just not always original in their thoughts and doctrines.

World Ages

The idea that the Earth has undergone many cycles of creation and destruction is shared by a number of ancient cultures.

Pre-Creations

Before God started on this creation, he created seven eternal things spiritually:

1. The Law
2. Gehenna
3. The Garden of Eden
4. The Divine Throne
5. The Celestial Pavillion
6. The Messiah's Name
7. Repentance

It was the Law who convinced God that he could only be a God if he had a Creation. Note: Anthropomorphism (assigning personalities to inanimate objects) was common among many ancient cultures.

We are told that the Torah had been created 1000 years prior to the creation of the Earth.

Pre-Adam People

Jewish legends tell us that God had made several other worlds before creating ours, but that he destroyed them all because he wasn't pleased with them.

Before being destroyed, however, these and other worlds were inhabited by men and women. In fact, 974 generations existed prior to Adam. But as part of the destuction of these worlds, God also destroyed all record of these pre-Adam people.

Destruction by Meteors

According to a widespread, popular notion during the time of the first prophets (Samuel and David), God destroyed the previous Earth by casting a huge stone (meteor?) into the water ... thereby making room for the creation of our current world.

Meteor Impact Sites

As you know, modern scientists have identified several meteor impact sites in and out of the water ... especially the one that landed off the Yucatan coastline some 65 million years ago and which is believed to be be the main cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

This was many, many millions of years before humans appeard on Earth. However, it is possible that several meteors have struck the earth during the period of recorded history as well. Witness the relatively recent meteor that struck the mostly uninhabited region of Siberia.

Holy of Holies Meteor Fragment

The stone in the Holy of Holies was said to have been a meteor fragment. The Ineffable Name of God had been engraved on it while it was still in the heavens, before it plummeted to Earth.

Immanuel Velikovsky

If you are interested in the relationship between ancient myth and astronomical events, you might want to check out some of the writings by Immanuel Velikovsky. His former web site no longer exists, but if you type his name in Google (or another search engine of your choice), you'll find some interesting information on this subject.

Justice and Mercy

Justice alone ruled the former worlds that God had created. But God decided to allow both Justice and Mercy to rule our current world, so that it wouldn't be destroyed.

Archangels Protect Israel

Israel is protected by the archangels Michael and Gabriel, who acted as God's consultants during the creation of the world, thus, demonstrating their importance in the heavenly hierarchy.

Whenever the angels (gods) of another nation attacked Israel, Michael and Gabriel were called in to frighten away the foreign angels. However, they only fought for Israel if the Israelites had been righteous.

Equinox and Solstice Events

Every year, at the solstices and equinoxes, God performs certain acts in an effort to maintain order ... and to ensure that the earth does not return to a state of chaos:

• Spring Equinox (month of Nisan).
  God sends legions of Seraphim to the world of spirits to intimidate them so that they don't harm the people.
• Summer Solstice (month of Tammuz).
  God sends Behemoth to prevent the wild animals from destroying all the weak or tame animals.
• Autumnal Equinox (month of Tishri).
  God sends the Ziz to prevent birds of prey from devouring all the smaller birds.
• Winter Solstice (month of Tebet).
  God sends Leviathan to prevent all the big fish from eating the little fish.

I cover some of these beasts (behemoth, leviathan and ziz) in other parchments in this burrow.

What Next?

Return

Return to a higher level:

• Mythology Burrow to choose another Library.
• Hebrew Library to choose another Department.
• Creation Department to choose another Document.

Read Next Document in Series

The following documents are in this series:

• Overview
• Creation Day 1
• Creation Day 2
• Creation Day 3
• Creation Day 4
• Creation Day 5
• Creation Day 6

Have a pleasant day!