Genesis of Genesis: Where Did the Biblical Story of Creation Come From?
The Bible actually has more than one creation myth, and the one you're thinking of seems to have arisen not from ancient Israelite lore but from the central Asian steppes.
Elon Gilad
Oct 02, 2015 6:01 AM
The
Hebrew Bible opens with an account of creation, starting with what is arguably the most memorable line in the entire tome: “
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
But this iconic account of God creating the world is not the only account of creation in the Bible. If anything, it seems to be the most recent in a succession of creation myths held sacred by the
ancient Hebrews over the eons.
Baal and the sea monsters
The oldest creation myth in the Bible isn't in the Book of Genesis at all. It is alluded to in the Book of
Isaiah, in the Book of Job and in Psalms.
The clearest and fullest biblical account of this ancient myth appears in Psalm 74: “
For God... Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers. The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter” (74:12-17).
An archaeological discovery made in the 20th century shed light on this strange account of creation, revealing it for what it is: an abridged version of the Canaanite creation myth.
Among the ruins of the ancient Canaanite city of
Ugarit, tablets were found in a language very similar to Hebrew, recording the many myths believed by the city’s inhabitants - including that creation began with the storm god Baal vanquishing the god of the sea Yam and his sea monster-serpent-dragon helpers.
There are striking parallels between the Ugarit text and certain biblical verses. In the Book of Isaiah, for instance, the prophet says: “
In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1). That is nearly verbatim to what an anonymous Canaanite bard has to say about Baal: “
When you killed Litan, the fleeing serpent, annihilated the twisty serpent, the potentate with seven heads."
Generations of heaven and earth
Another completely different account of creation found in the Bible in Genesis 2, starting with the line: “
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Genesis 2:4).
According to this account, God created man from clay, placed him in the Garden of Eden, and only then created animals, plants and a spouse for his benefit.
The writer of this simple prose has quite an anthropomorphic conception of God, most clearly seen when the author has him taking an afternoon stroll in the Garden of Eden, where he bumps into Adam and converses with him: “
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:8-10).
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Genesis of Genesis: Where did the biblical story of Creation come from?
