¶ … History of Judaism: From biblical origins to the modern period." It discusses Genesis 1-11 and what these texts tell us about the origins of Israelite religion? What do the major episodes in these 11 chapters of the Torah tell us about the differences between classical Mesopotamian paganism and the origins of Israelite thought and religion?
History of Judaism: From biblical origins to the modern period
Genesis is the book of beginnings. That is what the word itself means, and it takes us back into the very dawn of human history. It opens with an awareness of the greatest material fact in all human life; a fact that we are all subconsciously aware of almost every waking moment, that is, that we are living in a universe. Then this galaxy itself is moving at incredible speed through the vastness of space in conjunction with millions of other galaxies like ours. It is precisely at that point that the Bible opens in a majestic recognition that man is part of a universe." In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1).(Langer, Ruth, Jewish understandings of the religious other., Theological Studies, 06-01-2003, pp 255)
Genesis 1 comes from the source that scholars call "the Priestly Tradition." Although it is first in the Bible, it was in fact written very late, probably something around the fourth or third century BCE. It is placed first in the Bible certainly because it deals with ultimate beginnings, but also because it offers the culmination of almost a thousand years of theological reflection. It is written as a polemic against the prevailing religious sensibilities of the time, which is known as "ancient Near Eastern nature religions."
The second passage is Genesis 1:27 which describes the creation of the first man and the first woman. This passage can only be understood in terms of Hebrew parallelism, wherein what is said...
In this cases "Adam"[humankind] in the first line parallels "male and female" in the third, and soothe image of God is reflected in both male and female. The Israelite God, according to the priestly writer, is neither a male god nor a female god, but is rather both male and female. This is a response to ancient Near Eastern nature religion, which would claim that gods were either male or female.
In strong contrast to the very abstract and remote God of the priestly writer, the Yahwist portrays God as very human-like, a concept we called" anthropomorphism." God comes down at the pleasant time of the day to commune with the humans. He is angry, insecure, and a bit petulant. I am increasingly astounded by how negatively Yahweh is portrayed in this story.(Clifford, Richard, A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period, vol. 1: From the Beginnings to the End of the Monarchy.(book reviews). Vol. 56, Theological Studies, 09-01-1995, pp 566(2).)
Regarding the serpent, I insist that this figure not be confused with Satanor the devil. He is described as the cleverest animal, which Yahweh God has made. He is carefully portrayed as not divine, but a part of the creaturely world. He makes two assertions about Yahweh 1) that Adam and Eve will not die if they ate the fruit; 2) that the reason Yahweh did not want them to eat the fruit is because he was jealously guarding the divine prerogatives, keeping the humans from realizing their full potential. As the story continues, we find that the Serpent was correct on both of these issues. This is a profoundly disturbing story. Our focus on the other major mythic stories in Genesis, the Flood and the Tower of Babel confirm the Yahwistic observations of the Garden of Edenstory. First Yahweh regretted having made the humans because they were so…
