THEO202 Introduction to Biblical Studies ©

Lesson 5-6 Transcript: The Pentateuch/Torah

1. Cosmogonies
Before introducing the first five books of the Bible, we will first focus on: The
Cosmogonies, that is the stories of creation, of the Ancient Near East.
Because the Bible begins with a creation account (in Gen 1).
For this reason, it is important to understand how the writers of these texts viewed the
Cosmos.
Then, we will discuss the first two stories in the Bible, the two creation accounts.
That’s right!
There are 2 creation accounts in the book of Genesis.
One after the other.
As we analyze these narratives, we are reminded that the Bible is not a history manual,
but much more than that.
As mentioned previously, the first five books of the Bible are viewed as a literary corpus,
because they belong to a pre-historical period.
That is, they are not history.
They are stories designed to answer theological questions:
Where do we come from?
Why are we here?
Where does sin come from?
Why are there social classes that create oppression, injustices?
What type of relation do we have with God? etc.
The Pentateuch or Torah, like many other Ancient Near Eastern stories, begins with the
creation of the world.
And for this reason, it is important to understand that the writers of these ancient texts
viewed the earth and its Cosmos differently than we do today.
When reading the creation narratives, especially Genesis 1, it’s a good idea to keep this
in mind.

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They understand and present the world and the cosmos as they experience it, through
their senses: On the horizon, the land meets the sky.
It seems like there is a dome on top of the earth and that the earth is flat (There were no
gigantic telescopes to see the form of the earth from above).
There is water: lakes, rivers and oceans.
When you enter the ocean, you soon realize that it’s deep!
So, it feels like there is water so deep it reaches below the land.
Thus, there is water below.
And that water below comes back on earth through rivers, ponds, springs, etc.
But there is also water that at times falls from the sky.
Sometimes it rains and other times it doesn’t.
So there must be something to prevent rain from falling all the time.
A dome.
With floodgates that allow water to fall down once in a while.
Not too often in these regions!
So, the deduction is that there is the waters above and the waters below.
Heaven is above.
The sheol, that is the land of the dead, is below.
But how did all this came to be?
In the oldest cosmogonies, the authors don’t give much details.
It is sometime said that the sky god, An, created heavens.
Or that the earth and heavens were created.
On one occasion, it is said that Enlil, the Sumerian king of the gods, separated his
parents, An, the god of heaven and Ki, the goddess of earth, to create the universe.
The most complete creation myth is the Enuma elish: the Babylonian poem of creation.
This epic begins with a theogony – that is how the gods were created.
It then explains how Marduk, the great god of Babylon, became the supreme god of the
pantheon, by fighting and killing the mother of the gods, Tiamat.
After killing Tiamat, which is presented as a gigantic sea creature, Marduk, the great
god of Babylon, will split her body in two.
He will take one half to create the earth and spread the second half above the earth

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to create heaven.
The picture is similar to the one found in the Bible.
A flat earth with a solid dome above it.
With water above and water below. Quote, “He (Marduk) split her (Tiamat) into two like
a dried fish: One half of her he set up and stretched out as the heavens. He stretched
the skin and appointed a watch with the instruction not to let her waters escape.”
The Masgouf fish is the National dish of Iraq.
The recipe goes all the way back to Ancient Mesopotamia.
The fish is split in half, like Tiamat, and then cooked over the fire.
Is it possible that their vision of the universe was inspired by a fish?
I don’t think it’s just a coincidence!

2. Creation Stories
Now, concerning the creation of humanity.
Humans were created by the gods and goddesses to…work for them!
In fact, they were created to replace the minor gods who were working for the major
gods.
In one story, the minor gods go on strike and break their tools!
The major gods are afraid and they decide to create humanity!
Generally, human beings are made out of clay.
The clay is mixed with the blood and/ or flesh of a minor god.
So there is a little divinity in humanity.
But not enough to make human beings immortal…
The Bible begins with two creation stories.
It is now widely accepted by scholars that the Bible begins with two different creation
stories.
The first one is written like a poem and consist of Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, all the way
to chapter 2 verse 4a (that is the first part of verse 4).
It was most probably composed in its present form by the Priestly editors.
So the P source.

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The second one is a narrative that begins in the second half of verse 4, in chapter 2 and
ends in chapter 3, with sin entering the world.
It features the famous story of Adam and Eve.
This section may come from the J source.
But it’s not that simple…
The contrast between the two stories is quite evident.
The name of God is different: Elohim in the first; Yahweh Elohim in the second.
The first one is rather dry, with a formulaic and ritualistic style.
It emphasizes order and regularity under the sovereign power of God.
All things that exist or come into being do so as a consequence of God’s word and act.
There is something solemn and majestic about the way the creation of the heavens and
earth are recounted.
Style changes abruptly in Gen 2:4b.
It uses a vivid, story-telling style.
The second story focuses, not on the creation of heaven and earth, but on the creation
of the first Man and Woman.
According to Genesis 1, God created everything and lastly he created mankind: Male
and female.
In Genesis 2, the order of creation is different: Man appears first, then plants and
animals, and finally the first Woman.
In the first account, God rests when the work of Creation is finished (Gen. 2:2), in the
second, the creation of Woman brings completion to God’s work.
So, after creating heaven and earth, again(!), God will create a ha-Adam.
You may not know this, but Adam is not a personal name.
It is today, but in the Bible, it just means “human”.
Here: “the human” (there is an article before the word).
In this story, the verb used is not “to create” (bara) but “to form” yatsar.
The haAdam is formed from the dust of the earth.
God will fashion him with his hands.
Like other gods in the ancient Near East.
Like Khnoum in Egypt.

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If you've been to Egypt, you've probably seen him on the wall of a temple somewhere.
He’s often called the potter God.
Because he created humanity on his Potter wheel.
So the story of Adam and Eve is not totally original of course.
But some details are unique.
Like blowing in the nostril of the first man.
The idea of the original sin as well.
This is something that you don't find in other religion or mythology.
The images and the language used by the author are keys to understand the theological
message.
The first human being is told that he can have all the fruits of the trees except for one
tree.
If he eats from that tree, he will die.
So there are two important trees in the garden.
First of all, there's the tree of life, and there's the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The author of the story says that God doesn't want humanity to eat from this tree of
knowledge.
Because, if humanity does eat from this tree, they will be like God and have knowledge
of good and evil.
Now, the idea that gods jealously guard their superiority over humanity is a theme that
is widespread throughout the ancient Near East, especially in Mesopotamia.
At first, Adam obeys God's commands.
But Adam is alone and he's feeling lonely.
God will notice it.
But instead of forming another man or a woman,
God will form cattle, birds, and other animals…
Adam will give them names.
But this is not what the Adam wants.
He wants to have a human companion.
So God will create the first woman.
This time he will not just take dust to create another human being.

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He will use a part of the Adam to create another human being.
Interestingly, the biblical text says that God puts his haAdam to sleep.
It was a big operation.
So he needed anaesthesia!
This time God got it right.
And he brings the creature to the haAdam who proclaims: “At last: Bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23).
And so she is called ishsha (woman) for he is ish (man).
She is also named (later) (Chawah that is “Eve”).
And the author adds: “because she was the mother of all living things” (Gen. 3:20).
The name “Eve” probably comes from the root chai, which means “to live”.
You know the rest of the story, right?
At first, they're both naked, but they're not ashamed.
But things will change.
Thanks to a talking snake!
So that leads us to a very important biblical theme: the fall of humanity.
In Genesis chapter 3, a new character is introduced.
The snake who tempts Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.
By the way, do you know the name of this fruit?
Is it: a pomegranate?
An orange?
An apple?
You said “apple” right?
Well it’s not an apple!
In fact, in Hebrew, the word is peri and it means “fruit”.
So it could be any fruit!
And there were no apples in this region…!
The rest of the story is well known.
Adam and Eve will listen to the snake and will eat from the tree of knowledge of good
and evil.

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Knowledge means deciding against God what is good, and what is wrong.
In ancient near eastern mentality, human beings are just creatures.
The gods are the supreme rulers, and only them know what's good and what's not.
It's not humanity to decide.
And it's not just Adam and Eve that will be punished because they went against God's
will.
According to the biblical author, this will have important consequences for humanity in
general.
Not just for them.
So by eating the forbidden fruit, they brought death on earth.
Thank you, Adam and Eve!
So it's humanity’s fault, not God's.
They decided to go against God.
And this is why now humanity is mortal.
Because, technically, Adam and Eve were immortal.
They could have lived for forever.
But they decided to go against God's will.
And they were punished for that.
According to the biblical authors, of course.
To summarize:
The different styles, view of God, vocabulary, etc. also tells us we have two stories: One
from the P source and one from the J source.
The style of the J source uses vivid, story-telling that appeals to the imagination:
Suspense and drama. Genesis 1, meaning the P source, is more formal, repetitive,
organized and solemn.

The vocabulary is different than the one used in Genesis 2 to recount similar elements.
For example, the P source mainly uses Elohim to refer to God, humanity is described as
being created (bara), and it uses the terms Male and Female. The J source instead
uses Yahweh to refer to God, humanity is described as being formed, and it uses the
terms Man and Woman.
God is viewed differently. In the First, he is distant, majestic, and

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sovereign. In the second account he is described using human body: He forms, he
breaths, he plants, etc. He seems closer; we see this especially in chapter 3 where he
walks in the garden, he looks for ish and ishah, he calls them, he dresses them, etc.
In sum, this text is not just about the creation of humanity.
One of the authors theological purposes is to show that God is not responsible for all
the ills and wrongs on earth.
It’s humankind's fault.
Human beings are responsible for their condition.
The author also wants to answer important questions like: Why does sin exist?
Why are there differences between men and women?
Why are people suffering?
Why are people dying, and so on.
They came up with theological, religious ideas to answer these existential questions.
So like I said before, that's a story.
We're not trying to find anything historical behind this.
But the theological message is a powerful one: look what happens when you don't listen
to God.
And interestingly, according to the theology of the authors of the Bible, it's exactly what
will happen to Israel later.
They will disobey God’s commands and will be expelled from their land…
But that’s for another lesson.

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