Myth as sacred story



Myth as Sacred StoryDonald G. EmlerThe word Bible comes from the Greek meaning many books or a library of books. The Bible is a theological or religious book, in that it is about the relationship of God and humanity. It is not a history book or a science book. It is the record of the faith or religious interpretation of humanity’s experience of God from the Jewish and Christian perspectives. As a library, the Bible contains many forms of literature, including genealogies, poetry, fables, fictional short stories, court history, omens, parables, letters, etiologies (stories that describe the origin of a group such as Ishmael as founder of Arab Nations (Gen. 21:8-20) a landmark (the naming of Bethel from Jacob’s dream (Gen. 28:10) or a religious ritual (the annual ritual of women lamenting Jephthah’s sacrifice of his daughter), and myths. The stories in the Bible are Israel’s sacred stories, not scientific history, or ideas dictated by God on Saturday afternoon to some scribe. This article specifically looks at the sacred stories that in biblical scholarship are called myth. In biblical scholarship, myth is a type of story that brings understanding to the common events of the people in every culture. Each culture has a set of sacred stories or myths that shape the identity of the people in profound ways. Through these stories, tribal elders (priests, shamans, etc.) explained the way the tribe made sense of its universe. These sacred storytellers were weavers of identity. Myth as sacred story In biblical scholarship a myth is a type of story that continually happens to all kinds of people. They are universal stories that are forever happening to all people. Stephen Harris describes myth as a narrative expressing a profound psychological or religious truth that cannot be verified by historical inquiry or other scientific means (Harris 2010, 452). They tell about the significant features of their existence from the origin of the nation, to the descriptions of sacred space and ritual, and the ultimate values of the people. Many myths provide a relationship to nature. Myths include traditional narratives about gods and heroes, typically involving stories of creation and/or origins of religious practices or social customs. They describe how the people relate to their deity and what the nature of that deity is. A myth invites modern readers to look at a contemporary situation through parabolic story in a way not available through basic prose. By using symbols, mythological stories invite the reader to go beyond the surface story to insight.Myths are truth stories. Unfortunately many high school teachers contribute to a belittling of myths as they tend to define them in the context of Greco-Roman mythology. Since these stories are no longer accepted as having the power of religious insight, they tend to dismiss the word “myth” and its story form. Myths are not primitive stories told in a prescientific world. They are classical stories using specific conventions that help the people in a culture reflect on human existence. While myths are not scientific, neither are they fairy tales. Joseph Campbell describes myths as vivid stories that support the sense of the sacred for the people. Often, they provide the structure for the people as they go through each stage of life such as puberty, adulthood and old age. They also provide the means to celebrate the passing holy days of a culture. Myths are not dependent on being factual or historical. They are truth stories rather than being factually true. The stories do not depend on the accuracy of details, nor even of actually happening. Their base is different than science or history. Those who try to make Genesis 1 or Genesis 2-3 into scientific explanations of the origins of the universe such as Creationists or proponents of Intelligent Design are guilty of both bad science and bad religion. Myths are theological stories answering the questions of why or of meaning. A creation story or myth never provided the ancient people with factual information about the origin of life. In the ancient world, these sacred stories were typically recited in liturgical settings such as a new year festival or the coronation. The myth’s purpose was not to inform but to inspire. Redaction scholarship is a major way biblical scholars study myths, as well as other biblical passages. Redaction scholarship considers the passage from the theological point of view of the biblical editor who modified or edited the text. It is concerned with the nature of the deity, how humanity is seen in relationship to the deity, as well as what religious practices are developed, or sacred sights designated. Since myths are understood as metaphors rather than factual stories, the scholars will look to see how mythological creatures, such as Cherubim, as well as ordinary animals are used in a story. Since myths are used to teach meaning questions for the community, the scholars are interested in the big questions related to the people’s existence. By 4,000 BCE the people in the Fertile Crescent had moved from hunter-gathers through primitive agriculture to begin building cities. As the new cities emerged in Mesopotamia, the farming communities of Israel saw urban life as violent. The biblical writers created a theology based in agriculture (Genesis 2-3). They were suspicious of the cities that emerged in Mesopotamia. In the biblical account, the first murderer Cain is also the first to build a city. His descendants are the inventers of both the fine arts and the practical arts (Gen. 4). The geography of an area can give us insights to the types of deity found in its culture. For instance, in Egypt the Nile predictably floods each spring and the people are able to prepare for the annual deluge. Egyptian deities were generally seen as benevolent to the people. On the other hand, the floods of the Tigress and Euphrates rivers are not easily predicted, and the rise of water is sudden and usually disastrous. Mesopotamian gods as seen in the Enuma Elish and the Gilgamesh Epics are seen as capricious and often unfriendly to humanity (Armstrong 2005, 62). Enuma Elish and the Gilgamesh EpicsChapters 1-11 of Genesis are considered to be mythological according to scholars. They share many similarities with several older epic myths such as the Enuma Elish and the Gilgamesh epic, yet the stories of Genesis are significantly different. The Enuma Elish was recited during the Babylonian New Year’s festival to honor their chief god, Marduk. In the beginning all that existed were the primordial waters of chaos. Chaos, personified by Apsu and Mummu-Tiamat, and the other gods representing the elements of the universe were begotten. Eventually, the gods revolted, killing Apsu by magic and Marduk engaged Tiamat in a cosmic battle. After Marduk defeated Tiamat, he divided her body in two. Half was used to make the flat earth and the other half became the firmament/sky. In order to bring peace, the gods were divided between heaven and earth with assigned roles. Humans were created to serve the gods. There are also two ancient versions of Mesopotamian flood stories that have many details familiar, but different, to the Genesis flood story. The Epic of Gilgamesh is dated from the early second millennium BCE and the second version called Atrahasis, an Akkadian-Babylonian version, dates from the 17th century BCE. When the gods decide to send a great flood, no reason is given for the act. Even though the gods are sworn to secrecy by the other gods, the god Ea warns Ut-napishtim the hero of the story. Since Ea can’t warn Ut-napishtim directly, he warns his reed hut while the human overhears him. Ea also tells the hut how to build a boat to escape the flood with instructions to gather the seed of all living things. Ut-napishtim fills the boat with gold and silver, his family, the animals and all kinds of craftsmen. When the storm begins it is not only from rain, but the waters of the abyss or chaos are unleashed. The waters threaten even the gods. Rather than the 40 days of rain in the biblical flood, the Babylonian flood only lasts for 6 days and nights. Ut-napishtim’s boat runs aground on Mount Nimush. Ut-napishtim sends forth a dove, a swallow, and finally a raven. When the raven fails to return, they exit the boat and offer a sacrifice to the gods. The gods smell the sacrifice and realize that at least one human has escaped and initially are angry. But finally they approve of the sacrifice and bless Ut-napishtim and his wife with everlasting life. At the end of the second story, Atrahasis and his wife retain their immortality that had been a characteristic of humanity since creation. But the other humans are subjected to a limited life span as a means of limiting the earth’s population. Two special pronouncements are made by the gods related to humans. First, the gods may punish any human that displeases them. The second pronouncement, reflecting the ancient world’s high rate of infant mortality in the ancient world, states that one-third of women who give birth will lose their children. Myth in the BibleThe Bible is the faith interpretation from the Jewish/Christian perspectives of their experience of God. It describes their interpretation of the nature of God, the creation of the world and the origin of many of their sacred spaces and religious practices. Although they used many ideas from the myths of other cultures, such as the Babylonians or Egyptians, they developed their sacred stories with significant differences. The ancient Middle East was polytheistic. The ancient Hebrews came from these cultures. As the story unfolds we see the theological development of the Hebrews from polytheism (belief in many gods) to henotheism (the recognition of many gods, such as those held by their neighbors, while claiming one god as their national deity (“You shall have no other gods before me” [Ex. 20:3] or “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? (Ex. 15:11)]; and finally the prophet known as Second Isaiah declares a genuine monotheism, “Besides me there is no god” (Isaiah 45:5). The sacred stories of the ancient Hebrews came from many sources. Many of these came from different tribes. Just as there are many tribes of Native American Indians with different stories the different tribes of the Hebrew confederation told stories based in their experiences and interpretations. This explains why there may be different versions of the same story or different names for God such as YHWH (LORD GOD/I Am), Elohim (GOD), El Roi (The God of Seeing), or El Shaddai (God Almighty or God of the Mountains). When the final editors merged these sacred stories into a single story, they often wove two or more versions together. The major method of studying mythological material such as Genesis 1-11 is redaction criticism or scholarship. The scholars seek to define the purpose and theological ideas of the ancient redactors (editors) who compiled and edited the older material into their present biblical form. The scholar asks how the redactor (editor) may have changed a story to fit his theological perspective or synthesized several stories to make a composite story. The redaction scholar doesn’t ask if a sacred story is true. Rather the concern is what was the religious purpose of the ancient writer/editor? How did the story function in the worshiping community? This avoids the question of historical fact but seeks to understand the religious ideas of the ancient editor. When Genesis 1 was composed, the Jewish people had been captured and taken into Exile to Babylon. Their country had been destroyed and they had been displaced to the country of the army that had defeated them in humiliation. Not only had they lost their Temple, their possessions and land, but their way of life and religion was threated. In their despair they wondered if their God had forsaken them. In the ancient world if your country was defeated, it meant that your god was also weak and defeated. So, the people wondered if God had any power to match the stories of the gods of the Babylonians such as Tiamat and Marduk. Unfortunately, some today want to make Genesis into a scientific explanation of how the world came into existence. However, Genesis 1-2 are not really a science lesson of creation or intelligent design as some would like to contend today. That is both bad science and bad religion! Genesis is a theological sacred story about the nature of God and how God deals with creation and God’s people. Genesis is the beginning of the Jewish Torah. The Hebrew title Bereshit, (in the beginning), alerts the reader that it is about all kinds of beginnings. Originally the five books of Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy) were one scroll, not individual books. The Torah scroll told the stories of the people’s ancestors, the exodus from Egypt, the giving of the covenant between God and the people at Mt. Sinai, and finally their journey though the wilderness/desert leading to the promised land/Canaan. Most scholars today assume there were multiple sources and traditions for these stories. These sources are identified as the Yahwist tradition, the Elohist tradition, and the priestly tradition. One of the clues for this documentary hypothesis of multiple sources is based on the patchwork of names used for God. The Yahwist source used the personal name YHWH (Yahweh). Scholars use the abbreviation J for this tradition based on the German translation/spelling Jahweh (Jehovah). Whenever the Hebrew name “YHWH” appears in the text, the NRSV translates it Lord God or Lord. The second source designated E used the generic name Elohim translated as God. Depending on its context, Elohim can either mean gods (non-Israelite deities, or specifically to Israel’s God. The Hebrew word El was used for a variety of divine beings in the ancient Middle East both for the Hebrews and the Canaanites. Sometimes El was added to other deities such as El Shaddai or Elyon (Most High). The third source is the Priestly source. Active during the Babylonian Exile (587-538 B.C.E.) the school of priestly redactors collected and edited the Hebrew’s religious heritage into the Torah. It generally used the name Elohim for God. The priestly material included religious rituals, purity laws, and other cultic/liturgical regulations such as the rules for the sacrificial system. The priestly writers gave structure to the Torah by writing the opening chapter that begins with the cosmic activity of God, cumulating in the creation of the Sabbath, through the narrative of the death of Moses. There are two creation stories in the opening chapters of Genesis. There are other creation stories in the Bible such as Psalm 8, Psalm 104, and Isaiah 40:12-14, but we will focus on these. These stories reveal many different theological ideas about the nature of God. Later editors will combine these stories to create a common set of attributes of God, but originally they were from different tribes and about different deities. Each tribe worshiped its own deity and recognized that there were different deities worshipped by other tribes (or people). For the Hebrews, that God would be known as Yahweh. Hence, we have different names such as Elohim, El Shaddai, Yahweh or El Roy, and different characteristics of the deity such as being transcendent or immanent. This is called henotheism, the belief that there are many gods, but we will worship a specific god. By the time a mature Judaism edits its scriptures in writing these attributes have been combined into a single entity. While the ancient Hebrews were not monotheistic, they did believe that their God was the creator and had most importantly had made a special covenant with them (Exodus 19:5). God was not abstract for the Hebrews. They experienced God as a gracious friend as well as king and creator. They saw God as creator, law-giver (covenant maker) who validates the principles of justice and righteousness, and redeemer who guarantees the goals of creation and enables humanity to find meaning in life. (Plant 1981, 18-22)In addition to the multiple names for the deity, there is a contrast in the description of the nature of the deity. In Genesis 1, God is seen as transcendent. God is described as a cosmic force, with a divine council who is above everything. In contrast the deity in Genesis 2 is perceived as immanent. God walks with humans, is present in daily life. We see these two descriptions later in the writings of the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 6 God is described as high and lifted up, whose train fills the Temple. As in Gen. 1: 24 where God makes humanity in “our image,” Isaiah (6:7) hears a voice ask who will go for “us.” These plural images are part of the divine heavenly council. The immanent God of Genesis 2 describes the divine presence in the human world. The writers often portray the deity in anthropomorphic language in which super-human characteristics are ascribed to god. Yahweh makes humanity out of clay, walks in the garden, and gives commands to the humans. Again in Isaiah 7:14 we have another description where the presence of God is called Emmanuel, God with us. In Genesis 1, Elohim is a transcendent deity while in Genesis 2-3 Yahweh is described as immanent. In the Babylonian myth, creation was the result of a battle between the gods. In Genesis there is no evil opponent, and what is created is not evil, but declared to be very good. In the Priestly account of creation, there is no speculation about the creation of God. The Priestly account, written in the mid-6th century indicates a monotheistic understanding of God. This would not have been possible before the Exile. God exists and that is all there is to it! It is also important to understand that God is separate from creation and humanity. The biblical account begins When God/Elohim began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God (the [creative] spirit of God) sweeping over the water – God said, “Let there be light:” and there was light (Gen. 1:1-3, Tanak). In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind swept over the face of the waters Gen. 1:1-2 NRSV).Two interpretations have come from these alternative translations. The Christian traditional NRSV translation, suggests that God created the earth first and it was a formless void. The earth was created out of nothing (ex nihilo). The Tanak provides a better translation where God imposes order on the void. God brings order to the ancient near eastern idea of chaos. While modern people typically see “nothing” as the opposite of creation, for the ancients, the opposite was the malevolent force of chaos. The opposite of order is chaos and darkness. For the ancients night was a symbol of threat and chaos. By bringing order to chaos, the people are given protection by a gracious god. The phrase that it was “evening and morning” describes how the Jews will structure time. The day begins at sundown. When God began creating, God said let there be light. The creation of light is before the creation of the sun. This is not a mistake or confusion. It also happens in Greek, Phoenician, Indian, and Babylonian cosmogonies. For the Priestly writer, this is the light of God. This is the light that controls the primeval darkness of chaos. It is on the fourth day that the sun and moon are created. This is one of the features of the story that makes impossible any attempt to make it into a scientific explanation. The creative agent in Genesis 1 is God’s word, “God said.” This is not a magical formula but represents God’s will. This is part of God’s transcendence and exalted power to be able to create by command. The Hebrew word BA RA, meaning “to create” is only used for God’s divine creative activity. The creation of the dome above the earth implies a flat earth. They believed that there were storehouses of rain, snow, and hail separating earth from the higher heaven. In the Priestly flood story, the windows of the sky open and the water in the storehouse fall as the rain causing the flood. On the third day Elohim/God separates the waters from the land and said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation.” Plants yielding seed are grains such as wheat and barley which are basic to Israelite agriculture. The trees with fruit that have seeds within them would be olive trees which were also basic to their diet. It is only on the fourth day that God makes the two great lights and the stars. Although named in other biblical stories as the sun and moon, the Priestly writer probably left them unnamed as they were commonly worshiped in Mesopotamian cultures where astrology was important. It was important to emphasize a single creator god. The heavenly bodies had two functions: to provide light for the earth and also to determine time, both daily and for marking the sacred seasons. Since the day begins at sundown, sacred festivals such as Passover, Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), Sukkoth (festival of booths/the fall grape harvest), and the Sabbath all begin in the evening. Christians also follow this pattern in terms of festivals such as Christmas Eve. On days 5 and 6 God invites both the waters and the earth to participate in creation as Elohim declares, “Let the waters bring forth…” and “Let the earth bring forth…” In each case, God declares the results to be good. The ability to be fruitful and multiply was important in antiquity as fertility was directly associated with divine activity. The division of land, water, and sky are the realms that the priests use to designate clean and unclean animals. The creation of the sea monsters is probably a polemic against those ancient myths that involve the creation of the earth from some sea monster (e.g. Tiamat in the Babylonian story). These creatures are directly created by God, rather than brought forth by the waters. While the waters and earth were invited to share with God in creation, they are separate and subservient to God. God created nature and is not found in nature, although one may see God’s glory in nature. In the Image of GodWhile the ancient Hebrews were not monotheistic, as they became in later days, their god was the creator and had made a special covenant with them (Exodus 19:5). In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make humankind in our image.” Elohim is depicted as the leader of a divine council, a heavenly court that is greater than that of any earthly king. The celestial council is part of the Babylonian myths as well as Canaanite stories. But God’s ethical character, especially God’s concern for the poor, the widows and orphans, sets Israel’s God apart from the other deities who often oppress humanity. Psalm 82:1-4 describes this character:God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 2“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? 3Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. 4Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” In contrast to the Babylonian story where humans were to be servants of the gods, Genesis 1 states humanity, male and female, are created in the image of God. This is affirmed in Psalm 8:6 where humanity is called “a little less than divine.” The rabbis described this image as related to humanity’s moral nature. Although human nature is limited this was the call to reflect God’s holiness and to exhibit God’s love, mercy and justice. This gift of the image of God invites humanity to participate with God to move creation toward love and justice (Plant, 22).Traditionally, human beings as the image of God have been seen as the pinnacle of creation. God blessed humanity and told them to be fertile and multiply (Tanak). Fertility was important for the ancients as a means of survival. The image of God includes the commission to have dominion. Some have interpreted this as a license to be irresponsible ecologically. However, the rabbis understood that humans were not the owners of creation but were its stewards. This is the source of the idea of the year of jubilee (Exod. 23:10-11, Lev. 25:1-8). In the context of Genesis 1, humans are seen as God’s representatives who exercise the kind of care that God would for creation. This form of stewardship is seen in several New Testament parables where the master leaves for a period and appoints a steward to act in his name or a governor who rules a province in the name of the king. Dominion is to care for creation as God would care for it, not to abuse it or deplete its resources. While creation is declared very good, it is not finished; it is not in a static state of perfection. Humanity is given the task of developing it to its fullest creative potential. Although modern Christians typically see the creation of humanity as the climax of the first creation story, for the ancient priestly writer the climax was the creation of the Sabbath. Remember that a myth is a sacred narrative describing stories of creation and/or origins of religious practices or social customs. The Hebrew word for rested, Shabbat is the root word for Sabbath. The use of the seven-day sequence for creation culminating in the Sabbath is unique to the Priestly account in Genesis 1 (Fretheim 1974, 346). Since the Priestly writer is highly concerned about ritual observances, this is logical. Other creation stories such as Genesis 2, Psalm 104, and Proverbs 8:22-31 lack the seven-day structure and the focus on the Sabbath. Genesis 2:1-3 are the opening words to the Kiddush, the prayer over the cup of wine that sanctifies the Jewish Sabbath on Friday night. It is also used in the Friday synagogue liturgy. The importance of the story is found in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 where the reason for resting on the Sabbath is that God rested on the seventh day and consecrated it. The Babylonians had the tradition of avoiding evil spirits on several days including the seventh day of the week. The Israelites avoided fire, working, and even outdoor walking on the Sabbath to avoid danger. By observing the Sabbath, the people then did what God does, which provides protection from evil. In contrast, when the Decalogue is repeated in Deuteronomy 5, the reason for observing the Sabbath becomes the remembrance of their need for rest when they were slaves. While God observed all that had been created on the sixth day and called it very good, only the seventh day is declared blessed and hallowed by God. Hidden through the structure of creation, the Sabbath then becomes a sign of the covenant between the people and God; through the creation of sacred time, God allows the people to be refreshed. Second Creation StoryGenesis 2 introduces a second creation sacred story/myth. It is considered to be several centuries older than Genesis 1 by most scholars. The story continues some of the themes of the first chapter such as creation is the act of a single god and creation is considered to be good and purposeful. Humanity is given a key role in creation and the social roles of male and female are developed. On the other hand, there are many differences. A change from “heaven and earth” to “earth and heaven” signals a transition from the first to the second story. The order of creation is different as seen by the Figure below. `The second author (the Yahwist or J writer) used the special name for God, YHWH/Yahweh (Lord God). In addition the nature of Yahweh is immanent, very anthropomorphic – humanlike –such as walking in the Garden, talking with the humans, making things from clay, and even being the first tailor by making clothes for the couple. In the J narrative, Yahweh, although a deity, is nevertheless a folk hero. J [Yahwist] (Oldest)Yahweh creates earth & heaven 2:4b-6Man (“ish”)2:7-8Plants2:9Animals2:18-20Woman (“ishshah”) 2:21-24Priestly (P) Numbered by Days Elohim transforms the void/Chaos/watery waste into order 1:2Light1:3-5Firmament1:6-8Dry land & seas1:9-10 Vegetation 1:11-13Heavenly bodies1:14-19Marine life & birds 1:20-25Land Animals1:24-29 Humanity (Male and female)The Sabbath2:1-4Figure 1Word play in Hebrew is important in the J narrative: Yahweh fashions adam (human being) from the ground -- good arable soil (adamah). God’s breath animates the dust that has been formed. Human nature is not a duality of body and soul, but because of God’s breath it becomes a single living being. Then when a mate is sought for adam (ish), he falls asleep and Yahweh takes a rib from adam’s side to create (ishshah) woman. Notice neither the man nor the woman is named in the beginning. The full recognition of the naming of “the man” as Adam does not happen until Genesis 4:25. Women in the biblical creation storiesWoman is made from the side of man representing equality, rather than being a servant. In both creation stories, men and women are intentional creations and are considered good. Together they constitute humankind. Both are required for completeness. In Genesis 2, woman is created by God from man’s rib. She is created to be “helper” with no status connotation. The rabbis taught that woman was not created from man’s head to be above man, or from his foot which would make her below man. To be created from man’s side was to make them in relationship. In Hebrew the word for helper is “corresponding to” or “opposite“. It is not a status description. Woman then completes man. The emphasis is not on the order of creation, but on the identity of essence. She is not paraded before him like the animals to name. The true nature of both sexes comes only from interaction. Both are created by God. Woman, just as man, is created by God. The Hebrews never used the story to argue subordination, even though their culture was male dominated. It is a story to explain why things are like they are. It is Christian theology, not Judaism, that changed the interpretation of the story to describe the woman as subordinate to man and guilty for bringing sin into the world. The sense of being naked and unashamed sex is regarded as reflecting the essence of connection God created between men and women. For the writer this indicated their still uncivilized status. To be naked is more than just sexual intimacy. Although it implies marriage and sexual relations, it is also the openness between spouses in the larger sense of not having secrets. Garden Disobedience and Punishment: Adam, Eve and the SerpentThe Garden is common in Near Eastern temple traditions. Typically they include a focus on trees, often associated with feminine powers of fertility. Usually such trees symbolize life, as in “the tree of Life.” In this story the focus is on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, symbolizing wisdom. But there is also a second tree, the tree of life which offers immortality.In those areas that worshiped Baal, such as Canaan, farming itself was a sacred act. The first seeds were thrown away and the first fruits were not picked. Human sexuality was regarded as the divine force that made the earth fruitful. The harvest was seen as the fruit of the sacred marriage. The soil was female; the seeds the divine semen, and rain, the sexual congress of the heaven and earth. It was common for men and women to engage in ritual sex when they planted their crops. The farmer’s spade or plough was the sacred phallus that opened the womb of the earth and made it big with seed. Fertility rituals, practiced in Israel through the 6th century were criticized by the prophets Amos, Hosea, and Ezekiel. ?These rituals and myths were not based on a romantic love affair with nature, nor among the men and women who participated in them. Marriages in ancient cultures were arranged so that the community might produce healthy children for its continuation. In Eden, the farmer and helper/wife tended the garden easily (Genesis 2). But after the fall (Gen. 3), agriculture is painful and traumatic. Man has to wrest a living by the sweat of his brow, and woman has pain in birthing (Armstrong 2005). The third chapter of Genesis describes humanity’s disobedience and God’s punishment. Humanity gains the knowledge of good and evil which is a godly quality God comments, “See, the human has become like one of us, knowing good and evil…” (Gen 3:27). But as they leave the garden with a new sexuality, it is also the story of maturing from childhood innocence to adulthood. The serpent is identified as an animal. There is no mention of the serpent as Satan or the Devil. A talking animal is a staple of folk lore and mythology. The snake was part of Canaanite religion. There is also a snake in the Gilgamesh Epic. The snake in Eden is a trickster, again a staple of mythology. The text does not call the serpent “evil“. The Serpent is “subtle” or “more crafty than the other animals”. The serpent has knowledge of both human and divine ideas. Through word play in Hebrew the craftiness (arum) of the serpent contrasts with the innocent nakedness (arumin) of the man and woman. After eating, the man and woman’s eyes were opened to their nakedness and were ashamed. They are now like the gods in their consciousness. In mythology sexuality and immortality were typically connected. The Hebrew word for knowledge (“da-at”) is used in the Bible as sexual relations, e.g., having sex. Indeed, the opening of the next chapter is “Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain” (Gen. 4:1). This is sexual knowledge rather than intellectual or ethical knowledge. Although traditional Christian art often portrays the woman in overtly sexual fashion, there is none of that in the biblical text. The temptation is for food (physical needs), beauty, it is a delight to the eyes (aesthetic), and to become wise (knowledge) CITATION Hen06 \l 1033 (Hendel, 2006). Although the woman is active in the story, the man, who is present throughout the entire story, is passive. Sadly when time for accountability neither the woman nor the man is willing to take responsibility for their actions. The woman blames the serpent and the man blames the woman. Although taken by many Christians as an account of original sin, the word sin never occurs in it. Neither does “curse” to describe the outcomes for the man and woman. It is only to the serpent and the ground. The author J has an interest in explaining why things are as they are. Why does a serpent (snake) crawl on its belly instead of walking? Well, let me tell you a story! Why is childbirth painful? She is punished with a negative correlation to the discovery of sexuality. Why must a man toil for a living? He is punished with painful labor/toil, reversing the relationship humanity had with nature in the previous story. The story is relevant to an agricultural society that has moved beyond the hunter-gathering stage of development,Traditional Christianity has added many details to the story that are not supported by the biblical text. The student needs to read the passages carefully to distinguish between tradition and actual biblical material. For example, what was the forbidden fruit? Early Christian tradition proclaimed it was an apple, while Jewish tradition, taking its cue from Gen. 3:7 identifies it as a fig. Although orthodox Christianity has interpreted the story as the fall of humanity, or original sin, this doctrine does not appear in the Jewish interpretation. It is a story of sin or breaking a relationship with God, but in Judaism, every person commits sin individually. Original sin as a church doctrine means that sin is passed to the next generation through sexual relations. The conclusion of the story gives a different view than the traditional Christian interpretation. God confirms that eating the fruit imparts knowledge of good and evil. But after becoming sexual, they must be prevented from becoming immortal like the gods. This is the central question of the story. Why aren’t humans immortal? The punishment of humanity returning to the ground means that they cannot be like the gods and will suffer death. The punishment relates to earthly immortality rather than afterlife. At this point, there is a promise of hope in the story as the woman (who is not cursed) is named Eve, the mother of all living (Brettler 2005, 45-46). This is similar to other titles or names of other Near Eastern goddesses. Concluding the story is the guarding of the second tree in the garden, the tree that gives immortality. God placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life (3:24). The cherubim are mythological creatures with a human face and animal and bird bodies. They are often found guarding sacred temples and palaces. ConclusionPlacing the stories of creation at the beginning of the Bible, before the history of the state of Israel is important. The story begins with God’s activity which gave meaning to the rest of the biblical story. The first eleven chapters of Genesis are mythological but combine the creative and redemptive acts of God. Life is given by the creative acts of God and life is sustained/redeemed by God’s gracious care. This care is seen in the making of clothes for the couple in the Garden, the protection of Cain, the murderer, the survival of humanity and animals from the flood, the creation of multiple races from the family of Noah, and the creation of multiple languages at Babel. The stories affirm that both God and humanity are important and interactive in creating. There is interdependence. Humans and animals depend on vegetation for food, yet humans are to protect the independent nature of animals and exercise a dominion over nature that assures creation’s continuance. Human beings have been given freedom as part of being in the image of God. This implies risk on the part of God as humanity could destroy creation. Yet God creates a relationship that has integrity. Rather than being a grand manipulator, God works through humans to move creation forward. This understanding of the biblical creation stories as metaphor or mythology provides a value of describing God as creator and creation as good. Creation leads to order. Science, whether it is biology/evolution or physics, does not seek to be value centered. From the religious perspective, “Creation” leads to Tikkun olam (Hebrew: ????? ????) is) a phrase that means "repairing the world. Humans join in the creative process through having dominion which results in sustaining and creating in partnership with God. Using this model, science and religion need not fear each other, nor are they in competition. They are different categories with different outcomes. Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Armstrong, K. (2005). A short history of myth. Edinburg: Canongate Books.Brettler, M. Z. (2005). How to read the Jewish Bible. New York: Oxford Press.Fretheim, T. E. (1974). The Book of Genesis in The New Interpreter's Bible, vol 1. (Vol. 1). Nashville: Abingdon Press.Harris, S. L. (2007). Understanding the Bible (Seventh ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.Harris, S. L. (2010). Discovering the Bible. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Hendel, R. (2006). Genesis. In HarperCollins Study Bible, Revised edition. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.Plant, W. G. (Ed.). (1981). The Torah: A modern commentary. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congretations.? Dge-4/1/2020 ................
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