6: The days of Genesis

Our Christmas countdown continues with a calculation of the world's divine Creation

Light
Firmament
Land and vegetation
Heavenly bodies
Fishes and birds
Animals and man

The story of the creation of the world was recorded in the book of Genesis in the seventh century BC by Jewish exiles working up their own ancient traditions under the strong influence of the 2,000-year-old urban culture of Mesopotamia. So, inevitably, it bears the strong imprint of Babylonian literary forms, albeit one imbued with an energy and conviction all its own – so much so that two similar but not identical tales are told in chapter one and chapter two.
One of the more curious literary aspects of the story is the way of describing God like a king on his throne, commanding his courtiers to "Let there be" – and it happens, though due to the strict monotheism of the Jews there is no lower pantheon of gods to assist. This tale is familiar from older Babylonian texts which describe the creation of the world, notably the Enuma Elish and Atra-Hasis. The central device is the concept of the speaking of a thing (logos) being the necessary prelude to its creation.
The first three acts of Genesis are also depicted in the nature of a separation of the yet unformed but existing cosmos, such as the separating of darkness from light on day one, the waters above from the waters below in day two, and on day three the sea from the land. The next three "creations" fill this universe with the different forms of life, concluding with the creation of man and woman, where the Genesis myth departs from its Babylonian models which have men and women as divine and equal (rather than woman as an adjunct of man – a concept in bizarre opposition to tens of thousands of years of veneration of the Mother Goddess).

Tomorrow: Seven days of the week

Taken from Rogerson's Book of Numbers by Barnaby Rogerson (Profile)

Reference and languagesJudaismThe BibleReligionBarnaby Rogerson
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