This proposes that the Persians, after their conquest of Babylon in 538 BCE, agreed to grant Jerusalem a large measure of local autonomy within the empire, but required the local authorities to produce a single law code accepted by the entire community. Īs for the historical background which led to the creation of the narrative itself, a theory which has gained considerable interest, although still controversial, is "Persian imperial authorisation". A sizeable minority of scholars believe that the first eleven chapters of Genesis, also known as the primeval history, can be dated to the 3rd century BCE, based on discontinuities between the contents of the work and other parts of the Hebrew Bible. A common hypothesis among biblical scholars today is that the first major comprehensive narrative of the Pentateuch was composed in the 7th or 6th centuries BCE. Many scholars date the J source to the 10th or 9th centuries BCE and the P source largely to the 6th century BCE. There is currently no scholarly consensus on when the narrative reached its final form. The second account, which takes up the rest of Genesis 2, is largely from the Jahwist source (J). The first account in Genesis 1:1–2:4 is from what scholars call the Priestly source (P). See also: Documentary hypothesis, Textual variants in the Hebrew Bible § Genesis 1, and Textual variants in the Hebrew Bible § Genesis 2Īlthough tradition attributes Genesis to Moses, biblical scholars hold that it, together with the following four books (making up what Jews call the Torah and biblical scholars call the Pentateuch), is "a composite work, the product of many hands and periods." The creation narrative consists of two separate accounts drawn from different sources. Composition Cuneiform tablet with the Atra-Hasis Epic in the British Museum Sources Scholarly writings frequently refer to Genesis as myth, for while the author of Genesis 1–11 "demythologised" his narrative by removing the Babylonian myths and those elements which did not fit with his own faith, it remains a myth in the sense of being a story of origins. Robert Alter described the combined narrative as "compelling in its archetypal character, its adaptation of myth to monotheistic ends". The combined narrative is a critique of the Mesopotamian theology of creation: Genesis affirms monotheism and denies polytheism. The two sources can be identified in the creation narrative: Priestly and Jahwistic. The first major comprehensive draft of the Pentateuch (the series of five books which begins with Genesis and ends with Deuteronomy) is thought to have been composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BCE (the Jahwist source) and was later expanded by other authors (the Priestly source) into a work very like Genesis as known today. The authors of the Hebrew creation narrative borrowed themes from Mesopotamian mythology, but adapted them to their unique belief in one God. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam's rib as his companion. There he is given dominion over the animals. In the second story God (now referred to by the personal name Yahweh) creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. In the first, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word for god) creates the heavens and the Earth in six days, then rests on, blesses, and sanctifies the seventh (i.e. The narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity.
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