Should We Take Creation Stories in Genesis Literally?
Finding multiple truths in biblical myths
What purpose did creation stories in Genesis serve? Were they Biblical myths? Pictured here is The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (c. 1617) by Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder.
Were the creation stories in Genesis meant to be taken literally?
Maybe not, says biblical scholar Shawna Dolansky in her Biblical Views column “The Multiple Truths of Myths” in the January/February 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Our world is very different from the world in which the Biblical authors lived over 2,000 years ago. The ancient world did not have Google, Wikipedia and smartphones—access to information on human history and scientific achievements developed over millennia at the touch of their fingertips.
Many scholars believe that the ancient Israelites had creation stories that were told and retold; these stories eventually reached the Biblical authors, who wrote them down in Genesis and other books of the Bible. Creation stories in Genesis were etiological, Shawna Dolansky and other Biblical scholars argue.1 That is, the creation stories in Genesis served to provide answers to why the world was the way it was, such as why people wear clothes and why women experience pain during childbirth.
FREE ebook: Exploring Genesis: The Bible’s Ancient Traditions in Context Mesopotamian creation myths, Joseph’s relationship with Egyptian temple practices and 3 tales of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.
Creation stories in Genesis were among the many myths that were told in the ancient Near East. Today we may think of myths as beliefs that are not true, but as a literary genre, myths “are stories that convey and reinforce aspects of a culture’s worldview: many truths,” writes Dolansky. So to call something a myth—in this sense—does not necessarily imply that it is not true.
Scholars argue that Biblical myths arose within the context of other ancient Near Eastern myths that sought to explain the creation of the world. Alongside Biblical myths were Mesopotamian myths in which, depending on the account, the creator was Enlil, Mami or Marduk. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the creator of the world was Atum in one creation story and Ptah in another.
Shawna Dolansky
“Like other ancient peoples, the Israelites told multiple creation stories,” writes Shawna Dolansky in her Biblical Views column. “The Bible gives us three (and who knows how many others were recounted but not preserved?). Genesis 1 differs from Genesis 2–3, and both diverge from a third version alluded to elsewhere in the Bible, a myth of the primordial battle between God and the forces of chaos known as Leviathan (e.g., Psalm 74), Rahab (Psalm 89) or the dragon (Isaiah 27; 51). This battle that preceded creation has the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish as its closest analogue. In Enuma Elish, the god Marduk defeats the chaotic waters in the form of the dragon Tiamat and recycles her corpse to create the earth.”
In what other ways do Biblical myths parallel ancient Near Eastern myths? What can we learn about the world in which the ancient Israelites lived through the creation stories in Genesis? Learn more by reading the full Biblical Views column “The Multiple Truths of Myths” by Shawna Dolansky in the January/February 2016 issue of BAR.
BAS Library Members: Read the full Biblical Views column “The Multiple Truths of Myths” by Shawna Dolansky in the January/February 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.
Notes
1. For example, see Ziony Zevit, “Was Eve Made from Adam’s Rib—or His Baculum?” BAR, September/October 2015; Mary Joan Winn Leith, “ReViews: Restoring Nudity,” BAR, May/June 2014.
Related reading in Bible History Daily
The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet
All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library
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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on January 31, 2016.
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The Mesopotamian is more myth than truth and it is not even truthful to say that the Biblical story of creation was drafted or gleaned from the Mesopotamian or Near East creation myths. I want to remind you that there are some significant differences between the Near East creation myths and the Biblical creation narrative.
1.) The Near East creation myth involves multiple gods, who create, fight and kill one another in jealousy and anger, where the Biblical creation narrative is ONE all powerful, all knowing GOD, who needs no help in doing his creation work, and he does ALL of it alone!!
2.) Only the Biblical God of creation creates and looks back to examine his work and declare that it is “GOOD!”, this is not true of the Near East creation myth (Mesopotamian or Babylonian).
3.) The God of the Biblical narrative RESTS on the seventh day, and commands that we do the same, there is no such “resting” on the part of the Mesopotamian or Near East creation myths.
4.) The gods (little “g”) of those Near Eastern nations (Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Akkadian, people from Ur and others) DO NOT EXIST, because of the absolute TRUTH of the Bible has made those mythical gods—NULL AND VOID!
5.) Moses was the writer of Genesis and this many, many years after the occurrence and with that come hundreds of generations who verify it’s as truth! Those other Near East myths have no such confirmation of thousands of years as we do now, because those myths DO NOT EXIST, but the truth of the Biblical creation as well as the whole truth of the Bible lives on!
These are just a few of the countless differences between the Near Eastern myths and the Biblical narrative of creation
I know these things because I have been a student of ancient Mediterranean history and archaeology for the past 45 years and I am working on a couple of books which are in progress about them.
So pain in child bearing is literal? Wow, what a genius to figure that out.
It also doesn’t require a genius to figure out that heavens & earth, plants, sun, animals, people, etc. – are also literal – last time I checked.
The only reason why “scholars” don’t interpret Genesis 1 in a normative sense is b/c it will lead a person to a young earth which doesn’t concur w/ the majority of scientists. As for me & my house, the Bible is our presupposition.
Why do atheists profess to have a better understanding than those of faith? If you don’t believe Genesis then you don’t believe in the suffering and sacrifice that Yehoshuah/Jesus made to free us from the burden of sin. Genesis 1 differs from Genesis 2 – 3 because the author is giving us more information on the same subject. Any Bible scholar with the smallest amount of theological knowledge realises that this is how the Bible is structured, all the Bible, “Here a little there a little.” The Genesis story was written with inspiration from a higher source than you can even dare to imagine. It is a literal history of how everything was made including us. Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand the universe to have been formed by the word of God, so that the things being seen have not been made from the things being visible.” Ever heard of this before in your science textbooks before the 18th century? The Greeks understood it and that was over 2300 years ago and gee how far we have come, not. Scientists still don’t know how everything is held together. String theory is still just a theory. Maybe Robin Ngo, Shawna Dolansky and the other Biblical scholars should change their jobs or at least study something equivalent to their obvious ability to understand like, Dr Suess’ “The Hat in the Cat.” And maybe you should change this website to Skeptical Biblical Archaeology
Very interesting. This is a controversial subject for many. I have read Augustine’s and Calvin’s commentaries on the creation sections of Genesis. I have read others as well. Some commentators suggest that the biblical creation story was told in rebuttal to the other ANE accounts since they were polytheistic and various things that Genesis is not. Augustine seemed to think that the Day in Genesis was God-designed and not 24 hours……which should please no one. It is all interesting. But one thing remains: the Universe is old, but it was designed and planned and created by God……Beyond all that, surely lots of good insight here.
in order to align the Bible w/ the majority of scientists, ?Christian scientists dis simple, normative meanings & tweak the Bible. For example, they wave the magic wand called, “metaphor,” which enables them to redefine simple words like “day” & “dust.” Such hoop-jumping doesn’t convince “fundamentalists” – or atheists.
P.S. Old Earthers can never answer the [atheists’] question: “If animals were attacking & devouring one another for millions of years, i.e., “red in tooth & claw,” how could God call the cheetah’s sinking his teeth into the zebra, ‘very good?’” Only Young Earthers can correctly answer that question: “The cheetah began sinking his teeth into the zebra only after the vice-regent, Adam, sinned.”
Could someone please direct me to a website about Biblical archaeology? I seem to have stumbled into a site for mythological theorists by mistake.
Oh my…..what a big to-do about such a simple truth…..GOD created. All the study, name-calling, arguments, puffed-up self appointed knowledge is silly. God gave us a brain to search for knowledge and understanding of our earth, its creation, and its creator. I am a teacher of genetic biology and the scientific facts I know and teach confirm and explain, to my understanding, how God created. If literal belief of the Genesis story confirms and explains, to your understanding, how god created, then rejoice in it. Please don’t condemn other believers…..it just may be you with a log in your eye.
Shawna Dolansky proves that her human wisdom and foolish speculation about taking the Bible literally are nothing more than extrabiblical, thus her opinion is pure fiction. Either a Christian takes the Word of God literally, or he/she errs (sins) by adding to or subtracting from the Scripture.
In today’s world, we Christ followers must test all teachings against the Scripture itself so that we may expose false teachings, and false teachers. And, we must pray for the leadership of the Holy Spirit to guide us in discerning the truths within the Scripture.
Really, it never ceases to amaze me…As I have said to my sister on several occasions, the comments are far more interesting, informative and entertaining than many of the articles themselves. When an article pertains to specific archaeological discoveries, excavations, ruins and other such tangible artifacts, I read the article intently. On the other hand, when an article is posing an erroneous digestion of theological subject matters, I generally give it a cursory glance and head straight for the comments. I will never understand why some seemingly well educated people will try so fervently to draw correlations and conclusions between the contents of the Bible and their own convoluted opinions of how their explanative assumptions pursue some sort of alignment to their own personal views…Sophistry, pure and simple. While most commenters here are highly intelligent and very well versed in many fields of study that conveys dedication to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, there are some commenters that betray their lack of knowledge and understanding by being priggish and puerile…Remember, you will never be able to reason someone out of a position or opinion that they reasoned themselves into…
I will NOT unsubscribe to BAR because there is too much to learn, too much insight to gain and too many doors to be opened by way of discussion and analysis that would otherwise be closed if one chooses to ignore them…
Dear Robin Ngo,
Please call out to Jesus and await him. Shut your door and call out privately. You have been mislead. By writing this article you are misleading others.
Sincerely,
Christopher Dalton