Where Did the Biblical Creation Story Come From? | Creation Stories of the Ancient World

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This video is from the series Creation Stories of the Ancient World, presented by Joseph Lam

00:00 Destruction of Temple Inspires New Theological Vision
04:21 Genesis and Revision Through Introduction
07:43 The Priestly Source

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#creation #bible #genesis

[ellenjones]

The Jews cribbed it from the ancient tales of Sumerian, Akkadian and Babylonian history
during their Babylon captivity. They changed it to just one god instead of the many gods in the Enuma Elish . People unfortunately will believe anything that promises everlasting life after death rather than face their mortality.

[markwrede]

Rejected all over Eurasia, the manuscript finally found a publisher among a tribe of shepherds.

[dougsmith]

Foot prints looks like a sports mascot theme.

[pissanukatika]

Christian’s 39 books of the Old Testament are from Jewish books written after coming back from the exile (captivity) to Babylon BC 539 from their knowledge and telling tales.

[kimberlyperrotis]

Excellent video, I’ll have to watch this series, I’ve been a Wondrium/Great Courses subscriber for years. The book of Genesis might have been written later, but that doesn’t mean that the stories in it weren’t circulating orally for hundreds of years earlier. Most religious material and myths were recited orally for some time before being written.

[PierTampa]

In other words. Stop reading the Bible literally.

[mageover]

So like fan fiction that eventually becomes Cannon.

[calvingrondahl]

Mythology is the art of story telling. I have attended the temple in Salt Lake City beginning in 1969. I agree with his interpetation of temples. I do not go anymore but many do.

[danielpaulson]

It stems from Mesopotamian works, The Enuma Elish and is built on the same two templates from antiquity as are all religions. Nothing new to see except a new Ark to carry it.

[WalterRMattfeld]

It is my understanding that Genesis' Creation Story in regards to the creation of Man in a place called Eden, is in response to and in refutation of Mesopotamian myths about Man's creation. Why man was created? Where created (in EDIN), Why placed in a garden? Why his Creator sought his demise in a global flood?

The Epic of Atrahasis explains WHY man was created. He was created to relieve the Igigi gods of their back-breaking toil in the city gardens located in the EDIN, the floodplain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Igigi for 40 years, night and day made irrigation ditches to provide water for the gardens. They also had to clear these ditches of silts that clogged them up constantly. They revolt and threaten to kill the god of Nippur, En-Lil. En-Ki (Babylonian E-A) is summoned to help put down the revolt. En-Ki says En-Lil was wrong to ignore the clamor of the Igigi over their having no rest from day and night toil.

En-Ki decides a new gardening slave is to be made, called Man, ending the toil of the Igigi gods.

The gardens were made to provide food for the gods, for they will die of starvation if not fed, for they have bodies of flesh and blood in earlier myths.

So, man's purpose in life is to toil in the gods' gardens of EDIN, and provide the harvest daily in temples so that the gods do not starve to death.

Genesis' Exilic author denies all this. His God, made the garden to feed man, not God.

So, there you have it, WHERE the Creation story about man's (Adam) creation to work in a garden came from.

For me the Pentateuch was composed in the Babylonian Exile circa 562-560 BC based on 2 Kings 25:27 mention of Evil Merodach, a Babylonian king assassinated in a palace putsch.

Judah went into Exile circa 586 BC, with a Pentateuch being composed circa 562-560 BC, this means a whole generation has grown up in Exile (24 years), time enough for the Exilees to learn about Mesopotamian Creation Myths and refute and oppose these myths in Genesis 1-11.

For more info see my Academia Profile on the internet and my papers there on the pre-biblical origins of Genesis and the Exodus based on archaeological findings.

[khankrum]

I am prepared to accept God created everything providing he took billions of years to do it !

[biggiefries]

The Bible... aka: The big book of fairy tales....

[hongnoeun]

Thank you for description slowly is good for who english is limited ❤

[reynaldotaningco]

Who were the priests/authors of the texts and in what language were they written???

[JungleJargon]

Creationists are going to have to address the fact that the continents broke apart in the days of Peleg 100 years after the global flood. It’s the reason for the glacial striations in South America, Africa, India and Australia that are all from glaciers moving from south to north from when they were all still connected to Antarctica at the South Pole. It’s also the reason there are frozen animals and forest ecosystems buried by tsunamis from the rise of sea levels in North America and Siberia as the continents were being shoved into the Arctic from the centrifugal force when the earth was divided in the days of Peleg.

[closetcleaner]

Dont worry most of the ones who swear by it don't even read it. Less even study it.

[BpGregor]

The seven-day story is in Chapter 2, not Chapter 1. Chapter 1 is the layout of succession of creation - in other words. What is first, second, etc.

[Elaphe]

What seems odd to me (and others) is the veriety not only of mystical stories, but the variations within the variations -- and the disparity of subjective interpretations.
If one must rely on the affirmations of believers and "authorities", one can see a soup of beliefs of all colors, tastes and shapes. This is confusing. Thousands of religions and deities to chose from. If there is a unique deity, it did fail to transmit a clear and concise message. If such Spirit exists, he/she/it probably couldn't care less about the size of footprints found in Ancient Asia or in my backyard.

[vitaexcolatur]

Why does people pray to God on Sunday, when He is taking a rest from his creation?

[acarpentersson]

Ok, so let me see if I get this straight. Prior to the destruction of this temple, people thought that the god they worshipped was confined to that place. They didn't understand that the temple was a house for that god like their homes were to them. They left home and worked, travelled and visited, but they thought their god was confined to that place.

--- But where did they believe their god lived before the temple was built? --

Nonetheless, the temple was then destroyed and they were faced with a thought they had never had before: where did the god go? It was a god with big feet, after all. So he/she surely didn't die. Then they thought: I know, gods are not confined to buildings we built. They must be able to go and be wherever they choose. Thus was born the creation narrative of a god who created all things.

I don't know. Toe this is a very reductive way of viewing theology and it treats ancient people, who built structures and did things that modern man couldn't do, as if they were idiots, simpletons, naive, and unable to comprehend the very concept that you say they created. I don't think you're approaching this from a neutral point of view regarding the sophistication of ancient Man, nor regarding the concept of God, God's, and religion.