(2015) "Review of John H. Walton, Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology, Eisenbrauns, 2011," JAOS 135.2 (2015) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Congress Volume Aberdeen 2019 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2022), 2022
Creation out of Conflict? The Chaoskampf motif in the Old Testament-cosmic dualism or creatio ex nihilo?-David Toshio Tsumura For the past one hundred years, Hermann Gunkel's 1895 work Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit has greatly influenced the interpretation of Genesis 1 and related passages in the Bible. 1 In his book, Gunkel claims he has traced "the Babylonian mythic tradition through the biblical materials into the very beginnings of Judaism and Christianity." 2 In particular, he sees Genesis 1:2 as influenced by the Babylonian creation myth Enuma elish and takes the Hebrew term təhôm, "the deep," to be derived from the name of the goddess Tiamat. This view has been treated as an established fact among biblical scholars, and has led theologians such as Gerhard von Rad, and subsequently dogmaticians such as Karl Barth, to reinterpret the term nihilo of the traditional doctrinal phrase, creatio ex nihilo, to mean something like "nothingness," (Barth's "das Nichtige"), and to adopt a doctrine of creatio ex chao, that is, "creation" as the act of bringing order out of chaos. In other words, they explain or identify the term nihilo with chaos, a positive "substance" of nothingness. Thus, standard Hebrew dictionaries such as BDB, HALAT, and HALOT see the idea of "chaos" in the phrase tohuwabohu. Tohuwabohu has even become a modern German word meaning "chaos." Recently, scholars like Jon Levenson 3 have accepted the traditional Gunkelian theory, and Gregory Mobley 4 has popularized this theory as the ideology behind biblical theology, challenging the traditional view that Genesis 1 describes creation ex nihilo. According to him, the entire biblical story relates how God controls the power of chaos, namely, the power of evil in the form of the chaos dragon. He claims that "the primeval cosmic soup is there from the beginning," and that, quoting Levenson, "the confinement of chaos rather than its elimination is the essence of creation." 5 So, for Gunkelian scholars, creation in Genesis 1 is not about making things out of nothing: it is about bringing definition and identity and differentiation (or "function") to the
The Earth of Genesis 1: 2: Abiotic or Chaotic? Part I
Andrews University Seminary Studies, 1998
of chaos and the divine s~vereign.~ Gunkel stated that the Hebrew term fh6m in Gen 1:2 had a Babylonian background6 He suggested that t"bdm derived directly from T m , the Babylonian goddess of the primordial ocean in the Enuma elkh. Since Gunkel's statement, many scholars have assumed some kind of direct or indirect connection between the Babylonian Tiamat and the Hebrew t'h6m.' Many have accepted that the Hebrew t"h6m in Gen 1:2 has a mythological foundation in Tiamat, the goddess of the Enumaelish, in which Mardzlk the storm god fights and defeats Tiamat the sea dragon, thus establishing the cosmos.' The expression t6hi wZb6hz2, "emptiness and waste," in Gen 1:2 is often considered a reference to this primordial "chaos," in strict opposition to "creation." The phrase is taken to refer to the earth in an abioticor lifeless state, with no vegetation, animals, or human beings9 Gunkel also posited the theory, later supported by other scholars, that the riah e16him in Gen 1:2c corresponds to the winds that Mardzlk sends against Tiamat, thus assuming that it is an expression that describes the primordial chaos. The object of this three-part article is to discover whether in Gen 1:2 there is any evidence for the mythological battle between the creator-god and the powers of the chaos, Chaoskampf, such as Gunkel and many other scholars maintain.1° 1f we found such evidence, we would need to take heed
The Earth of Genesis 1 : 2 Abiotic or Chaotic ?
1998
As the third and final part of the study of Gen 1:2, this article seeks to analyze the impact of the phrase ruah ‘lohim merahepet al p’ne hammayim on the question of the state of the earth as depicted in this verse. Gunkel, along with other scholars after him, assumed that ruah ‘lohim refers to winds that Marduk sends against Tiamat. Others have postulated that this phrase refers to divine creative activity. To reach my conclusion, I will analyze the phrase and its use in the Hebrew Bible and in languages cognate to Hebrew.
Genesis 1 and Ancient Egyptian Creation Myths
Bibliotheca Sacra, 2008
Many studies note the similarities between Ugaritic myths and the Bible (e.g., L. Fisher, "Creation at Ugarit and in the Old Testament," Vetus Testamentum 15 [1965]: 313-24; Richard J. Clifford, "Cosmogonies in the Ugaritic Texts and in the Bible," Orientalia 53 [1984]: 202-19; J. C. L. Gibson, "The Theology of the Ugaritic Baal Cycle," Orientalia 53 [1984]: 203-19; and J. H. Groenbaek, "Baal's Battle with Yam: A Canaanite Creation Fight," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 33 [1985]: 27-44). While some Ugaritic texts were cosmological in nature (i.e., describing the operation or structure of the universe in a mythic manner), it is debatable if any were cosmogonie (i.e., explaning the origin of the universe). See B. Margalit, "The Ugaritic Creation Myth: Fact or Fiction?" Ugarit-Forschungen 13 (1981): 137-45; and Marvin H. Pope, El in the Ugaritic Texts (Leiden: Brill, 1955).
Professor John Walton and the functional ontology of Genesis 1
“The Hebrew word translated “create” should be understood within a functional ontology—i.e., it means to assign a role or function. This is evident through a word study of the usage of the biblical term itself where the direct object of the verb is always a functional entity not a material object”. John H. Walton