5 Genesis
“Creation according to Genesis” is the creation myth found in the first two chapters of the Bible’s Book of Genesis.
Chapter 1 describes God’s creation of the world. Man and woman are created to be God’s regents over this new world.
Chapter 2 recounts God’s planting a garden in which he places the first man, and from whose rib (or side) he fashions the first woman; the chapter ends with an injunction on the sanctity of marriage.
The ancient Near East conceived of the world as a flat disk surrounded by water, in which the habitable earth floated rather like a bubble. This cosmology underlies Genesis 1-2, but with important theological differences: The Mesopotamian myths ascribes the creation to multiple gods who created man to be their servant, but the Hebrew re-telling is almost totally de-mythologized, emphasizing instead the supremacy of Yahweh, the single god (Elohim) of Israel.
- 5.1 The Text
- 5.2 Ancient Near East Context
- 5.3 Exegetical Points
- 5.4 Structure and Composition
- 5.5 Theology and Interpretation