The Origins of "Genesis," or "Bereshit" in Ancient Hebrew

[MineralMan]

When was Genesis written and by whom? Excellent questions, both of them.

There's quite a good article on this on Wikipedia at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Genesis

First, it's not as old as you might think, at least in its written form. Current scholarship believes it was first written in the 6th Century BC. Who wrote it? Well, the tradition says that Moses did, but that's not the current thinking. It's really a mish-mash of multiple authorship, collected together and edited to become what it is now.

Second, the name of the first book of the Bible comes from the first word on its first page, in ancient Hebrew: bereshit, which the Greeks later translated into Genesis. I'm not sure how to pronounce bereshit, and will not attempt to offer a pronunciation guide. I know nothing of ancient Hebrew. However, you can hear the word pronounced at the link below:

https://www.howtopronounce.com/bereshit/

For an alternative pronunciation, listen to:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bereshit.ogg

Third, why it was created is an interesting question. Some scholars think it was created on order of the Persians, in exchange for giving the Hebrews control of Jerusalem, following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, which is linked to the claim that it was first assembled in the 6th Century BC.

Anyhow, there's lots more interesting information in the Wikipedia article about this long-lived work of tribal nomads that has had such an impact on the world.

[MineralMan]

1. By contrast, the Hindu Vedas were complete before 800 BC.

The early Egyptian "Pyramid Texts" date back to 2400-2300 BC.

The Barton Cylinder, containing a Sumerian Creation story, dates back to 2400 BC.

[cachukis]

2. Enuma Elish

Babylonian Epic of Creation


https://www.ancient.eu/article/225/enuma-elish---the-babylonian-epic-of-creation---fu/

[packman]

3. I believe the Babylonian captivity (around 530 B.C.) was the ground

that inspired the Jewish writers in their incorporating it in their mythology.

[MineralMan]

4. Very likely.

[cachukis]

6. Methinks the stories had been around for a while.

[MineralMan]

7. Oh, yes, in one form or another.

Pretty much every religion and culture has a creation myth. That's a response to the natural human curiosity about where all this stuff originated. The old storytellers came up with stories about that, right out of the box. Those myths go in all sorts of directions, but they answer the question satisfactorily for their audience.

Tribal chieftains and their storytellers had strong relationships with each other. The chieftain was in charge of what to do, and the storyteller was in charge of explaining why.

[cachukis]

8. Could this be a point of control of "the sons of god,"

mythology for the present day in genesis?

[Act_of_Reparation]

9. Syncretism

Much of the early Genesis narrative was takenfrom the Enûma Eliš and the Epic of Gilgamesh, absorbed into Jewish tradition while the Israelites were captive in Babylon. That would be 605 - 539 BCE... surprise, surprise.

[MineralMan]

10. Nothing new under the Sun, I guess.

Many people think that Judaism and the Old Testament are the oldest scriptures on the planet. Of course, they're not, but in our insular world, people don't do any research on their belief systems. More's the pity.