AN EGYPTI AN SOURCE FOR GENESI S

WI I HI \ ancient Near Eastern thought the moment of creation

was deemed to connect immediately to the existing order The
primeval ordering of the world, however it was conceived, was
therefore of unique philosophical and theological significance It
conferred upon contemporary norms a legitimacy and perman-
ence, beyond their true validity, which guaranteed them absolute
status The priestly account of creation in Genesis 2 4a in
a similar way confers upon Israel and her cultic institutions a
legitimacy and validity within the given orders of creation In so
doing it reveals one of the most distinctive Hebrew epic traditions
as seamless with the prevailing cultural norms of the ancient
world
It is evident that Genesis 1 1 2 4a draws upon the analogy of
two different modes of creation in presenting its account There
is the effortless word of God which orders the world into being
in an instant This is then duplicated by a further account which
speaks of the divine activity in a more earthy and basic way, that
is, in terms of craftsmanship and manual labour seemingly more
in keeping with the creation account of the Yahwist (J) in Genesis
2 3 The verbs used for this activity are 'to separate' (73,
1 4, 7) and 'to make' (, 7, 16) This latter also occurs
in the opening line of the J narrative (Genesis 2 4b) and again
with reference to the garments Yahweh made for his erring crea-
tures (121) Another verb which seems to correspond in meaning
with the simple word 'make', yet is restricted in priestly tradition
(P) to the divine activity and is usually translated as 'create', is
3

It is worth noting that not only does the divine word have
1
The outstanding features of are that it is only used with God as subject
and never has the accusative of the material from which things are constructed It is
obviously significant in the places where it is used in the Genesis 1 narrative That
is in 1 1 at the very beginning in the formation of the great sea monsters (v 21) in
the making of humankind (v 27) and again at the end (2 ,) Yet corresponds
in manv wavs with the work account of creation J Morgenstern The Sources
of the Creation Story Genesis 1 1 2 4a AjfSL Vol XXXVI no ^ (1920)
pp 160. 212 placed it in his sabbath tradition Clearly in Genesis 2 } it is
complementary to and not in opposition to the idea of making (57) Whereas in 2
Isaiah is applied to God s actions in the present for its use is restricted to
describing God s creative action at the beginning It has a deliberate and
considered significance when it occurs in but this falls short of creatio ex
nihilo It is best understood in the context of the alternative verbs separate and
make
Oxford Uni versi ty Press 2000
[Journal of Theol ogi cal Studi es NS Vol 51 Pt 2 Oct ober 2000]
I
442 JAMES h A r WE I I
a foundati onal significance for the whol e of priestly theology, but
so also does the concept of separati on Both tradi ti ons of creation
by word and by work are therefore integral to the whol e priestly
scheme
The questi on arises do we have here two di sti nct tradi ti ons
about creati on wi th t hei r own ' tradi ti on hi story' whi ch have
been combi ned
?
F Schwal l y in 1906 argued that the two types
of creati on in Genesi s 1 are cont radi ct ory and therefore must
have separate t radi t i on hi stori es Thi s suggestion was taken up
and t horoughl y exami ned by J Mor gens t er n He gave pri ori ty
to what he called t he ' di vi ne fiat' version of the creation narrati ve,
over against t he manuf act uri ng version whi ch he called the ' sab-
bat h' version The ' di vi ne fiat' narrati ve he took to consist of
eight divine commands whi ch form the basis of the Genesi s nar-
rative Thes e, he envisaged, were cast in a pur e form with text-
book evenness Thi s materi al , he t hought , had been suppl ement ed
by rat her rugged secondary materi al whi ch, unlike Schwally, he
did not reckon had ever been a t radi t i on of its own The i ntenti on
was to popul ari ze t he rat her scholastic text Thi s secondary mat er-
ial he labelled ' sabbat h' as he supposed the divine rest to relate to
t he exhaust i ng pr ocedur e of the mor e physical l abours The
scheme of a week he connect ed wi th this suppl ement ary materi al ,
The priestly creation account represents a charter that stands over all sub
sequent sacred history That account is not simply an isolated few verses that
happens to preface the priestly narrative Rather it is securely bonded to all that
follows The picture of the creator in the opening chapter of Genesis is summarized
by the psalmist
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made
And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth (Ps ,> 6)
But that same picture holds good for subsequent history also God speaks and it
comes to pass Whether it is the instruction to Abraham to circumcise him that is
born in thy house (Genesis 17 1 }) which is deliberately and carefully fulfilled a few
verses later (v 23) or whether it is the instruction to Moses in the detail of the
setting up of the tabernacle (Exodus 40 1 ff ) which concludes hus did Moses
according to all that the Lord commanded him so did he (Fxodus 40 16) the word
of God as a matter of central priestly theology never returns to him unfulfilled
Things need to be regulated ordered put in their place Not least is this true
of the cult which distinguishes Israel from the nations Within the cult Israel
must be separated from her uncleanness (Leviticus i s ^1 ff ) Aaron and his sons
must be set apart from the children of Israel (Leviticus 22 2) and the Lvites must
be separated (7"*73) from among the children of Israel (Numbers S 14) The reader
is face to face in the subsequent narrative with the selfsame concept of separation
that permeates the first chapter of Genesis It is part of the overture effect of
Genesis 11 2 4a in relation to the whole priestly work noted by C Westermann
Schwally Die bibhsehen Schopfungsberichte ARW 9 (1906) pp iS9 7S
J Morgenstern op cit
I GYPl IAN SOURCE I OR GENESI S 443
and also the motif of God decl ari ng his work good as it envisages
the possibility of failure
M Lamber t
6
reversed Mor gens t er n' s assumpt i ons as to whi ch
of the two accounts shoul d be consi dered the pri or, and whi ch
suppl ement ary The mat t er was taken up again by G von Rad
in his at t empt to identify two literary st rands t hr oughout t he
narrati ve
7
He related his two st rands to t he two separate creati on
accounts, ' action account ' A and ' command account ' Von Rad' s
at t empt marks the end of any real hope t hat literary criticism
mi ght yield up a solution to the probl em of sources in Genesi s
In his comment ar y von Rad himself makes only passi ng reference
to this endeavour
W Schmi dt
8
has t ur ned to ' t radi t i on hi story' for a way out
of the impasse He believes the failure of literary criticism makes it
clear that t here are not two di sti nct t radi t i ons about creati on wi th
their own prehi story Ther e is one single line of devel opment
However he does concl ude t hat the account of creati on by action
must be pr i mar } , and that one can identify what seem to be t he
oldest el ements in the tradi ti on But he woul d still stress t hat
the ' priestly mi nd' is evi dent not si mpl y in t he command account
with the oldest el ements, as it were, surgically removed It is
also t here in the way the priestly t radent s have over t he genera-
tions selected, devel oped and shaped the old materi al Let us
take as our starti ng poi nt for investigation those el ement s whi ch
Schmi dt identifies as at the source of a long peri od of priestly
transmi ssi on
[i 2] And the earth was waste and void, and there was darkness over the
great deep And the spirit of God hovered over the waters
[4] And God separated the light from the darkness
[7] God made the firmament and separated the waters beneath the firma-
ment from the waters above the firmament
[9] (according to the Greek translation) And the waters under heaven
gathered themsehes into one meeting-place, and the mainland became
visible
[12] The earth brought forth green herbs, which yielded seed and
trees which yielded fruit with seeds
[16] God made the two great lights, the greater to rule by day, and the
lesser to rule by night, and the stars, and God placed them in the firma-
ment of heaven
(
M Lambert A Study of the I irst Chapter of Genesis HUCA 1 (1924)
PP 12
7
G \ on Rad Die Priesterschrift im Hexateuch BWAN I 6s Stuttgart (19^4)
8
W H Schmidt Die Schpfungsgeschichte der Priesterschrift Neukirchen
(1967)
444 JAMES E ATWhLL
[21] And God created the great sea animals, and the whole swarm of living
creatures, with which the waters swarm and all winged creatures
[25] And God made the wild animals the cattle and all of the creep-
ing things of the earth
[26-27] Then God said Let us make men in our image, so they will
resemble us, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven, the
cattle, and all the wild animals on earth, and every creeping thing that
creeps upon the earth And God created man in his image, in the image
of God he created him
[2 2] And God rested (?)
9
We can usefully ask two questi ons of the text in this form Thes e
two quest i ons are
1 Wher e did t he original cosmol ogy come from? and
2 How does t he pat t erni ng of seven i mposed upon the acts of
creati on relate to the t radi t i on hi story of Genesi s 1? We may
t hen consi der t he further questi on
3 What is t he theological t hrust of the narrati ve as it now stands?
I T H E O R I G I N A L C O S M O L O G Y
Wher e did t he original cosmol ogy come from?
/ A Comparison of the Priestly Creation Narrative with the
Cosmology of Ancient Mesopotamia
The t empl at e whi ch is normal l y held up against the priestly
cosmol ogy for compari son is that of anci ent Mesopot ami an reli-
gion, and here parti cul arl y the work known as Enuma Ehsh W H
Schmi dt declares ' The t radi t i on behi nd Genesi s is closely
related to t he Babyl oni an epic of creati on, the Enuma Ehsh '
1 0
Ent hus i as m for compari son with anci ent Mesopot ami a is fuelled
partl y by the evi dence for compari sons in other areas of the
Ibid , I 6 I The translation is from Otzen et al (eds), Myths in the Old
Testament London (1980), pp 29 f English translation from My ter Det gamie
Testamente, Copenhagen (i97o
2
) Otzen himself supports Schmidt's endeavour
'Of course, such a division of the text should be accepted only with the greatest of
reservations, but there can hardly be any doubt that most of the elements Schmidt
has removed belong to the priestly redaction ' op cit , -jo Westermann is also
positive ' Schmidt' s study is an important step forward ' Genesis 1-11 A
Commentary, London and Minneapolis (19S4), 8^ [translation from second
German edition, Neukirchen-Vluyn (1976)]
W Schmidt, Introduction to the Old Testament (London, (1984), io2
English translation from Einfuhrung in das Alte Testament, (1979, 1982
2
)
AN GYP I I AN S OURCE FOR G P N F S I S 445
pri meval text, and partl y by the mome nt um establ i shed by
H Gunkel Less emphasi s has been accorded to compari son
with Egypti an cosmology It is t he convi cti on of thi s st udy t hat
investigation t here provi des significant cont ours for compari son
Let us first investigate the mor e usual compari son What exactly
are the resembl ances between the priestl y creati on account and
Mesopot ami an parallels, parti cul arl y Enuma Ehsh^ A Hei del has
discussed those el ements of t he pri estl y creati on t radi t i on that,
in his j udgement , show possible parallels wi th Enuma Elish He
concl udes
In fact the divergences are much more far-reaching and significant than
are the resemblances most of which are not any closer than we would
expect to find in any two more or less complete creation versions But
the identical sequence of events as far as the points of contact are
concerned is indeed remarkable This can hardly be accidental
The poi nt s of contact and thei r order are present ed by Hei del in
table-form as follows (the number i ng is our own)
Enuma Elish
[i ] Di vi ne spirit and cosmic
mat t er are coexistent and
coeternal
[2] Pri maeval chaos, Ti'mat
enveloped in darkness
[l] Li ght emanat i ng from t he
gods
[4] The creation of the firma-
ment
[5] The creation of dry land
[6] The creation of t he
l umi nari es
[7] The creation of man
[8] The gods rest and celeb-
rate
Genesis
Di vi ne spirit creates cosmic
mat t er and exists i ndepen-
dent l y of it (1 2)
The eart h a desolate waste,
wi t h darkness covering t he
deep (fhom) ( 12)
Li ght created
The creation of t he firmament
The creation of dry land
The creation of t he l umi n-
aries
The creation of man
God rests and sanctifies t he
sevent h day
H Gunkel Schpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit (Gottingen 189s)
asserts the Babylonian origin of the priestly creation narrative He allowed for
dependence upon an intermediate Hebrew poetic recension of the Marduk myth
which used the divine name Yahweh
12
\ Heidel The Babylonian Genesis (Chicago 1951 ) }o A Speiser
Genesis Anchor Bible (New York 1964) 9 accepts Heidel s conclusions as
proven
A Heidel op cit 129
446 J A MP S L A T WF L L
The correspondence bet ween t he i tems desi gnated [i ] is general
rat her t han specific The idea t hat the gods devel oped from wi t hm
t he raw materi al of creati on is i ndeed st andard in the anci ent Near
East Where the pre-creati on condi ti on was pi ct ured as a watery
abyss it was deemed to contai n the origin of the gods as well as the
origin of the nat ural worl d The two were reckoned as coexistent
If Genesi s 2 shoul d be taken as a descri pti on of the pri meval
condi t i on pri or to creati on t hen it may also be contrasted with
Enuma Ehsh In t he Enuma Ehsh t radi t i on the hal l mark of the
pri meval ocean is its t orpor, the sleep of the pri meval deities is
eventual l y di st urbed by the noise of the younger gods Ther e is
no real parallel to t he dynami c ' Spi ri t of God' as one el ement of
t he pri meval condi t i on di sti nct from its ot her qualities
In the same way [2] is also a general poi nt relating to ancient
Near East ern myt h in general rat her t han Enuma Ehsh in parti cu-
lar It is hard to t hi nk of any ot her way an account of creation in
the anci ent Near East coul d begin if it were not to commence
wi th a descri pti on of the pre-exi stent formless condi ti on Thi s is
hardl y remarkabl e W G Lamber t , who has reassessed the implica-
ti ons of correspondence bet ween Genesi s 1 and Enuma Ehsh,
observes t hat a watery begi nni ng is to be found elsewhere in
cosmogoni es of ot her peopl es He further dismisses the linguis-
tic correspondence bet ween the Hebr ew 01) fhm (masculine)
wi t hout t he article in Genesi s 1 2 and t he personified Tiamat
(femmi ne) in t he Akkadi an epic as not significant ' The et vmol o-
gical equi val ence is of no consequence, since poetic allusions to
cosmic battles in t he use Yam and fhm indiscriminately '
Al t hough ' darkness' is an explicit feature of Genesi s 1 2, it is not
so in Enuma Ehsh It has to be surmi sed by Hei del from the account
of Berossus Ther e is, therefore, little of real identity upon which
to const ruct a specific rel at i onshi p in item [2]
As regards [3], t he claim to find a correspondence bet ween
light emanat i ng from t he gods, which is at most an incidental
i t em to be deduced from t he Babylonian narrat i ve, and t he crea-
tion of light in Genesi s 1 whi ch is definitive for the whole narra-
tive, is not convi nci ng Ther e is no real linkage of common
pur pose and direction
Hei del poi nt s to t he creation of t he firmament [4] and the crea-
tion of dry land [5] for t he next t wo items of correspondence
The narrat i ve resembl ance is due to t he nat ure of ancient Near
East ern creation myt hol ogy The division of heaven and earth, a
W G Lambert A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis
J TSNS 16 (196s) 2(
H
AN EGYPTI AN SOURCE FOR GENESI S 447
single act with a doubl e consequence, is t he pr i mar y motif of
almost every cosmology of the anci ent Near East. The identical
sequence is therefore no i ndi cati on of any rel ati onshi p bet ween
the two different accounts beyond thei r common provenance
within the anci ent Near East. Any j ustification of a specific corre-
spondence between Enuma Elish and t he priestly creati on account
will need to go beyond this general observati on.
W G. Lamber t does draw at t ent i on to what he recognizes as a
significant resembl ance between t he two account s. He mai nt ai ns
that the act of dividing cosmic waters does yield up a valid com-
parison with Enuma Elish, and t hat t here are no ot her exampl es
in the anci ent Near East at that peri od. Against t hat we mi ght
press the significance of ' division' for priestl y theological reflec-
tion It does seem t hat a precedent for the appl i cati on of t he con-
cept of division to the pri meval waters may have been closer
at hand t han Mesopot ami a The verb transl ated by t he RV as
' broken up' (S7p3) in the flood narrati ve (Genesi s 7:11) seems
to be part of an anci ent poetic t radi t i on of Canaani t e origin. It wit-
nesses to a local vocabul ary whi ch speaks of ' cleaving' or ' divid-
ing' waters. The same verb occurs with those associations in
Psalm 74.15 ' Thou di dst cleave fountain and flood'. By extensi on
it comes to be used in the ' myt hi ci zat i on' of t he rescue at the Red
(Reed) Sea.
In Enuma Elish the parti cul ar appl i cati on of the given creation
pattern is the division of Tiamat's watery carcass into two pieces
which creates heaven and earth, al t hough some 'fixing' by the
deity in bot h areas is t hen necessary. In fact the priestl y creati on
account is less strai ghtforward. The creation of heaven and eart h
remains an i mpor t ant and pri mary twi n concept, as the openi ng
verse (i *i ) remi nds us, but the management of the waters is
more compl ex. In addi ti on to the account of the ' di vi di ng' of
the waters (v 6) whi ch creates t he heavens, and has its parallel
in Enuma Elish, it contai ns a separate stage of the ' gat heri ng' of
waters (v 9) whi ch reveals dry l and. Thi s is a poi nt of dissimilar-
ity with Enuma Elish W. G. Lamber t connect s this latter t radi t i on
to the myt h of the Sumero-Babyl oni an god Ni nur t a who hol ds
back the ' mi ght y wat er s ' .
1 6
Per haps we need look no further
than Psal m 104-717 for a parallel The provenance of t hat psal m
must concern us later in this di scussi on. Certai nl y t he manage-
ment of the waters in the Priestly creation account does not
simply replicate that of Enuma Elish.
'^ I xodus 14 16, 21, Isaiah 6$ 12
1 6
Lamber t , op cit , 2<)6
448 JAMES ATWhLL
Once again, the resembl ance with Enuma Elish identified under
poi nt s [4] and [5] proves on investigation to be more about a
shared anci ent Near East ern context t han any real i denti ty
Ther e is a significant di vergence in detail as regards the manage-
ment of the waters whi ch W. G. Lamber t connects to Meso-
pot ami an t radi t i on mor e generally, al t hough local Canaani te
parallels can be adduced. The parallel with Psal m 104 will have
to be consi dered later.
The creati on of t he l umi nari es [6] is not specific to Enuma Elish,
i ndeed again we can compare Psal m 104:19. However Babylonian
influence does appear evi dent in the commi ssi on they are given to
' rul e t he day' and ' rul e the ni ght ' . Thi s does seem to reflect a pre-
vious stage in t he t radi t i on hi story when it was conceived that the
heavenl y bodi es control l ed the fates whi ch in t ur n govern human
existence. Hei del remarks in parti cul ar about the coi nci dence of
the order m Genesi s and Enuma Elish in t hat nei ther places the
heavenl y bodi es ' i mmedi at el y after the formati on of the sky'
1 7
Certai nl y we shall have cause to remark on the odd placing of the
creati on of the l umi nari es in Genesi s 1, but t here seem to be
good reasons of i nternal st ruct ure in the priestly narrati ve for
thei r occurrence at the parti cul ar poi nt at whi ch they are narrated
The expl anati on does not he in an external influence whet her from
Enuma Elish or el sewhere. The i nterest of [6] therefore is that we
can detect an influence from Babyl oni an ideas as a whole, but not
necessarily Enuma Elish specifically.
The epi sode of the creation of human beings [7] is hardly
evi dence for any close parallel. Thi s act is likely to come last m
any creati on account . The only similarities between Enuma Elish
and Genesi s woul d be t hat the one sees human bei ngs created
from t he bl ood of a guilty god, and the ot her in the divine
i mage. But the similarities are not very close. Moreover, the pur-
poses for whi ch they are created are qui te different: in the one
account for slavery and in the ot her to exercise domi ni on The
two accounts do not appear to come from the same stable
For the final correspondence [8], namel y rest, we t ur n again to
W. G. Lamber t . He decl ares: ' Her e Mesopot ami a does not fail
us' . He poi nt s out t hat the rest of the gods after the creation
of humani t y is a consi stent t heme of anci ent Mesopot ami an
myt h, of whi ch the Enuma Elish is one witness
Our concl usi on is evi dent. The correspondences m order
bet ween the priestly creation narrati ve and Enuma Elish, as
A Heidel, op cit , }o
W G Lambert, op cit , 2<;7
AN I GY P I I AN S OURCl TOR G L N F S I S 449
defined by Hei del , are not striking Ther e are some potenti al
resonances of Babyl oni an ideas as a whol e, most convi nci ngl y in
the reference to the l umi nari es The correspondence in order is
as follows the starti ng poi nt is t he watery pri meval deep,
heaven and earth are establ ished consequent upon an act of divi-
sion, further acts of creation i ncl ude the l umi nari es and human-
kind, divine rest is announced Tha t order of events does no
more than witness to a general anci ent Near East ern background
to both accounts
2 A comparison of the Priestly Creation Narrative with the
Cosmology of Ancient Egypt
We may now t ur n to anci ent Egypti an cosmol ogy It is neces-
sary to enqui re whet her the specific compari son of t he priestly
creation account with Egypt i an sources yields any i nteresti ng
resemblances or fruitful insights In order to do this t he initial
task must be to establish t he broad outl i ne of Egypt i an creation
traditions Thes e may t hen be held up for mor e detailed com-
parison with the oldest el ements of the priestl y creati on text as
identified by Schmi dt
In ancient Egypt, t hr oughout the historical peri od, t here were
three mai n centres where parti cul ar claims about the creati on,
or the ' Fi rst Ti me ' as the Egypti ans preferred to call it, were
made Thes e were Hehopohs , Memphi s and Her mopohs Funda-
mental to all t hree were certain basic assumpt i ons about t he
watery abyss, known as the ' Nun' , and t he ' Pri meval hill' The
analogy of the watery deep was provi ded by the Ni l e, its annual
inundation flooded the Ni l e valley whi ch seemed to be overtaken
again by watery formlessness As t he waters subsi ded the hillocks
began to appear, thei r slimy mud gl istening in t he sunshi ne, rich
with fertile potenti al
The most influential creation tradi ti on was that devised by t he
theologians of the sun-god Re at Hehopohs They identified Re
with the local god At um At um was ' the great he-she' , t he
source of creation, he took his stand on t he pri meval hillock
He was identified with the majestic sun-god Re who rose every
morning over an ordered worl d as a sort of re-enact ment of t he
First Ti me The Egypti an mi nd from the est abl i shment of t he
Hehopohtan religion onwards never failed to be fascinated by
the way the rising sun coaxed the order of t he nat ural worl d into
life The petals of the lotus flower opened, the bi rds flew, the fish
1 9
Coffin Texts }6
450 J AMl S l A 1 Wl LI
darted in the river, humans went to their work and darkness was
driven out
Memphis was the ancient capital of a united upper and lower
Egypt Its local god was named Ptah, throughout Egyptian history
he remained one of the few candidates for the office of high god
Originally a chthonic deity, in one of his aspects he is actuallv
equated with the primeval hill Numerous inscriptions in the
Theban temples of the Greek period record him as a craftsman
or smith who works in metal The Shebaka Stone famoush
records unequivocally the claim for Ptah of creation by the word
At Hermopohs the qualities of the primeval ocean seem to ha\e
been personified in terms of four pairs of godsthe Ogdoad or
the Eight The antiquity of this tradition is witnessed by the
ancient name of the place which was 'Eight Town' (Shmun in
Coptic) given in heiroglyphics d s . v \ These pnme\al
deities were male and female forms of four different features of
the watery abyss These primeval deities were imagined to have
forms that were appropriate to creatures of mud and slime, the
males were credited with frogs' heads and the females with heads
like serpents Their achievement came to be understood as the
creation of light, from which the known world could emerge
These three traditions, although distinct, did not develop with-
out mutual interaction as their shared characteristics indicate
Certainly by the time of the New Kingdom when it was fashion-
able to equate the major deities, Amun, Re and Ptah, in a sort
of trinity, the great creation traditions were harmonized also
Inevitably there remained conspicuous seams and incongruities
Let us return again to the starting point of our investigation
in the text as identified by Schmidt His omission of the \erv
first verse of Genesis from the primary material has a signific-
ant interpretative effect It leaves verse 2 unqualified, and con-
sequently presents it as in toto a description of the pre-creation
condition Only subsequent to verse 2 does the initiative of crea-
tion commence If this is indeed the true nature of verse 2 in the
full biblical text it is a very important point to establish if one is to
understand and interpret the verse and its significance correcth
Such an interpretation would make it impossible to understand
the final description of the primeval state 'and the spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters' as in some wa> adversative
The Hymn of a Thousand Strophes IV 21 and 22 Pap Laden I ^ o
I ransl at i on from W Beyerhn (ed) Near I ast(m RihgwusTixts (I ondon ig~S)
2S
AN E GY P T I A N S OUR C E FOR G E N E S I S 451
and contrasti ng that el ement over against t he unf or med pri meval
state, as, for instance, U Cassuto argues: ' Al t hough the earth was
wi thout form or life, and all was steeped in darkness, yet above
the unf ormed mat t er hovered the (rah) of God, t he source
of light and life'
It seems impossible to establish the rel at i onshi p of Genesi s m
with the following verse on gr ounds of syntax alone. For i nst ance
E A Speiser states' ' The first word of Genesi s, and hence t he first
word in the Hebr ew Bible is vocalized as b
e
r
}
st. Grammat i cal l y,
this is evidently in t he const ruct st at e' . But W. Ei chrodt reaches
the opposite conclusion* ' If we under st and b
e
r'st in Genesi s 1:1
as absolute, this is not an arbi t rary j udgement ' . Von Rad makes
his decision t hat v. is a mai n clause on theological gr ounds .
Humber t assumes the const ruct state, but still leaves the
description of the pre-creati on condi ti on in toto as pri mary: ' Le
seul t raduct i on correcte est donc: " Lor s que Di eu commena de
creer l' univers, le monde tait alors en tat chaot i que" ' .
The valid poi nt is made by C. West er mann t hat compari son
with Enuma Ehsh and ot her creation narrat i ves clearly identifies
a traditional pat t ern t hat commences ' When t here was not
yet ..' and describes in negative t er ms t he situation before t he
creation On gr ounds of compari son wi t h ancient mat eri al he
therefore separates off Genesi s 1:1 as a sort of pr el ude. Thi s argu-
ment seems decisive. Genesi s 1:2 is correctly under st ood as in toto
a description of t he pre-creat i on condi t i on. Any real parallel will
need to t hrow some light on how t he spirit of God can be i ncl uded
within that category
Genesis 1, Enuma Ehsh and Egypt i an t radi t i on have this in
common. They describe t he origin of t he worl d as wat ery, and
the pre-creat i on state in negative t er ms. It is helpful to hold up
for compari son from ancient Egypt t he creation t radi t i on from
Hermopohs At Her mopohs , we have not ed, t he qualities of t he
U Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Part I, ET (Jerusalem
1961), 24 [Hebrew (1944)]
E A Speiser, Genesis, i2
2 3
W Eichrodt, ' In the Beginning A Contribution to the Interpretation of the
First Word of the Bible', reproduced from Israel's Prophetic Heritage Essays in
honor of James Muilenburg (New York, 1962), in W Anderson (ed ), Creation in
the Old Testament (Philadelphia and London, 19X4), 72
2 4
G von Rad, Genesis (London, 1961), 48 [translation of Der erste Buch
Mose, Genesis (Gottingen, 19^8)]
^ Humbert, "Trois notes sur Genese ', Interpretationes ad Vtus
Testamentum pertinentes Sigmundo Mowinckel missae (Oslo, 1955), pp 85 96
26
C Westermann, Genesis -11 A Commentary (London and Minneapolis,
1984), 94 [translation from second German edition, Neukirchen-Vluvn (1976)]
452 JAMES E ATWELL
primeval deep were personified by four pairs known as 'the Eight'.
Its watery state was expressed in the pair known as Nun and his
partner Naunet. The deep was further described in negative
terms through the divine partners Huh and Hauhet who represent
the 'boundlessness' of the great deep.
i nm 1) ('without form and void') in Genesis 1:2 is part of
that general witness; this interpretation has been challenged by
D. T. Tsumura. He denies that these words should be under-
stood as a sort of technical description of the chaotic state. He
refers them simply to the earth ( f ^N v. 2) which is as yet infertile
and uninhabited. In his linguistic analysis he underestimates the
significance of the context of Genesis 1:2. He does not allow
that the 'not yet' pre-creation condition of earth defies description
and in some sense redefines any vocabulary brought to it. It is true
that 1 occurs on its own a number of times in the Hebrew
Scriptures and describes the desert waste. However the addition
of 11 forms a sort of hendiadys,
29
which is perhaps a specific
description for ideas associated with the primeval deep (cf
Jeremiah 4:23). It is identified by both Gunkel and Cassuto as
possibly an ancient poetic expression describing the primeval
deep. Its concept is basically of formlessness.
Genesis 1:2 further identifies darkness as of the essence of the
pre-creation condition. This holds true throughout the ancient
Near East. A. Heidel argues: ' In Enuma Elish this conception is
not expressly stated, but we can deduce it from the fact that
Timat, according to Berossus ... was shrouded m darkness'.
30
For knowledge of the tradition of Hermopohs with its four pairs of primeval
deities we are indebted to the priestly theologians of the Greek and Roman period
who left inscriptions on the temple walls at Dendera, Edfu, Philae and particularh
Thebes The most telling piece of evidence for the antiquity of the tradition is
the name of Hermopohs itself, in Coptic Shmun (Eight Town) From the time
of the Old Kingdom when the deity Thoth is referred to as lord of his town, it is of
'the (town of) Eight' The Eight are twice invoked in Coffin Text Spell 76 surviving
from the Middle Kingdom
D Tsumura, The Earth and the Waters in Genesis 1 and 2, J SOT
Supplement 83 (Sheffield, 1989) He takes the mention of 'earth' in Genesis 1 2
as definitive for the significance of the creation account (p 162) The desolate
and empty earth (1 2) becomes a place of vegetation ( i n ) and habitation (animals
1 24, and humans 1 26) However, rather than earth as described in \ 2, it is the
firmament (v 6) and the earth (v 9) which as the totality of heaven and earth
(cf 11) is definitive for the whole account The vision of the priestly creation
account is more than utilitarian, and is not comprehended in simply creating an
environment around human beings
E A Speiser, Genesis, 5
A Heidel, The Babylonian Genesis, 101
AN FGYPT I AN S O UR C F FOR G F N F S I S 453
John Day poi nts out that this was t rue of Canaani t e concept s as
well He states
That the connection between Leviathan and darkness goes back to
Canaanite mythology may be surmised from the Ugantic texts, where in
CT\ 6 vi 44 ff ( =KTU 6 vi 4s if ) we read that Kothar-and-Hasis, who
it is hoped will defeat the dragon (iww=Leviathan), was also the friend of
the sun goddess Shapash who is apparently threatened by the dragon
However, it is in Egypt t hat we find explicit witnesses to darkness
as a feature of the pri meval deep In t he t radi t i on of Her mopohs
the thi rd of the four divine pairs t hat personify t he chaoti c state,
known as Kuk and Kauket, represent precisely thick darkness
The real probl em of i nt erpret at i on t hat we face in tryi ng to
underst and Genesi s 1 2 lies in the descri pti on of the final el ement
of the verse How can the ' spirit of God' be under s t ood as a
description of the original, unf ormed pri meval state? A way out
of this di l emma could be to transl ate DTi /K 1 as ' wi nd of
God' , but S Chi l ds denies this possibility on t he gr ounds
that such a meani ng occurs nowhere else in t he Hebr ew Scri p-
tures Against this may be argued that Genesi s 1 2 is a special
case, and so perhaps parallels do not hol d John Day appeal s to
the presumed Canaani t e background to Genesi s 1 He argues
that we meet here in mut ed form the wi nd wi th whi ch Ba' al
equipped himself for the battl e wi th t he sea monst er, and con-
sequently already have an i ntrusi on of the power of creati on He
draws a parallel with the t ur ni ng poi nt in the flood narrati ve
where the wi nd of God blows over the earth and the waters sub-
side (Genesi s 8 1 ) But decisive for our investigation mus t be t hat
all indications seem to make it unaccept abl e to break off this
phrase from the total descri pti on of ' When t here was not yet' ,
and give it an adversative sense Any acceptabl e i nt erpret at i on
must be able to explain it in the context of a series of represent a-
tions of the pri meval abyss
Another suggestion is t hat of E A Speiser who i nt erpret s t he
whole phrase as an ' awesome wi nd' , taking TI7X in a superl at i ve
sense Thi s i nt erpret at i on is adopt ed in some moder n t ransl a-
tions including t he NEB ' and a mi ght y wi nd swept over t he
J Day God s Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea (Cambridge 198s) 4S
32
As does H M Orlinsky I he Plain Meaning of RU
A
H in Gen 1 2 jfQR
NS 48 (19^7/^8) pp 174 82 He notes in particular the significance of the four
winds created by Anu in enabling Marduk to triumph in the Enuma Ehsh He also
draws attention to the use of in J s primeval history (Gen 3 8)
S Childs Myth and Reality in the Old Testament Studies in Biblical
Theology 27 (London i960) ^s
E A Speiser Genesis s
4 5 4 J A ME S E A T WE L L
surfce of t he waters' . [Incl uded under a margi nal note in REB]
But t hat sol ution strains the text and leaves DTI /X unrel ated to
its ot her occurrences in t he adj oining verses H Gunkel looked
to the verb *"|, to whi ch he gave the sense of ' brood' , for a solu-
ti on. He traced t he original significance to a Phoeni ci an myt h of
the cosmic egg. Nei t her suggestion seems to resolve our
di l emma. We still have to look el sewhere
We have not ed how t hree of the pairs from the creation tradi-
tion of Her mopohs correspond with the descri pti on in Genesis
1:2. Can t he fourth pai r t hrow any light on our present enigma?
Her e K. Set he has bol dl y mai nt ai ned t hat the witness from the
Greek peri od to Amun and Amaunet as the fourth pair of the
Ei ght is to be regarded as a late witness to anci ent tradi ti on He
seizes on t he creative combi nat i on of Amun, the ' hi dden one' ,
as pri meval deity and Amun t he myst eri ous high god of the New
Ki ngdom represent ed in the unseen but dynami c power of the
wi nd. Accordi ng to Set he' s pi ct ure, therefore, Amun and his
par t ner represent the dynami c quality of the pri meval abyss
Amun is t hat qual i ty whi ch overcomes the t orpor, l anguidness
and stagnati on of the pri meval waters*
At first calm and motionless, hovering over the sluggish primeval ocean
Nun, invisible as a nullity, it (the air) could at a given moment be set
in motion, apparently of itself, could churn up the Nun to its depths,
so that the mud lying there could condense into solid land and emerge
from the flood waters, first as a 'high hillock' or as an 'Isle of Flames' near
Hermopohs
If this case put by K. Set he can be mai nt ai ned, t hen, at a stroke,
the final el ement in Genesi s 1.2 makes compl et e sense as a
descri pti on of t he pre-creati on condi t i on. Her e only in the ancient
Near East do we find a precedent that mi ght enable us to make
sense of t he dynami c spirit of God as actually a feature of the
pri meval abyss.
Ther e is, however, a pr obl em in connecti on with the witness
to the fourth pair of t he Ogdoad of Her mopohs Al t hough the
Pyr ami d Text s do present an early witness to Amun and Amaunet
as pri meval deities, t here is no early explicit witness to t hem as
member s of the Ogdoad. Fur t her , that they may have been inserted
This solution of Gunkel seems to be adopted by J Skinner, Genesis, i8
However it is generally agreed now that the word involves movement (cf Deut
32 11, 'hover' or 'flutter') The Ugantic cognate 'describes a form of motion as
opposed to a state of suspension or rest', A Speiser, Genesis, 5
Sethe, 'Amun und die Acht Urgotter von Hermopohs' , APAW 4 (i()2o),
42 paragraph 80 Translation from S Moren/, Egyptian Religion, i~6
AN I GY P T I A N S OURCl POR G E N E S I S 455
into the Ei ght duri ng the long devel opment of t he Her mopoht an
tradition seems likely They represent one vari ant pai r amongst
other candi dates for compl et i ng t he cosmology, a pai r t hat has
come to pr edomi nat e in t he late witness of the t empl e texts of
the Greek peri od However, it is known t hat Amun in his form
as Amun-Re was associated with Her mopohs from the i 8t h
Dynasty The evidence leads us to concl ude t hat any j udgement
about the position of Amun and Amaunet wi thi n t he Her mopoh-
tan system in the Ol d Ki ngdom or the Mi ddl e Ki ngdom cannot be
made with certai nty The case remai ns open But it does seem a
reasonable assumpt i on t hat by the t i me of t he New Ki ngdom
the creative connecti ons whi ch Set he identifies are likely to have
been made at Her mopohs Tha t is, the combi nat i on of Amun as
primeval deity, represent i ng hi ddenness in t he sense of nul l i ty
or negligibility, wi th the The ban characteri sti cs of hi ddenness,
as the invisible power of the wi nd, woul d have taken place In
that case we may say t hat t he cosmol ogy of Her mopohs enabl ed
Amun to be identified not only as t he dynami c pri nci pl e of exist-
ence, as breat h or wi nd, but also t he dynami c qual i ty of the pr i m-
eval abyss In all likelihood it is Amun who is the source of the
imagery of *TI7X in Genesi s 2
We may note a further significant parallel bet ween the cosmo-
logy of Her mopohs and t hat of Genesi s whi ch leads us on to t he
37
See H Altenmuller, 'Achtheif in W Helck and L Otto (eds ), Lexikon der
gyptologie I (Weisbaden, 197s), column 6 The alternative candidates for the
fourth pair ot the Hermopohtan cosmology throw further light on the speculation
about the primeval abyss The couples in this fourth personification of the primeval
deep, like a quantum zero, hover between existence and non-existence Tenemu
and his consort represent a quality of disappearance Niau expresses a negative
quaht\ in the sense of void or empty Gereh describes lack or deficiency In as
much as Amun and his consort Amaunet were a personification of this fourth pair
of the Ogdoad the quality of 'hiddenness' should also be understood in a negative
sense such as invisibilitv, perhaps almost negligibility
38
G Roeder, Zwei Hieroglyphische Inschriften Aus Hermopohs' , ASAE
S2 (1954), PP i
1
**
l S
39
This conclusion is shared by R Kihan, 'Genesis 1 2 und die Urgotter von
Hermopohs , VT 16 (1966), pp 420 }8 Gustav Jequier, ' Les Quatre
C\nocephales', in Samuel A Mercer (ed ), Egyptian Religion, vol 2, no ^
(New York i<H4) PP 7^ ^

> denies that Sethe has proved Amun to have been

ongmallv numbered among the Light of Hermopohs However he is convinced by
the correspondence of Genesis 1 2 with the four personifications of the primeval
deep at Hermopohs and regards as proven the dependence of Genesis 1 2 on
the theology of Hermopohs Creation takes place, according to Jequier's inter-
pretation, from the inert primordial material under the influence of 'une force
trangre' (to be distiguished from the four pairs of primeval deities) who is the
god Thoth According to this interpretation, his is the hidden presence behind
the opening of the Genesis creation narrative
456 JAMES L A rWl LI
next stage in Schmi dt ' s oldest materi al (v 4) The achi evement of
t he Ei ght certainl y came to be under st ood as the creation of light
They were ' the fathers and mot her s who created light' It is
reflected in t he name of t he pri meval hill at Her mopohs , ' Isle of
Fl ames ' The first act of creati on was the emergence of light
from the pri meval gl oom It is a further confirmatory i ndi cator
of t he relevance of t he t radi t i on of Her mopohs in underst andi ng
t he priestly creati on narrati ve
The separati ng of t he waters (v 7) was a feature whi ch
W G Lamber t found to uni t e Genesi s and Enuma Ehsh In as
much as it poi nt s to t he original creati on as an act of division or
separati on, t hen thi s general not i on of the anci ent Near East
occurs in Egypt too Ge b and Nut , the earth god and the
heaven goddess, are separated by thei r father Shu The separation
of waters is involved in this i magery of t he raising up of the sky
Shu represent s the at mospher e bet ween heaven and earth whi ch
exists, accordi ng to one popul ar universal concept, as a sort of
bubbl e in t he uni versal pri meval ocean The separati on of earth
and heaven drives back t he waters and creates the at mospheri c
space When the pri meval waters are referred to as a pair, Nun
and Naunet , this identifies t he separated waters of the deep
above and bel ow the ordered worl d In this context J Allen
draws specific at t ent i on to the correspondence between the
pri estl y cosmol ogy and that of anci ent Egypt in the key signific-
ance of the firmament or vault in bot h schemes He refers to the
linguistic differentiation bet ween t he waters above and below
t he created worl d
Both terms for the universe of waters that exist outside this world have
in common the hieroglyph ^ >j, representing the vault of the sky
This vault is what keeps the waters from the world he Pyramid Texts
and the Coffin Texts speak of 'keeping the sky clear of the earth and
the waters' The same image appears in the Hebrew account of creation
( Gen 1 6 7)
4 1
Schmi dt ' s next el ement of pri mary tradi ti on cont i nues with 9
He adopt s as the basis of his renderi ng the LXX in whi ch the
waters themsel ves take the initiative and ' gather themsel ves into
one meet i ng pl ace' Tha t nuance woul d well express the fertility
of t he Egypt i an Nun whi ch actually gives bi rt h to the pri meval
hill The pi ct ure is in compl et e accord with Egypti an concepts
where t he emergence of t he first piece of dry land as the waters
4 0
Theb 9SC [ heban t empl e texts of t he Gr eek and Roman peri od see
SetheAPAW4 (1929)]
4 1
J Al l en Genesis in Egypt ( New Haven 1988) 4
AN h GY P I AN S OUR C E FOR G E N E S I S 457
recede is a universal feature whi ch has been absorbed i nto all
cosmologies It is based on the annual observati on of t he Ni l e' s
i nundat i on whi ch flooded the enti re river valley, and as its waters
receded the gr ound re-emerged wi th a cloak of rich fertile silt
It may be t hat one shoul d under s t and i 6, the creati on of t he
l umi nari es, as the next step in t he original devel opment of cosmi c
ol der In that case t here woul d need to be some good reason in
priestly logic for the present form of t he narrati ve whi ch we shall
have to consi der later It makes mor e sense for t he sun to precede
nature In Enuma Ehsh the creati on of the heavenl y bodi es follows
directly from the est abl i shment of heaven and earth In anci ent
Egypt the sun precedes everythi ng else at the first dawn How-
ever, j ust as t here is a certain tensi on in t he Genesi s narrati ve
between the creation of light initially and the heavenl y bodi es
only subsequentl y, so in anci ent Egypt t here is a tensi on bet ween
Re identified wi th At um the origin of all order, and Re bor n daily
of Nut , the sky goddess, as a subsequent if pri nci pal part of t hat
order
The sun and moon are referred to in Genesi s 16 as ' greater'
and ' lesser' lights Many comment at or s have not ed t hat these
ci rcuml ocuti ons seem like a priestl y device to avoid t he ment i on
of names that had associations wi th deities of consi derabl e influ-
ence in the Mes opot ami an worl d, and who were actually con-
ceived of as exercising rule and di spensi ng the fates The
divinity of the sun in anci ent Egypt, per haps still reflected in
Psalm 104, where in i g it is the subj ect of the verb ' to know'
( ST) , woul d hardl y have accorded wi th priestl y theol ogy ei ther
Thi s latter fact may have made thi s area of t he t radi t i on vul ner-
able, and open to al ternative influences In t hat case the Mes opo-
tamian influence was most likely to have acted upon t he Hebr ew
phase of the tradi ti on Thi s section certainl y r emi nds us t hat
devel opments of t hought in t he anci ent Near East are compl ex
and influences from different maj or civilizations often i nter-
relate as cosmological pat t erns devel op In parti cul ar Canaan
and Syria were well placed for absorbi ng influences from bot h
Mesopotami a and the Ni l e valley
Genesis 1 12, 21, 25 draws on a t radi t i on t hat observes, arti cu-
lates, classifies and values the myst eri ous order of t he nat ural
world The worl d of living thi ngs is not created one by one, or two
In ancient Egypt too, the earth had a power of its own, it could sprout forth
The earth god Geb was often painted green to signify this Osiris, too, represented
the fertiht\ of the good earth as could Ptah
For the relevance of Psalm 104 for the interpretation of the priestly creation
account see below
458 J AMF S t A I W I L L
by two as they leave the ark, but rather in whole colonies as thev
swarm (v 21 f^ttf ) There is a scientific interest in classification
A distinction is drawn between herbs and fruit trees the one dis-
persing seed, the other with the seed in it Creatures of water, land
and air are differentiated Those of land are placed in three sub-
groups These are cattle, creepers, and beasts, that is, domestic
animals, reptiles, and wild animals
From the sun' s rise on the first morning of creation, according
to the Hehopohtan tradition of ancient Egypt, there issued forth
the great complex order of nature, both vegetable and animal
Egypt rejoiced in a vision of the rich variety of species, of activities
appropriate to day and night, of animals adapted to particular
environments of land, sea, or air, and the mysterious powers of
procreation hidden in seed or egg or womb The temple walls of
the Old Kingdom, the Onomastica of the Middle Kingdom and
the hymns of the New Kingdom present a united witness to this
vision of order and relationship in the natural world expressed
in the significant concept Maat
Ma
(
at stood for order in every area of existence A goddess, she
was regarded as the daughter of Re, her symbol was a feather
Nun and Ma
c
at in a sense define each other as opposites Nun
represents watery formlessness, and Ma
c
at the gleaming order
of creation on the first morning as dawn breaks Order was
thought to embrace society as well as nature and the physical
world, politics and botany were related sciences Judges were
priests of Ma
c
at and wore her emblem When order referred to
that moral order of the world that rewards virtuous behaviour,
then Ma
(
at came close to signifying harmony or even providence
In the context of nature's order Ma'at approximates to the
modern concept of the ecological balance of nature It is this lat-
ter interpretation which is relevant in any comparison with the
way nature is observed and categorized in the priestly creation
narrative
In the sun temple of Nyuserre at Abu Sir the sun-god is hailed
as ' Lord of Ma'at' The significance of that is revealed in the
Chamber of the Seasons in which the seasons of 'inundation'
and 'deficiency'(i e harvest) are represented by figures in
human form, respectively female and male Behind these figures
the mural is divided horizontally by watercourses and here the
activities of each season are reproduced The impression is of a
great catalogue identifying and recording the orderly and inter-
related arrangement of natural phenomena, that is, things human,
animal, and vegetable within their common environment The
daily activities of the agricultural life of the Nile valley are all
AN I GYP I I AN SOURCI I O R G P N t S I S i 459
labelled and named A gl i mpse is given by this excerpt from t he
description of von Bissing
Sous une tendue d eau on voit un grand arbre auquel un homme a
suspendu une gazelle qu'il est en train de dcouper pour le repas des
personnes qui sont assises derrire lui, l'une de ces personnes porte a ses
le\res une large coupe A gauche de l'arbre et sur deux registres se tien-
nent deux ranges d'animaux qui donnent naissance a leur petit dans une
region remplie de \egetation et d abres II s'agit d'une vache sauvage,
d'une antilope Mendes, d'une gazelle et d'un bouquetin a la range supr-
ieure en bas, c'est une panthre, une lionne tirant la langue , et une
antilope, or\ leucoryx L'inscription verticale qui se trouve devant ces
animaux doit, si je la comprends bien, se traduire ainsi Marcher dans le
desert en donnant naissance renouvelant tout
4 4
The chick hat chi ng in the egg is already the concern of the sun-
god
La pi XVIII est plus complexe a droite, sur trois registres, trois pelicans
sont en train de couver il semble y avoir dans chaque nid trois oeufs qui
sont prs d eclore si l'on en croit le signe \ \ \ des inscriptions
4S
Un/
The insistence t hat t he divine civil service organized t he nat ural
world into a proper sequence and hi erarchy on t he model of t he
pharaoh' s ki ngdom is typical of Egypt i an t hi nki ng t hr oughout its
long history Thi s sense of order per meat i ng all existence and
manifest quite marvellously in t he nat ural worl d enabl ed t he
Egyptians to observe and articulate nat ur e' s har moni ousness and
mterrelatedness All t hi ngs exist in a sort of communi on whi ch
is broken only at great risk It is clearly t hat selfsame i nspi rat i on
that encount ers us in Genesi s 12, 21, 25
4 6
The priestly comment whi ch is not, one mus t assume, part of
the original tradi ti on, conti nual l y refers to the worl d m God' s
j udgement as ' good' p l t t ) Her e ' good' has certainl y devel oped
beyond the pri mi ti ve and experi ment al meani ng of ' successful'
as opposed to ' unsuccessful ' whi ch still lurks behi nd Genesi s
2 18 However, t here is still a certain i nnocent j oy behi nd the
V\ I von Bissing I a Chambre des trois saisons du sanctuaire solaire du
roi Rathoures (V D\nastie) a Aboursir ASAF s (i<)s6) }2o.
Ibid ^ s
The author visited the Mastaba of Mereruka at Saqqara Scenes of Egyptian
life depicted on the walls include a representation of the Nile with fish On
observation the fish are not standard pictograms each one represents a different
species I he sense of encountering the inspiration behind the priestly creation
account was tangible
460 JAMl S A rWl I I
accl amati on ' very good' in 31 Von Rad' s under s t andi ng of the
significance of thi s word accords well wi th the basic tradi ti on and
identifies its t rue nat ur e
The word contains less an aesthetic judgement than the designation of
purpose and correspondence (It corresponds therefore though with
much more restraint to the content of Ps 104 ^i Ps 104 tells not so
much of the beauty as of the marvellous purpose and order of creation )
Thi s correspondence bet ween the original materi al and priestl}
j udgement shoul d r emi nd us t hat in the choice of thei r raw mater-
ial these circles had al ready acqui red a vision able to be adapted
to thei r own The bal ance, symmet r y and detail of the Egypti an
concept of t he created order, whi ch was underst ood as seamless
wi th t he civil order of t he ki ngdom under the pharaoh, was
sympat het i c to t he priestl y desire to separate and classify
We mus t note t hat the compari son made by von Rad with
Psal m 104 is not a casual one Ther e are a number of specific
compari sons t hat have been drawn between Genesi s 1 and Psal m
104 Li ght is a pr i mar y feature of the Al mi ghty (v 2a) The world
comes about t hr ough the securi ng of the heavenl y waters and the
waters under the earth The heavenl y firmament of Genesi s 1 7 has
its equi val ence in a heavenl y t ent (v 2b) The f oundati ons of the
earth are laid in t he waters (v 5), and the earth appears when
the waters recede In t he case of Psal m 104 they are dri ven back
(vv 6 8) Creat i on is firmly achieved wi t hout any l urki ng threat
to t he creator (v 9) Her e we leave the specific order that we find
in Genesi s 1, but all of its subsequent features may be identified
in t he psal m The r e are t he heavenl y bodi es marki ng the seasons
(v 19) Ther e is t he worl d of vegetati on i ncl udi ng trees (v 16),
and t he aquati c worl d (v 25) owls of the air find a ment i on in
12 Vari ous provi si on is made for food, i ncl udi ng dififerent cat-
egories for cattle and peopl e (v 14) Huma n l abour and the alloca-
tion of wi ne and bread for human welfare are also reflected upon
Specific verbal similarities bet ween Genesi s 1 and Psal m 104
are also recognizabl e J Day notes
With regard to verbal similarities it may be noted that a considerable
amount of common vocabulary is shared between Gen 1 and Ps 104
Particularly striking are the expression l
e
mo
<a
dim found in the Old
Testament only in Ps 104 19 and Gen 1 14 (both in connection with
4 7
Von Rad Genesis S2 t or additional emphasis on the divine pronounce
ment see W F Albright 1 he Refrain And God saw Tob in Genesis
Melanges Bibliques Rediges en l honneur de Andre Robert 1 ravaux de 1 Institut
Catholique de Paris 4 (19SS) PP 22 6 He translated the phrase in question And
God saw how good it was
AN F GYP I I AN S OURCP FOR G E N F S I S 461
the luminaries), and the form hay
c
to, found in Ps 104 11, 20 and Gen
1 24, and apart from the latter passage attested only in poetry in the
Old Testament
4 S
Psal m 104, whi ch could equally appropri at el y be classified wi t hi n
the biblical Wi sdom corpus, provi des us wi th a tool for reflection
on Genesi s 1 1 2 4 Indeed, as we discuss below, Humbe r t
argues that it is a sort of hymni c response to t hat text J Da y
4 9
argues in the reverse di recti on, t hat Genesi s 1 is based on Psal m
104 He rests his case on t he supposedl y mor e pri mi t i ve nat ur e
of Psal m 104, and in parti cul ar the fact t hat it still explicitly
carries allusion to the divine conflict with chaos whi ch has
vanished from Genesi s 1 He does allow, but does not favour t he
possibility, t hat it is conceivable t hat bot h Genesi s 1 and Psal m
104 could be dependent upon a single common t radi t i on
We have argued for an Egypti an background to Genesi s 1, and
such a background for Psal m 104 is not in di sput e The psal m is
similar in form to the Egypti an hymns of the New Ki ngdom In
particular it bears a di sti nct resembl ance to Akenhat en' s Hymn
to Aten The mut ed Canaani t e-i nspi red divine conflict wi th t he
waters we woul d see as no mor e t han a cosmeti c enhancement
of Psalm 104 to bri ng it i nto line with prevai l i ng local cultic con-
ventions of the way creation is recount ed The Wi s dom t radi t i on
was i nternati onal , but in its local mani festati ons used t he name
for God from local tradi ti on and adapt ed to local col our as
regards the way that deity created What remai ned a const ant
feature was that creation for the Wi s dom t radi t i on, in contrast
to cultic cel ebration, was always a compl et ed event
5 0
We woul d therefore see Psal m 104 and Genesi s 1 as witnesses to
a single common Egypt i an-i nspi red t radi t i on, but the absence of
conflict in Genesi s 1 actually makes it the pur er wi tness The
attested closeness of Psal m 104 bot h to t he Wi s dom t radi t i on and
in particul ar to the Egypti an hymns of t he New Ki ngdom can be
used as a sort of comment ar y on t he Genesi s creation narrati ve
The psalm hel ps us to under s t and the i nspi rati on and mot i vat i on
behind the Genesi s narrati ve
J Da> God s Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea s
J Dav Gods Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea pp si ff and Psalms
(Sheffield iyyo) pp 41 f More generally on Psalm 104 Day summarises suc-
cinct^ Psalm 104 is remarkable not only for the length of its concentration on the
subject of creation and its striking parallels with the Egyptian hymn to Aton by
Pharaoh Akhenaten but also for the way that the order in [which] topics are treated
agrees with the order of creation in Genesis 1 Psalms 41
See Hans-Jurgen Hermisson Observations on the Creation Theology in
Wisdom in W Anderson (ed ) Creation in the Old Testament pp 118 34
462 J MESE ATWFLL
We may end our look at Psal m 104 by not i ng t hat it also
i ncl udes t he progressi on of ni ght and day (vv 19 23), which is
at least a poi nt of cont act wi t h the scheme. As creation was
achieved in a day in Egypt, this t i me peri od was most i mport ant ,
and conceived to be, in some sense, repeated each mor ni ng. In fact
v. 19 begi ns wi th t he eveni ng. If the sun rises on a gl eami ng order
of creation t hen t he actual regenerati ve process while the sun
bat hes in the Nun is from dusk unti l dawn. Thi s may be reflected
in P' s cycle ' and eveni ng and mor ni ng were the nt h day'
Next in the pr i mar y materi al we come to the creation of human
bei ngs (vv. 26-7). Schmi dt sees this as a uni t with a different
pr ehi s t or y.
5 2
The openi ng: ' Let us make man ...' may well reflect
this, and in t he original ci rcumst ance announce the decision of the
divine counci l to make human bei ngs. It is remi ni scent of the
divine reflection i ncl uded by J in his narrative* ' Behol d, the man
is become as one of us, to know good and evil' (Gen. 3*22a)
Both retai n evi dence of a similar archaic stage in thei r history of
t ransmi ssi on. However is per haps reflecting the pl ural i ty of
the Ennead of anci ent Egypt, rat her t han the creati ng deities
of anci ent Mesopot ami a. may have retai ned the pl ural form as a
' del i berati ve' or perhaps because it has a less ant hr opomor phi c ring
Two specific t hi ngs are said of human bei ngs. Firstl y that they
are in the ' i mage' ( 7^) and ' likeness' () of God, and sec-
ondl y t hat they are given domi ni on. Of t he first ascri pti on like-
ness is t he weaker concept; it occurs in Ezekiel' s vision when he
sees ' t he likeness of four living creat ures' (Ezekiel 1:5) It indicates
analogy. Image has a greater sense of i denti ty It can mean a copy
(1 Samuel 6:5) or occasionally an idol ( Number s 33:52 and 2 Ki ngs
11:18) or even a pai nt i ng (Ezekiel 23:14). As regards domi ni on,
thi s is qui te strongl y expressed. Humani t y is to ' s ubdue' the
earth. Thi s is taken from t he l anguage of the treadi ng of the
wi ne press (Joel 4:13), and also t he battlefield ( Number s 32-22,
29; Joshua 18:1). Thi s latter imagery even leads Brueggemann
to extend t he concept of ' human domi ni on' to the Israelite domi n-
ion of Pal esti ne. If t hat is the case t hen P' s more domesti c and
national istic concerns are concealed wi thi n the creation narrati ve
51
For a discussion on the commencement of a day see H R Stores, 'Does the
Day Begin in the Evening or the Morning?', VT 16 (1966), pp 460-7s
52
W H Schmidt, Die Schopfungsgeschichte der Priester schrift, 128
53
Psalm 8 likewise witnesses to an identical tradition Humanity is made (\ 5)
a 'little lower than DTI/X' and given dominion over the rest of creation ' Thou
hast put all things under his feet' (v 6) is a strong concept also
5 4
W Brueggemann, The Vitality of Old Testament Traditions (Atlanta, 19S2 ),
ioy
AN LGYPTI AN SOURCE FOR GKNLSI S 463
The domi ni on t heme is repeated with mor e vehemence in Genesi s
9.2, with the associated ' fear' and ' dread' t he ani mal worl d will
have of humani t y in the new age of violence. We may not e in
that context t hat human beings after the flood have not lost the
divine image It is the gr ound for forbi ddi ng human bl oodshed
(Genesi s 9.6).
Much ink has been spent on the nat ure of the divine image in
human beings, and whet her the emphasi s is on a physical or spiri-
tual resembl ance. The linking of the divine i mage and domi ni on
seems to poi nt us in the di recti on of anci ent Near East ern
concepts of ki ngshi p The person of t he king often provi ded in
the ' human bei ng writ large' the means whereby the Wi sdom
tradi ti on could bri ng human behavi our and human desti ny under
close scruti ny H. Wi l dberger draws at t ent i on to the form salmu
(image) occurri ng in Babyl oni an civilization and its appl i cati on
to the king. However he notes t hat Egypt is ri cher in such
texts ^ Indeed the king in Mesopot ami a was never consi dered
divine in the way he was in anci ent Egypt . The king, like his sub-
jects, groped his way t hr ough life seeking gui dance and di recti on
from augury and sacrificial entrail s for an under s t andi ng of t he
divine will. In anci ent Canaan, too, the king was mor e likely to
be accorded the wi sdom of the ' pri mal man' t han of a god in
the full sense. We may note also t hat t he Mes opot ami an assess-
ment of human desti ny was hardl y compat i bl e with any sense of
an indwel l ing divine image.
Egypt, however, is a different mat t er. Ther e we discover t hat
the pharaoh was acclaimed as divine: ' Thou art t he living likeness
of thy father At um of Hehopohs for authori tati ve ut t erance (hu) is
in thy mout h, under s t andi ng (sia*) is in t hy heart, t hy speech is
the shri ne of t r ut h (Maat)"
S 7
Such descri pti ons were regul arl y
used of the god-king, who like his divine father at the first t i me,
ruled with the compani ons of god at cr eat i onHu Sia* and
Ma
(
atalways beside his t hr one. When the king appeared on
his t hr one he was spoken of as the divine sun rising from t he
east When the pharaoh died, like the eveni ng sun, he descended
to the hori zon. Thi s image was no hyperbol e, but a literal under -
standing of the god-king.
H Wildberger,'Das Abbild Gottes, Gen 126 }o\ TZ 21 (196s), pp 24s S<)
^ H Wildberger, T/ 2 1 (196s), pp 481 soi
Kuban Stela II, 17 18 (Translation H I^rankfort, Kingship and the Gods,
M
(
)) W Schmidt, Die Schpfungsgeschichte der Priesterschrift, pp 1^7 ff
refers the origin of the idea of the divine image to Egyptian court style when
referring to the pharaoh, often linked to the concept of creation, and particularly
pre\ aient in the New Kingdom period
4 6 4 J A M I S I W H I
It is possible to trace a democrat i zat i on of the funeral rites of
t he pharaoh, whi ch ext ended the identification of the king with
Osiris to his nobl es dur i ng the l irst Int er medi at e Peri od It would
not therefore be surpri si ng to find a democrati zati on in some
circles of ot her royal qualities i ncl udi ng the divine image Indeed
we find in t he Instructions for King Merikare evidence that this
connect i on had been made for human beings in general The\
are his images, who came forth from his body'
5 8
Thi s was
never t he official Egypt i an ' doct ri ne of humani t y' , but someti mes
t he humani st i c t radi t i on of t he Instructions mi ght dream of
humani t y' s royal desti ny The cent raht y of the Instructions
wi thi n t he Wi s dom t radi t i on of Egypt gave to humans and their
behavi our an increasingl y central emphasi s Indeed the implica-
tion of t he Wi sdom-i nf l uenced narrati ve of Genesi s ^ that the
mi s demeanour of human bei ngs can have a cal ami tous effect on
the whol e creati on itself approaches hubri s Huma n beings are
t here given a posi ti on of enor mous and pivotal significance, not
unl i ke t he posi ti on of the pharaoh in anci ent Egypt, which
certainl y corresponds to the royal di gni ty of Genesi s 26 7
If t he divine i mage in human bei ngs is taken from the Egypti an
pharaoh, we certainl y have a way i nto its meani ng No doubt the
monar ch woul d have been accorded physical beautv, as was the
case for t he royal house even in Israel
S 9
But wi sdom would
have been the pr i mar y quality, that for whi ch Sol omon prayed
in such an exempl ary way
6 ( )
It woul d have embraced know-
ledge, di scri mi nati on and t he potenti al for a ri ghteous life The
divine image in Genesi s 1 is not far from the ent i cement pre-
sented to Adam when Eve st ret ched out her hand for the fruit
and you will be as God (^/), knowi ng good and evil'
(Genesi s 3 ) Once again we detect the gui di ng hand of wi sdom
in present i ng and reflecting upon the nat ur e of human beings as
they are before God
The final el ement in Schmi dt ' s basic materi al is the rest of God
(Genesi s 2 2) Thi s also finds a resonance in anci ent Egypt Ther e
it is not a release from toil for the gods br ought about by the crea-
tion of human bei ngs as it is in Mesopot ami a Rat her it is satisfac-
tion at the concl usi on of a j ob well done It was said of Ptah of
Memphi s ' So Pt ah rested after he had made all thi ngs and all the
Instructions for King Merikare verse See W Beverhn (ed ) Near Fastern
Religious Texts Relating to the Old Testament 46
cf 2 Samuel 14 2s
1 Ki ngs } -, ff
AN E GY P T I A N S OUR C E FOR G E N E S I S 465
words of god'
6 1
The transl ati on in ANET renders ' rest ed' wi th
an alternative transl ati on ' was satisfied'. The rest of God in the
Egyptian context relates well to the priestl y insistence t hat the
world in God' s j udgement was ' good' (31). Tha t is, it was har-
monious, ordered, compl et e, and satisfying. It seems much mor e
in sympat hy with t he priestly creation narrat i ve as a whol e to look
to the Egypt i an nuance for an under st andi ng of t he divine rest,
than to look to t he Mesopot ami an not i on of t he rest of t he gods
following t he bur deni ng of human bei ngs wi t h t hei r work. The
rest is not so much relief from toil as satisfactory compl et i on
of the j ob. It bears t he hal l mark of what may be identified as
a specifically Wi sdom under st andi ng of creation as somet hi ng
complete in the past rat her t han emergent in t he present .
Egypt has rewarded us richly as a source for compari son wi t h
the oldest el ement s of t he priestly creation narrat i ve as Schmi dt
has identified t hem. A quest i on remai ns. Can Egypt hel p us at all
significantly with the command account , t he framework whi ch has
come to regulate the action account? The rest of Pt ah r emi nds us
also of the claim made for hi m of creation by his word.
Creation by the divine word was a common concept t hr oughout
the ancient Near East. It was not a late and refined expressi on of
the divine activity in creation, but was already a live concept in
ancient Sumer . Its origin seems to penet rat e deeply into t he
primitive belief in t he power of a name and t he magi c associated
with words Just as an image mi ght part ake of t he essence of t he
thing it represent ed, so the spoken word had t he pot ent i al of t he
thing it signified. It is closely allied to t he ment al i t y t hat believed
a ritual act could actually evoke t he reality t hat it port rayed.
Doubtless this way of t hi nki ng was decisively reinforced by t he
experience of ki ngshi p in t he ancient Near East. After all t he king
had only to conceive a command and ut t er it, and t he deed was
done The effective word of t he despot provi ded an analogy for t he
divine word
The Enuma Elish opens by setting t he scene before t he creation
by talking of a t i me when t hi ngs had not been ' named' . I ndeed
Marduk displays his power in what is as much a st unt as an act
of creation when he proves his word can ' wreck or creat e' ; t hat
Extract from t he Shabaka Stone, see W Be>erhn (ed ), Near Eastern Religious
Texts Relating to the Old Testament, s Th e text is also t ransl at ed in J
Pnt chard Arment Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, (Pr i ncet on,
1969), for this extract see s, col umn 11 Th e key wor d is t he Egypt i an verb htp
which in t he I r man- Gr apow Wrterbuch I I I , pp 18S ff is given a range of
meanings, begi nni ng wi t h ' t o be satisfied' , but wi t h many exampl es also of ' t o rest '
466 JAMLS h ATWELL
is, at his ut t erance images appear and di sappear. ' But it is in
anci ent Egypt t hat creation by the word became part of the
official dogma cl ai med by the pri ests of bot h Hehopohs and
Memphi s for thei r respective deities.
It may be t hat the ' t radi t i on hi story' of the Genesi s creation
account is much mor e of a uni ty t han is normal l y supposed The
two st rands of action and command, whi ch to earlier comment -
ators seemed so mut ual l y exclusive, have existed together in
Egypt since hi gh ant i qui t y. As early as the Pyrami d Text s, Hu
(utterance) and Sia
y
(percepti on), whi ch provi de the conceptual
tools whereby t he theol ogi ans of Hehopohs articul ate creation
by t he word for At um, appear as a pair. In the Coffin Text s this
pair is identified wi th el ement s of a mor e physical presentati on
of t he work of creati on.
In the New Ki ngdom t he wi tness is unequi vocal in claiming
for Amon-Re and Pt ah creation by the word, but the claims
made for bot h have deepl y rooted associations with mor e earthv
and physical concepts of creati on. For instance, the Shabaka
stone (the i nscri pti on reflecting an original dated by J P. Allen
to the New Ki ngdom) witnesses to the Memphi t e theolog\
Tha t theol ogy represent s an exceptional t hrust of insight which
in t he period of t he New Ki ngdom has already articul ated a
' logos theol ogy' Yet t he supposed cont radi ct i ons between an
action and a command account of creation cannot be more nakedlv
exposed t han wi thi n this text Ther e the theol ogy of Memphi s , b\
this t i me mi xi ng its sources, equates the ' teeth and lips' of Ptah
wi th the ' semen and hands of At um' The anci ent tradi ti on
whi ch emphasi zed At um' s self-sufficiency in creation by using
the image of mast ur bat i on sits side by side with the witness to
the divine word whi ch actually articul ates the self-same theo-
logical pri nci pl e. Both wi tness to the sole initiative of the creator
acting enti rel y alone. Indeed Pt ah, who formed by his word, is
bot h a cht honi c deity as Ta-tenen, and a smi th. In this latter capa-
city he woul d certainl y have been capabl e of hammer i ng out the
firmament (lTp*1) of Genesi s 1:6 in his workshop
When t he t empl at e of anci ent Egypti an creation tradi ti ons is
hel d up against the Genesi s creation account t here is a quite
remarkabl e correspondence The concl usion is stark and compel -
ling: anci ent Egypt provi ded the foundati on tradi ti on whi ch was
shaped and handed on by successive priestly generati ons When
6
Enuma Ehsh Tablet IV, lines 2s 6
6 3
J Allen, Genesis m Egypt, pp 4} t
AN I GYP I I AN S OUR C L FOR G F N E S I S 467
West ermann commends W H Schmi dt ' s st udy Die Schopfungs-
geschichte der Priesterschrift he states
He has established definitively that the first chapter of Genesis had its
origin in the course of a history of tradition of which the written text of
is the last stage, and which stretches back beyond and outside Israel
in a long and many-branched oral pre-history
6 4
Thi s study confirms that the origin of the first chapt er of Genesi s
may be traced t hr ough a long prehi st ory to a source t hat is i ndeed
outside Israel However that source may not be as many-br anched
as West ermann supposed Anci ent Egypt proves to be the single,
coherent and rich source of the priestly creati on t radi t i ons The
Nile civilization provi des not si mpl y a possible context for odd
verses, but again and again accounts for the detail of the Genesi s
creation narrati ve and is the key to its common t hread The
order of the phar aoh' s ki ngdom was compat i bl e wi th and
resourced the vision of priestl y cosmic s ymmet r y
Thi s research has present ed a serious challenge to any at t empt
to isolate creation by the word in the priestl y creati on account
from the supposedl y more basic materi al It is likely t hat t he
source tradi ti on consisted not only of those el ement s identified
by Schmi dt, but also i ncl uded in some embryoni c way a wi tness
to creation bv the divine word The hal l mark of Wi s dom has been
detected on a number of occasions It seems a fair assumpt i on t hat
the wealth of scribal and intellectual contact in the peri od of t he
early monar chy woul d have given ampl e occasion for this deposi t
of tradition, already venerabl e, to have travelled to t he Hebr ew
kingdom of Davi d and Sol omon and been absorbed into sacred
tradition It seems as certain as these thi ngs can be t hat the New
Ki ngdom phase of anci ent Egypt ' s devel opment , t hr ough the
medium of the wi sdom t radi t i on, provi ded our priestl y t radent s
with a single tradi ti on of creation by word and action whi ch
they nur t ur ed, refined and tooled into the composi t i on whi ch
we now enjoy
I I T H E P A T T E R N I N G O F S E V E N
We t urn now to our second questi on How does t he pat t er ni ng
of seven i mposed upon the acts of creati on relate to t he t radi t i on
history of Genesi s ?
C Westermann Genesis 8^
468 JAMES E ATWELL
Something of a puzzle relating to the text of Genesis is readily
discernible. As it stands the narrative unfolds over a seven day
period. The final day is the day of divine rest Creation is there-
fore recounted in six daily episodes This pattern seems to have
been imposed secondarily on the material as there are eight crea-
tive acts. The eight acts have been compacted into six days result-
ing in two acts on both the third and sixth days How has this
come about?
P. Humbert has argued for a cultic setting for Genesis 1-2.4a.
He maintains that Genesis 1 is a dramatic narrative which in its
construction reflects how the events of creation were celebrated
over a festival of seven days' duration. This, he believes, was Israel's
celebration of the New Year, and took place at the Jerusalem
temple at the Feast of Tabernacles. By analogy with the reading
of the Enuma Ehsh at the Babylonian New Year Festival which
concludes with the recitation of the fifty names of Marduk, he
sees Psalm 104, prefaced by the concluding verses (vv 19-22) of
Psalm 103, which relate to enthronement, as the hymnic response
to the creator sung at the festival. He mentions also the mystery
plays of ancient Egypt similarly concluding with solar hymns
In support of this thesis, he points to the priestly nature of the
tradition of Genesis 1, indications that it was intended for public
recitation and liturgical use, and the unnatural organization of the
creation material into seven episodes. Further he maintains that
the blessings within the narrative and the provision of food for
animals and human beings relates naturally to a cultic setting in
which each autumn there is a renewal of fertility. The hallowing
of the sabbath indicates for Humbert a cultic usage, and he
compares the rites of consecration in 2 Chronicles 29*17 He sum-
marises his conclusion: ' Le schma des sept jours serait, en ce cas,
la projection sur le mythe crateur lui-mme du calendrier de
cette fte automnale et primitivement agraire qui commmorait
et oprait le renouveau de l'anne au cours de la premire semaine
d
i ) 5 6 6
e 1 an .
If Humbert is correct then we have a plausible explanation
for the seven days of creation. A similar observation is made by
L. R. Fisher when he draws a comparison between the scheme
of Genesis 1 and both the building of Ba'al's temple in the
Ugantic texts in seven days and Solomon's temple in seven years
(1 Kings 6:38). He concludes: 'If these temples were constructed
65
Humbert, 'La relation de Genese et du Psaume 104 avec la liturgie du
Nouvel-An Israelite', RHPR 15 (I<H =0, pp 1 27
6 6
Ibid , 14
A N E G Y P T I A N S O U R C E F O R G F N P S I S 4 6 9
in terms of " s even" it is really no wonder t hat the creati on poem
of Genesis is i nserted in a seven-day framework'
6 7
The probl em is that t here is no di rect evi dence, as we have for
Babylon in the first mi l l enni um for Enuma Elish, for t he association
of the Genesi s narrati ve with the cult We mus t take seriously
the j udgement of W H Schmi dt when he can find no evi dence
that the priestly creation narrati ve was used as a liturgical text
aber die biblische Schopf ungsgeschi chte bietet keine Anzei-
chen dafr, da sie einmal die Legende eines Fest es war und
irgendwie "begangen", szeni schdramat i sch dargestellt wur de'
6 8
The fact t hat Genesi s was not itself a liturgical text, if
Schmidt is correct, does not mean t hat it has not been st amped
and fashioned by cultic consi derati ons A l earned priestl y apo-
logia about creation, as Genesi s undoubt edl y is, woul d still
reflect and give expression to the way in whi ch creati on, stability
and fertility were cel ebrated, and per haps in some way lived
through in worshi p It is unlikely t hat a priestl y narrati ve account
of creation woul d be totally di vorced from the t hought -f orms
and pat t erns familiar from t he cult Indeed it is hi ghl y likely t hat
these woul d provi de the framework for l earned reflection Indi ca-
tions that this was i ndeed the case are f ort hcomi ng from t he
priestly pri meval hi story The observati on of L M Barre is
relevant here
s dating the end of the flood narrative on 601 (rather than on
2 27 601) places the establishment of God s covenant with Noah on New
Year s Day his parallels s creation account in which the creation of
the world was concluded on another day of ritual importancethe
sabbath In this way the Priestly writer connected both the creation and
the re creation of the world with Israelite liturgy
6 9
We can go this far with Humbe r t wi th some confidence It
seems most likely t hat the peri od of seven days for creati on in
the priestly narrati ve present ed itself by analogy wi th liturgical
observation However this is not to say t hat the text as it now
stands was ever used as a liturgical piece
The priestly creation text did not appear in its present form ' at
a stroke' It has devel oped t hr ough generati ons of handl i ng, and
so has the significance of the seven days and in parti cul ar t he
6 7
L R Fi sher I he Te mpl e Quar t er JSS (n)6i,) 40 We may not e in
this context t he i nt erest i ng but not provabl e suggest i on of C Crai gi e Th e
Comparison of Hebr ew poet ry Psal m 104 in t he light of Egypt i an and Ug a nt i c
Poetry Semitics 4 (1974) PP i<> 21 t hat Psal m 104 was ori gi nal l y compos ed for
the very feast of I abernacl es whi ch saw Sol omon s t empl e dedi cat ed
W H Schmi dt Die Schopfungsgeschichte der Priesterschrift 73
6 9
L M Barre Th e Ri ddl e of t he Ho o d Chr onol ogy JfSO 41 (n)HH) i
7
470 J A M S L A T WL L L
seventh. The first of t he days to contai n two acts of creation is da\
t hree. On t hat day bot h t he earth and pl ant life appear On the
previ ous day the way had been prepared for the creation of land
by t he di vi di ng of t he waters, whi ch is made per manent by the
fabrication of t he firmament
Ther e is an eni gma connect ed with the second day. Why is it
t hat the act of division has only one consequence, that is, the crea-
tion of the firmament? It is of the essence of anci ent Near Eastern
creati on account s t hat a single act of division results in a doubl e
consequence. Heaven and earth are created at a single stroke For
i nstance, in anci ent Sumer An (male heaven) and Ki (female
earth) are separated, accordi ng to the story of Enhl and the Pick-
axe, by the god Enhl . We have already not ed how in ancient
Egypt Geb (the eart h god) and Nut (the sky goddess) are separ-
ated by thei r father Shu (the air). One valid way of descri bi ng
t he pre-creati on state in anci ent Egypt is: ' before two thi ngs had
devel oped in this worl d'
W. G. Lamber t has argued that the two episodes recount ed on
two different days t hat bri ng i nto existence heaven and earth
shoul d be regarded as separate and di sti nct tradi ti ons assembled
by t he priestly t r adi t i on.
7 1
However, t here are i ndi cati ons within
the priestl y narrati ve itself t hat it is bui l t around the dual concept
of the creation of heaven and earth Priestl y circles woul d cer-
tainly have been familiar with ' the heavens and the eart h' har-
nessed as a uni t ed concept in blessing formul ae The phrase
forms a common word-pai r whi ch is taken up in the summary
st at ement whi ch opens the creation account ( i ). Heaven and
earth stand over t he whol e priestly creation account as a single
archet ype. Toget her they provi de t he basis from whi ch the detail
of t he subsequent acts can be fitted together. Once those two areas
are establ i shed t he remai ni ng narrati ve is totally taken up with
how one or ot her of t hem is filled
A further observati on confirms the i mpressi on given by the
narrati ve. The refrain ' And God saw t hat it was good' does not
occur at the end of the second day in the MT, but is mispl aced
into t he mi ddl e of t he t hi rd day, precisely after the creation of
earth. As a result t he t hi rd day is decl ared good twice The LXX
noti ced this pr obl em and ti di ed it up by movi ng the favourable
j udgement of God to where it woul d seem to bel ong, in the present
7 0
Coffin Texts 261, line 6
7 1
W G Lambert, New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis',
JTS, NS, 16 (1965), 2(H) ' My opinion is that the second and third da\ s contain
originally unrelated traditions, put in this sequence by the Hebrew author'
AN P G Y P I I A N S O U R C l P O R G L N F S I S 4 7 1
setting before the refrain about ' eveni ng and mor ni ng' m 8
However, this is wi t hout a doubt the easier readi ng and is t here-
fore not to be preferred
7 2
The readi ng of the MT seems to bear
witness to the fact that it was i ndeed the under s t andi ng of P' s
i nheri ted materi al that the two stages of t he creation of heaven
(vv 6 8) and the creation of earth (vv 9 10) relate to a single
' phase' of creation
If the creation of heaven and earth was i ndeed originally consid-
ered one episode and the work of a single day, the fact still remai ns
that there are two separate stages relating to the management of
the waters One speaks of the ' division' of the waters (v 6) resul t-
ing in the creation of the firmament, and t he ot her t he ' gat heri ng'
of the waters (v 9) resul ti ng in the appearance of dry land In
what sense could these be under st ood to have any f undament al
bond or connecti on? Are they not arbi trary t radi t i ons j uxt aposed?
The division of the waters and the gat heri ng of t he waters
could bot h appropri atel y find a place in Egypti an cosmol ogy
J Allen' s s ummar y of creation in Egypt has potenti al l y i nter-
esting consequences if it is read with t he priestl y narrati ve in
mi nd
The creation itself is described in a series of discrete yet interdependent
events Within the Monad appears a space devoid (Shu) of the Primeval
Waters, separating earth (Geb) from the surface of the Waters (Nut) As
the Waters receded, the first mound of land became distinct (Ta-tenen),
and the sun rose over it to begin the ever-recurring cycle of life
7 3
Accordi ng to this analysis, t he separati ng of t he waters and t he
receding of the waters are related but di sti nct stages in Egypt i an
cosmology The separati ng of the waters by t he at mospher e
creates a void with a di sti ncti on bet ween t op and bot t om,
7 4
t hat
is the heavenly firmament and the watery earth, but the l atter
still has to drai n for the dry land to emerge and the sea to form
It is itself probabl y an anci ent composi t e t radi t i on combi ni ng ori-
ginally di sti nct el ements Such a pi ct ure transferred to the priestly
creation account makes compl et e sense of the concept of division
Thi s i ndi cati on of a di s t ur bance in t he pr es ent state of t he text was not ed by
J Wel l hausen Die Composition des Hexateuchs und der historischen Bucher des Alten
Testament (Berlin 1889
2
) pp 187 ff
J
J Allen Genesis in Fgypt ^H
Ibi d 2S I he creati on of t he void pr oduced si mul t aneousl y a di st i nct i on
between l o p and Bot t om sky and ear t hwi t hi n t he void and pr eceded t he
devel opment of all t he ot her el ement s of nat ur e t he el dest t hat At um made wi t h
his efficacy when he gave bi rt h to Shu and I efnut in He hopohs when he
parted Ge b from Nut before t he first Cor ps [of gods] was bor n before t he t wo
original Enneads devel oped (Coffin Text 80 lines 74 79)
472 J A ME S F A I W E L I
wi th its doubl e consequence, but also does j usti ce to the gatheri ng
of t he waters The two stages coul d be pri zed apart because they
had a separate i denti ty, but only once the carriers of the tradi ti on
had lost any awareness of t he significance of the rel ati onshi p
bet ween t hem
If t he creati on of heaven and earth is taken as originally a single
episode in t he pri estl y i nheri t ed materi al , t hen the number of
phases or acts of creati on to be identified wi thi n the limits of
Schmi dt ' s pri mi t i ve materi al woul d be seven In that case it is
qui te conceivable t hat the priestl y t radent s received the tradi ti on
al ready in t hat form Thi s involves t he assumpt i on t hat the fish
and bi rds created t oget her (on t he fifth day accordi ng to the
present text) is a feature of the pr i mar y materi al Wes t er mann
states ' We can say wi th certai nty t hat at one stage the creation
of t he water ani mal s was a separate story and that the creation
of t he bi rds was grafted on to it Thi s took place at an early stage,
because they were t oget her in the tradi ti on that came to P'
It coul d be an i ndi cati on t hat Schmi dt ' s earliest form of the
t radi t i on al ready had a prehi st ory dur i ng the course of whi ch
t he number seven had been i mposed upon it It is likely that it
did not si mpl y emerge, but was a del i berate and consi dered devel-
opment at an early stage W H Schmi dt adduces a passage from
a hymn to Amun- Re where fish and fowl are consi dered together
Tha t may be confi rmati on t hat we are here dealing wi th the
pr e-Hebr ew Egypt i an phase of t he text' s history
The number seven was a significant number , as Cassuto
r emi nds us
7 7
It is well establ ished in the Ugant i c myt hs, in par-
ticul ar wi th t he seven-yearly dr ama of Mot ' s (Deat h' s) bid for
power as well as wi th t he seven days of const ruct i on of Ba i l ' s
t empl e It is i ntegral to t he 'fat' and ' l ean' years of the narrati ve
of Joseph in Egypt Ther e is some evi dence for the significance
of the number seven in anci ent Egypt, al though it was by no
means exclusively i mpor t ant For i nstance Tr i ads were a distinc-
tive feature of t he New Ki ngdom However Professor J Gwyn
Griffiths affords t he following quot at i on
Sethe sees the prominence of four in Egypt gradually yielding to that of
seven Certainly there are plenty of irrational sevens Sethe cites the seven
cows of the underworld the seven gods and serpents with which the dead
7 5
C Westermann Genesis n pp i^-, 6
7 6
W H Schmidt Die Schopfungsgeschichte der Priesterschrift 124 draws
attention to a passage in a Hymn to Anion Re where birds and hsh are referred to
together Por the lines of the hymn in question see AN ET }66 (vi) I ines -, 6
7 7
U Cassuto Genesis I pp 12 fT
AN FGYPr i AN SOURCP FOR GENESI S 473
must associate the seven scorpions which accompany Isis in the Delta
in the Metternich Stela, the seven Hathors who help with childbirth,
and the several medical groups of seven Many examples apply to ritual
procedures
It woul d not be surpri si ng to find the significant figure seven
shaping a tradi ti on of the number of t he works of the creator If
so, it is i nteresti ng to note t hat it is likely t hat these seven acts
would ha\e been associated with the work of a single day In
ancient Egypt the significance of t he first sunri se in calling all
things into bei ng associated the creati on of the cosmos wi th t he
cycle of a single day
If early tradi ti on had already moul ded the acts of t he creator
into a mi st i cal seven associated wi th a single day, t hen those acts
were simpl y waiting to be di st ri but ed over a peri od of seven days
reflected in the cel ebrati on of a festival Tha t festival was in all
likelihood the aut umn Feast of Tabernacl es in Jerusal em The
di stri buti on of the seven acts of creati on over seven days is clearly
a devel opment in the Hebr ew phase of the t radi t i on The Hebr ews
used a l unar cal endar and measured the week in seven days By
contrast, the Egypti ans were conversant wi th t he solar cal endar
and measured the week in ten days
That the number seven became associated wi th t he days of a
week before the present specifically sabbat h arrangement , wi th a
day of rest, was i mposed on the text is suggested by t he text of
Genesis 2 2 As it stands, the text suggests t hat God actually
finished his work on the seventh day The LXX, aware of thi s pr ob-
lem, has subst i t ut ed the number six for seven Again it is so much
the si mpl er readi ng t hat it cannot be accepted But it witnesses
to an early awareness that t he text does not read natural l y
Scholars have tried vari ous ways of getti ng ar ound this
difficulty Ski nner states ' To take the vb as pl up (Calv al) is
grammatically i mpossi bl e The only remai ni ng course is to give
a purely negative sense to the vb finish 1 e ' desisted from' , ' di d
not cont i nue' The last view may be accepted, in spite of t he
absence of convi nci ng parallels' A Hei del takes as decisive
the context of the precedi ng two verses t hat envisage God' s
work as compl ete and mai nt ai ns we have here a ' decl arative
pi' el' He therefore transl ates ' And on the seventh day God
declared Hi s work finished' Cassuto tries compari sons wi th
J Gw>n Grifhths Triads and Trinity (Cardiff 1996) 21 I he reference is
to Sethe Von Zahlen und Zahlwort en bei den alten gyptern (Strassburg 1916)
J Skinner Genesis ,-
\ Heidel The Babylonian Genesis 127
474 JAMES t A I WF I I
usage el sewhere in , and adduces in parti cul ar Exodus 40 33
where t he erecti on of t he t ent of meet i ng is compl eted, and
report s ' so Moses finished his work'
8 1
Wes t er mann agrees that
this was a fixed form of speech at hand to
8 2
But the probl em
still remai ns as to why the narrati ve does not leave this ' poi nt
final' under t he previ ous day, but carries it over into the seventh
The simpl est and most strai ghtforward solution remai ns that of
Wel l hausen In t he layer of t radi t i on behi nd the i mmedi at e text
the acts of God were di st ri but ed over seven days, ' And on the
seventh day God finished his work whi ch he had made, and he
rested ' (Genesi s 2 2) In ot her words humanki nd was formed
on t he seventh day as t he Maker ' s crowni ng achi evement
For t he final stage of t he text we may look for some light once
mor e to W G Lamber t
8 3
He makes the poi nt t hat the t radent s of
were not original t hi nkers in the sense of maki ng up new ideas
They coul d not si mpl y have ' i nvent ed' the sabbath rest of God
Thei r creativity was evi dent rat her t hr ough the novel arrangement
and j uxt aposi t i on of old and pri zed tradi ti ons Lamber t further
makes t he poi nt t hat t he sabbath in Israel has at least two justifi-
cations for its i nsti tuti on (Exodus 20 11 and Deut er onomy 5 15)
Thi s suggests t hat as an i nst i t ut i on it is ol der t han bot h, and that
t he rest of creation is therefore an i nt erpret at i on i mposed upon it
The i mpl i cati ons are t hat had two tradi ti ons to hand One
recount ed t he creati on of t he worl d in seven days, and told that
on t he seventh day, after t he compl et i on of human beings, God
' desisted from' , ' ceased from' , ' br ought to a concl usi on' ()
his works The ot her preserved the anci ent i nsti tuti on of the sab-
bat h (), and t he religious dut y of a day of rest on the seventh
day
8 4
Once these t radi t i ons were br ought together the potenti al
for priestl y theol ogy was fascinating The sabbath rest became
exalted to an order of creati on The new combi nat i on of tradi ti ons
forced t he creati on of human beings from the seventh day, and
therefore necessi tated a reallocation of the ' creati on week' to six
8 1
U Cassuto Genesis I pp 61 ff
8 2
C Westermann Genesis 1 11 i/o
8 3
W G Lambert A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis
JTS NS 16 (196S) PP 296 ff
8 4
The Hebrew provides the pun which would not have been present in the
Egyptian for the priestly theological innovation Whether the etymolog\ is to be
connected is another question C Westermann Genesis 1 11 ~> states It can
remain an open question whether the verb T)2W is to be linked with the noun
they already occur in the same context in J in l i6 29 f (cf M Noth Exodus
1962 n 6 )
AN E GY P T I A N S OUR C E FOR Gl NES I S 475
days Thi s accounts for the congesti on of two acts of creati on on
the sixth day
At a subsequent , but somewhat similar, stage in the t radi t i on
history of our text we perceive a further pat t er ni ng at work whi ch
extended the order and symmet r y of the materi al
8 5
The six
days of activity are divided neatly into two halves, wi th the corres-
pondi ng days of each half mi r r or i ng t he ot her We may usefully
reproduce this correspondence in chart form as follows
Preparation of Environment
Day
Let there be light
Da> 2
The creation of the firmament
restricts the sea and creates t he
atmospheric space (heaven)
Day 3
() Dr> land appears
(n) Green thi ngs, seeding
plants and fruit trees sprout
forth
Filling of Environment
Day 4
Let t here be lights
Day 5
Fi shes and fowl fill the sea
and the heaven
Day 6
() Terrest ri al ani mal s and
human bei ngs are created
(n) Allocation of food for
ani mal s & human bei ngs
Day 7
The Sabbat h rest of God
It is this stage whi ch accounts for t he shifting of t he poi nt at
which the heavenly bodi es were made Thei r present posi ti on,
which we have previ ousl y noted is somewhat illogical, is qui te
consistent with the i nternal symmet ry of the narrati ve It is likely
that this stage also accounts for the fracture of day 2 and the
prizing apart of the t radi t i ons relating to the creation of heaven
and earth The emergence of dry land is now appropri at e to day
3 The dr\ land and its greeni ng need to occur on t he same day,
to correspond with the creatures wi th whi ch it is filled and the
allocation of food on day 6
With this final pat t erni ng the priestly si gnature is compl et e, and
the creation account embodi es the order and bal ance whi ch
associates with the divine activity It concl udes with t he sabbat h
rest, and firmly anchors the cultic life of Israel in t he Creat or' s
purpose in establishing worl d order
See U Cassuto Genesis I iy and J Skinner Genesis pp S 9
476 J AMt S l Wl LL
I I I T HE T HE O L O GI C A L T H R U S T OE T HE
NARRATI V E
We turn now to our final question what is the theological thrust
of the narrative as it now stands?
Within the movement of the primary material, as Schmidt has
identified it, the thrust of the narrative moves towards the creation
of human beings as the climax of the Creator's achievement The
Creator has certainly embarked upon a cosmos which includes
all things in 'heaven and earth', and covers the stars as well as the
minutiae of the biology of living creatures Yet within this vast
cosmos the humanistic motivation of the wisdom tradition has
imposed a ' human centredness' upon it We can draw a parallel
with Genesis 2, where the small world of garden-orchard and
domestic animals is created around Adam In the primary mater-
ial of Genesis 1 the whole cosmos is, if not created around human
beings, at least moving towards their appearance as the crowning
glory of the Creator's work This assessment of human destiny
would have been totally foreign to Mesopotamian thinking But
it would have been at home in ancient Egyptian thought at those
moments in its development when the humanistic influences of
the wisdom tradition were strong, we may think particularly of
the evidence afforded by the Instruction for King Merikare in the
First Intermediate Period
The final stage of the tradition as we have it in Genesis 1 1 2 4a
is different The sabbath has interposed As a result the fashioning
of human beings 'in the image of God' is still very significant, but
no longer the goal of the narrative The thrust of the narrative
now leads on through the days of creation to the rest of God on
the seventh day That is now the climax of the story The effect of
the sabbath has been to restore a God-centredness to the account
of the creation of the cosmos
We say 'to restore' advisedly We have constantly had cause to
note that the tradition, even before the spring bubbled up to be
the source of the flowing rivers of its priestly phase, had a history
That history was grounded in the Egyptian concept of the order
of creation dominated by Maat In that order human beings
had a dignity and a responsibility, but only as part of the Creator's
total order The world did not receive its purpose from serving the
needs of humanity, nor by being a sort of backdrop or theatre for
the convenience of the human drama alone The world received its
purpose because that was the way the Creator had made it The
fact that it was God' s initiative and God' s achievement was all
the justification its existence required Human beings and the
AN I AN S OURCI I O R G F N f S I S i 477
gods were simpl y servants of this God-gi ven order The chick in
the egg, the gnat and the wor m had in God a j ustification of t hei r
own
The priestly narrati ve of creation six ti mes declares the worl d
in its individual parts to be ' good' , and once in its enti rety ' very
good' In an omission whi ch shoul d not be regarded as significant
human beings actually miss out, and are not i ncl uded under one
of the ' goods' However they are part of the total order whi ch is
declared ' very good' It is an i ndi cati on that they are not qui t e
the preoccupati on of the final form of the narrati ve t hat they were
of an earlier stage
The priestly tradi ti on witnesses to the orderi ng of the cosmos
by the Creat or It is a witness to a God-cent r ed worl d Huma n
beings have rights, duti es, responsibil ities, a significant place in
the Creat or' s scheme But over against t hat t he physical and mat er-
ial order, as well as the nat ural worl d of pl ant s and ani mal s, have
a justification other t han t hat of serving the welfare of humani t y
The only justification they need for thei r existence is t hat God
enjoys t hem ' and God saw t hat it was good' They have been
called into bei ng by hi m The Bible in its openi ng verses tells of
a wonderful and ordered cosmos whi ch receives bot h its origin
and its cont i nui ng significance from God alone
JAMES E ATWELL
^ s
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