Constance Abram Prof.

Sean Kelly Intro to Lit 101A-12 18 October 2011

Comparative Essay Outline Compare Plato's Timaeus with the biblical account of creation in Genesis

BODY I. Similarities between the two myths i. Basic background/history of the Genesis and Timaeus creation myths. ii. Analysis of the similarities (See list under research) II. The differences between the myths i. The cultural context of the myths ii. Analysis of the differences III. Modern opinions/Interpretations of the Myths i. Compare how the views of the myths have evolved ii. Science vs Myth

CONCLUSION I. Restate my main idea (TBD) II. Conclude the topics in the body paragraphs III. End with a global statement that connects to my intro

RESEARCH

Genesis

In the beginning...

...God created the heavens and the earth.

Timaeus I am asking a question which has to be asked at the beginning of an enquiry about anything was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning? or created, and had it a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things are apprehended by opinion and sense and are in a process of creation and created. Now that which is created must, as we affirm, of necessity be created by a cause. Wherefore also God in the beginning of creation made the body of the universe to consist of fire and earth. But two things cannot be rightly put together without a third; there must be some bond of union between them If the universal frame had been created a surface only and having no depth, a single mean would have sufficed to bind together itself and the other

terms; but now, as the world must be solid, and solid bodies are always compacted not by one mean but by two... and thus he bound and put together a visible and tangible heaven. and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters... the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion

And God lighted a fire in the second orbit from the earth which is called the sun, to give Then God said: Let there be light, light over the whole heaven, and and there was light. to teach intelligent beings that knowledge of number which is derived from the revolution of the same Time, then, and the heaven (space) came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. It was framed after the pattern of the eternal nature, that it might God saw that the light was good. resemble this as far as was God then separated the light from possible; for the pattern exists the darkness. God called the light from eternity, and the created day, and the darkness he called heaven has been, and is, and will be, in all time. Such was the night. Evening came, and mind and thought of God in the morning followedthe first day. creation of time. And God lighted a fire in the second orbit from the earth which is called the sun, to give light over the whole heaven, and to teach intelligent beings that knowledge of number which is derived from the revolution of the same. Thus arose day and night. Then God said: Let there be a God placed water and air in the dome in the middle of the waters, mean between fire and earth, to separate one body of water and made them to have the

from the other. God made the dome,* and it separated the water below the dome from the water above the dome. And so it happened. God called the dome sky. Evening came, and morning followedthe second day. Then God said: Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear. And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared Then God said: Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. And so it happened

same proportion so far as was possible (as fire is to air so is air to water, and as air is to water so is water to earth)

The gods also mingled natures akin to that of man with other forms and perceptions. Thus trees and plants were created, which were originally wild and have been adapted by cultivation to our use. And God made the sun and moon and five other wanderers, Then God said: Let there be as they are called, seven in all, lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them and to each of them he gave a body moving in an orbit Thus mark the seasons, the days and arose day and night, which are the years and serve as lights in most the dome of the sky, to illuminate the periods of the a month is intelligent nature; the earth. And so it happened: created by the revolution of the God made the two great lights, moon, a year by that of the sun. the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern Other periods of wonderfulnot length and complexity are the night, and the stars. God set observed by men in general; them in the dome of the sky, to moreover illuminate the earth, to govern the there is year at thea cycle or of perfect completion day and the night, and to which they all meet and separate the light from the coincide...To this end the stars darkness. God saw that it was came into being, that the created good. heaven might imitate the eternal nature. Then God said: Let the water Thus far the universal animal teem with an abundance of living was made in the divine image, creatures, and on the earth let but the other animals were not birds fly beneath the dome of the as yet included in him. And God

sky. God created the great sea monsters and all kinds of crawling living creatures with which the water teems, and all kinds of winged birds. God saw that it was good, and God blessed them, saying: Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas; and let the birds multiply on the earth. Then God said: Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature: tame animals, crawling things, and every kind of wild animal. And so it happened: God made every kind of wild animal, every kind of tame animal, and every kind of thing that crawls on the ground. God saw that it was good.

created them according to the patterns or species of them which existed in the divine original. There are four of them: one of gods, another of birds, a third of fishes, and a fourth of animals.

The Creation of the World Perhaps the answer is that biblical theism assumes not only that God, the cause of the world, is holy and to be worshipped, but also that the world is not holy, but is a place, rather, of worshippers. To Plato, by contrast, the empirical cosmos, even though a made thing and a perceptible one, is literally itself a god, an appellation it shares with the god who made it from matter and with various astral deities dwelling within it . Compare this with a perspective which takes it for granted that whereas the cause of the world is divine and holy, the world itself, however truly seen to be 'very good' by its divine creator (Genesis i.31), is not a holy being nor a divine one. Here, the utter distinctness of cause and product is already established in terms just of the two of them and without interposition of the barrier concept of matter used-matter which a cause sharply different from it turns into a product likewise sharply different from itself. In the Greek context, to remove matter used from the account would be fall back into a story that tends to assimilate product and cause, so that the cause either evolves into the product or constitutes it. Such possibilities are automatically excluded if, on the other hand, holiness is what marks off cause from product. For it is surely essential to holiness that what is holy cannot evolve into what is not holy, or freely function as stuff or matter of what is not holy. Within the world, after all, except under the constraint of

some kind of emergency, it is desecration knowingly to use some holy object as material for a secular object. One may infer from this that for a holy being to turn itself into one that was not, would be self-desecration, and hence impossible. Broadie, Sarah, and Anthony Kenny. "The Creation of the World." Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 78 (2004): 65-79. Blackwell Publishing. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4106947>. Timaeus In the Timaeus Plato presents an elaborately wrought account of the formation of the universe. Plato is deeply impressed with the order and beauty he observes in the universe, and his project in the dialogue is to explain that order and beauty. The universe, he proposes, is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency. It is the handiwork of a divine Craftsman (Demiurge, dmiourgos, 28a6), who, imitating an unchanging and eternal model, imposes mathematical order on a preexistent chaos to generate the ordered universe (kosmos)As Plato tells it, the beautiful orderliness of the universe is not only the manifestation of Intellect; it is also the model for rational souls to understand and to emulate. Such understanding and emulation restores those souls to their original state of excellence, a state that was lost in their embodiment. There is, then, an explicit ethical and religious dimension to the discourse. Recent decades, however, have witnessed a revival of interest in the Timaeus: philosophers, historians of science and of ideas, and philologists, while not persuaded by the dialogue's bold claims, have been fascinated by its majestic account and have sympathetically entered into and sought to elucidate its conceptual structure. The account Timaeus gives of the generation of the universe is from the outset based on metaphysical and epistemological principles. The question of the place of the Timaeus relative to the other dialogues has given rise to an acrimonious but nevertheless fruitful debate, with farranging implications for our assessment of Plato's philosophy. The orthodox view of the Timaeus [is that the] work written during Plato's so

called late period. The orthodox view is based on long-standing tradition, but had been confirmed by the stylometric studies of Plato's writings undertaken by late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century philologists.

Zeyl, Donald, "Plato's Timaeus", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/plato-timaeus/>.

This creation story is from Genesis 2:4 to 3:24 of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament. Extensive analysis of its style and content have led scholars of the Bible to conclude that the story was written in about the Tenth Century B.C.. That was around the time of King Solomon's reign and in a time when Israel was a powerful nation. In contrast, the story in Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 was written three or four centuries later and under very different circumstances. "Creation Stories." University of Georgia. University of Georgia Geology Department. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. <http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSYahweh.html>.

Scholars have identified three literary traditions in Genesis, as in Deuteronomy, usually identified as the Yahwist, Elohist, and Priestly strains. The Yahwist strain, so called because it used the name Yahweh (Jehovah) for God, is a Judaean rendition of the sacred story, perhaps written as early as 950 bc. The Elohist strain, which designates God as Elohim, is traceable to the northern kingdom of Israel and was written 900 700 bc. The Priestly strain, so called because of its cultic interests and regulations for priests, is usually dated in the 5th century bc and is regarded as the law upon which Ezra and Nehemiah based their reform. Because each of these strains preserves materials much older than the time of their incorporation into a written work, Genesis contains extremely old oral and written traditions.

"Genesis." Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopdia Britannica, 2011. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/228795/Genesis>.

Plato, (c. 428347 BCE.), ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates (c. 470399 bce), teacher of Aristotle (384322 bce), and founder of the Academy, best known as the author of philosophical works of unparalleled influence.

The Timaeus concerns the creation of the world by a Demiurge, initially operating on forms and space and assisted after he has created them by lesser gods. Earth, air, fire, and water are analyzed as ultimately consisting of two kinds of triangles, which combine into different characteristic solids. Plato in this work applies mathematical harmonics to produce a cosmology. "Plato." Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopdia Britannica, 2011. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/464109/Plato>. Platos notions of humanity were rooted in both ontology and cosmology i.e., in views on being and on the orderly structure of the universe. In the Timaeus he considers the cosmos as a single harmony, which for the sake of completeness requires the existence of inferior levels that are bound not only to matter but also to Necessity (the realm of things that could not have been otherwise and that are hence not amenable to divine activity). A different view is found in his Laws, which describes two Souls of the World, one of which causes good and one evil. The Politicus is concerned with two eternally recurring alternating cycles in the cosmos, with successive epochs guided either by the gods or by humans. Platos central inspiration, which unifies his metaphysics, his cosmology, his anthropology, and his doctrine of the soul, was basically dualistic (in the sense of dialectical dualism) with two irreducible princip tonic solids (the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and

icosahedron), some of which are related to the golden ratio. "Golden Ratio: Introduction to the Classical Constants." The Wolfram Functions Site. Wolfram Research, Inc. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. <http://functions.wolfram.com/Constants/GoldenRatio/introductions/Cl assicalConstants/01/>. Hermann Hupfeld in 1853 began to question the unity of the so-called Elohistic source, concluding that E was actually the product of two writers (both of whom had employed the term Elohim). This secondary Elohistic source was thought by Hupfeld to have manifested distinct priestly tendencies. Hence, Hupfeld referred to this secondary Elohistic source as "P" (priestly source).With this suggestion by Hupfeld, there were now four recognized sources: E, J, P, and D. Hupfeld postulated that a redactor or editor had been responsible for reducing the four originally separate sources to their present form. This anonymous "redactor" was useful to the theory, being a basis for explaining problem areas in the text, such as textual obscurities, chronological and topographical difficulties, etc. Tanner, J. Paul. "Old Testament I: Source Analysis of the OT." Lecture. Session Twelve. Biblical Theological Studies. 1 June 2000. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. <http://paultanner.org/English%20Docs/OT %201/Notes/Sess12.pdf>. Journal Articles Andersen, Joan A. "Introduction: Mythic Doctrines." Cosmogonic Myths and Theoretical Science. Social and Behavioral Sciences E-Campus, 7 May 2007. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. <http://users.erols.com/bcccsbs/intro1.html>. "faith". Oxford Dictionaries. April 2010. Oxford Dictionaries. April 2010. Oxford University Press. 3 November 2011 <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/faith>. Gretchen J. Reydams-Schils, editor. Plato's Timaeus as Cultural Icon. Notre Dame, IN.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003.

Harris, Stephen L. "Part 2: The Old Testament." Understanding the Bible: a Reader's Guide and Reference. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Pub., 1980. 49+. Google Books. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=TGJKeHOmGhwC&dq>. Harrison, Peter. "Subduing the Earth: Genesis 1, Early Modern Science, and the Exploitation of Nature." The Journal of Religion 79.1 (1999): 86-109. JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1207043>. Kapelrud, Arvid S. "The Mythological Features in Genesis Chapter I and the Author's Intentions." Vetus Testamentum 24.2 (1974): 178-86. JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1517124>. Klein, Ralph W. "Archaic Chronologies and the Textual History of the Old Testament." The Harvard Theological Review 67.3 (1974): 255-63. JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1509223>. Linder, Doug. "The History of Genesis and the Creation Stories." UMKC School of Law. 2004. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. <http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/gen1st.htm>. Mark, Joshua J. "Enuma Elish - The Babylonian Epic of Creation." Ancient History Encyclopedia. 2 Mar. 2011. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ancient.eu.com/article/225/>. Montgomery, James A. "Aesthetic in Hebrew Religion." Journal of Biblical Literature 56.1 (1937): 35-41. The Society of Biblical Literature. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3259628>. Moye, Richard H. "In the Beginning: Myth and History in Genesis and Exodus." Journal of Biblical Literature 109.4 (1990): 577-98. JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3267364>. Pelikan, J. "What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem? Timaeus and Genesis in Counterpoint." The Classical Review 49.1 (1999): 320-21.

Cambridge University Press. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/714069>. Reed, Annette Y. "The Five Books of Moses." Thesis. McMaster University: Department of Religious Studies, Fall 2004. AnnetteReed.Com. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. <http://www.annettereed.com/RS-2DD3/>. Shorey, Paul. "The Interpretations of the Timaeus." The American Journal of Philology 9.8 (1888): 395-418. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/287190>.