In the Babylonian myth the gods emerged two by two from a formless, watery waste- a substance which was itself Divine and as later in the Bible, there was no creation out of nothing, an idea that was alien to the ancient world. When the Babylonians tried to describe the primordial formless waste they often referred to the swampy wastelands of Mesopotamia, where floods constantly threatened to destroy the frail works of men. The chaos is not a fiery, seething mass, but a sloppy mess where everything lacks boundary, definition and identity.
The Priestly writer's majestic account of the creation, the Enuma Elish (Genesis 1), written during the sixth century before Christ was like creation stories of the Yahwist's pagan contemporaries in Mesopotamia and Canaan in that they focused on the creation of the world and on the prehistoric period, compared with that the Yahwist opens with a creation story that is written in a startlingly perfunctory manner and that is now placed second in the Bible (Genesis 2:4 - 4:26). Note the Priestly writer's emphasis on the importance of the Sabbath where the Yahwist writer however on the other hand focused on an more immediate agricultural theme. First the Priestly writer's version:
Genesis 1 & 2:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was (Or possibly became) formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, ''Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light ''day," and the darkness he called ''night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. 6 And God said, ''Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse ''sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. 9 And God said, ''Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground ''land," and the gathered waters he called ''seas." And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, ''Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. 14 And God said, ''Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. 20 And God said, ''Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, ''Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. 24 And God said, ''Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, ''Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, Hebrew; Syria all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, ''Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, ''I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
Genesis 2:1 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested Or ceased; also in verse 3 from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Compare Genesis 2:4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created: When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens— 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth Or land; also in verse 6 and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth Or land; also in verse 6 and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams Or mist came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground— 7 the LORD God formed the man {The Hebrew for man (Adam) sounds like and may be related to the Hebrew for ground (adamah); it is also the name Adam (see Gen. 2:20).} from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin Or good; pearls and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. Possibly Southeast Mesopotamia 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, ''You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." 18 The LORD God said, ''It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam Or the man no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs Or took part of the man's side and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib (Or part he had taken out of the man), and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, ''This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, {The Yahwist's makes a distinction between the stuff man is made from and God is made from, as man is not of the same divine substance as his God, man ( Adam), as the pun indicates belongs to the earth (adamah) the Hebrew for woman sounds like the Hebrew for man but mean here "for she was taken out of man."} 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
It is also interesting to note the contradiction that in the one version God first created the animals and when he saw it was good he then decides to create man after His own image and in the other version he creates man first and then create the animals as helpers for man.
The priestly writers where also the authors of many of the Psalms that appear in the book of Psalms Many of the Psalms were written during their period of exile in Babylon. Including Psalm 137 that typified the period of the exile "1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2 There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ''Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" 4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. 6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. 7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. 'Tear it down," they cried, ''tear it down to its foundations!" 8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us— 9 he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Under the leadership of the Priestly group in exile, Synagogues were build to indoctrinate the coming generation who would not remember Jerusalem, including in time those who had never known Jerusalem. The details of worship, the rules of worship, and the observance of worship became all important and resulted in the creation of much of the book of Exodus, almost all the book of Leviticus and a major portion of the book of Numbers. Deuteronomic version The Yahwist- Elohist -Deuteronomic version of the Hebrew sacred story was thoroughly edited by the Priestly writers to include the ancient Priestly traditions and to affirm the sanctity throughout all of Jewish history of traditions now being required of faithful Jews. The Noah story was altered so that Noah took seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean animals Genesis 7:1-10 The LORD then said to Noah, ''Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven (Or seven pairs; also in verse 3) of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." 5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
This would enable Noah to have animals available for the ritual sacrifices and still preserve the species. The story of manna in the wilderness was altered so that the people gathered two days supply on the sixth day of the week and would not therefore have to work by gathering manna on the Sabbath Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, ''I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.
The Ten commandments of Exodus 20 were edited to place the rationale from the newly written creation story into the words of Moses requiring the Jews to keep holy the Sabbath day. A history of every ritual observed in Jewish worship entered the sacred story. The story of Abraham was altered to place the origin of the practice of circumcision into the life of the founding father of Israel. Strict dietary laws were written into the Torah as part of the separatist movement. Kosher food is a gift to Jewry of the Priestly writer in exile in the late sixth and early fifth century before Christ. All the chronologies in the Old Testament are from the hands of the Priestly writers. They wanted to make sure that links with the past is kept intact.
More coming soon!