The Primeval history (German: Urgeschichte) is a name given by scholars to the first eleven chapters of the Bible's Genesis, covering the period from the creation to the birth of Abraham. In Jewish worship it comprises the first two weekly Torah readings, Bereshit (parsha) and Noach (parsha). The principal themes of each of the chapters are:
There is general agreement among scholars that Genesis 1-11 combines two sources, the Priestly and the non-Priestly (i.e., the Yahwist and the Elohist sources); the Priestly source provides the main narrative and is concerned primarily with worship, the Sabbath and the religious calendar, and rules of ritual purity, while the non-Priestly source is more oriented towards human concerns.[1] The following table sets out the verses ascribed to the two sources:[2]
| Verses |
Priestly |
Non-Priestly |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1-2:4a | Creation | |
| 2:4b-4:26 | Creation, Eden, Cain and Abel, descendants of Cain | |
| 5:1-24 | Descendants of Adam | |
| 6:1-8 | Sons of God, reason for the Flood | |
| 6:9-13 | reason for the Flood | |
| 6:14-8:22 | The Flood and post-Flood renewal | The Flood and post-Flood renewal |
| 9:1-17 | Covenant with Noah | |
| 9:18-10:27 | Noah and his sons (the curse of Canaan) | |
| 10:1-32 | Table of Nations | Table of Nations |
| 11:1-9 | Tower of Babel | |
| 11:10-32 | Descendants of Noah |
Both sources borrow extensively from earlier Near Eastern myth (the following list is not exhaustive):
• The Enuma Elish (Babylon), written to legitimate the primacy of Marduk among the Babylonian gods, parallels many elements of Genesis 1.
• Memphis Theology (Egypt) tells how the god Ptah, like the Israelite God in Genesis 1, creates the world through speech.
• The Atrahasis Epic (Mesopotamia), like Genesis 2, tells how man was created from dust.
• The myth of Enki and Ninhursag (Sumeria), like the Genesis 2 story of Eden, tells of a divine couple and a Tree of Life.
• Dumuzi and Enkimdu, a Mesopotamian shepherd and farmer-god who competed for the love of a goddess, parallel the story of Cain and Abel.
• The Sumerian King List, like the genealogy of Cain, explains the origins of civilization; it also divides history into two epochs before and after a great flood.
• The Gilgamesh epic, like the story of Noah, provides for the survival of humanity after a great flood sent by the gods.[3]
•Hartin, Robert; Kugler, Patrick (2009). An Introduction to the Bible. Eerdmans.
•Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2011). Creation, Un-creation, Re-creation: A discursive commentary on Genesis 1-11. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-37287-1.
•Cassuto, Umberto (2012) [1961]. A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Part I) Adam to Noah. Vol. 1. Varda Books. ISBN 965-223-48-0-X.
•Cassuto, Umberto (2012) [1964]. A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (Part II) Noah to Abraham. Vol. 2. Varda Books. ISBN 1-59045-799-4.
•Good, Edwin Marshall (2011). Genesis 1-11: Tales of the Earliest World. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-7497-0.
•Hess, Richard S.; Tsumura, David Toshio, eds. (1994). "I Studied Inscriptions from Before the Flood": Ancient Near Eastern, Literary, and Linguistic Approaches to Genesis 1-11. Sources for Biblical and Theological Study. Vol. 4. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-88-9.
•Louth, Andrew, ed. (2001). Genesis 1-11. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Vol. 1. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 0--8308-1471-X.
•Thompson, John L., ed. (2012). Genesis 1-11. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Vol. 1. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-2951-4.
•Westermann, Claus (1984). Genesis 1-11: A Commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing. ISBN 0-8066-1962-7.
Allegorical interpretations of Genesis
Framework interpretation (Genesis)
