Contents

Primeval history

Scope and content

The Primeval History – the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis – covers the first 1,946 years of the world's existence, from the Creation to Abraham. The narrative tells how God creates the world and all its beings, and places the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) in a divine garden, the Garden of Eden. It tells how the first couple are expelled from God's presence, of the first murder which follows, of the ten generations which follow, and God's decision to destroy the world and save only the righteous Noah and his sons. A new humanity then descends from these sons and spreads throughout the world, but although the new humanity is as sinful as the old God has resolved never again to destroy the world by flood, and the ten generations of Shem, the son of Noah, ends with Abraham, from whom will descend the Jews, God's chosen race.^[1]

The History contains some of the best-known stories in the Bible plus a number of genealogies, structured around the five-fold repetition of the toledot formula ("These are the generations of..."):^[2]
• The toledot of heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1-4:26)

- The Genesis creation narrative

- The Eden narrative (the story of Adam and Eve and how they came to be expelled from God's presence)

- Cain and Abel and the first murder

• The book of the toledot of Adam (5:1-6:8) (The Hebrew includes the word "book")

- the first of two genealogies of Genesis, the Kenites, descendants of Cain, who invent various aspects of civilised life

- the second genealogy, the descendants of Seth the third son of Adam, whose line leads to Noah and to Abraham

- brief accounts of the Sons of God who couple with the "daughters of men" and give rise to the Nephelim, "men of renown"

• The toledot of Noah (6-9:28)

- God's reasons for bringing the Flood, his warning to Noah, and the construction of the Ark

- the Genesis Flood narrative - the world destroyed and re-created

- God's covenant with Noah

- Noah the husbandman (the invention of wine), his drunkenness, his three sons, and the Curse of Canaan

• The toledot of the sons of Noah (10:1-11:9)

- the Table of Nations (the sons of Noah and the division of the Earth)

• The toledot of Shem the son of Noah (11:10-26)

- the ten descendants of Noah through Shem to Terah, the father of Abraham

Composition history

Sources

There is general agreement among scholars that Genesis 1-11 combines two sources, the Priestly and the non-Priestly, usually alternating but sometimes combined. The Priestly source provides the main narrative and most of the genealogies, while the non-Priestly source contributes stories and is more concerned with human questions.^[3]
The following table is based on "An Introduction to the Bible", by Robert Kugler and Patrick Hartin:^[4]

Near Eastern myth

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, including the opening words, the Biblical cosmology, and mankind's status as the earthly regent of God.
• 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.^[5]

Date and relationship to the Book of Genesis

It is generally, although not universally, agreed that Genesis 1-11 forms a separate composition that was attached to the Book of Genesis at a comparatively late stage in that book's composition.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Allegorical interpretations of Genesis
• Framework interpretation (Genesis)

References

Citations

Bibliography

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.