Ahanu
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After reading P's creation story, which was written later than J's, I noticed that God appears to be distant. Once P’s creation story was written “after Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. and at a time when the Hebrews were faced with exile in Babylon,” I think that whoever wrote the story was strongly impacted by these events, so we find that God is more distant than the portrait of God that we get in J’s creation story. For example, in J’s creation story it is written that “the man [Adam] and his wife [Eve] heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen 3:8). This verse makes me wonder if P ever thought that God literally walked in the garden at all; for in P’s creation story God does not walk with mankind.
So while God does appear to me to be distant in P’s story, P’s creation story makes God seem more powerful to its readers and listeners. The now conquered people, the Hebrews, could read and listen to P’s creation story to find “encouragement and affirmation” in their new crisis. Starting with Genesis 1:3, we find God’s first words which begin to speak everything from chaos and nothingness into existence. Now that is what I call powerful! However, when we look at the first words spoken in J’s creation story saying, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 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,” we notice God’s words are not bringing anything into existence (Gen 2:16-17). In fact this is apparent throughout J’s entire creation story.
It is interesting that this powerful God who can speak things into existence finds that the creation of human beings on the final day was “very good” (Gen 1:31). Perhaps it is “very good” because humans are now in it? This is an extremely different ending than J’s creation story which ends saying God banished mankind from the Garden of Eden, where the ground was not cursed. After being banished from the garden, man must now “work by the sweat" of their brow in order to produce food from the ground (Gen 3:19). “Genesis 2 is a farmer’s myth; Genesis 1 is not.” P even saw the earth in a different way than J. P’s earth did not need man to cultivate a fertile earth because God created it so that it did not need man’s help; however, in J’s creation story humanity must create a fertile earth. These are some differences that are highly significant! Think about the stories which later happen in the book of Genesis. . .(
)
Sources:
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSElohim.html
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSYahweh.html
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/daily_life/environment/TO_Environ_Trad_Teachings/Permission_to_Despoil.htm
Any other differences in P and J's creation stories?
So while God does appear to me to be distant in P’s story, P’s creation story makes God seem more powerful to its readers and listeners. The now conquered people, the Hebrews, could read and listen to P’s creation story to find “encouragement and affirmation” in their new crisis. Starting with Genesis 1:3, we find God’s first words which begin to speak everything from chaos and nothingness into existence. Now that is what I call powerful! However, when we look at the first words spoken in J’s creation story saying, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 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,” we notice God’s words are not bringing anything into existence (Gen 2:16-17). In fact this is apparent throughout J’s entire creation story.
It is interesting that this powerful God who can speak things into existence finds that the creation of human beings on the final day was “very good” (Gen 1:31). Perhaps it is “very good” because humans are now in it? This is an extremely different ending than J’s creation story which ends saying God banished mankind from the Garden of Eden, where the ground was not cursed. After being banished from the garden, man must now “work by the sweat" of their brow in order to produce food from the ground (Gen 3:19). “Genesis 2 is a farmer’s myth; Genesis 1 is not.” P even saw the earth in a different way than J. P’s earth did not need man to cultivate a fertile earth because God created it so that it did not need man’s help; however, in J’s creation story humanity must create a fertile earth. These are some differences that are highly significant! Think about the stories which later happen in the book of Genesis. . .(
![surprise.gif](http://lt.sccnc.edu/theme/CR-Swerve3/pix/s/surprise.gif)
Sources:
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSElohim.html
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSYahweh.html
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/daily_life/environment/TO_Environ_Trad_Teachings/Permission_to_Despoil.htm
Any other differences in P and J's creation stories?