everettf

In the beginning, there's this guy with pen in hand, no, with quill in hand, no, with stick.

Who was the first one one to put genesis in writing. Think about it, you have people living in the desert, probably nomadic. Did they have the ability to even think about how the world began, did it even matter to them?

Someone once said:
When man first stepped out of the cave, the sun warmed him mysteriously, so he worshipped the sun.
The water around him quenched his thirst so he worshipped water. Then fire came and it kept him warm at night. It too was worshipped as a another god.

Who was the one person who started to write genesis. Who who wrote the first sentence "In the beginning".

Diogenes the Cynic

Nobody knows who wrote it but much of it already existed in oral tradition before it was written down. Those who literally wrote it down did not create the stories themselves but were editing together a literary narrative from preexisting oral tribal narratives.

spin

Not wanting to get on your case, but Gen 1 is a literary creation and has nothing to do with oral traditions. It clearly knows about Mesopotamian creation literature. Its structure is certainly not reflective of an oral tradition either. After introducing the notion that the word at the beginning of the narration was without form and void, the first three days involve giving form to the cosmos and the following three corresponding days involve populating what was formed in the first three days. On top of that the creation was fitted into a six day period in order to institute the sabbath. The text is far too complicated for oral tradition.


spin

Morethancaffine

...the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move." - Douglas Adams

Chris Weimer

I don't know spin, I think it could have been adapted from oral tradition. Would you say that Homer invented the Trojan War?

spin

Although I don't know whether there was a trojan war or not, I don't find the two literary traditions comparable. One is clearly based on tales of heroes, the food for oral tradition, the other is based on a long literary tradition indicated by the Enuma Elish. The relationship is strong, down to the god fastening the waters above with some device.


spin

Chris Weimer

Wouldn't you consider the Babylonian influence oral tradition? I'm not sure what you're arguing here...

spin

The Enuma Elish is a written text. The battle between the god and the chaos dragon is a literary trope, found in Ugarit with the battle between Baal and Yamm and hidden away in Dan 7, with the guardian angel of the Hebrews as a Baal figure who rides the clouds to heaven after the victory over the sea. The Jews get it from at least those two sources, both literary. You want to believe that it suddenly jumps to oral tradition?


spin

Chris Weimer

I thought we were talking about the beginning here, not Daniel? Regardless, sure, I'll give it that much of it was taken from Babylonian written sources, but then again, how much of it do we attribute to it? Snake symbology, spin, sits satisfyingly, sure shows signs that is was said before scribed.

Chris

spin

If you hadn't noticed it's also based on the same literary trope, the defeat of the sea/watery chaos/deep. Gen 1:2 gives the background to the fight, but the teller leaves the fight out, still tehom (Tiamat) is present before the creation as is the wind that the god used to defeat her. Upon that defeat the creation can begin, out of her body. Dan 7, has the creatures that come out of the sea as found in the Enuma Elish, although neither the victor nor the creation is specified.


spin