Biblical Hebrew Forum

[a.c.smith AT juno.com (Andrew C Smith)]

On Mon, 04 Jan 1999 10:18:58 -0500 Irene Riegner
<iriegner AT concentric.net> writes:

>In trying to understand biblical verses it is important to distinguish
>between later understandings of the text and the understanding that
>ancient Israelites and Judahites may have had.  Ideas of "first 
>causes" and "prime movers" are later conceptualizations---Greek I 
>believe---and not part of the Mesopotamian worldview from which these
>texts emerged. It is more likely that a Judahite writing in exile from
Babylonia 
>would have a greater understanding of the Mesopotamian worldview than
that 
>of the Greek and incorporate this into his text rather than anything
>Greek---especially if part of his task is to write for an  exile
>Judahite audience.

But wasn't the point of Genesis chapter one to offer a refutation of that
Babylonian world view? I agree with you that the author was well
acquainted with Enuma Elish and similar documents of Babylonian or other
Mesopotamian world-views, but his point was to systematically refute
those documents at each point.


a.c.smith AT juno.com
http://www.lcms.org
http://www.lcms.com
http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/5680

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