Creation in the Old Testament

by Bernhard W. Anderson

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0281041008
• ISBN13: 9780281041008
• Release Date: March 1985
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Creation Traditions in the Old Testament

This is by far the best book for anyone who wishes to examine the creation texts in the Old Testament and many of the things scholars have said about them. It is an anthology of scholarly writings, from old Hermann Gunkel (1895) to 1983, when the book was published. The other authors are Bernhard W. Anderson, Gerhard von Rad, Walter Eichrodt, Dennis J. McCarthy, S.J., Claus Westermann, H. H. Schmid, Hans-Jurgen Hermisson, and George M. Landes.As is well known, the interpretation of creation has long been affected by scientific publications, the most spectacular being Darwin's "Origin of Species" in 1859. However, in the world of ancient scholarship, there were also major developments. One was the translation of the old Babylonian creation story, the Enuma Elish (found in 1853), published in 1876. A second was the Canaanite literature found at Ras Shamra in 1929, containing the Baal epic. There is other literature as well.The parallels of the Enuma Elish with the first creation story in Genesis (1:1-2:4a) became too evident to ignore, and Gunkel's groundbreaking work (1895) provides many references. Here we are introduced to "Chaoskampf," the mythological divine battle with chaos, the result of which is the world we live in.In his excellent article on the Chaoskampf divine battle imagery in ancient Hebrew poetry, Dennis McCarthy, S. J. (1967, rev. 1983), argues that they relates to the establishment of social and political order, rather than creation, despite the creation imagery. McCarthy accepts a common view that creation refers to a vast, long ago, cosmic event.Is this common view of creation in the Bible correct? I don't think so. One must decide what a creation text is, not just our own conception (Butterfield's Whig conception of history), but in history. Creation texts certainly include stories (there are four major creation stories in the OT, Gen. 1:1-2:4a; 2:4b-24; Prov. 8:22-31, and finally, the Chaoskampf type, found in scattered passages such as Pss, 74:12-17, 89:9-14; Isa. 51:9-10). But, there are also many texts containing creation images, themes, doctrines, and words. This vastly increases the number of creation texts, most of which are NOT in creation stories. Anderson himself considers many of the texts McCarthy dealt with as belonging to the Mosaic Covenant tradition's conception of the 'creation of a people', mentioned below.As John L. McKenzie, S.J., has long argued, it would appear that the dominant presentation of creation is not an event, but as a continuing process. The great historian of Church doctrines, Jaroslav Pelikan has also pointed out that creation as a continuing process has a long history in the Bible and the Christian churches, noting especially Ps. 104.One of the most influential interpretations was that of the great Gerhard von Rad (1936), who, looking at Yahweh as Creator and Redeemer, decided that the latter was primary and first. This idea infected scholar