CHAPTER I THE CREATION THE national history of Israel may be said to date from the era of the Exodus and the Covenant of Mount Sinai. The beginnings of the Hebrew race are described in the narrative that tells us of the call of Abraham and records the selection of the family with which are identified the names of the three great ancestors of the chosen people. But the Hebrew narratives, and the traditions from which our Book of Genesis was compiled, went back into ages infinitely more remote. It was natural for the Hebrew historian to preface his record of the origin of the chosen people with a record of the origin of all nations, the origin of the human race, and the origin of the universe. The materials for such a preface were to hand. He has placed them before us in their simplicity and beauty, making selections from his available resources, so as to narrate in succession the Hebrew B quote stories of the cosmogony, the primeval patriarchs, the Deluge, and the formation of the races. The fact that we have in these eleven chapters a narrative compiled from two or more different sources is now so generally recognised, that there is no need here for any preliminary discussion upon the subject. It only needs to be stated, that the two principal threads of tradition, incorporated in the opening section of Genesis, are termed by scholars "Jehovistic" and "Priestly," according as they correspond respectively with what may be called the "Prophetic" and "Priestly" treatment of the early religious history of Israel.1 But besides these larger and more easily recognised sources of information, the compiler obviously makes use of other materials of which the archaic character is evident both from the style and from the subject matter. THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE (i. 1-ii. 4o).—— The matchless introduction to the whole history is taken in all probability from the Priestly writings, having been either composed by the Priestly Narrator, 1 The literary analysis of Gen. i.-xi. according to Canon Driver, is as follows: Jehovist, ii. 4'; iii. 24; iv. 1-26; v. 29; vi. 1-4, 5-8 ; vii. 1-5, 7-10 (in the main), 12, 16, 17, 22, 23; viii. 2o, 3a, 6-12, 13, 20-22; ix. 18-27; x. 8-19, 21, 24-30; xi. 1-9, 28-30. Priestly, i. 1; ii. 4a; v. 1-28, 30-32; vi. 9-22; vii. 6, 7-9 (in parts), 11, 13-16", 18-21, 24; viii. 1, 2a, 3o-5, 13, 14-19; ix. 1-17, 28, 29; x. 1-7, 20, 22, 23, 31, 32; xi. 10-27, 31, 32. (Driver's Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament : Edinburgh, 1891; 4th ed. 1892). or extracted by him and edited from the ancient traditions of which the Priestly guild were the recognised keepers. Evidence of this is obtained from characteristic words and phrases, and from the smooth, orderly, and somewhat redundant style. Time was when this opening passage was regarded as the most ancient piece of writing in the Bible. This can no longer be maintained. The smoothness. and fulness of its present literary garb show sufficiently that, however ancient its narrative may be, the form in which it has come down to us does not belong to the earliest stages of Hebrew literature. The recognition of this fact would in itself be fatal to the acceptance of various forms of traditional opinion respecting the origin of Gen. i. 1-ii. 4o, or, indeed, of the whole section, Gen. i.-xi. We may here notice, in passing, the strange, yet commonly held, view that the story of the creation of the world was supernaturally revealed to Adam, and that from him it was transmitted word for word through the families of Enosh and Shem, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, until it was finally received and committed to writing by Moses. This is an instance of the extraordinary delusions to which popular assent has been given, in cases where direct evidence has not been forthcoming. Ignorance can always call imagination into play, and support its utterances by appeals to the supernatural. But its Nemesis is inevitable. And, in this instance, as soon as philological science |