Creation Stories, Family and Gender

From Mesopotamia to Hebrew Monotheism

Questions for All Religions

• Who creates life?

• Who brings evil into the world?

• To whom do the gods speak?

Questions and Answers: Symbols and Metaphors

• Who creates life?

• Who brings evil into the world?

• To whom do the gods speak?

• The vulva of the goddess or the seed of male god

• The gods, human failing, human pride

• Priests and priestesses, or a covenant with men

Mesopotamian Society

• Polytheistic religions: many gods, both male and female

• Example: Prayer to Ishtar, fertility goddess

• Example: Babylonian creation story: Enuma elish, Marduk (male god) slays Tiamat (female creator)

Metaphors of Creation

• Female fertility: birth, lush plant life (the tree of life), animals and humans

• Water or the sea

• Once male role is understood, a “sacred marriage” of male and female

• Naming

• Male “seed” and female “vessel”

Timeline of Ancient Jewish Society

• 1800 BC: Abraham's lifetime

• 1290‑24 BC: Exodus

• 1000 BC: Reign of King David (state formation)

• 900 BC: Dual Monarchy of Israel and Judah

• 722 BC: Israel falls to the Assyrians

The Covenants with the Jews in the Bible

• Noah and the flood, Genesis 6-9, (particularly Genesis 9: 8-17)

• Abraham: Genesis 15-21 (particularly Genesis 15: 7-18; and 17: 1-13)

• Moses, Exodus, 3; 6:2-9; 20-23

The Creation Story

• Genesis 1: God creates the world in 7 days, and “man in his own image…male and female he created he them.” (Verse 27)

• Genesis 2: God creates man and the Garden of Eden, and commands man not to eat from the tree of knowledge

• Gen 2 cont. God creates woman from Adam’s rib, and he names her.

Creation….

• Gen 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.”

• Gen 2:25: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

• Gen 3: The Fall

The Fall

• Eve is tempted and gives the apple to Adam

• God expels Adam and Eve from the garden

• God puts “enmity” between man and woman.

• God tells Eve he will ‘multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.’

• God tells Eve that Adam ‘shall rule over thee.’

The Fall….

• God condemns Adam to work: “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…”

• Humans are condemned to die: “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

• God expels man “from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”