From “Let there be light” to the Big Bang. Dr. Neiman reconciles the latest theories in astrophysics with the story of creation in the book of Genesis. (72 min.)
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From the writings of Dr. David Neiman on the Genesis:
It is obvious from remnants in biblical literature, that a mythological cosmology in which phenomena were dramatis personae existed in very early Hebrew literature. These passages are remnants of Canaanite mythological poetry retained in the Hebrew language of a later period and utilized as figures of poetic expression. They give evidence of an old Hebrew cosmology not unlike that of the Ugaritic Epic of Ba’al or the Babylonian Enuma Elish.
But the first chapter of Genesis, the Genesis cosmology, is clearly a unified and refined production, a literary creation of classic clarity and perfected formality of structure which was placed at the beginning of the Genesis collection of narratives as the ideal introduction to the Genesis History. It is a cosmology which was designed to introduce the Book of Genesis, to make an opening statement which would, at the same time, be a declaration of the fundamental principles of the faith of the prophets, of the world view of Genesis and the Torah and traditions which follow.
There are inner signs which indicate that the Story of the Origin of Man and the so-called “Second Account of Creation” in chapters 2 and 3 of Genesis are older by far than the cosmology of Genesis 1. There are also within the language of Genesis 2 some interesting inconsistencies and contradictions reflecting fixations imbedded in the mentality of Sumerians, Babylonians, and other early inhabitants of Mesopotamia which were absorbed by those early Hebrews who were among the creators of the narratives in Genssis 2 and 3.
That there might have been another, more detailed cosmology preceding the account in Genesis 2 and 3 is speculative. But there can be little doubt that the prophetic cosmology of Genesis 1 as a primary statement of creation was appended to the following etiologies as a declaration of the monotheistic view of cosmology, and that the one we have may have displaced an earlier, less sophisticated, less philosophically formulated cosmology.