Table of Contents
Chapter 4 - Towards A Solution
Chapter 6 - The Bible and Babylonian Creation Tablets
It is often said that the only reasonable way to read the Bible is to read it in the same way as we do an ordinary book. Presumably what is meant by t his is that any book should be read in the light of the times and circumstances in which it was written, and there can be no question as to the wisdom of this advice. But in the case of the oldestpieces of writing, this has scarcely been possible until the last century when excavation and decipherment of ancient writing has enabled scholars to become acquainted with the literary methods prevailing in the Tigris and Euphrates districts in early times. Consequently it has only been possible in more recent times to compare the literary construction of this Genesis narrative with other ancient methods of writing. But it cannot be regarded as other than serious that notwithstanding archaeological discoveries many still read this creation record, not as ancient, but as though it had been written in relatively modern times. This mistake has been made notwithstanding the very obvious fact that the narratvie itself is constructed in a most antique manner by use of a framework of repeated phrases. However, almost every scholar in modern times has recognised that Genesis 2:1-4 is a colophon or appendix to the first narrative of creation. We do not know who wrote the colophon as we now have it; whether part was copied from the anient tablet or whether, when compiling Genesis, Moses or some early writer added it.
Until the time of Alexander the Great, indeed as long as documents continued to be written in Babylonia and Assyria, they were generally written on stone or clay tablets, and the colophon, with its important literary information, was added in a very distinctive manner. Illustrations of these colophons may be seen on the frontispiece. The first is of a clay tablet with the usual colophon now in the author’s possession. The second is of the Fourth Tablet in the Babylonian ‘creation’ series. There can now be now reasonable doubt whatever that any account of creation read by Abraham in Babylonia, would in the usual way be written on tablets dimilar to these. The colophon often contains the following information:
1. The ‘title’ or designation given to the narrative.
2. The date of writing.
3. The serial number of the tablet, when it formed part of a series
4. If part of a series of tablets, a statement whether the tablet did or did not finish the series.
5. The name of the scribe or owner.
When we turn to the colophon to the creation tablets (Gen 2:1-4) this is what we find:
1. The title - “the heavens and the earth”.
2. The date - “in the day that the Lord God did (asah) the earth and heavens”.
3. That it was written on a series of tablets (numbered one to six).
4. It states after the sixth tablet that the writing was finished.
5. The only name appearing on this colophon is the name of the Lord God. In this instance can it possibly be intended to indicate the author or writer?
We will look at these literary aids in the order mentioned above.
The ‘title’ given to an ancient piece of writing was usually taken from the opening words of the first tablet. In th is instance the title is “the heavens and the earth”. Long before the time of Abraham the cuneiform or wedge-shaped script was in general use, but earlier still the simpler method of pictographic or picture writing was used. Therefore any document written in Babylonia would later need to be translated into Hebrew. When the translations are made the position of words in a sentence often undergoes a change; this may be seen from the difference between the Hebrew order of the words, “In the beginning created God the heavens and the earth”, and the English order as in our Bible. That the phrase “the heavens and earth” is a title may be seen from verse 4, which reads, “These are the generations (lit.: histories) of the heavens and the earth”. In New Discoveries in Babylonia about Genesis I have explained the significance of this phrase which occurs at the end of each section of the Genesis narratives. Ample evidence is given in that book that the great Hebrew scholars agree that the word translated “generations” means “history of . . .”, “an account of . . .” That this phrase “heavens and earth” was actually used as a title in ancient times may be seen by such statements as that by Jeremias in his Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East, Vol. I, p. 83, when referring to ancient Babylonian tablets he writes, “This ‘tablet of the secrets of the heaven and earth’ . . . represented in fable, according to Berossus, the celestial book of revelation.”
The second piece of lterary information referred to, is that ancient colophons often include the date when tablets were written. The date in the Genesis colophon is written in this way, “when they were created in the day that the Lord God did the earth and heavens”. This verse has perplexed commentators of every school of th ought. All seem to suggest that it implies a contradiction of the six days, by stating that creation only occupied one day. The date does not refer to this time when the world was created but, as it states, to the day when the histories or the records were finished.
Those acquanated with the method of ‘dating’ tablets in early days will readily recognise this phrase “in the day the Lord God did the earth and heavens” as the date of the Genesis creation tablets. Both the Babylonians, Egyptions and Assyrians gave the year a name by identifying it with some important happening in that year. There is a sense in which we have done something similar, but we date from the greatest of all events, the birth of our Lord. Here are some ancient instances of ‘dating’ taken from ancient tablets:
“Year Sumubel the King built the wall of Sippar.”
“Year the canal Tutu-hengal (i.e. the year the canal was dug).”
Although almost every commentator has recognised the phrase “in the day . . .” as a date, they have wrongly assumed that it is the date the world was created. Long ago Dillman translated the phrase by the words “at the time of . . .” As that great Hebraist, Dr. Ginsburg, pointed out, the word ‘day’ as used in the first chapter of Gensis “is the simple noun, whereas in chapter 2:4 it is a compound of ‘day’ with the preposition ‘in’ which according to the genius of the Hebrew language makes it an adverb, so it must be translated ‘when’ or ‘at the time’”.
Next we noticed that it was often necessary to use a series of tablets in order to write a narrative. In Babylonia the account of creation was generally written on six tablets and these were serially numbered at the end of each tablet. The evidence for this will be given in the next chapter. At the end of each of the six sections of the first narrative of creation we see that these same serial numbers ‘one’ to ‘six’ are given. The Hebrew word used for ‘one’ indicates that it is the first of a series and the article is employed in connection with ‘day sixth’ to indicate the close of a series.
In regard to the fourth piece of information given on the colophon, we know that when more than one tablet was necessary in order to record a narrative, it was a cu stom to state on the last of the series of tablets that the narrative was finished and sometimes to indicate on the earlier tablets of the same series that the narrative was ‘not finished’. A significant instance of this appears on tablet No. 93016 in the British collection. This tablet is the fourth in the celebrated series of six Babylonian creation tablets, and the colophon reads, “am sumati duppu 4 kam-ma e-nu-ma elis la gamir”, that is, “tablet 4 of ‘when on high’ (that is the title given to the series of tablets) not fisnished”. Unfortunately the colophon of the sixth tablet of the same creation series is badly damaged. The only words which remain legible are ‘sixth tablet of ‘when on high’ . . .” Had we access to the original text of this colophon or had this one been in a more decipherable state it would prabably have read “sixth tablet of ‘when on high’ finished”, just as final tablets of other series do. An example of this may be seen in Dr. Langdon’s Sumurian and Babylonian Psalms where he reproduces a series of liturgical tablets. These are often composed in a set of six tablets. The last tablet of one series reads, “Tablet six of . . . which is finished”, indicating that the series was finished or completed at the end of the sixth tablet. Yet it has been assumed that the reference to ‘fininshed’ is to the acts or processes of creation (1). What was finished on the sixth day was the revelation and recording of the acts of creation long past. And I suggest that the reason why the Babylonians and Assyrians clung so tenaciously throughout the centuries of their history to this paraticular number of tablets, six, on which the record of their creation stories, was that it was orignally written on six tablets.
If we look at the opening words of the colophon attacted to the Genesis narrative we read “and were finished the ‘heaven and the earth’” (the title given to the series). The verb finished occupies the first position in the Hebrew. So the Genesis text uses the word in a manner similar to the literary custom which prevailed in ancient times, thus indicating that the sixth tablet concluded the series of tablets on which the account of the creation of ‘the heaven and the earth’ had been recorded as old books ended with ‘finis’.
An additional indication that we are dealing with a series of tablets may be seen by the use immediately afterwards of the Hebrew word sabh, translated host. We often read of the ‘host of heaven’ but never of the host of the ‘heaven and earth’, or of the ‘host of earth’; nor is the word ever used of plant or animal life or of the other created things mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis. This is significant; it cannot be therefore, as is so often supposed, a summary of the creation of all things, for life and man are not mentioned. The Hebrew word translated ‘host’ conveys the idea of an orderly muster or arrangement, or orderly collection of things. First suggested ‘joined together for service’ as a meaning but the root meaning appears to be ‘to set in order’. Translators have usually given the hword the meainingn of ‘contain’ or contents’, assuming that all the orderly or arranged contents of the heaven and earth are referred tol But as Dr. S. R. Driver points out that to use it in this sense of the heaven anda earth is to give it an exceptional meaning. The meaning of the Greek words used in the Septuagint translation is, ‘to order, arrange, set an army in array’, ‘to marshal’.
Jastrow in his Hebrew Talmudic Dictionary gives the primary sense 'to join', 'to follow'. The sense of the Hebrew and Greek words is therefore to join or 'arrange in order', it is appropriate to an ordered arrangement or series of tablets one to six. The meaning of this verse is therefore, "And were finished (indicating the finish of a series of tablets) 'the heavens and the earth' (the title given to the six tablets) and all their arranged order ". What God had 'made' or 'done' in the six days, the context will help us to understand better still. The Authorised Version reads, "on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made", or as Professor Driver translates it, "His business which He had done". About this word 'work' Driver says, "It is the word used regularly for 'work' or 'business' forbidden on the Sabbath". It does not in any sense imply creation; it refers to ordinary daily transactions. It is significant that the word translated ‘work' in Exodus xx. 10 is from precisely the same root as the word 'made' in Genesis ii. 4. Thus, what had been made or done was an orderly collection or arrangement, a finished series of tablets numbered one to six. That which had been finished was the concluding tablet of the series of tablets, entitled "the heavens and the earth". It certainly was not that on some particular seventh day or seventh period God had finished the universe. The Hebrew word 'rested' is the
same as that translated 'ceased' in reference to the discontinuance of the manna (Joshua v. 12) when the food of Canaan became available.
At the end of verse 3 is the phrase "which God created and made"; this also seems to have perplexed every commentator. The Hebrew construction makes it very difficult to translate into English. It is a 'lamed of reference'; the stating of a motive in order to define more exactly. Dr. Driver translates it "in doing which God had created, i.e. which He had creatively done". In revealing the narrative of creation, He had instructed man who had been made in His own image and likeness. He had made man acquainted with His purposes, given him knowledge and made known His acts and mind concerning the creation of the heavens and the earth. The Septuagint Version (the oldest translation of the Old Testament from which so many of the O.T. quotations are incorporated into the N.T.) reads (hebrew), etc., "which at first God made this the written account (or book) of the genesis (or origin) of the heavens and the earth".
The failure to recognise that we are here dealing with a history or account of creation as the Septuagint plainly Puts it, written in accordance with ancient literary usages has made this colophon more than difficult for commentators to explain. For instance, Professor Skinner wrote that this "half verse is in the last degree perplexing". But the perplexity vanishes in the light of the literary methods in use in early times and now there is no need of this perplexity as to the 'descendants' of the heavens and the earth. Given its proper sig-nificance of 'histories' or "written account of the heavens and the earth" its meaning is plain.
Having examined every important word in this colophon we find its literal translation is:
"And were finished 'the heavens and the earth’ and all their series, and on the seventh day God finished His business which He had done, and He desisted on the seventh day from all His business which He had done. And God blessed the seventh day, and set it apart, for in it He ceased from all His business which God created in reference to making these the histories of 'the heavens and the earth' in their being created, in the day when Jehovah God did 'earth and heavens'."
Not one word has been used in this translation which has not the support of the great Hebrew scholars.
There remains the fifth and last of the pieces of literary information usually given in the colophon-that of the name of the author or writer. Here we are met with the fact that the only name mentioned in the colophon is that of the Lord God; yet seeing that which He did in the six days was clearly not the Creation of the Universe, but the account of its creation, the phrase "in the day that the Lord God made the earth and heaven", would seem to indicate that God was the author of the record concerning creation. Perhaps the evidence is insufficient to state that God wrote the tablets, but there is enough internal evidence that He revealed the account in the first chapter of Genesis. Was there a similarity of circumstances in the revelation of the 'Ten Words' and the ten times repeated 'God said'? In the account of the giving of the Commandments we read, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables (tablets) of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written" (Exod. xxiv. 12). "And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God," (Exod. xxxi. 18). "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tablets of testimony were in his hands. The tablets were written on both their sides, on the one side and on the other were they written, and the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tablets " (Exod. xxxii. 15). The parallel is much the same, note, " the work of God ... writing ... tablets. . . .
Did something similar take place when God revealed the account of creation?
It is worthy of note that there is no subsequent reference to God having written the Ten Commandments; it is therefore quite obvious that the Jews were not very interested in the literary methods through which the record came, but were rightly concerned with the narrative itself. They did not think so much of the method of revelation, as the fact that it had been revealed by God.
There are, of course, indications in both Old and New Testaments of a revelation made in the beginning. In such creation passages as that of Isaiah x1 we read, "Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? (lit. from the first), have ye not understood from the foundation of the earth? " (verse 21). And Hebrews iv. 4 says, "For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works". Bishop Wescott's comment on this verse is, "The subject is simply 'God' and not Scripture". In his Greek Testament, Alford says, "He (God, not Moses, nor the writings) hath spoken". The words are emphatic: God spake; this implies a direct revelation. Weymouth translates it thus, "For as we know, when speaking of the seventh day, He used the words". There can be no question that the reference in this verse is to Genesis ii. 3 and not to the Fourth Commandment. It implies that God Himself is the narrator of the account of creation on the first page of the Bible, and says it is a record of what God said to them (Gen. i. 28).
In his God the Creator (p. 16) Dr. Hendry says, "The first step of a scientific approach to theology must consist of an examination of this fundamental notion of revelation"; again, "The concept of revelation has come to be generally employed with a meaning which is quite spurious. It has ceased to be an act of Divine disclosure and it has become an act of human perception ".
A review of the evidence given in this colophon of the creation narrative (Gen. ii. 1-4) takes us back to the older view of a primeval revelation. The explanation given in this chapter enables us to understand why it is that the narrative is so sublime in its elevated simplicity, so concise yet expressive in its language, so pregnant in meaning yet uncontaminated by human speculation. It stands as God intended it should, as the first page of Scripture, as the basis of belief in God the Creator and as the original and primitive revelation from God to man.
(1) In Hebrew 4:3 genhqentwn is the First Aorist passive and does not mean finished in the sense referered to in Genesis 2:1
Chapter 6 - The Bible and Babylonian Creation Tablets
