Re: HYER'S ARTICLE IN THE JASA, 1984

Graham E. Morbey wrote:

> Reading the Creation story of Genesis as anti-idolatry polemic is
> certainly valid, in my estimation. But it is not the whole story
> because literary genre and structure need also to get their due. For
> this, let me suggest an article by Rikki E. Watts,  "On the Edge of
> the Millennium: Making Sense of Genesis 1" from Hans Boersma, ed.,
> Living in the Lamblight, (Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 2001).
> p. 129-151. Watts is quite persuasive in showing that the Egyptian
> influence on Genesis  is more important than either the Babylonian or
> Sumerian. He states, " Surprisingly, although Israel had just spent
> 400 years in Egypt, relatively little attention has been given to
> Egyptian creation accounts which one might otherwise expect to provide
> the dominant background against which Genesis 1 was heard or read..
> And considering that Genesis is traditionally described as one of the
> books of  Moses, from a literary standpoint it seems right to read it
> in the light of Israel's exodus." (pp. 138-139).

The chapter "What says the scripture?" by John H. Stek in the book by
"Portraits of Creation" also discusses the Egyptian creation mythology.
  I agree that more emphasis on the Egyptian cosmology would seem
warranted.

Keith

Keith B. Miller
Research Assistant Professor
Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
785-532-2250
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
Received on Fri Feb 20 09:48:59 2004