From Creation to Babel: Studies in Genesis 1-11Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014 M04 24 - 208 pages The stories of Genesis 1-11 constitute one of the better known parts of the Old Testament, but their precise meaning and background still provide many debated questions for the modern interpreter. In this stimulating, learned and readable collection of essays, which paves the way for his forthcoming ICC commentary on these chapters, John Day attempts to provide definitive solutions to some ofthese questions. Amongst the topics included are the background and interpretation of the seven-day Priestly Creation narrative, problems in the interpretation of the Garden of Eden story, the relation of Cain and the Kenites, the strange stories of the sons of God and daughters of men and of Noah's drunkenness and the curse of Canaan, the precise ancient Near Eastern background of the Flood story and the preceding genealogies, and the meaning and background of the story of the tower and city of Babel. Throughout this volume John Day constantly seeks to determine the original meaning of these stories in the light of their ancient Near Eastern background, and to determine how far this original meaning has been obscured by later interpretations. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Chapter 2 PROBLEMS IN THE INTERPRETATION OF THE STORY OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN | 24 |
Chapter 3 CAIN AND THE KENITES | 51 |
Chapter 4 THE FLOOD AND THE TEN ANTEDILUVIAN FIGURES IN BEROSSUS AND IN THE PRIESTLY SOURCE IN GENESIS | 61 |
DISPUTED POINTS IN THE INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 614 | 77 |
Chapter 6 THE GENESIS FLOOD NARRATIVE IN RELATION TO ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN FLOOD ACCOUNTS | 98 |
Chapter 7 ROOMS OR REEDS IN NOAHS ARK GENESIS 614? | 113 |
Chapter 8 WHY DOES GOD ESTABLISH RATHER THAN CUT A COVENANT WITH NOAH AND ABRAHAM IN THE PRIESTLY SOURCE? | 123 |
Chapter 9 NOAHS DRUNKENNESS THE CURSE OF CANAAN HAMS CRIME AND THE BLESSING OF SHEM AND JAPHETH GENESIS 91827 | 137 |
Chapter 10 WHERE WAS TARSHISH GENESIS 104? | 154 |
PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION AND BACKGROUND | 166 |
| 189 | |
| 215 | |
| 226 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Akkadian Alten Testament Ancient Near Eastern antediluvian Àood hero Àood story Atrahasis epic attested Babylon Babylonian berît Berossus Berossus’s Biblical Book of Genesis Brill Cain Canaan Canaanite century BCE Chapter Commentary covenant creation curse Curse of Ham dif¿cult divine earlier earth Enoch Ezek Garden Genesis 2–3 Gilgamesh epic God’s gods Greek gures Ham’s heavens Hebrew Bible Hendel human idem implies Israel Israelites Japheth Kenites King List Kittim kƗrat later Leiden London meaning Mesopotamian Àood Moreover Myth narrative Nephilim Neukirchen–Vluyn Neukirchener Verlag Noah Noah’s noted Old Testament original Oxford parallel Pentateuch Phoenician Priestly Priestly source reÀects reeds reference sacri¿ce scholars Septuagint serpent Seters Shef¿eld Shem similarly sons speci¿cally Studies Sumerian Sumerian King List Targum Tarshish Tartessos tower of Babel tradition trans translation Ugaritic University Press Utnapishtim Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht verb word Yahweh Yahwist ziggurat