LamarkNewAge
Member Posts: 2323 Joined: 12-22-2015 Member Rating: 1.2
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Message 1 of 3 (782770)
04-28-2016 6:05 PM
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Here is what the conservative ex Pope Joseph Ratzinger said.
quote:
A New Song For The Lord
Joseph Ratzinger
1995
p.86
Thus, cultic, social, and eschatological dimensions permeate one another. The cult rooted in biblical faith is not an imitation of the course of the world in miniature-as is the case for the basic form of all cults of nature. It is an imitation of God himself and therefore a preliminary exercise in the world to come. Only in this way does one properly understand the singularity of the biblical creation account. The pagan creation accounts on which the biblical story is in part based end without exception in the establishment of a cult, but the cult in this case is situated in the cycle of do ut des. The gods create humans in order to be fed by them; the humans need the gods to keep the course of the world in order. As I have already said, the biblical creation account, too, must definitely be seen, at least in a certain sense, as the establishment of a cult. But here cult means the liberation of humans through their participation in the freedom of God
The pagan creation accounts, and he is referring to Enuma Elish and the establishment of the Murduk cult. He feels that genesis was a polemic, that wrapped real history (creation) around a format established by the Babylonian account and its outline of history to overthrow it. Here is more Catholic endorsed text scholarship to reinforce the point of borrowing Canaanite and Mesopotamian myths.
quote:
Collegeville Bible Commentary
NIHIL OBSTAT: Robert C. Harren, J. C. L.
IMPRIMATUR: +Jerome Hanus, O. S. B.
Bishop St Cloud Minnesota
October 19, 1988 (COPYRIGHT 1992 by The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota)
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p.38
THE PRIESTLY CREATION ACCOUNT
Gen 1:1-2:4a
The Book of Genesis opens with a highly structured, hymn like account of creation by the Priestly author. Though there are similarities between this account and the Babylonian creation account, the Enuma elish, the Priestly author has reinterpreted and rewritten the ancient myth to reflect Israel’s distinctive theology.
p.39
God then created the sky (vv. 6-8), which separates the waters above the heavens from the waters below. The cosmology envisioned by the author is one that he shared with the rest of the ancient Near Eastern world. Water surrounded the entire world and was held back only by the heavens above and the earth below. It threatened to overwhelm the earth, especially when storms and floods enveloped the earth. The sky was pictured as a bowl set upside down to keep the upper waters in place. This bowl had windows, allowing the rain, snow, or hail to reach the earth. The waters below appeared on earth as streams, lakes, and springs.
..
p.48
6:1-4 (J) The intermarriage of the divine and the human. This is no doubt one of the strangest stories in the Old Testament. It appears to be a shortened myth taken over by the Yahwist and rewritten to serve as an introduction to the account of the flood. The sons of heaven (literally sons of the gods or sons of God) are certainly gods and not angels, as is often assumed. In ancient mythology the sons of God were considered members of the heavenly council, lesser deities that were of service to the high god.
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p.690
God’s power is not limited to the heavenly bodies and the earth, but extends even to the realm of Death, variously called the land of shades, the nether world, and Abaddon (place of destruction) (vv. 5-6). In the ancient mythology, the North was the place where the gods dwelled. As if putting up a tent, God stretches out the North over the primordial chaos (the same Hebrew word as Gen 1:2 used to describe the disorder from which creation, or ordering, began); the earth is then hung over the same primordial no-thing (v. 7). It would be anachronistic to see later ideas here, such as creation out of nothing or our view of the world hanging, as it were, in space. The next two verses (vv. 8-9) deal with the clouds, first viewed as cosmic wineskins intended to hold the rain, and then seen as the dark clouds which cover the light of the moon and upon which the storm-god rides out to battle.
God then marks out the horizon of the ocean, which is the place where we see the separation of night and day (v. 10). The cosmic pillars (v.11) hold up the heavens, that is, the dish-shaped dome (or firmament) that keeps out the waters above (see Gen 1:6-8). God’s rebuke (v.11) is the storm-god’s thunder or war cry, which strikes fear in the heart of God’s foes (see Ps. 104:7-9). Verses 12-12 name the sea dragon, the mythological figure for chaos: God stirs up Sea (better than NAB the sea), crushes Rahab, and splits open the dragon.
Here is a good historian and his view.
quote:
ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN HISTORY AND CULTURE
WILLIAM H. STIEBING Jr.
(Longman Publishers, 2003)
p.48
Another creation story known essentially from its early Babylonian epic version probably also had Sumerian roots. It claims that the gods were begotten by a union of the male Abzu (the fresh water ocean) and female Tiamat (the salt-water ocean). A council of the gods chose one of their number (Enlil according to the Sumerians, Marduk according to the Babylonians) to meet the watery goddess in battle. He defeated Tiamat, cut her carcass in two and used one half as a dome over the sky and the other half as the surface of the deep.
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p.49
Sumerian creation stories and cosmology not only influenced that of later Mesopotamians, but also became basic to the mythology of many other parts of the Near East. They were borrowed by Hurrians, Hittites, and Canaanites. Two separate creation stories ultimately derived from Mesopotamia can be found in the biblical Book of Genesis. The earlier of the two accounts (Genesis 2:4b-25, placed second in the Bible by later editors) envisions an anthropomorphic deity shaping man from clay. God also plants trees and other vegetation to make a garden in a place called Eden that is watered by four rivers, two of which are the Tigris and the Euphrates. The other creation story in Genesis (1:1-2:4a), a demythologized version of the conflict between the creator and a sea monster, has God create the universe by his words alone. Like Mesopotamian cosmology, this account envisions the earth floating on water and surmounted by a solid dome of sky (the firmament) that holds back the waters above the firmament. Moreover, the word tehom in this account, usually translated the deep, is the Hebrew linguistic equivalent of Akkadian Tiamat. Other Bible passages show that the ancient Israelites knew and generally accepted the older version of this story in which creation takes place only after God fights and kills a chaotic sea monster or dragon.
. p.64
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24. In the Bible, as in Canaanite mythology, the evil sea monster is known by a variety of names: Yam (Sea), Rahab (the Raging One?), Leviathon (or Lothan), Tannin (the Serpent or Dragon), and Tehom (the Primeval Sea). Allusions to the battle between God and this monster can be found in Psalms 74:13-17 and 89:9-12 (10-13 in Hebrew); Isaiah 27:1, and 51:9-10, 12-13; and in Job 3:8; 7:12; 9:13; 26:12-13; and 40:25 in addition to Genesis 1.
Here is a dictionary by leading protestant conservative/fundamentalist scholars.
quote:
Illustrated dictionary of the bible
HERBERT LOCKYER, SR., EDITOR
with F.F. Bruce and R.K. Harrison
( Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986) .
Scores of leading evangelical scholars contributed articles for this project.
.
-The Publishers
.
p.898
RAHAB THE DRAGON [RAY hab] (agitated)-a mythological sea monster or dragon representing the evil forces of chaos that God subdued by His creative power. The name Rahab as it occurs in Job 9:13 (NIV), Job 26:12 (NIV), Psalm 87:4 and 89:10, Isaiah 30:7 (NIV), and Isaiah 51:9 has no connection with the personal name of Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, in Joshua 2:1-21. The reference to Rahab in the books of Job, Psalms, and Isaiah speak of an evil power overcome by God.
God’s smiting of Rahab is described in Job 26:12 (NIV) to signify God’s power over the chaos of primeval waters at the Creation. The NKJV translates as the storm for Rahab.
.
..
p.293
DEEP, THE-a vast space, expanse, or abyss. He term is used in Scripture in several ways. The first use occurs in Genesis 1:2: The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep (Gen. 1:2). The word may refer in this phrase to the chaos existing at creation, or it may indicate the vast expanse of waters which covered the earth at creation (Ps. 104:6; Prov. 8:28).
ANOTHER TOPIC The use of Canaanite Baal mythology. Zaphon was the abode of Baal in Canaanite texts from c.1300 BCE. His palace was there. It was made of gold. It is also mentioned many times in the Bible. "Out of Zaphon comes golden splendor." in Job 37:22 for example.
quote:
Monotheism and Yahweh's Appropriation of Baal
By James S. Anderson In Job 37.22, the mention that golden splendor emanates from Zaphon makes the connection with Baal's mountain almost certain, since the Baal Cycle describes Baal's palace atop Zaphon as being made from this precious metal.
....
... Clines, Job 21—37, 885 points to KTU 1.4.
Monotheism and Yahweh's Appropriation of Baal - James S. Anderson - Google Books
It is mentioned in the Psalms in multiple places. Seems that there is synchronization here. So much for uniqueness. Edited by LamarkNewAge, : No reason given.
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