The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in ReligionGamble, Eliza Burt
Religion
The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in Religion
Gamble, Eliza Burt
Religion; Sex -- Religious aspects; Women and religion
In the Elohistic narrative of creation which appears in the first
chapter of Genesis, a dual or triune God, female and male, says, Let
us make man in our own image, and accordingly a male and a female are
created. In the Jehovistic account, however, in the second chapter of
the same book, a document of much later date, man is made first and
afterward woman. In fact, in the latter narrative she appears as an
afterthought and is created simply for his use; she is taken from
his side and is wholly dependent upon him for existence. This fact is
recognized by Bishop Colenso in the following words:
"Thus in the second account of creation, the man is APPARENTLY created
first, and the woman is CERTAINLY created the last, of all living
creatures; whereas, in the older story the man and woman are
created last of all, as the crowning work of Elohim, and are created
together--'and Elohim created man in His own image, in the image of
Elohim created He him; male and female created He them.' This ancient
Elohistic narrative, then, the Jehovist had before him; and he
enlarged and enlivened it by introducing a number of passages recording
additional incidents in the lives of the patriarchs before and after the
flood, and especially by inserting the second account of the creation,
ii., 4-25."
Colenso observes that verse four of chapter second belongs to the
Elohist, and that it was removed from its original position at
the beginning of Gen. i., in order to form the commencement of the
Jehovistic account of the creation.(95)
95) Lectures on the Pentateuch, p. 32.
Quoting from Bishop Browne in the New Bible Commentary, the same writer
remarks that in the Elohistic account of the creation "we have that
which was probably the ancient primeval record of the formation of the
world."(96)
96) Ibid. p. 16.
The oldest or Elohistic portion of Genesis is, at the present time, seen
to conceal great wisdom and a knowledge of Nature far surpassing that of
later times.
According to Higgins, the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis,
if properly translated, would not declare that in the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth, but that Wisdom "formed" the earth
and the planets. In none of the ancient Kosmogonies can there be a word
found regarding the creation of matter. From the facts which have come
down to us respecting the speculations of the ancients, it is plain
that the original conception was, that within the primeval beginnings
described in their Kosmogonies, in chaos or unorganized matter, was
contained primeval force; no attempt, however, was made by them to
account for the creation of either motion or matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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