No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
A Process Theological Interpretation of the Primeval History in Genesis 2–11
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Abstract
Genesis 2–11, or the primeval history of the Yahwist tradition, has been assessed theologically in several ways by biblical commentators over the years. The author suggests that this portion of the biblical text may be analyzed from the perspective of a process theological hermeneutic to gain new insights. In particular, one may observe the progressive involvement of Yahweh in the creative activity of establishing a world order, which is not always perfect in its developmental advance. Such a portrayal reflects not an omnipotent deity of classical theology, but rather a personal deity deeply related to the on-going creative processes of this world. Such perceptions of God dovetail well with the assumptions of process theology.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The College Theology Society 2002
References
1 Some recent critical scholars, prefer to limit the so-called “primeval history” to Gn 1–9, while maintaining that Gn 10–11 more properly belongs to the patriarchal narratives as a pre-history: Batto, Bernard, Slaying the Dragon (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992), 69Google Scholar; Hiebert, Theodore, The Yahwist's Landscape: Nature and Religion in Early Israel (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 80–82Google Scholar; and Löning, Karl and Zenger, Erich, To Begin with, God Created …: Biblical Theologies of Creation, trans. Kaste, Omar (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press/Glazier Press, 2000), 100.Google Scholar We shall work with Gn 2–11, because the pattern to be observed in this study can be traced through Gn 11.
2 Blenkinsopp, Joseph, The Pentateuch (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1992).Google Scholar
3 Seters, John Van, Abraham in History and Tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Schmid, Hans Heinrich, Der sogenannte Jahwist (Zürich: Theologische Verlag, 1976)Google Scholar; Rendtorff, Rolf, Das Ueberlieferungsgeschichtliche Problem des Pentateuch, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 147 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rose, Martin, Deuteronomist und Jahwist, Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments 67 (Zürich: Theologisches Verlag, 1981)Google Scholar; Whybray, Norman, The Making of the Pentateuch, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament—Supplement Series 53 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1987), 43–131.Google Scholar
4 Seters, John Van, Abraham, In Search of History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983)Google Scholar; Prologue to History (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992); The Life of Moses (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994); and “The Pentateuch,” in The Hebrew Bible Today, eds. McKenzie, Steven and Graham, Patrick (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998), 3–49Google Scholar; and Rose, Deuteronomist.
5 Blenkinsopp, Pentateuch.
6 Blum, Erhard, Die Komposition der Vätergeschichte, Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament 57 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1984)Google Scholar, and Studien zur Komposition des Pentateuch, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 189 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1990).
7 Hiebert, Yahwist's Landscape.
8 Carr, David, Reading the Fractures of Genesis (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996)Google Scholar, who believes that the “non-P” author wove loose Yahwistic and Elohistic oral fragments together into a unified work, and no separate organized Yahwist or Elohist existed in a self-contained form.
9 Luther, Martin, Luther's Works, vol. 1: Lectures on Genesis Chapters 1–5, ed. Pelikan, Jaroslav (St. Louis: Concordia, 1958)Google Scholar, and Luther's Works, vol. 2: Lectures on Genesis Chapters 6–14, ed. Pelikan, Jaroslav and Poellot, Daniel (St. Louis: Concordia, 1960).Google Scholar
10 von Rad, Gerhard, Old Testament Theology, 2 vols., trans. Stalker, D.M.G. (New York: Harper and Row, 1962, 1965), 1:136–65Google Scholar; Fretheim, Terence, Creation, Fall, and Flood (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1969), 1–127Google Scholar; and Louis, Kenneth Gros, “Genesis 3–11,” in Louis, Kenneth Gros and Ackerman, James, eds., Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives, vol. 2 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1982), 51.Google Scholar
11 Louis, Gros, “Genesis 3–11,” 37–52Google Scholar; Jack Sasson, “The ‘Tower of Babel’ as a Clue to the Redactional Structuring of the primeval history (Gen. 1–11),” in Rendsburg, Gary, ed., The Bible World (New York: KTAV, 1980), 211–19Google Scholar; Cohn, Robert, “Narrative Structure and Canonical Perspective in Genesis,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 25 (1983): 4–6Google Scholar; Niditch, Susan, Chaos to Cosmos (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1985), 11–69Google Scholar; Steinmetz, Devora, “Vineyard, Farm and Garden,” Journal of Biblical Literature 113 (1994): 193–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who works with the tri-partite division of Adam, Cain, and Noah; and Carr, , Fractures of Genesis, 234–40.Google Scholar Cf. Friedman, Richard Elliott, The Disappearance of God (New York: Little, Brown and Co., 1995), 7–140Google Scholaret passim, who traces the theme of the gradual disappearance of God throughout the entire Hebrew Bible.
12 Frymer-Kensky, Tikva, “The Atrahasis Epic and Its Significance for Our Understanding of Genesis 1–9,” Biblical Archaeologist 40 (1977): 147–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oden, Robert, “Divine Aspirations in Atrahasis and in Genesis 1–11,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 93 (1981): 210–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Batto, , Dragon, 51–52Google Scholar; and Carr, , Fractures of Genesis, 241–46.Google Scholar
13 Batto, , Dragon, 45–47, 50.Google Scholar
14 Carr, , Fractures of Genesis, 64.Google Scholar
15 Batto, , Dragon, 91–92.Google Scholar
16 Heschel, Abraham Joshua, The Prophets, 2 vols. (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), 2:1–103Google Scholar; Fretheim, Terence, The Suffering of God, Overtures to Biblical Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 1–166Google Scholar; and Gnuse, Robert, The Old Testament and Process Theology (St. Louis: Chalice, 2000), 83–95.Google Scholar
17 Whitehead, Alfred North, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1919)Google Scholar; The Concept of Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1920); Science and the Modern World (New York: Macmillan, 1925); Religion in the Making (New York: Macmillan, 1926); The Function of Reason (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1929); Adventure of Ideas (New York: Macmillan, 1933); Modes of Thought (New York: Macmillan, 1938); Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, corrected edition, ed. Griffin, David Ray and Sherburne, Donald (New York: Free Press, 1978).Google Scholar
18 Johnson, A.H., Whitehead's Theory of Reality (New York: Dover, 1962; 1st ed., Boston: Beacon, 1952)Google Scholar; Lawrence, Nathaniel, Whitehead's Philosophical Development (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1956)Google Scholar; Leclerc, Ivor, Whitehead's Metaphysics (New York: Macmillan, 1958)Google Scholar; Christian, William, An Interpretation of Whitehead's Metaphysics (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1959)Google Scholar; Sherburne, Donald, A Whiteheadian Aesthetic (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961)Google Scholar; and Lowe, Victor, Understanding Whitehead (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962)Google Scholar, and Alfred North Whitehead: The Man and His Work, vol. 2 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
19 Hartshorne, Charles, Beyond Humanism (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1937)Google Scholar; The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948), Reality as a Social Process (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1953); A Natural Theology for Our Time (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1967); Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1970); Whitehead's Philosophy: Selected Essays, 1935–1970 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972); Omnipotence and other Theological Mistakes (Albany, NY: SUNY, 1984).
20 Pittenger, Norman, Process Thought and Christian Faith (New York: Macmillan, 1968)Google Scholar; Reconceptions in Christian Thinking (New York: Seabury, 1968); Alfred North Whitehead (Richmond, VA: John Knox, 1969); Christology Reconsidered (London: SCM, 1970); The Christian Church as a Social Process (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971); The Divine Triunity (Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1977); Catholic Faith in a Process Perspective (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1981), as well as other volumes.
21 Ogden, Schubert, Christ Without Myth (New York: Harper and Row, 1961)Google Scholar; The Reality of God and Other Essays (New York: Harper and Row, 1977); The Point of Christology (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1982); On Theology (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986); Is There Only One True Religion or Are There Many? (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1992); Doing Theology Today (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity, 1996).
22 Cobb, John, The Structure of Christian Existence (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967)Google Scholar; God and the World (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969); Liberal Christianity at the Crossroads (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1973); A Christian Natural Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974); Christ in a Pluralistic Age (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975); Process Theology as Political Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1982); Cobb, and Griffin, David Ray, Process Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976)Google Scholar; Cobb, and Tracy, David, Talking About God (New York: Seabury, 1983).Google Scholar
23 Gnuse, , Process Theology, 27–54.Google Scholar
24 Hiebert, , Yahwist's Landscape, 63Google Scholar, who points out that although both humans and animals are called nephesh hayya (Gn 2:7, 19), translations provide different English terms in the respective passages to make humanity appear superior to the animals—the King James Version (1611, 1787) translated “living soul” (Gn 2:7) and “living creature” (Gn 2:17), while Tanakh, Jewish Publication Society translation (1985) and the New Revised Standard Version (1991) render the terms “living being” (Gn 2:7) and “living creature” (Gn 2:19) respectively.
25 Louis, Gros, “Genesis I–II,” in Louis, Kenneth Gros, Ackerman, James, and Warshaw, Thayer, eds., Literary Interpretations of Biblical Narratives (Nashville: Abingdon, 1974), 47–49Google Scholar; and Batto, , Dragon, 53Google Scholar, states, in particular, that the animals were created due to the imperfection in the created order.
26 Batto, , Dragon, 54Google Scholar, says that the woman likewise was created due to the continued imperfection of creation. Thompson, Thomas, The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 84–85Google Scholar, cleverly suggests that the Adam had become increasingly frustrated as Yahweh created each animal, and each one was not the suitable helper, so that when the woman finally was created, the Adam “sings out” with joy after his earlier “exasperation.”
27 Otwell, John, And Sarah Laughed (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977), 15–19Google Scholar; Trible, Phyllis, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, Overtures to Biblical Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978), 12–23, 79–105Google Scholar; Swidler, Leonard, Biblical Affirmations of Women (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979), 75–78Google Scholar; Westermann, Claus, Genesis 1–11, trans. Scullion, John (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984), 151–61Google Scholar; and Meyers, Carol, Discovering Eve (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 72–94.Google Scholar
28 Löning, and Zenger, , God Created, 102.Google Scholar
29 Ibid.
30 Whitehead, , Religion, 77Google Scholar, and Process and Reality, 351; Lowe, , Whitehead, 181–200Google Scholar; Pittenger, , Process Thought, 31–33Google Scholar, and Whitehead, 26, 48–51.
31 Batto, , Dragon, 57.Google Scholar
32 Ibid., 63–64.
33 These passages are discussed in greater detail in Gnuse, , Process Theology, 83–95.Google Scholar
34 Ford, Lewis, The Lure of God: A Biblical Background for Process Theism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978), 29Google Scholar; Janzen, Gerald, “Metaphor and Reality in Hosea 11,” in Beardslee, William and Lull, David, eds., Old Testament Interpretation from a Process Perspective, Semeia 23 (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982), 44–51.Google Scholar
35 Löning, and Zenger, , God Created, 125–26.Google Scholar
36 Louis, Gros, “Genesis 3–11,” 48.Google Scholar
37 Steinmetz, , “Vineyard,” 195–96Google Scholar; and Carr, , Fractures of Genesis, 239.Google Scholar
38 Batto, , Dragon, 69.Google Scholar
39 Hiebert, , Yahwist's Landscape, 80–82Google Scholar; and Löning, and Zenger, , God Created, 100.Google Scholar
40 Louis, Gros, “Genesis 3–11,” 48Google Scholar; and Steinmetz, , “Vineyard,” 200–06.Google Scholar
41 Carr, , Fractures of Genesis, 239–40.Google Scholar
42 Hiebert, , Yahwist's Landscape, 78–80.Google Scholar
43 Frye, Northrup, The Great Code: The Bible and Literature (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1982), 6–18Google Scholar; Farmer, Ronald, Beyond the Impasse: The Promise of a Process Hermeneutic, Studies in American Biblical Hermeneutics 13 (Macon, GA: Mercer, 1997), 52–58.Google Scholar