Competing Construals of Human Relations with “Animal” Others in the Primeval History (Genesis 1–11)

Abstract

This article builds on earlier, more synchronically oriented studies of “animals” in Gen 1-11 (e.g., Derrida, Strømmen), exploring the related and yet distinctly different accounts of human-animal difference in the non-P and P strands of the Genesis primeval history. Diachronic isolation of the non-P primeval texts of Genesis brings into focus the way the initial depiction of animal others in these non-P stories—especially the garden of Eden story—is part of their broader construction of a species-gender-ethnic hierarchy with an implicitly male (Hebrew) subject at its top. Meanwhile, diachronically informed analysis of Priestly texts in Genesis highlights how the P source betrays a particular interest in animal agency and welfare, while also focusing particularly on a binary separating such animals from godlike humans, all of whom are destined to rule animals. Finally, diachronically informed clarification of the distinct character of each of these textual strands can help us understand the shape and later reception of the present P/non-P combined text, showing how it has P’s picture of humans as godlike rulers (Gen 1:1-2:3) precede, undergird, and intensify non-P’s carnophallogocentric construction of a male self who dominates others (Gen 2:4b-3:24; etc.).