"Knowledge" and "Life" in the Creation Story

Abstract

When the enormous literature on the Creation story and the Paradise myth in Genesis i ff., including all detailed problems, is taken into consideration, every attempt to throw light upon the problem must seem both presumptuous and doomed to failure. It may be worthwhile to seek, and try to capture, the forms of expression which the traditions in question use, their ideological categories, and view of life, the dialectics ultimately lying behind them. According to this view the Creation story and the Paradise myth form part of first great tradition of a narrative character, Genesis to Numbers, called by me the P work or the - handed down to us by a traditionist circle, which may in the same way be called the P circle. This circle is responsible for a great deal of tradition material of a distinctive character, transmitted within the circle itself from ancient times. Keywords: Creation story; Genesis; Paradise myth; Tetrateueh