The Non-P Primeval History

Abstract

This chapter surveys two main levels in the non-Priestly primeval history. The first is an originally independent primeval history that likely started with the Garden of Eden story and concluded with the account of Shem’s fathering of “all of the sons of Eber”—the closest primeval equivalent the non-P author could have for later Israelites who possessed traditions of the origins of their people from post-Primeval ancestors (e.g., Abraham, Jacob) and/or out of an exodus from Egypt. This originally independent primeval history contained various materials, but it centered in particular on three stories exploring the three major types of pairs of relationships in a patriarchal primary family: (hu)man-wife (Genesis 2–3), brother-brother (Gen 4:1–16), and father-son (Gen 9:20–27). Since this history treats what it takes to be age-old truths and only features semimythic loci such as Eden (Gen 2:8) and the “land of Nod” (Gen 4:16), it provides few indicators with which to date it. Nevertheless, it seems to precede the previously discussed revision of this history through the addition of a flood narrative, a Babel account, Nimrod materials, and also some version of the non-P ancestral story that follows. These latter materials show various signs of likely authorship in the Neo-Assyrian period, drawing deeply and specifically on Mesopotamian traditions (e.g., flood narratives) and mentioning Mesopotamian topoi already prominent in the Neo-Assyrian period (e.g., Babylon, Nineveh).