_{Handout 13}

Old Testament ← vs. → ANE View of Creation & the Cosmos

Definition: “Cosmology”

Our understanding of what the cosmos is, and how it operates, is our “cosmology.” For anyone who believes in one God (such as Christians, Jews, and Muslims), their understanding of God is part of their cosmology. The ANE pagan view of the gods and the cosmos can be called ANE pagan cosmology.

Among pagan nations, there are different names for their gods, and there are some differences in how they understand things. But their general understanding of how the cosmos operates = pagan cosmology, is essentially the same among pagans.

Introduction:

1. Why Christians Should Know Something about ANE / Pagan Cosmology:

   1. Some scholars claim that Israel’s religion came from the nations surrounding it, and is not all that different. There are some points of similarity, as we will see. However, there are radical differences. If we become familiar with the ANE pagan cosmology, it will help us to see how different it is from the way the Old Testament understands God & the cosmos.

   2. A better understanding of the ANE pagan view of the world can help us to see why it is false.

   3. However, a better understanding of ANE pagan cosmology can perhaps help us to better understand & interpret the creation account in Genesis 1.

2. Three Helpful Questions for Comparing & Contrasting OT Cosmology from ANE Cosmology:

   When it comes to sorting out the similarities and differences between the OT and ANE cosmology, it is helpful to think in terms of three categories / three questions:

   1. What is there? What is the cosmos like? (See section I just below.)

   2. How did it get there? (See section II below.)

   3. How does it work? (See section III below.)

   The next three sections of the handout take these questions up in turn.

I. What is There? What is the Cosmos Like?

A. The Ancient Near Eastern View of the Cosmos = ANE Cosmology

The ANE view of the cosmos was quite different from our modern understanding of it. While there are modest differences from one culture to the next, the following features are common to ANE cosmology:

The common view is that the cosmos consists of three major tiers / major levels:

• the upper tier: the heavens;
• the middle tier: the earth;
• the lower tier: the netherworld beneath.

The earth

was believed to consist of a single great continent, thought of as a flat round disk, that had high mountains at the edge to hold up the sky.

The sky

was thought of as **solid**; usu. as a vaulted dome; sometimes as a tent. **It stays in place**.

Rain & clouds

– rain came from the waters above the sky, and fell to earth through holes in the sky; sometimes the clouds were thought to be 'buckets' which carried rain around.

The "heavens"

≠ the sky; rather, the heavens are **above** the sky, and are where the gods live.

The sun and the moon

– were thought to move through the sky, and then to go under the earth, transit the netherworld, and appear again to move through the sky again, over and over.

The stars

– were thought to be engraved in the sky, and/or moved in defined tracks in the sky.

The 'cosmic waters'

– flow all around the earth. They are held back by the sky, and by the mountains at the edge of the earth. As a minimum, there were waters above the sky, and waters beneath the earth. One might say that the earth and sky separated the waters from the waters.

The netherworld

– was the vaguely-defined realm beneath the earth. It was where the sun went during the night, and where the moon went during the day. It was generally held to be the realm of the dead (but views on this varied considerably).

In sum, it is fair to describe ANE cosmology as:

1. pre-scientific, and
2. it describes the cosmos as you see it.

Question:

When the Old Testament describes the earth & the cosmos, does it use language & imagery that is similar to what we find in the ANE accounts, or does it consistently describe the cosmos with different language & imagery?

B. The Way the Old Testament Describes the Earth & the Cosmos:

In recent years, conservative scholars who have compared OT cosmology to ANE cosmology have made the following two observations:

1. The OT uses similar language & imagery to describe the earth & the cosmos as does the rest of the Ancient Near East. Some examples:

   • Genesis 1:6,7

     And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so.

   • Genesis 7:11

     In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life… on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.

   • Exodus 20:4

     “Do not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

   • Job 22:14 [This is Job complaining about God.]

     Thick clouds veil him,…, and He walks on the vault of the heavens.

     [+ See⚠️ Job 37:18, the sky is “hammered out.”]

   • Psalm 24:2 [Speaking of “the earth,” from v. 1 of the psalm.]

     …for He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the rivers.

   • Psalm 104:5

     He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.

   • Psalm 148:4

     Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the skies.

     [+ See Prov 8:24-29.]

   • Amos 9:6

     [God] who builds his upper chambers in the heavens, and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth.

   _{To Note:}

   Most of these passages are poetic. So they might be figurative, even artistic descriptions. They might not require that we take them to be precise scientific statements about the cosmos. Nonetheless, here is the point: the language & imagery with which the Old Testament describes the earth & the cosmos is often similar to the language & imagery used in the rest of ancient Near East.

2. The Old Testament does not seem to go out of its way to correct the ANE view of the cosmos.

   But by way of striking contrast⚠️ → the OT certainly does challenge and correct the ANE view of the gods, and of how to serve a ‘god’. The OT also has a very different understanding of how the earth & the cosmos were created, and how they operate. This brings us to the next two sections.

II. How Did the Earth & the Cosmos Get Here? How Were They Created?

A. The General Features of ANE Creation Accounts:

We listed the features commonly found in ANE creation accounts in H/O #03, §II (= Herm. H/O #10). Among them are:

• The gods did not truly create the universe, rather, the gods themselves somehow arose out of the primitive dark waters (“chaos”).

• The gods mate and produce offspring. They fight and quarrel and even kill each other.

• You must feed your gods to keep them strong. If not, demons will drag the cosmos back into chaos.

• Humans were created to do the hard work of raising crops and animals, and offering sacrifices to feed the gods to keep them strong. They are not said to be created “in the image of God.”

B. Striking Points of Difference between the Creation Accounts in the ANE versus the OT:

The Old Testament’s view of God & creation has striking, indeed, radical⚠️ differences from the pagan ANE creation accounts.

From the above chart we can see that the Bible’s understanding of God, creation, & the cosmos is radically different from the pagan views of the nations surrounding OT Israel in the ancient Near East.

However, once we are familiar with the general pagan / ANE view of creation & the cosmos, if we re-read Genesis 1, we will also note some points of similarity.

C. Some Points of Similarity between the Creation Accounts in the ANE and in Genesis:

When one re-reads Genesis 1 after learning about the ancient Near East’s view of creation & the cosmos, one can observe some points of similarity; among them are:

A modern Christian reader who has not learned a fair amount about the pagan / ANE views of creation & the cosmos, would probably not notice these points of similarity. But they are there. And they suggest a way that we might be able to interpret Genesis 1. We turn to that next.

D. A Possible Way to Understand the Creation Account in Genesis 1:

We have just made the following two observations:

1. The way the Old Testament describes the features of the earth & the cosmos is generally similar to the way it is described in the rest of the ancient near-east.

2. And there are also some points of similarity between Genesis 1 and the ANE creation accounts, namely: God separates things, names them, and gives them a function; then comes into his rest.

Perhaps → Genesis 1 should be understood in the context of the time & place in which it was written, namely, in the ancient near-east around 2,000 BC.

In view of the above observations, some conservative interpreters (= interpreters who believe the Bible is true), conclude that → the creation account in Genesis 1 should not be read as if it is a modern scientific account. Rather, it should be read and understood through the lens of the time in which was written, ≈ 1,500 BC, in the ancient Near East.

That is, it should be understood in light of what we know about ANE cosmology. They would argue that this is how Genesis 1 was intended to be read.

If that is the case, then Genesis 1 was not written to tell us how long ago, or in precisely what manner, the earth & the cosmos were created. Rather, it was written to tell us → the purpose & function of the features of the cosmos, and what is the relationship of the cosmos to God.

A non-Israelite who lived at the time of Moses (≈ 1,500 BC), and who read Genesis 1, would have recognized the points of similarity that we have noted above. However, he also would have also been struck by the very great differences⚠️ between Genesis 1 and the general ANE understanding of how the cosmos was created.

III. How Does the Cosmos Operate? How Does It Work?

A. The ANE / Pagan Understanding of How the Cosmos Operates

• In Terms of the 'gods' and the Cosmos:

  In the ancient Near East they did see a difference between → the physical and the spiritual realms.

  However, in their view, there was no distinction between the ‘natural’ and the ‘supernatural’. Rather, every aspect of nature was associated with some god.

  They didn’t think in terms of “divine intervention,” because to them, their gods were involved with everything. The features of the cosmos are all directly connected to the gods; the gods operate them And the chaos-gods are always trying to reduce everything back to chaos. For ANE pagans, that is how the cosmos operates.

• In Terms of Warfare between Nations = their 'gods' Battling Each Other:

  The outcome of a battle between ANE nations was commonly viewed as the outcome of a battle between their gods. This is reflected in 2 Kings 18:32–35, in the days of king Hezekiah of Judah (701 BC). The commander of the Assyrian army has Jerusalem surrounded, and he warns them:

  32 …And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” […] 35Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

  This idea can also be seen in Psalm 79. Psalm 79 is a lament over the destruction of Jerusalem & the temple in 587 BC. It calls upon God to act and to vindicate himself. It suggests that the nations are laughing at Israel, and are scornfully asking, “Where is their God?” (Ps 79:10; see also Ps 115:2).

  Similarly, the Pharaoh and the Egyptians would definitely have viewed the 10 plagues as a contest between Israel’s God and the gods of Egypt.

  _{In Sum:}

  The ANE view of the operation of the cosmos was that the gods actively, personally operate the features of the cosmos. And there is always the danger that things might go awry (droughts, floods, pestilence, etc.) if the gods become weak, or if they are defeated by demons or by the chaos-gods.

B. The Biblical View of How the Cosmos Operates:

The biblical view has three fundamental elements:

1. The universe / the creation, is distinct from the Creator. It is not an extension of him.

2. God created the cosmos / the universe by an act of his will out of nothing.

3. Its operation is maintained by God’s power and his will.

Some passages that reflect this view are:

• Genesis 1 (the entire chapter)

• Genesis 8:22 The seasons, day & night, seedtime & harvest, will not fail as long as the earth remains.

• Job 38 (the entire chapter)

• Jeremiah 33:20–26

  20 “Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, 21then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne […] 25Thus says the LORD: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, 26then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

• Isaiah 40:26

  Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.

• Colossians 1:15–17

  15 He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

• Hebrews 1:1–3

  1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

• Hebrews 11:2

  By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

There is nothing in the Bible that speaks of Yahweh battling death & chaos or demons (or whatever) to maintain the present order of the cosmos. Rather, God is sovereign, and governs the entirety of the cosmos by his power and his will. Thus there is no fear of the cosmos degenerating back into chaos.

Also, the fact that God is sovereign, that there are no chaotic or demonic forces outside his control, that He has ordained an orderly universe with “fixed laws,” provides a foundation for → science.

IV. Conclusions Re: The OT versus the ANE View of Creation & the Cosmos:

1. There are points of similarity between them.

   • The language & imagery with which the Old Testament describes the earth & the cosmos is generally similar to that used elsewhere in the ancient Near East. The Old Testament certainly does not go out of its way to correct the ANE view.

   • There are also noteworthy points of similarity between the biblical and the ANE creation accounts (God separates things, names them, and gives them a function, then comes into his rest, etc.).

2. If we interpret Genesis 1 in light of the points of similarity, it is reasonable to conclude that it was not intended to provide us a scientific, chronologically strict account of creation.

   In the assessment of some recent conservative interpreters, Genesis 1 does not intend to set forth a scientifically or chronologically precise account of creation. Rather, its intent is to inform us of the purpose & function of the main elements of creation, and of their relationship to God. This view leaves the question of the age of the universe, and the precise manner of creation, as a question for science.

3. Yet the differences between them are striking and radical, both in terms of the creation and also the ongoing operation of the cosmos.

   No other nation in the world surrounding ancient Israel was monotheistic. All of them have a pagan / ANE view of the creation & the operation of the cosmos. The view of creation held by ancient Israel, as set forth in the Old Testament, is truly unique in contrast to the nations surrounding her. No one from the ancient Near East reading Genesis 1 would have missed this.

4. Therefore the notion—commonly held by skeptics of the Bible—that Israel’s view of creation & the cosmos was basically ‘borrowed from her neighbors’, is entirely unconvincing.

   Three Bible passages come to mind when I think of the skeptics who hold such a view: Isaiah 6:10; Acts 26:24; Romans 1:18–23.

5. The ANE/pagan view of the cosmos has been shown to be false.

   The ANE/pagan view of the cosmos insists that sacrifices must⚠️ be offered to the ‘good’ gods to keep them strong, so that they can overcome the demons & chaos-gods. If the sacrifices are not continued, the “good gods” will become weak, and will be defeated by the “chaos gods,” and then the entire world will revert to chaos.

   But with the rise of Christianity (and also Islam), paganism was virtually wiped out in Europe, N. Africa, and the Middle-East → which means the sacrifices needed by the good gods ceased to be offered → which means the world should have descended into chaos. But the sun keeps coming up every day, and the seasons come around every year. We’re still here. Paganism is false.