Black as Evil

[Steve Farmer]

Stephan Hodge writes:

> The chapter of Genesis that Ganesan mentions [i.e., Gen. 1 ff.] belongs to
> the E source rather than the J (not Y, by the way) source.

And in his earlier post:

> This portion of Genesis is Elohist (E) and is generally dated in
> toto to c750BCE.

Not to turn this into a biblical studies, Stephan, but the
so-called first creation account in Genesis 1 ff. is ascribed to
the P and not E layer -- placing it many hundreds of years later
than you date it. The distinction isn't a quibble, since the kind
of transcendent deity that you find in Genesis 1 ff. doesn't
appear in either E or J. It is critical to note that such views
didn't exist before the mid part of the first millennium BCE. E
begins with the story of Abraham and not with the creation.

Many layers have been proposed by scholars after the four in
Graf-Wellhausen (J, E, D, P). There is no more consensus on which
ones are valid than there is a consensus on stratifications in
Vedic documents.