Black as Evil

[Stephen Hodge]

Steve Farmer wrote:

> Not to turn this into a biblical studies, Stephen, but the
> so-called first creation account in Genesis 1 ff. is ascribed to
> the P and not E layer.

I thought you would notice my mistake -- I realized my error seconds
after I clicked on "send" and had hoped to get in a correction before
you had time to respond but I had already used my daily quota of two
posts.  I had hoped you would be enjoying a break over the weekend :)
You are, of course, quite right -- the first account of the creation
in Genesis I is P in origin and thus post-exilic in origin (some
ascribe it to Ezra and his group).   I had momentarily confused P with
E because of the repeated mention of "elohim" in this section -- as
you are doubtless aware this term for God is also used by P up until
Moses goes up Mt Sinai.  But in that case, Ganesan is perhaps on
firmer ground when he ascribes the light/dark duality to Persian
influences although I personally can't see any values ascribed to them
here -- one has to look outside the Torah for a clear concept of evil
= dark / good = light to much later para-biblical works.

> There is no more consensus on which ones are valid than there is a
consensus on stratifications in
> Vedic documents.
Well, perhaps not in the detail but there seems to be a reasonable
consensus regarding the overall sitution -- after all, biblical
scholars have been at it longer.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge