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A5pointer · #94 (**permalink**) 03-27-2008, 04:44 PM

I just read over some work on this in an unpublished book on Biblical symbols and images. The Author attributes this structure's intent to bring focus to the 7th day where God unlike mesopotamian gods finishes and rests. Points of note.

1. There are not qualifiers "there was morning and evening" like the other days. Thus highlighting Yahweh's eternal rest from creating.

2.The structure is as seen is a 3/3/1 pattern of offsetting parallelism as has been seen above with focus on the 1(the seventh day)

3. The number 7 seen as a symbol for fullness or completeness in ancient literature including the Bible.

4. It may be unreasonable to see eternal God operating in time at all in creation. Lending support to instantaneous creation.

5. Why 2 accounts of creation? ANE tought of word/deed. Power was thought to be held in words and deeds. The first account shows God speaking the second shows God doing things thus confirming the His power thru word and deed.

There is more. I find it compelling. The Author in recognizing the occassion of the book concludes:

"Looking at the careful way Moses structured this account in terms of what he says (the content) as well as how he says it (the form), combined with the occasion on which it was written, the only conclusion which does full justice to all of the facts at hand is that Genesis 1:1-2:4a is not designed to be a scientific account of creation "the way it happened." Moses had a purpose here far different; one that fit his situation-- the situation the people he was leading out of bondage in Egypt were confronted with-- and it was that situation he addressed with brilliance and cogency in terms of the structure and the substance of his account."

This work is contained in a chapter on the "Sea" as a biblical symbol and image" I can e-mail the chapter to anyone who would like to take a look. My summary does not do it justice.