The Book of Genesis

The book of Genesis consists of numerous different stories written in different styles, by different people conveying various messages. Numerous devices are used in order to communicate the meaning of each story. Although all of them describe people in the ancient Israel, in particular their life and relationships, there is a deep subtext in them. Evidently, each story is based on the faith in God and knowledge that He is powerful. However, many stories in Genesis are duplicates (stories told more than once) and, moreover, most of them are mixed. Evidently, different Jewish traditions had different names for God. Consequently, in the Bible God is called different names, which sometimes helps to identify the author of the text. In my essay I will focus on the story written by the person who call God “Yahweh” (Jehovah) and therefore is named the “J-author”, and the “P- author” (priestly source, or based on the documentary hypothesis theory by Julius Wellhausen.

Creation

The Creation story, in particular, the “J” part of it, has two layers. The first one is what is seen on the surface: God playing with mud, not expecting that it would result in anything particular. It is ironic that the very idea to create the man seems to appear unexpectedly and throughout