0199 McKnight introduces the social and historical conditions in which the stories of Adam and Eve were written.

0200 (Excavated) ancient Near Eastern literature sets the scene.  This literature includes the Enuma Elish, the Gilgamesh epic, Atrahasis and a Sumerian origin account.

These stories depict the creation of humans by various gods, right around the time when real work was required.  Real work indicates a job.  The job can be tending the fields, maintaining irrigation, or attending the assembly.  Work is a marker for our current Lebenswelt.

0201 These stories differ from the timeless cosmic circles of the North American Plains Indians and the time-fluid dreamtime of the Australian Aborigines.  They also differ from ancient holistic traditions remembered in Proverbs 8:22-31.  They differ from the visionary unfolding in Genesis 1.  Mystic participation is a marker for the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

0202 Here is my version of McKnight’s first thesis.

The Genesis accounts present a God that both outside of historic time and inside of historic time.

0203 The God in the first chapter of Genesis corresponds to God in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

Indeed, humans appear in verses 1:26-30 with surprising precision.  Verse 1:26 announces the intention of humans, the hand-talking hominins.  Verse 1:27 goes with the first appearance of anatomically modern humans.  Verse 1:28 touches base with the Paleolithic era, when humans displaced (oh, a little more than that) all other hominin species.  Verse 1:29 reminds me of the beginnings of agriculture.  Verse 1:30 captures the essence of the Developed Neolithic, which combined agriculture and stockbreeding: Give plants as food to the animals.

0204 The God in the second creation story corresponds to God in our current Lebenswelt.

Yes, God is the same in both eras.  Humanity is the one that falls.

0205 Here is my version of McKnight’s second thesis.

Theomachy (battles among the gods) characterizes the (excavated) public origin myths, but not the Biblical origin myth.

0206 Why would this be the case?

0207 Public ancient origin myths account for a religious and political order established through conflict.

Genesis accounts for a family tradition.

0208 Here is my version of McKnight’s third thesis.

In the first Genesis story, the “temple” created by God is the entire visible world.  In the (excavated) public origin myths, the temple is created for a god, to make visible the invisible world.

0209 These origin stories share a style common to the ancient Near East.  Each origin story illuminates the mystery of what happened during the first singularity.  The first creation story in Genesis goes so far that it envisions the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Public origin myths (as well as the family stories of Adam and Eve) cannot discern times earlier than the first singularity.

0210 Here is my version of McKnight’s fourth thesis.

All humans are made in God’s image in Genesis 1.  Humans were made to do the work of the gods in the (excavated) public origin myths.

0211 Again, the first creation story glimpses through the veil of the first singularity to the condition of humans in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Humans are icons of the divine nature.  Imagine how wonderful that must have been.  Imagine a world talking in images and indications, just like our own hand-speech talk.

At the same time, the (excavated) public origin myths envision humans in our current Lebenswelt.  There is a shimmer of insight into what came before.  The original state is chaos.  Chaos calls to mind the cultural changes that followed the adoption of speech-alone talk.