Chapter Five In the Beginning

Although myths of the beginning and the end are ostensibly placed on a temporal continuum, referring to the past and the future respectively, the significance of these myths is focused on the present (van der Leeuw; Pettazzoni: 29; Westermann, 1972). In other words, these myths are about the present values and conditions of the people who generated them rather than the obscure past or the unknown future. Not all readers of these myths, however, have recognized their present orientation. In part, this is due to a failure by many readers to recognize the mythic character of the Bible’s stories and descriptions of the beginning and the end. But more important, many if not most readers of the Bible – scholars and laity alike – have failed to distinguish between their own temporal orientation and the temporal orientation of traditional societies, including ancient Israel.