Creation and Chaos

A Reconsideration of Hermann Gunkel's Chaoskampf Hypothesis

JoAnn Scurlock, Richard H. Beal

• Publisher: Eisenbrauns
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781575062792
• eBook ISBN: 9781575068657
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

Hermann Gunkel was a scholar in the generation of the origins of Assyriology, the spectacular discovery by George Smith of fragments of the "Chaldean Genesis," and the Babel-Bibel debate. Gunkel's thesis, inspired by materials supplied to him by the Assyriologist Heinrich Zimmern, was to take the Chaoskampf motif of Revelation as an event that would not only occur at the end of the world but had already happened at the beginning, before Creation. In other words, in this theory, one imagines God in Genesis 1 as first having battled Rahab, Leviathan, and Yam (the forces of Chaos) in a grand battle, and only then beginning to create.

The problem with Gunkel's theory is that it did not simply identify common elements in the mythologies of the ancient Near East but imposed upon them a structure dictating the relationships between the elements, a structure that was based on inadequate knowledge and a forced interpretation of his sources. On the other hand, one is not entitled to insist that there was no cultural conversation among peoples who spent the better part of several millennia trading with, fighting, and conquering one another.

Creation and Chaos attempts to address some of these issues. The contributions are organized into five sections that address various aspects of the issues raised by Gunekl's theories.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: From Hesiod’s Abyss to Ovid’srudis indigestaque moles Chaos and Cosmos in the Babylonian “Epic of Creation
• Chapter 2: On the Theogonies of Hesiod and the Hurrians An Exploration of the Dual Natures of Teššub and Kumarbi
• Chapter 3: Creation in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
• Chapter 4: Searching for Meaning in Genesis 1:2 Purposeful Creation out of Chaos without Kampf
• Chapter 5: The Fifth Day of Creation in Ancient Syrian and Neo-Hittite Art
• Chapter 6: Once upon a Time in Kiškiluša The Dragon-Slayer Myth in Central Anatolia
• Chapter 7: The Northwest Semitic Conflict Myth and Egyptian Sources from the Middle and New Kingdoms
• Chapter 8: Yamm as the Personification of Chaos ? A Linguistic and Literary Argument for a Case of Mistaken Identity
• Chapter 9: Chaos and Creation Hermann Gunkel between Establishing the“History of Religions School,” Acknowledging Assyriology,and Defending the Fait
• Chapter 10: Where Is Eden ? An Analysis of Some of the Mesopotamian Motifs in Primeval J
• Chapter 11: Babel-Bible-Baal
• Chapter 12: The Combat Myth as a Succession Story at Ugarit
• Chapter 13: What Are the Nations Doing in the Chaoskampf ?
• Chapter 14: The Combat Myth in Israelite Tradition Revisited
• Chapter 15: The Three “Daughters” of Baʿaland Transformations of Chaoskampf in the Early Chapters of Genesis
• Chapter 16: Chaoskampf Lost—Chaoskampf Regained The Gunkel Hypothesis Revisited
• Chapter 17: Making All Things New (Again) Zephaniah’s Eschatological Vision of a Return to Primeval Time
• Index