Bible is the religious text, held scared in Judaism and Christianity. Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible, known as Tanakh and the Old Testament . The term Genesis is transliterated from Greek which means ‘origin’ in English. In postbiblical Hebrew usage the first book is called ‘beresit’ meaning ‘in the beginning’ (Hamilton). The Greek name for the first book is actually translated from the Hebrew word ‘toledot’ meaning ‘begettings’ or ‘generations’ (Kessler and Deurloo). The phrase ‘elleh toledot’ have been repeated as many as ten times throughout Genesis. This phrase translates to ‘these are the Generations’ and the entire book is based on the ‘toledot’ formula (Hamilton). It starts with, “These are the Generations of the heavens and the earth” (Gn. 2:4) and the remainder is used to gradually describe the family line from Adam to Jacob. Genesis, as the meaning suggests, talks …show more content…
The first account of Genesis creation myth has a lot of continuity with the pagan creation myth. The beginning of both the accounts with a circumstantial clauses followed by the actual story of creation can be cited as an instance for literary continuity between both the texts. Also many points of similarity can be found in their content. Both the accounts have a primeval, dark and watery state prior to the creation and neither attributes this state to the Creator. Further, these two accounts have a similar order of the creation (Waltke). Heidel in his book ‘The Babylonian Genesis’ has sketched the basic similarities in detail between the chronological sequence of the creation of the cosmos in these two accounts (Waltke): Enuma elish Genesis Divine spirit and cosmic matter Divine spirit creates cosmic are coexistent and coeternal matter and