It’s important to understand the nuance in this statement, because it’s easy to misunderstand it to mean “the Bible is simply a derivative re-telling of older myths.” That’s not what the Church is saying. Rather, it’s that (for example) the creation story of Genesis 1 has definite parallels to the creation myths of the Babylonians. The Jews, in exile, were confronted with a story that taught that the gods fought and killed one another, that humans were created from a god’s corpse and a demon’s blood, and that our existence is intended purely to give the gods something to play with and torment. The creation account in Genesis, then, isn’t meant as a
copy of that myth, but as a
rebuttal to it. Similarly, there were older flood epics in existence, and the inspired writer told his story in a completely new and different way: the flood event is one way that God teaches us that there’s no such thing as populations who are irredeemable and other populations who are completely free from temptation and sin; rather, we all can be tempted and we all must work at keeping our concupiscence at bay. Again, not derivative – inspired to teach us about God’s plan for us.
God knew; it was
Adam who needed to learn that lesson…
Thanks for that info on the Babylonian myth.
I’ve just re-read the part about the animals :
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam[f] no suitable helper was found.
God had already made the animals as in Gen 1. Adam names them, but none would be suitable to procreate, not be helpers, because many animals have helped humans and still do for work etc.
So what did Adam have to learn? That animals were not on his level for intelligence, emotional needs or sexual?
That is why Gen 2 sounds more like a role of Man and Woman, but not as equals, woman is made as a helper when no other animal could satisfy Man on all levels.
Gen 1 states it clearly :
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.
So God creates Man and woman, blessing them, telling them to be fruitful and multiply, there is no lesson to be learnt here in Gen 1. Both are made in Gods imagine one for the other, not as an after thought by God or Adam.
