Introduction

Genesis does not contain the only recording of creation. It turns out that before Moses wrote Genesis 1, other civilizations in that part of the world had already recorded their own myths on how the world first formed. The most important of these is Egypt's.

 

Moses grew up in Egypt, and was raised as a son of Pharaoh's daughter. He learned their customs, their science, their religion, and their myths. With this as his background, and the revelation that there is one and only one God, he was divinely inspired to write Genesis 1.

 

Egyptian Creation Myth

Following is a summary of the ancient Egyptian Creation myth that Moses would have grown up with. The parallels with the hydrosphere of earth, and the first four days of Genesis 1 are uncanny. As in Genesis 1, the "creation" sequence is 1)Light and Dark, 2)Firmament, 3)Plants, 4)The sun.

 

 

Nu was the name of the dark, swirling chaos before the beginning of time.

-- Read about the hydrosphere (Genesis 1:1b, Genesis 1:3, Genesis 1:4)

 

Out of these waters rose Atum; he created himself using his thoughts and the sheer force of his will.

-- An inspiration for the name Adam?

-- Adam is a type of Jesus, who was the master craftsman for creation (Genesis 1:1a)

 

He created a hill, for there was nowhere he could stand.

-- Jesus had nowhere to stand during creation. He used the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:5)

 

Atum was alone in the world. He was neither male nor female, and he had one all-seeing eye

that could roam the universe. He joined with his shadow to produce a son and a daughter.

-- Adam and Eve's downfall resulted first from what God told them, and later Satan

 

Atum gave birth to his son by spitting him out. He named him Shu and made him god of the air.

 

Atum vomited up his daughter. He named her Tefnut and made her the goddess of mist and moisture.

 

Shu and Tefnut were given the task of separating the chaos into principles of law, order and stability.

The chaos was divided into light and dark and set into place.

-- Day 1

 

This order was called Maat, which formed the principles of life for all time. Maat was a feather; it was light and pure.

 

Shu and Tefnut produced Geb, the Earth and Nut the Sky. At first these two were tangled together as one.

-- Similar to Genesis 1:4, where the torrential clouds, torrential rains and the deep were practically connected

 

Shu, god of the air, pushed Nut up into the heavens. There she would remain arched out over Geb, her mate.

-- Day 2

-- Shu is the firmament created in Genesis 1:6-8

 

They longed to be together, but in the name of Maat they had to be apart, to fulfil their functions.

 

Nut produced rain for Geb, and Geb made things grow on earth.

-- Day 3

-- Notice there were now waters above a firmament. They are implied to be clouds.

-- This implies that Shu pushed the clouds up into the sky on Day 2, and was holding them there.

-- This allowed things to grow on the earth.

 

As the sky, she gave birth to the sun every night before dawn, and by day it would follow its course over the earth and die at sunset.

-- Day 4

-- As in Genesis 1:6-8, the firmament is called the sky.

-- The sun was literally "in" the sky, every day, placing it below the waters the sky was holding up

 

 

Shu and Tefnut produced the other gods. Isis, the queen of the gods, Hathor, the goddess of love and beauty, Osiris the god of wisdom and justice, Seth, the god of evil, Thoth, the god of wisdom and Nephthys the protectress of the dead.

 

But the chaos was still vast and not yet fully separated into the order of Maat. Shu and Tefnut once got lost in the dark waters of Nu.

 

Atum was desperate to find his children. He sent his all-seeing eye throughout the heavens and earth to search for them.

 

In time Shu and Tefnut returned with the eye. When Atum saw them again he was so delighted that he wept tears of joy.

 

As these tears hit the earth, they became the first men.

-- Day 6

-- Interestingly, Day 5 (the creation of birds and fish) is not mentioned. Nor are the cattle and beasts of Day 6

 

As the men populated the earth they had to uphold the truth and balance of Maat.

They had the task of tending the earth and worshipping the gods.

-- Is in Day 6, the people were to be fruitful and multiply.

 

The gods, in turn, protected and loved their creations.

 

 

The real kicker is that Genesis 1 contains many of the same primitive implications as the Egyptian Creation myth, that the upper waters (the clouds) were above the firmament, and the sun was within the firmament. The most significant difference in Genesis 1 is the monotheism: the view that only one God did the entire thing, and He was not subject to the creation. In fact, Genesis 1:1 is quite bold... "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Right out of the gate, the monotheism just hits you in the face, and the theme is kept for the remainder of the chapter... but the description of the earth's development remained intact and familiar to anyone (such as the Hebrew slaves) who had grown up in ancient Egypt.

 

Moses' purpose was apparently not to correct Egyptian science, but Egyptian theology.