Haaretz; Israel’s daily paper. Haaretz is arguing that the theory is not, in fact, supported by ancient linguistics, going so far as to say that Zevit’s theory is more unlikely than the original biblical story. According to a journalist with Haaretz, Elon Gilad, references to life generated from ribs can be found in stories which predate the Hebrew Bible, the Sumerian myth of Enki and Nihursag for example, and the word has cognates which mean rib in other Semitic languages as well. Additionally, the word tsela is still used in post-biblical Hebrew to mean rib, which indicates to some that the word meant rib thousands of years prior to when the proto-Semitic language divided into the dissimilar Semitic language. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: Peter van der Sluijs]]>
The Creation Story Just Got a Little More Interesting
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4 Comments
Husband of Moonlight
How utterly ludicrous to refer to “narrative fiction” as “history”. The “Bible” whether it is in Hebrew or “the Kings English” is NOTHING BUT NARRATIVE FICTION.
But then we are reading the script of a “God” that the Jews invented sometime in the late Bronze age who’s first “commandment” —–“Thou shalt have no other Gods before me, for the Lord thy God is a JEALOUS God”——-when Jealousy is nothing more than an expression of neurotic self absorption and extreme insecurity, it nothing but fiction and absurdity at its very absolute best.
But then ALL deities, or Gods and Goddesses that humanity has EVER “invented” have expressed Human frailties and traits, such as anger, vindictiveness and bigotry—-even “lust”—-the “God of Abraham,” and the Jews, Christians, AND Muslims—-is nothing but narrative fiction; and mean ugly bigoted fiction at that.
Bob
This “narrative fiction” is proven to be history as archaeological finds keep proving the accuracy. Your denial of this truth is the real fiction.
vcragain
Can’t imagine why anyone would get ANGRY at this interpretation – what difference does it make ? All it says about that reaction is that you are way too much immersed in silly details of what a book says, when you know perfectly well it has been cobbled together by humans and who knows what else has been left out. If you have faith in a God, keep a sense of proportion to all books that are said to be God’s book – you really do NOT know what the truth is about any of them – your faith can be just as real to you because that is based on your feelings and your need to have purpose and something bigger than yourself, no-one should be getting hysterical over this nor fighting each other over what is ‘truth’ or God’s intentions – he is NOT telling us actually !!
Agnostic
Fine, but where did the authors of the Bible get the knowledge that such a bone existed in chimps and gorillas? These apes were not in the area…