A study on the priestly creation story (Gen. 1: -2: 4a)

Abstract

The priestly creation story found in the first chapter of Genesis is one of the stories which tries to tell us about the beginning of the universe and the origin of mankind. The biblical writers rightly placed it at the beginning of the Bible. As this is the case, many Christians today take this as the exact true account of what had happened in the beginning when God created the universe and all those are in it. A careful study of this story, however, will reveal that the real intention in writing this story is not just to tell about the beginning of the universes and the origin of man, but to give theological meaning which is far more important than the information about the origin of the world.

The writer, therefore, is attempting to help the readers to accept this story as a story full of theological meaning rather than just to treat it as a tale of cosmology. In order to reach this goal, the paper is divided into two main sections. The first section deals with structural and rhetorical analysis, highlighting important features of each day of creation. The second section is composed of the discussion of important theological themes which are the result of analysis done in the first section. As it is found, not all theological themes which are embedded in the story will be dealt with. Only those which are more relevant to the context of the writer will be chosen for detailed discussion. It is the hope and the prayer of the writer that this small piece of work will help its readers to have a proper understanding of the Biblical creation story.