Why do the opening chapters of Genesis sound so strange to us? And are there other ancient cultures that produced similar creation narratives around the same time as Moses was composing Genesis?

Well, it turns out the answer to that question is both "yes" and "no." Many of the cultures surrounding ancient Israel did in fact generate creation stories which bear some striking similarities to Genesis 1-2, but the differences between Genesis and those other narratives are even more striking! This juxtaposition of a similar sounding story with a strikingly dissimilar view of God and nature seems to suggest that the opening chapters of Genesis were written specifically to attack many of the myths the ancient Israelites may have heard from other cultures: so that the Israelites would know there is one true God, and that "you shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below."

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