Civilization #22: The Literary Genesis of the Yahwist

In this lecture to his Chinese high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains the power and beauty of the Book of Genesis.

The chronology of the Pentateuch is confusing and contradictory. Archaeologists and historians have failed to discover any concrete evidence that Noah or Abraham or Moses ever existed.

Jiang Xueqin argues that the Bible is not a chronology, but a cosmology designed to accomplish three major objectives:
1. To legitimize King David of Israel. The poet-God Yahweh favored him because he was the first poet-king.
2. To create a new national identity. The Bronze Age collapse allowed the formation of new multi-cultural political entities in the Levant, including Israel. The Torah brought these disparate groups into a national narrative.
3. To differentiate the Israelites from their powerful neighbors. The Bible focused on how the Israelites formed their new nation out of their religious and cultural struggle against the Egyptians and Canaanites.

The writing of such a cosmology was common practice back then. What distinguished the Bible and turned it into the world's most powerful book was the literary genius of the Yahwist. With her stories of Adam and Eve and the Patriarchs, the Yahwist wrote domestic comedies that highlighted the universal and eternal human themes of love, childbirth, and family.