Publisher's Synopsis
This volume discusses the narrative of the creation of heaven, earth and light in the first chapter of Genesis and focuses extensively on its later interpretations in different cultural and religious contexts. After an introductory paper on the text of Genesis itself, the authors deal with receptions of this theme in the Prophet Jeremiah, Early Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. They comment on creation accounts in the Ancient Near East, Ancient Greece and ancient philosophy, reconstructing the earliest known receptions of Genesis 1 in ancient philosophers like Numenius and Galen. They trace its influence in the Johannine, Petrine and Pauline traditions of Early Christianity, and follow it right through the Middle Ages up till the present-day discussion of design in Nature.
