So I’ll now begin to do a set of posts to cover specific aspects of this thread and then afterwards I’ll go back to responding to others.
The first aspect I want to highlight is the genre of genesis 1. When reading genesis you’ll notice that chapters 1-11 seemingly belong together and flow very well and the narrative style and story abruptly changes starting in chapter 12. In chapters 1-11 it jumps well over a thousand years and covers several major events and key people in just a few pages. The timeline in genesis 12+ slows down drastically. The whole rest of the Torah does not even cover as much time as the first eleven chapters. That’s the first clue to what type of genre is it.
The second clue is the content. While many stories are extraordinary, outside of the New Testament and resurrection you won’t find anything like genesis 1-11 with so many crazy things in such a small space.
it opens up with El hovering above a watery universe that was full of darkness and chaos. In six days he separates and fills everything with life. He gets mud and makes a golem that is named mankind who he splits in half after naming all of earths animals and turns the other half into “life” Eve. They listen to a talking snake that tricks then into nesting magical fruit of wisdom which leads to them being cast out of a garden so they can’t become immortal through the fruit of another tree. A floating sword of fire prevents their return as they are driven away. They have two sons and one murdered the other and fod becomes aware of it because the blood is crying out, the dead brother is screaming from the grave. So the killer is marked and becomes a nomad. Angels begin to sleep with women and give birth to giants. The humans build a tower that will reach heaven but it’s struck down after god comes down to earth to see it and he confuses their language and sends across the world. A flood that’s impossible comes and kills everything but those on the ark. All of this happening by those who love hundreds of years and under a dome on earth. The firmament is a dome that separates space water from earth water.
The third clue is what hyperlinks back to it. In psalms 74 for example talks about a “creation” event.
Psalm 74:12-17
New American Standard Bible
12 Yet God is my King from long ago,
Who performs acts of salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You broke open springs and torrents;
You dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, Yours also is the night;
You have prepared the light and the sun.
17 You have established all the boundaries of the earth;
You have created summer and winter.
It states Yahweh battled leviathan and hints at the mythologies of leviathan having multiple heads. It’s saying it’s one of the sea monsters from genesis 1.
we also see a mostly overlooked clue in revelation.
Revelation 21:1
New American Standard Bible
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer
any sea.
We also see these other verses tying into the sea.
Revelation 13:1
New American Standard Bible
The Beast from the Sea
13 And
the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.
Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns
were ten crowns, and on his heads
were blasphemous names.
Revelation 20:13
New American Standard Bible
13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one
of them according to their deeds.
so in revelation we see a dragon summoning sea monsters, we see the sea being considered something unique from the grave and having their dead released and we see no sea being on the new world and we know all of this is symbolism. It’s a end times myth. You don’t read revelation literally, you read it metaphorically and it’s the same with genesis 1-11.
All clues points towards genesis 1-11 being mythological.
Earlier it was argued word became, as if it changed, verse means became as if it’s changed. But that’a not in the text.
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/hayetah_1961.ht
the form there means has been/was not will become.
ancient Jewish people believed that prior to creation, the cosmos was water and darkness. Things contrary to healthy human life. We would die in a lightless world devoid of sights or land.
that void was not space. The void was watery darkness. It’s what the firmament separates. In the ancient Jewish belief the world was flat and a dome was over it. This has been noted by hundreds of historians and biblical scholars. Here is a image from Richard Friedman’s “ Commentary on the Torah”. It’s worth reading.
