THE PRIMÆVAL HISTORY.
Chs. I-XI.
It has been shown in the Introduction (p. xxxiii) that the most obvious division of the book of Genesis is into four nearly equal parts, of which the first (chs. 1-11) deals with the Creation of the world, and the history of primitive mankind prior to the call of Abraham. These chapters are composed of excerpts from two of the main sources of the Pent., the Priestly Code, and the Yahwistic document. Attempts have been made from time to time (e.g. by Schrader, Dillmann, and more recently Winckler) to trace the hand of the Elohist in chs. 1-11; but the closest examination has failed to produce any substantial evidence that E is represented in the Primitive History at all. By the great majority of critics the non-Priestly traditions in this part of Genesis are assigned to the Yahwistic cycle: that is to say, they are held to have been collected and arranged by the school of rhapsodists to whose literary activity we owe the document known as J.
To the Priests' Code, whose constituents can here be isolated with great certainty and precision, belong: 1. The Cosmogony (11-24a); 2. The List of Patriarchs from Adam to Noah (5); 3. An account of the Flood (69-929*); 4. A Table of Peoples (10*); 5. The Genealogies of Shem (1110-26), and Terah (1127-32*), ending with Abraham. There is no reason to suppose either that the original P contained more than this, or, on the other hand, that P was written to supplement the older tradition, and to be read along with it. It is in accordance with the purpose and tendency of the document that the only events recorded in detail—the Creation and the Flood—are those which inaugurate two successive World-ages or Dispensations, and are associated with the origin of two fundamental observances of Judaism—the Sabbath (28), and the sanctity of the blood (94ff.).
In marked contrast to the formalism of this meagre epitome is the
