Gunkel ( l.c.) has demonstrated that the cosmogonic accounts or allusions thereto (technical archaic terms, like 'tohu wabohu' the use of words in an unusual sense, for instance and mythological personifications, like Rahab) display easily discernible signs of incorporated old material (Gen. This conclusion from analogy is corroborated by the study of the literary documents bearing on this point. The Hebrews must have had the same impulse toward speculation on the origin of things as had other groups of men and as this impulse manifests itself always at a very early period in the evolution of mind (the tribal or national consciousness), one is safe in the a priori ascription to the Hebrews of the production and possession of cosmogonic legends at a very remote epoch. This inference, however, can not be maintained (see Gunkel, 'Schöpfung und Chaos' idem, 'Genesis'). Rénan's denial to the Semites of the mythopeic faculty seemed thus to be borne out by the results of Pentateuchal analysis and of literary criticism of the other Biblical books. The comparatively late date of the literary documents-according to the critical schools-has misled most of the modern commentators into the assumption that the early Hebrews were without cosmogonies. They exhibit the influences of a developed theology as well as the effect of a blending of different accounts that are at variance with one another in their radical versions. The literary documents are later than the material incorporated. By analogy, then, with other ancient peoples, the form in which the Hebrew cosmogony presents itself in the Bible is not the original. By those who ascribe to the Hebrew mind the same process of development and to Hebrew literature the same manner of growth as are observed among other peoples, the cosmogony-or, to be more exact, the cosmogonies-of the Bible must be viewed and analyzed according to the light derived from comparison with similar conceits among non-Hebrews. Systematization is a sign that primitive notions have been subjected to treatment in the interest of a certain theology or advanced religious consciousness. The original cosmogonies are spontaneous productions of folk-fancy, and are therefore unsystematic, forming as a rule only a chapter in the theogonies or genealogies of the gods. Old as they are, they reflect climatic and cultural conditions of various localities and these differences, often unharmonized, appear in the later literary and religious versions.

Cosmogonies are, therefore, found among nearly all races, and form a large part of their mythologies, preserved as tribal or national traditions. A theory concerning the origin ('begetting') of the world the mythological or ante-scientific view, as preserved in the traditions, oral or written, and the folk-poetry of primitive and ancient peoples.Ĭuriosity concerning the origin of the visible universe and the manner and order in which the various forms of life came into being, manifested itself at a comparatively early period.

Firmament in hebrew