MYTH AND REVELATION

Many people treat the early narratives of the book of Genesis as myths. The scholar, however, sees this view only as mere reductionism. Those who think so incur this misconception because of certain similarities between these biblical stories and Mesopotamian myths. “Enuma Elish, for example, closely resembles the biblical narrative of creation. The Epic of Gilgames bears a close resemblance to the biblical flood. Already the Epic of Atrahasis contains similarities with the narrative of Genesis 1 to 8: creation, rebellion, flood ”[1].  

However, a closer study of this issue reveals that it is more complex than previously thought. To Old Testament scholar William La Sor, “These similarities prove nothing but a genesis relationship between biblical and Mesopotamian accounts. The stories of Genesis in their present form do not trace back to Babylonian traditions. The evidence, even of the close correspondences between the flood stories, hints only of a diffuse influence of a common cultural heritage. ”[2]. 

These few correspondences are insufficient to assert that the initial narratives of Genesis are myths. The mythological framework expands in a different direction from the biblical one, in a tangle of disconnected stories, varying from culture to culture. A more detailed study of the literature of Revelation and mythology shows that this hypothesis that Revelation is only myth does not hold. There are strong contrasts in style and content between them. The myths have a confusing and disconnected language, typical of blurred and intuitive vision. Already Genesis flows as poetry, firm and with the typical direction of an author who dominates knowledge, and this is because it was revealed to him. 

Regarding the content, the contrast is even more pronounced. Bible and mythology have only a few tangent points; the rest is its own content. These points of contact, as La Sor stated, are common memories of the peoples, as they experienced them together after the Fall before spreading over the Earth. Myths are human formulations to explain the world. They tell a polytheistic scenario in which the gods are only forces of nature. They, the gods, lie, steal, kill and practice fornication. Men, immersed in suffering and hopelessness, are nothing more than playthings in their hands and only exist to serve them.

Already, the narratives of Genesis constitute distinct content from mythology, because they were revealed by the Creator to a people He chose. They speak of the origin of the universe and the human being as the creation of a single, holy, omnipotent God who exists apart from the world he creates. Unlike in mythology, man appears in the biblical narrative as the climax of creative acts and endowed with singular honor. In addition to having received the image and likeness of its Creator, they lives in His presence in an environment of peace and harmony. This difficulty in accepting Revelation according to the Apostle Paul stems from the fact that in the eyes of a fallen human being there is a veil that prevents him from seeing it. Only when man “turns to the Lord, is the veil removed” and then he discerns spiritual things (2 Corinthians 3: 12-18).

Antônio Maia - M. Div.

Copyright

[1] MAIA, Antônio. O Homem Em Busca de Si. Amazon, São Paulo, 2017, p.52

[2] LASOR, William S. Introdução ao Antigo Testamento. Ed Vida Nova, São Paulo, 1999, p.21