Biblical Creationism: Some Mistakes

ORDER OF CREATION
IN THE NEWER VERSION Deuteronomist and Priestly Authors. GEN 1:1 - GEN 2:3	IN THE OLDER VERSION Yahwist Authors. GEN 2:4 - GEN 50:26
1. Heaven and Earth and light were made.	1. The heavens and Earth.
2. The firmament [a brass dome over Earth] was constructed and the waters divided.	2. A mist went up from Earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
3. The waters gathered into seas -- and then came dry land, grass, herbs and fruit trees.	3. Created a man out of dust, by the name of Adam.
4. The sun and moon. He made the stars also.	4. Planted a garden eastward in Eden, and put the man in it.
5. Fishes, fowls, and great whales.	5. Created the beasts and fowls.
6. Beasts, cattle, every creeping thing, man and woman.	6. Created a woman out of one of the man's ribs.
The most popular version, "King James Authorized," was used by Robert Green Ingersoll in the above comparison. The original story, from which the Hebrew Testament's version was derived, is found in the Gilgamesh epic discovered by G. Smith (Tablet 11 dated circa -1,950GC) while he was digging through the ruins of the library of Assurbanipal in +1,872GC. The hero of the original flood myth is named Ut-napishtim / Sit-napishti. "Noah" and the Hebrew creation myths found in Genesis One and Genesis Two were written over 1,000 years after Tablet 11 was written. Judging by ancient artwork, the original Gilgamesh flood myth appears to be around 6,000 years old, circa -4,000GC. Dating the Hebrew Testament's two versions of Genesis and the creation of human beings, one finds several groups of authors, spanning many centuries. The oldest group are known as The Yahwists, dated at -950GC. The chief author, or instigator, of the Yahwist account is thought to be Ebjathar. The account found in Genesis 2:22 (i.e. Eve from Adam's rib) is the Yahwist account, and is thus the oldest of the written sources of the creation accounts in Genesis. The Yahwists have taken the account from Babylonian and Sumerian creation myths: this is a certainty because the later account in Genesis of "Noah's Flood" (Genesis 7) is Sumerian and / or Babylonian. Uta-Napishtim is the hero with the ark, and Enlil is the angry God that sends the flood. The Yahwist account of creation is considered "the most patriarchal." Following the Yahwists were the Elohists, who lived 200 years later in Northern Israel. They were in turn followed by the Deuteronomists around -620GC (at the time of King Josiah). In -440GC the Priestly Codex contributed to the Hebrew creation accounts. By the time of Ezra, the four sources, spanning roughly 500 years, was unified into what we know of as Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. The Priestly Codex yielded the creation account of male and female humans being created at the same time (Genesis 1:27). Various translations of the Hebrew Testament advertised as a "literal translation" almost always are not. ("Young's Literal Version" is a case in point, where it does not properly translate "Elohim" as "Gods," and even incorrectly translates "YHWH" as "Jehovah!") Genesis One uses the word "Gods" because the Hebrews have always been polytheists; Gensis Two uses the word "YHWH" because the authors were Yahweh henotheists. (I am not aware of any religion, histortical or extant, that is monotheistic. No doubt one or more exists somewhere.) Some people incorrectly translate the word "Elohim" as "Gods and Goddesses." The word only means "Gods," i.e., two or more males. To write of Goddesses and Gods, the word would have been "Elohin."