hebrew · mythology

Genesis 1–11 (Creation and Flood Narratives)

c. 900–500 BCE (written); older oral traditions · Iron Age (composition) · Ancient Israel; Judah

Chapter 1 — The Creation: Six Days

1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2And the earth was without form, and void;

3And darkness was upon the face of the deep.

4And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

5And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

6And God saw the light, that it was good:

7And God divided the light from the darkness.

8And God called the light Day,

9And the darkness he called Night.

10And the evening and the morning were the first day.

11And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,

12And let it divide the waters from the waters.

13And God made the firmament, and divided the waters

14Which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament:

15And it was so.

16And God called the firmament Heaven.

17And the evening and the morning were the second day.

18And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place,

19And let the dry land appear: and it was so.

20And God called the dry land Earth;

21And the gathering together of the waters called he Seas:

22And God saw that it was good.

23And the evening and the morning were the third day.

24And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven

25To divide the day from the night;

26And let them be for signs, and for seasons,

27And for days, and years.

28And God made two great lights;

29The greater light to rule the day,

30And the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

31And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

32And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly

33The moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth.

34And God created great whales,

35And every living creature that moveth,

36Which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind,

37And every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

38And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

39And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

40And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,

41And over the cattle, and over all the earth.

42So God created man in his own image,

43In the image of God created he him;

44Male and female created he them.

45And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

46And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Chapter 2 — The Garden of Eden

47Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,

48And all the host of them.

49And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made;

50And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

51And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,

52And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;

53And man became a living soul.

54And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden;

55And there he put the man whom he had formed.

56And the LORD God commanded the man, saying,

57Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

58But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

59Thou shalt not eat of it:

60For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

61And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone;

62I will make him an help meet for him.

63And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:

64And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

65And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man,

66Made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

67And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:

68She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Chapter 3 — The Fall

69Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

70And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

71And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

72But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden,

73God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

74And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

75For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,

76Then your eyes shall be opened,

77And ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

78And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,

79And that it was pleasant to the eyes,

80And a tree to be desired to make one wise,

81She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,

82And gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

83And the eyes of them both were opened,

84And they knew that they were naked;

85And they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

86And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

87And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden,

88And I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

89And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?

90Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

91And the LORD God said unto the serpent,

92Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,

93And above every beast of the field;

94Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

95And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,

96And between thy seed and her seed;

97It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Chapter 6 — The Decision to Send the Flood

98And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,

99And daughters were born unto them,

100That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair;

101And they took them wives of all which they chose.

102And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,

103And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

104And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth,

105And it grieved him at his heart.

106And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created

107From the face of the earth; both man, and beast,

108And the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air;

109For it repenteth me that I have made them.

110But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

111And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me;

112For the earth is filled with violence through them;

113And, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

114Make thee an ark of gopher wood;

115Rooms shalt thou make in the ark,

116And shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

117And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of:

118The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits,

119The breadth of it fifty cubits,

120And the height of it thirty cubits.

Chapter 7 — The Flood

121And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark;

122For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

123Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female:

124And of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

125And it came to pass after seven days,

126That the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

127In the six hundredth year of Noah's life,

128In the second month, the seventeenth day of the month,

129The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,

130And the windows of heaven were opened.

131And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

132And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth;

133And the ark went upon the face of the waters.

134And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth;

135And all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

136Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

137And all flesh died that moved upon the earth.

Chapter 8 — The Waters Recede

138And God remembered Noah, and every living thing,

139And all the cattle that was with him in the ark:

140And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.

141The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped,

142And the rain from heaven was restrained.

143And it came to pass at the end of forty days,

144That Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.

145And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro,

146Until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

147Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated.

148But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot,

149And she returned unto him into the ark.

150And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove;

151And the dove came in to him in the evening;

152And, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off:

153So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

154And he stayed yet other seven days;

155And sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

Chapter 9 — The Covenant with Noah

156And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying:

157And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you,

158And with your seed after you.

159And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth,

160That the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

161And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you

162And every living creature of all flesh;

163And the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

164And the bow shall be in the cloud;

165And I will look upon it,

166That I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature.

notes

The opening chapters of Genesis contain two distinct creation accounts woven together by ancient editors. The first (Genesis 1:1–2:3) belongs to the Priestly source (P, c. 6th century BCE) and is structured, cosmic, and liturgical — creation proceeds in seven days and God is called Elohim. The second (Genesis 2:4–3:24) belongs to the Jahwist source (J, c. 10th–9th century BCE) and is intimate, earthy, and narrative — God is YHWH, man is formed from clay, and Eden is a garden. The flood narrative (chapters 6–9) similarly interweaves P and J, creating apparent contradictions: J has seven pairs of clean animals (7:2), P has two of each kind (6:19–20). Read as composite literature rather than a single-author text, the seams illuminate the different theological emphases of each tradition. The parallels with Mesopotamian flood traditions (Atrahasis Epic, Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet XI) are extensive: a righteous man warned by a deity, a great boat, animals preserved in pairs, birds sent out to test the subsidence of waters, a sacrifice on landing. Scholars debate the direction of influence and the existence of a common ancient Near Eastern flood tradition. Translation from the King James Version (1611). Public domain.

currently held: Manuscript tradition (Dead Sea Scrolls, Masoretic text)

Primordial HistoryFlood NarrativeDivine CouncilHebrew BibleCreation

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