We are all used to thinking of "In the beginning" as... well, the beginning, at least of the history that the Bible tells. But this is a revisionist history. The biblical authors of the 3 creation stories within the Tanakh were reworking and revising a variety of myths about the origin of the world that were well-known in the larger world of the ancient Near East. In this Adath Israel Adult Education ZOOM talk, Professor Shawna Dolansky will present some of the earlier stories that inspired the Bible's tales of creation and discuss the ways in which similarities and differences with the biblical versions tell us something about the culture that produced the Hebrew Bible.
Professor Dolansky specializes in Biblical Studies, with a focus on the history and religions of Israel and the ancient Near East and the development of the Hebrew Bible. Her research incorporates the tools of literary criticism, comparative religion, historical study, anthropology, archaeology, political science and classics in order to understand the worlds of the original authors and audiences of the biblical texts, and the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity out of ancient Israelite religious beliefs and practices. See https://carleton.ca/religion/people/shawna-dolansky/