101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

12 101 Myths of the Bible
2. darkness;
3. a watery deep, within which the unformed space existed; and
4. a wind (i.e.,“Spirit of God”) hovering upon the face of the waters.
These four elements constitute what the biblical authors believed to be the four
basic components of the universe before the start of Creation, one of which, the wind,
was identified with the Hebrew god. They correspond precisely with what Egyptian
priests in Thebes and Hermopolis believed to be the four primary components of the
universe at the beginning of Creation, but the Egyptians identified each of these four
elements with a pair of male and female deities, something that was taboo in Hebrew
theology. That the Hebrews adopted the Egyptian scheme can be seen from the following
description of the first four pairs of Egyptian deities and the elements they
represented.
1. Huh and Hauhet—unformed space, i.e., the shapeless bubble within the deep,
as described in Genesis as tohu and bohu;
2. Kuk and Kauket—the darkness on the face of the waters;
3. Nun and Naunet—the primeval flood, “the Deep,” the same as the biblical
deep; and
4. Amen and Amenet—the invisible wind, the biblical“wind” that hovered over
the deep.
Although the Hebrew priests adopted this Egyptian view of the primeval universe,
their monotheistic theology caused them to disassociate these four natural elements
from the Egyptian deities with which they were identified, retaining only the
physical attributes with which these deities were associated. Additionally, the Genesis
author of this Creation story accepted the Theban tradition that the primary Creator
was identified with the wind. They simply changed the Egyptian god’s name of Amen
to the Hebrew name of Elohim, and described him as“ruach,” the wind. As we work
through the first Creation story in Genesis, we will see how closely and precisely the
Genesis author continued to follow the Egyptian myths.