Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

Babylonian story. Both speak of a primeval chaos, and of a division of the waters below
and above the firmament. Genesis speaks of seven days, and the Babylonian account is
arranged in seven tablets. Both accounts connect the heavens with the fourth epoch of
creation, and the creation of man with the sixth. Some of these resemblances are of little
significance, and the differences of the two accounts are far more important. The
Hebrew order differs on many points from the Babylonian. The greatest difference is
found, however, in the religious conceptions of the two. The Babylonian account, in
distinction from that of Scripture, is mythological and polytheistic. The gods do not
stand on a high level, but scheme and plot and fight. And Marduk succeeds only after a
prolonged struggle, which taxes his strength, in overcoming the evil forces and
reducing chaos to order. In Genesis, on the other hand, we encounter the most sublime
monotheism, and see God calling forth the universe and all created things by the simple
word of His power. When the Babylonian account was discovered, many scholars
hastily assumed that the Biblical narrative was derived from the Babylonian source,
forgetting that there are at least two other possibilities, namely, (a) that the Babylonian
story is a corrupted reproduction of the narrative in Genesis; or (b) that both are derived
from a common, more primitive, source. But however this question may be answered, it
does not settle the problem of the origin of the narrative. How did the original, whether
written or oral, come into existence? Some regard it simply as the natural product of
man’s reflection on the origin of things. But this explanation is extremely unlikely in
view of the following facts: (a) the idea of creation is incomprehensible; (b) science and
philosophy both equally oppose the doctrine of creation out of nothing; and (c) it is only
by faith that we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, Heb.
11:3. We therefore come to the conclusion that the story of creation was revealed to
Moses or to one of the earlier patriarchs. If this revelation was pre-Mosaic, it passed in
tradition (oral or written) from one generation to another, probably lost something of its
original purity, and was finally incorporated in a pure form, under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, in the first book of the Bible.
3. THE INTERPRETATION OF GEN. 1:1,2. Some regard Gen. 1:1 as the superscription or
title of the whole narrative of creation. But this is objectionable for three reasons: (a)
because the following narrative is connected with the first verse by the Hebrew
conjunction waw (and), which would not be the case if the first verse were a title; (b)
because, on that supposition, there would be no account whatsoever of the original and
immediate creation; and (c) since the following verses contain no account of the creation
of heaven at all. The more generally accepted interpretation is that Gen. 1:1 records the
original and immediate creation of the universe, Hebraistically called “heaven and
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