Dr. Jenna Kemp
University of Basel

Popular understandings of the Bible treat it as a religious text that is instructive and contains an internally consistent message for its readers. However, when we approach the Bible critically, treating it according to the context of its production, we see that much more than a consistent message, the Bible reflects a human impulse to combine disparate traditions into a single location. In order to analyze this phenomenon, this talk will examine Genesis 1-3 and the two creation stories therein. As creation stories, these two tales each function to explain how the world has emerged, positing very different ideas about human nature, the divine realm, and natural phenomena. Appearing back-to-back as they do, however, these narratives have historically been read a singular, and they therefore produce fruitful tensions that readers in the interpretive traditions must confront and address.