Before The Book of Genesis: The Real Story of Creation

hey all right let's get straight to it the Bible begins within the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth right but here's the kicker Genesis actually contains two very different creation stories that's right two and they don't exactly line up if you've ever been told there's only one official creation story in the Bible you've been sold a half truth here's what they don't tell you in Sunday School in Genesis 1 you get the big Cosmic version God's creating everything in six days day one light day two Sky day three Land and Sea it's all

very methodical right by day six boom humans are made not just Adam man and woman at the same time and everything is smooth structured and precise but then you hit Genesis 2 and suddenly it feels feels like we're in a different movie The Vibe shifts now God isn't just sitting up there commanding things into existence from a distance he's down in the dirt literally forming Adam from the ground and this time woman doesn't show up until later after Adam's been chilling alone for a bit and how does she get here not as an equal creation

but from Adam's Rib now why do these two stories exist side by side you you'd think if this was all divinely inspired it would be a single unified narrative right but no Scholars have debated for centuries about this some say it's just different perspectives like one is a wide angle shot and the other is more up close and personal but here's the thing these aren't just two angles on the same story they're fundamentally different in Genesis 1 God is distant this all powerful being just speaking things into existence but in Genesis 2 he's more like

a Craftsman physically shaping humans with his hands making the first man and then deciding oh wait he needs a partner why is the order different why is the style different it almost feels like two different authors are telling two separate stories see Genesis wasn't written in one sitting it's a mashup of different Traditions stitched together over time some parts of the Bible come from a Priestly Source focused on laws and rituals that's where you get that structured Six-Day creation then there's the more personal human- centered narrative that's where we get the Adam and Eve drama

and the craziest part these stories are so different they can't even agree on the order of creation think about that for a second in Genesis 1 men and women are created simultaneously they're equal side by side from the start but Genesis 2 has this whole Adam first then he from a rib thing going on that's a huge shift in perspective right so why do these two accounts exist in the same holy book is it because early Hebrew writers wanted to merge different ideas into one or could it be that the Genesis we read today is

a carefully curated remix of older stories I mean what if both versions are there because the people writing this stuff weren't trying to give you one perfect Nar artive they were giving you their best shot at explaining something that frankly is way bigger than we can wrap our heads around and here's where it gets even more interesting the first story doesn't even mention the Garden of Eden that whole bit the serpent the tree the fall of Man it's not there in Genesis 1 at all that only comes in the second version and suddenly we are

not just talking about creation anymore we are talking about morality temptation punishment so is Genesis 2 a deeper reflection on human nature while Genesis 1 is more like the blueprint for the universe what's Wild is that people have been ignoring this for centuries they either blend the two stories into one or pick the one they like best but if you read carefully you can see the cracks between the two it's like a theological mashup an attempt to make sense of ancient beliefs that don't always agree with each other but here's the real bombshell if Genesis

has multiple versions of creation what else have we overlooked now that you've got the two different creation stories in Genesis fresh in your mind let's take it a step further because here's the thing the Genesis wasn't even the first creation story in history far from it long before the Hebrew Bible was written ancient civilizations were already telling their own epic stories about how the universe began and guess what some of these stories are eerily similar to what you find in the Bible take the enuma Elish from ancient Mesopotamia this text is way older than Genesis

dating back to around 1800 BC and it tells a wild story instead of a single calm God speaking the universe into existence you've got a battle of the gods there's this Cosmic chaos serpent called Tiamat and the world gets created out of her body after she's defeated we're talking blood War and Roar power as the building blocks of the universe sound familiar sure it's not the same as Genesis but some elements like the separation of waters and the emergence of land are too close to ignore now here's the question you should be asking why does

Genesis feel so similar to these earlier stories is it coincidence or did the writers of Genesis borrow some of these ideas and give them a monotheistic twist that's something Scholars have been debating for centuries it getss better the Egyptians had their own creation myths too like the one where the god atom rises from the primordial Waters and starts creating the world again we see this theme of creation emerging from chaos Waters darkness and then boom life appears and guess what the Greeks also had a similar thing going on in their theogony with Gia and Chaos

all these stories share common threads primordial Wat gods or forces shaping the world and Chaos being tamed into order so why are all these ancient stories important for understanding Genesis because it shows us something crucial Genesis isn't telling us something radically new it's part of this much larger tradition of creation myths that existed for centuries across the ancient world but while the other stories often involved multiple gods fighting and struggling to control chaos Genesis took a different approach it streamlined The Narrative instead of a Pantheon of gods at War you have one God who speaks

things into existence no battle necessary and that's the genius of Genesis it took elements from older stories chaos creation order but presented it in a radically simplified monotheistic framework it's like the biblical writers looked at all the myths floating around at the time and said all right we're going to do this differently Our God doesn't need to fight a dragon he's just that powerful now don't get me wrong I'm not saying the writers of Genesis were copying these other myths word for word but the evidence is hard to deny these cultures were connected they traded

ideas and their stories evolve together when you realize this Genesis stops being just a religious text and starts looking like a piece of an even bigger puzzle a global story about Humanity trying to figure out where it all began and here's the thing these myths didn't just shape Genesis they shaped how ancient people saw the world how they understood their place in the universe if you lived in ancient Mesopotamia you didn't see creation as this peaceful orderly event you saw it as the aftermath of a brutal Cosmic battle the world you lived in was carved

out of chaos and that idea shaped everything from how you viewed the gods to how you understood your own life so here's the big question why did the authors of Genesis break away from that tradition of violence and Chaos was it a response to those older myths a way of saying our God isn't like that he's not part of the cosmic struggle he's above it all right now that we've unpacked the roots of the Genesis creation stories and how they tie into ancient myths let's talk about something even more controversial the Sumerians and the Anarchy

yeah this one's going to blow your mind we're not just talking about some ancient myth here we're talking about one of the oldest known civilizations Suma located in what's now modern day Iraq the Sumerians had their own story of creation but this one's got a Twist that raises some seriously uncomfortable questions about the nature of human existence in Sumerian mythology the gods weren't sitting peacefully in heaven like in Genesis they were called the Anarchy and they were supposedly beings from the sky who played a direct role in creating hum but here's where it gets wild

the Sumerians believe that the anarchi created humans as a Workforce basically to be slaves yeah you heard that right according to the ancient texts the anarchi were overburdened with their tasks so they decided to make humans to do the hard labor they didn't just snap their fingers though the texts say they mold humans from clay and Divine Essence sound familiar if you're starting to see some parall s with the Genesis story of God forming Adam from the dust of the earth you're not alone but in the Sumerian version humans weren't created to rule over the

Earth they were created to serve the gods now here's where things take an even crazier turn some Modern theorists especially those who dabble in ancient astronaut theories believe that the Anarchy might not have been just mythological gods they suggest that the Anarchy were actually extraterrestrials who came to Earth and genetically engineered Humanity yep we're talking alien intervention in the creation of mankind according to this Theory the Anarchy didn't just come from the heavens of metaphorically they literally came from another planet and engineered humans to be their labor force now before you roll your eyes let's

break it down the Sumerians were an advanced civilization they had writing mathematics astronomy and architecture far ahead of their time where did all this knowledge come from could it really have been passed down from these Sky Gods that's what proponents of the ancient astronaut theory argue but whether or not you believe in the Extraterrestrial angle the real point is this the Sumerian story of creation is one of the oldest and it shares some unsettling similarities with later stories like genesis both talk about beings who shape humans from the Earth but in Suma the gods are

practical they need workers not spiritual being beings what if the Anarchy story is the real original what if The Narrative of gods creating humans to serve them predates the more sanitized version in Genesis because if we're honest the Genesis account feels a little cleaner doesn't it God creates humans and gives them dominion over the Earth but what if that's just the pr friendly version of a much darker origin story one where humans were created not to rule but to serve think about it in Genesis humans are given Free Will and placed in a paradise but

in Sumerian mythology humans were created as laboris and the gods used them for their own benefit it's almost like genesis is the version that gives us dignity while the Sumerian account strips it away revealing a much more utilitarian origin remember that these Sumerian stories are thousands of years older than the biblical texts so when you read Genesis you've got to wonder how much of that story is a retelling or rework working of much older myths like those of the anarchi why does this matter because if the Sumerian creation story influence the Bible and if the

Anarchy myth is even partly true whether as Gods aliens or something else entirely it changes how we see ourselves are we the rulers of this world as Genesis tells us or were we once slaves to Gods from the [Music] sky now that we've tackled the Sumerians and their version of human creation where humans were basically created to serve the gods it sets us up for the next big twist the story of Eden because let's be honest the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis seems a little too simple on the surface they eat from the

Tree of knowledge get kicked out end of story right wrong here's where things get really interesting we've all heard the mainstream interpretation the serpent is Satan tempting Eve leading her and Adam into sin but what if if I told you that the serpent wasn't the villain in fact in many ancient cultures serpents are symbols of wisdom knowledge and transformation so instead of this being a straightforward tale of Disobedience what if it's actually a story about Liberation God places Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden surrounded by everything they could ever want but forbids them

from eating from one specific tree the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil why why give humans free will the ability to choose and then say don't touch that it almost feels like a setup the tree is right there in plain sight and it holds the key to understanding good and evil yet they're not supposed to touch it enter the serpent here's where the traditional story gets flipped on its head in Gnostic Traditions which are ancient texts and beliefs that challenged early Christian views the serpent is seen as a liberator not a deceiver according to

these writings the Serpent's role wasn't to trick Eve but to free her and Adam from ignorance the tree of knowledge was forbidden because God wanted to keep Humanity in a state of blind obedience the serpent in this reading is offering Eve a chance to wake up to see the world for what it truly is and what's even more fascinating Gnostic texts portray godnot as a benevolent all powerful Creator but as a lesser deity a kind of tyrant someone who wants to control Humanity to keep the them in a state of ignorance the real enemy in

their eyes wasn't the serpent it was the god of the garden who wanted to keep humans like obedient pets blissfully unaware of the world around them now I know this sounds controversial but think about it after Adam and Eve eat the fruit what happens they don't die like God said they would instead their eyes are opened they gain knowledge they become aware of their nakedness they understand right and wrong in other words they become fully human isn't that what separates us from animals our ability to reason to understand morality so maybe the serpent wasn't offering

death at all maybe the serpent was offering freedom and here's where it connects to what we've already discussed remember how in the suiran creation myth humans were created to serve the gods what if Eden was the same thing what if Adam and Eve were placed in the garden not to rule over it but to remain in a state of servitude unaware of their potential the forbidden fruit wasn't just a random test of obedience it was the key to Breaking Free from the garden from a paradise that was actually more like a prison of ignorance the

serpent gives Eve the choice remain in a state of blissful ignorance or take the risk of knowledge and all the consequences that come with it Eve's decision wasn't a sin it was an act of courage she chose knowledge she chose to wake up and yeah it came with a cost Adam and Eve were banished from Eden but they also gained something far more valuable their autonomy their ability to think for themselves we've been talking about creation but what if a story of how the universe was created isn't as simple as God spoke and it happened

what if there's a lot more going on behind the scenes here's something a lot of people don't realize in ancient Jewish mysticism specifically in the cabala there's an idea that God didn't create the universe alone instead creation was a collaborative process involving multiple aspects of the Divine known as the seph and we're not just talking about a few Angels lending a hand here we're talking about different emanations of God's Own Essence working together to shape reality according to cabalistic teachings God's true Essence what they call the einin soft is beyond comprehension completely infinite it's so

vast that it can't interact with the physical world directly so to create the universe God essentially had to split himself into these different Divine attributes each one representing a different aspect of his power these attributes or seph work together in harmony and tension to shape the cosmos now this idea throws a wrench into the traditional God spoke and boom its done version of creation that we get in Genesis in this cabalistic view creation wasn't a smooth process it was full of complexity with different parts of the Divine Essence pulling in different directions think of it

as a cosmic Balancing Act where Divine energy was being channeled through the seph to bring order out of chaos and it gets even weirder in the cabalistic tradition they talk about a concept called simpsom which basically means that before the universe could be created God had to contract himself to pull back his infinite presence to make space for the physical world to exist so the universe isn't just the result of some all powerful command it's the product of divine tension of God both withdrawing and emanating his power in ways that allowed the material world to

take form let's be real this is a far cry from the straightforward creation narrative we've been taught the idea of a fragmented multifaceted God shaping the universe through different emanations it's a little more complicated but also way more fascinating so why does this matter it changes how we think about God's role in Creation in Genesis God is all knowing all powerful and everything happens exactly as he wants it to but in the cabalistic view creation is more like a process almost like God is experimenting with different ways of manifesting his Essence in the physical world

it's not chaos likee in the Mesopotamian myths but it's also not as clean and perfect as the Genesis account suggests and here's the kicker it means that God himself is in some way involved in a dynamic process he's not this distant figure who creates with the snap of his fingers he's involved even to the point of self-limitation making room for a world where things can unfold where humans can exist and where free will actually has meaning this connects perfectly with what we've already talked about if the serpent in Eden wasn't just tempting humans into Disobedience

but was offering them a chance at knowledge this whole idea of a fragmented Dynamic God fits right in the universe itself wasn't created to be static it was created through tension and balance and that tension trickles down to the choices humans have to make you could argue that God's withdrawal to make space for the universe is mirrored in the way humans were given the ability to choose to think to Rebel it's almost like the Act of Creation itself was about introducing complexity and freedom into the world and isn't that what the whole Adam and Eve

story is about humans choosing to embrace knowledge even if it meant Breaking Free from God's Direct Control but here's where it gets even crazier some interpretations of cabalistic thought suggest that the creation of the universe wasn't perfect according to these teachings there were previous worlds that God tried to create but they couldn't hold together they fell apart this is known as the shattering of the vessels the current Universe we live in it's it's the one that's stuck but it's still full of imperfection and that's part of why Humanity exists to help restore balance to the

divine plan so in a way creation is still happening the universe isn't finished and neither are we but let's switch gears for a minute and focus on a figure who's been completely erased from most mainstream versions of the Bible someone who challenges everything we think we know about the story of Humanity's beginning Lilith you might be wondering wait Lilith isn't it just Adam and Eve in Genesis well here's the thing before Eve there was another woman Lilith and her story changes the whole dynamic of what we think went down in Eden first let's get this

straight Lilith is not in the canonical Bible you won't find her name mentioned in Genesis but in Jewish folklore and other ancient texts Lilith was said to be Adam's first wife yeah that's right before Eve and here's where things get interesting Lilith was created from the same clay as Adam they were equals from the start no rib no secondary creation just Adam and Lilith both formed at the same time sounds fair right but this is where things take a turn Lilith being equal to Adam didn't feel the need to submit to him she wasn't about

to play the role of the obedient submissive wife so what does she do she leaves that's right she walks away from Eden from Adam from everything and here's where her story disappears from most retellings but let's dig into what this really means Lilith wasn't just rejecting Adam she was rejecting the entire system that placed her beneath him in a sense Lilith represents Rebellion autonomy and female Independence all things that quite frankly didn't sit well in the patriarchal world that wrote and rewrote these texts her story was so dangerous to the status quo that later religious

Traditions had to bury it demonize her and replace her with Eve the more compliant obedient woman who comes from Adam's Rib but let's pause and think about this if Lilith was Adam's equal why did the story need to be Rewritten why did the Focus Shift to Eve created from Adam's Body and thus somehow subordinate to him could it be that Lilith's refusal to submit Ed too much of a threat to the idea of male dominance and so her story had to be wiped from the official narrative now remember how we talked about the idea of

balance and tension in creation from the cabal in the last section this concept of Duality fits right in here Lilith and Eve represent two opposing forces Lilith the symbol of autonomy and Defiance and Eve the symbol of compliance and traditional femininity in some ways it's as if Humanity needed both figures Lilith the one who breaks free and Eve the one who accepts the role she's given for the story to move forward later texts particularly in medieval Jewish mysticism depict Lilith as something darker almost demonic she's painted as a Seducer a killer of infants a figure

to be feared but why what's the real reason Lilith had to be cast out not just from Eden but from the entire narrative some say it's because she represents a challenge to the very structure of divine order if Lilith a being created as Adam's equal could reject her place and walk away that implies humans have the power to resist the roles they're assigned not just by Society but by God that's a terrifying thought for any system based on obedience by demonizing Lilith the writers of later texts were sending a clear message defy the system and

you become the enemy they couldn't allow the story of a woman who stood up to Divine Authority and rejected her role to become a symbol of empowerment so they Twisted her into a villain but here's the thing even though her story was erased from the mainstream Lilith's Legacy never truly disappeared over time she became a symbol of female empowerment and Independence in modern feminist readings of the story Lilith is seen as the ultimate rebel against patriarchal control she refused to be anyone subordinate not Adams not gods and for that she was punished erased demonized which

raises the question what would the world look like if Lilith had stayed if she and Adam had truly been equals from the beginning how different would the story of humanity be maybe Eden wasn't just a setup for the fall it was a stage for a power struggle one that ended with Lilith being forced out to make room for Eve the woman who would follow the rules now that we've uncovered Lilith's story and seen how it challenges the traditional narrative let's talk about something even more mind-blowing what if this world wasn't the first one God created

yep you heard that right there's a theory rooted in ancient Jewish mysticism that suggests the world we live in isn't the first version of Creation in fact according to cabalistic teachings God tried to create the universe multiple times before and those earlier worlds they didn't work out they were imperfect they fell apart they were destroyed it's called the shattering of the vessels a cosmic event where previous Creations couldn't contain the Divine Light and they basically collapsed under the weight of their own imperfection think about that for a second what if we're living in the latest

attempt at creation what if the world we know today is just one version in a series of cosmic experiments and if that's the case then creation wasn't just a one-time event it's an ongoing process with each iteration coming closer to something sustainable something that works now now this isn't just some far off mystical idea it actually fits perfectly with everything we've been talking about remember how we discussed the tension between Chaos and Order knowledge and ignorance freedom and obedience those tensions aren't just themes in the stories they're built into the fabric of creation itself the

idea that God had to try again multiple times reflects the reality that creation is messy imperfect and full of challenges and it's not just creation that's ongoing Humanity's role in this process is ongoing too according to cabalistic thought we are part of the process of repairing the world something called Ti a lamb we're here to help fix what's broken to balance the forces of Chaos and Order to restore what was shattered during the creation process in other words Humanity isn't just an accident of creation we're essential to its completion if we tie this back to

the stories of Adam Eve and Lilith it starts to make even more sense the fall wasn't the end of the story it was part of the process Adam and Eve stepping out of Eden wasn't just a punishment it was the next phase of creation Humanity had to leave the garden had to face the challenges of the world because that's how the Universe moves forward through Choice through struggle through learning and here's the kicker if God had to create and Destroy worlds before and if humanity is part of this ongoing process of repairing the Universe it

raises an interesting question what's next are we living in the final perfected version of creation or is there more to come could there be another stage another leap forward that we haven't even imagined yet the fact that creation is described as an ongoing process gives us a new way to look at the world around us instead of thinking of Life as a static finished product we can see it as something fluid evolving something that we are directly involved in shaping and that's powerful it means we are not just passengers in this Cosmic story we're participants

with the ability to influence what happens next so as we wrap up this journey through the creation stories from the ancient myths to the hidden narratives of Lilith from the cosmic forces of the seph to the shattering of the vessels here's what it all comes down to creation is not a finished story it's still unfolding the world we live in is imperfect sure but it's also full of potential and just like Adam Eve and even Lilith we have the power to choose to act to shape the next chapter of creation thank you so much for

sticking with me all the way through I hope this journey has opened your mind to new ideas new possibilities and maybe even a new perspective on the stories we've been told for centuries if you enjoyed this please like drop a comment below with your thoughts and don't forget to subscribe for more deep Dives like this your support really helps the channel grow and keep keeps these discussions going thank you again and may God bless us all [Music]