Jean Danielou, S.J., a scripture scholar, states in his book In the Beginning... (Helicon, 1965), an exegetical study of the first three chapters of Genesis, that the theological aim of these chapters was the demythologization of all contemporary polytheistic religious influences on the Jewish people. The statement of Genesis is that there is but one God who is the creator of all else. The Babylonian goddess Tiamat becomes simply the created ocean, and Marduk, the god of light, is just light brought forth by the creating word of God.
This theological contention, however, has been expressed in the book of Genesis in anthropomorphic terms. We read in the second chapter that "On the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing." This anthropomorphism is being carried to an extreme by the scientific creationists. They ...
