ARTICLES AND ESSAYS A Mormon Midrash? LDS Creation Narratives Reconsidered Anthony A. Hutchinson LATTER-DAY SAINTS, with other groups in the Judeo-Christian tradition, accept as scripture the stories of creation found in Genesis 1-3 but are unique in accepting as scripture three other parallel versions of the same stories. These include chapters in the books of Moses and Abraham brought forth by Joseph Smith, Jr. Both of these works are currently published as separate parts of the Pearl of Great Price, the fourth of the Latter-day Saints' canonical works. Yet the book of Moses itself is only an edition of one part of a larger separate work, the Joseph Smith revision of the King James Version of the Bible (JST), which is accepted as quasi-canonical in the LDS Church but as scripture in the RLDS Church. The book of Abraham was produced between 1835 and 1840 as a separate effort and was published by Smith in 1842.1 In addition, the LDS Church accepts a fourth version of this material in its temple ceremony, which is not officially published or publicly recognized. Traditional Mormon belief sees these three texts — Moses/JST, Abraham, and the temple ceremony — ANTHONY A. HUTCHINSON is currently a U.S. foreign service officer living in the Far East, has an M.A. in classics from Brigham Young University, and is still trying to finish a doctoral dissertation in biblical studies at the Catholic University of America. He thanks David Wright, Lester Bush, Alexander DiLella, O.F.M., Lavina Fielding Anderson, and John Kselman, S.S., for editorial and substantive assistance, and Louis Midgley for vigorous criti- cism, in the preparation of this article. 1 These books are normally referred to in LDS writings as "The Book of Moses," "The Book of Abraham," and "The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible (JST)." Though I follow here standard LDS usage in identifying the first two of these by "Moses" and "Abra- ham," I do so without intending thereby to suggest any connection between these books and various ancient texts similarly named. A more precise terminology would be "Joseph Smith Abraham" and "Joseph Smith Moses." I will also use "JST" here, although this usage has only recently been popularized by R. J. Matthews (1975, 12—13). I am reluctant to use this designation since Matthews' primary reason for using it is somewhat problematic: he identi- fies Smith's reworking of the King James Version (hereafter KJV) as a "translation" only because Joseph himself thus identified it. I feel this is misleading, since Smith himself used the term "translation" in ways very distinct from its normal modern usage (see Hutchinson 1985). A more precise terminology would be "JSR," i.e., Joseph Smith Revision (of the KJV). 12 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT as direct revelation to Joseph Smith, inspired restorations of ancient writings that had become corrupted or lost by the time the standard Genesis accounts were written. Joseph Smith's contributions to scripture antedate the last century's wealth of biblical and archaeological research. Such research has deeply influenced the way in which scholars, academic theologians, and many educated non- specialist laypersons now read the Bible. Newly uncovered documents and newly deciphered languages have shed further light on biblical languages and provided extensive historical and literary context for the Bible's stories. New critical tools and methods for dealing with these materials have further aided and fostered this process of developing greater and clearer biblical context (R. Brown 1968, 21-35; Albright 1957). The impact of such methods and data upon the personal faith of Christian and Jewish scholars, as well as that of people in the pews of differing denominations, has varied. For Latter-day Saints, most of whom have not yet become familiar with either the riches or challenges of these critical contributions, most of the last century's work is yet to be assimilated. It can be both exciting and daunting to learn with these other believers and scholars this greater context. This is particularly so because the context suggests that biblical literature did not fall from heaven perfect, complete, and inerrant, but rather grew gradually, conditioned by historical factors such as literary tradition and convention. Indeed, the context suggests that biblical literature in large part arose from the imaginative appropriation of earlier traditions •— usually from creative adaptation of previously formulated oral or written texts.2 Scholars have tried to trace the origin and growth of the gospel stories in the New Textament, for example, by seeking out the various sources of John, as well as by identifying the relationship between the earlier synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke (Bultmann 1968; Dibelius 1935; Taylor 1953). Even the central resurrection narratives are now understood to be richly embellished and theologized retellings of earlier stories about Easter morning, which in turn are at least in part drawn from the earliest apostolic assertions of the reality of Jesus' resurrection, followed by listed appearances of the risen Lord (Dodd 1951; Taylor 1953; Fuller 1980; R. Brown 1973; Fitzmyer 1982). Similar insights abound in Old Testament studies, as I will show later." INSIGHTS OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM Many parts of the Bible are now seen to be made up of reworked earlier texts or traditions. Whole critical disciplines within biblical studies relate to this fact: source, redaction, and composition criticism all attempt to under- 2 For fuller discussion, see any of the standard critical commentaries or introductions to the Bible, including: Kaiser 1975; Eissfeldt 1976; Bright 1976; Kummel 1972; Wickenhauser and Schmid 1973. Good introductions for the non-specialist are: Anderson 1973; Perrin 1974; Brown et al. 1968. For general treatments of how the newer approaches have affected mainstream Christian understandings of revelation and inspiration, see: Dulles 1983; Brown 1982; Rahner 1964; Dodd 1960. Hutchinson: LDS Creation Narratives 13 stand in different ways how the Bible uses and adapts pre-existing documents and traditions, some right within the Bible itself. We find in the Bible today discontinuity of beliefs, disharmonious doctrinal or historical formulations, narrative inconsistencies, and outright contradictions. But this is quite natural. An example of a Bible writer adapting an earlier section of the Bible for his own purposes — purposes at odds with those of the author of the adapted sec- tion — is found in the book of Chronicles. The chronicler uses and adapts his source in the books of Kings and Samuel. For example, 2 Kings 15:1—5 is adapted by 2 Chronicles 26:16-23. Here the chronicler has inserted his own rigid theology of retribution into a text previously reflecting a less rigid the- ology. Where 2 Kings describes King Azariah (Uzziah) as a righteous man struck down inexplicably by leprosy, 2 Chronicles explains that the righteous Azariah was not the king who took the throne name Uzziah, but rather a priest who saw the headstrong king punished by a well-deserved case of the disease. A simple case of narrative inconsistency is found within the book of Samuel itself: 1 Samuel 17:23, 50 says that David killed the giant Goliath of Gath, while 2 Samuel 21:19 says it was Elhanan who killed the giant by that name. This, of course, is corrected by the chronicler, whose insertion of "the brother of" before the name Goliath in 1 Chronicles 20:5 is taken up by the King James translators in 2 Samuel 21:19 (note the KJV italics on the words "the brother of") as a means of harmonizing the two Samuel passages. The theology about God assumed by the three major traditions now identi- fied in the Pentateuch is another case in point. The Yah w i s t tradition (J) portrays an extremely personal deity named Yahweh, whose actions and con- cerns appear in largely human terms (Kaiser 1975, 85-90; Ellis 1968). An- other tradition, the Elohist (E), elevates this God, restricts the use of his name, and places angels and dreams as buffers between God and the world (Kaiser 1975, 91-96). The Priestly tradition (P), on the other hand, portrays a God who is wholly other, removed from the phenomenal universe of time and space (for examples of all of these, see Kaiser 1975, 109-13 and McEvenue 1971; for a fuller description of J and P, see below). All these traditions and texts are accepted as inspired. Yet when we understand them as mere sources of doctrine or collections of true propositions, instead of as literature which affects both our intellect and emotions, they appear to be contradictory. Ex- amples can be multiplied in the New Testament, especially in the way the various gospels handle parallel texts and scenes in the life of Jesus: often the passages are close enough to be clearly describing the same scene, but the differences in the telling can be great. Significantly, such discontinuity of the beliefs expressed in scripture has arisen from a historical tradition of faith striving for continuity: people tend to preserve the stories and texts they hold as sacred but often adapt them in light of the new circumstances they experience. Often a particular text sets up a specific problem of faith or point of religious reflection for the believers of the tradition, which they solve by adapting the problematic text. The later text that now seems to contradict an earlier one results simply from efforts at understanding it or making sense of the scenery of thought it produced. 14 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT This imaginative reworking of earlier tradition in the Bible can take many forms, such as when Old Testament passages are accommodated and applied to new, updated situations in the New Testament about which the original texts knew nothing (Fitzmyer 1974).