Adam What are You? The Primeval History Against the Backdrop of Mesopotamian Mythology

Abstract

The aim of the paper is not to present new information on the primeval history’s form and content, but to investigate what happens when the already accessible and well-known information on form and content is seen through the lens of current literary, linguistic and historical theory in order to gain a better understanding of the primeval history’s genre and heuristic value. It is argued that what decides whether we choose the label “myth,” “proto-history,” “historicized fiction,” “metaphorical narrative” comes down to the texts’ referential character and, ultimately, to our worldview, and that any attempt to genre label the primeval history must recognize what can be argued on common ground (that the author intended to write history and that the onomastic and topographical framework reflect an early second millennium historical reality) and what must be argued on the basis of (different) worldviews (whether or not God can be seen as historical causa).