Editing Book of Genesis (section)

== Genre ==
Genesis is an example of a work in the "antiquities" genre, as the Romans knew it, a popular genre telling of the appearance of humans and their ancestors and heroes, with elaborate genealogies and chronologies fleshed out with stories and anecdotes.{{sfn|Van Seters|2004|pp=113–114}} Notable examples are found in the work of Greek historians of the 6th century BC: their intention was to connect notable families of their own day to a distant and heroic past, and in doing so they did not distinguish between [[myth]], [[legend]], and facts.{{sfn|Whybray|2001|p=39}} Professor Jean-Louis Ska of the [[Pontifical Biblical Institute]] calls the basic rule of the antiquarian historian the "law of conservation": everything old is valuable, nothing is eliminated.{{sfn|Ska|2006|p=169}} This antiquity was needed to prove the worth of Israel's traditions to the nations (the neighbours of the Jews in the early Persian province of Judea), and to reconcile and unite the various factions within Israel itself.{{sfn|Ska|2006|p=169}}

Describing the work of the biblical authors, [[John Van Seters]] wrote that lacking many historical traditions and none from the distant past, "They had to use myths and legends for earlier periods. In order to make sense out of the variety of different and often conflicting versions of stories, and to relate the stories to each other, they fitted them into a genealogical chronology."{{Sfn|Van Seters|1998|pp=21–22}} [[Tremper Longman]] describes Genesis as theological history: "the fact that these events took place is assumed, and not argued. The concern of the text is not to prove the history but rather to impress the reader with the theological significance of these acts".{{Sfn|Longman|2005|p=62}}