On the Origins of Evil in the Priestly Primeval History

Abstract

The priestly Primeval History unmistakably depicts the fundamentally conflictual existence of humans on earth through the growth of the human population before the flood in Gen 5 and through the reordering of the world after the flood in Gen 9. The text encapsulates this conflictual existence with the word חמס “violence” (6:11, 13). Gen 5 in its original form, attested by the Samaritan Pentateuch, shows the decline of humanity. Thus, the priestly Primeval History states clearly how it conceptualizes evil and how evil came into the world.