Genesis and Exodus as Conceptually Independent, Competing Origin Myths?

Abstract Against Konrad Schmid’s thesis that the pre-P ancestral and Exodus traditions existed as competing origin myths that were conceptually independent from each other, this article argues that this conceptual independence is difficult to prove in the context of the ancient Israelites’ oral-written culture. Moreover, societal negotiation about the past should not be misconstrued as a sign of traditions’ conceptual independence. Competition between origin stories, or selective emphasis on one story over another, does not indicate their conceptual independence.