BHI 570 Cosmology in Genesis Rabbah
Through an in-depth study of chapters 1 and 8 in Midrash Genesis Rabbah, we will come to recognize midrash as a genre that had less to do with "biblical interpretation" as commonly conceptualized, and everything to do with ideological polemics. Jacob Neusner argued that large sections of this and other early 5th century rabbinic works were composed to offer disciples arguments against Gnosticism and Christianity, which were thought to threaten rabbinic ideology. To the extent possible, we will endeavor to establish the foreign mythological sources upon which the authors of this Midrash were dependent.