“We have come into this country to live and bring up our children. But if they hear these stories, they will believe some of them and forget the true God. They must have stories of their own that show how great and mighty is the God of Israel. But what shall we do about these stories? If we say the stories are false, they will laugh at us and say, ‘Why, our people have known these stories since long, long before there was a Hebrew on the earth. What our fathers have told us as true is surely true.’ And if we say to our children, ‘You must not listen to these stories,’ they will be all the more eager to listen. What shall we do?”
Finally it was decided that the stories of the Egyptians and the Babylonians must be remade so as to be fit for their children to hear and they must teach the beliefs of their own religion in stories of their own.
So, many weeks later as the men were gathered out under the stars on a beautiful night, one of the best of the Hebrew story-tellers said quietly,
“I have listened to stories about the making of the world from many of you but I think my story is better than any you have told. Would you like to hear the story of how the God of Israel made the world?”
“’Tis a Hebrew who is talking,” said one. “I didn’t know you people had any stories. Give it to us. Then we can compare it with our own great stories.”
And the Hebrew story-teller began:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the 117 earth. And these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
“And every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
“But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
“And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.