Secret History #17: Literary Genesis

Greek mercenaries, exiled Egyptian priests, Canaanite hill people, nomadic pastoralists, traders, and bandits formed this defensive coalition. The Levant was a multicultural melting pot with no concept of nation, race, or ethnicity at this time.

David, a mercenary-turned-king, faced legitimacy challenges after stealing the throne from Saul while ruling a diverse coalition of Greeks, Egyptians, hill people, and nomads.

David strengthened his kingship by controlling access to the divine, while priests gained institutional authority and the population received a unified religious identity.

Readers across generations encounter stories that support contradictory interpretations, forcing each person to grapple with meaning at different life stages and from various perspectives.

God, Adam, and Eve engage in a paradoxical setup where readers must interpret God’s motives: dishonest, naive about human psychology, or deliberately orchestrating humanity’s creative awakening.

Scholars believe a woman—the Yahwist author—wrote this Genesis account, making it revolutionary for embedding female superiority within patriarchal narrative structures.

Not just individuals but humanity as a species requires death for collective creativity—immortal individuals would block children and grandchildren from their own creative contributions.

The story implicates multiple parties: God for arbitrary favoritism, Cain for murderous jealousy, and the sacrificial system itself for creating competitive religious performance.

The past 200 years’ most influential thinkers—Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein—were all Jewish, demonstrating how Biblical training cultivates revolutionary thinking and dominance in creative fields.

The Yahwist (J) author, likely a woman and court historian, was hired to “clean up” David’s image by reframing his mercenary rebellion as divinely ordained destiny.

Joab (David’s general) murdered Abner supposedly for personal revenge, but the timing conveniently eliminated David’s rival while maintaining David’s “clean hands.”