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The creation psalm, Psalm 104, has remarkable parallels with the Priestly creation narrative in Genesis 1. Parallels come in all six days of creation and occur in the same order. There are also many parallels in vocabulary. The question is, which came first? I shall put forward five arguments supporting the priority of Psalm 104.
1) Psalm 104 is more mythical; e.g. God has a battle with the sea, whereas in Genesis 1 God’s control of the sea is simply a job of work.
2) The rare form of the word for ‘beasts’ in Gen. 1:24, ḥayetô, is attested elsewhere only in poetry, including Psalm 104:11, 20.
3) If Psalm 104 was dependent on Genesis 1:1-2:3 it has curiously omitted two of its most important themes, the creation of humanity in God’s image and the sacredness of the seventh day.
4) Psalm 104:9 states that the waters defeated at creation will never flood the earth again. Clearly the psalmist was unaware of the Genesis flood narrative, which he surely would have known if he was heavily dependent on Genesis 1, as some suppose.
5) Every verse of Psalm 104:20-30 has remarkable parallels with pharaoh Akhenaten’s hymn to the sun, all coming in the same order, with one exception. Clearly the psalm is dependent on Akhenaten, and there would be little scope for it to be also dependent on Genesis 1 here.
