Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Oftentimes people get upset whenever someone says the Bible contains “myth.” I would argue that this is usually because many people have a shallow understanding of what exactly “myth” really is. While the term “myth” is commonly used to mean a false belief, religious studies scholars use it to refer to narratives that are believed to be true by adherents of a particular tradition.

In anthropological terms, myth reveals the presence of the sacred in a manner that is transhistorical and this quality is what defines it as a lived reality. Eliade further argues that the sacred does not exist as a dimension that is apart from the profane[1], but indeed exists within it, and is capable of manifesting itself at any time or moment.

This explains why the sacred participates in the fullness of being, unlike the profane that is circumscribed by the boundaries of ordinary time and space.

Myth connects the present day reality with the seminal events of a prehistorical past. Accordingly, mythical consciousness thrives in the immediacy of the present rather than in the past; both the symbol and the symbolized co-exist on a single plane of existence. It is important to add, as the renowned psychologist C. G. Jung (1875-1961) explains: “The primitive mentality does not invent myths, it experiences them. Myths are original revelations of the preconscious psyche. Many of these unconscious processes may be indirectly occasioned by consciousness, but never by conscious choice. Others appear to arise spontaneously, that is to say, from no discernible or demonstrable conscious cause.”[2]

From a different perspective, Eliade asserts that myth flourishes in the face of mystery and awesome incomprehension. Mythic stories invite people to let go of themselves to their immediacy and transcendence. One of the chief characteristics of creation stories in particular is that:

[The myth is an] irruption of the sacred into the world . . . that establishes the world as reality. Every myth shows how a reality came into existence, whether it be the total reality, the cosmos, or only a fragment—an island, a species of plant, a human institution. To tell how things came into existence is to explain them and at the same time indirectly to answer another question: Why did they come into existence? The “why” is always implied in the “how”—for the simple reason that to tell how a thing was born is to reveal an eruption of the sacred into the world, and the sacred is the ultimate cause of all existence.[3]

In truth, myth has never been meant to explain empirical facts about the natural world, but rather aims to disclose the sacred meaning that is present within the natural observable universe. To a mythical imagination, reality is experienced as a living presence and process. Consequently, myth influences and molds contemporary reality; it shapes the destiny of individuals, religions, and nation-states. Psychologist Rollo May points out in one of his last but most provocative books, The Cry for Myth, that myths unite the contradictions and antinomies of life whether they be conscious or unconscious, historical or present, social or individual. “Whereas empirical language refers to objective facts, myth refers to the quintessence of human experience, the meaning and significance of human life. The whole person speaks to us, not just to our brain.”[4] According to anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942), myth is relevant and contemporaneous with the primordial events that originate in the psyche of primal man:

Studied alive, myth, as we shall see is not symbolic, but a direct expression of its subject matter; it is not an explanation in satisfaction of a scientific interest, but a narrative resurrection of a primeval reality, told in satisfaction of deep religious wants, moral cravings, social submissions, assertions—even practical requirements. Myth fulfills in primitive culture an indispensible function: it expresses, enhances, and codifies belief; it safeguards and enforces morality; it vouches for the efficiency of ritual and contains practical rules for the guidance of man. Myth is thus a vital ingredient of human civilization; it is not an idle tale, but a hard-worked force; it is not an intellectual explanation or an artistic imagery, but a pragmatic charter of primitive faith and moral wisdom.[5]

If myth figures so prominently in the early Genesis stories, how is one to understand the host of human personalities that populate the “mythical” landscape? Did Adam, Eve, Noah and his children, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and a host of other biblical personalities in Genesis live in the world of real time? The Founding Fathers of Genesis may very well have been genuine historical figures, but that debate is almost totally irrelevant. Rollo May correctly observes, “It does not matter in the slightest whether a man named Adam and a woman named Eve ever existed or not; the myth about them in Genesis still presents a picture of the birth and development of human consciousness which is applicable to all people of all ages and religions.”[6]

The biblical writer ultimately suspends real time and narrates the lives of its personalities in mythic time. A mythic character does not live in a temporal existence like ordinary people do, but lives in an almost virtual reality that never ends—so long as people identify with the story and its characters. Myths are, after all, archetypal patterns that are embedded within human consciousness. Their struggles and triumphs serve as parables and allegorical tales mirroring the human condition. From this vantage point, the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of Jewish tradition become more important than proving their historical existence.

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Notes:

[1] Originally, the term profanum referred to the area of secular space that bordered upon sacred space, e.g., a Temple or shrine that was called the sanctum because it was designated solely for holy purposes. However, in the profanum, this area of space was permitted for ordinary non-holy usages.

[2] Carl G. Jung, “The Psychology of the Child Archetype” in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Vol.9, pt. 1, 2nd ed., (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1940), par. 261.

[3] The Sacred and the Profane, op. cit., 97-98.

[4] Rollo May, The Cry for Myth (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991), 26.

[5] Bronislaw Malinowski, Magic, Science, and Religion and Other Essays (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1948), 101.

[6] Rollo May, The Cry for Myth, op. cit., 27.