Genesis creation narrative
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The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth[a] of both Judaism and Christianity. The narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first, Elohim (the Hebrew generic word for God) creates the heavens and the Earth in six days, then rests on, blesses and sanctifies the seventh (i.e. the Biblical Sabbath). In the second story, God, now referred to by the personal name Yahweh, creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden, where he is given dominion over the animals. Eve, the first woman, is created from Adam and as his companion.
Borrowing themes from Mesopotamian mythology, but adapting them to the Israelite people's belief in one God, the first major comprehensive draft of the Pentateuch (the series of five books which begins with Genesis and ends with Deuteronomy) was composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BCE (the Jahwist source) and was later expanded by other authors (the Priestly source) into a work very like the one we have today. The two sources can be identified in the creation narrative: Priestly and Jahwistic. The combined narrative is a critique of the Mesopotamian theology of creation: Genesis affirms monotheism and denies polytheism. Robert Alter described the combined narrative as "compelling in its archetypal character, its adaptation of myth to monotheistic ends".
Misunderstanding the genre of the Genesis creation narrative, meaning the intention of the author(s) and the culture within which they wrote, can result in misreadings of the myth as history. This has inspired some believers to promote creationism and deny evolution. As scholar of Jewish studies, Jon D. Levenson, puts it:
How much history lies behind the story of Genesis? Because the action of the primeval story is not represented as taking place on the plane of ordinary human history and has so many affinities with ancient mythology, it is very far-fetched to speak of its narratives as historical at all."
Although tradition attributes Genesis to Moses, biblical scholars hold that it, together with the following four books (making up what Jews call the Torah and biblical scholars call the Pentateuch), is "a composite work, the product of many hands and periods." A common hypothesis among biblical scholars today is that the first major comprehensive draft of the Pentateuch was composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BCE (the Jahwist source), and that this was later expanded by the addition of various narratives and laws (the Priestly source) into a work very like the one existing today.
As for the historical background which led to the creation of the narrative itself, a theory which has gained considerable interest, although still controversial, is "Persian imperial authorisation". This proposes that the Persians, after their conquest of Babylon in 538 BCE, agreed to grant Jerusalem a large measure of local autonomy within the empire, but required the local authorities to produce a single law code accepted by the entire community. It further proposes that there were two powerful groups in the community – the priestly families who controlled the Temple, and the landowning families who made up the "elders" – and that these two groups were in conflict over many issues, and that each had its own "history of origins", but the Persian promise of greatly increased local autonomy for all provided a powerful incentive to cooperate in producing a single text.
The creation narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the two first chapters of the Book of Genesis (there are no chapter divisions in the original Hebrew text, see Chapters and verses of the Bible). The first account (Genesis 1:1–2:3) employs a repetitious structure of divine fiat and fulfillment, then the statement "And there was evening and there was morning, the [xth] day," for each of the six days of creation. In each of the first three days there is an act of division: day one divides the darkness from light, day two the "waters above" from the "waters below", and day three the sea from the land. In each of the next three days these divisions are populated: day four populates the darkness and light with Sun, Moon and stars; day five populates seas and skies with fish and fowl; and finally land-based creatures and mankind populate the land.
Consistency was evidently not seen as essential to storytelling in ancient Near Eastern literature. The overlapping stories of Genesis 1 and 2 are contradictory but also complementary, with the first (the Priestly story) concerned with the creation of the entire cosmos while the second (the Yahwist story) focuses on man as moral agent and cultivator of his environment. The highly regimented seven-day narrative of Genesis 1 features an omnipotent God who creates a god-like humanity, while the one-day creation of Genesis 2 uses a simple linear narrative, a God who can fail as well as succeed, and a humanity which is not god-like but is punished for acts which would lead to their becoming god-like. Even the order and method of creation differs. "Together, this combination of parallel character and contrasting profile point to the different origin of materials in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, however elegantly they have now been combined."
The primary accounts in each chapter are joined by a literary bridge at Genesis 2:4, "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created." This echoes the first line of Genesis 1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth", and is reversed in the next phrase, "...in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens". This verse is one of ten "generations" (Hebrew: תולדות toledot) phrases used throughout Genesis, which provide a literary structure to the book. They normally function as headings to what comes after, but the position of this, the first of the series, has been the subject of much debate.
Comparative mythology provides historical and cross-cultural perspectives for Jewish mythology. Both sources behind the Genesis creation narrative borrowed themes from Mesopotamian mythology, but adapted them to their belief in one God, establishing a monotheistic creation in opposition to the polytheistic creation myth of ancient Israel's neighbors.
Genesis 1–11 as a whole is imbued with Mesopotamian myths. Genesis 1 bears both striking differences from and striking similarities to Babylon's national creation myth, the Enuma Elish. On the side of similarities, both begin from a stage of chaotic waters before anything is created, in both a fixed dome-shaped "firmament" divides these waters from the habitable Earth, and both conclude with the creation of a human called "man" and the building of a temple for the god (in Genesis 1, this temple is the entire cosmos). On the side of contrasts, Genesis 1 is monotheistic, it makes no attempt to account for the origins of God, and there is no trace of the resistance to the reduction of chaos to order (Greek: theomachy, lit. "God-fighting"), all of which mark the Mesopotamian creation accounts. Still, Genesis 1 bears similarities to the Baal Cycle of Israel's neighbor, Ugarit.
The Enuma Elish has also left traces on Genesis 2. Both begin with a series of statements of what did not exist at the moment when creation began; the Enuma Elish has a spring (in the sea) as the point where creation begins, paralleling the spring (on the land – Genesis 2 is notable for being a "dry" creation story) in Genesis 2:6 that "watered the whole face of the ground"; in both myths, Yahweh/the gods first create a man to serve him/them, then animals and vegetation. At the same time, and as with Genesis 1, the Jewish version has drastically changed its Babylonian model: Eve, for example, seems to fill the role of a mother goddess when, in Genesis 4:1, she says that she has "created a man with Yahweh", but she is not a divine being like her Babylonian counterpart.
Genesis 2 has close parallels with a second Mesopotamian myth, the Atra-Hasis epic – parallels that in fact extend throughout Genesis 2–11, from the Creation to the Flood and its aftermath. The two share numerous plot-details (e.g. the divine garden and the role of the first man in the garden, the creation of the man from a mixture of earth and divine substance, the chance of immortality, etc.), and have a similar overall theme: the gradual clarification of man's relationship with God(s) and animals.
Creation by word and creation by combat
The narratives in Genesis 1 and 2 were not the only creation myths in ancient Israel, and the complete biblical evidence suggests two contrasting models. The first is the "logos" (meaning speech) model, where a supreme God "speaks" dormant matter into existence. The second is the "agon" (meaning struggle or combat) model, in which it is God's victory in battle over the monsters of the sea that mark his sovereignty and might. Genesis 1 is an example of creation by speech, while Psalm 74 and Isaiah 51 are examples of the "agon" mythology, recalling a Canaanite myth in which God creates the world by vanquishing the water deities: "Awake, awake! ... It was you that hacked Rahab in pieces, that pierced the Dragon! It was you that dried up the Sea, the waters of the great Deep, that made the abysses of the Sea a road that the redeemed might walk..."
The cosmos created in Genesis 1 bears a striking resemblance to the Tabernacle in Exodus 35–40, which was the prototype of the Temple in Jerusalem and the focus of priestly worship of Yahweh; for this reason, and because other Middle Eastern creation stories also climax with the construction of a temple/house for the creator-god, Genesis 1 can be interpreted as a description of the construction of the cosmos as God's house, for which the Temple in Jerusalem served as the earthly representative.
The word bara is translated as "created" in English, but the concept it embodied was not the same as the modern term: in the world of the ancient Near East, the gods demonstrated their power over the world not by creating matter but by fixing destinies, so that the essence of the bara which God performs in Genesis concerns bringing "heaven and earth" (a set phrase meaning "everything") into existence by organising and assigning roles and functions.
The use of numbers in ancient texts was often numerological rather than factual – that is, the numbers were used because they held some symbolic value to the author. The number seven, denoting divine completion, permeates Genesis 1: verse 1:1 consists of seven words, verse 1:2 of fourteen, and 2:1–3 has 35 words (5×7); Elohim is mentioned 35 times, "heaven/firmament" and "earth" 21 times each, and the phrases "and it was so" and "God saw that it was good" occur 7 times each.
Pre-creation: Genesis 1:1–2
- 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
- 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
- as a statement that the cosmos had an absolute beginning ("In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.");
- as a statement describing the condition of the world when God began creating ("When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was untamed and shapeless."); and
- essentially similar to the second version but taking all of Genesis 1:2 as background information ("When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – the earth being untamed and shapeless... – God said, Let there be light!").
The second seems to be the meaning intended by the original Priestly author: the verb bara is used only of God (people do not engage in bara), and it concerns the assignment of roles, as in the creation of the first people as "male and female" (i.e., it allocates them sexes): in other words, the power of God is being shown not by the creation of matter but by the fixing of destinies.
The heavens and the earth is a set phrase meaning "everything", i.e., the cosmos. This was made up of three levels, the habitable earth in the middle, the heavens above, and an underworld below, all surrounded by a watery "ocean" of chaos as the Babylonian Tiamat. The Earth itself was a flat disc, surrounded by mountains or sea. Above it was the firmament, a transparent but solid dome resting on the mountains, allowing men to see the blue of the waters above, with "windows" to allow the rain to enter, and containing the Sun, Moon and stars. The waters extended below the Earth, which rested on pillars sunk in the waters, and in the underworld was Sheol, the abode of the dead.
The opening of Genesis 1 continues: "And the earth was formless and void..." The phrase "formless and void" is a translation of the Hebrew tohu wa-bohu, (Hebrew: תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ), chaos, the condition that bara, ordering, remedies. Tohu by itself means "emptiness, futility"; it is used to describe the desert wilderness; bohu has no known meaning and was apparently coined to rhyme with and reinforce tohu. The phrase appears also in Jeremiah 4:23 where the prophet warns Israel that rebellion against God will lead to the return of darkness and chaos, "as if the earth had been 'uncreated'".
The opening of Genesis 1 concludes with a statement that "darkness was on the face of the deep" (Hebrew: תְהוֹם tehôm), [the] "darkness" and the "deep" being two of the three elements of the chaos represented in tohu wa-bohu (the third is the "formless earth"). In the Enuma Elish, the "deep" is personified as the goddess Tiamat, the enemy of Marduk; here it is the formless body of primeval water surrounding the habitable world, later to be released during the Deluge, when "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth" from the waters beneath the earth and from the "windows" of the sky.
The Rûach of God moves over the face of the deep before creation begins. Rûach (רוּחַ) has the meanings "wind, spirit, breath", and elohim can mean "great" as well as "god": the ruach elohim may therefore mean the "wind/breath of God" (the storm-wind is God's breath in Psalms 18:16 and elsewhere, and the wind of God returns in the Flood story as the means by which God restores the Earth), or God's "spirit", a concept which is somewhat vague in the Hebrew Bible, or it may simply signify a great storm-wind.
Six days of Creation: Genesis 1:3–2:3
God's first act was the creation of undifferentiated light; dark and light were then separated into night and day, their order (evening before morning) signifying that this was the liturgical day; and then the Sun, Moon and stars were created to mark the proper times for the festivals of the week and year. Only when this is done does God create man and woman and the means to sustain them (plants and animals). At the end of the sixth day, when creation is complete, the world is a cosmic temple in which the role of humanity is the worship of God. This parallels Mesopotamian myth (the Enuma Elish) and also echoes chapter 38 of the Book of Job, where God recalls how the stars, the "sons of God", sang when the corner-stone of creation was laid.
3 And God said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Day 1 begins with the creation of light. God creates by spoken command and names the elements of the world as he creates them. In the ancient Near East the act of naming was bound up with the act of creating: thus in Egyptian literature the creator god pronounced the names of everything, and the Enûma Elish begins at the point where nothing has yet been named. God's creation by speech also suggests that he is being compared to a king, who has merely to speak for things to happen.
6 And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Rāqîa, the word translated as firmament, is from rāqa', the verb used for the act of beating metal into thin plates. Created on the second day of creation and populated by luminaries on the fourth, it is a solid dome which separates the Earth below from the heavens and their waters above, as in Egyptian and Mesopotamian belief of the same time. In Genesis 1:17 the stars are set in the raqia'; in Babylonian myth the heavens were made of various precious stones (compare Exodus 24:10 where the elders of Israel see God on the sapphire floor of heaven), with the stars engraved in their surface.
And God said: 'Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said: 'Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth.' And it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
On the third day, the waters withdraw, creating a ring of ocean surrounding a single circular continent. By the end of the third day God has created a foundational environment of light, heavens, seas and earth. The three levels of the cosmos are next populated in the same order in which they were created – heavens, sea, earth.
God does not create or make trees and plants, but instead commands the earth to produce them. The underlying theological meaning seems to be that God has given the previously barren earth the ability to produce vegetation, and it now does so at his command. "According to (one's) kind" appears to look forward to the laws found later in the Pentateuch, which lay great stress on holiness through separation.
14 And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
On Day Four the language of "ruling" is introduced: the heavenly bodies will "govern" day and night and mark seasons and years and days (a matter of crucial importance to the Priestly authors, as religious festivals were organised around the cycles of the Sun and Moon); later, man will be created to rule over the whole of creation as God's regent. God puts "lights" in the firmament to "rule over" the day and the night. Specifically, God creates the "greater light," the "lesser light," and the stars. According to Victor Hamilton, most scholars agree that the choice of "greater light" and "lesser light", rather than the more explicit "Sun" and "Moon", is anti-mythological rhetoric intended to contradict widespread contemporary beliefs that the Sun and the Moon were deities themselves.
And God said: 'Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.' 21 And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that creepeth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after its kind, and every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.' 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
In the Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythologies, the creator-god has to do battle with the sea-monsters before he can make heaven and earth; in Genesis 1:21, the word tannin, sometimes translated as "sea monsters" or "great creatures", parallels the named chaos-monsters Rahab and Leviathan from Psalm 74:13, and Isaiah 27:1, and Isaiah 51:9, but there is no hint (in Genesis) of combat, and the tannin are simply creatures created by God.
24 And God said: 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind.' And it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.' 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. 28 And God blessed them; and God said unto them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.' 29 And God said: 'Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed--to you it shall be for food; 30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food.' And it was so.31 And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
When in Genesis 1:26 God says "Let us make man", the Hebrew word used is adam; in this form it is a generic noun, "mankind", and does not imply that this creation is male. After this first mention the word always appears as ha-adam, "the man", but as Genesis 1:27 shows ("So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."), the word is still not exclusively male.
Man was created in the "image of God". The meaning of this is unclear: suggestions include:
- Having the spiritual qualities of God such as intellect, will, etc.;
- Having the physical form of God;
- A combination of these two;
- Being God's counterpart on Earth and able to enter into a relationship with him;
- Being God's representative or viceroy on Earth.
The fact that God says "Let us make man..." has given rise to several theories, of which the two most important are that "us" is majestic plural, or that it reflects a setting in a divine council with God enthroned as king and proposing the creation of mankind to the lesser divine beings.
God tells the animals and humans that he has given them "the green plants for food" – creation is to be vegetarian. Only later, after the Flood, is man given permission to eat flesh. The Priestly author of Genesis appears to look back to an ideal past in which mankind lived at peace both with itself and with the animal kingdom, and which could be re-achieved through a proper sacrificial life in harmony with God.
Upon completion, God sees that "every thing that He had made ... was very good" (Genesis 1:31). This implies that the materials that existed before the Creation ("tohu wa-bohu," "darkness," "tehom") were not "very good." Israel Knohl hypothesized that the Priestly source set up this dichotomy to mitigate the problem of evil.
Seventh day: divine rest
And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made.
Creation is followed by rest. In ancient Near Eastern literature the divine rest is achieved in a temple as a result of having brought order to chaos. Rest is both disengagement, as the work of creation is finished, but also engagement, as the deity is now present in his temple to maintain a secure and ordered cosmos. Compare with Exodus 20:8–20:11: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy GOD, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
Genesis 2–3, the Garden of Eden story, was probably authored around 500 BCE as "a discourse on ideals in life, the danger in human glory, and the fundamentally ambiguous nature of humanity – especially human mental faculties". The Garden in which the action takes place lies on the mythological border between the human and the divine worlds, probably on the far side of the Cosmic ocean near the rim of the world; following a conventional ancient Near Eastern concept, the Eden river first forms that ocean and then divides into four rivers which run from the four corners of the earth towards its centre. It opens "in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens", a set introduction similar to those found in Babylonian myths. Before the man is created the earth is a barren waste watered by an ’êḏ (אד); Genesis 2:6 the King James Version translated this as "mist", following Jewish practice, but since the mid-20th century Hebraists have generally accepted that the real meaning is "spring of underground water".
In Genesis 1 the characteristic word for God's activity is bara, "created"; in Genesis 2 the word used when he creates the man is yatsar (ייצר yîṣer), meaning "fashioned", a word used in contexts such as a potter fashioning a pot from clay. God breathes his own breath into the clay and it becomes nephesh (נֶ֫פֶשׁ), a word meaning "life", "vitality", "the living personality"; man shares nephesh with all creatures, but the text describes this life-giving act by God only in relation to man.
Eden, where God puts his Garden of Eden, comes from a root meaning "fertility": the first man is to work in God's miraculously fertile garden. The "tree of life" is a motif from Mesopotamian myth: in the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 1800 BCE) the hero is given a plant whose name is "man becomes young in old age", but a serpent steals the plant from him. There has been much scholarly discussion about the type of knowledge given by the second tree. Suggestions include: human qualities, sexual consciousness, ethical knowledge, or universal knowledge; with the last being the most widely accepted. In Eden, mankind has a choice between wisdom and life, and chooses the first, although God intended them for the second.
The mythic Eden and its rivers may represent the real Jerusalem, the Temple and the Promised Land. Eden may represent the divine garden on Zion, the mountain of God, which was also Jerusalem; while the real Gihon was a spring outside the city (mirroring the spring which waters Eden); and the imagery of the Garden, with its serpent and cherubs, has been seen as a reflection of the real images of the Solomonic Temple with its copper serpent (the nehushtan) and guardian cherubs. Genesis 2 is the only place in the Bible where Eden appears as a geographic location: elsewhere (notably in the Book of Ezekiel) it is a mythological place located on the holy Mountain of God, with echoes of a Mesopotamian myth of the king as a primordial man placed in a divine garden to guard the tree of life.
"Good and evil" is a merism, in this case meaning simply "everything", but it may also have a moral connotation. When God forbids the man to eat from the tree of knowledge he says that if he does so he is "doomed to die": the Hebrew behind this is in the form used in the Bible for issuing death sentences.
The first woman is created to be ezer kenegdo (עזר כנגדו ‘êzer kəneḡdō) – a term notably difficult to translate – to the man. Kəneḡdō means "alongside, opposite, a counterpart to him", and ‘êzer means active intervention on behalf of the other person. God's naming of the elements of the cosmos in Genesis 1 illustrated his authority over creation; now the man's naming of the animals (and of Woman) illustrates Adam's authority within creation.
The woman is called ishah (אשה ’iš-šāh), "Woman", with an explanation that this is because she was taken from ish (אִישׁ ’îš), meaning "man"; the two words are not in fact connected. Later, after the story of the Garden is complete, she receives a name: Ḥawwāh (חוה , Eve). This means "living" in Hebrew, from a root that can also mean "snake". The word traditionally translated "rib" in English can also mean "side", "chamber", or "beam". A long-standing exegetical tradition holds that the use of a rib from man's side emphasizes that both man and woman have equal dignity, for woman was created from the same material as man, shaped and given life by the same processes.
Creationism and the genre of the creation narrative
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The meaning to be derived from the Genesis creation narrative will depend on the reader's understanding of its genre, the literary "type" to which it belongs: "it makes an enormous difference whether the first chapters of Genesis are read as scientific cosmology, creation myth, or historical saga". Misunderstanding of the genre of the text, meaning the intention of the author/s and the culture within which they wrote, will result in a misreading. Reformed evangelical scholar Bruce Waltke cautions against one such misreading, the "woodenly literal" approach which leads to "creation science" and such "implausible interpretations" as the "gap theory", the presumption of a "young earth", and the denial of evolution. Another scholar, Conrad Hyers, sums up the same thought in these words: "A literalist interpretation of the Genesis accounts is inappropriate, misleading, and unworkable [because] it presupposes and insists upon a kind of literature and intention that is not there."
Whatever else it may be, Genesis 1 is "story", since it features character and characterisation, a narrator, and dramatic tension expressed through a series of incidents arranged in time. The Priestly author of Genesis 1 had to confront two major difficulties. First, there is the fact that since only God exists at this point, no-one was available to be the narrator; the storyteller solved this by introducing an unobtrusive "third person narrator". Second, there was the problem of conflict: conflict is necessary to arouse the reader's interest in the story, yet with nothing else existing, neither a chaos-monster nor another god, there cannot be any conflict. This was solved by creating a very minimal tension: God is opposed by nothingness itself, the blank of the world "without form and void." Telling the story in this way was a deliberate choice: there are a number of creation stories in the Bible, but they tend to be told in the first person, by Wisdom, the instrument by which God created the world; the choice of an omniscient third-person narrator in the Genesis narrative allows the storyteller to create the impression that everything is being told and nothing held back.
It can also be regarded as ancient history, "part of a broader spectrum of originally anonymous, history-like ancient Near Eastern narratives." It is frequently called myth in scholarly writings, but there is no agreement on how "myth" is to be defined, and so while Brevard Childs famously suggested that the author of Genesis 1–11 "demythologised" his narrative, meaning that he removed from his sources (the Babylonian myths) those elements which did not fit with his own faith, others can say it is entirely mythical.
Genesis 1–2 can be seen as ancient science: in the words of E.A. Speiser, "on the subject of creation biblical tradition aligned itself with the traditional tenets of Babylonian science." The opening words of Genesis 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth", sum up the author(s) belief that Yahweh, the god of Israel, was solely responsible for creation and had no rivals. Later Jewish thinkers, adopting ideas from Greek philosophy, concluded that God's Wisdom, Word and Spirit penetrated all things and gave them unity. Christianity in turn adopted these ideas and identified Jesus with the creative word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). When the Jews came into contact with Greek thought it led to a major reinterpretation of the underlying cosmology of the Genesis narrative. The biblical authors conceived the cosmos as a flat disc-shaped Earth in the centre, an underworld for the dead below, and heaven above. Below the Earth were the "waters of chaos", the cosmic sea, home to mythic monsters defeated and slain by God; in Exodus 20:4, God warns against making an image "of anything that is in the waters under the earth". There were also waters above the Earth, and so the raqia (firmament), a solid bowl, was necessary to keep them from flooding the world. During the Hellenistic period this was largely replaced by a more "scientific" model as imagined by Greek philosophers, according to which the Earth was a sphere at the centre of concentric shells of celestial spheres containing the Sun, Moon, stars and planets.
The idea that God created the world out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) is central today to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism – indeed, the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides felt it was the only concept that the three religions shared – yet it is not found directly in Genesis, nor in the entire Hebrew Bible. The Priestly authors of Genesis 1 were concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into the habitable cosmos), but with assigning roles so that the Cosmos should function. This was still the situation in the early 2nd century AD, although early Christian scholars were beginning to see a tension between the idea of world-formation and the omnipotence of God; by the beginning of the 3rd century this tension was resolved, world-formation was overcome, and creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology.
- Anno Mundi
- Apollo 8 Genesis reading
- Atra-hasis epic
- Allegorical interpretations of Genesis
- Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
- Babylonian mythology
- Biblical chronology
- Biblical cosmology
- Biblical criticism
- Christian mythology
- Creation (disambiguation)
- Creation mandate
- Cultural mandate
- Enûma Eliš
- Genesis flood narrative
- Islamic creation narrative
- Human timeline
- Jewish mythology
- Life timeline
- List of creation myths
- Mesopotamian mythology
- Nature timeline
- Primeval history
- Religion and mythology
- Sanamahi creation myth
- Sumerian creation myth
- Sumerian literature
- Tree of the knowledge of good and evil
- Tree of life
- The term myth is used here in its academic sense, meaning "a traditional story consisting of events that are ostensibly historical, though often supernatural, explaining the origins of a cultural practice or natural phenomenon." It is not being used to mean "something that is false".
- Leeming & Leeming 2009, p. 113. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLeemingLeeming2009 (help)
- Sarna 1997, p. 50.
- Davies 2007, p. 37.
- Bandstra 2008, p. 37.
- Wenham 2003b, p. 37.
- Alter 2004, p. xii.
- Andersen 1987, p. 142.
- Waltke 1991, pp. 6–9.
- Levenson 2004, p. 11.
- Speiser 1964, p. xxi.
- Ska 2006, pp. 169, 217–18.
- Alter 1981, p. 141.
- Ruiten 2000, pp. 9–10.
- Levenson 2004, p. 9 "One aspect of narrative in Genesis that requires special attention is its high tolerance for different versions of the same event, a well-known feature of ancient Near Eastern literature, from earliest times through rabbinic midrash. ... This could not have happened if the existence of variation were seen as a serious defect or if rigid consistency were deemed essential to effective storytelling."
- Carr 1996, pp. 62–64.
- Carr 1996, p. 64.
- Cross 1973, pp. 301ff.
- Thomas 2011, pp. 27–28.
- Lambert 1965.
- Levenson 2004, p. 9.
- Leeming 2004.
- Smith 2001.
- Kutsko 2000, p. 62, quoting J. Maxwell Miller.
- McDermott 2002, pp. 25–27.
- Mark Smith; Wayne Pitard (24 December 2008). The Ugaritic Baal Cycle: Volume II. Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU/CAT 1.3-1.4. BRILL. p. 615. ISBN 978-90-474-4232-5.
- Van Seters 1992, pp. 122–24.
- Dolansky 2016.
- Fishbane 2003, pp. 34–35.
- Hutton 2007, p. 274.
- Levenson 2004, p. 13.
- Walton 2006, p. 183.
- Hyers 1984, p. 74.
- Wenham 1987, p. 6.
- Genesis 1:1–1:2
- Bandstra 2008, pp. 38–39.
- Spence 2010, p. 72.
- Knight 1990, pp. 175–76.
- Walton 2001.
- Alter 2004, p. 17.
- Thompson 1980, p. 230.
- Wenham 2003a, p. 29.
- Blenkinsopp 2011, pp. 33–34.
- Blenkinsopp 2011, pp. 21–22.
- Genesis 1:3–1:5
- Walton 2003, p. 158.
- Bandstra 2008, p. 39.
- Genesis 1:6–1:8
- Hamilton 1990, p. 122.
- Seeley 1991, p. 227.
- Walton 2003, pp. 158–59.
- Genesis 1:9–1:13
- Seeley 1997, p. 236.
- Bandstra 2008, p. 41.
- Kissling 2004, p. 106.
- Genesis 1:14–1:19
- Bandstra 2008, pp. 41–42.
- Walsh 2001, p. 37 (fn.5).
- Hamilton 1990, p. 127.
- Genesis 1:20–1:23
- Walton 2003, p. 160.
- Genesis 1:24–31
- Alter 2004, pp. 18–19, 21.
- Kvam et al. 1999, p. 24.
- Davidson 1973, p. 24.
- Levenson 2004, p. 14.
- Rogerson 1991, pp. 19ff.
- Knohl 2003, p. 13.
- Genesis 2:1–2:3
- Walton 2006, pp. 157–58.
- Stordalen 2000, pp. 473–74.
- Van Seters 1998, p. 22.
- Andersen 1987, pp. 137–40.
- Alter 2004, pp. 20, 22.
- Davidson 1973, p. 31.
- Levenson 2004, p. 15.
- Davidson 1973, p. 29.
- Levenson 2004, p. 9 "The story of Adam and Eve's sin in the garden of Eden (2.25–3.24) displays similarities with Gilgamesh, an epic poem that tells how its hero lost the opportunity for immortality and came to terms with his humanity. ... the biblical narrator has adapted the Mesopotamian forerunner to Israelite theology."
- Kooij 2010, p. 17.
- Propp 1990, p. 193.
- Stordalen 2000, pp. 307–10.
- Davidson 1973, p. 33.
- Alter 2004, p. 21.
- Alter 2004, p. 22.
- Turner 2009, p. 20.
- Hastings 2003, p. 607.
- Jacobs 2007, p. 37.
- Hugenberger 1988, p. 184.
- Wood 1990, pp. 323–24.
- Hyers 1984, p. 28.
- Cotter 2003, pp. 5–9.
- Cotter 2003, p. 7.
- Cotter 2003, p. 8.
- Carr 1996, p. 21.
- Hamilton 1990, pp. 57–58.
- Seidman 2010, p. 166.
- Wright 2002, p. 53.
- Kaiser 1997, p. 28.
- Parrish 1990, pp. 183–84.
- Aune 2003, p. 119.
- Ryken et al 1998, p. 170
- Soskice 2010, p. 24.
- Nebe 2002, p. 119.
- May 2004, p. 179.
- Alter, Robert (1981). The Art of Biblical narrative. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465004270.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Alter, Robert (2004). The Five Books of Moses. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-33393-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Andersen, Francis I. (1987). "On Reading Genesis 1–3". In O'Connor, Michael Patrick; Freedman, David Noel (eds.). Backgrounds for the Bible. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9780931464300.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Aune, David E. (2003). "Cosmology". Westminster Dictionary of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664219178.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Bandstra, Barry L. (2008). Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Wadsworth Publishing Company. p. 576. ISBN 0-495-39105-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2011). Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1–11. T&T Clarke International. ISBN 9780567372871.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Bouteneff, Peter C. (2008). Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narrative. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic. ISBN 978-0-8010-3233-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Brettler, Mark Zvi (2005). How To Read the Bible. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 9780827610019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Brueggemann, Walter (1982). "Genesis 1:1–2.4". Interpretation of Genesis. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 382. ISBN 978-0-8042-3101-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Carr, David M. (1996). Reading the Fractures in Genesis. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22071-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Carr, David M. (2011). "The Garden of Eden Story". An Introduction to the Old Testament. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444356236.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Cotter, David W (2003). Genesis. Liturgical Press. ISBN 9780814650400.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Cross, Frank Moore (1973). "The Priestly Work". Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Harvard University Press. p. 394. ISBN 0-674-09176-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Dalley, Stephanie (2000). Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192835895.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Davidson, Robert (1973). Genesis 1–11. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521097604.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Davies, G.I. (2007). "Introduction to the Pentateuch". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199277186.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Dolansky, Shawna (2016). "The Multiple Truths of Myths". Biblical Archaeology Review. 42 (1): 18, 60.
- Fishbane, Michael (2003). Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-826733-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Friedman, Richard Elliott (2003). The Bible with Sources Revealed. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061951299.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Ginzberg, Louis (1909). The Legends of the Jews (PDF). Jewish Publication Society. p. 695.
- Graves, Robert; Patai, Raphael (1986). Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. Random House. ISBN 9780795337154.
- Hamilton, Victor P (1990). The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1–17. New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 540. ISBN 0-8028-2521-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Hastings, James (2003). Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Part 10. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7661-3682-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Heidel, Alexander (1963). Babylonian Genesis (2nd ed.). Chicago University Press. ISBN 0-226-32399-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Heidel, Alexander (1963). The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels (2nd Revised ed.). Chicago University Press. ISBN 0-226-32398-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Hugenberger, G.P. (1988). "Rib". In Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (ed.). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume 4. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802837844.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Hutton, Jeremy (2007). Isaiah 51:9–11 and the Rhetorical Appropriation and Subversion of Hostile Theologies. Journal of Biblical Literature. 126. Society of Biblical Literature. JSTOR 27638435.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Hyers, Conrad (1984). The Meaning of Creation: Genesis and Modern Science. Westminster John Knox. ISBN 9780804201254.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Jacobs, Mignon R (2007). Gender, Power, and Persuasion: The Genesis Narratives and Contemporary Perspectives. Baker Academic.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Janzen, David (2004). The Social Meanings of Sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible: A Study of Four Writings. Walter de Gruyter Publisher. ISBN 978-3-11-018158-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kaiser, Christopher B. (1997). Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science. Brill. ISBN 9004106693.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kaplan, Aryeh (2002). "Hashem/Elokim: Mixing Mercy with Justice". The Aryeh Kaplan Reader: The Gift He Left Behind. Mesorah Publication, Ltd. p. 224. ISBN 0-89906-173-7. Retrieved 29 December 2010.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Keel, Othmar (1997). The Symbolism of the Biblical World. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060149.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- King, Leonard (2010). Enuma Elish: The Seven Tablets of Creation; The Babylonian and Assyrian Legends Concerning the Creation of the World and of Mankind. Cosimo Inc.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kissling, Paul (2004). Genesis, Volume 1. College Press. ISBN 9780899008752.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Knight, Douglas A (1990). "Cosmology". In Watson E. Mills (General Editor) (ed.). Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780865543737.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Knohl, Israel (2003). The Divine Symphony: The Bible's Many Voices. Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 9780827610187.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kooij, Arie van der (2010). "The Story of Paradise in the Light of Mesopotamian Culture and Literature". In Dell, Katherine J; Davies, Graham; Koh, Yee Von (eds.). Genesis, Isaiah, and Psalms. Brill. ISBN 9004182314.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kramer, Samuel Noah (1956). History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kugler, Robert; Hartin, Patrick (2009). An Introduction to the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802846365.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kutsko, John F. (2000). Between Heaven and Earth: Divine Presence and Absence in the Book of Ezekiel. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575060415.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kvam, Kristen E.; Schearing, Linda S.; Ziegler, Valarie H., eds. (1999). Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender. Indiana University Press. p. 515. ISBN 0-253-21271-5.
- Lambert, W. G. (1965). "A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis". The Journal of Theological Studies. 16 (2). pp. 287–300. JSTOR 23959032.
- Leeming, David A. (2010). Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. 1. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598841749.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Leeming, David A. (2004). "Biblical creation". The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 May 2010.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Leeming, David A.; Leeming, Margaret (2004). A Dictionary of Creation Myths. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195102758.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Levenson, Jon D. (2004). "Genesis: Introduction and Annotations". In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.). The Jewish study Bible. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195297515.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Louth, Andrew (2001). "Introduction". In Andrew Louth (ed.). Genesis 1–11. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 9780830814718.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- May, Gerhard (2004). Creatio Ex Nihilo (English trans. of 1994 ed.). T&T Clarke International. ISBN 9780567083562.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- McDermott, John J. (2002). Reading the Pentateuch: A Historical Introduction. Paulist Press. ISBN 9780809140824.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- McMullin, Ernin (2010). "Creation Ex Nihilo: Early History". In Burrell, David B.; Cogliati, Carlo; Soskice, Janet M.; Stoeger, William R. (eds.). Creation and the God of Abraham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139490788.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Nebe, Gottfried (2002). "Creation in Paul's Theology". In Hoffman, Yair; Reventlow, Henning Graf (eds.). Creation in Jewish and Christian Tradition. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 9780567573933.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Parrish, V. Steven (1990). "Creation". In Watson E. Mills (General Editor) (ed.). Mercer Dictionary of the Bible. Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780865543737.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Penchansky, David (November 2005). Twilight of the Gods: Polytheism in the Hebrew Bible. U.S.: Westminster/John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22885-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Propp, W.H. (1990). "Eden Sketches". In Propp, W.H.; Halpern, Baruch; Freedman, D.N. (eds.). The Hebrew Bible and its Interpreters. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9780931464522.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Ruiten, Jacques T. A. G. M. (2000). Primaeval History Interpreted. Brill. ISBN 9004116583.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Rogerson, John William (1991). Genesis 1–11. T&T Clark. ISBN 9780567083388.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Sarna, Nahum M. (1997). "The Mists of Time: Genesis I–II". In Feyerick, Ada (ed.). Genesis: World of Myths and Patriarchs. New York: NYU Press. p. 560. ISBN 0-8147-2668-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Ryken, Leland; Wilhoit, Jim; Longman, Tremper; Duriez, Colin; Penney, Douglas; Reid, Daniel G., eds. (1998). "Cosmology". Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 9780830867332.
- Sawyer, John F.A. (1992). "The Image of God, the Wisdom of Serpents, and the Knowledge of Good and Evil". In Paul Morris, Deborah Sawyer (ed.). A Walk in the Garden: Biblical, Iconographical and Literary Images of Eden. Sheffield Academic Press Press. ISBN 9780567024473.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Schwartz, Howard; Loebel-Fried, Caren; Ginsburg, Elliot K. (2007). Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism. Oxford University Press. p. 704. ISBN 9780195358704.
- Seidman, Naomi (2010). "Translation". In Ronald Hendel (ed.). Reading Genesis: Ten Methods. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521518611.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Seeley, Paul H. (1991). "The Firmament and the Water Above: The Meaning of Raqia in Genesis 1:6–8" (PDF). Westminster Theological Journal. Westminster Theological Seminary. 53: 227–40.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Seeley, Paul H. (1997). "The Geographical Meaning of 'Earth' and 'Seas' in Genesis 1:10" (PDF). Westminster Theological Journal. Westminster Theological Seminary. 59: 231–55.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Ska, Jean-Louis (2006). Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575061221.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Smith, Mark S. (October 2002). The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (2nd ed.). William B Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8028-3972-X.
- Smith, Mark S. (November 2001). The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (New ed.). Oxford University Press USA. ISBN 0-19-516768-6.
- Soskice, Janet M. (2010). "Creatio ex nihilo: its Jewish and Christian foundations". In Burrell, David B.; Cogliati, Carlo; Soskice, Janet M.; Stoeger, William R. (eds.). Creation and the God of Abraham. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139490788.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Speiser, Ephraim Avigdor (1964). Genesis. Doubleday.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Spence, Lewis (2010) . Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria. Cosimo, Inc. p. 72. ISBN 978-1616404642.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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- Stagg, Evelyn and Frank (1978). "Genesis and Science". Woman in the World of Jesus. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Westminster Press. p. 135. ISBN 0-664-24195-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Stordalen, Terje (2000). Echoes of Eden. Peeters. ISBN 9789042908543.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Thomas, Matthew A. (2011). These Are the Generations: Identity, Covenant and the Toledot Formula. T&T Clark (Continuum). ISBN 9780567487643.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Thompson, J. A. (1980). Jeremiah. New International Commentary on the Old Testament (2nd ed.). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 831. ISBN 0-8028-2530-3.
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- Tsumura, David Toshio (2005). Creation And Destruction: A Reappraisal of the Chaoskampf Theory in the Old Testament. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575061061.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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- "Enuma Elish", at Encyclopedia of the Orient Summary of Enuma Elish with links to full text.
- ETCSL—Text and translation of the Eridu Genesis (alternate site) (The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford)
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Four Strategies Institutions of Higher Learning Can Leverage to Help Returning College Students Succeed
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This chapter reviews four successful strategies for returning college students. These four strategies include (1) making meaningful connections with one or more teachers (Kennamer & Campbell, 2011), (2) involvement in student peer groups (Zinger & Cohen, 2010), (3) counselor or student advisor support (Smith & Allen, 2014), and (4) access to discrete point learning such as technical assistance or help with accessing library resources (Henson, 2014). The authors will explore how these activities promote student success and how institutions of higher education can more fully incorporate these strategies.


The European adhesives and sealants market accounts for 35% of the global adhesives market. Here Peter Crossen, VP of the Maintenance and Partsmaster Innovation platform of global water, energy and maintenance solutions provider NCH Europe, explores the recent developments in super structural adhesives that are paving the way for better joining methods. The global adhesives market is worth over €13.4bn and growing at four per cent per year.
Much of this demand is being driven by the changing use of lightweight materials and smarter processes in the manufacturing, construction and automotive sectors.
In September 2006, scientists writing in the Journal of Archaeological Science, reported findings from Italy, which showed the earliest use of glue-type adhesives by early humans in the Middle Pleistocene era around 200,000 years ago. They found stone flakes partially covered with birch-bark tar, thought to be the oldest discovered human use of tar-hafted stones.
Adhesives have come a long way since then. From tree sap used by cavemen in South Africa and animal glues used by Egyptian pharaohs, to plant-based and synthetic glues developed over the last 70 years, adhesive technology has become stronger and more versatile, offering a cheap and quick method of joining a variety of materials including metal, wood and plastics.
Structural adhesives, also known as acrylic adhesives, have been used for many years in industrial manufacturing, automotive and transport applications. Here, engineers need to consider the type of material or component being bonded, its size and weight, the strength of the bond and cure times.
Many applications require the joining of dissimilar materials, for which structural adhesives are ideal — whether it is a new roof facia on a building, an engine cover on a mechanical digger or the polycarbonate passenger car in an elevator. Here the surface of the substrate being joined will need to handle a variety of stresses and strains when in use.
To appreciate the stresses placed on a bond, it is important to understand that for an adhesive to bond it needs to effectively wet and penetrate the surface being bonded and produce a chemical reaction that causes cross-linking.
Once penetrated, the surface forms small solid blocks, which lock into the surface, creating a secure bond. Think of it like the hook and loop principle used on Velcro fasteners.
The forces acting on a bond can cause various stresses such as tensile, shear and peel stress. This can weaken the join and ultimately cause it to fail under prolonged loading and in dynamic loads where moving parts can exert forces from all angles.
This is why traditional joining methods including welding, riveting and fastening are still often the preferred choice in manufacturing environments for applications where existing adhesives are perceived to not offer the required bond strength. The cheap, relatively reliable and widely available nature of these traditional methods has served manufacturers well for many years.
However, they are not perfect. While welding creates a permanent join, it can only be used to join metals and requires specialist equipment as well as a skilled hand to perform the join.
Once joined, further finishing is needed to remove cosmetic blemishes and weld marks. Similarly, riveting and fastening — using screws and bolts — creates holes in the material, which can create weaknesses and structural stress points.
The holes created by riveting and fastening also expose the material to ingress from the elements. This can remove the galvanic coating on many metals like steel, leading to corrosion, which then needs further coating or encapsulation to protect. This method can also add significant weight.
This is why NCH Europe has formulated Super Structural Technology. This consists of a range of structural acrylic adhesives that use nano particles to increase the bond area and subsequent bond strength.
A structural adhesive consists of two parts; a base and activator. When the base and activator are mixed together, it creates a compound that the user can spread onto the surface of the material being joined.
While surfaces like glass, stainless steel and glossy plastic appear smooth to the naked eye, in reality the tiny peaks and troughs that make up the substrate of the material at a microscopic level can cause problems for normal structural adhesives. These adhesives simply sit on the surfaces of the peaks, providing limited surface-area contact.
What we've done with our proprietary Super Structural Technology is introduce nano particles into the compound, which fills the gaps in the microscopic substrate, increasing the surface area and strength of the bond.
In industry-standard ASTM D1002 tests, NCH Europe's lead Super Structural Technology solution, Mega Cryl SST, has been shown to increase bond strength by over 40% compared to standard structural adhesives.
With the increased bond strength achieved through the use of Super Structural Technology, engineers can now start to consider adhesives for applications where they would have previously relied on more traditional joining methods.
As manufacturing, construction and automotive environments become more flexible and adaptable; the old methods of joining are fast becoming obsolete. Take the automotive sector, for example. As cars, buses and caravans move to electric-motor propulsion, automotive manufacturers will look to reduce weight by using lightweight exotic plastic materials.
These exotic or low energy plastics such as polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) have not been served well by existing structural adhesives and, until now, they have been near impossible to bond, forcing manufacturers to use mechanical fasteners. However, these advances in structural adhesive technology mean that design engineers now have the ability to bond these exotic plastic materials.
NCH Europe has combined the unique Super Structural Technology with the latest low energy plastic adhesive formulations to create Mega Cryl LE, which produces a high-strength bond with these difficult materials. Tests have shown that the bond is so strong that the substrate fails before the bond breaks.
The list of materials suitable for use with these next-generation adhesives is a long one: from aluminium, stainless steel, carbon steel and low energy plastics such as PP and HDPE, to brass, copper, glass reinforced plastic (GRP), glass, nylon, ceramic, ABS and more.
Considering the flexibility and strength offered by Super Structural adhesives over traditional adhesive and mechanical joining methods, it's easy to see why many people have predicted rapid growth in the adhesives market. Adhesives have certainly come a long way in 200,000 years.


The Problems of the Press
The history of broadcasting in Europe since the Second World War has been concerned with the functioning and growth of monopolies more or less controlled by the state or government, more or less independent of them, but in the last resort answerable to the source of political power. The history of the press in the same period, on the other hand, has been that of a slow and relentless move towards concentration with relatively little governmental interference — concentration due to a variety of factors among which are steadily rising production costs and a declining revenue from sales in spite of repeated rises in the price of newspapers and magazines and the general growth in population. The result has been that the press has become increasingly dependent on advertising not merely for its income but for its very existence; it has had to fight ruthlessly to increase circulations in order to increase the volume of advertising and, with it, advertising rates — this in the face of competition for revenue with commercial television, which has gradually spread to most countries as the broadcasting organisations, faced with the same rising costs as the press, have found themselves increasingly unable to make ends meet out of licence revenue alone.
KeywordsLarge Circulation Total Circulation Advertising Revenue Licence Revenue Voluntary Liquidation
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Flex-fuel vehicles are designed to allow vehicles to run on various gasoline-ethanol mixtures, up to 85 percent ethanol (or E85). Although Finance Minister Flaherty plans to spend $2 billion on biofuels over the next seven years, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient ethanol on the market to meet an E85 demand in most areas of Canada. As a result, most flex-fuel vehicles will probably run on something closer to E0 -- that is, gasoline without any ethanol. Given the environmental and social impacts of widespread ethanol production, coupled with the loss of performance experienced by flex-fuel vehicles running on E85, it is unclear why they are called "green machines". If anything, they're green smokescreens.
Published Globe and Mail 27 March 2007


How to Engage a Group of Diverse Adult Learners in a Way That Also Raises Rigor and Increases Learning
Typically, we teach the way we were taught unless we can learn new approaches to pedagogy. The literature on adult learning can guide meaningful, practical pedagogy that catalyzes the process of constructing meaning and the improvement of student learning. Moreover, when the quality of learning opportunities improves, underrepresented populations are more likely to benefit. Transformative change (Mezirow, 2000) in individual learning requires new approaches in thinking in how one can engender growth and learning with adults. This suggests that adults desire active versus passive learning that is also practical. Learners construct new knowledge that builds upon their prior understanding and experiences. Learning can be enhanced by what is termed “sociocentric,” rather than egocentric thinking, when learners share ideas, inquire, and solve problems together and address the constant human need for dialogue (Brookfield, 2003; Garmston, 1997). By implementing simple strategies that create conditions and opportunities for adults to construct meaning, it is quite possible for cognition and understanding to improve significantly.


Kyrgyzstan is the most liberal of the five republics of Central Asia, with greater pluralism and more lenient enforcement of religious restrictions, but general repression of religion has increased since the early 1990s. The leaders of Kyrgyzstan consider any activity outside of state control to be a challenge to their legitimacy and authority, and most perceive all forms of Christianity apart from Russian Orthodoxy to be linked to Western goals of destabilizing political power and therefore suspect. Generally, the repression of religion entails bureaucratic strangulation, such as obstacles to church registration, rather than direct persecution.
Scholarly Analysis: Christian Response to Persecution in Kyrgyzstan
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan
Panel: Findings from Central Asia, with Rt. Rev. Borys Gudziak, Ukrainian Eparchial Bishop in France, Benelux, and Switzerland
Moderator: Kent Hill, World Vision
Speakers: Kathleen Collins, University of Minnesota
Karrie Koesel, University of Notre Dame
Fenggang Yang, Purdue University
Christians number about 20 percent of the Kyrgyzstan population of 5.7 million, although it is worth noting that the majority of these are Russian Orthodox who confine religious observance to a few Sundays a year. Small groups of Catholics, Lutherans, and what are referred to as “non-traditional” or “new Christians”—Seventh Day Adventists, Korean Baptists, Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons, among others—are also present, and conservative estimates suggest that these non-Orthodox Christians comprise anywhere from 1 to 5 percent of the population. Converts from traditional Muslims, however, are harder to estimate, and including them would likely put the number of new Christians much higher. Most of the remaining population is Muslim.
History of the Christian Community
Christianity spread to Central Asia about the same time as Islam, when followers of the Assyrian Christian Church and Nestorians arrived as missionaries in the seventh and eighth centuries. Russian Orthodoxy arrived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the growth of the Russian Empire. Catholics and Lutherans fleeing the Russian tsar resettled there as well, along with Catholics deported from Poland and Ukraine during World War II.
Christians in Central Asia have experienced religious repression for most of the past century. For about 70 years, the five republics of Central Asia—Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan—were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, where they faced ongoing Communist Party attempts to eradicate religion. These policies included confiscation of church property, state control of education, the execution of clerics, and discrimination against believers at work, school, and in the party. Repression eased somewhat in the 1970s, but it was not until the Soviet collapse in 1991 that Christians experienced a real reprieve in the persecution.
Current Situation of the Christian Community
Kyrgyzstan is the most liberal of the five republics of Central Asia, with greater pluralism and more lenient enforcement of religious restrictions, but general repression of religion has increased since the early 1990s. The leaders of Kyrgyzstan consider any activity outside of state control to be a challenge to their legitimacy and authority, and an atheist mentality still persists in the government, even though it is no longer an official policy. Most perceive all forms of Christianity apart from Russian Orthodoxy to be linked to Western goals of destabilizing political power and therefore suspect. Though it is not regularly enforced, a repressive 2009 law remains on the books that prohibits the participation of minors in religious organizations, bans the distribution of religious literature, and strictly outlaws proselytism. Generally, the repression of religion entails bureaucratic strangulation, such as obstacles to church registration, rather than direct persecution.
Responses to Persecution
Christian groups in Kyrgyzstan have responded to persecution in a variety of ways, although none of their efforts have successfully stopped the regime’s increasing repression. In the early 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kyrgystan—along with the other countries of Central Asia—enjoyed a religious revival. Hundreds of missions organizations arrived to revive the faith, bringing with them a steady stream of religious literature. Since this time, however, evangelism has largely been forced underground.
Survival is the first goal for most Christians in the post-Soviet realm, and some churches see the key to survival in legality. Hence, many Christians have circumscribed their typical activity to comply with the state, avoiding politics and appearing to accept a private role. Other churches attempt community engagement, although such activities are generally view suspiciously. The Catholic Church sponsors a summer youth camp at Lake Issyk-kul, where church volunteers (often from the West) care for about 700 predominately Muslim youth every summer, including many mentally and physically disabled children, which has won them the trust of some local authorities. They are careful to avoid any outward appearance of evangelization, however, and remain nervous about their legal status.
Other churches have also attempted to build relationships with local government officials through community outreach. Until the past few years, more liberal regulations allowed missionary groups to enter Kyrgyzstan as NGOs pursuing development work such as economic assistance, humanitarian aid, and medical care. Evangelical Protestants in particular used this strategy to gain trust, build relationships with local communities, and at the same time spread Christianity. Since the mid-2000s, however, government media has increasingly portrayed such organization as Western agents pushing an anti-Muslim agenda that threatens local sovereignty. A new “foreign agent law,” modelled on Russia’s, is now under consideration in Kyrgyzstan, which may threaten the existence of these NGOs.
Christians in Kyrgyzstan have also engaged in limited strategies of association, usually sponsored by Western actors. In 2013 and 2014, the US Institute for Global Engagement organized several religious conferences in both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to foster religious dialogue and contact, and bring religion into civil society. Additionally, the Interfaith Council in Kyrgyzstan, a forum for dialogue begun with the collaboration of a European religious organization and a local Methodist church, includes representatives of all faiths, including the Russian Orthodox and Muslims.
Despite the repression they face, most churches in Kyrgyzstan are reluctant to turn to international actors for help. In part this is due to fear of retaliation—even though the consequences of such action are considerably less risky than other parts of Central Asia—but it also hindered by a cultural rift between religious communities and civil society groups, which are general very secular. However, at least some local Christian churches have accepted assistance from international actors, and this has generally helped ameliorate their situation, though such instances remain rare.
The Russian Orthodox Church is an exception to the oppression faced by other Christian groups in Kyrgyzstan. Viewing Central Asia as the “canonical territory” of the Orthodox Church, it seeks to further monopolize Christianity in the region and drive out competitors. To achieve these goals, the Orthodox Church has established good relations with the regime in power and with the Muslim Spiritual Board, the state body that organizes and controls an Islamic hierarchy in the country. In large part, their strategies have been successful. The government appears to believe that fostering the spread of Orthodox churches is a means of countering Protestants’ growth, which they associate with pro-Western democratic movements. The result of this has been the return and restoration of many pre-Soviet-era Orthodox buildings, as well as anti-Catholic and anti-Protestant rhetoric in the media.
Many Christians in Kyrgyzstan have also chosen emigration, although motives for these moves are multi-causal. The vast majority of Russian émigrés, although they are nominally Orthodox Christian, have left for reasons other than religious oppression. Rising nationalism and changing language laws in the late 1980s triggered a wave of out-migration of ethnic Europeans (the majority of Christians) even before the Soviet collapse. Since 1989, the number of ethnic Christians in Kyrgyzstan has dropped from 26 percent of the population to 20 percent.
This country profile draws on research by Dr. Kathleen Collins and on the report In Response to Persecution by the Under Caesar's Sword project.


By Joy Roberts, Preschool Administrative Assistant
This spring the Purple Room Preschool children are learning about building. And last week they invited me to take part in a story and a special building project!
As I came into the classroom, everyone was gathering on the rug eagerly anticipating the story of “The Three Little Pigs”. Excitement was in the air as Kirsten, Purple Room Head Teacher, pulled up her chair, opened the book and began to read:
“Once upon a time an old sow sent her three little pigs out into the world to seek their fortune. “Now be sure to write,” she said. “And remember that I love you.”
As they settled in for the story, a couple of Purple Room friends expressed some concern about the wolf and whether or not he should eat the pigs. After a quick discussion the group decided that in our story, the wolf would not eat any pigs. Whew!
From there it was all tension and excitement! There were houses built of straw, sticks and bricks. There was huffing and puffing and houses blown down! The wolf tried to trick the pigs so he could eat them. But in the end, the big bad wolf… well, you probably know the ending!
After the story, we separated into three groups to see which material would build the strongest house. One table of friends worked on constructing a house of straws, another a house of sticks, and a third built a house of wood bricks. Each group carefully planned and collaborated, working together, each coming up with a house that would stand up to all that huffing and puffing!
When the houses were finished, we all walked around the classroom looking at and admiring each group’s house. The children explained to one another what they built and how well it would protect the pigs from the big bad wolf. All of the houses had chimneys, and one even had a “chomper” at the front door to keep the wolf out. Well done!
“We believe that children’s play is an expression of intelligence and growth, and that young children learn best through hands-on, concrete experiences. Play is the essential work of childhood and an important part of developing cognitive, social-emotional, and problem-solving skills.” – BFS Preschool Curriculum Overview, 2020-21
The Purple Room building project is a wonderful example of young children learning through Play. The imaginary world of the Three Little Pigs and that problematic big bad wolf provided an engaging scenario where the children could immerse themselves in creative problem-solving while having a really good time! As they examined each others’ houses, they had lots of insightful observations as well as praise for their peers’ work and strategies for keeping out the wolf.
Working together and collaborating on a fun project is an important part of learning to navigate relationships. Children learn to respect one another as they listen and consider other opinions and strategies. Observing how others choose to solve the same problem sparks the imagination, adding depth and enrichment to this beautiful and organic learning process!


- The effects of inclusion on students with and without special educational needs reviewed
- Educational Research Review
- Volume | Issue number
- 4 | 2
- Pages (from-to)
- Document type
- Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG)
- Research Institute of Child Development and Education (RICDE)
The Kohnstamm Instituut
In many countries, education policies are shifting towards inclusive education. Human rights have always been an important argument for this development, but the effects on students should be an important factor when designing policies. In this review, therefore, literature on the effects of inclusion on both students with and without special educational needs is described. The review covers not only effects on cognitive development, but also socio-emotional effects. In general, the results show neutral to positive effects of inclusive education. The academic achievement of students with and without special educational needs seems to be comparable to non-inclusive classes or even better in inclusive classes. However, there may be some differential effects for high- and low-achieving students without special educational needs. Regarding social effects, children with special educational needs seem to have a less favourable social position than children without special educational needs.
- go to publisher's site
If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library, or send a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.


The New Birds of Kazakhstan
The New Birds of Kazakhstan by Arend Wassink. Published by Arend Wassink, Postweg 64, 1795 De Cocksdorp, Texel, The Netherlands. Pp382. 2015. Sample priceseg WildSounds £42.99 (Post free UK mainland: www.wildsounds.com), direct from publisher €49.50 (Including P&P: www.birdsofkazakhstan.com).
A personal review
More and more of Kazakhstan is becoming accessible to tourists and visitors. It stretches from the northern Caspian Sea 2925km east to the fabled Altai Mountains some 25km from Mongolia (separated here by a short but mountainous border between Russia and China), and from 55.4°N in the boreal forest, or taiga, south to 45.47°N just below the Kyzylkum Desert, through which flows the Syrdarya (Shardara) River north and west to the remnants of Aral Sea, passing near the Baikonur Cosmodrome as it does.
Kazakhstan is vast, its 2.7 million km² comprising six terrestrial biomes:
- Boreal forest in the far north and around the high mountain ranges of the Altai.
- Eurasian steppe in a band from the northwest to the southeast.
- Eurasian desert and semidesert from the Caspian lowlands east across southern regions.
- Eurasian high montane, comprising the Tien Shan east through Zhungarskiy Alatau and northeast through the Saur Mountains to the Altai.
- Irano-Turanian montane flora: the Karatau Mountains and the cliff-faces of the Ustyurt Plateau This biome does not appear on the species account maps.
- Sino-Himalayan forest of the Tien Shan.
There are some 15 distinct habitats within and shared across these biomes, which when considered with the assorted river systems and wetlands, provide conditions attractive to a wide variety of breeding, migrant and wintering birds. Before you even look at this book, I urge you to put some of these names into Google Maps, when you can begin to appreciate the scale of and fascination with this amazing land.
The book is a successor to the similarly-titled 2007 volume by Arend Wassink and Gerard Oreel which was the first bird book on Kazakhstan widely available to western birdwatchers and ornithologists, and in particular to monoglot English speakers. Like that book, the new tome benefits firstly from the photo-editing talent of René Pop – its additional 100+ pages allow the inclusion of more photos of superb quality – and secondly from masterly copy-editing by Gerard Oreel. The habitat and landscape images in the 26 pages of Introductory Material are in the ‘you could almost be there’ category, but what brings it all to life is the way the explanatory text flows to convey ideas and information with passion and style.
Up to 10 September 2015, 499 species had been recorded in Kazakhstan: these records all have been assessed by applying current standards of acceptance, an approach not without its detractors. Many older previously accepted records could not be validated because, for example, known specimens had been lost or disposed of during times of political and economic upheaval, or original documentation had likewise been lost or destroyed.
The succinct species accounts in the book follow a standard pattern of headings, not all of which are applicable to each account:
- Status. Where a species’ status is given as Vagrant, the only other heading is ‘Records’.
- Breeding distribution.
- Non-breeding distribution.
This layout enables quick access to any species’ relevant data.
Each species (save Slender-billed Curlew Numenius tenuirostris) has its own occurrence map whose background fill comprises the five largest biomes. The method of illustrating species areas of occurrence is simple and effective, though arrived at by eclectic means: green represents residency, red breeding, blue wintering and black migrating. Where lines denote areas, arrows on the lines point towards the distribution. The symbols for specific records, occurrence throughout the country and the possibility of breeding, wintering or migrating use the same set or a subset of these colours. A vast amount of information is thus apparent pictorially.
This book is not simply an update of the previous book. Many (all?) earlier accounts have been reviewed and revised. Much more data has been obtained or made available concerning the contents of the previous book, as can be seen from the 29 two-column pages of references in font size 8. Since the first book, the amount of in-country bird survey work, bird recording and simple birding has produced a plethora of data. A perusal of the Acknowledgements section reveals that a wealth of scientific information from many museum collections, from molecular analyses, and from national and regional record-keepers and databases has been absorbed and assessed, and that recent data from knowledgeable authors, photographers, bird tour leaders, independent birders (all from many countries), and especially from Kazakh nationals, has been incorporated.
It’s quite obvious that a Handbook could have been produced, but quite sensibly, the most pertinent aspects have been distilled into this book instead. Now from my own, perhaps narrow point of view as the person who compiles the reference lists for the OSME Region List of bird taxa, this book has been invaluable, because a number of the references it cites I had either overlooked or had not been aware of, and these I have been able to obtain either from the WWW or from that marvellous resource, ResearchGate (www.researchgate.net/home). So, The New Birds of Kazakhstan has not only informed the ORL directly as I updated it from all the book’s species accounts, but also indirectly via me playing detective, because the additional references I downloaded led to other pertinent references und so weiter.
However, the sheer pleasure that comes from reading about the 17 new species for Kazakhstan since the first book, from my enhanced ability to picture in my mind where any species may occur in that country, from hugely improving my geographical knowledge of the country, especially the iconic mountain ranges of Central Asia, from my improved acquaintanceship with the kaleidoscopic tapestry of habitats and from the sheer quality of the product (the paper, the covers, the care in the design), has made constructing this review an exercise in what to omit to keep it to a readable length.
To whet your appetite, here is a selected and very incomplete list of some of the iconic or more interesting non-vagrant species recorded in Kazakhstan:
- Himalayan Snowcock Tetraogallus himalayensis, ssp saurensis, scarce resident Saur Mountains, ssp sewerzowi, common resident Tien Shan and Zhungarskiy Alatau.
- Altai Snowcock T. altaicus very rare resident Southern Altai.
- Himalayan Vulture Gyps himalayensis very rare resident Zhungarskiy, Zialiskiy and Terskey Alatau.
- Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis common breeding migrant throughout central Kazakhstan from west to east.
- Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos ssp chrysaetos rare resident northeast Kazakhstan, but potentially the far more interesting ssp is canadensis, apparently a rare resident in the southern third of the country. Now IOC6.1 confines this taxon to the New World, but lists homeyeri for Uzbekistan, which adjoins southwest and south Kazakhstan. There are precedents for ‘New World’ taxa being in the eastern Palearctic, eg at least one subspecies each of Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica, American Herring Gull Larus smithsonianus and Northern Grey Shrike Lanius borealis, and given that recent research (Nebel et al 2015) suggests Golden Eagle may be two or more species, (because only one North American sample was analysed, no taxonomic recommendations have been made), if A.c. canadensis is confirmed as being in Kazakhstan, that might be an incipient tick!
- Shikra Accipter badius ssp cenchroides scarce breeding migrant southern third of Kazakhstan (Shikra taxonomy is complex and closely related to other Accipiter species in places)
- Upland Buzzard Buteo hemilasius very rare resident or breeding migrant mountains of eastern Kazakhstan.
- Ibisbill Ibidorhyncus struthersii rare resident foothills and mountains of southeasternmost Kazakhstan.
- Sociable Lapwing Vanellus gregarius rare breeding migrant overgrazed steppes and semideserts central-northern Kazakhstan.
- Swinhoe’s Snipe Gallinago megala scarce breeding migrant valleys of the Altai.
- Relict Gull Ichthyaetus relictus very rare irregular breeding migrant saline steppe lakes lowlands easternmost Kazakhstan, up to 1200bp.
- Pallas’s Sandgrouse Syrrhaptes paradoxus scarce breeding migrant deserts and semideserts south-central Kazakhstan.
- Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus optatus, rare breeding migrant coniferous & mixed forests, open woodlands mainly Western Altai.
- Pacific Swift Apus pacificus ssp pacificus (post-split, only two sspp) very rare breeding migrant forests with cliffs Altai Valleys.
- Long-tailed Shrike Lanius schach ssp erythronotus common breeding migrant bushy areas in semidesert and steppes southern and southeastern Kazakhstan.
- Indian Golden Oriole Oriolus kundoo common breeding migrant open deciduous woodlands south and southeastern Kazakhstan.
- Pander’s Ground Jay Podoces panderi ssp panderi very rare resident deserts with saxaul bushes Kyzylkum Desert, ssp ilensis very rare resident sand deserts & dunes below Lake Balkash.
- Rufous-naped Tit Periparus rufonuchalis rare resident coniferous 7 juniper forests Western Tien Shan.
- White-winged Lark Alauda leucoptera common resident & breeding migrant grassy or Artemisia steppes throughout.
- Pale Martin Riparia diluta ssp diluta abundant breeding migrant steep banks lowlands southeast Kazakhstan, ssp gavrilovi common breeding migrant Altai and Manrak Mountains.
- White-browed Tit-Warbler Leptopoecile sophiae ssp sophiae rare resident from Tien Shan to Zhungarskiy Alatau 2150-3000m asl.
- Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler Locustella certhiola abundant breeding migrant wet areas scattered with bushes Western and Southern Altai.
- White-tailed Rubythroat Calliope pectoralis ssp bailloni common breeding migrant Tien Shan to Zhungarskiy Alatau 2500-3300m asl.
- Blue-capped Redstart Phoenicurus coeruleocephala common breeding migrant open & dry coniferous & mixed forests Tien Shan to Saur Mountains 1400-2700m asl
- Red-mantled Rosefinch Carpodacus rhodochlamys common resident Tien Shan to Saur Mountains 1500-2900m asl.
- Pallas’s Reed Bunting Emberiza pallasi ssp polaris common breeding migrant Alpine tundras, marshes Southern Altai 2100-2600m asl.
For rosefinch aficionados, there are 10 species to track down, but whether or not you want to see a large proportion of the Kazakhstan species list in-country, you’ll have to make numerous visits. The maps in this book should be the basis of your strategy, for many areas are difficult and time-consuming to reach and explore, many locations still having poor roads and tracks – it will take a long time to do justice in achieving your target list in even a small part of the country. An additional problem you may have is that a sizeable proportion of the species occur mainly on migration, and so timing your visit is essential.
This book isn’t a field guide. It’s for people who need information, who like data to be up to date and it is of considerable value to those who make conservation decisions or need to supply evidence-based recommendations to conservation issues. …and yet, any self-respecting birder who doesn’t sacrifice baggage allowance to take it to Kazakhstan should be held at the point of entry and politely returned to the flight departure country to obtain a copy before being allowed to return. You see, this book concisely explains where you may find your target species, and reading between the lines, the text lets you assess the odds of finding them…
Now, those of you who know or might have encountered me, may be puzzled that I haven’t held forth on bird taxonomy as is my wont. The answer is simple. Arend Wassink clearly and simply states that he follows the IOC taxonomy at the time of writing and lists the few exceptions. Where taxonomic differences exist between this book and the OSME Region List, they are easy to compare; Arend has identified the taxa and it’s not a problem that some of these might be regarded as species or subspecies where his view is the reverse. He has provided an audit trail so that any changes in future can easily be linked to past decisions, something that is spectacularly absent from some recent publications.
The short version of all the above is that if you interested in Kazakhstan’s birds do get this book and if you’re a human being who possesses a smidgen of empathy, you will enjoy it enormously.
Mike Blair 2 March 2016
Nebel, C, A Gamauf, E Haring, G Segelbacher, A Villers and FE Zachos. 2015. Mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals Holarctic homogeneity and a distinct Mediterranean lineage in the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). Biol. J. Linn. Soc. June 2015: 1-13.


Description: Add a new open ring to the geometry.
Inline mode usage:
- openRing -h: Display a help message.
- openRing -n name -p centerX centerY centerZ minorRadius majorRadius openingAngle openingDirection: Creates a new open ring.
Interactive mode usage:
The following steps will be needed in order to create a new open ring:
- Select center [x y z]: Center point of the ring.
- Minor radius [double]: Inner radius.
- Major radius [double]: Outer radius.
- Opening angle [degrees]: Angle, in degrees, that determines how large is the opening.
- Opening direction [degrees]: Angle, in degrees, that determines the direction the opening is facing in. An angle of zero degrees means that the opening is facing in the direction of the positive Y axis, and larger angles are interpreted as counter-clockwise rotations.
Remark: The opening angle MUST be between 0 and 360.


We investigate the environmental and economic benefits derived from the adoption of corporate sustainability practices.
Matthew Khan and Ryan Vaughn
Today, consumers have the opportunity to purchase a wide variety of environmentally friendly products that include; “green” foods, furniture, vehicles, buildings and electric power. The Toyota Prius stands out as one of the leading examples of this new trend. If consumers purchase such products, then this would encourage for profit firms to develop more of them. At a point in time, who buys these “green” products? More patient people will value the future energy savings from more efficient appliances. People are more likely to seek out “greener” durables when the price of energy inputs is high. Environmentalists are also more likely to purchase such products. This project uses GIS mapping technology and new data sets at the zip code level to provide new facts concerning the geographical distribution of who purchases green products. This project is joint research with Ryan Vaughn. Ryan is a graduate student in UCLA’s Economics Department.Kahn, Matthew E. and Vaughn, Ryan K., Green Market Geography: The Spatial Clustering of Hybrid Vehicle and LEED Registered Buildings.
July 08 2008


What makes a competent engineer?
In The Engineer of 2020, the National Academy of Engineering called on engineering societies to help prepare the “engineer of the future” — one who could adapt to rapid changes in technology as well as the social, economic, and cultural forces that would affect engineering.
In response to the NAE’s call, NSPE created the Engineering Body of Knowledge, the first concerted effort to provide a common ground to developing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to practice as a professional engineer across engineering disciplines.
The Engineering Body of Knowledge, in turn, paved the way for a new guide for developing the engineering workforce. The Engineering Competency Model, developed by the American Association of Engineering Societies and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, provides employers and engineers with guidance on the core competencies and skills necessary to enter the engineering profession.
NSPE’s EBOK and the Importance of Competency Models (PPTX)
Submitted by: Paul Schmidt, P.E., F.NSPE
Introduction to the Engineering Body of Knowledge: Check out NSPE's new resource for teaching freshman engineering students about the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for success in the engineering profession. Download here.
EBOK Exercise Illuminates Profession for Students: Read about how some professors are using the EBOK exercise, and what students are finding surprising. (November/December 2015 PE)
The Engineering Body of Knowledge (First Edition, 2013)
E-book: What Makes a PE? The Attributes and Capabilities of Professional Engineers
Cover Story: What Makes a PE? (January/February 2014 PE)
The Engineering Body of Knowledge (Blog Post, November 19, 2013)
What Engineers Need to Know and When They Need to Know It (January/February 2013 PE)


Beryllium copper combines between 0.5-3% of beryllium with a copper alloy. Sometimes it can also be referred too as spring copper or copper beryllium. Beryllium copper is not magnetic and does not spark at all. It is extremely strong too. Not all beryllium copper is the same because sometimes other alloys can be added. Alloy 25 is amongst the strongest base alloys available. Alloy 25 is considered tempered beryllium copper
There are several factors that can be attributed to this high strength. One of the main reasons is that the alloy is age hardened. This hardening process is possible after the alloy is formed into intricate shapes and complex forms. Once hardened, it maintains amazing spring properties, while also remaining resistant to corrosion. Enhanced stability, low creep, and better conductivity are possible as well. The only time that more heat is applied to an alloy that has been cold drawn is to relieve minimal amounts of stress. Even though this alloy is extremely strong, it is still ductile enough to be shaped.
Most beryllium copper alloys that are made to be high strength will have roughly 2.6% of cast beryllium or 2% wrought cobalt. Either age hardening or precipitation hardening makes the alloys. For injection molding industries, they will mostly use cast beryllium.
You will find these heavy-duty alloys being used in many different fields. This includes: oil refineries, aerospace gear, and robotic welding. The three above industries have to deal with electricity, and so the alloys neutralize issues of sparking and magnetism. You will find these alloys on down-hole drilling tools.
The alloy comes in different shapes, including: strip, rod, wire, tube, or sheet.
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Beryllium Copper, also referred to as alloy 25, is a copper alloy that is comprised of 0.5% beryllium and other alloying metals.