There are two stories, the water story and the garden story... I don't know how much you know about this. I did a redaction as an undergrad, I separated the stories out line by line. I received a good mark so I must have been not mad. The thesis goes, there are three sources for the first five books: J (Yahwist), E (Elohist), P (priestly). If one sharpens up on mythology and history of religion, both stories have earlier versions in different traditions. Chapter one is thought to emerge out of captivity, since the narrative has its origin(?) in Babylonian narratives... something about Tiamat and the slaying of the dragon, tossing the carcass up into the sky to form a dome.
Ken -------------
I know nothing about it. But, I did recognize pieces of an extremely poor version of the Eygptian myth of creation in it. The eygptian elements are something like the aristotlian division earth, water, air, fire, except the Eygptians started with a watery formless and dark chaos, a flow, in which something formed, and from which emerged a primodial mound. After the division of wet and dry, comes the division of light and dark. So the Eygptians have to be source for the water story. The garden story would then default to the Babylonians, some form of oasis, Eden.
Just a couple of things that stuck me. Noah is a strange character, very strange. And there is a lot of wondering around, between the begettings. There is no definite place---which is an odd contrast to say some of the southwest native american creation myths that usually define a place, a hole in the earth, a canyon, etc. The other thing that struck me, was when God comes to visit and addresses people, Adam, or Noah for example they respond, Here I am---odd as if God wouldn't know them unless they pointed themselves out. Funny. So that response seems like a formality in another language or another tradition. And then a last thing that seems odd. The first characters and first parts are short, a few sentences and then we're done, and move on. Toward the end of Genesis, starting about with Abraham, it gets longer and more developed, Jacob takes up several pages, and Joseph a whole complete story. Notice the Egyptians are already there. Where did they come from? Or some of the others, all those cities of the plain, when and how did they get started?
But, yes, it certainly has a chunky, amalgamated quality to it, sort of patched together piecemeal. Anyway, off to work.
Chuck Grimes