The Pentateuch, ie the five 'books' Genesis , Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy , introduces the Bible. The Bible taken wholly, is a COMPOSITE work, and the five 'books' quoted above are also COMPOSITE, ie they reflect many traditions and sources, and are NOT from a single author !!
Bible scholars tried and classified the diverse traditions and sources basically into four. J stands for Jahwe (in German), E stands for Elohim, P for Priestly and D for Deutronomy. Thus these five books are 'hotchpotch', NOT containing any systematic law or instruction or teaching, unlike the compositions of Vyasa, Valmiki or Vashishta.
Amongst the above four traditions, J's account of creation in a garden reflects ancient temple imagery of the Near East. Near East means the area between Mediterranean and India. Are there traces of Indian knowledge in J's account ? Consider the 'tree of life' and 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil'. This corresponds to 'Para-vidya' and 'Apara-vidya' in Indian religious thinking. The later is 'a-vidya', not real knowlege, whereas as per our tradition the former ie 'para-vidya' can make one immortal.(tree of life !!) Then there is the imagery of God's breath animating the dust and it becoming a single living being, corresponding to 'prana' in Indian thinking. J's is taken as the earliest collection, often dated to the period of David and Solomon in the tenth century BCE.
In the P version of creation culminating in sabbath, God does creation through the WORD. This corresponds to Indian thinking of the universe of 'names and forms'. ie 'Nama-rupangal' and brought forth by 'Sabda-brahman' . In all probability the knowledge of the ancients (long before 10 BCE), was preserved as well as transmitted to succeeding generations without the slightest deviation from the original body of knowledge, in a systematic fashion in India, , but it looks like in the Near East this Universal knowledge of the ancients fragmented and dispersed and even got distorted !!! The transmission of this knowledge within India was only possible because of our social institutions based on varna.
The Indian Karma/Work Theory is based on, unassailable scientific foundations, and as per that work/karma is not having any intrinsic value, and if not done 'diligently' it will lead to bondage and unhappiness. (Consider the 'man-made disaster in Uttarakhand. We are bonded to do more work/karma to clear the mess, and it is likely to take a couple of years). A faint trace of this scientific fact is seen in J's account of GENESIS. Genesis 3: 17 to 19. God is cursing man to toil/work/karma, so that he gets entangled in it. He will get only thorns and thistles for his work/karma. In greater measure this is what we are experiencing, considering the combined karma/work output of human-kind.
"Let those who have abundance remember that they are surrounded with thorns, and let them take great care not to be pricked by them " - John Calvin , Protestant theologian, Commentary on Genesis 13:5,7
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