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This paper focuses upon the prevalent complementary definitions of myth and history and questions their analytic utility with reference to literary documents that bespeak the transition between mythic and historic cognition. In the style of ethnosemantic analysis, these definitions are treated as a semantic domain and subjected to formal analysis. The components elicited constitute a new definition—more precisely, a two‐dimensional model of the relationship between myth and history. Subsequently, the model is applied to a series of books from the Bible with the conclusion that men and women are structurally equal since, in their roles as social actors, both represent different components of myth as well as history.

The structural pattern inherent in the genealogy of the Old Testament is delineated (1). Correlating this structural pattern with the worldview of Ancient Israel, it is hypothesized that the genealogy functions as a model for the resolution of certain conflicts within the worldview (II). Finally, an analysis of the Jacob narration demonstrates the structural isomorphism of genealogy and individual case (III).