The Creation [and Fall] of Man
Old Testament / Mythology
One topic that many are intrigued by, myself included, is the creation of man and woman, and their purpose. There are two accounts of creation listed in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. One can be found in chapters 1-2:4a, and the other from 2:4b to the end of the chapter. And they both seem to contradict one another. For instance, the first tells of how God first created the creatures of the deep on the fifth day, and all the other land animals on the sixth before man was created. [1]
1:21 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.
1:23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
1:24 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.
1:25 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.
1:26 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.’
1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
1:31 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.
In the second, we read that man was created first (Genesis 2:7) and God created the animals afterwards (Genesis 2:19) to keep the man company and have the man name them. Also, the second story reveals a major clue to the reason behind the creation of man.
2:15 And YHWH took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Man was created out of soil to till the soil on which he was placed in Eden. There is a play on words here, ’adam was created from ha’adamah, where ha’adamah translates to ‘the earth, land or ground’; a major component of the story, on which I will elaborate further in this article. So in conclusion, man was supposed to serve God. These are motifs which strike many parallels to the creation of man myths found through the rest of the Mesopotamian world.
To start off with the story of Atrahasis, [2] man was created from clay or the soil to bear the load of the gods, [3] an idea and creation done at the hands of Enki.
The midwife of the gods, wise Mami,
‘You are the womb-goddess (to be the) creator of mankind!
Create primeval man, that he may bear the yoke!
Let him bear the yoke, the work of Ellil,
Let man bear the load of the gods!’
Nintu made her voice heard
And spoke to the great gods,
‘It is not proper for me to make him
The work is Enki’s;
He makes everything pure!
If he gives me clay, then I will do it.’
With the slaughter of another deity, clay was mixed with the flesh and blood of that deity, and man was formed. We can see the same themes in the sixth tablet of the Enuma Elish (the Babylonian creation story).
When Marduk heard the speech of the gods,
He made up his mind to perform miracles,
He spoke his utterance to Ea,
And communicated to him the plan that he was considering.
‘Let me put blood together, and make bones too.
Let me set up primeval man: Man shall be his name.
Let me create a primeval man.
The work of the gods shall be imposed (on him), and so they shall be at leisure…’
…Ea answered him and spoke a word of the gods.
‘Let one who is hostile to them be surrendered (up),
Let him be destroyed, and let people be created (from him).
Let the great gods assemble,
Let the culprit be given up, and let them convict him.’
It is fairly obvious that all these narratives of the creation of man closely resemble that of the same theme present in chapter 2 of Genesis.
A related piece of material comes to us from Neo-Assyrian fragments of text identified as K3364. As mentioned in earlier chapters, after the discoveries of the Neo-Assyrian literature found at the library of Asshurbanipal in Nineveh, George Smith (the man who discovered and first translated the Mesopotamian Flood story) was not only the first individual to supply translations to them, but also the first to attempt to piece them together in some form or order. Without any forms of these texts discovered or deciphered, the only tool Smith had was the Old Testament, and more specifically the Book of Genesis. Unfortunately, due to his lack of resources, Smith had mistakenly placed K3364 within the story of the Enuma Elish.
…lord of the noble lips, [4] saviour from death
Of the gods imprisoned, the accomplisher of restoration,
His pleasure he established he fixed upon the gods his enemies,
To fear them he made man,
The breath of life was in him.
May he be established, and may his will not fail
In the mouth of the dark races which his hand has made.
The god of noble lips with his five fingers sin may he cut off
Who with his noble charms removes the evil curse.
The god Libzu [5] wise among the gods, who had chosen his possession,
The doing of evil shall not come out of him,
Established in the company of the gods, he rejoices their heart…
A peculiarity stands out from this extract, and it is the mention of the dark race. What was this dark race, free of sin and as pure as both Adam and Eve were before they fell from God’s grace? According to Smith, two principal races have been identified by Sir Henry Rawlinson which the Assyro-Babylonians recognized. [6] These races were the Adamu, or dark race, and the Sarku, or light race. George Smith seemed to find a parallel between these and the sons of both Adam and God. Unfortunately, I have not found much information pertaining to the second race, and therefore cannot make any connections to our biblical sources.
What does strike me as the most interesting point and connection is the fact that Adamu, representing man or the ‘dark race,’ is a Semitic root of the same general meaning found in Hebrew literature regarding the first man, Adam. [7] More connections come from the original Mesopotamian idea of man being pure and free of sin, set out to serve the gods and make them happy or rejoice their heart. This is the same motif present in chapter 2 of Genesis, when both Adam and Eve were created free from sin and pure of all evil, until they had bitten from the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of both good and evil, their eyes then opening to see the truths of the world. More on the fall continues in the next segment. The last connection I see is a specific phrase, which strikes a close resemblance to one found in Genesis. This phrase is: the breath of life was in him. After YHWH had formed the man, the same breath of life animated him:
2:7 Then YHWH formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
The Fall and Curse of Man
But what of the fall? Does this also show roots in Mesopotamian history? Coincidentally, on the reverse side of one of the fragments of K3364, Smith had identified such a fall and curse. This portion of the tablet has been too damaged, and the actual fall is not discussed, but rather what took place afterward.
Afterwards the people of remote ages
May she remove, [8] not destroy […] forever,
To the place he created, he made strong.
Lord of the earth his name called out, the father Elu [9]
In the ranks of the angels pronounced their (man’s) [10] curse.
The god Hea heard and his liver was angry
Because his man had corrupted his purity.
He like me also Hea may he punish him,
The course of my issue all of them may he remove, and all my seed may he destroy.
In the language of the fifty gods
By his fifty names he called, and turned away in anger from him:
May he be conquered, and at once cut off.
Wisdom and knowledge hostilely may they injure him.
May they put enmity also father and son and may they plunder.
To king, ruler, and governor, may they bend their ear.
May they cause anger also to the lord of the gods Merodach.
His land may it bring forth but he not touch it;
His desire shall be cut off, and his will be unanswered; the opening of this mouth
no god shall take notice of;
His back shall be broken and not be healed;
At his urgent trouble no god shall receive him;
His heart shall be poured out, and his mind shall be troubled;
To sin and wrong his face shall come […]
As mentioned in the paragraph before the above excerpt, it is apparent that this reading chronologically fits after the actual act to which resulted in the fall and curse of man. From Genesis:
3:16 Unto the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy travail; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.’
3:17 And unto Adam He said: ‘Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying: Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’
To this day, we have yet to find a narrative speaking of the actual sin committed and whether a serpent was involved in the Mesopotamian sources, but another narrative may shed more light. The only clue to a possible serpent and sacred tree being involved in the Assyro-Babylonian accounts comes from a cylinder seal, ‘The Temptation Seal.’
Notice the man and woman seated before the sacred tree. Could this be the sacred tree of knowledge of both good and evil, or the sacred tree of life? Also, pay close attention to the serpent beside the couple (which repeats itself in the continuation of the seal).
Scholars are still unable to decipher the true message behind this mysterious and yet intriguing seal. In the Hebrew account we know that it was knowledge that ended up banishing both man and woman from the paradisiacal Eden. Could this have been the same with the Assyrian account? ‘Wisdom and knowledge hostilely may they injure him.’ Was the depicted tree within the seal a tree of knowledge? Does the presence of the snake, a creature symbolizing wisdom, imply such a meaning? Some have interpreted it as being the one and the same. Its craftsmanship is of late Akkadian or Neo-Sumerian origin (ca. 2200-2100 BCE). The seal is currently located at the British Museum.
Featured image: The Temptation of Adam by Jacopo Tintoretto. (Public Domain)
[1] JPS translation.
[2] Old Babylonian Version or OBV.
[3] More specifically, the Igigi.
[4] An epithet of Ea.
[5] Yet another epithet of Ea.
[6] Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet (April 11, 1810 – March 5, 1895) was an English soldier, diplomat and orientalist. He is sometimes referred to as the “Father of Assyriology.”
[7] This Semitic word is derived out of the parent root dam meaning blood. Another Hebrew word derived from this root is ’adom meaning ‘red’ and is also another name for Esau, the son of Jacob (Gen.25:30).
[8] Tiamat? A suggestion by George Smith. The identification of this individual is unknown.
[9] Early reading of the name Ellil.
[10] Author’s note.
The two creation accounts are such a useful doorway into reading Genesis as an ancient composite text. Once the differences stop feeling like problems to be solved and start looking like preserved voices, the text gets stranger, older, and much more interesting.