Texts in Conversation
Genesis shares Ugaritic groupings of birds and fish, using familiar descriptions of living creatures to explain the authority God gives humans over other creatures.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.23:62
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
From kissing came conception, from embracing, impregnation. He sat and counted five months for growth, ten for the full completion. Both of them crouched and gave birth. They bore the gracious gods, both gluttonous from birth, sucking at the nipples of the Lady’s breasts. Word was brought to El: The two wives of El have given birth! What have they borne? The two gracious gods! both gluttonous from birth, sucking at the nipples of the Lady’s breasts. A lip to the underworld, a lip to the heavens, and there entered into their mouths the birds of the air and the fish from the sea. And wandering abroad, piece by piece they put things from both their right and from their left into their mouths, and were not satisfied. O wives whom I have married,
Genesis 1:28
Hebrew Bible
25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” 27 God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.”
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Notes and References
“... Genesis 1 ends with a summary of the animals with the divine command to humanity: “rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on the earth” (1:28). These expressions are part of Israel's poetic tradition not only in creation references (Pss. 104:12, 14, 25; cf. 146:6; Hab. 1:14), but also in the poetic tradition more broadly ... The stock formulations for animals in the Bible are known from older West Semitic poetic tradition. A variation on the biblical formulary for creatures is used in an Ugaritic excerpt of the creation-story, in 1.23.61–63: “birds of the sky, and fish from the sea.” ...”
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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