Texts in Conversation
Genesis 2 shares Ugarit's picture of a god shaping life from clay, where El pinches off clay to make a healer with the same verb Job 33 uses, making human existence depend on God's work with the earth.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.16 V:29
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
None among the gods an[swers him]. He says a sixth, a seventh time: "[Who] among the gods can remove the illness, driving out the disease?" None among the gods answers him. Then spoke the Kindly One, El Benignant: "Remain seated, my sons, upon your seat[s], upon yo[ur] thrones of princeship. I will apply sorcery and will surely bring about the removal of the illness, driving out the disease. With clay [his hand] he fills, with good clay [ ]. He moulds . . . . . . . [ ] . . . . [ ] dragon [ ] dragon [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] . . . . [ ] . . . . [ ] a cup [he takes in his hand] a flagon [in both his hands]: "Do, Sha['taqat ]
Genesis 2:7
Hebrew Bible
7 The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.) 10 Now a river flows from Eden to water the orchard, and from there it divides into four headstreams. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it runs through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is pure; pearls and lapis lazuli are also there.)
Search:
Notes and References
“... One text (KTU 1.16.5.25–41) does mention how ʾIlu magically creates an
exorcist named Shaʿtiqatu by “pinching off clay” (rt + yqrṣ), an expression used
elsewhere of Enki’s and Yahweh’s creation of humanity.21 ...” “... The biblical references for this famous motif are Genesis 2:7 and Job 10:9; 33:6, with
Job 33:6 (qoraṣtî) using the same cognate verb as in KTU 1.16.5.29 (yqrṣ) and as in
the Akkadian phraseology of “pinching off” or “nipping” of the clay (karāṣu + ṭiddu/
ṭīdu) to make humans. For the numerous Akkadian texts, as well as how ʾIlu (like
Enki) also uses magic to create the exorcist Shaʿtiqatu, see Lewis 2013a, 2014a. ...”
Lewis, Theodore J.
The Origin and Character of God: Ancient Israelite Religion through the Lens of Divinity
(p. 77, 719) Oxford University Press, 2020
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,