Texts in conversation

Compare Eridu Genesis VI and Genesis 2:7

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · Hebrew Bible

Summary

In Eridu Genesis, Ziugiddu receives life like a god's after surviving the flood, while in Genesis the first human receives the breath of life at creation.

Passages

Eridu Genesis VI

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · The Sumerian Deluge

6 Ziugiddu, the king, bowed down in front of Anu and Enlil. 7 Anu and Enlil showed kindness to Ziugiddu. 8 They granted him life like a god’s, 9 They gave him breath that would last forever, like a god’s. 10 At that time Ziugiddu, the king, 11 The name of the [...] Preserver of the seed of humankind [...] 12 They settled him on a [...] mountain, the mountain-land of Dilmun, where the sun rises.

1600 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Eridu Genesis

Genesis 2:7

Hebrew Bible

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created—when the Lord God made the earth and heavens. 5 Now no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 6 Springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. 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.

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

"... Genesis 2–3 is particularly distinguished by its potential links to specifically Mesopotamian traditions. To be sure, scholars have noted some possible links to Egyptian traditions as well. We have some Egyptian depictions of the god Khnum forming humans on a potter’s wheel, which are reminiscent of the picture in Genesis 2:7 of YHWH “forming” the first human. Similarly, YHWH’s breathing life into that human’s nostrils recalls Egyptian depictions of gods holding life to the noses of humans. Moreover, it is in Egypt, not Mesopotamia, that we find actual mention of a “tree of life,” and the Egyptian literature of the dead refers to the power of a grave goddess to give eternal life. Nevertheless, Genesis 2–3 has even stronger evident connections to Mesopotamian cosmogonic traditions. Numerous distinctive aspects of the story in Genesis 2–3 seem to point to Mesopotamian antecedents: the reference to the underground אד (“water flow, underground stream”) watering the surface of the ground in Genesis 2:6, the specifically Babylonian elements of the garden evoked in Genesis 2:8–9, the four rivers tradition in Genesis 2:10–14, the idea of creation out of a “rib” and the use of both the word צלע to refer to that rib and the root בנה to refer to that creation in Genesis 2:22, etc. More generally, a longstanding Sumero-Akkadian tradition, encompassing both relatively early and later texts, depicts the creation of humanity on the command of a high god in order to provide labor and thus relieve the burden put on lower gods who have become rebellious about doing the hard work of canal maintenance and farming ..."

David M. Carr, The Formation of Genesis 1–11: Biblical and Other Precursors (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), 32–33.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

The Survivor Receives Life Like a God

Eridu Genesis6 columns

Compare Eridu Genesis VI and Genesis 2:7

Summary

Passages

Eridu Genesis VI

Genesis 2:7

References

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