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Genesis

About this book

The Seventh Day

Chapter 2

1 The heavens and the earth were completed with everything that was in them.⁠ 2 By the seventh day God finished the work⁠ that he had been doing,⁠ and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing.⁠ 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.⁠

The Garden and the First Humans

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.⁠ 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.) 13 The name of the second river is Gihon;⁠ it runs through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it.⁠ 16 Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.”⁠ 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.⁠ I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him.”⁠ 19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air.⁠ He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field,⁠ but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found.⁠ 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man’s side and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man,⁠ and he brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;⁠ this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”⁠ 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife,⁠ and they become one family.⁠ 25 The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Atrahasis and Genesis 2:15

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In Atrahasis humans are created to do the work of the gods, doing the harsh labor the lower gods refused. Genesis echoes this pattern but softens it, placing the man in a garden to do much less harsh work.

Passages

Atrahasis

Ancient Near East, Babylonian
The warning signal was loud enough, [we kept hearing the noise.] Belet-ili the womb-goddess is present Let her create primeval man So that he may bear the yoke So that he may bear the yoke, [the work of Ellil], Let man bear the load of the gods! Belet-ili the womb-goddess is present, Let the womb-goddess create offspring, And let man bear the load of the gods! They called up the goddess, asked
1800–1701 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Atrahasis

Genesis 2:15

Hebrew Bible
14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it. 16 Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard,
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

“… Together Enki (another name for Ea, the god of wisdom) and Nintu, the mother-goddess, decided upon a plan. The ringleader of the rebel gods was killed and from his blood mixed with clay Enki and Nintu fashioned a kind of primitive humankind (lullu, or lullu-awilu), seven males and seven females. The idea was that henceforth humankind would bear the work of provisioning the gods so that the latter might rest. Henceforth, humans would till the fields, maintain the irrigation works, and in general, provide all the labor necessary for maintaining the gods in their proper rank. In short, humans were created to be servants of the gods. Subsequent events, however, reveal that the gods were naive in thinking that their inchoate creation was the perfect solution. They had merely traded one problem for another. As humankind rapidly multiplied on earth, so did the ‘din’ that they raised on earth. …”
Bernard F. Batto, Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1992), 27–28.

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

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  • Its details like this why I no longer think Genesis is history

    James, May 10, 2026

Atrahasis and Genesis 2:15

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