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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 Eridu Genesis VI and Genesis 2:7

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · Hebrew Bible

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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.

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Eridu Genesis VI and Genesis 2:7

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