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The Creation of the King

VAT 17019

About this book

Ea opened his mouth to speak, saying to Belet-ili: “You are Belet-ili, sister of the great gods; it was you who created man, the human. Fashion now the king, the counsellor man!⁠ Gird the whole of his figure so pleasingly, make perfect his countenance and well-formed his body!” And Belet-ili fashioned the king, the counsellor man. The great gods gave the king power in battle. Anu gave him the crown. Enlil gave him the throne. Nergal gave him the weapons. Ninurta gave him glittering brilliance.⁠ Belet-ili gave him a beautiful appearance. Nusku gave instructions, gave advice, and was at his service. He who speaks lies and deceit to the king— if it is a ... it will [...]

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Compare Genesis 1:26 and The Creation of the King

Hebrew Bible · Ancient Near East, Babylonian

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Summary

The Babylonian Creation of the King describes a goddess forming a king with a perfected form and divine gifts. Genesis uses similar language for the creation of humanity, with God creating humans in his own image and giving them dominion.

Passages

Genesis 1:26

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.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

The Creation of the King

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · VAT 17019
Ea opened his mouth to speak, saying to Belet-ili: “You are Belet-ili, sister of the great gods; it was you who created man, the human. Fashion now the king, the counsellor man! Gird the whole of his figure so pleasingly, make perfect his countenance and well-formed his body!” And Belet-ili fashioned the king, the counsellor man. The great gods gave the king power in battle. Anu gave him the crown. Enlil gave him the throne. Nergal gave him the weapons. Ninurta gave him glittering brilliance. Belet-ili gave him a beautiful appearance. Nusku gave instructions, gave advice, and was at his service.
600 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in The Creation of the King

References

“… That the concept derives from the royal domain is now the consensus view among investigators who are historically and comparatively driven; it is also the first of three important contextual insights about the image of God. In truth, however, the comparative material is not uniform. It clusters around two loci: (i) the monarch as the image of a god and, in Mesopotamia, (ii) the monarch’s use of his own image especially in statuary. The first locus is manifest in the way the king could be described as, for example, “the image of (the god) Bel” in Mesopotamia or, in Egypt, the way the pharaoh could be called “the likeness of (the god) Re” or even, via proper name: “the living image of (the god) Amun” (the meaning of Tutankhamun). …”
Christoph Levin, “Genesis in Form and Tradition Criticism Today,” in The Cambridge Companion to Genesis, ed. Bill T. Arnold (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 216–217.

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Genesis 1:26 and The Creation of the King

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