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In Atrahasis the gods send plagues, drought, and a flood because multiplying people disturb their rest. Genesis inverts this, with God blessing humans to be fruitful and multiply instead of treating their growth as a problem.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Atrahasis 2:2
Ancient Near East
600 years, less than 600, passed And the country became too wide, the people too numerous. The country was as noisy as a bellowing bull. The God grew restless at their clamour, Ellil had to listen to their noise. He addressed the great gods, The noise of mankind has become too much. I am losing sleep over their racket.
Date: 18th-century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Genesis 1:28
Hebrew Bible
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.” 29 Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
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Notes and References
"… The blessing itself (“be fruitful and multiply”) is a departure from the occasional notion in ancient literature that overpopulation is a problem that must be controlled by the gods. This problem is particularly evident in the Atrahasis Epic, in which a variety of strategies to reduce the population are attempted before the flood is settled upon as the solution. In Genesis, population growth is encouraged as a means by which the other aspects of the blessing (subduing and ruling) can be carried out. The foregoing observations make it clear that Genesis 1 completely restructures the position and role of the participants on the cosmic stage. For instance, in Genesis, humanity is granted a role that is reminiscent of the role of some gods in Mesopotamian literature. …"
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