The Lost World of Adam and Eve (11 page)

We can now see that Genesis 2:24 makes more of a statement than we had envisioned. Becoming one flesh is not just a reference to the sexual act. The sexual act may be the one that rejoins them, but it is the rejoining that is the focus. When Man and Woman become one flesh, they are returning to their original state.
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Previously in this chapter, we found reason to conclude that “formed from dust” was archetypal rather than a description pertaining to Adam alone. We have also seen reason to believe that “rib” should be understood as “side.” Furthermore, we have suggested that Adam has seen Eve’s formation in a vision but that the vision conveys an ontological truth with Eve serving as an archetype. In both cases, the archetypal interpretation offers the reader significant theology about the identity of mankind and womankind. As such, it does not, however, make definitive claims about the material origins of either Adam or Eve. If Genesis 2 makes no claims about material human origins, one would find no other statement in the Bible to offer details beyond the fact that we are all God’s creatures. If, on the basis of scientific evidence, some conclude that God was not involved in human origins (which, of course, is illegitimate since that issue is not in the purview of science to determine), we would have a biblical and theological basis on which to disagree. But if scientific evidence suggests that human beings were not created de novo, we could not necessarily claim that the Bible contested that evidence. That does not mean that we would necessarily accept the current scientific explanation. It would only mean that we would have to judge the science on its own merits rather than dismiss it based on a biblical claim.

Proposition 9

Forming of Humans in Ancient Near Eastern Accounts Is Archetypal, So It Would Not Be Unusual for Israelites to Think in Those Terms

In the preceding chapters, evidence has been presented in support of the interpretation that the forming accounts of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 concern archetypal humanity rather than offering an account of the material origins that are unique to them as individuals. The evidence has been developed from the text itself rather than from predetermined scientific conclusions. Furthermore, that evidence is not the result of ancient Near Eastern ideas being imposed on the biblical text. At this juncture, however, it is reasonable to ask whether an archetypal view of human origins is consonant with how people in the rest of the ancient Near East thought, or if it is unique to the biblical text. In other words, was there an inclination to think about human origins in archetypal terms in the ancient world? The short answer is yes, but the data will be presented in the remainder of this chapter.
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Eleven literary works scattered through Sumerian, Akkadian and Egyptian texts make reference to human origins. Most are brief, but two (
Enki and Ninma
ḫ
and
Atra
ḫ
asis
) extend over several dozen lines.

Sumerian

• Song of the Hoe
  :
  2
  As a result of Enlil’s work with a hoe and a brick mold, people sprout from the earth. After a model of a person is built, people are mass-produced and begin their work: “[Enlil] had [the hoe] place the first model of mankind in the brickmold. And (according to this model) his people started to break through the soil towards Enlil.”
  3
  Nothing is said of this first model and where it came from. The material they used to make them is not mentioned, but clay can be inferred as the source because of the mention of the brick mold. The account is, however, more interested in all the things that the hoe does than in what humans do. Though no archetypal being is identified here, the ingredient, clay, is considered the material from which all are made.
  
• Hymn to E-engura
  :
  4
  In a passing comment reminiscent of the
  Song of the Hoe,
  this temple hymn mentions only that humans “broke through the earth’s surface like plants.”
  
• Enki and Ninma
  ḫ
  :
  5
  The gods complain about their hard life, and Enki is finally aroused to respond. Instigated by Nammu, who conceived of the idea, and aided by a number of birth goddesses (Ninma
  ḫ
  foremost among them), people are created from clay, the archetypal ingredient. Several stages are involved in the creation process: Nammu has the idea and mixes Enki’s blood
  6
  with the clay on top of the Abzu, the house of the subterranean cosmic waters, Enki’s realm. Then, the birth goddesses pinch off pieces of clay to form people, who are then given the work of the gods as their destiny. The account ends with Enki and Ninma
  ḫ
  in a drunken contest, creating human archetypes that are defective to see whether functions can be found for them.
  
• KAR 4
  :
  7
  Available in both Sumerian and Akkadian, this account provides some details not available elsewhere in the literature. Here, people are created from the blood of some slaughtered gods (the gods are not rebels in this story) to do the work of the gods. This work includes not only irrigation (working
  in place of
  the gods) but also building and maintaining temples and performing the rituals (working
  to serve
  the gods). As in some of the other Sumerian accounts, humans spring forth from the earth once the prototype has been designed. It is possible that in this work we have the only known reference to initial individuals, though the issue remains controversial.
  8
  Again, the named ingredient is archetypal (pertaining to all, not just the initial beings).
  
• Founding of Eridu
  :
  9
  In this bilingual (Sumerian and Akkadian) text, only two lines are given to the creation of humans. Marduk creates “the seed of mankind” with the help of Aruru. No ingredients are mentioned. The text proceeds to report the creation of animals, creation of the Tigris and Euphrates, and assigning of names.
  

Akkadian

• Atra
  ḫ
  asis
  :
  10
  The epic of
  Atra
  ḫ
  asis
  contains the most detailed account of human creation in ancient literature. The topic begins about halfway through column 1 and takes up more than 150 lines, though some portions of these lines are broken. The process is introduced through the character of Mami (otherwise known as Belet-ili and Nintu), the mother-goddess, and contains many of the elements known from other accounts (e.g., humans take on themselves the drudgery of the gods). The most important, unique feature of the creation portion of this epic is that people are created from a combination of the blood of the deity who was the ringleader of the rebellion and the clay that has been spat upon by the gods.
  11
  Mami, aided by Enki, creates seven human pairs (though unfortunate breaks in the text obscure the details), who mature and then begin to reproduce.
  12
  
• Enuma Elish
  :
  13
  In tablet VI, Marduk envisions humankind as composed of blood and bones and names them, giving them the task of relieving the burden of the gods. Ea carries out Marduk’s vision, using Kingu’s blood in the process; there is, however, no mention of clay. The entire account takes up slightly more than thirty-five lines.
  
• Neo-Babylonian Creation Account
  :
  14
  In this text, the creatrix, Belet-ili (“mistress of the gods”), pinches off clay in order to form a clay figure on whom to impose the labor of the gods because hostility has broken out. It is considered an act of creation (
  banu
  ). This section of the text is badly broken, so many of the details cannot be recovered at this time. It appears that she brings the model before the gods for their approval. It is likely that this is an archetypal model because it is unlikely that all the labor for all the gods would be put on one human. He is called
  lullu
  -man—a whole category of humans—common folk. Next, she creates the archetypal king:
  

• In this description, we can see all the archetypal characteristics of the king spoken of as built into a singular individual. As with Adam in Genesis 2, these characteristics are true of everyone in the class, not just of one individual, so we can identify the description as archetypal.
  

Egyptian

• Coffin Texts
  15
  (spell 80, CT II:43): In this spell, there is only a passing reference to breath being put in the throats of human beings, along with all other creatures.
  16
  
• Coffin Texts (spell 1130): This spell includes references to a few functions in society, but it only offers an etymological play on words in regard to human origins: people have their origin in the tears of the eye of the creator god.
  17
  
• Instruction of Merikare
  : This piece of wisdom literature contains the most important and extensive treatment concerning human origins and roles:
  18
  

Provide for people, the cattle of God, for he made heaven and earth for their liking. He repelled the greed of the waters; he made the winds in order that their nostrils might breathe; [for] they are likenesses of him that came forth from his flesh. He shines in the sky for their liking; he has made vegetation, small cattle, and fish for them to nourish them. He has killed his enemies and destroyed his own children, because they planned to make rebellion. He makes daylight for their liking, and he sails around in order to see them. He has raised up a shrine behind them, and when they weep he hears. He has made them rulers even from the egg, a lifter to lift [the load] from the back of the weak man. He has made for them magic to be weapons to oppose what may happen.
19

• Here, the station of people in the cosmos and their relationship to the gods are addressed. Other elements of the cosmos are identified as functioning for the sake of human beings (sky and earth, sun, daylight, as we saw also in Gen 1). Human beings are provisioned by deity with food, leadership and magic (the first two addressed in Gen 2). Deity disciplines rebellion and guards people from traitors. The text adds a reference to the provision of a shrine to house the god so that he can hear the people’s weeping.
  
• A variety of texts allude to people being fashioned by Khnum on a potter’s wheel. Some scholars have identified these allusions as early as the Pyramid Texts, but the references become more obvious in the Coffin Texts and in pictorial representations.
  20
  It is important to recognize that it is the king whose image is on the potter’s wheel and that his formation is more directed to his role as king than to his existence as a human being. In other words, this is not about his material origins as much as about his function.
  

Neither Egyptian nor Sumerian accounts put human origins in the context of conflict among the gods, unlike the Akkadian accounts, though two of the Sumerian accounts (
Enki and Ninma
ḫ and
KAR 4
) specify that people are to take over the work of the gods.
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The accounts typically mention the process involved, the materials used in creation, and the roles or functions assigned to humankind. In Egypt, there is no reference to humans taking up the labor that the gods had previously been doing: people are cattle who are cared for, not slaves who are driven. Similarly, no hint of a prior scenario or circumstance that led to humans being made is cited in Egyptian literature.

As can be seen from the examples above, very little commonality exists between the Egyptian accounts and Mesopotamian accounts of human origins, with the exception that clay as a source ingredient is mentioned in specific texts from both cultures. The variety of materials used in the creation of humanity reflects differences in the archetypal elements that each account wishes to emphasize and for which an explanation is provided. The commonality in the cognitive environment, therefore, is that people are conventionally portrayed as being created out of elements that will explain the archetypal roles assigned to the people (clay, blood, spit or tears).

Human Functions

In this section, we are not concerned with addressing all the different functions that humans could serve in the cosmos; instead, we want to focus specifically on functions that they are said to have been created to fulfill and roles that they were given at creation. These roles are typically not assigned to a single human, couple or even group. Accounts of human creation focus on the functions that all humans have. There are three major aspects of the role and function of humanity that are identified in the texts. Human beings are created in order to

• take over the drudgework of the gods
  
• serve the gods through the performance of rituals and through provisioning the deities in the temples
  
• be in the image of deity
  

The first of these roles has already been treated above and is attested only in Sumerian and Akkadian sources. The second is demonstrated in the context of the decreeing of destinies in Mesopotamian literature
22
and can be seen throughout Egyptian literature.
23
These two roles together compose what I would like to call the Great Symbiosis. The foundation of religion in Mesopotamia is that humanity has been created to serve the gods by meeting their needs for food (sacrifices), housing (temples) and clothing and generally giving them worship and privacy so that those gods can do the work of running the cosmos. The other side of the symbiosis is that the gods will protect their investment by protecting their worshipers and providing for them. Humans thus find dignity in the role that they have in this symbiosis to aid the gods (through their rituals) in running the cosmos.