the earth upheld by pillars because the
poet is communicating the
meaning of creation,
showing that creation is a temple and pointing us to our end, which is praise and worship
of the Creator. Compared to modern prose, Hebrew writing is much more subtle and
filled with rich, metaphorical language that seeks to convey the resplendent theological
meaning of the events and things it describes. We must be careful not to flatten out the
rich contours of such language. Rather than going over the
text like a steamroller, we must
read and reflect on it as sympathetic readers.
A Tale of Mythic Proportions
Ancient peoples over the centuries have had mythologies that described the various
gods of their pantheon and the beginning of the world, and because of this, it can be
tempting to see the creation story in Genesis as just another ancient myth. However, to
do this would be to misinterpret the writer of Genesis, who intended this book to be
understood as an
anti-myth, i.e., as the
antidote to the myths of the
Ancient Near Eastern
peoples who surrounded God’s chosen people.
The most famous creation myth of Israel’s Near Eastern neighbors is the
Enuma Elish
from ancient Mesopotamia. In this account, a number of gods are struggling for power.
Marduk, an upstart god who wants to be the “top” god, rips apart Tiamat, the current
god-queen. Marduk makes the heavens from one half of her dead body and the earth from
the other half, and then enslaves the remaining minor gods. When they complain,
Marduk kills another god and uses his blood
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to create humanity so he will have a new
source of manual labor. Besides sounding ridiculous to
modern ears, this story is filled
with blood and gore, depicting creation as a product of violence.
If we compare the biblical creation account to the
Enuma Elish, we see just how
different they are. In Genesis, God simply speaks, and creation comes into being
ex nihilo,
“out of nothing.” God doesn’t have to kill another “god” or cut off his own arm to create
the world. In stark contrast to the other Ancient
Near Eastern pantheons, in which the
gods are identified with nature and the universe, it is clear in Genesis that God is over and
above his creation.
Far from being a simple imitation or echo of Ancient Near Eastern myths, the
creation story in Genesis runs against the grain of its rival pagan narratives. This is
perhaps best seen in the creation of humanity. In stark contrast to the
Enuma Elish, in
which humanity is created as an afterthought, in Genesis, God creates man and woman
at the climax of the six days of creation, and he creates them in his own “image” (
selem in
Hebrew) and “likeness” (
demut in Hebrew) (Gn 1:26–27). In ancient
Mesopotamia, it
was often believed that kings were made in the image (
selem) and likeness of the gods,
specially chosen and adopted by a god and thus considered a “son.” Additionally, the
Hebrew word
selem also refers to a statue or carven image. Kings often put a statue or
carven image of themselves in various locations in their kingdom, as a reminder of their
royal dominion.
Such a cultural backdrop raises the question, “What does it mean that Adam and Eve
are made in the ‘image and likeness’ of God?” Just
a few chapters later, in Genesis 5:3, we
begin to get an answer with the repetition of “image and likeness” when we are told that
Adam “became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him
Seth.” When Adam begets a son, that child is said to be in Adam’s image and likeness,
indicating that “image and likeness” connotes sonship. If our image and likeness is
ultimately derived from God himself, then we truly are sons and daughters of God.
This insight reveals how the Hebrew story is subtly subverting the
classical story of
Near Eastern kingship on two levels. First, the creation account differs from other myths
by saying that God alone is king. Earthly kings may claim authority and set up their
images in lifeless statues throughout their kingdoms,
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but the true Lord of the world
has created man and woman, living, breathing, loving beings in his image (
selem), and sent
them out as ministers of his royal rule. In this way, the Hebrew story mocks the kings of
this world and proclaims that humanity represents God and bears his blessing to
the rest
of creation.
Second, rather than reserving divine adoption and the noble dignity of being in the
image and likeness of the gods to kings, the Hebrew God bestows this on the first man
and woman, and thus upon all of humanity. Every man and woman is made in the
Father’s image and likeness and thus shares in the dominion and dignity of the one God
and King. This is one of the most astonishing elements of the story: God desires to
relate
to his creatures, not as a master to a slave but as a Father to his sons and daughters!
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