Must Animals Die? Genesis 3:21, Enūma Eliš IV, and the Power of Divine Creation
In: Vetus TestamentumSearch for other papers by Brent A. Strawn in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
Yhwh-God’s provision of clothing for the first humans in Gen 3:21 is often understood as a gracious act that nevertheless involves animal slaughter so as to produce the “garments of skin.” The present essay uncouples these two elements—the beneficence of the divine provision of clothing and the possible death of animals that may be implied—reexamining the latter in light of a neglected parallel found in Enūma Eliš, which demonstrates (perhaps with a cognate to the Hebrew verb used in Genesis) that the gods can summon things into existence, especially by speech. The power of divine creation, especially through utterance, is well attested in other ancient Near Eastern texts and so Yhwh-God’s making (
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Allen, James P. Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts. YES 2. New Haven: Yale Egyptological Seminar, 1988.
-
Annus, Amar. The Standard Babylonian Epic of Anzu: Introduction, Cuneiform Text, Transliteration, Score, Glossary, Indices and Sign List. SAACT 3. Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2001.
-
Arnold, Bill T. Genesis. NCBC. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
-
Asher-Greve, Julia M., and Joan Goodnick Westenholz. Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources. OBO 259. Fribourg: Academic Press, 2013.
-
Baker, Heather D., ed. The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Vol. 2/II: L–N. Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2001.
-
Barr, James. “The Image of God in the Book of Genesis: A Study of Terminology.” BJRL 51 (1968): 11–26.
-
Batto, Bernard F. In the Beginning: Essays on Creation Motifs in the Ancient Near East and the Bible. Siphrut 9. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2013.
-
Bauer, Theo. Akkadische Lesestücke. 3 vols. Roma: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1953.
-
Birch, Charles, and Lukas Vischer. Living with the Animals: The Community of God’s Creatures. Geneva: WCC Publications, 1997.
-
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. The Pentateuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible. ABRL. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
-
Borger, Rykle. Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon. 2nd ed. AOAT 305. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2010.
-
Borger, Rykle. “Das Wunder Marduks.” AfO 19 (1959–1960): 113.
-
Bottéro, Jean. The Birth of God: The Bible and the Historian. Translated by K. W. Bolle. University Park, PA : Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
-
Bottéro, Jean, and Samuel Noah Kramer. Lorsque les Dieux faisaient l’Homme: Mythologie Mésopotamienne. Paris: Gallimard, 1989.
-
Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis. Interpretation. Atlanta: John Knox, 1982.
-
Budge, E. A. Wallis. Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum XIII. London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1962 (orig: 1901).
-
Budge, E. A. Wallis. “The Fourth Tablet of the Creation Series.” Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 10. London: Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1888.
-
Cassuto, Umberto. A Commentary on the Book of Genesis. 2 vols. Translated by Israel Abrahams. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1961.
-
Dalley, Stephanie. “First Millennium BC Variation in Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, the Flood Story and the Epic of Creation: What was Available to Berossos?” Pages 165–176 in The World of Berossos: Proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on “The Ancient Near East between Classical and Ancient Oriental Traditions”, Hatfield College, Durham 7th–9th July 2010. Classica et Orientalia 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2013.
-
Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
-
Deimel, P. Antonius. “Enuma Eliš” sive epos babylonicum de creatione mundi. 2nd ed. Romae: Sumptibus Pontificii Instituti Biblici, 1936.
-
Del Olmo Lete, G., and J. Sanmartín. A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson. 2 vols. HdO I 67. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
-
Díez Macho, Alejandro. Neophyti 1: Targum Palestinense ms. de la Biblioteca Vaticana. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1968–1979.
-
Ebeling, Erich. “Das babylonische Weltschöpfungslied ‘Als droben.’” Pages 108–129 in Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Testament. Edited by Hugo Gressmann. Berlin: de Gruyter & Co., 1926.
-
Ehrlich, Arnold B. Randglossen zur Hebräischen Bibel: Textkritisches, Sprachliches und Sachliches, Vol. 1. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908.
-
Foster, Benjamin R. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. 3rd ed. Bethesda: CDL Press, 2005.
-
Foster, Benjamin R. “Epic of Creation (1.111) (Enūma Elish).” COS 1.111:390–402.
-
Fowler, Jeaneane D. Theophoric Personal Names in Ancient Hebrew: A Comparative Study. JSOTSup 49. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1988.
-
Frahm, Eckart. Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries: Origins of Interpretation. Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record 5. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2011.
-
Freedman, D. N., and M. P. O’Connor. “כֻּתֹּנֶת kuttōneṯ.” TDOT 7:383–387.
-
Fretheim, Terence E. “The Book of Genesis: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections.” NIB 1 (1994): 319–674.
-
Garr, W. Randall. “God’s Creation: ברא in the Priestly Source.” HTR 97 (2004): 83–90.
-
Gerhards, Meik. Protoevangelium: Zur Frage der kanonischen Geltung des Alten Testaments und seiner christologischen Auslegung. SBS 237. Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2017.
-
Ginzberg, Louis. Legends of the Jews. 2 vols. Translated by Henrietta Szold and Paul Radin. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003.
-
Grayson, A. K. “The Creation Epic: Additions to Tablets V–VII.” ANET3, 501–503.
-
Grossfeld, Bernard. Targum Neofiti 1: An Exegetical Commentary to Genesis Including Full Rabbinic Parallels. Edited by Lawrence H. Schiffmann. New York: Sepher-Hermon, 2000.
-
Grossfeld, Bernard. The Targum Onqelos to Genesis: Translated, with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus, and Notes. ArBib 6. Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1988.
-
Gurney, O. R. “[Review of Lambert and Parker, Enuma Eliš].” JSS 12 (1967): 282–283.
-
Gurney, O. R. “The Sultantepe Tablets: A Preliminary Note.”AnSt 2 (1952): 25–35.
-
Gurney, O. R. “The Text of Enȗma Elȋš: New Additions and Variants.” AfO 17 (1954–56): 353–356.
-
Gurney, O. R., and J. J. Finkelstein. The Sultantepe Tablets I. Occasional Publications of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara 1. London: British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, 1957.
-
Heidel, Alexander. The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
-
Hill, Robert C., and Carmen S. Hardin. Commentaries on Genesis 1–3. Book 1: Severian of Gabala and Bede the Venerable. Edited by Michael Glerup. Ancient Christian Texts. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2010.
-
Huehnergard, John. “izuzzum and itūlum.” Pages 161–185 in Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen. Edited by Tzvi Abusch. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2002.
-
Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
-
Janowski, Bernd, Ute Neumann-Gorsolke, and Uwe Gleßmer, eds. Gefährten und Feinde des Menschen: Das Tier in der Lebenswelt des alten Israel. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1993.
-
Kämmerer, Thomas R., and Kai A. Metzler, eds. Das babylonische Weltschöpfungsepos Enūma elîš. AOAT 275. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2012.
-
Keel, Othmar, and Silvia Schroer. Creation: Biblical Theologies in the Context of the Ancient Near East. Translated by Peter T. Daniels. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2015.
-
King, L.W. The Seven Tablets of Creation, or the Babylonian and Assyrian Legends Concerning the Creation of the World and of Mankind. 2 vols. London: Luzac and Co., 1902.
-
Klein, Michael L. The Fragment-Targums of the Pentateuch: According to Their Extant Sources. 2 vols. AnBib 76. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1980.
-
Korpel, Marjo Christiana Annette. A Rift in the Clouds: Ugaritic and Hebrew Descriptions of the Divine. UBL 8. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1990.
-
Kugel, James L. Traditions of the Bible: A Guide to the Bible as It Was at the Start of the Common Era. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.
-
Labat, René. Le poème babylonien de la creation. Paris: Adrien-Maissonneuve, 1935.
-
Labat, René, and Florence Malbran-Labat. Manuel d’Épigraphie Akkadienne: Signes, Syllabaire, Idéogrammes. Rev. ed. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1994.
-
Lambert, W. G. Babylonian Creation Myths. MC 16. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2013.
-
Lambert, W. G. “Enuma Elisch.” TUAT III/4:565–602.
-
Lambert, W. G. “A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis.” JTS 16 (1965): 287–300.
-
Lambert, W. G., and Simon B. Parker. Enuma Eliš: The Babylonian Epic of Creation; The Cuneiform Text. Oxford: Clarendon, 1966.
-
Landsberger, B., and J. V. Kinnier Wilson. “The Fifth Tablet of Enuma Eliš.” JNES 20 (1961): 154–179.
-
Langdon, S. The Babylonian Epic of Creation Restored from the Recently Recovered Tablets of Aššur: Transcription, Translation, and Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon, 1923.
-
Leick, Gwendolyn. Who’s Who in the Ancient Near East. London: Routledge, 1999.
-
Linzey, Andrew. Animal Gospel. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998.
-
Maher, Michael. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis. ArBib 1B. Collegeville: Liturgical, 1992.
-
Margalit, Baruch. The Ugaritic Poem of Aqht: Text, Translation, Commentary. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1989.
-
McFarland, Ian A. From Nothing: A Theology of Creation. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2014.
-
McNamara, Martin. Targum Neofiti 1: Genesis; Translated, with Apparatus and Notes. ArBib 1A. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1992.
-
Middleton, J. Richard. The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2005.
-
Neusner, Jacob. Genesis Rabbah: The Judaic Commentary to the Book of Genesis; A New American Translation. Vol. 1: Parashiyyot One through Thirty-Three on Genesis 1:1 to 8:14. BJS 104. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985.
-
Oden, Robert A., Jr. The Bible without Theology: The Theological Tradition and Alternatives to It. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987.
-
Osborn, Ronald E. Death Before the Fall: Biblical Literalism and the Problem of Animal Suffering. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014.
-
Otto, Eckart. “Die Paradieserzählung Genesis 2–3: Eine nachpriesterschriftliche Lehrerzählung in ihrem religionshistorischen Kontext.” Pages 167–192 in “Jedes Ding hat seine Zeit …”: Studien zur israelitischen und altorientalischen Weisheit; Diethelm Michel zum 65. Geburtstag. Edited by Anja A. Diesel et al. BZAW 241. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1996.
-
Parker, Simon B. “Aqhat.” Pages 49–80 in Ugaritic Narrative Poetry. Edited by Simon B. Parker. SBLWAW 9. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1997.
-
Petruccione, John F., and Robert C. Hill, eds. The Questions on the Octateuch. Vol. 1: On Genesis and Exodus. LEC 1. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007.
-
Ravn, O. E. “Notes on Selected Passages in Enuma Eliš and Gilgameš.” AO 22 (1955): 28–54.
-
Reno, R. R. Genesis. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2010.
-
Sasson, Jack M. “‘The Mother of All …’ Etiologies.” Pages 205–220 in “A Wise and Discerning Mind”: Essays in Honor of Burke O. Long. Edited by Saul M. Olyan and Robert C. Culley. BJS 325. Providence: BJS, 2000.
-
Sasson, Jack M. “Time and Mortality: Creation Narratives in Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia.” Pages 489–509 in Papers on Ancient Literatures: Greece, Rome and the Near East. Edited by Ettore Cingano and Lucio Milano. Padova: S.A.R.G.O.N. Editrice e Libreria, 2008.
-
Schwartz, Regina M. The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
-
Seri, Andrea. “The Role of Creation in Enūma eliš.” JANER 12 (2012): 4–29.
-
Skinner, John. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis. 2nd ed. ICC. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1930.
-
Smith, Jonathan Z. “The Garments of Shame.” HR 5 (1966): 217–238.
-
Smith, William Robertson. Religion of the Semites. Repr. ed. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2002.
-
Sparks, Kenton L. “Enūma Elish and Priestly Mimesis: Elite Emulation in Nascent Judaism.” JBL 126 (2007): 625–648.
-
Speiser, E. A. “The Creation Epic (Enuma elish).” Pages 28–36 in The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Edited by James B. Pritchard. New ed. with a foreword by Daniel E. Fleming. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
-
Stamm, Johann Jakob. Die akkadische Namengebung. 2nd ed. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1968.
-
Stone, Ken. Reading the Hebrew Bible with Animal Studies. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018.
-
Talon, Philippe. Enūma Eliš: The Standard Babylonian Creation Myth. SAACT 4. Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2005.
-
Webb, Stephen H. On God and Dogs: A Christian Theology of Compassion for Animals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
-
Weidner, Ernst F. “Der Tierkreis und die Wege am Himmel.” AfO 7 (1931–1932): 170–178.
-
Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1–15. WBC1. Waco: Word, 1987.
-
Wenham, Gordon J. “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story.” Pages 399–404 in “I Studied Inscriptions from before the Flood”: Ancient Near Eastern, Literary, and Linguistic Approaches to Genesis 1–11. Edited by Richard S. Hess and David Toshio Tsumura. SBTS 4. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1994.
-
Westermann, Claus. Genesis 1–11: A Continental Commentary. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994.
-
Worthington, Martin. Principles of Akkadian Textual Criticism. SANER 1. Boston: de Gruyter, 2012.
-
Zadok, Ran. The Pre-Hellenistic Israelite Anthroponymy and Prosopography. OLA 28. Leuven: Peeters, 1988.
-
Zawadzki, Stefan. Garments of the Gods: Studies on the Textile Industry and the Pantheon of Sippar According to the Texts from the Ebabbar Archive. OBO 218. Fribourg: Academic Press, 2006.
-
Zawadzki, Stefan. Garments of the Gods. Vol. 2: Texts. OBO 260. Fribourg: Academic Press, 2013.
-
Zevit, Ziony. What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden? New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 533 | 94 | 10 |
| Full Text Views | 161 | 15 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 405 | 42 | 2 |
Must Animals Die? Genesis 3:21, Enūma Eliš IV, and the Power of Divine Creation
In: Vetus TestamentumSearch for other papers by Brent A. Strawn in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Yhwh-God’s provision of clothing for the first humans in Gen 3:21 is often understood as a gracious act that nevertheless involves animal slaughter so as to produce the “garments of skin.” The present essay uncouples these two elements—the beneficence of the divine provision of clothing and the possible death of animals that may be implied—reexamining the latter in light of a neglected parallel found in Enūma Eliš, which demonstrates (perhaps with a cognate to the Hebrew verb used in Genesis) that the gods can summon things into existence, especially by speech. The power of divine creation, especially through utterance, is well attested in other ancient Near Eastern texts and so Yhwh-God’s making (
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 533 | 94 | 10 |
| Full Text Views | 161 | 15 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 405 | 42 | 2 |