Image and rest

The ancient Near Eastern myths about creation are so interesting, mainly because they portray their deities as petty junior highers. It's hard for me to believe that people would tell such stories about their gods. But as Michael Moore (not that one), my Pentateuch professor, says, a significant, overlooked portion of these myths is often how political, economic, and social structures found their form. It's not just about how the physical world found its form (as we often assume with the Bible). Further, the myths themselves served to subvert the structures as they stood at the time.

The Atrahasis myth gives the account of the creation of humans. For some reason, it was essential for canals to be dug in Mesopotamia, and lesser gods were assigned this task. After a while, they got sick of the labor and revolted, and humans were created to do this work. The gods were able to rest indefinitely now, which seems to be a part of their goal all along. However, the humans got noisy, preventing the gods from resting, so this led to the flood. (That's a pretty spare summary. You can read more commentary that I found on a lazy Google search.)

According to the Bible, when God (Elohim) created the cosmos, he made humans in his image to tend and care for the earth. And in the creation poem, he also rested. However, God rested on the seventh day, implying that he still works 86 percent of the time. Later on, he gives his people the command to rest on the seventh day as well. So God invites humanity to do his work with him and to partake in the same benefits of rest.

This is a huge social polemic against the Mesopotamian myths. While the flesh and blood of one of the lesser gods was mixed with clay in order to create the slave race humanity in Atrahasis, this is nowhere close to God creating us in his image, giving us a noble task in creation, and breathing his very breath or Spirit into us.