101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

40 101 Myths of the Bible
ers of the opposition, and as a punishment hacked him in pieces. From his blood,
mankind was created, and Marduk imposed upon humanity the duty to serve the
gods. In a passage echoing the biblical claim that God rested after creating mankind,
we find the following passage from the Babylonian text.
Who removed the yoke imposed upon the gods, his enemies;
Who created mankind to set them free;
May his words endure and not be forgotten
In the mouths of mankind, whom his hands have created.
In other words, after Marduk created humanity, the gods were free to rest. This
Babylonian tradition parallels the biblical account. Both stories show the gods resting
after the creation of human beings. In the Babylonian account, Marduk created
humans to act as servants for the gods and attend to their needs, freeing up the gods
from their labor. In Genesis, God rested after the creation of humans, but did not condemn
humanity to servitude. Of course, the later biblical tradition holds that God and
Israel had a special covenant, with Israel devoted to serving God.
While it is true that in the Babylonian story humans do not rest along with the
gods, as Hebrews are required to do by the Ten Commandments, the Genesis Creation
account talks only about God resting and says nothing specific about humans
refraining from work. That humanity should rest entered the biblical tradition much
later on, perhaps no earlier than the seventh century B.C.