THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN - Tyndale House

79 THE IMAGE OF GOD IN MAN
ancient legal terminology (Gn. 9:6). 120 It is inconceivable
that the two halves of the verse did not originally belong
together, since 6a is fully intelligible only in the light of 6b. 121
It is possible that we have in Genesis 9:6 the earliest statement
of the image doctrine; it is significant that the preposition
ְּב
is used here, and that here, perhaps even more than
in the other references to the םיִהֹלֶא םֶלֶצ, the translation 'as
the image of God' affords the best interpretation.
A fourth objection to the interpretation of ּ ונֵמְלַצְּב,
as ‘as
our image' arises from suggested Babylonian parallels in
which a man or a god is created according to the image in
the mind of the creator-god. Some have thought that a
similar picture may lie behind Genesis 1:26. 122
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the nobles of the city of Uruk,
oppressed by the riotous Gilgamesh, cry out to the goddess
Aruru, the creatrix of Gilgamesh, to create another man
like him, who may be able to subdue him.
' "Thou, Arum, didist create [the man] ;
Create now his double [zikru];
His stormy heart let him match.
Let them contend, that Uruk may have peace!"
When Aruru heard this,
A double [zikru] of Anu she conceived within her.
Aruru washed her hands,
Pinched off clay and cast it on the steppe.
[On the steppe she created valiant Enkidu,
offspring of . . . , essence of Ninurta.' 123
The term zikru also occurs in the myth of the Descent of
Ishtar:
Ea in his wise heart conceived an image [zikru]
And created Aִsugu-narnir, a eunuch.'"
A similar term is used in Enuma elish:
120 Cf. G. von Rad, Genesis 128. Note also the poetic form of Gn. 1:27.
121 The murderer has committed an act of lèse-majesté against God Himself;
since he has attacked God's image (cf. below, p. 83); perhaps this verse also
validates the right of the avenger, since he too is the image of God and so may
execute judgment as God's representative (cf. below, p. 87ff.).
122 So S. G. F. Brandon, Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East 151.
123 Gilgamesh I ii 30-36 (= ANET 74a).
124 Descent of Ishtar rev. 11f. (= ANET 108a-b).