From Dust (and Rib) You have Come
The account of the creation of man from dust or clay and the woman from the man’s rib is connected to older traditions found in Sumerian and Akkadian literature.
Find out more here!
Resources
On Enki and Ninhursag:
- Katz, Dina. “Enki and Ninhursanga Part One, The Story of Dilmun.” (n.d.). https://www.academia.edu/235215/Enki_and_Ninhursanga_Part_One_The_story_of_Dilmun.
- ———. “Enki and Ninhursanga Pt. Two, BiOr LXV (2008) 320-342” (n.d.). https://www.academia.edu/235216/Enki_and_Ninhursanga_Pt_Two_BiOr_LXV_2008_320_342.
- Kramer, Samuel Noah. Enki and Ninhursag : A Sumerian “Paradise” Myth. New Haven, Conn. : American Schools of Oriental Research, 1945. http://archive.org/details/enkininhursagsum0000kram.
Enki and Ninmah
- A translation is available online at: https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr112.htm
Many of the resources that discuss the Enuma Elish also refer Enki and Ninhursag og Enki and Ninmah:
- A great book on the topic of the ancient near eastern context of Genesis 1-11 is Carr, David M. The Formation of Genesis 1-11: Biblical and Other Precursors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
- The scholarly edition of Enuma Elish, with lots of other Ancient Near Eastern texts is Lambert, W. G., ed. Babylonian Creation Myths. Mesopotamian Civilizations 16. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2013.
- Check out Joshua Bowen’s The Atheist Handbook to the Old Testament, Volume 2 to the Old Testament, Volume 2, where he also discuses these texts.
- The most comprehensive collections of Ancient Near Eastern texts that relate to the Bible are not cheap, but have tons of fun texts:
- Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement, 1969. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691035031/ancient-near-eastern-texts-relating-to-the-old-testament-with.
- Hallo, William W., and Younger, eds. The Context of Scripture (3 Vols.): Canonical Compositions, Monumental Inscriptions and Archival Documents from the Biblical World. Brill, 2003. https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/17652.