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Oberlin

Theses/Dissertations

Humans

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Nature Of The Crescent: Humans And The Natural World In Genesis 1-11 And Mesopotamian Mythology, Bryton A. Smith Jan 2019

Nature Of The Crescent: Humans And The Natural World In Genesis 1-11 And Mesopotamian Mythology, Bryton A. Smith

Honors Papers

This capstone thesis examines the human-nature relationship in the Genesis primeval history (Gen. 1-11) and compares it to the human-nature relationship in the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish, Atrahasis, and Epic of Gilgamesh myths. Despite common threads running in the two sources of mythology, I argue that Genesis is the only text that portrays humans in a religiously and royally authoritative position that includes responsibility for nature. To clarify, modern Jewish or Christian thought on Genesis in relation to the environment is not the focus of this study. Instead, this study examines Gen. 1-11 in the context of the ancient Near East, …