part0029

The Myth: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen. 2:7)

The Reality: The biblical editors confused the birth of Atum (the Heliopolitan Creator deity) in Egyptian mythology with the birth of the first human.

Genesis says that God created the first man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him through his nostrils. Mesopotamian myths make some similar claims but they differ from Genesis in two significant details: 1) the gods created man from a mixture of clay and the blood of a slain deity, and 2) they did not infuse him with divine breath. So, while the Mesopotamian story might have influenced the biblical account, the details suggest otherwise.

In Egyptians myths, we find a closer parallel to the biblical account. While Egyptians have several inconsistent stories about the Creation of humanity, they are not mutually exclusive. Different portions of humanity could have been created at different times by different methods. In most versions, though, gods created humanity through some sort of sculpting process. In one well-known tradition, the god Khnum makes humanity on a potters wheel, indicating a clay-based origin as in Genesis. In another version, the crafts god Ptah builds man, although the process isn’t described.

In addition to the sculpting process, an essential part of the Egyptian belief about life is that it comes from breathing life into the nostrils, as indicated in the Genesis account. In Coffin Text 80, for example, Atum (the Heliopolitan Creator) gave birth to Shu (the Sky) through his nostrils and identified Shu as the life force. Also in that text, Nun (a personification of the flood) tells Atum to put his daughter to his nose so that his heart will live. And elsewhere in that text, Shu, the life force, says :

I will lead them and enliven them,
through my mouth, which is Life in their nostrils.
I will lead my breath into their throats …

These Egyptian traditions show several parallels to the Genesis account, in which man is shaped from the earth and God breathes life into his nostrils. But the most important influence on Genesis was probably the birth of Atum. In the Heliopolitan Creation myth that lies behind the stories of Adam and Eve, the first being was Atum, whose name is phonetically identical to that of Adam. Atum was formed out of the first land that emerged from the primeval waters. He was literally a figure made of the dust of the earth. Additionally, like Adam, the first female emerged from him without the benefit of sexual intercourse with a woman.

As we note in Myth #11, when the Bible says that God created man from the dust of the earth, the phrase translated as “man” is actually “ha-adam,” the Adam, and the term is a plural form incorporating both male and female: “and [God] called their name Adam, in the day when they were created”(Gen. 5:2).

The name Atum also has a plural sense, encompassing both male and female. It means “he who is completed by absorbing others,” the others being the male and female members of the Ennead.

Since the stories of Adam and Eve derive in part from the Heliopolitan Creation myth, the several parallels between Atum and Adam indicate that originally the Hebrew scribes named the first being Atum, after the first being in the Heliopolitan story. Later, because of confusion between Atum and the Semitic word for “ground,” adamah, the first being’s name evolved into Adam.