THIS MIGHT SURPRISE YOU
The answer
To do the gods' work. In Enuma Elish, after Marduk's victory, Tiamat's ally Qingu is killed and humans are made from his blood. The poem says this put the gods' toil on humans and set the gods free. Michael Coogan and Cynthia Chapman, two Bible scholars, sum it up: humans were, in effect, the gods' slaves. Genesis 1:26-28 gives humans a different job: made in God's image, they are to rule over every living thing.
Why it’s interesting
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, a study Bible, looks at the Hebrew word for rule in Genesis 1:26 and 28, radah. It is the word for a king's power over his enemies, the note says, and not a particularly gentle one.
Scholarly consensus
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