Amid a world filled with myths about jealous gods and humans molded from divine mud, Genesis 1 stands as a fracture of immense proportions in the history of thought.
It speaks neither of gods, nor of cosmic rebellions, nor of a “common ancestor” who unleashed suffering upon the world.
The text states simply and directly that God created the earthlings — adam in the collective sense — an entire species, not a single individual.
This idea, rendered clearly in the restored text of Mekorah, may be the most revolutionary theological statement in human history: man is not the product of a mythological mistake, but the moral expression of divine reason.
1. From Myth to Morality
All the ancient cultures surrounding Israel explained the origin of humanity through a myth of singularity:
a god fashions one individual or a couple, gives them life, and from them the entire human race descends.
– In Greece, Prometheus shapes man from clay, and Pandora — the first woman — opens the jar that releases suffering into the world.
– In Persia, Mašya and Mašyānag are the first man and woman.
– In India, Manu and Śatarūpā repopulate the earth.
– In China, Fuxi and Nüwa form the original pair.
All these myths share the same structure: a common ancestor, a derivative woman, a forbidden act, and divine punishment.
The same psychological scheme recurs: man “sins” by wanting to know, and the god punishes him for daring to be conscious.
But Genesis 1 in the Mekorah breaks this scheme with astonishing clarity.
Here there is no:
- single couple,
- punishment,
- fall,
- or temptation.
There is only order, reason, creation, and mandate.
Man is not cursed, but blessed: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.”
This is not a condemnation but an appointment.
God does not expel man from creation — He sends him into it to govern.
2. “Adam” – Not an Individual, but a Species
In Hebrew, adam does not mean “a particular man” but “earthling” — a being made from adamah, earth.
The form is collective: it designates the human species, not a proper name.
When the text says “God made the earthlings in His image,” it does not inaugurate a single individual but the whole rational humanity.
Man is not defined by sex (“male and female He made them”), but by moral function — the image of God.
This is the essential distinction between biological creation and moral creation:
God does not add another animal species, but establishes a being capable of creating, judging, ordering, and discerning between good and evil.
In other words, God creates a conscious administrator — an imago Dei endowed with decision and moral sense.
3. Earthlings – Homo sapiens in Theological Vision
Viewed through the lens of modern science, this formula — “the earthlings created in God’s image” — fits surprisingly well with genetic reality.
Humanity did not begin with a single couple (“Adam and Eve”), but with an original population of several thousand individuals.
Genesis 1 confirms exactly this model: a simultaneous creation of humanity, not the genealogy of a single family.
In this sense, adam = Homo sapiens: a rational species, diverse yet morally united.
The diversity of races, languages, and cultures does not contradict Genesis 1 — it fulfills it.
God creates “according to their kinds” the fish, the birds, the animals — and then, on a higher level, He creates the earthlings, beings capable of understanding order and continuing it.
4. The Image of God – The Mandate of Moral Creation
In the Mekorah text, God does not say “Let us make earthlings,” but “God made the earthlings in His image, after His likeness.”
It is a simple formula, without the mythological plural later inserted in the Septuagint.
The God of Genesis 1 does not “deliberate” with anyone; He creates alone, through reason and will.
The adamîm are not an individual but an entire species, created to continue the order of the world.
Just as God separates light from darkness and organizes matter, He creates a being able to distinguish, create, and govern.
The image of God is not a physical resemblance but a moral and rational capacity — the power to discern good and evil and to build within one’s own limits.
What God does on a cosmic scale, man does on a terrestrial one.
Creation does not stop with man; it continues through man.
Humanity is the moral extension of the creative act — the administrator of the world, not the copy of divinity.
This is “likeness”: not ontological but functional, a participation in God’s work through reason, discernment, and creativity.
5. Why Genesis 1 Is Revolutionary
Because it completely breaks the mythological logic.
Instead of a capricious god who creates a being and punishes it, the text offers a rational God who creates an ordered world and entrusts to man the role of moral administrator.
In place of a mythical ancestor appears a rational species.
In place of a curse, a blessing.
In place of a fall, a mission.
This perspective is revolutionary in three dimensions:
(1) Ontological – Man is not an inferior creature but an active image of the divine.
God does not create a toy, but a consciousness.
The “image of God” means responsibility, not form.
(2) Anthropological – Humanity does not descend from one individual but from a species created simultaneously.
There is no “Adam and Eve,” but the earthlings — plural humans for a plural world.
(3) Moral – Man is not punished for knowing, but called to use knowledge for good.
Knowledge is not forbidden; it is the instrument of moral stewardship.
6. Abraham and the Continuity of This Theology
Abraham comes from Sumer, a civilization that believed man to be a slave of the gods, yet which already knew of a collective creation of humanity.
Sumerian texts — Enki and Ninmah, Atrahasis — speak of humans created simultaneously, each with distinct roles, to sustain cosmic order.
But that theology was servile: man was not the image of the divine, only its tool.
Abraham broke that model.
He did not inherit the myth of a “first man”; he reclaimed the collective creation and transfigured it morally: God does not create slaves, but partners in responsibility.
This is the legacy Abraham carries forward — a plural humanity united in moral purpose.
When God tells him, “You will be the father of many nations,” it is not a biological statement but the restoration of the universal humanity of Genesis 1 — earthlings as moral, not genealogical, beings.
Through Abraham, the Sumerian idea of collective creation is purified of mythology and becomes a theology of freedom: man lives not to serve the gods, but to respond through conscience to the one God who created him rational and moral.
Thus Abraham’s faith is not the beginning of a religion but the continuation of the collective-creation theology of Genesis 1, freed from servile fear and reoriented toward moral liberty.
7. Why Genesis 1 (Mekorah) Is Incompatible with Genesis 2–3
Genesis 2–3 returns to the mythological structure of the Greek world: a single man, a derivative woman, a forbidden tree, a serpent, and a punishment.
It is the classic myth of “the fall through knowledge.”
This is not the theology of creation but the mythology of control: man is guilty because he thought.
By contrast, Genesis 1 in Mekorah knows no guilt — only responsibility.
Man is not condemned for knowing, but called to use what he knows for good.
That is the difference between myth and morality:
– myth justifies subjugation;
– morality affirms freedom.
8. Conclusion
Genesis 1 is not the beginning of religion, but the beginning of the moral human being.
God does not create a bloodline but a conscious species.
The “earthlings” are not slaves of the gods, but partners of a creative Reason.
The “image of God” is not a mystical metaphor but a precise description of humanity’s capacity to discern, name, and build.
Here lies the revolution:
Creation does not end with man — it continues through man.
What God does in Genesis 1, man can also do — on a smaller scale, yet after the same pattern:
to order, to name, to create, to distinguish good from evil, to give meaning to the world.
In this sense, Mekorah does not speak of a “common ancestor” but of the birth of moral humanity.
Not the beginning of religion, but the beginning of responsibility.
That is the true revolution of Genesis 1: man is not the result of a myth, but the moral image of God on earth.