What is man? This is undoubtedly one of the great questions of all religious and philosophical systems. The aim of this lecture is to take up this question, not from a philosophical or theological point of view, but quite simply on the basis of a few major texts from the Hebrew Bible, analyzed in their Near Eastern contexts.
To begin with, we examined a vase from Uruk dating from the3rd millennium BC, containing a kind of procession. It is divided into 3 registers. The lower register shows water, necessary for all life, vegetation and then animals, apparently oxen and sheep. At the very top, we see a goddess, Inanna or Ishtar, accompanied by one of her symbols, two sheaves of reeds. And in the middle register, wedged between the animals and the gods, we see naked men holding pots, jars and baskets with crops and beer, which they bring to the goddess. In this image, then, man is "caught" between the animals and the gods. And this reflects the great questions of the ancients: in what way is man different from animals? And how does man differ from the gods (is it through death? although there are also gods who die)? So man seeks his place between these two beings, to whom he is in some way close. Indeed, many ancient texts speak of beings who transgress these boundaries.