GEN160 [E]ven independent of the Israelites’ covenant with God, [Douglas] Knight [“Cosmogony and Order”] demonstrates, the biblical authors conceived of God as establishing a moral relationship with humanity and of human beings as creatures capable of moral discernment.  The fact the people are granted dominion over the natural world [this verse], he notes, is but one more indication of this for, in the ancient Near Eastern context, such dominion presupposed a duty of care and responsibility … it seems evident that the biblical writers conceived of humanity as possessing the capacity for moral decision and an awareness (however undefined) of right and wrong that predates the covenant with Israel and the revelation of Torah.  The text of Scripture, of course, does not provide an account of how humanity comes to know its moral responsibilities, or even exactly what they are. But just as clearly it assumes that they exist.  PASTIMP 124-5