Comparing Enuma Elish And Genesis

To study Genesis in terms of its literary and historical content is not to say that we are in any way being irreverent in our reading of this part of the Old Testament. In other words, it is possible to read Genesis in both a spirit of appreciation for its position as the opening exegetical narrative of the Bible and as a document that reflects literary and historical realities and influences during the time when it was being written down. This paper examines some of the contemporary sources that influenced the two sets of writers who recorded the events of Genesis.

Hebrew version of creation was in the 5th or 6th century B.C.E unlike the Babylonian, was in the second millennium B.C.E. Before getting into the details of the creations the creator for the Hebrew was just one God making everything appear and happen. The Babylonian had a God battling a goddess. Reading and then thinking about the chaotic part of the process is what stood out. The Hebrew started off with a empty earth, this was like a artist starting off with a blank canvas. It separated the earth and heaven. Babylonians had more of a chaotic period because they had an absence of a God.

Often a topic of debate, there are several different takes on the creation story existent in literature. Dependent on one’s religion, different beliefs about how the world we live in was created may arise. Looking deeper into the literature, one will realize there are also many similarities between creation stories. Based on the strong possibility that Genesis was influenced by the Enuma Elish, there are similarities that stem from the fact that they both describe the creation of a new world as well as differences in their interpretations and approaches to creationism.

    The Enuma Elish, often known as The Creation Epic, is often considered the primary source of Mesopotamian cosmology. However, to view the Enuma Elish as a cosmological myth obscures the true intent of the epicís author. The cosmological elements of the Enuma Elish are secondary to the authorís effort to explain the supremacy of Marduk, to justify absolute oriental monarchy, and to defend Babylon as the axis mundi.

The Hebrew and Babylonian myths are two different versions of how the earth was created. Even though there are perspectives of how the world was created they do have some similarities. The point of the two views intertwine with each other because they are consistent with the events.

Evolutions of civilizations can occur because of differences in people’s religion, culture, or geographic setting of the settlement. The relationship between the world of the gods and that of men was perceived differently by the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Hebrew ancient civilizations. This is demonstrated by the way each group viewed the process of creation. They had different thoughts on the creation of their gods, the universe and of man. This essay will discuss the relationship between humans and their gods in three different ancient civilizations: Sumerian, Egyptian and Hebrew.

Throughout these stories God and humans are both described in similar ways. When God first created man, he "created humankind in his image"(Genesis

Both tales contain a single, omnipotent, all-powerful deity that keeps himself entirely separate from the humans, and requires their worship of his greatness. In this version, the almighty created humans to bear the burden of the gods (Norton Anthology, 158.) The Enuma Elish addresses the omnipotence of the gods by labeling divine knowledge as “the entirety of all of everything” (Norton Anthology, 24).

In the Enuma Elish poem, a reminder of Christianity is evident when Marduk (a god) says, “I shall make stand a human being…” (The Norton Anthology World Literature, Volume A, pg. 35) This statement by Marduk signifies the Babylonian belief about the creation of man. On the other hand, the Hebrew belief declares that God says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (New International Version Bible, Genesis 1:26) The Babylonian and Christian belief is comparable since each belief states that “a god” creates man. Likewise, there are variations between the two beliefs about the method of creation.

John H. Walton is a professor of the Old Testament at Wheaton College. He is known for his intelligence of the Bible but especially of the Old Testament. Inspired by Joseph Free, a former Wheaton professor; Walton read a book called Archaeology and Bible History. After reading this book, he decided to not become an archaeologist. He switched his focus to comparing the culture and literature of the Bible and the Ancient Near East. With passion for the Old Testament, Walton finds it important to help others understand it better. Walton has been acknowledged for stepping on people’s toes by making them question what they know to be true in their mind. He is very firm in his beliefs. When it comes to his book The Lost World of Adam and Eve, there were many people that criticized it but also those who enjoyed it. This book talks about the first three chapters of Genesis and makes many various propositions

Since the beginning of time, societies have created stories to explain the mystery of the origin of man and the universe. In the Babylonian text, Enuma Elish and the book of Genesis-which originated in the same part of the world-one finds two very different stories about the creation of man. These two creation stories contrast the two societies that created them: the chaotic lives of servitude of the Babylonians and the lives of the recently freed Jewish people.

Though the role of the Enuma Elish was for the ancient Babylonians to understand how creation came to be, they believed it as fact. Furthermore, it gave them a purpose and an elucidation of how they came to

When reading the Babylon myth of creation Enuma Elish and Gods’ story of creation in Genesis we find that there are many elements of similarity. They both begins with a universe and that the creation starts by forming the formal universe. In both stories the universe was full of emptiness and shapelessness of water and by the particular power the universe was formed and created.

The Bible starts with Genesis and the creation of the universe and what not, but strangely enough some of the most ancient civilizations on Earth had origins that were similar to Genesis. Examples of this is the Babylon`s Enuma Elish and the Akkadian`s Atra-Hasis. In Genesis 1-2, God made humans in his image from nothing while the gods of Babylon in the Enuma Elish made humans from a god they sacrificed and mud. They both the start of humanity made, from their image, and. They both made the earth for humans to live in however they differ on how it’s made. God made the earth from nothing he simply spoke and it was there that means he is self-sufficient. While the Enuma Elish describes how they made the Earth from corpse of Tiamat meaning that

There are multiple debates and arguments concerning the creation story of both mankind and the universe from the Bible and the Babylonian creation poem the Enuma Elish. There is a debate on whether the two accounts have similarities or one of them borrowed its content from the other. Enuma Elish is a great Assyrian poem which narrates the story of the creation of the world and man. The poem contains what the old empires believed concerning the creation of the universe. This Babylonian and Assyrian poem gives an account of how Apsu (fresh water) and Tiamat (sea water)