Egyptian Creation Myths Analysis

Creation stories are symbolic accounts of how the world and its inhabitants came about. These stories first developed in oral traditions, so there are multiple accounts of them from different cultures and societies. The Babylonian Creation story, the Genesis Creation story, and the Sumerian story of the Creation of Enkidu are examples of these and the similarities are interesting. As Dennis Bratcher states, “Because of many parallels with the Genesis account, some historians concluded that the Genesis account was simply a rewriting of the Babylonian Story. As a reaction, many who wanted to maintain the uniqueness of the Bible argues either that there were no real parallels between the accounts or that the Genesis narratives were

The human scribes who wrote down the events of Genesis were recording the events of the world as God created it. However, while they were inspired by divine events, these authors were humans influenced by the outside considerations that all human writers incorporate into their works, no matter how important or trivial the concepts. In this case, the writers would have been very much aware of the presence and content of other, parallel creation stories with similar historical and even religious tropes.

One parallel between Greek and Egyptian creation stories is that they both begin with a God or Gods being created from the universe. The creation of

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.

Next, the appearance of water or setting is brought up by both texts. In (Genesis 1:7), “ God made the expanse, and it separated the water ….”, which gives the establishment of water in the story having water. While in the (Creation of Hymn: line 1,3) water is given a description as “... bottomlessly deep?” and water was also described as “ The life force was covered with emptiness, all this was water….”. Both articles, give statements where water is mystical, deep and empty.

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.

Genesis starts by saying “in beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. The Bible talks about God speaking things into existence. First God made the light, which He separated into day and night. Next, God created the sky and then the waters. “He called the dry ground ‘land’ and the waters ‘seas’”. This is when God says that “it was good”. God states that his creations are good, which is different from the creations of Enuma Elish. The Creations of the gods in Enuma Elish were made from corpses torn apart and from the need of slaves. God created the vegetation, animals, sea creatures and the stars. On the sixth day, God created humans to reign over things in the world. After each day, God would state that his creations were good. After God created humans, he said it “was very good”. This would be shocking to the nomads because they would not have known of a god loving them before. Genesis is very realistic and accounts for everything that the nomads would know like the sea, animals and stars.

In Genesis, the first book of The Bible the Christian and Jewish creation story is told. God spoke and his Word was done. He made the heavens and the earth. He made light and drove away the dark. On the earth he created the waters and lands and man and beast.

In this essay I will compare and contrast the Babylonian creation story found in the Enuma Elish with the creation accounts presented in Genesis, the Jahwist and Priestly source. The reason for this comparative essay is to show that the creation stories in the Jahwist and Priestly sources of Genesis, and that the Enuma Elish have some similarities along with major differences. Including but not limited to a chaotic primitive state, the creation of mankind, the idea of “image”, and the division of primitive waters. I will then close the essay by stating what we can learn from the comparisons between these accounts.

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.

The Garden of Eden described throughout Christian creation myths is nowhere to be found in Voluspa or Rig Veda indicating that these texts developed independently of one another. However, the mere absence is not enough to prove there is no link. When examining the tone surrounding the creation of life, the peaceful metaphors of the Garden of Eden take no relation to the savage killings of primordial giants. When the “rotting limbs” of Ymir in Voluspa are compared to the “tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” in the Garden of Eden, it becomes obvious that these texts stemmed from very different influences (Crawford 4, Coogan 14). However, Dronke argues that “the primordial killing of Ymir may also have been conceived of as a sacrifice,” and that it is important that they take “Ymir’s blood coming from his neck, that is, from a sacrificial, rather than a fighting wound” (112).

1.What are three things that you noticed about the Egyptian creation myths?  How do these myths compare to the Enuma Elish?

Throughout history many civilizations and cultures have had their own ways of explaining the world and its creation. Each of these civilizations has created unique descriptions and accounts of such events. However, when comparing them to each other, are they really different? Look at the ancient Greco - Roman creation myths as told by Hesiod in his Theogony and Works and Days and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, when compared to the creation myths as seen in the Old Testament’s book of Genesis they may not be as different as one would think. Taking a more in-depth look at both Genesis and Hesiod’s and Ovid’s work more closely, the reader can see that on multiple occasions the myths have almost identical similarities which reflect their views in

The book of Genesis is about the beginnings of creation and life on earth. It begins with “nothingness” and in the first seven days following God creates the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, the seas, plant life, then came the sun and the moon, the fowls and the creatures who roam the lands, followed by humankind to finish it all off. Comparing the creation aspects of Genesis to Theogony, we see that the earth was again created out of “nothingness” known as Chaos. Chaos, instead of creating everything on earth, created several other godly beings to create the earth as it is today. Therefore, it can be deduced that the stories of Genesis we derived from the stories of the gods and goddesses of Theogony. Another similarity the stories possess is in the identity and condemnation of women as evil. In Theogony women were created to be an evil placed upon the earth to cause suffering for men because Iapetos, a mischievous god, stole fire from Zeus and presented it to man. In retaliation, Zeus had his lame smith mold the shape of a “modest

The Mesopotamian creation myth incorporated many characteristics that define to most myths in general. One of the characteristics incorporated in the creation myth is that it takes place in the distant past, or in this case the beginning or pre-history. This characteristic is initially described in the opening passage of the Enuma Elish, “when on high [enuma elish] heaven and earth had not yet been named” (Leeming 19), and further codified by describing how the gods Apsu and Tiamat created “the silt deposits Lahmu and Lahamu, which we call ‘land’” (Leeming 19). A second characteristic of myths portrayed in this creation story is that it is a tale of supernatural beings, goddesses, or gods. Besides, Apsu, freshwater, and Tiamat, great saltwater