The Role Of God In The Babylonian Creation

When the modern person ponders the formation of human beings, our mind automatically goes to Adam and Eve, whom were the first man and woman created by God according to the Book of Genesis. Before there was Adam and Eve, diverse cultures came up with myths about the construction of humans. These myths included: “The Song of Creation” from the Rig Veda, An African Creation Tale, From the Popol Vuh, and A Native American Creation Tale “How Man Was Created” Each one of these legends gives a diverse perspective on the creation of human beings.

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.

Popul Vuh shares a great many similarities with the creation story in Genesis from the Bible. Just as the Plumed Serpent created the earth by saying the word “Earth”, God of the Bible created the heavens and the earth in the world (Tedlock 524). When the humans became too powerful in Popul Vuh and threatened the gods in vision and in knowledge, the gods stupefied them, then took back the human’s advanced vision and replaced it with a fuzzier view. This parallels with the story in Genesis, by how God throws Adam and Eve out of the Garden lest they “become like one of us in knowing good and evil” (Genesis 4:22: ESV) The motivation of these tales is to rationalize the creation of the heaven and earth, and to have a god to serve or a reason to

The ones in Popol Vuh desire someone to worship them and to pray to them. They try designing their ideal “ race ” one that would praise them and “ keep their days ” or beliefs. Yet the Gods are not pleased with anything that they create, even after several attempts to do so. They struggle a lot while creating the humans. It requires four tries to generate beings that fit their criteria. Their first strive is unsuccessful because they make humans that have no feelings at all. The people do not display any gratefulness to their superiors, for they do not pray to them nor praise them. Therefore the Gods murder them explaining that their works are clumsy and ineffective - “...Their faces were smashed because they were incompetent before their mother and their father, the Heart of Sky, named Hurricane” (Applebee p.82). After this the Gods finally create humans, they are satisfied with, who obey their creators, and who are willing to do whatever they can to make them happy. In Genesis though, things go in a completely different direction compared to Popol Vuh. Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit of knowledge, and this way they disrespect God’s will. As a result, they are heavily punished. Further, out of disappointment from what He had made, God creates a massive flood on the Earth, killing every living thing, apart from Noah and his family. They are the only people who are truly loyal to the

A prime difference between the Popol Vuh’s version of the creation of humanity and that of the Hebrew Bible’s is their acquisition of knowledge, which ultimately relates to the intended purpose for humanity by the deities in each of these works. The importance of this chosen level of knowledge in the Popol Vuh is of particular importance in regards to the gods’ motives behind the creation of humanity in the first place, which results from the need for “one who will honor us, who will respect us; one who will be a provider and a sustainer,” (pg. 66). The clear driving force behind the gods’ actions is to create a species which can worship their names on the earth, thereby

The Babylonian definition of justice was a harsh and especially a burden on the accuser and judges. For example, the laws clearly state that not only is there a burden on the accused but also on the accuser should they be unable to prove their case. For instance, the penalty for homicide states that “if a man has made allegations against another man, and he has laid a charge of homicide against him but is unable to substantiate his guilt, the one who made the allegations against him shall be killed.” ( ) Hammurabi ruled a vast empire and would not have been able to rule on every case himself. () notes that in the king’s absence, a committee of men from the communities involved could act as a judge in Hammurabi’s place. The penalties for a judge

"The study of world history is an exhilarating project that offers unparallel opportunity to understand oneself and one's own society in relation to the larger world" (Bently xvii). Indeed, world history is an exciting and interesting topic. The textbooks seem to get more in depth and detailed with every new year. But how exactly do historians get all of the material to make these textbooks? What do they base their facts on? In order to learn new information and facts about the societies in textbooks, historians must literally "go back to the source." Primary sources from ancient civilizations and societies such as creation myths, stone tablets,

The presence of fundamental storytelling methods across the globe establishes a universal connection between societies. Contrasting cultures influence variation among symbolism and moral values, however collective literary essentials exist. For instance, an abundance of flood stories that expand across the world verifies a connection among the traditions of mankind. The strong resemblance between the flood accounts in the ancient Mesopotamian myth The Epic of Gilgamesh and the biblical narrative of Noah’s Ark in The Genesis propose a closer relationship that encourages further analysis. The major plot points are echoed in both texts despite differentiation of detail, however the crucial distinctions are observed through the contrasting religious themes. In contrast to Gilgamesh, the Genesis is a religious narrative that promotes monotheistic ideals. Both texts articulate nearly identical scenarios, however the Genesis adaptation provides a Christian perspective by offering moral interpretation. Further exploration of both assists in the determination of significance between the differences.

Similar to the bible, the story Popol Vuh talks about the creation of earth and humans coming into existence. Although the basis of the stories is the same, there are huge differences between the Bible and Popol Vuh. While the Bible tells of God single-handedly creating earth and its inhabitants, Popol Vuh tells about multiple gods coming together to discuss the creation of humans, “So there were three of them, as Heart of Sky, who came to the Sovereign Plumed Serpent, when the dawn of life was conceived: ‘How should the sowing be, and the dawning? Who is to be the provider, nurturer?’” (Popol Vuh, 523). Another area of the story that exists in both stories, but are completely different, is that of intelligence. While in the Bible, Adam and

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.

Now that we have been introduced to similarities that exist between what we find within the Old Testament, and what we find from the Ancient Near East, we must know explore what specifically the similarities are, as well as finding some differences among them. First, we should start by comparing the origin stories found in Genesis 1-11, and their ANE counterparts. The Mesopotamian Enuma Elish starts off by describing a cosmic conflict that is occurring between two deities, Marduk and Tiamat. After killing the evil Tiamat, Marduk uses her carcass to create heaven and earth, and then, with help from his father, uses her and her co-conspirator’s blood to create humankind to do the hard labor on the earth. Coming from an Old Testament background, we can infer that the conflict between Marduk and Tiamat points to Cain and Abel the first murder, as well as Adam and Eve, where the women, Eve, first partakes in the sin which eventually brings evil into the world. In addition, the fact of human kind being the labor force on earth refers to God’s creation of Adam and His curse to him saying he would have to work the land in order to

Enuman Elish (which means When on High) is a Babylonian creation myth dating to the late second millennium BCE. Enuman Elish tells the story of how the universe came into being, a great struggle among the gods, and the creation of the world and humanity. Enuman Elish is broken down into two distinctive parts, the Theogony part (encompasses the birth of the gods) and the Cosmogony part (The beginning of the universe and mankind). The first part of the story (Theogony part) describes the birth of the gods from the union of the fresh water god, Apsu, and the salt water goddess Tiamat. When Apsu plots to kill the young gods (his children) for making too much noise, Tiamat informs her son Ea, the most powerful of the young gods; in turn Ea kills

The Babylonian Creation Epic reminds me of Christianity because the poem explains the creation of their gods and humankind, however, the Bible tells how God was not created by other gods and He created mankind. Enuma Elish has points of similarity to the Bible regarding the first creation but there are differences between each story.

Another similarity is the fall of man and the search for everlasting life. The snake is represented in both of the stories. Gilgamesh is searching for everlasting life, and the everlasting life is within a flower. Gilgamesh finds the flower but is confronted by the snake and drops it. However, in Genesis, a snake confronted Adam and Eve. It was Eve who would not have even thought about eating the forbidden fruit without the snake tempting her. She then turns around and offers the fruit to Adam. This causes them to know about sin. As a result of their sin it continues throughout all mankind. This causes God to Flood the earth. When the flood came it was all over the world in both of the books.

Babylonian civilization is considered as one of the most important civilizations in the ancient world. The Babylonians took and developed everything after the Sumerians civilization especially in the spiritual realm and in the field of building an integrated civilization. The earlier civilizations had big role in the Babylonians civilization period when Babylonians took all the cuneiform writing, mathematical and astronomical knowledge, in addition to that the method of building cities, dams and etc. they improved all of them. The development of knowledge continued by Babylonian where the Sumerians stop, and the Babylonian built an empire for themselves on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the southern part of Sumer (Iraq). "The first Amuriyahian family has ruled over Babylon in the period (1830- 1530 BC), when Babylon was a mini-states at the time." Then the greatest king of Babylonian Hammurabi appeared in the seventeenth century BC. He established a famous group of laws known by (Hammurabi code).Also he was the king who united this petty States and achieved an important architectural movement in the city of Babylon.