Babylonian Creation Myth the Babylonian Account Predates The

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Babylonian Creation Myth The Babylonian account predates the Hebrew creation story. Also, the beginnings of the Jewish people emerged within the Babylonian context. When comparing the two, what insight do we gain into the biblical creation story? E.g., the biblical account is completely non-violent. What further insights do we gain by comparing the two? And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsû, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamat, the mother of them both, Their waters were mingled together, And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; When of the gods none had been called into being… Abzu – god of fresh water Tiamat* – god of ocean water They create Ea and his brothers (they are noisy gods, storms?) Abzu wants to kill them, Tiamat disagrees. Abzu and Mummu (a ruling god) conspire to kill Ea. Tiamat warns Ea. Ea puts Abzu in a trance and kills him and then expels Mummu Ea becomes the chief of the gods and marries Damkina and they have a child, Marduk Marduk controls the wind (dust storms, tornadoes) which irritates Tiamat and the gods who live in her body, the ocean. Those gods talk Tiamat into avenging Abzu’s death, Her power grows and an alliance of gods join her. She marries a god, Kingu, and makes him the supreme god. Marduk makes an offer to protect the gods who oppose Tiamat and Kingu if they pledge loyalty to him. Marduk challenges Tiamat to a battle and kills her. He then rips Tiamat’s body in half, one half becomes earth, other half becomes sky. Marduk organizes sun, moon, planets and stars and creates calendar. Marduk then kills Kingu, and from his blood creates humankind who are forced to serve the gods. *The Biblical account reads, “the Spirit of God brooded over the “deep”. The Hebrew word for deep is “tahom” which means the primordial ocean (the source of chaos), which is also a cognate of “tiamat.” Question: How does that inform our understanding of the biblical account? .

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