Post Edited (scott_jorgenson) : 2/1/2005 3:23:30 PM (GMT-6)

• Enuma Elish and Genesis 1 both begin with a primordial watery abyss.  EE Tablet 1 lines 1-5:  "When on high the heaven had not been named, and firm ground below had not been called by name; when primordial Apsu, their begetter, and Mummu-Tiamat, she who bore them all, their waters mingled as a single body..."
• Enuma Elish's first explicit, physical creation event is when the god Marduk defeats the goddess who represents that watery abyss, Tiamat, and splits her body in two.  Marduk raises one half of Tiamat up, to become the firmament of the sky, which holds back her waters above.  The similarity with the events and physical structures of the second day of Genesis 1 is obvious; as well as with the standard biblical view (eg in Genesis 6-8) that the sky is something like a solid barrier for a sea of water above it.  EE Tablet IV lines 135-140: "Then the lord paused to view her dead body, that he might divide the form and do artful works.  He split her like a shellfish into two parts: Half of her he set up as a covering for heaven, pulled down the bar and posted guards.  He bade them to allow not her waters to escape." 
• The next explicit creation of a physical structure in Enuma Elish is when Marduk creates the stars, moon and sun, in the vault of the firmament that he had just established.  These entities are assigned the roles of signifying day, night, seasons and times.  Again, the similarity with the events and physical structures of the fourth day of Genesis 1 is plain.  For example, EE Tablet V lines 1-6, 11-12: "He constructed stations for the great gods, fixing their astral likenesses as the stars of the Zodiac.  He determined the year and into sections he divided it; he set up three constellations for each of the twelve months.  After defining the days of the year by means of heavenly figures, he founded the station of the pole star...In her belly he established the zenith.  The Moon he caused to shine, entrusting the night to him."
  And it goes on to next relate the creation of the sun.
• Enuma Elish's third explicit, physical creation event is when Marduk fashions clouds and rain from Tiamat's spittle - this has no biblical parallel.  But after that, he takes the other half of Tiamat and fashions the dry land out of it.  Just like her first half holds back the waters above, her second half is surrounded and undergirded by waters below, which feed the Tigris and Euphrates and all the springs of earth.  The similarity with the earth separated from the sea on day 3 of Genesis 1, as well as with the biblical view of the earth being founded atop the seas, is clear.  EE Tablet V lines 53-56: "Putting her head into position he formed thereon the mountains.  Opening the deep which was in flood, he caused to flow from her eyes the Euphrates and Tigris; stopping her nostrils, he left."
• The final explicit physical creation event in Enuma Elish is when Marduk creates mankind to populate the earth.  As in Genesis 1, man is the final creation.  EE Tablet IV lines 5-7 (Marduk speaking): "I will take blood and fashion bone.  I will establish a savage, ‘man’ shall be his name.  Truly, savage-man I will create."  And it goes on to relate the actual creation of man from the blood of a god.

In addition there are some other similarites: The Hebrew word for the watery abyss, tehom, has a linguistic relationship with the name Tiamat, who in the Babylonian pantheon represents that same abyss.  Some Hebrew scholars have argued that the Hebrew construction of Genesis 1:1 suggests a "when..." phrasing (as in "When God began creating the heavens and earth...") instead of the popular "In the beginning..." - which is similar to how Enuma Elish opens.  At the end of both Enuma Elish and Genesis 1-2:4, the creator rests (in Enuma Elish a heavenly celebratory banquet is held).  And there is the fact that Enuma Elish itself was found divided onto 7 stone tablets, one apparently referencing each day of the week - thus suggesting the belief that this creation stretched over 7 days (though nowhere is such a scheme actually mentioned in the story). 

Now, there are differences too in the physical creation events and their sequence.  Dry land (day 3 in Genesis 1) is not explicitly created by Marduk until after the creation of the heavenly bodies (day 4 in Genesis 1).  Marduk explicitly creates clouds and rain, something not reflected in Genesis 1.  And Genesis 1 recounts the creation of light, plants and animals, something Enuma Elish overlooks.  But still I think the similarities in physical structures, what is primordial versus what is created, the physical creation events themselves, and how they are sequenced, is striking - especially considering that no other creation accounts outside of the ANE context bear a similarity as close.

What it suggests is that ANE "science" considered the physical universe to be composed of such structures and to have been created progressively over time (perhaps a cycle of days) beginning from a primordial singularity (the deep).  And Genesis 1 has been accommodated to this popular understanding, in much the same way Jesus' reference to the mustard seed (as being the smallest of all seeds) is accommodated.  For despite their theological differences with the rest of the ANE, the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews seem to have respected the ANE's "secular" knowledge, which is nowhere disparaged in scripture and, when it is referred to at all, is referred to as "wisdom" (as in Daniel 1 and Stephen's characterization of Moses' training in Acts 7).

But beyond these physical similarities, Genesis 1 and Enuma Elish couldn't be more different.  EE is highly polytheistic and "dream-time" mythological.  Indeed the actual creation of the physical universe doesn't get going until the end of Tablet IV; until then EE is entirely occupied by the creation of the pantheon of gods, their bickering and warring.  In EE, the creation is the byproduct of divine war and the created structures are themselves representations of gods and in some cases even made out of a dead goddess.  Marduk assembles the created structures by physical and anthropomorphic manipulation, and creates humanity (from the blood of another dead god) for the express purpose of slavery to the gods so that the gods may take it easy.  And moral terms are absent from the account.

The contrast of this theology taught in EE, with the theology taught in Genesis, is so clear that Genesis 1 seems to be a polemic against that polytheistic, animistic, and amoral ANE theology, expressed in the "science" of the day in the same way that all scripture is.  In Genesis 1 there is one God and no other who creates all other things subservient to him.  The sun and moon (very common astral deities in the ANE context) are not even considered worth mentioning by name.  This God of Genesis 1 creates by divine fiat and is in serene control at all times; creation is made out of peace and goodness and is itself good.  And man is given the divine image, male and female alike; and is appointed to be stewards of the creation rather than menial slaves.  Point by point, these theological claims which seem so familiar to us as to be taken for granted stand juxtaposed, almost intentionally and polemically so, with the claims of EE.  This is what I meant by saying that Genesis 1 fits with the ANE theological context, although here the fit is one of contra-distinction.

Incidentally, this theology packaged in the vessel of Genesis 1 is, so far as I know, the first such to have ever occured anywhere, in any culture.  It is so radically different that surely it represents God's light and truth beginning to break forth in the world.  That is the revelation in my opinion; not the "science" obtained by reading it as historical chronicle.

Hope this helps,

Scott