An actual text of the Sumerian myth of the creation of the universe has not been found, but we can gather the information from other texts. Luckily the Sumerians liked to preface their epics with cosmological introductions. First from a list of the Sumerian gods we have the goddess Nammu. Her name is written with the ideogram for "sea". She is called "the mother, who gave birth to heaven and earth". So in the beginning was the primeval sea which begot, or was with, heaven and earth. Next we have a two line text in the "Cattle and Grain":
"After the mountain of heaven and earth,
An caused the Anunnaki to be born,"
So we know that heaven and earth was a united mountain, the "cosmic mountain". Then from "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Nether World" we get:
"After heaven had been moved away from the earth,
After earth had been separated from heaven,
After the name of man had been fixed;
After An had carried off heaven,
After Enlil had carried off earth,"
Heaven and earth were separated, but the above text does not say how. Luckily we find out in the preface to the "Creation of the pickax":
"The lord, that which is appropriate verily he caused to appear,
The lord whose decisions are unalterable,
Enlil, who brings up the seed of the land from the earth,
Took care to move away heaven from earth,
Took care to move away earth from heaven."1
So from this, we can piece together the Sumerian myth of Creation: First was the primeval Sea (Nammu). The primeval sea begot the "cosmic mountain". This mountain consisted of heaven and earth united. Gods were perceived anthropomorphically, so the cosmic mountain consisted of the god An (heaven) and the goddess Ki (earth). Their union begot the god Enlil. Enlil, the air-god separated heaven from earth. An carried off heaven, while Enlil carried off his mother, the earth. Ki was now to be called Ninmah, Nintu, Ninhursag,2 etc. In other words, "mother goddess". Their mating resulted in the birth of the gods, the organization of the universe and the creation of man. The Sumerian account is, when compared to Babylonian and some other accounts, rather simple and straight forward: In the beginning there was a primeval sea (Nammu) with a united "cosmic" mountain. The mountain comprised heaven (An) and earth (Ki). The union of heaven and earth then caused the air (Enlil) to come into being, which in turn separated heaven and earth. It is somewhat similar to the Bible. However, there are differences, as we shall see below.
Biblical account:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the waters.
[First day]: Then God said 'Let there be light' and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness He called night.
[Second day]: Then God said 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters' And God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven.
[Third day]: Then God said 'Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Then God said 'Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth'; and it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after thier kind; and God saw that it was good.
[Fourth day]: Then God said 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.'; and it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to seperate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
[Fifth day]: Then God said 'Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.' And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying 'Be friutful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'
[Sixth day]: Then God said 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind'; and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; And God saw that it was good.3"
Comparisons:
The myth calls Nammu "she who gave birth to heaven and earth", but there is no reason to assume that she alone created them. No where else in Sumerian mythology does a god have the power to create something by themselves, let alone a "minor" goddess like Nammu. There may have been another god present and we have lost this portion or, more probable, the cosmic mountain was already there, the "gave birth" meaning the mountain rose up out of the sea.
It seems that the Sumerian myth is somewhat similar to the Bible. Both have a primeval sea and air seperating heaven and earth. However, almost every Near Eastern cosmogony begins with these two elements. The Sumerian appears much less childish when compared to Babylonian or Canaanite tales, but still pales in comparison to the Biblical account. I can understand if some think that the Hebrews borrowed from it, although I do not believe that they did. It is more likely that if the Hebrews borrowed form anyone it would have been the Babylonians or Egyptians or Canaanites. There are too many differences between the Sumerian account and the Bible. We have the omnipotence of God compared to the sexual nature of the Sumerian gods' creation process, to the Sumerians all objects (the sea, heaven, earth, the moon, the sun, the stars) were living gods; the Bible states, correctly, that they are the just inanimate objects and the Sumerians do not mention the seperation of light and dark.
I do not believe that the Hebrews borrowed from the Sumerians. Perhaps the similarities confirm possibilities 3 or 4?
1)Sumerian Mythology, Samuel N. Kramer (Philadelphia, 1972) pp.37-41.
2)In the ancient Near East all gods had numerous names that were often used in the same myth and even sometimes in the same sentence.
3)Genesis 1:1-25. All Biblical quotes are taken from Thompson NASB Bible (Indianapolis, 1979).
4)Sumerian Mythology, p.41
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