Babylonian mythology was inspired a great deal by the Sumerians. Much like Greek mythology influenced the conquering Romans. The Semitic Babylonians did however add some of their own ideas to their mythology.
Lets examine the great Babylonian Creation myth, Enuma Elish, and then deal with some contradictory myths.
Enuma Elish begins:
"When above the heaven had not yet been named,
And below the earth had not yet been called by name;
When Aspu primeval, thier begetter,
Mummu, and Tiamat, she who gave birth to them all,
Still mingled their waters together,
And no pasture land had been formed and not even a reed marsh was to be seen;
When none of the other gods had been brought into being,
When they had not yet been called by their names and their destinies had not yet been fixed,
At that time were the gods created with them.1"
The universe begins with the watery abyss (the god Apsu) and primeval watery chaos (the goddess Tiamat). Mummu may have been there also and he could have represented the mist that came from the two seas. From the union of Apsu and Tiamat sprang Lahmu and Lahamu. They in turn gave birth to heaven (the god Anshar) and earth (the goddess Kishar). From them sprang the rest of the gods including Ellil (Sumerian Enlil), Ea (Sumerian Enki), Ishtar (Inanna), Anu (An), Tammuz (Dumuzi) and Marduk, the head of the Pantheon. Much of the myth concerns a war between the gods and why Marduk is the head of the pantheon. As a result of the war, the earth is created and the universe is given order. After Marduk had defeated and killed Tiamat:
"Then the lord [Marduk] paused to view her dead body,
That he might divide the monster and do artful works.
He split her like a shellfish into two parts:
half of her set up and ceiled it as a sky,
Pulled down the bar and posted guards.
He bade them to allow not her waters to escape.
He crossed the heavens and surveyed the regions.
He squared Apsu's quarter, the abode of Nudimmud [Ea],
As the lord measured the dimensions of Apsu.
The Great Abode, its likeness, he fixed as Esharra,
The Great Abode, Esharra, which he made as the firmament.
Anu [heaven], Enlil [sky], and Ea [water] he made to occupy their place.2"
[Much of the beginning of tablet V is lost or damaged.]
"He created stations for the great gods;
The stars, their likenesses, the signs of the zodiac, he set up.
He determined the year, defined the divisions;
For each of the twelve months he set up three constellations.
After he had defined the days of the year by means of constellations,
He founded the sation of Nibiru [planet Jupiter] to make known their duties.
That none might go wrong and be remiss,
He established the stations of Ea [sea] and Ellil [sky] together with it.
He opened the gates on both sides,
An made strong locks to the left and to the right.
In the very center thereof he fixed the zenith.
The moon he caused to shine forth;3"
It then goes on to describe the duties of the moon.
"After he had appointed the days to Shamash [sun],
And had established the precincts of night and day,
Taking the spittle of Tiamat Marduk created [line damaged]
He formed the clouds and filled them with water.
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 [line damaged]
Stopping her nostrils he left [line damaged]
He formed at her udder the lofty mountains,
Therein he drilled springs for the wells to carry off the water.
Twisting her tail he bound it to Durmah,
[line damaged] Apsu at his foot,
[line damaged] her crotch, she was fastened to heaven,
Thus he covered the heavens and established the earth.
[line damaged] in the midst of Tiamat he made flow,
[line damaged] his net he completely let out,
So he created heaven and earth [line damaged]
[line damaged] their bounds [line damaged] established.4"
The beginning of the epic begins much like the Sumerian. There is a watery abyss that brings forth heaven and earth. But from there the Babylonians seem to have added their own ideas. Marduk created the earth from Tiamat's corpse. He set up half of her as the ceiling of the sky to keep "her waters" from escaping. Marduk then fashions the other half of her into the earth. Finally, Anu (heaven), Enlil (air), and Ea (sea) are made to occupy their places.
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.5"
Comparison:
I believe that the Enuma Elish-Genesis comparison is overrated. I would include that it is also bad scholarship. Some scholars trace the seven days of creation in Genesis to the seven tablets of the Enuma Elish. This is lacking all evidence and reason. In Genesis, the first six days are occupied with creation and God rests on the seventh. In Enuma Elish, only tablet V and parts of I, IV, and VI are concerned with creation. If the Hebrews stole the idea of "seven" from the Babylonians, wouldn't the events of the tablets match the events of the days?
| Enuma Elish | Genesis |
|---|---|
| 1 Genealogy of the gods and first battle of the gods. | Seperation of light from dark. |
| 2 Marduk chosen as the head of the pantheon. | Seperation of the earth from the heavens (creation of atmosphere). |
| 3 Marduk demands, and receives, obedience from the other gods. | Creation of land. |
| 4 Marduk defeats Tiamat and creates the earth. | Creation of the sun, moon and stars. |
| 5 Continues the creation of the universe, including celestial bodies. | Creation of birds and sea creatures. |
| 6 Man created and the duties of man and god defined. | Creation of creatures of the land and man. |
| 7 The names of Marduk and a hymn to him. | God rested. |
As you can see, only number six matches. The similar actions (creation of land, sun, moon,etc.) happen on different days and tablets. They do not correlate.
Some contradictory Babylonian Creation myths:
An Eridu myth (from the 6th century BC):"All the lands were sea;
The spring which was in the sea was a water pipe;
Marduk constructed a reed frame on the face of the waters;
He created dirt and poured it out by the reed frame.9"
He then created man, animals and vegetation. Differences: this starts out again with everything water, but with a great spring that shot up in the air like through a pipe. Secondly, land is made from reeds and dirt instead of Tiamat's body. Lastly, it mentions the creation of animals and vegetation.
When Anu had created the Heavens:
"When Anu had created the heavens"10;
The myth then describes the creation of numerous gods. This tablet was found at Babylon, was written in Babylonian and uses the Semitic god name "Anu" instead of the Sumerian "An". Yet it attributes Anu with the creation of heaven instead of Marduk. This could be a copy of an earlier Sumerian tale though.
The Worm and the Toothache:
"After Anu had created the heaven,
and heaven had created the earth,
and the earth had created the rivers...11"
Again, this is Babylonian, but says that Anu was the creator instead of Marduk. Of course, there is a strong possibility that this is from an older Sumerian incantation.
We next have the "Babylonian Theogony". This myth tells of only one city with different gods, some unknown:
"[line damaged] in the beginning [line damaged]
[line damaged] and [line damaged]
They [line damaged] their plough.
With the cut of their plough they created Sea.
Secondly, by themselves they gave birth to Amakandu.
Thirdly, they built the two pillars of Dunnu.
Hain bestowed the lordship in Dunnu on himself.
Earth turned her attention to Amakandu, her son,
She said to him, 'Come, I will make love to you!'
Amakandu married Earth, his mother;
He killed Hain, his father and
Laid him to rest in Dunnu, the city he loved.12"
Amakandu next married his sister Sea. His Son, Lahar, then killed his father and married his mother. And so on, with each new god marrying their mother and killing their father. It is possible that Hain is An, Amakandu is Enlil and Earth is Ki. It is also possible that this is just some local tradition preserved.
There is another myth also called the Theogony. It is a variation of the gods list called An=Anum:
"When heaven above was not yet even mentioned,
Firm-set earth below called by no name;
When but primeval Apsu, their begetter,
And the matrix, Tiamat-she who gave birth to them all-
Were mingling their waters into one;
When no bog had formed,
And no island could be found;
When no god whosoever had appeared,
Had been named by name,
Had been determined as to his lot:
Then were gods formed within them.13"
In the beginning was the salt seas (Tiamat) and the underworld seas (Apsu). These mated and created the rest of the gods. Lahmu and Lahamu first, then Anshar and Kishar. They gave birth to Anu who begot Nudimmud (Enki/Ea). This is similar to Enuma Elish's genealogy.
Lastly, we have a couple of Greek-language myths from Babylonia. First we have Berossus, a Babylonian priest of Marduk who wrote about c.275-250 BC. His writings have disappeared but we have other peoples accounts of them. Some exerpts of Alexander Polyhistor's account (last century BC):
"There was a time when all was darkness and water, wherein strange and peculiarly shaped creatures came into being; [goes on to describe fanciful monsters and half-man, half-animal creatures] that over all these creatures ruled a woman named Omorka. This in Chaldean (Babylonian) is Thamte, meaning the sea, but in numerical value is equal to the moon. Bel (Marduk) came and clove the woman in two; and that out of one half of her he formed the earth, but with the other half the sky; and that he destoyed the creatures with her." [He goes on to say that Bel/Marduk is Zeus, that he divided the darkness in two, separated heaven and earth and gave the universe order. The creatures could not stand the light and so perished.]14
This corresponds well with Enuma Elish. The monsters listed are those created by Tiamat to battle Marduk and Omorka/Thamte (Tiamat) was split in two to create the universe. Berossus, being a priest of Marduk in Babylon, was able to use the cuneiform tablets to write this epic in Greek.
The last Greek source is also the latest mention of this tale. It was compiled by the last great Neo-Platonic philosopher Damascius c.500 AD:
"Of the barbarians, the Babylonians seem to pass over in silence the one principle of the universe, and they assume two, Tauthe and Apason, making Apason the husband of Tauthe and calling her the mother of the gods. Of these was born an only-begotten son Moymis, whom I conceive to be the mental word proceeding from the two principles. From them another generation proceeded, Dache and Dachos. And again a third generation proceeded from them, Kissare and Assoros, of whom were born three, Anos, Illinos and Aos. And of Aos and Dauke was born a son called Bel, who, they say, is the fabricator of the world.15"
This is a remarkable translation of the genealogy of the gods in Enuma Elish. Apason is Apsu, Tauthe is Tiamat, Moymis is Mummu, Dache and Dachos are Lahamu and Lahmu, Kissare and Assoros are Kishar and Anshar, Anos is Anu, Illlinos is Ellil, Aos is Ea and Dauke is Damkina. What is interesting for us is that the Babylonians still believed in the idea that it requires two gods mating sexually in order to create even at this late date.
Conclusions:
There are far more differences than similarities between Enuma Elish and Genesis. The differences are not trivial, but are of monumental importance (such as the division of heaven and earth/Tiamat's carcass, the horizon gates/flat earth, the war of the gods, the creation of plants and animals, etc.) while the similarites are either universal (primeval sea) or insignificant (creation of day and night). No, the Hebrews did not borrow from the Babylonians. It stretched the realm of incredulity to even suggest it. One would think that the scholars who suggest it had an agenda they were advancing, no?
Finally, it has been speculated by some that Enuma Elish is actually a mythologizing of history. Babylon from shortly after the death of Hammurapi to well into the Kassite period16 was at war with the Sealand, a kingdom corresponding to the borders of ancient Sumer. Tiamat, the sea, may be Sealand/Sumer. Babylon, the cultural child of Sumer, warred with and killed its parent Sumer. This parallels the patricidal notion in Enuma Elish and could explain why Tiamat was treated reverantly in parts of the myth, and why the "Sumerian" gods (the gods who sided with Tiamat) were spared.
1)The Babylonian Genesis, Alexander Heidel (Chicago, 1951) pg.18. [Enuma Elish Tablet I, lines 1-9]
2)Ancient Near East Texts, translated by E.A. Speiser (Princeton, 1958) pg.35. [Enuma Elish Tablet IV, lines 135-147]
3)Babylonian Genesis, pg.4. [Enuma Elish Tablet V, lines 1-12]
4)Ancient Near East Texts II, translated by A.K. Grayson (Princeton, 1975) pgs 1-2. [Enuma Elish Tablet V, lines 45-49, 53-66]
5)Genesis 1:1-25. All Biblical quotes are taken from Thompson NASB Bible (Indianapolis, 1979).
6)Babylonian Genesis, pg.89.
7)Babylonian Genesis, pg.44. [Enuma Elish Tablet V, lines 7-10]
8)Babylonian Genesis, pg.37. [Enuma Elish Tablet IV, lines 25-26]
9)Babylonian Genesis, pg.62.
10)Babylonian Genesis, pg.65.
11)Babylonian Genesis, pg.72.
12)Ancient Near East Texts II, A.K. Grayson, pg.26-27.
13)The Treasures of Darkness, Thorkild Jacobsen (New Haven, 1976) pgs.189-190.
14)Babylonian Genesis, pgs.77-78.
15)Babylonian Genesis, pgs.75-76.
16)From roughly 1732-1460 BC. See Sealand for more information.
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