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The is the Babylonian
Babylonian mythology

Babylonian mythology is a set of stories depicting the activities of Babylonian deity, heroes, and mythological creatures. While these stories are in modern times usually considered a component of Babylonian religion, their purpose was not necessarily religious in nature....
 creation myth (named for its incipit
Incipit

The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is its first few words or opening line. In music it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition....
). It was recovered by Henry Layard in 1849 (in fragmentary form) in the ruined library of Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal , the son of Esarhaddon, was the last great monarch of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. He established the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East, the Library of Ashurbanipal, which survives in part today at Nineveh....
 at Nineveh
Nineveh

Nineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq....
 (Mosul
Mosul

Mosul is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some 400 km northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linkin...
, Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
), and published by George Smith
George Smith (assyriologist)

George Smith , was a pioneering England Assyria who first discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest-known written work of literature....
 in 1876.

The Enuma Elish has about a thousand lines and is recorded in Old Babylonian on seven clay tablets, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of text. The majority of Tablet V has never been recovered, but aside from this lacuna
Lacuna (manuscripts)

A lacuna is a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or a musical work.The state of old manuscripts or inscriptions which have weathered or been damaged sometimes gives rise to lacunae ? passages consisting of a word or words that are missing or illegible....
 the text is almost complete.






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The is the Babylonian
Babylonian mythology

Babylonian mythology is a set of stories depicting the activities of Babylonian deity, heroes, and mythological creatures. While these stories are in modern times usually considered a component of Babylonian religion, their purpose was not necessarily religious in nature....
 creation myth (named for its incipit
Incipit

The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is its first few words or opening line. In music it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition....
). It was recovered by Henry Layard in 1849 (in fragmentary form) in the ruined library of Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal , the son of Esarhaddon, was the last great monarch of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. He established the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East, the Library of Ashurbanipal, which survives in part today at Nineveh....
 at Nineveh
Nineveh

Nineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq....
 (Mosul
Mosul

Mosul is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some 400 km northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linkin...
, Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
), and published by George Smith
George Smith (assyriologist)

George Smith , was a pioneering England Assyria who first discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest-known written work of literature....
 in 1876.

The Enuma Elish has about a thousand lines and is recorded in Old Babylonian on seven clay tablets, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of text. The majority of Tablet V has never been recovered, but aside from this lacuna
Lacuna (manuscripts)

A lacuna is a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or a musical work.The state of old manuscripts or inscriptions which have weathered or been damaged sometimes gives rise to lacunae ? passages consisting of a word or words that are missing or illegible....
 the text is almost complete. A duplicate copy of Tablet V has been found in Sultantepe
Sultantepe

The ancient temple-complex, perhaps of Huzirina, now represented by the tell of Sultantepe, is a Assyrian Empire archeological site at the edge of the Neo-Assyrian empire, now in Sanliurfa Province, Turkey....
, ancient Huzirina, located near the modern town of Sanliurfa
Sanliurfa

Sanliurfa , formerly cited as Edessa, Mesopotamia in in Aramaic, Riha in Kurdish language, and Urhay in Armenian language) is a List of cities in Turkey in south-eastern Turkey, and the capital of Sanliurfa Province....
 in Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
.

This epic is one of the most important sources for understanding the Babylonia
Babylonia

Babylonia was a state in Lower Mesopotamia , Babylon as its franklin. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi created an empire out of the territories of the former kingdoms of Sumer and Akkad....
n worldview, centered on the supremacy of Marduk
Marduk

Marduk was the Babylonian language name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acqu...
 and the creation of mankind for the service of the gods. Its primary original purpose, however, is not an exposition of theology
Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
 or theogony, but the elevation of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
, above other Mesopotamian gods.

The Enûma Elish exists in various copies from Babylonia and Assyria. The version from Ashurbanipal's library dates to the 7th century BC. The story itself probably dates to the 18th century BC, the time when the god Marduk seems to have achieved a prominent status, although some scholars give it a later date (14th to 12th centuries BC.)

Summary

The title, meaning "when on high" is the incipit
Incipit

The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is its first few words or opening line. In music it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition....
. The first tablet begins:
When on high heaven was not named,
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


The epic names two primeval gods: Apsu, the fresh water, and Tiamat
Tiamat

In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is a goddess who personifies the sea. Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos. Although there are no early precedents for it, some sources identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon, In the En?ma Elish, the Babylonian Epic poetry of Creation myth, she gives birth to the fi...
, the salt water. Several other gods are created (Ea and his brothers) who reside in Tiamat's vast body. They make so much noise that it annoys Tiamat and Apsu greatly. Apsu wishes to kill the young gods, but Tiamat disagrees. The vizier, Mummu, agrees with Apsu's plan to destroy them. Tiamat, in order to stop this from occurring, warns Ea (Nudimmud), the most powerful of the gods. Ea, uses magic to put Apsu into a coma, then kills him, and shuts Mummu out. Ea then becomes the chief god, and along with his consort Damkina, has a son, Marduk
Marduk

Marduk was the Babylonian language name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acqu...
, greater still than himself. Marduk is given wind to play with and he uses it to make dust storms and tornadoes. This disrupts Tiamat's great body and causes the gods still residing inside her to be unable to sleep.

They persuade Tiamat to take revenge for the death of her husband. Her power grows, and some of the gods join her. She creates 11 monsters to help her win the battle and elevates Kingu
Kingu

Kingu, also spelled Qingu, meaning "unskilled laborer," was a god in Babylonian mythology, and ? after the murder of his father Apsu ? the consort of the goddess Tiamat, his mother, who wanted to establish him as ruler and leader of all gods before she was slain by Marduk....
, her new husband, to "supreme dominion." A lengthy description of the other gods' inability to deal with the threat follows. Ultimately, Marduk is selected as their champion against Tiamat, and becomes very powerful. He defeats and kills Tiamat, and forms the world from her corpse. The subsequent hundred lines or so constitute the lost section of Tablet V.

The gods who sided with Tiamat are initially forced to labor in the service of the other gods. They are freed from their servitude when Marduk decides to slay Kingu and create mankind from his blood. Babylon is established as the residence of the chief gods. Finally, the gods confer kingship on Marduk, hailing him with fifty names. Most noteworthy is Marduk's symbolic elevation over Enlil
Enlil

Enlil , was the name of a chief deity listed and written about in ancient Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Canaanite and other Mesopotamian clay and stone tablets....
, who was seen by earlier Mesopotamian civilizations as the king of the gods.

Relationship with the Hebrew Bible

The dependence of at least part of the creation accounts found in the Hebrew bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
 on a common ancient Near Eastern "creation-by-combat" myth are "not gainsayable."

The ancient Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat circular disc surrounded by a saltwater sea. The habitable earth was a single giant continent inside this sea, and floated on a second sea, the freshwater apsu, which supplied the water in springs, wells and rivers and was connected with the saltwater sea. The sky was a solid disk above the earth, curved to touch the earth at its rim, with the heavens of the gods above. So far as can be deduced from clues in the bible, the ancient Hebrew geography was identical with that of the Babylonians: a flat circular earth floating above a freshwater sea, surrounded by a saltwater sea, with a solid sky-dome (raqia, the "firmament") above. It is the creation of this world which Enuma Elish and Genesis 1 describe.

Comparisons between the Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts are often obscured by English translations, which impose on the Hebrew the Christian doctrines of creation ex nihilo
Ex nihilo

The Latin phrase ex nihilo means "out of nothing". It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning "creation out of nothing"....
 (out of nothing) and the Holy Trinity. Thus the opening of Genesis 1 is traditionally rendered: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...", whereas the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1-3 can equally validly be taken as describing the state of chaos immediately prior to God's creation:
In the beginning of God's creating the skies and the earth, when the earth had been shapeless and formless, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and God's spirit was hovering on the face of the water, God said, 'Let there be light!'


In both Enuma Elish and Genesis, creation is an act of divine speech
Divine language

For the fictional language used in the 1997 film The Fifth Element, see Divine Language .Divine language, the language of the deity, or, in monotheism, the language of God is the concept of a mystical or divine proto-language, which predates and supersedes human phonetic speech....
—the Enuma Elish describes pre-creation as a time "when above, the heavens had not been named, and below the earth had not been called by name", while in Genesis each act of divine creation is introduced with the formula: "And God said, let there be...". The sequence of creation is similar: light, firmament, dry land, luminaries, and man. In both Enuma Elish and Genesis the primordial world is formless and empty (the tohu wa bohu of Genesis 1:2), the only existing thing the watery abyss which exists prior to creation (Tiamat in the Enuma Elish, tehom, the "deep", a linguistic cognate of tiamat, in Genesis 1:2). In both, the firmament, conceived as a solid inverted bowl, is created in the midst of the primeval waters to separate the heavens from the earth (Genesis 1:6–7, Enuma Elish 4:137–40). Day and night precede the creation of the luminous bodies (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, and 14ff.; Enuma Elish 1:38), whose function is to yield light and regulate time (Gen. 1:14; Enuma Elish 5:12–13). In Enuma Elish, the gods consult before creating man (Enuma Elish 6:4), while Genesis has: "Let us make man in our own image..." (Genesis 1:26) – and in both, the creation of man is followed by divine rest. "Thus, it appears that the so-called Priestly Source
Priestly source

The Priestly Source is posited as the most recent of the four chief sources of the Torah, as postulated by the long-established "standard" Wellhausen formulation of the Documentary Hypothesis ....
 account echoes this earlier Mesopotamian story of creation."

Editions and translations

  • Seven Tablets of Creation, Luzac's Semitic Text and Translation Series, No 12 & 13, ISBN 978-0404113445 (1973).
  • L. W. King, Enuma Elish: The Seven Tablets of Creation, London (1902); 1999 reprint ISBN 978-1585090433; 2002 reprint ISBN 1402159056.
  • Anton Deimel, Enuma eliš (1936).
  • W. C. Lambert, S. B. Parker, Enuma Eliš. The Babylonian Epic of Creation, Oxford (1966).


Further reading


General


  • Armstrong, James A. “West of Edin: Tell al-Deylam and the Babylonian City of Dilbat,” Biblical Archaeologist, Volume 55, 1992 (2001 electronic ed.)
  • Victor Harold Matthews, Don C. Benjamin, Old Testament Parallels: Laws and Stories from the Ancient Near East (1997), ISBN 0809137313.
  • Hamblin, D.J., “Has the Garden of Eden Been Located At Last?”, Smithsonian Magazine, 18:2, May 1987.
  • Theodor H. Gaster, Psalm 29, The Jewish Quarterly Review (1946).


Enuma Elish


  • F. N. H. Al-Rawi, J. A. Black, A New Manuscript of Enuma Eliš, Tablet VI, Journal of Cuneiform Studies (1994).
  • H. L. J. Vanstiphout, Enuma eliš: Tablet V Lines 15-22, Journal of Cuneiform Studies (1981).
  • B. Landsberger, J. V. Kinnier Wilson, The Fifth Tablet of Enuma Eliš, Journal of Near Eastern Studies (1961).


Online resources

  • .
  • On-line version of a classic etext, important chapter on EE-OT links and parallels.
  • Creationist approach but with a good overview of scholarly literature.
  • Connects the biblical "firmament"to the cosmological concept in the EE.
  • EE and Biblical cosmological geography.
  • SDA-based comparison of EE and Gen.1.


See also

  • Theogony
    Theogony

    The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogy of the polytheism of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC....
  • Religions of the Ancient Near East
    Religions of the Ancient Near East

    The Religions of the Ancient Near East were mostly polytheistic, with some early examples of emerging Henotheism . Especially the Luwian pantheon exerted a strong influence on the Ancient Greek religion, while Assyro-Babylonian religion influenced Achaemenid-era Zoroastrianism....
  • Mesopotamian pantheon
  • Creation myth
  • Theogonia (album)
    Theogonia (album)

    Theogonia is the ninth full length album by Greek melodic black metal band Rotting Christ. It is their first release through Season of Mist, and the first to feature guitarist Giorgos Bokos in the line-up....


External links