Old Testament
The Old Testament is a compilation, and like every compilation it has awide variety of contributors who, in turn, have their individual influenceupon the final work. It is no surprise, then, that there exist certainparallels between the Enuma Elish, the cosmogony of the Babylonians, andthe Book of Genesis, the first part of the Pentateuch section of the Bible. In fact, arguments may be made that other Near Eastern texts, particularlySumerian, have had their influences in Biblical texts. The extent of this'borrowing', as it were, is not limited to the Bible; the Enuma Elish hasits own roots in Sumerian mythology, predating the Enuma Elish by nearly athousand years. A superficial examination of this evidence woulderroneously lead one to believe that the Bible is somewhat a collection ofolder mythology re-written specifically for the Semites. In fact, whatdevelops is that the writers have addressed each myth as a separate issue,and what the writers say is that their God surpasses every other. Eachmyth or text that has a counterpart in the Bible only serves to further animportant idea among the Hebrews: there is but one God, and He isomnipotent, omniscient, and other-worldly; He is
to separate one body of water from the other. When written in Hebrew, only careful scrutinywould distinguish the two. If we examine his world and its culture, we may find thereasons behind certain references in Genesis, and the mythologies theyresemble. Typically, gods are represented assomething akin to humans on a grander scale; the Hebrew god is simply notmeasured or scaled; He is an unknown quantity, set apart from the bounds ofhuman knowledge. The god that created theworld defeated another god, and formed the earth from the corpse; inGenesis, God speaks and his words transform into actions. Notice the similarity in the next two passages:"Half of her he set in place and formed the sky. But while we canacknowledge these similarities, we must also acknowledge that the writersof the Book of Genesis are making a radical departure from the norm: theyhave created a monotheistic religion, and their god is all-powerful, beyondthe scope of human comprehension. In fact, there was once a debate on the translation of a single verb inthe Bible, "bara", meaning "to create". The distinction is important, however, becauseit changes the implications involved in creating. " 12>From Genesis (1:31-2-1):"Evening came and morning followed- the sixth day. All this as a function of oneverb16.
Common topics in this essay:
Apsu Tiamat,
Book Genesis,
BC Re,
Tiamat Apsu,
Enuma Elish,
Yahweh YHVH,
Land Chaldees,
Genesis God,
Summering Babylonians,
Benjamites Babylonian,
enuma elish,
hebrew god,
god 'let,
book genesis,
god 'let light',
god all-powerful,
monotheistic religion,
desolate waste,
'let light',
650 bc,
light' light,
'let light' light,
earth desolate waste,
god 'let dome,
desolate waste darkness,
|
Acceptance Essays
