The first creation account as a polemic against its mythological counterparts

Summary: The first creation account in the Bible can be viewed as a polemic against Mesopotamian creation myths, using some of their structure but ultimately opposing their ideas. While Mesopotamian myths, such as Enuma Elish, describe the gods as violent and in constant conflict, the Bible presents God as bringing order peacefully through separation and differentiation. The creation of man in Enuma Elish depicts humans as laborers for the gods, made from the blood of a slain deity, while the Bible portrays humans as being made in God's image, with dignity and purpose. The biblical account emphasizes the peaceful, harmonious creation of the world for humanity, contrasting with the violent, hierarchical order depicted in Mesopotamian myths. The Bible’s creation narrative serves as a protest against pagan ideologies, particularly their endorsement of power and violence.

My riveting book that explains our current world

"The Struggle for Utopia - A History of Jewish, Christian and Islamic Messianism" by Arnold Slyper. Wonderful reviews. Available on Amazon, at US bookstores, and at Pomeranz Bookseller in Jerusalem (with courier service available). " Brilliant and thought-provoking."

There are textual similarities between the ideas of the first creation story and those of Mesopotamian creation myths.

How can a believer in the authenticity of the Torah deal with this?

One approach, and probably the most common among bible readers, is to ignore it.

Another approach, and the one I favor, is that proposed by Nahum Sarna who argues that the creation stories, and also the story of Noah, were written as polemics against prevalent Mesopotamian ideas.1

The Torah introduced new ideas into the ancient world that were fundamentally opposed to many of the ideas expressed by pagan mythology. The way the Torah did this was to use the familiar literary forms and imagery of mythological narratives, while radically transforming their theological meaning by means of monotheistic ideas. In effect, the Torah’s two creation accounts can be regarded as anti-mythological narratives. The Torah also retained how an ancient audience would have comprehended the natural world they lived in, rather than presenting the modern description of nature that we understand today.

The function of Mesopotamian creation myths was to describe how the different gods came into being, how they received their roles, how they constructed the universe, and the nature of their relationship with mankind.

Looking at the natural world around them, the Mesopotamian people saw powerful forces determining their lives. Each day the sun moved across the sky. In spring, seeds germinated to produce crops. What controlled these forces of nature? It was logical to assume that each aspect of nature was controlled by a divine force that was associated with it.

It was also evident to the authors of these creation myths that the forces of nature were often in conflict with each other. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers were prone to flooding that left destruction in their wake. Fierce storms led to damage to towns and villages along these rivers. Droughts could lead to famine. They also saw tension, conflict, and violence in their villages and cities. It was logical to conclude, therefore, that conflict was part of the fabric of the universe. Hence, conspiracies and violence must characterize the origins of the pantheons, and conflict between the gods was the mechanism through which cosmic order was established.

The consequences of this way of thinking would be far-reaching. Creation myths were not only the blueprint for the design of the universe, but also functioned as models for societal behavior and governance.

In effect, what these writers had done was to take cues from their perception of the world around them and legitimize existing concepts of power and hierarchy as reflections of divine order. It is not surprising, therefore, that the history of the ancient world is replete with conflicts between great empires, and powerful empires overtaking others.

The Torah can be regarded not only as a protest against paganism, but as a protest against the notion that power and violence are fundamental aspects of the universe.

This is not to say that Mesopotamians had no respect for goodness and justice. Accounts of Mesopotamian monarchs make mention of the works they did to improve the lives of their subjects. The Mesopotamian king Hammurabi recorded a system of justice for his empire. Nevertheless, until the advent of the Torah, there was no philosophical underpinning for goodness and justice in the world, other than for the exigencies of an ordered society.

The Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish

A number of creation myths were written in Mesopotamia, but one creation myth in particular was widely known. Enuma Elish, the Babylonian Epic of Creation, has been dated primarily to the late second millennium BCE, although the composition reflects older traditions, and may have originated considerably earlier. It therefore predates the biblical creation account by several centuries. The name Enuma Elish means “When on High” and comes from the first words of the myth. The clay tablets on which it was written were discovered in the nineteenth century in the ruins of the ancient Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, the ancient capital of Assyria, now in modern-day Iraq. This is one of the oldest known libraries, and it contained thousands of clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform script.

Enuma Elish describes the ascendancy of the Babylonian god Marduk to become chief god of Babylon, and it was publicly narrated on the Babylonian New Year festival, the Akitu festival. There were political reasons for emphasizing Marduk’s supremacy. The king of the city ruled by divine appointment. He, in turn, built temples for the gods and appointed a priestly class responsible for maintaining the cult. The elevation of Marduk as supreme god corresponded to the political rise of Babylon, and this epic helped reinforce the ideology of Babylonian kingship and Marduk’s supremacy.

It is difficult to say categorically that the first chapter of Genesis had this myth in mind when it was written, but there are sufficient similarities and counterpoints to Enuma Elish to suggest that it was engaging, directly or indirectly, with the broader mythological worldview represented by this and similar Mesopotamian traditions.

A summary of the major differences between the Torah’s creation story and Enuma Elish is shown in table 1. The details will be elaborated upon in the subsequent discussion. Very apparent is how radical are the ideas of the biblical creation account compared with the prevailing mythology of the ancient Near East.

The creation of the world according to Enuma Elish

An examination of selected passages from the Enuma Elish creation epic reveals the similarities as well as profound differences between the biblical account and the Mesopotamian myth.1

In Emuna Elish, the primordial waters exist before the formation of heaven and earth, whereas in Genesis I the heavens and earth are created by Elohim. A major aspect of both creation accounts is the movement from an undifferentiated watery state toward an ordered cosmos.

The primordial aspects of creation in the Enuma Elish myth are the goddess Tiamat and her husband god Apsu. Tiamat is the goddess of the deep-sea waters and represents the forces of chaos, while her husband Apsu is associated with the subterranean sweet waters from which fresh water springs arise.

The Emuna Elish myth opens as follows:

When skies above were not yet named [by the gods]

Nor earth below pronounced by name,

Apsu, the first one, their begetter

And maker Tiamat, who bore them all

Had mixed their waters together………

Then gods were born within them

Lahmu and Lahamu emerged, their names pronounced.3

To “name” an object, material, or person at that time meant to identify and establish its nature, and, in some contexts, to exercise authority over it. This is probably also its meaning in Genesis I when Elohim “calls to” and thereby defines the domains of day, night, heavens, sea, and earth, and claims dominion over them (Genesis 1:1-10).

In Enuma Elish, subsequent generations of gods arise by sexual union. Hence, in the above passage Tiamat and Apsu “mix their waters together” and the gods Lahmu and Lahamu emerge. These siblings will stand at the end of the earth to hold up the heavens. They are also the parents of Anshar, the sky father god, Kishar, the earth mother god, and Ea.

A violent divine drama now ensues, and it is only when Marduk, the son of Ea, defeats Tiamat that he is able to establish order within the universe.

This transpires as follows. The tablets tell us that Apsu is disturbed by the noise made by the younger gods and he decides to eliminate them. It may well be, parenthetically, that Mesopotamian cities were noisy places, and without movie theaters, bowling alleys and youth centers the young people had no place to go, such that they disturbed the tranquility of the city. At this point in the myth, Tiamat informs the younger gods about her husband’s plot against them, and the younger gods kill her husband Apsu.

Marduk now flaunts his ability to control whirlwinds and flood-waves. This is annoying to some of the other gods and they persuade Tiamat to take revenge for her husband’s death and kill the younger gods. Tiamat forms a coalition, elevates her new husband Kingu to a position of power, and creates monsters to help in the forthcoming struggle against the younger gods.

The younger gods approach Marduk to save them, and he agrees to do so on the condition that they appoint him their permanent leader. Marduk challenges Tiamat to combat. Marduk, representing the forces that will establish cosmic order, confronts Tiamat, representing the primordial forces of disorder, in a momentous battle. Marduk prevails in a scene of gruesome violence:

He shot an arrow which pierced her belly,

Split her down the middle and slit her heart,

Vanquished her and extinguished her life.3

The next tablet describes how Marduk creates the earth and heavens by slicing Tiamat in two:4

The lord rested, and inspected her corpse.

He divided the monstrous shape and created marvels (from it). . . .

He sliced her in half like a fish for drying:

Half of her he put to roof the sky,

Drew a bolt across and made a guard hold.

Her waters he arranged so that they could not escape.5

This was the violent mythological origins of the universe that the Torah confronted. The first chapter of Genesis was its opening challenge.

Elohim’s creation of a harmonious world

The purpose of creation in the Enuma Elish is closely connected to the needs of the gods and the establishment of Marduk’s supremacy. The purpose of Elohim’s creation is a harmonious world for the activities of man. This is achieved by the formation of order from chaos. Facets of this primordial disorder are described in the Torah by the Hebrew words tohu and vohu and the presence of darkness:

And the earth was without form (tohu), and void (vohu); and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2).

The exact meaning of the words “tohu” and “vohu” is not entirely clear. They occur together in Genesis 1:2 and in Jeremiah 4;23, while tohu occurs elsewhere in the Bible with meanings including desolation, emptiness, worthlessness, or formlessness. They are usually thought of as expressing the desolation and disorganization of the primordial earth.2 In the ancient world, darkness could be considered a meaningful feature of the primordial world rather than simply the absence of light, and it probably has this significance in this sentence. As an eagle hovering over its offspring, Elohim is now “hovering” over the primeval waters to orchestrate the formation of order.

As discussed in the previous chapter, in Genesis I Elohim oversees the development of domains on the different days of creation and subsequently forms moving entities within these domains. God’s creative activity expresses the harmony, purposefulness and perfection that He has ordained.

Thus, on day 2, Elohim forms a firmament or space that separates between the “deep waters” below and water above the firmament. It would seem that people in those days were unaware of the rain cycle and considered the waters above as a permanent feature of the earth. This firmament is called heavens (shomayim) and would correspond to what we would regard today as a combination of the earth’s atmosphere and outer space. On its corresponding day 5, Elohim fills these two domains by creating fish to swarm in the seas and fowl to fly within that part of the firmament closest to earth. Great monsters are also placed within the watery domain.

On day 3, dry land arises from within the “deep seas” (tehom), while the waters around the dry land gather together as seas. Vegetation sprouts from the earth. On its corresponding day 6, the earth domain becomes inhabited by animals, man and woman.

The perfection of God’s creative activity in producing a well-ordered world for mankind is emphasized by a literary form seen at the end of most days of creation, namely “and God saw that it was good (tov).” In other words, each of God’s creative acts fulfilled the purpose for which it was intended. Unlike the contentious universe described in Enuma Elis, Elohim’s universe is presented as ordered and harmonious from its very beginnings.

It is apparent from the above table is that there are two omissions in the Torah’s expressions of perfection. Day 2 is not declared “good,” since the fate of the watery domain remains incomplete until dry land appears and oceans are formed. However, day 3 is declared “good’ twice, once for the completion of the work of the second day and again for that of the third day.15 Alternatively, the two declarations may be understood as referring to the dry land and seas, as well as to the formation of vegetation.

In anticipation of the Garden of Eden story, man’s creation is not described as “good,” since man is capable of both good and evil. However, by the end of the sixth day, by which time all of His creative activity has been completed, Elohim “saw all that he had made, and behold it was extremely good (tov me’od)” (Genesis 1:31).

It is important to note that the Torah’s creation narrative is modeled to some degree on the ancient Near Eastern understanding of the cosmos described in the Babylonian creation myths. Hence, once Marduk has assumed supremacy, his first act after completing the heavens and earth is to create the constellations, the sun, and the moon:

As for the stars, he set up constellations corresponding to them.

He designed the years and marked out its divisions,

Apportioned three stars each to the twelve months.

He founded the stand of Neberu (the planet Jupiter) to mark out their courses

So that none of them could go wrong or stray.

. . . . . .

He made the crescent moon appear, entrusted night [to it]

And designated it the jewel of the night to mark out the days.

“Go forth every month without fail in a corona,

At the beginning of the month, to glow over the land.6

There is no description of the creation of the sun as this particular tablet has been damaged. However, the presumption is that its creation by Marduk would have been similar to that of the other constellations. All this could explain why the biblical account places the creation of the luminaries as a late creation on day 4 and after the appearance of vegetation on the third day, even though this sequence is at odds with modern scientific chronology.

A comparison of the creation of man in Enuma Elish and Genesis I

The description of man’s creation in Enuma Elish is in marked contrast with its description in the Torah. Following their creation of the world, the gods who pledged their allegiance to Tiamat (i.e., the losing side) are forced into laboring for those who sided with Marduk. The presumption is that this would have been primarily agricultural work. The Euphrates seasonally overflows its banks and deposits silt. This provides fertile soil for crop cultivation but requires the laborious construction of ditches and irrigation channels to bring water to the fields.

Marduk has an idea. To free the gods from this labor, he will create human beings to do this work. Marduk now kills Tiamat's husband, Kingu, and from his blood creates a human being:

When Marduk heard the speech of the gods,

He made up his mind to perform miracles.

He spoke his utterance to Ea,

And communicated to him the plan that he was considering.

“Let me put blood together, and make bones too.

Let me set up primeval man: Man shall be his name.

Let me create a primeval man.

The work of the gods shall be imposed (on him),

And so they shall be at leisure….

Let one who is hostile to them be surrendered [up]

Let him be destroyed, and let people be created [from him] …

It was Kingu who started the war,

He who incited Tiamat and gathered an army!”

They bound him and held him in front of Ea,

Imposed the penalty on him and cut off his blood.

He created mankind from his blood.

Imposed the toil of the gods [on man] and released the gods from it.7

There is nothing particularly dignified in Enuma Elish about the creation of man. He is almost an afterthought in the creation story. Rather, the focus of Enuma Elish is on the supremacy of Marduck and the establishment of the divine order under his kingship. There is, perhaps, a spark of divinity in man’s creation, but it comes from the blood of a divine being who is associated with the forces of chaos.

In gratitude for being created, Marduk requires of man that he recognize his supremacy and provide him appropriate reverence:

Let him [Marduk] act as a shepherd over the black-headed people, his creation.

Let his ways be proclaimed in future days, never forgotten. . . .

Let him designate the black-headed people to revere him,

That mankind may be mindful of him, and name him as their god.8

By contrast, in the Torah, man occupies a central position within the creation narrative. Man is not a non-entity to be exploited by the gods but is created “in the image of Elohim and in His likeness,” being akin to God Himself:

And Elohim said: “Let us make Man in Our image, after Our likeness. They shall rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and over the animals, the whole earth, and every moving thing that treads upon the earth”. So, Elohim created man in His image, in the image of Elohim He created him, male and female He created them. Elohim blessed them and Elohim said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every living thing that treads upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

The topic of man being in the image and likeness of Elohim was discussed in the previous chapter, but some additional points are mentioned here.

The Torah distinguishes between the creation of man and all other aspects of creation by a number of literary forms that emphasize man’s dignity and responsibility:

Elohim brings the Biblical reader into His thought processes. Speaking previously in the singular, He now speaks in the plural – “Let us make man!” (Genesis 1:26).

The entirety of chapter I is in a poetic format, but the Bible becomes particularly elevated and expansive in its language when describing the creation of man.

Man is made in the “image and likeness of God.”

Man is given dominion over the earth and everything that Elohim created.

Elohim blesses man and urges him to be fruitful.

The medieval biblical commentator Rashi explains that although God has no physical form, man is, nevertheless, a physical representation of the divine attributes entrusted to him.9 These physical and intellectual characteristics will enable him to assert his role as caretaker of the world.

R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch writing in the 19th century explains:

Bezalmenu – in our sheath, i.e., if all the compassion and love, the truth and equity and holiness of the Divine Rule wished to appear cased in an exterior visible form, it would appear in the figure in which the Creator gave man.”10

On the other hand, the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides had put much effort into moving the Jewish people away from a physical conception of God and it was inconceivable to him that man should be thought of as a physical image of any aspect of God. Rather, he viewed humanity being in “the image of God” as referring to its intellect. He writes:

On this account, i.e., on account of the Divine intellect with which man has been endowed, he is said to have been made in the form and likeness of the Almighty, but far from it be the notion that the Supreme Being is corporeal, having a material form.11

The consequences of this biblical description of the creation of man with respect to the progress of humanity cannot be underestimated. In pagan Mesopotamian thought, man is created to serve the gods and relieve them of their labor. There is, therefore, no challenge for man to improve the world he lives in and no driving force to animate his intellectual progress. It is not surprising, therefore, that historians describe Mesopotamian culture as a pessimistic one. By contrast, in the Genesis I account, man is designated to be the master of a perfectly functioning world created especially for him. Mankind has thus been placed on a pedestal and on a trajectory for intellectual, social and scientific progress.

Psalm 8 beautifully summarizes what Genesis I has achieved for man:

What is frail man that thou You should remember him?

And the son of mortal man that You should be mindful of him?

Yet You have made him slightly less than the angels,

And with glory and honor You have crowned him.

You gave him dominion over Your handiwork.

You placed everything under his feet:

Sheep and cattle, all of them, even the beasts of the field . . . .

YHWH our Master, how mighty is your Name throughout the earth (Psalm 8:5-10).

Summary

The creation story of Genesis I is not a scientific account of the creation of the universe, but an allegorical and theological poem using imagery that would have been familiar to the generation receiving the Torah.

The concepts that can be derived from this account include the following:

Man is not a slave to the gods but a dignified being to whom God has entrusted the keys to this world. Mankind can now develop or damage it with the physical and intellectual powers God has bestowed upon him.

Conflict is not ingrained into our universe. Conflict is certainly possible, but can be overcome by social laws and a moral code. The Torah rejects the mythological idea that violence among divine beings underlies the foundation of cosmic order and can be emulated in this world.

God designed a purposeful universe of order and intelligibility. Our universe is not a random one determined by conflict between the gods or a spin of the dice. A consistency therefore exists within the laws of nature. Without this consistency, there could be no such thing as science.

The distinctive God-like nature of man will enable the scientific and social progress of mankind.

God controlled all aspects of creation. It is logical to assume, therefore, that He remains sovereign over nature and its ongoing processes.

In contrast to Enuma Elish, Elohim makes no demand in Genesis 1 that man serve Him in return for the gift of creation. Rather, the human response to creation is to be recognition of God as the Creator of the universe. This entails a general recognition of the concepts contained within chapter 1 of the Torah and for man to cease from creative activity one day of the week, on the Sabbath.

Finally, I will address the issue I raised at the beginning of this chapter. What should be the approach of a believer in the authenticity of the Torah towards mythology? Clearly, the study of mythology was never a part of Torah study in the past, and need not be in the present. Nevertheless, for those disturbed by the discordance between modern science and the biblical creation story (as I was) and those interested in the evolution of religious ideas, some basic knowledge of Mesopotamian mythology can be extremely helpful. One might even say essential.

References

Creation, Genesis 1-4 in Understanding Genesis in The Heritage of Biblical Israel by Nahum M. Sarna, p4, Schoken Books, New York, 1970.
ArtScroll Tanach Series. Bereishis. Genesis/ A New Translation with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources. Volume 1(a) by Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz. P36. Mesorah Publications, Ltd. Hence, Rashi following a midrash translates it as “astonishment and amazement” or “astonishingly empty,” this being the reaction a person would have at the void. Targum Yonasan translates the words as “emptiness and desolation.” The Kuzari proposes “absence of form and order.”
The Epic of Creation, Tablet 1 in Myths from Mesopotamia. Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others by Stephanie Dalley, p233. Oxford University Press, 2008.
The Epic of Creation, Tablet 4 in Myths from Mesopotamia. Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others by Stephanie Dalley, p253. Oxford University Press, 2008.
The Epic of Creation, Tablet 4 in Myths from Mesopotamia. Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others by Stephanie Dalley. p254-255. Oxford University Press, 2008.
The Epic of Creation. Tablet 5 in Myths from Mesopotamia. Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others by Stephanie Dalley. p255-256. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Myths from Mesopotamia. Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others by Stephanie Dalley, The Epic of Creation. Tablet 6, p260-261. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Myths from Mesopotamia. Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others by Stephanie Dalley, The Epic of Creation. Tablet 6, Oxford University Press, 2008, p 264.
Rashi on Genesis 1:26.
R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch in his commentary to Genesis 1:26.
Chapter 1 in Moses Maimonides: The Guide for the Perplexed by M. Friedlander, second edition, p14. Dover Publications, Inc. New York.