Enuma Elish vs. Genesis
Honors 101 October 3rd 2012 These Dang Creation Stories While both the Book of Genesis within the Bible and the seven tablets called the Enuma Elish (Enûma Eliš) are both considered to be religious texts, their accounts for how the universe and humans came to be are both similar and contrasting. The Book of Genesis, which is believed to have been written sometime during the 13th century BCE, during the time of Moses. This book is one way of describing how the world, the universe, the plants, animals, and everything came to be through God’s mighty work in a time frame of seven days. All aspects of life came from a single God, the “Creator of the universe, YHVH (Yahweh). Throughout the first 11 books of Genesis, the reader can imagine through imagery of how Earth was formed, as well as the first covenant and the first sin within the “Garden of Eden.” The seven tablets called the “Enuma Elish,” are believed to have been written in the late 12th century BCE, with the author unknown. The Enuma Elish is the Babylonian account of how the Earth and the universe were created, along with the rest of the inhabitants of Earth over an unknown amount of time, through a clash with a big god and a goddess. There is a specific way that the objects of Earth and the universe are created, which gives the tablets structure within the stories. To begin, both the Book of Genesis and the Enuma Elish are their own “religious historical” telling of how the universe was created. In the Book of Genesis, Earth and the universe are created by God (solo, no help) over a time period of seven days, with the seventh day acting as a day of rest. In the Enuma Elish, the time period in which Earth and all the rest are created isn’t specified very well, although at the end of it, the God’s who create it all decide to have a huge celebration rather than having a day of rest. This shows how the god’s within the stories are very different than each other because the God from