Texts in Conversation
The Enuma Elish and Genesis describe the creation with a division of water. In Enuma Elish, the heavens are formed from the body of Tiamat, whose waters are held back by her skin. Genesis presents a solid firmament that separates waters above and below.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Enuma Elish IV
The Seven Tablets of Creation
Ancient Near East, Babylonian
And had attained the purpose of Nudimmud, Over the captive gods he strengthened his custody, And to Tiamat, whom he had conquered, he returned. And the lord stood upon Tiamat’s hindquarters, And with his merciless club he smashed her skull. He cut through the channels of her blood, And he made the North wind bear it away into secret places. His fathers saw, and they rejoiced and were glad; Presents and gifts they brought to him. Then the lord rested, gazing upon her dead body, In order to divide the lump by a clever scheme. He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; One half of her he set up and stretched out as the heavens. He stretched the skin and appointed a watch And ordered them not to let her waters come forth. He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions (of it), And opposite the Deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud. And the lord measured the structure of the Deep, And he founded Esharra, a mansion like it. The mansion Esharra which he created as heaven, He caused Anu, Enlil, and Ea in their districts to inhabit.
Date: 1800–1750 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Genesis 1:6
Hebrew Bible
5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day. 6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. It was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning, a second day. 9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear.” It was so.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Explicit statements that the heavens are made of water are found in Babylonian texts. Examples include Enuma Elish IV 137-46, where Marduk builds the heavens out of part of the watery corpse of Tiamat, and Inamgišuranki, where the Akkadian name for heaven, samê, is explained as ša me 'of water'. In Enuma Elish IV 139-40, Marduk stretches out a skin and assigns guards to keep the waters of heaven from draining downward onto lower regions of the universe. These traditions may be compared with Genesis 1, where the primeval waters are divided in two, with the upper waters positioned above the firmament (Tr), and Psalms 104:3 and 148:4, which speak of waters above the heavens ..."
Wayne Horowitzh, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1998), p 262.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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