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In the Enuma Elish, Marduk battles and kills the sea goddess Tiamat, creating the world from her corpse. Genesis 1:21 reshapes this myth by listing the great sea creatures as ordinary animals God created, not divine opponents he defeated.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Enuma Elish IV
The Seven Tablets of Creation
Ancient Near East
All her lower members trembled beneath her. She was reciting an incantation, kept reciting her spell, While the (battle-)gods were sharpening their weapons of war. Tia-mat and Marduk, the sage of the gods, came together, Joining in strife, drawing near to battle. Be-l spread out his net and enmeshed her; He let loose the Evil Wind, the rear guard, in her face. Tia-mat opened her mouth to swallow it, She let the Evil Wind in so that she could not close her lips. The fierce winds weighed down her belly, Her inwards were distended and she opened her mouth wide. He let fly an arrow and pierced her belly, He tore open her entrails and slit her inwards, He bound her and extinguished her life, He threw down her corpse and stood on it. After he had killed Tia-mat, the leader, Her assembly dispersed, her host scattered.
Date: 1800 - 1750 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Genesis 1:21
Hebrew Bible
20 God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.
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Notes and References
“… Cassuto argued that the particular identification of the sea dragons in the context of the Creation was polemical in nature. It was meant, he proposed, to remind the reader that these enormous creatures were created beings like all others: they were not divine, nor were they mythical creatures with powers to challenge God, the Creator. The polemical nature of these few words will become evident when we examine the three groups of sources that we mentioned above. They will help us to reconstruct the very Creation story that the writers of Genesis sought to deny. …”
Shinan, Avigdor and Yair Zakovitch
From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends
(pp. 9-10) The Jewish Publication Society, 2012
* 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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