Different Accounts of Correction

Enuma Elish vs. Bible The parallels and similarities between the Enuma Elish and the first few chapters of Genesis are strikingly similar in the form and function of the account being told. However, there are also differences between the two. These differences and similarities illustrate the very parallel nature and form that Babylonian and Israeli belief structures have taken over the centuries.

While differences like this may breed divisiveness and animosity with some groups, the focus should remain on the scholarly dimensions of the debate and the differences as this is a question that all people tumble and toil with at one point or another. As noted in the introduction, there are stark similarities as well as differences between the account of creating enumerated and described in the first two chapters of Genesis and the account of pretty much the same event in the Enuma Elish.

However, it goes a bit deeper than that as the first eleven chapters of Genesis actually seem to be an amalgamation of four different Mesopotamian myths including Adapa and the South Wind, Atrahasis, the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish. One major similarity between the Mesopotamian and Genesis timelines is that they both involve a serpent. In Genesis, the serpent tempts and tricks both Adam and Eve. In Babylonian stories, there was a serpent named Ningishzida that offered to help Adapt with a search for immortality.

Both Enuma Elish and Genesis were written at roughly the same time. However, the exact timing is not the same for everyone with some believing that the Israeli creating story happened in the eighth or ninth century BCE while others believe it was 13th century BCE. This matters because the Enuma Elish is staunchly believed to have been written in the 12th century BCE. In both Enuma Elish and Genesis, the first development of creation was the bringing of light.

In the second, there was a state of darkness and mostly nothingness. As creation goes on in both stories, the steps are quite similar as both detail, and in much the same order, the creation of the firmament, the creation of dry land, the creation of the sun, moon and stars, and the creation of men and women. The final step of both involves the resting of the God who did the creation.

The differences are also easy to spot as well as it relates to comparing the Enuma Elish and the story as told in Genesis. In Genesis, the seventh day is sanctified as the Sabbath but it is a time of celebration in Enuma Elish. In Genesis, a single God created the earth but it was a god and a goddess fighting each other in Enuma Elish that led to creation. The author of Genesis, although not entirely settled, is believed to be Moses.

The creator of Enuma Elish as a document is not really known. Another major difference between the two, although this is well after the initial creation, is that the Earth has generally improved since creation per Mesopotamian beliefs but there had to be.