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Creation Stories of Babylon, Egypt, and Genesis Essay

Decent Essays

Creation myths of Babylon, Egypt, and Genesis

There are many similarities in the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Genesis stories. In all the stories one god creates man and explains how all things on earth come to being. They also set up their calendars and show examples of evil within each story to set up moral rules for man to live by. How do these elements compare between each of these stories?

In the Babylonian myth the God Marduk creates man from the blood of another god Kingu. “Blood will I compose, bring a skeleton into being, Produce a lowly, primitive creature, ‘Man’ shall be his name.” In Egyptian myth the God Rae creates man and takes this form. In the Genesis story there is only one God, he creates man in the image of himself. …show more content…

After cutting the body of Tiamat in two, he made the Earth having the sun and moon come in and out of her ribs. Her head he made a mountain and out of her eyes flowed the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Then he disposed her eleven monster-serpents, which include a snake, and made them into the signs of the Zodiac. In the Egyptian story Rae names things and they come into being and creates man last. He then takes the form of a man and becomes Pharaoh or the “God King.” Similarly, in Genesis, God creates the Earth from a formless void into geophysical features, as we know it. Then he creates all the plants and animals and last creates man, then on the seventh day he rested. In having God take seven days to make everything it sets up a weekly calendar, where as on the seventh day everyone rests. The one difference in the stories is that he let man name and have dominion over all things he created. This shows how all things came into being in all three stories and even sets up the political environment of the Babylonian and Egyptian cultures. There are other parallels in the Babylonian and Genesis stories not told here for example; in the Babylonian story one of the first Gods to appear is Lahmu, meaning Mud. In the Genesis story, the first man called Adam, also meaning Mud. You can also see the relationship in their calendars

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