Genesis and the Enuma Elish, both stories come from the very similar regions of the ancient world, but both very different in the ways and tasks of the newly created mankind. The Genesis coming from the early Jews and the Enuma Elish originating from the ancient Babylonians differ in both creation of humans and roles of humans. Genesis and the Enuma Elish differ in very important details such as who and what created the world and mankind. Even within the two accounts of Genesis the stories of creation have many differences. The statuses of humans in both stories contradict and argue against each other.These creation myths have their own characteristics making them all unique, despite the close proximity of the two ancient cultures and the very close difference in time.
Within the Genesis account you can break down the group into two stories. The first written was a combination of the “Jehovist” and the “Elohist” writers that wrote between 950-850 B. C. E. This account is based upon an immanent god that created the world and humans by the word of mouth.
In these writings God created man in the image of him and created mankind last. You can infer from this that God created man in order to succeed; he didn’t create them to serve him.God created mankind to his liking and created them in good favor. He loved mankind and treated them like his sons and daughters.
This God gave mankind food, in the form of “plant yielding seed” and gave them “dominion over the fish of the sea”. He didn’t let mankind go hungry or make mankind angry. He fostered their growth because humans were his creation. In the second account from Genesis, the “Priestly” writer comes from a little bit later, around 550 B. C.
E. This story from Genesis is almost an opposite of the first account. The Priestly author writes about God as being more of a transcendent god.This god creates the world and mankind and then leaves it alone. He has no continuation for the world; he creates and then lets it be. This God created the Garden of Eden that held every tree and animal.
Then God created man, and once man was created the Priestly author says “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it”. This account did not just create mankind and tell them to create for humans; man was used to till this garden. Even within the Genesis group the two accounts contradict each other.The Gods in oth are different because the first account the god creates life and the world by merely saying it and then continues to keep with the things his creation. In the second account the God, that is described, works hard to create the world with his hands and to create mankind and then walks away after the creation is done. The second and most important difference is the conflict, even in their own culture, between the creation of humans and the humans’ role when created.
The first account God created mankind for mankind to populate the earth and be bountiful.The God gave them food and control over the sea and its fish. In the second account, God created mankind for the use of servitude. He used mankind to till and keep the Garden of Eden.
A little over 200 years before the Genesis was written down, the ancient Babylonians recorded their own creation story, The Enuma Elish. The overall creation myth is completely opposite of the two Genesis accounts. The world and mankind is created from chaos and evil unlike the Genesis Gods creating the world and mankind out of want. The Enuma Elish is set up with a feud between the elder and younger gods.When the younger gods strike first, killing the leader god Apsu, they provoke their mother and Apsu’s wife, Tiamat, to get revenge on her disruptive children. Tiamat chooses to marry Kingu, then giving him the Tables of Destiny and he becomes godlier.
When Marduk is born, he is born to save the younger gods from Tiamat and he ends up killing Tiamat. When he kills Tiamat he splits her body into two, using both halves to create the world. After doing this he goes after Kingu, killing Kingu once this happens Marduk says, “I will take blood and fashion bone. I will establish a savage” and creates mankind.
Marduk creates mankind to serve the gods and to praise them Marduk is quoted saying about mankind, “He shall be charged with the service of the gods”. This creation story creates mankind from the body of something evil, inferring that mankind is not to be inferior to the gods that created them. By doing so this is in direct opposition of the Genesis because in those accounts man was created “good”. When comparing The Enuma Elish to the first account of Genesis, you have two complete opposites.
The only relation of these two stories is the broad factor, that they are both creation tales.First of all, the creation of mankind in Genesis is by God merely saying that mankind is created. In the Enuma, Marduk creates mankind from the body of a traitor and an ungodly figure. The Enuma Elish uses a complete transcend god figure, because once man is created the god no longer stays with his creation. Secondly, when it comes to the roles of humans in these two myths they contradict each other.
Marduk, in the Babylonian myth, creates mankind in servitude of the gods. He does not like humans or want to be with them, he creates them to worship the gods and give them praise.In the Genesis first account, man is created to populate the earth not to worship or to work the land, but to live and be bountiful. The god in Genesis gives mankind the tools to live and succeed.
Marduk in the Enuma Elish gives mankind nothing; him gives them only the orders to serve the gods with praise. Now the comparison of the Genesis second account to the Enuma Elish, is a little similar than the first account , but still far off. In Genesis the God toils and creates mankind, much like Marduk toils and fights to kill Kingu. They both create mankind in order to work for the gods.
In Genesis mankind is created to till the Garden of Eden. In the Enuma Elish, mankind is created to serve the gods. Both relatively the same, but The Enuma Elish is an extreme version of the second Genesis. Both have the same ideas but not in the magnitude. The ancient Babylonians and the early Jews had similar ideas but also many differences in their creation stories even though they were so close in time and distance.
Yes, both the Enuma Elish had gods that created mankind and the world but both accounts differed from each other. Mankind was created in the Genesis to live and work a little.In The Enuma Elish mankind was created for the sole purpose of serving the gods. Even in the creation of mankind you could tell that the roles of mankind would be different. The early Jews describe the creation of mankind from the word or work of God. In the ancient Babylonians mankind was created from a lesser and more pitiful god after the kings of gods killed him.
So when asked the question if Babylonians and Jews had the same roles for the creation of man, I say no. There are too many differences in the myths to say that they agree with each other, in respect to the roles of mankind and the myths as a whole.
