Friday, June 15, 2007

Regional Myths and Legends Found in Genesis

Author's note: I am currently pulling material from message boards that I interact on frequently. I dmit that these will be very rough. There is also a chance that I did not properly cite material due to being rushed or out of sheer laziness. I apologize ahead of time, and I have no problem fixing improper citations and give credit where credit is due, if necessary.

There are numerous stories and names that parallel Biblical stories and myths. Here a few.

The Creation: Enuma Elish
So you've read the Enuma Elish. Good, that makes discussion easier. Do you not recall the first four lines of the Amorite epic?
When in the height heaven was not named,
And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,
And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,
And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both
Do a comparative analysis of the text with the very beginning of Genesis:
In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Deep and waters is important etymologically, as the Hebrew word used here (tehom) is etymologically traceable to Tiamet.

Although it was not directly taken from the Babylonian creation myth, there are elements that suggest influence.

Tiamet: Etymology
In the Ugaritic glossary of Canaanite Myths and Legends, John C. L. Gibson notes that tehom appears in the Ugaritic texts, c. 1400-1200 BCE, simply meaning the "depths of the sea". Such a depersonalized Tiamat (the -at ending makes her feminine) is the deep or abyss (Hebrew tehom) present at the beginning of the book of Genesis: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." (Genesis 1:2).

Her name seems ultimately to have been a Sumerian one as in that language Ti is "life", and Ama is "mother", suggesting her original name may have been "the mother of all life" (Thorkild Jacobsen, 1968) "The Battle between Marduk and Tiamat" Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 88, No. 1, pp. 104-108.) This title was given to the divinised 1st King of the 3rd Dynasty of Kish, Kubau, who reappears in Hurrian mythology as Kheba (identified with the "mother of the Gods", Hannahannah) and with the Hebrew cognate Havva (Eve), also called "the mother of all living" in Genesis). ("Adam and Eve in Babylonian Literature". American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature Vol 15 (1899), pp.193-214)

The Slaying of the Dragon
The dragon slaying motiff is also present in the Bible in Psalm 74:14; Isaiah 27:1; Job 3:8, 9:13; Amos 9:3; Habbakkuk 3:10. This battle reflects the Syro-Palestinian version of a dragon slaying myth which is found in the cultures of the region. The closest rendition comes from the 14th century BCE Canaanite texts from Ra's Shamrah. Bhaal defeated a dragonlike monster: "You will crush the serpent; you will consume the twisting serpent, the mighty one with seven heads". This directly parallels the Biblical account (see Isaiah 27:1 and Psalm 74:14).

There is also a Babylonian version in the Creation Epic. Marduk slayed Tiamat and divided her corpse in two to create the earth and the sky. The extolation of Yahweh's military victory parallel's Marduk's, specifically in Isaiah 51:9, Job 26:12, and Psalm 74:13, 89:10.

The Serpent: The Causation of Life and Strife
Tiamat in Babylonian mythology was a serpent. The constellation Ophiuchus was viewed as representing Tiamat, the Bitter Ocean. She was the personified Chaos, which the Greek poet Hesoid alludes to in his Theogony: "First of all Chaos came into being". Tiamat married Apsus (which you mentioned in your post concerning the Enuma Elish) and begat many evil deities which created confusion, friction, and strife. In the war that ensued to destory her proginy, Apsus the god of Fresh Waters was killed by Ea. Tiamat then married her son Kingu and begat more offspring. Another war ensued, one in which the Son God Marduk slayed Tiamat. At this point, I must mention that Elohim (which is interpreted to correspond to the same figure as Yawheh) is said to have created the light from the darkness, the often motiff of religions in the region to associate light with good and life and dark with evil and death, as well as with the sun and sunset.

The serpent is present in Syrian mythologies as the (indirect) causer of life and strife. This motiff is exemplified in the Garden of Eden myth, in which the serpent persuades Eve to eat the apple of knowledge of good and evil. Egyptian lore has a serpent motiff concerning the mythology surrounding Apep. Apep is the serpent which attacks the Sun to prevent its rising.

The Garden of Eden: Plagiarism
Though the Garden of Eden account is not entirely plagiarized, it is not entirely original either. It is a latter evolved form which was influenced by the other creation accounts surrounding the area.

First, I will explain the account atrologically. Consider Genesis 2:8 "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed". This could mean Mesopotamia, but more than likely the Hebrews had in mind the heavens. Yes, the heavens, as the heavens always come from the east as the sun sets to the west. As the autumn equinox is passed into winter, the Virgin, the Herdsmen and Draco appear across the sky. Ophiuchus is also nearby, just to note. The Virgin holds a branch of fruit in her hand, symbolizing Autumn, which she is tantelizing the Herdsman with. When the Virgin and Herdsmen fall beneath the horizon, Perseus rises on the other side with a sword in his hand, seeming to drive them from the summer heaven. The term "fall of man" occurs astrollogically as the fall of the sun, when it descends past the halfway point towards its lowest point on the horizon during the winter months. This is symbollically parallel to the Christian crucifixion, as astrologers described the sun as beig crucifies as it crosses the halfway point towards descent. The cross is entirely symbolic of the sun's cycles, and it is not a coincidence. The shorter end corresponds to the shortest day, the winter solstice. The longer end corresponds to the longest day, the summer solstice. The two equal sides refers to the days with same lenths, the spring and fall equinoxes. This is not a coincidence; the cross comes from astrology and can be traced in the sky.

Secondly, consider the Sumerian paradise myth. The Sumerian Eden is located in Dilmun, modern day Bahrain, and is etymologically related to the old Babylonian name Gan-Eden, "the garden of the Middle East". Note that Mesopotamia means "between the waters", as well. Enki, the Sumerian water-God and God of wisdom, impregnated Ninhursag, wo gave him a duaghter. Desiring a son, Enki impregnated his daughter, who gave him yet another daughter. Ninhursag poisoned Enki with eight different plants. She then created Nin-ti in order to heal Enki. One of the sick organs is the rib. Nin-ti heals Enki. Etymologically, Nin-ti means "she who makes live" which (as will be shown later) is approximately the equivalent of Eve. Ti also means "rib", ironically, so she is also called "the lady of the rib".

Next, consider the Babylonian legend of Adapa. Adapa, son the god of Wisdom, Ea, broke the wing of the Storm bird who attacked him in the Persian Gulf. Ea summoned Adapa to question his violence and warned him that, having displeased Anu, King of Heaven, the gods would offer him the food and drink of death, which he must refuse. Anu, however, learning of this indiscreet disclosure, tried to foil Ea by offering Adapa the bread of life and the water of life instead. When Adapa refused, Anu sent him back to earth as a mortal. This story parallels the theme of the serpent's warning to Eve, that God had decieved her about the forbidden fruit.

Now, let us consider Gilgamesh and the Serpent. In this popular epic, Gilgamesh heard about a plant which held the secret to immortality. With much effort, Gilgamesh gets the plant from the bottom of the sea. On his journey back to his people, Gilgamesh set the plant aside to take a bath. SUddenly, a serpent appeared and snatched the plant. It shed its skin as it returned to the water. Thus, the serpent robbed humans of immortality and forcing them to be mortals, similar to how the serpent robbed Adam and Eve of life with as immortals.

Lastly, we will look at the words themselves. "Adam" is not an explicit proper name but comes from ha-adam, which in Hebrew translates "the man". The word adam comes from adamah meaning country, earth, gorun, husband, or land. This suggests the context of Genesis 3:19 "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return". This is symbolic of the material which comprised of him, the very land he walks on. Likewise, "Eve" is from the Hebrew chavvaoh. This is Hebrew for lifegiver, as in "the mother of all living". Its root, chaya, means "serpent" in Aramaic. Eve and the serpent are thus to be taken synonymously. The word "Eden" is traced back to Sumer as "fertile land". As well,it came to mean to the Hebrews "delight", so the land of Eden was a garden of delight or enjoyment. Thus, Adam and Eve describe no one in particular as well as Eden not describing any place in particular. They are generic temrs meant to stay generic for the sake of the mythological Creation story.

Conclusion
It is an entirely silly proposition that the Hebrews were an isolated culture with no influence from others. They did not find God on a mountain or some divinely inspired epitomy. No, they created God as a means to explain their origins and purpose and borrowed willfully from the present creation stories present in the region. Do not be naive.

Sources and Recommended Readings
A Dictionary of Creation Myths by David and Margaret Leeming
Myths from Mesopotamia by Stephanie Dalley
Stories from Ancient Canaan by Michael David Coogan
Sumerian Mythology by Samuel Noah Kramer
Conceptions of God in Anceint Egypt by Erik Hornung

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