Enuma-Elish

“Reading Genesis 1 as ancient cosmology requires that the cognitive environment, that is, how people thought about themselves and their world, be taken into account within the broad spectrum of ancient Near Eastern cosmological texts. This opens the question of whether the biblical authors used any other ancient texts as “sources,” whether as templates, patterns, or foils…. However, many attempts to trace the trail from other ANE texts to Genesis have been too simplistic… They come from separate centuries and very different geographical locations. Rather, our efforts should be to use all the literature at our disposal to reconstruct the variety of cosmological pictures within the ancient cognitive environment, which can serve as a backdrop for understanding each literary work.” —JOHN WALTON, GENESIS ONE AS ANCIENT COSMOLOGY, 2

Tiamat

Both Genesis and Enuma Elsih are religious texts which detail and celebrate cultural origins: Genesis describes the origin and founding of the Jewish people under the guidance of the Lord; Enuma Elish recounts the origin and founding of Babylon under the leadership of the god Marduk. Contained in each work is a story of how the cosmos and man were created. Each work begins by describing the watery chaos and primeval darkness that once filled the universe. Then light is created to replace the darkness. Afterward, the heavens are made and in them heavenly bodies are placed. Finally, man is created. These similarities notwithstanding, the two accounts are more different than alike. —Stephen Bertman:

Pagan myths were, in fact, God expressing himself through the minds of poets, and using the images of their “mythopoeia” to express fragments of his eternal truth? Christianity is exactly the same thing with the enormous difference that the poet who invented it was God Himself, and the image He used were real men and actual history. —Carpenter, Humphrey. The inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and their Friends. Harper Collins publishers, 1978.

[You can listen to the Creation account here](‌ https://youtu.be/R5btTPN-NmM)