In the Beginning – Genesis

In the near east during the time of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, there were numerous creation stories, with each nation’s national gods as the main characters.  Babylon’s national god, Marduk, figured into their creation story:

The first gods, husband Apsu and wife Tiamat, intermingled their fluids and birthed several gods, including Anshar, who birthed Anu, who birthed Ea.  Ea and his wife Damkina birthed Marduk.  Apsu became irritated with the new gods and wanted to destroy them.  Tiamat initially objected, but when Apsu was put to sleep and murdered by Ea, Tiamat declared war against most of her children.  She made one of them, Kingu, her consort, and sought to give him all power.  But Marduk was made champion of the other gods and was promised supremacy if he defeated Tiamat.  He was able to defeat her and he cut up her body to form the sky and the earth.  Marduk wanted to make humans to serve the gods and even offered his own blood to do so, but the gods decided it would be better to sacrifice Kingu and make humans from his blood.  The gods constructed Babylon and built a temple for Marduk of great height.

From the Egyptian city of Heliopolis comes this account:

Atum, who created himself out of the primordial waters, sent forth his seed and created the air god, Shu, and his goddess sister, Tefnut, goddess of moisture and rain.  These gods gave birth to the other gods who eventually created the world.

From Sumeria, this tale of creation by their god, Enlil:

The seven greater gods, the Anunna-gods, and the lesser Igigi-gods, experienced conflict when the Igigi-gods rebelled at having to do work that was burdensome and a drudgery.  The gods came to an agreement that they would create humans to do the work.  They slaughtered the god Aw-ilu, mixed his flesh and blood with clay, and formed humans.  Humans increased in number and their noise became a disturbance to the god Enlil.  He decided to destroy all humanity with a flood, but Enki warned one human, Atrahasis, who built a boat to escape the flood, taking his family and animals with him.  After seven days the flood ended and he disembarked from the boat and offered sacrifices to the gods.  Enlil, though initially furious with Enki, eventually agreed to control humans in other ways.

When we come to Genesis 1 and 2, the creation account of the Hebrews, we find something startlingly different.  There is no god who creates himself, or multiple gods who fight with each other and use each other’s bodies to create the earth.  We don’t find humans in a slavery situation who are an afterthought created to spare the gods from burdensome work.  We find an eternally existing God, Yahweh, who speaks the earth and all its creatures into existence.  We see humans made in the image of God and given royal authority to rule God’s world as His vice-regents.  This God is in control of the primordial waters that He created, and He has no competitors.  He is in total and absolute control over all creation, and He dubs it “good,” indeed “very good.”

Genesis is the historical account of Moses concerning the world and Israel’s place in it.  It is the first book of Moses along with Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, sometimes referred to as the Pentateuch, five volumes Moses wrote as he and all Israel moved from Egypt to Canaan.  In Genesis God reveals to Moses the origins of creation, the choice humans made to rebel against God’s rule, the flood God sends to destroy earth’s inhabitants and the humans and animals He spares to start civilization all over again, the confusion of human languages to force a separation of nations, and God’s decision to work through one line of Shem’s family, the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to accomplish His purpose to restore His kingdom to earth.  The Genesis account satisfies the questions we have and explains what we experience as humans, both good and bad.  There is nothing like it in all the literature of the ancient near east.