Gen. 1 & 2 - Creation!!!

"In the beginning, there were 3 gods: Apsu, the fresh water, Tiamat, the salt water, and their son Mummu. They begat other gods. There was lots of fighting, then one god was killed and the earth was made out of her dead corpse, then another god was killed and people were made out of his dead corpse. The end."

Oh wait! Wrong creation account - let's try again!

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...And God said...And God saw...And God called...And God made...And God made...and God called...And God...And God...And God...And it was very good." (Gen. 1:1-2:3!) 

Okay, so it was a deliberate error but what I've summarised first (v. briefly) is a Babylonian creation account that was around at the time many people think the Genesis account arose. If you read this myth in more detail (Enuma Elish), you'll see that there are some similarities. For example, in both accounts the separation of the waters is very important; further, the Babylonian myth is written on 6 tablets (cf. God creating everything over 6 days). Some scholars have, in the past, tried to claim from these similarities that the Genesis account was copied from the Babylonian one. 

However, as a theologian called John Drane (p. 262) has pointed out, these similarities are superficial and based on a common cosmology (see also Hoffmeier p. 48). More significant, is the fact that, if there is any link between the two, then the Genesis account appears to deliberately undermine its Babylonian counterpart in significant regards. For example, in the Genesis account:

1. There is no conflict over who is the chief God - God just is! He has no rival!!!
2. God is separate from creation and resides over it; he is not mingled in with it as in the Babylonian account. Further, he is both transcendent in power (see Gen. 1) and intimately imminent (see, in amazing contrast, Gen. 2 & 3!!!) - he is not uncaring and removed. 
3. Creation is not the haphazard result of conflict, rather it is deliberate, ordered and good.
4. People are fashioned in God's image as God's representatives and stewards on earth, rather than fashioned from a god's dead corpse and simply assigned menial tasks.
5. God is trustworthy and his actions are just and fair; he is not capricious and unpredictable as the gods are in the Babylonian account. Drane, p. 263: "the destiny of people is in the hands of a loving and personal God, and not n the control of either nature of superstition." 


(Quick note about links! I'll be putting a few external weblinks on this blog, which is because I think they might be helpful - but it doesn't mean I agree with everything that's on them!!!)