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| In contrast to the biblical narrative, ancient Creation stories from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria-Palestine do more than try to explain how the physical world came into being. Creation Myths often elevated a specific god from a particular shrine to supremacy over all other gods to increase the prestige of that god or that shrine, or the city where that shrine was located. For example, Egyptian Creation myths assert that a primordial mound that arose out of a primeval sea was the site from which a specific god created the world. Several shrines claimed to be the spot from which the world was created, and that the god of the particular shrine was the creator. At Memphis, it was Psah; at Hermopolis, it was Thoth; at Heliopolis, it was Re-Atum. In Heliopolis, there is a statue that supposedly marks the very spot where Re-Atum alighted in the form of a Bennu Bird to begin the creation process. Common motifs in Creation Myths include a spontaneous generation of gods, sexual reproduction among gods, and the deification of nature—for example, the sun and moon. A creation myth often focuses on the unique geographical features of the location of a particular shrine. Sometimes creation myths relate battles between the gods and monsters that inhabit a primordial watery chaos. And through the battle, one or more gods rise to supremacy. Sometimes, creation occurs when a god defeats a primordial monster and divides its body into two; the two parts become the heavens and the earth. Or earth and sea and so on. The Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish describes the defeat of Tiamat, the mother goddess and sea monster, by the god Marduk after a terrible battle. Marduk divides her body in half like a fish for dryingand uses it to form the heavenly dome. This victory supposedly establishes Marduk's supremacy over the other gods. Greek Creation Myths are similar. After initial chaos, Gaia, the earth goddess, and Uranus, the sky, emerge a series of monster gods such as Cronos and Typhon, and the Titans are born to them, but Zeus, the son of Cronos, defeats these beings and establishes the world order. People in Creation Myths are typically portrayed as drudges or slaves who exist primarily to do the gods' dirty work or feed the gods with sacrifices. The Genesis narrative challenges the claims of the other creation myths. establishing God's sovereignty by stating that the heavenly bodies and sea creatures were his creations, and by presenting people as God's stewards and image bearers, instead an afterthought born of divine need or laziness. The Sun and Moon are referred to as the great light and the small light. Why? By describing them like this, the bible reduces them to the status of physical objects that only rule in the sense that they emit light and mark the calendar. In contrast, in many ancient languages, the very for sun or moon also refers to the corresponding god or goddess. For instance, in Hebrew word for sun is shemesh, Shamesh is the name of the Mesopotamian sun god, and selene, the Greek word for moon, is also the name of a moon goddess. Similarly, the ancients regarded the stars and constellations as divine beings. in contrast, the bible's statement that God made the stars, demotes these bodies to created objects. Genesis rejects the deification of nature, which is the central premise of pagan religion. interestingly, it does not try to lift Yahweh to supremacy over other gods. In the seven-day creation account, Yahweh is not even named; they are simply referred to as God. Even Genesis VV 2-3 provides no sense that Yahweh needed to establish his supremacy over other gods. there is no mention of a battle between gods and monsters, nor is there a mention of a specific place or shrine at which the creation occurred. there is also no mention of a particular object that was used in the act of creation. The God of Genesis 1 is truly universal. |
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