Genesis Story God example essay topic

Creation myths of Babylon, Egypt, and Genesis There are many similarities in the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Genesis stories. In all the stories one god creates man and explains how all things on earth come to being. They also set up their calendars and show examples of evil within each story to set up moral rules for man to live by. How do these elements compare between each of these stories? In the Babylonian myth the God Marduk creates man from the blood of another god Kingu. "Blood will I compose, bring a skeleton into being, Produce a lowly, primitive creature, 'Man's hall be his name".

In Egyptian myth the God Rae creates man and takes this form. In the Genesis story there is only one God, he creates man in the image of himself. In the Babylonian and Egyptian stories, the major difference is they have many Gods. Also, in the Genesis story God creates man in his likeness, this might be the case with the Babylonian story, but that is not clear. The major similarity is that all three of the stories only have one God that creates mankind. All the stories show how things came onto the Earth and how it was made; they also set up their calendars at the same time.

In the Babylonian story, Marduk is granted the power of speaking something and it will come to being and if he spoke it again it would come out of being. Marduk becomes king, greater than all the Gods, after slaying the God Tiamat. Then later the defeat and capture of Tiamat's army and commander Kingu. "He made the stars, star-groups and constellations and determined the year, marked out its divisions, for each of the twelve months appointed three stars as he traced lines for the mighty Gods". In doing this he set up the astrological seasons for a calendar. After cutting the body of Tiamat in two, he made the Earth having the sun and moon come in and out of her ribs.

Her head he made a mountain and out of her eyes flowed the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Then he disposed her eleven monster-serpents, which include a snake, and made them into the signs of the Zodiac. In the Egyptian story Rae names things and they come into being and creates man last. He then takes the form of a man and becomes Pharaoh or the "God King". Similarly, in Genesis, God creates the Earth from a formless void into geophysical features, as we know it.

Then he creates all the plants and animals and last creates man, then on the seventh day he rested. In having God take seven days to make everything it sets up a weekly calendar, where as on the seventh day everyone rests. The one difference in the stories is that he let man name and have dominion over all things he created. This shows how all things came into being in all three stories and even sets up the political environment of the Babylonian and Egyptian cultures. There are other parallels in the Babylonian and Genesis stories not told here for example; in the Babylonian story one of the first Gods to appear is Lah mu, meaning Mud. In the Genesis story, the first man called Adam, also meaning Mud.

You can also see the relationship in their calendars were part of their religions. Even today we still have twelve months in a year and seven days in the week. All the stories are similar in setting up the moral rules that we all have now, even if you do not believe in a God. The stories make you fear God if you don't live by his laws. The laws are clear in the Old Testament, because man receives the Ten Commandments from God himself. It is not so clear in the other two stories, although we know if you do not obey the King or Pharaoh, who are Gods themselves, then there Gods get mad.

When God gets mad, the civilization had bad things happen to them like fam in and / or flooding. The Babylonians had the story of Gilgamesh and "the Great Flood of Enlil". In the Old Testament the story of Noah's Ark, where God was made angry and flooded the world. The only difference in the stories I see is in Egypt, where Rae sent a man eating "God lion" down on his people, instead of a flood because he was angry. All these stories are in place so everyone will obey basic laws, like thou shall not kill. And if they did not follow the rules, they would have the wrath of Marduk, Rae, and God.

As you have read in all three religions, one God created man and explained the existence of all things on earth. They all set up the calendars used by their civilizations, which is good in these agricultural societies, for the planning of planting and harvest. They also all set up the moral rules for man to live by in their religions. I see a lot more parallels than there are differences in these stories. So if there really is a God, then Marduk, Rae, and God could be same entity, you decide.