Panbabylonism

Inanna/Ishtar depicted on the "Ishtar vase", Larsa, early 2. millennium BCE, Louvre AO 6501

Panbabylonism is a school of thought within Assyriology and Religious Studies that considers the Hebrew Bible and Judaism as directly derived from Babylonian culture and mythology. Appearing in the late 19th century, it gained popularity in the early 20th century, advocated notably by Alfred Jeremias.

The ideas presented within its framework still carry importance in mythological studies, due to similarities between myths in the comparatively young Bible and much older myths from ancient Mesopotamian mythologies.

The worldview which lies behind the Genesis creation story is that of the common cosmology of the ancient Near East in which Earth was conceived as a flat disk with infinite water both above and below. The dome of the sky was thought to be a solid metal bowl (tin according to the Sumerians, iron for the Egyptians) separating the surrounding water from the habitable world. The stars were embedded in the lower surface of this dome, with gates that allowed the passage of the Sun and Moon back and forth.

The flat-disk Earth was seen as a single island-continent surrounded by a circular ocean, of which the known seas—what today is called the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea—were inlets. Beneath the Earth was a fresh-water sea, the source of all fresh-water rivers and wells.

Genesis' Creation Story and the Babylonian creation story

Cuneiform tablet with the Atra-Hasis Epic in the British Museum

One of the two Bible creation myths was probably derived from the much older Mesopotamian creation myth "Enuma Elish".

The six days of creation in the Genesis myth parallel the six generations of gods in the Enuma Elish myth in type of god in Enuma Elish that is created (i.e. god of the earth) to what is created or happens on the corresponding day in Genesis (i.e. the waters are gathered together to expose dry land).

Marduk the sixth generation god makes man as a slave so the other gods can rest. God (Elohim) makes man on the sixth day and he himself rests.

Many studies have been made of the similarities between Genesis and other Creation stories. Taken out of context, some sentences sound similar to the Bible account. But a careful consideration of the whole clearly indicates basic differences.

Although the plot line of the Enuma Elish and the Genesis creation account are completely different it is possible to see some very basic connections between the two creation myths. Immediately recognizable is the fact that the opening line of Genesis is identical to the opening line of the Babylonian Enuma Elish.

The Enuma Elish portrays Marduk as setting the constellations in place rather than being bound by their movements as had all previous deities. The henotheistic idea that one god had control over the movement of the stars, which represented the other gods, appears as a transit to the religion of Biblical monotheism.

Through the fusion of their waters six successive generations of gods were born. A war amongst the gods began with the slaying of Apsu, and ended with the god Marduk splitting Tiamat in two to form the heavens and the earth; the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers emerged from her eye-sockets. Marduk then created humanity, from clay mingled with spit and blood, to tend the earth for the gods, while Marduk himself was enthroned in Babylon in the Esagila, "the temple with its head in heaven."

Comparison of the creation myths

In both Enûma Eliš and Genesis the primordial world is formless and empty (the tohu wa bohu of Genesis 1:2), the only existing thing the watery abyss which exists prior to creation (the god of Tiamat in the Enûma Eliš, təhôm, the "deep", a linguistic cognate of tiamat. In both, the firmament, conceived as a solid inverted bowl, is created in the midst of the primeval waters to separate the sky or heights from the earth (Genesis 1:6–7, Enûma Eliš 4:137–40). Day and night precede the creation of the luminous bodies (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, and 14ff.; Enûma Eliš 1:38), whose function is to yield light and regulate time (Gen. 1:14; Enûma Eliš 5:12–13). In Enûma Eliš, the gods consult before creating man (6:4), while Genesis has: "Let us make man in our own image..." (Genesis 1:26) – and in both, the creation of man is followed by divine rest.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Gen:1,1)

When Skies above (heaven) were not yet named, Nor earth below pronounced by name... (Enuma Elish, Tablet 1)

The ordering of the universe by the command of the creator god is a basic theme in both the Babylonian and Biblical accounts.

And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. - (Gen:1, 14-15)

He Fashioned stands for the great gods. As for the stars, he set up constellations corresponding to them. He designated the year and marked out its divisions, Apportioned three stars each to twelve months. When he had made plans of the days of the year… - (Enuma Elish,Tablet V)

The days of the week and their ritual implications from Genesis 1, 5-2, 3 can be easily compared to the Babylonian myth the Atrahasis. This myth which focuses on mankind’s creation also describes the evolution of the weekly calendar as prescribed by the creator god Enki. Similar to Genesis the seventh day is seen as the end of the week which consists of six regular days. For Babylonians the first, seventh and fifteenth of the month were sacred days and each month lasted for five seven day weeks.

Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis stories

Dating of the stories

The written story of Gilgamesh possibly finds its roots as far back as 3,700 years ago but the oral story seems to have appeared circa 2100 B.C. This is in stark contrast to the age of the main story in the Book of Exodus where Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt. The commonly accepted dates for this story would be circa 1300-200B.C. If we were to accept these dates as being true this would make the tales told about Gilgamesh some eight hundred to nine hundred years older than any possible oral telling of the Old Testament stories in the Book of Exodus.

The Serpent

Both narratives have a snake that is associated with a plant holding the key to a kind of immortality. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, a snake steals a magical plant that can restore youthful vigor. In the Eden narrative, a snake convinces Eve to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Contradicting the divine warning, the serpent tells her that she will not die but will become like a god (Genesis 3:4-5). The end result, however, is the same. The snake's involvement leads to a loss of immortality as Adam and Eve are cut off from the tree of life.

Loss of Innocence

In the beginning both Enkidu and the Edenic couple are in harmony with nature. They live naked among the trees and wildlife and have a naive innocence. However, that innocence is lost once they each participate in an act that puts them out of harmony with nature.

Once Enkidu has sex with Shamhat, the animals no longer respond to him as they did before. Shamhat proclaims that Enkidu has become "wise" and "like a god". She fashions clothing for him and introduces him to a human diet. In the final stage of his civilization, Enkidu journeys to the great city of Uruk where new pleasures and experiences await. Similarly, once Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they fall out of sync with nature.

In contrast to the story of Enkidu, however, the Genesis tale presents this transition in a negative way. Rather than leaving the wild to become human and join civilized society, the couple from Eden experience tragic loss. The serpent's promise of wisdom and godlike status is misleading. Adam and Eve clothe themselves out of shame. The new food they eat is forbidden, resulting in divine punishment, and the new realm they enter is one of hardship and toil.

Adapa (cognate with Adam) was a Babylonian mythical figure who unknowingly refused the gift of immortality. The story is first attested in the Kassite period (14th century BC). Mario Liverani points to multiple parallels between the story of Adapa, who obtains wisdom but who is forbidden the 'food of immortality' whilst in heaven, and the story of Adam in Eden.

Parallels to Noah's flood

The eleventh tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh contains the Gilgamesh flood myth and has a number of parallels to the story of Noah and the Flood in Genesis 6-9. According to Alan Millard, "No Babylonian text provides so close a parallel to Genesis as does the flood story of Gilgamesh XI". Michael Coogan mentions the following:

• Both stories have divine anger
• The heroes are warned by a god that a great Flood is going to happen
• The hero is given specific instructions on how the god wants him to build the boat
• The hero takes both his family and animals on the boat with him
• The hero releases three birds to find out if the Flood is beginning to subside
• When the Flood begins to subside, the boats are sitting on top of a mountain

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, our hero encounters Utnapishtim and his wife who are the survivors of the Great Flood in his quest for immortality.

Babylonian myth tells us that the god Enlil was disturbed so much by the noise of mankind that he decided to destroy them with a flood. The goddess Ishtar had pity on them, however, and chose to help Utnapishtim and his family to survive the great cataclysm. This recalls the story of the Flood in the Bible where God decided to punish mankind for its wickedness by cleansing the earth with the Great Flood. In both stories there is a warning of forthcoming disaster given to someone who is seen as worthy of being spared during the destruction of mankind.

Both stories had the righteous person, his family and animals saved from the wrath that mankind faced:

“All the living beings that I had I loaded on it, I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat, all the beasts and animals of the field…” (Tablet XI 84-85).

”...and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.” (Genesis 18-19)

Both were given specific instructions on how to spare themselves and carry out certain wishes of the gods:

“O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu: Tear down the house and build a boat! The boat which you are to build, its dimensions must measure equal to each other: its length must correspond to its width. Roof it over like the Apsu.” (Tablet XI 24 and 28-30).

“Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch...“ (Genesis 14-16)

Utnapishtim and his family then build a huge ark, and both families brought a host of animals on board for the journey. Also, in both stories it is a bird that found land after many long days and nights of rain. And both arks come to rest on mountain tops. In the Babylonian myth, the survivors land on Mount Nisir while the biblical survivors land on Mount Ararat.

They both also seemed to have the same idea to determine when it was safe to leave the safety of their boats and return to land:

“And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground... (Genesis 7-11)

“When a seventh day arrived I sent forth a dove and released it. The dove went off, but came back to me; no perch was visible so it circled back to me. I sent forth a swallow and released it.“ (Tablet XI 145-154)

There is a difference at the end though. Utnapishtim and his wife gained immortality from the gods after their ordeal and were allowed to live in Dilmun - the land of Paradise. Noah, on the other hand, received the Covenant of the Rainbow - God's promise not to send another Flood.

Mesopotamian deity and the Genesis God

The Sumerian god Ningizzida accompanied by two gryphons. It is the oldest known image of snakes coiling around an axial rod, dating from before 2000 BC (see Caduceus)

The ancient Sumerian chief deity was Enlil, the Lord of the Wind. Enlil owed nominal loyalty to his father Anu/Heaven but outside of southern Mesopotamia he gradually became more important evolving to the status of king of the gods. In Canaan Enlil was known as El, the father of an entire pantheon of gods that included Yahweh.

In the Atrahasis the chief of the gods, Enlil (known as Ellil in Akkadian) had been confronted by a revolt of the lesser gods, which caused him to create humans as servants. However after some centuries pass the humans become a nuisance. Finally Enlil release a devastating flood to reduce the human population.

In the second verse of Genesis God, who is called Elohim in the Hebrew, is said to hover over the waters. This description of God and the use of the name Elohim further reveals this Babylonian god’s influence.

Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. - (Gen: 1,2)

This image of God moving over the waters compares directly with the mythology of Enlil who was made visible by traces of his passing such as ripples on the water.

Ningishzida was a Mesopotamian serpent deity associated with the underworld. He was often depicted protectively wrapped around a tree as a guardian. Thorkild Jacobsen interprets his name in Sumerian to mean "lord of the good tree."

Despite apparent similarities between Genesis and the Enûma Eliš, there are also significant differences. The most notable is the absence from Genesis of the "divine combat" (the gods' battle with Tiamat) which secures Marduk's position as king of the world, but even this has an echo in the claims of Yahweh's kingship over creation in such places as Psalm 29 and Psalm 93, where he is pictured as sitting enthroned over the floods and Isaiah 27:1. "In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword; his fierce, great and powerful sword; Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea." Thus this creation account may be seen as either a borrowing or historicizing of Babylonian myth or, in contrast, may be seen as a repudiation of Babylonian ideas about origins and humanity.

See also

• Assyro-Babylonian religion
• Gilgamesh flood myth
• Epic of Gilgamesh
• Comparative religion
• Genesis creation narrative
• Comparative mythology
• Christianity and Paganism
• Christianity and other religions
• [[Sumerian King Alulim as biblical Adam]]

External links

• The Development, Heyday, and Demise of Panbabylonism by Gary D. Thompson
• Comparison of Genesis with creation stories in the Near East by Dr. David Livingston