Enûma Elish
The Babylonian Creation Epic
When on high, Heaven had not yet been named,
and below, the earth was
not mentioned by name ...
1
So begins the Babylonian Poem of Creation, known as “Enûma Elish” because
of its first words.
The text has been almost entirely rebuilt through some sixty
fragments of clay tablets written in Akkadian language and cuneiform characters.
Many copies of this poem were in the archives of the major cities of the ancient
kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon, particularly in the famous library of Ashurbanipal (668-627
BC), the largest and most ancient of early times, found in the city of
Nineveh, today Kuyunjik, a city near Mosul in Kurdistan. There,
were recovered about 30,000 tablets and fragments, corresponding to about 10,000
documents, mainly related with the traditional literary texts of the Babylonian
wisdom, such as those now known by the names of Enûma
Elish, Atra-hasis, The Epic of
Gilgamesh and many others.
The period of the
composition of the Enûma Elish has been credibly established by scholars at the
time of the first dynasty of Babel, but there are no safe references, and some
date it in the eighth century BC, in the time of the Assyrian king
Tiglatpilsiter III
who also reigned over Babylon, and say that the author is not
Babylonian, but Assyrian.
The poem was written for
the ritual of the fourth day of New Year’s celebration (Akitu), held in the spring.
2
The biblical description of the beginning has with the mythological cosmogony,
similarities that must be recognized. This raises the question of whether the
Bible depends on mythology or if mythology depends on the Bible; however, the
logical thesis is that the mythological stories come from a distortion of the
original narrative, and that the book of Genesis preserves the oldest and most
genuine account of that event, written down in the period of the exodus from
Egypt.
3
The major Mesopotamian cosmogony stories are two:
The first, the “Enûma
Elish”, is usually compared to the narrative on the first chapter of
Genesis.
The second is the “Atra-hasis”, with passages that correspond to
some from the second chapter of Genesis.
But despite the
similarities and sometimes remarkable correspondences between biblical narrative
and Mesopotamian myth, there are between them sharp contrasts on the background
values and in the approach of the Creator. The evolutionary thesis in this
field, says that from confusing and messy stories emerged an orderly account,
the biblical report. However, the fact that the spreading of the original
revelation among the peoples, may have caused its distortion to satisfy their
perspectives and imagination is more logical and consistent to human condition,
as the apostle Paul says when he writes: “What may be
known about God is evident; he himself reveals it, because his invisible
qualities, his eternal power and his divinity are clearly seen from the creation
of the world and understood by the things he made. But having realized that God
exists, they have not given him glory nor have shown him gratitude, raving in their reasoning, they have
obscured their clumsy understanding and considering themselves wise, they have
strayed and have replaced the glory of
the immortal God by images resembling mortal men, birds, quadruped animals
and creeping creatures”. (Romains
1:19 ... 23)
These are two examples
of some similarities between the Genesis and the Enûma Elish
poem.
Tablet No. 1; lines 1 to 9.
It refers to the
creation of the Earth
Transliteration and translation of the text:
1 E-nu-ma e-liš la na-bu-ú
ša-ma-mu
2 šap-li-iš am-ma-tum šu-ma
la zak-rat
3 Apsû–ma riš-tu-ú za-ru-šu-un
4 mu-um-mu Ti-amat
mu-al-li-da-at gim-ri-šu-un
6 gi-pa-ra la
ki-is̟-s̟u-ra s̟u-s̟a-a la s-̕
7 e-nu-ma ilâni la šu-pu-u
ma-na-ma
8 šu-ma la zuk-ku-ru ši-ma-tú
la ši-ma
9 íb-ba-nu-ú-ma ilâni ki-rib
ša-ma-mi
1
When on high, Heaven had not yet been named,
2
and below, the earth was not mentioned by name,
3
Nothing existed except Apsû the ancient, its
creator
4
and the chaos Tiamat from which everything was
created.
5
The waters were stirred in a single whole
6
and the pastures were not yet formed nor were the cane
fields.
7
When no star could still be seen
8
none had a name; when targets were not yet
established,
9
then, the stars were made visible in the midst of
heaven.
Tablet No. 5; lines 14-22.
Makes reference to the
creation of Nannar, the moon, and of the commission entrusted to it by God,
which is to measure and monitor time and adorn the day and the
night
14 ar-ḫ̮i-šam
la na-pat-ka-a ina a.gi-e u-s̮ir
15 i-na rêš
arḫi-ma na-pa-ḫi i-na ma-a-ti
16 k̟ar-ni na-ba-a-ta ana ud-du-u 6 u-mi
17 i-na ûmi 7-kan
a-ga-a šum-šu-la
18 umu 14-tu lu-u
šu-tam-ḫu-rat meš-li-u
19 e-nu Šamaš
i-na i-šid šamêe ….-ka
20 ….-ti
šu-tak̟-s̟i-ba-am-ma òi-ni ar-….-us
21 …. A-na ḫar-ra-an
Šamaš šu-tak̟-rib-ma
22 ina umi….kan lu
šu-tam-ḫu-rat-ilu Šamaš lu ša-na-….
14
Every month without rest, you will give signals with your
disk
15
at the beginning of the month, when you start to illuminate the
earth,
16
with the brightness of your horns you will indicate the first six
days.
17
The seventh day you will show half of your disk;
18
the fourteenth day you will oppose the sun; it will be half of the
month.
19
When in the east you join the sun,
20
your disk diminishes and begins to decrease,
21
in the day of darkness you will approach the path of the
sun.
22
In the twenty-ninth day you will come back at
sunset.