Enuma Elish is a Babylonian creation story which narrated the origin of the universe and stories between different Gods. Marduk—the leader of gods—killed Tiamat who created all the gods with Apsu and finally created the human being to serve all the gods. Sumerians created this story and wrote it on seven tablets in 15th-14th century BCE, so Enuma Elish was also called as the seven tablets of creation. These texts were written in Akkadian by cuneiform, depicted a vivid creation story to explain the origin and mission of humans.
Genesis 2:4-3:24 recorded a story happened around 40th century BCE, about the creation of Adam and Eve who ate the fruit of trees in the middle of the garden and eyes were opened. This story happened in the garden of Eden and with many trees and fruits. But the Lord God had told Adam and Eve that they would die if they touched those fruits and finally expelled them from the garden of Eden with punishments. The book of Genesis was written in 3rd century BCE by Moses—the spiritual leader of Hebrew. Genesis majorly focused on how world was created and the origin culture of humans.
In Enuma Elish, everything began with Tiamat and her husband Apsu. Each of them separately represents the ocean and fresh water, which indicates that the Babylonian kingdom was located in the junction of ocean and Euphrates and Tigris (Enuma Elish 1.3-5). Coincidentally, these two rivers—Euphrates and Tigris—were recorded in Genesis 2:4-3:24. Adam and Eve were created in the garden of Eden, “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Gen 2:8). The garden of Eden was surrounded by four rivers—Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates (Gen 2:11-14). This coincidence that Enuma Elish and Genesis both began in the same location shows a possible relationship between the Hebrew and Babylonian kingdom.
Even though there are some similarities in culture and geological background between Enuma Elish and Genesis, their power system was very distinct in many ways. For instance, the significant difference is the number of god with power.
In Enuma Elish, there are a variety of gods, and each of them owns different kinds of power or ability. These gods have their own personality and want, and behave like human beings, “By their uproar distressing the interior of the Divine Abode.” (Enuma Elish 1.25) In the Genesis, on the contrary, there is only one god—the Lord God—with infinite power and knowledge. He is kind and generous, appears as a character full of mercy.
Meanwhile, the Lord God also owns the supreme power since he can control and change everything in the world. In Genesis 3:14-19, the Lord God can easily decide what Adam, Eve, and the serpent deserve and control over them. Gods in Enuma Elish were more like living in a different dimension of the universe. They have their own lives with mixed emotions and personalities as human beings have. These gods live in another society they created with the hierarchy system. The Lord God, on the other hand, is wholly separated from the world we—the humans—live, that his power and knowledge exceeds everything in the universe.
One interesting fact about these powers recorded in texts is that female’s social status is much lower than the male’s. Even though Enuma Elish did not make any explication about humans’ society, the gods’ society still showed this fact.
According to Enuma Elish, “He subdued her and snuffed out her life” (Enuma Elish 4.103). Marduk—the male—killed Tiamat—the female—and became the leader of all the gods, which is a representation of the patriarchy have overthrown the matriarchy. It also indicates that the male’s power is stronger than the female’s. Also, when Tiamat decided to against Ea, Ea said to his father Anshar, “A woman’s force may be very great, but it cannot match a man’s.” (Enuma Elish 2.92). This is an allusion that women’s dominant position of power would be replaced by men.
In Genesis, there are even more allusions to the disparity between men and women. First, the Lord God—representative of supreme power—is male. If the female had dominant social status in ancient times, people might portray the Lord God as a woman. Also, Eve was created by one of Adam’s ribs, “this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken” (Gen 2:23), which indicates that women are part of men. In other words, women belong to men, and they are dependent on the male. What is more, what punishments the Lord God gave to Eve directly shows his attitude towards women, “yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen 3:16). It provided a perfect reason for rulers in ancient society to suppress women and allow the male to rule over the female, which is a complete patriarchy system.
The most significant effect of these texts is not permitting male that they have rights to rule over female, but making women themselves accept this setting and voluntarily follow men’s control. The Lord God showed the attitude to women’s social and family status while people will trust all his words; therefore, the woman will neither against the rule nor thinking about the rationality of the rule. In hence, even some of the women raised the doubt toward it, women themselves may restrict their voices and control their thinking. For instance, there was a corrupt custom in ancient China called “feet binding,” which means people applying tight binding to the feet of young girls to modify the shape and size of their feet. Most girls would cry out and refuse to it, but the ones insist on feet binding the most are usually their mothers—who suffered the pain as well. The reason is obvious—most people including women have accepted this custom and would not oppose it anymore. This kind of “invisible” power can be employed by the rulers of ancient kingdoms to control their citizens’ thinking, which is an excellent method to regulate the country and reduce rebellions. Even though this kind of supreme power structure is replaced by the modern government nowadays, the power structure can appear in many modern companies as well. A huge company is an epitome of hierarchy. The leadership governs its staffs to regulate the company as same as the ruler in ancient times. This kind of power structure can be either effective or dangerous sometimes. Therefore, it should inspire us to consider making balanced decisions.
Works Cited
Coogan, Michael D, Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha: An Ecumenical Study Bible. Oxford [England: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.
Foster, Benjamin R. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. Bethesda, Md: CDL Press, 1993. Print.