The Creation of Enkidu

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Creation stories are symbolic accounts of how the world and its inhabitants came about. These stories first developed in oral traditions, so there are multiple accounts of them from different cultures and societies. The Babylonian Creation story, the Genesis Creation story, and the Sumerian story of the Creation of Enkidu are examples of these and the similarities are interesting. As Dennis Bratcher states, “Because of many parallels with the Genesis account, some historians concluded that the Genesis account was simply a rewriting of the Babylonian Story. As a reaction, many who wanted to maintain the uniqueness of the Bible argues either that there were no real parallels between the accounts or that the Genesis narratives were written first and the Babylonian myth borrowed from the biblical account” (Bratcher “When on High…”). This argument about the authenticity has gone on for years and will continue to go on. In light of their dispute, this paper will be an attempt to analyze the similarities of the gods in different civilizations that these creation stories focus on. It will discuss the similarities of creation myths in three diverse cultures; Hebrew, Babylonian, and Sumerian. Cultural function and values promote significant differences as well as which point to changes in the universal themes of “creation.” It will discuss the probability that one creation story was the main source for the authors of the other creation stories to derive their works from. In all of these stories, there is one god that creates man. In the Babylonian story, the god Marduk creates man from the blood of another god Kingu. “They bound him and held him before Ea; punishment they inflicted upon him by cutting the arteries of his bl... ... middle of paper ... ...ories, there is no evidence that any of the first humans created were put in their worlds as infants. We understand that they were all just placed in their worlds as adults or older beings. There is no specific age mentioned in any story. Works Cited Bratcher, Dennis. The Mesopotamian/Babylonian Creation Myth. Scribd. Web. . 03 December 2011. Heidel, Alexander. The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1963. Print. ---.. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1949. Print. Mitchell, Stephen. Gilgamesh: A New English Version. New York: Free, 2004. Print. The New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition. New York: Catholic Book, 1970. Print. Sargent, Denny. The Seven Babylonian Tablets of Creation. Scribd. Web. . 03 December 2011.

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