Genesis starts off a bang and states:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; and the earth was without form and void;
and the darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters.” In a very broad understanding, you can take
that to be an attempt at understanding something like the Big Bang theory. Since even today it is
difficult to model without complex creations of math. It is an attempt to make what would
be unknowable something to approximate an understanding of. Humans like to think of
themselves as being much more advanced today than humans were in the distant past but that’s human
arrogance. There was just as much innovation as today it’s in our nature. The origins of reality
are still something that humans are trying to figure out. We want to know what we are.
Later on, we read about how God creates humanity, and it states:
“Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them
rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over
every crawling creature that crawls on the earth.” Notice the us, this shows that this story
has been taken and transformed a multitude of gods to a single God.
And further on we read: “Then the LORD God formed man out of the dust of
the earth and he breathed his breath of life into his nostrils and man became a living creature.” `
Keep this in mind as we explore myths that are related such as the Babylonian Enuma Elish and
Sumerian creation myths. They seem to stem from a common source. That makes sense considering
that in the early books of the bible they were in the same area and influencing each other.
Where, however, would they learn of something as complex as the origins of the universe and why
would they try to pass it that particular knowledge down even encoded in myth?
That is actually the true question. In one of our more recent videos Lost Ancient Super
Civilizations and Their Physical Remains We discussed some of the more tantalizing
places and things found and what they could mean for the search for a lost civilization.
But what if what we seek goes back to the myths they had, and it was knowledge that they gained
through their encounters in altered states of consciousness. If so, there’s not exactly going to
be proof. There could however be clues that we are missing in the very myths we are about to look at.
Sumerian Myths of Creation
Sumer is one of the oldest known Cultures dating back to six thousand BCE. It is located in what
is now known as Iraq, and frequently called the cradle of civilization. It is known for its very
early writing, irrigation, the first written laws, and many other things. Although there are
many Sumerian Creation myths one of the most well documented is the “Eridu Genesis”. It was found in
the city of Nippur, on a single tablet. Historian Thorkild Jacobson was the first person to note
just how important a tablet it was. Eventually the tablet was dated to around Sixteen-hundred BCE.
The story begins in the city of Eridu, which was one of the earliest Sumerian
cities. Located near modern day Basra, close to the coast of the Persian Gulf. The city is
theorized to have been populated by three cultures that fused together. Those three
cultures were peasant farmers, Semitic nomads, and fishermen. Note the Semitic nomads since
they are the ones that go on to write the bible. The god Enki and the goddess Ninmah collaborate
with the other gods to create humans. Now remember how in the book of Genesis God used clay? Well,
here it’s the goddess Ninmah who uses the clay but that is also how humans are created.
Unfortunately, the actual lines of text can only be inferred from other associated myths
such as the Babylonian “Enuma Elish” since that part of the tablet has never been found.
The Babylonian angle and the “Enuma Elish” The “Enuma Elish’ was found by Austen Henry
Layard who was an English archaeologist in 1849 in the Librаry of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh which
is in modern day Mosul in Iraq. It is about one thousand nines that have been collected
on seven tablets and is mostly complete. That particular version dates to 700 BCE
although most scholars feel that the actual story dates to at least two thousand BCE.
The myth…
In the beginning before the heavens and the earth existed there were only one god,
Apsu and one goddess, Tiamat. They were the god of freshwater and the goddess
of saltwater. They mixed their waters and created a whole pantheon of gods. However,
the noise disturbed Apsu’s rest so he planned to kill them. One of the god’s was named Ea and he
put Apsu into a deep slumber and while he slept Ea killed him. Tiamat was enraged by the death of her
husband Apsu and a different god named Marduk offered to step forward and deal with her in
exchange for having authority over all the gods and goddesses. Ultimately, he won,
and he proceeded to split her body into two and from her he created the sky and earth.
Much like God he went on furthering his creation, creating the heavens and the earth. Finally,
he got to humans, where humans were created from the blood of a god and clay. You can see
the biblical parallels. Interestingly these tablets also talk about the Oannes who were
fishmen and their version of ‘people who came from far away and taught humans what they knew’.
So where does this leave us… With a lot of very interesting avenues to explore.
As stated, you can easily see how Genesis comes from the same mythological background as the
Sumerian and Babylonian creation myths. Let’s take a look at these similarities one at a time though.
The creation of the heavens and the earth: So, in the Enuma Elish you have multiple
gods versus one god but other than that-it’s a pretty close approximation of the same myth.
It’s all an allegory though to explain something that is conjecture even today. Eventually some
physicist will come up with a theory to supplant the big bang that hopefully gets
even closer to the truth but even when that happens the allegory will remain the same.
The creation of people: The main difference is in
what the gods contributed to our makeup to make us more than clay. Our divine spark
comes either from blood or breath according to these myths. This is to show that while humans
should have some sort of dominion over the other animals, not enough to be considered divine,
so we owe the gods worship since obviously they controlled more of reality than we could.
Since there is this parallel tradition of ‘beings who came and taught us what they know’,
it’s clear that someone wanted to make sure humans listened. Now that could be aliens that created
human alien hybrids. It could be more advanced humans that fled a catastrophe. We just don’t
know, there is evidence in both directions. What seems clear though is that later myths
tell us that humans quickly escaped their control and at least some of them sought to destroy what
they had created by a great flood. There isn’t space here to do more than lightly touch upon
that angle of history but what the myths tell us is that some gods helped us escape that fate and
some were in favor of wiping humans out. Even in the bible where the myth is condensed into
one god it’s largely convoluted since God is going to destroy us but then he’s going to save us. So,
the flood myth must have been too important to let go of entirely. It serves as a warning to
humanity not to entirely trust in the good will of the gods. It also serves as a warning to humanity
not to trust that reality or nature will remain in a static, ever unchanging state and we must
be prepared for rapid and total change. That rapid and total change might just
be the ultimate lesson to be learned in these stories. Humans are obviously
more than just the other animals. Even our closest relatives’ chimpanzees and bonobos,
which share ninety-eight point seven of our DNA, don’t have a Mozart or an Einstein. They exist
still in the wild, still waiting for that spark. Something gave us that spark which allowed us to
work together for common goals, to seek community, to strive to better our circumstances. In the end,
maybe that’s what matters since we forged our own destiny and we won. So far.