101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

Myths of the Beginning 23
appearing in the form of Re (the Hermopolitan Creator deity), would have been
responsible for the organization of the rest of the creative process, including the
appearance of the moon and the stars.
In some Egyptian texts, the sun and moon each form one of the eyes of Horus (a
solar deity identified as the son of Re or Osiris), but we have no particularly useful
account of the moon’s origin. Egyptians considered stars to be inhabitants of the
underworld and, since Osiris (the son of heaven and earth) ruled the underworld,
they called the stars“Followers of Osiris.”
While the Theban tradition places the creation of the sun at the same sequential
point as Genesis, we have to acknowledge that the thrust of the Genesis narrative for
the fourth day does not flow from Egyptian ideas. The sun has a significantly diminished
role, placed on a par or slightly more important level with the moon and the
stars, a concept inconsistent with the Egyptian view.
However, a passage from a Babylonian Creation text known as Enuma Elish
(Tablet V), shows that Babylonian ideas influenced the Genesis description. It
describes events that took place almost immediately after the god Marduk had slain
the monstrous Tiamat and formed heaven and earth out of her severed parts. In it,
there are detailed descriptions of how he created the sun, moon, and stars and their
roles in marking out time periods. To quote just one passage that parallels the biblical
description,“The moon he caused to shine forth; the night he entrusted (to her). He
appointed her, the ornament of the night, to make known the days.”
Compare that with the biblical phrasing: “And God made two great lights; the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.”
The ideas in both passages clearly share common concepts, but the Babylonian
phrasing reflects the polytheistic nature of the myths. The Hebrews, as with the
Egyptian myths, accepted the Babylonian science but separated out the gods from the
functions. Still, we see how closely the Hebrews followed the Babylonian model, eliminating
the deities but embracing their roles as rulers of the day and night.