A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis

COSMOGONIES 47
naturally by that of the stars. The arrangement of the remaining
works, which must have been mentioned in lost parts of Tabs. V. <strong>and</strong>
VI., is, of course, uncertain; but the statement of Berossus suggests
that the creation of l<strong>and</strong> animals followed instead of preceding that of
man. At the same time it is very significant that the separate works
themselves, apart from their order : Firmament, Luminaries, Earth,
Plants, Animals, Men,—are practically identical in the two documents :
therels even a fragment (possibly belonging to the series) which alludes
to the creation of marine animals as a distinct class (King, CT, lix,
Ixxxvi). Gordon {Early Traditions of Gen.) holds that the differences
of arrangement can be reduced to the single transposition of heavenly
bodies <strong>and</strong> plants (see his table, p. 51).
In view of these parallels, it seems impossible to doubt that the
cosmogony of Gn. i rests on a concepTioTT oFOie pFocess of creation
fundamentally identical with that of the Enuma eliS tablets.
3. There is, however, another recension of the Babylonian creation
story from which the fight of the sun-god with chaos is absent, <strong>and</strong>
which for that reason possesses a certain importance for our present
purpose. It occurs as the Introduction to a bilingual magical text, first
published by Pinches In 1891.* Once upon a time, it tells us, there were
no temples for the gods, no plants, no houses or cities, no human
inhabitants
:
The Deep had not been created, Eridu had not been built ;
Of the holy house, the house of the gods, the habitation had not been
made.
All l<strong>and</strong>s were sea {tdmtu).
Then arose a * movement In the sea ' ; the most ancient shrines <strong>and</strong>
cities of Babylonia were made, <strong>and</strong> divine beings created to inhabit
them. Then
Marduk laid a reed t on the face of the waters
He formed dust <strong>and</strong> poured It out beside the reed,
That he might cause the gods to dwell In the habitation of their
heart's desire.
He formed mankind ; the goddess Aruru together with him created
the seed of mankind.
Next he formed beasts, the rivers, grasses, various kinds of animals, etc.;
then, having * laid in a dam by the side of the sea, ' he made reeds <strong>and</strong>
trees, houses <strong>and</strong> cities, <strong>and</strong> the great Babylonian sanctuaries. The
whole description Is extremely obscure, <strong>and</strong> the translations vary widely.
*JRAS, 1891, 393 ff.; translated In King, CT, 131 ff.; KIB, 39 ff.;
ATLG^, I29ff. ; Texie u, Bilder, I. 27 f.; Sayce, Early Israel, 336 f.
Cf. the summary in KAT^, 498.
t So King; but Je. *a reed-hurdle' {Rohrgeflecht) ; while Jen.
renders :
' Marduk placed a canopy in front of the waters, He created
earth <strong>and</strong> heaped it up against the canopy '— a reference to the
nrniament (so KAT^).
;