A flood, a tower, a sea monster: Israel's neighbours told such stories too. What is the same, what is different, and what does that say?
The Bible did not drop from the sky into an empty world. Israel lived between Egypt, Babylon and the Canaanites, and those peoples had their own stories about the beginning, about a great flood, about sea monsters and giants. Since archaeologists found those texts again in the nineteenth century, people have set them beside the Bible. What turns out: sometimes the stories look very much alike. And precisely there it stands out how differently the Bible speaks about God and about people.
Christians read these likenesses in more than one way. Some see in them a shared memory of real events, distorted among other peoples. Others see Genesis as a text that deliberately retells well-known stories to say who the true God is. Both readings hold Genesis to be God's Word; they differ on how it asks to be read.
Five stories
Creation and Enuma Elish
Elsewhere:Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation poem, on clay tablets from the first millennium before Christ; the material is older.
In the Bible
God speaks, and it comes to be. Light, sky, sea, land, plants, sun and moon, animals and humankind, and on the seventh day rest. Everything is good, and humankind is made in God's image.
Among the neighbours
The god Marduk defeats the sea monster Tiamat in battle and makes heaven and earth from her body. Then humans are made from the blood of a defeated god, Kingu, to do the work of the gods. The poem ends with the building of Babylon and Marduk's temple.
What is alike
A beginning with water and darkness.
Ordering: separating sky and water, a fixed sequence.
Humankind receives a task.
What differs
In Genesis there is no battle: God does not need to defeat anyone, He speaks.
Sun and moon are not gods but 'lights' (Genesis 1:16), simply made.
Humankind is not a slave of gods, but God's image, blessed and caring for the earth.
How Christians read it
Many interpreters, including very conservative ones, see Genesis 1 here as a quiet answer to Babylon: what are gods there are creatures here. Christians differ on how the six days should be read; that is discussed under science and faith.
Elsewhere:The Epic of Gilgamesh (tablet XI) and the older Atrahasis epic, whose oldest copy dates from the seventeenth century before Christ; also a Sumerian story about Ziusudra.
In the Bible
God sees that the earth is full of violence. He has Noah build an ark, saves him, his family and the animals, and then makes a covenant with all life, with the rainbow as its sign.
Among the neighbours
In 1872 George Smith of the British Museum read a clay tablet from Nineveh and found a flood story on it. Utnapishtim builds a boat on a god's advice, takes animals along, runs aground on a mountain and releases a dove, a swallow and a raven. In Atrahasis the gods send the flood because the noise of humans keeps them from sleeping. After the flood they are hungry, because no one has brought them offerings.
What is alike
A boat with a family and animals, sealed with pitch.
A mountain on which the boat comes to rest.
Birds that are sent out.
An offering after the flood.
What differs
In Gilgamesh the gods are capricious and quarrel among themselves; in Genesis there is one God, who judges justly and saves at the same time.
The reason: not noise, but violence and the evil heart of humankind (Genesis 6:5, 11).
Genesis ends with a promise for all life, not with hungry gods.
How Christians read it
Some Christians see in the many flood stories a shared memory of a real disaster, which Genesis preserves faithfully. Others see Genesis as a deliberate retelling of a known story, with a very different God at its centre. Opinions also differ on how far the flood reached. The story of the ark itself is on the page about the ark.
Elsewhere:The ziggurats of Mesopotamia, such as Etemenanki in Babylon, next to the temple of Marduk; and Enuma Elish, which sings of the gods building Babylon.
In the Bible
People want to build a city and a tower reaching to heaven, 'to make a name'. God comes down, confuses their language and scatters them. The place is called Babel.
Among the neighbours
In Akkadian Babylon was called Bab-ili, 'gate of god'. The city was proud of its stepped tower, which was meant to join heaven and earth. In the creation poem the gods themselves build Babylon as their dwelling.
What is alike
Baked bricks and bitumen as building material (Genesis 11:3), as in Mesopotamia.
A tower meant to reach heaven, just like a ziggurat.
What differs
What Babylon calls 'gate of god', Genesis turns with a pun into 'confusion' (the Hebrew balal).
God does not need to be brought up: He 'comes down' to look at the tower, that is how small it is to Him.
At Pentecost it is reversed: one message in many languages.
How Christians read it
That Genesis 11 mocks Babylon's boasting is seen by interpreters from all kinds of churches. Whether the story is about one particular tower, or about humankind wanting to make itself great, they differ.
Elsewhere:The Baal Cycle, poems on clay tablets from Ugarit (Ras Shamra, Syria), excavated from 1929 onwards; from the thirteenth century before Christ.
In the Bible
Leviathan is a sea monster. God has defeated him (Psalm 74), will punish him (Isaiah 27:1), and in Psalm 104 he is simply a creature that plays in the sea. In Job 41 he is the image of what no human can tame.
Among the neighbours
In the texts from Ugarit the god Baal (or the goddess Anat) defeats Lotan, 'the fleeing serpent, the twisting serpent, the mighty one with seven heads'. The sea and the monster stand for the chaos the gods must subdue.
What is alike
The same name (Lotan, Leviathan) and almost the same words: Isaiah 27:1 also calls him the fleeing and twisting serpent.
The sea monster as an image of chaos and evil.
What differs
At Ugarit it is a battle between gods with an open outcome. In the Bible Leviathan is a creature of God, even a plaything (Psalm 104:26).
The Bible uses the old images to say that God stands above all chaos, even above what people fear most.
In Revelation the dragon returns, and the outcome is certain.
How Christians read it
Christians mostly read Leviathan as a poetic image, borrowed from the language of the neighbours, to show God's power. Some think of a real animal in Job 41, such as a crocodile. What else the Bible says about Leviathan is under angels and creatures.
Elsewhere:Heroes such as Gilgamesh, who according to the epic was two-thirds god and one-third human; and, much later, the Jewish book of Enoch.
In the Bible
In four verses Genesis 6 tells of 'sons of God' who marry 'daughters of men', and of the Nephilim, 'the mighty men of old'. Right after that comes: the wickedness of humankind was great.
Among the neighbours
The surrounding peoples loved to tell of demigods and giants, children of gods and humans, honoured as heroes. Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the best-known example.
What is alike
A link between heavenly beings and humans.
Famous, strong figures from primeval times.
What differs
What is admired elsewhere stands in Genesis in a line of growing evil, just before the flood.
The Bible tells it briefly and without hero worship; the weight lies on God's judgement and God's patience.
How Christians read it
Who the 'sons of God' were is an old question: fallen angels, or the descendants of Seth, or kings. Thread sets those readings side by side under the mysteries.
Likeness is not a copy. Two stories about a flood can both go back to something older, and they can also be deliberately in conversation with each other.
The difference says the most. Where the neighbours show capricious gods, battle and slavery, the Bible shows one God who speaks, cares, judges and makes a covenant.
The Bible speaks the language of its time. God spoke to people in images they knew, just as Jesus later spoke about sowers, coins and wineskins.