Notes

Babylonion religion, being one of the first of its kind, has had major influence over Judaism and other religions. The ex nihilo aspect of the Babylonian religion could be cited as an example for how Judaism had its start as well, with separation of water from lands. Due to it being an ex nihilo myth, it served as light being the greatest change to change the world from the darkness. The prophets of Judaism and later towards Jesus could serve as a preface as Marduk conquering over Tiamut. After creating the heavens, angels and men have been created. Due to these religions being formed around the same time, they have a lot of similarities amongst them. A few more parallels between them could be cited as historical events, such as the Great Flood. These historical events also affected both religions. Babylonian religion also served as an antagonistic religion to Judaism due to their differences on status and power amongst their respective groups. Their religion also indirectly influenced Christianity, which formed after Judaism due to differences in how Jesus was viewed. It is clear that even though the Babylonian religion is long gone, it still has lasting effects on the world.


After reading about the both Babylonian religion and Abrahamic Judaism religion , there are many similarities between them and I think Babylonian religion had influenced a lot on Abrahamic Judaism religion . The Babylonian creation myth is based on the Enuma Elish or The Seven Tablets of Creation. Mesopotamia excavations establish that several Abrahamic religious narratives about the creation of the world are based on Mesopotamian myth theory. God is very center point of both religion myths. In both creations darkness precedes the creation and God created the world from nothing or from scratch. In both creations light also existed before Gods creation of the world. Both religions mentioned order of creation and elements of creation like water, sky , heaven, and earth and after the creation of these elements, God created water animals, plants, land animals, and finally human beings. Babylonian creation mentioned about multiple gods and whereas Abrahamic religious narratives mentioned about single God. Both religions mentioned about order of creation, timeline of creation and kind of quality check by end of each phase of creation , especially after creation humans God felt very good. With these similarities I could understand that there was great migration of ancient population from Babylon to Middle east Judaism birthplace Israel, they helped in spreading their beliefs in different from and which helped in creation of Abrahamic Judaism religion and other Abrahamic religions.

There are clear similarities. We have to start with the fact that both say the earth before a creator was void. It was just swarming waters, described as chaotic. The absence of a sun means it was also dark. Both stories create the same image of the world being filled with darkness and chaos prior to anyone changing it. Then, both stories show a God (or gods) coming in and calming the waters and creating land and life. They separate light from darkness, heat from cold, and create days. They create people, animals, and give rules to the people on how to live. Both stories also say life began in the same place, somewhere around the tigris and euphrates rivers. I find it interesting how alot of creation stories and even scientists agree that life started somewhere from mesopotamia to africa, but thats besides the point. My favorite similarities in the stories is the fact that creation came through speech. As God in the genesis story says "Let there be light," Marduk also speaks everything into existence. The people of the ancient world clearly had similar ideas on how the earth came to be, and I love reading all the creation stories to see these similarities.