Scholars of all shades of opinion agree that there is some connection between this Babylonian tradition and the first chapter of Genesis, though they differ as to whether the Biblical writer was acquainted with the Babylonian tradition as we have it in the epic, or whether he knew an earlier form of the story.
The points of similarity which have been urged between Genesis and the Babylonian epic are the following: 1. They begin somewhat similarly, Genesis with the words “In the beginning,” the epic with the words:
“Time was when above heaven was not named;
Below to the earth no name was given.”
2. Both accounts assume that primeval chaos consisted of a mass of waters, and to this mass of waters they give the same name. The Hebrews called it tehōm, “deep”; the Babylonians, Tiâmat. These are really the same word in the two closely related languages, just as day and Tag are the same word in an English and a German form. In Genesis we are told that “The Spirit of God moved (R. V. margin, was brooding) upon the face of the waters”; in the Babylonian epic, the waters, which were thought to be of two genders, were embosomed. In both the result is the beginning of the creative process.
The two accounts agree that the heavens and the earth were created by the division of the primeval ocean by a firmament (the Babylonian calls it a covering), which held up a part of the waters, so that the earth could be formed beneath. They accordingly agree in the conception that there is a super-celestial ocean, i. e., “the waters which are above the firmament” (Gen. 1:7).
Another striking similarity is found in the arrangement by sevens: the Babylonian epic is arranged in seven tablets, or cantos, the Hebrew account, in seven days. The Babylonian series culminates in the praise of Marduk by all the gods; the Hebrew, in the institution of the sabbath. The two series agree in connecting the heavens with the fourth epoch of creation, and the creation of man with the sixth.
In other respects the order differs. In the Babylonian account the moon and stars are created on the fifth day, instead of on the fourth. As Marduk is identified with the sun, that orb is assumed; its creation is not described. The creation of animals is not described in any text which we can attach to a definite tablet of the Babylonian series. It is, however, given in a fragment which reads as follows:
1. When the gods in their assembly had made [the heavens],
2. The firmament had established and bound [fast],
3. Living things of all kinds had created,