Transcription
If someone said they wanted to tell you the greatest story in the world, would you want to hear it? Well, before the time of Netflix and YouTube, and even books, such a story existed. It became so popular that much of the world is aware of it today, and much of the world has been aware of its parts for thousands of years. And today, I'm going to look at this story from a mythological perspective, not from our theological point of view, or from a cultural scholarship view, but from the point of view of the origin of the stories and their original meaning.
And so, today I'm going to discuss the mythology within the first 11 chapters of Genesis, a book which could be considered as a greatest hits of mythology. And so, if that sounds interesting, then grab yourself a cup of tea and welcome to Krakenfold. Thank you.
Whilst I'm not a believer in any of the Abrahamic faiths, and certainly not a fan of some of the organizations that promote the worship of this faith across the world, I have to acknowledge that the Bible, their book of religious texts, is a collection of fascinating stories, many sacred to this faith, that have been collated over hundreds, if not thousands, of thousands of years. And it is because of this, it acts as a gold mine of myth, legend, of folklore. And out of all the books in the Bible, the most interesting book to me is Genesis, as it represents a collection of some of the greatest mythologies put together in one place and strapped to a canonical timeline to give it a sense of history. And thus, it took these greatest myths and made them something even more compelling.
And with that, let's begin at the beginning, or almost the beginning. Genesis starts with creation, like most good cosmogenic mythology, but it goes about it in an odd way, a way that to me belies its origin. Myths about cosmogony often start with nothing and very specifically state there is an absence of anything, even gods. Or the other popular motif is that it starts with darkness and chaotic sea. And it is the latter we see here, but translated in an unusual way. This translation, and its usual interpretation, is often read as: "In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the wind of God sweeping over the water. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
Now, it may also be worth saying here, to those who are not so familiar with the Bible and its versions, that there are a plethora of translations of this book, and even the first few lines have many permutations of words. But I'm not going to discuss that here, other than to say that if no one can agree on what the Bible says, then that really suggests a fundamental flaw with using it as a basis for religion. But let's hate our question we will not follow today, other than to say it is why it probably promotes so much discussion about the religion and what it really means.
But for us here, looking at the mythological evidence behind these words, this is the part of the Bible where God forms the world and the cosmos, and so represents the cosmogony of the Abrahamic faith. But how this happens, it's interesting due to the Hebrew language used in the first few verses, which talk of the deep being without form, and so a version of the chaotic sea. But what stands out the most is to use the word "Tihom" for deep, which is cognate to Tiamat, the name of the saltwater serpent of Sumerian and the Babylonian Christian mythology, the Enuma Elish. And it was Tiamat who was killed with magical wind and a well-placed arrow. And so, when you also see that wind is mentioned, although modern translations have this as "spirit," but I'm under the understanding that this translation of the word wasn't used when the Bible was written, then it feels like the start of Genesis seems to be a synopsis of the Babylonian treasure myth and the defeat of Tiamat as described in the Enuma Elish.
Now, what also helps evidence this is that the Enuma Elish starts with "Enuma," which is what is called the Enuma Elish. And "Enuma" means "when." And this is exactly how Genesis should start. You see, the normal English translation of the start to Genesis goes along the lines of "In the beginning." But this isn't a great translation, and it would be better translated as "When," because the introduction is telling you that "When God created the Heaven and Earth." And it assumes that God is already in existence. And that is what makes this treasurement unusual, but familiar to those listening to it. I mean, anyone sitting down two and a half thousand years ago, listening to this in the Near East, would recognize the start as being similar to the Enuma Elish.
But what this version of the story has also done is summarized the Enuma Elish's outcome, but in doing so, it has removed from it the Babylonian gods and instead places the creation within its own cosmos, establishing God as a supreme being. And I can only imagine it would have been very interesting, recognizable, but also a compelling story when told originally. From this point on, God then creates the cosmos, saying what needs to be created, and it becomes so. There is no sacrifice here to create material for the cosmos.
And so, where did this idea of creating the cosmos by speaking a word come from? Well, many scholars agree that this was probably influenced from Egyptian mythology, where there is a god of creation who wheels things into existence by saying what he requires, or what the tongue requires. And is something we know today as the Memphite Theology. And it is found on the Shepherd Card Stone, which was carved around 700 BCE. This talks of a process that is very similar to how God is creating things in Genesis, which is written around the same time, or maybe slightly later than this. And if you think it is unlikely that Egypt could influence the Canaanites, then you need to know that the Egyptians controlled much of the land where the original stories of Genesis came to be established at the time some of it was being written.
So, what we see here in the opening of Genesis is a combination of Egyptian and Babylonian mythology, which is hardly surprising considering when and where these stories were being created. And it is this combination of mythologies that will bring contradictions within the Genesis story, such as the sun and the moon being created after vegetation, or the sun being created even though God has already said "Let there be light" and at the very start of the story. So, whilst I would love to pick holes in the Bible, my purpose here today is just to say these contradictions just allow us to understand the sources of information Genesis uses in its mythology, because it shows us the Near Eastern creation myths, the chaotic sea, alongside a creation process that is found in the Egyptian mythology of Ptah.
Now, most people are aware that the process of creation happens over the course of seven days, a seven-day week, although the last day is considered a day of rest. And this again points to a combining of the Egyptian mythology of creation, and alongside this week-long structure, which itself can be traced back to the Babylonians with an origin around about 2,300 BCE. And as part of this week-long creation, we see God creating animals on this sixth day. And was mentioned in some generic animal types, cattle are mentioned specifically a couple of times. Now, again, this hints at Egyptian mythology, and the Egyptians had the sky goddess Nut, who often is represented as a cow. But it could also be a nod to Indo-European influence on the myths. And I have talked about this in my video on Indo-European influence in the Bible, and we'll talk about it again in a future video. And about whether it was the Indo-European myth that was originally influenced by the Near Eastern mythology, or vice versa. Either way, this creation myth structure is definitely not of Canaanite or Israeli origin.
In mythology, creation of the cosmos and of humans usually happen within the same story. But in Genesis, the story is a little separated. And again, this is because there are two versions of the creation of humans, which again cause these contradictions, whilst highlighting influence from Babylonian and Egyptian sources. The first instance where man is created has the line which is translated as "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." And then saying, "They shall rule cattle and other animals." And this is remarkably interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the monotheistic God says "our image," and how, as in multiple gods, internal or external, or older polytheistic influence in the writing, with the monotheistic view not yet settled within the stories. And this isn't the only time we see this happen in the Old Testament. And so, it is clear that the God of the Bible has come from a polytheistic Pantheon, or using mythology from a polytheistic culture.
But let's get back to the words being said. And when God says, "They shall rule the animals," before again mentioning cattle specifically, it implies a pastoral influence, which could infer an Egyptian origin for this. I was mentioned a little earlier, maybe even Indo-European, as we see the cattle ready myth of the Indo-European culture talk about the importance of cattle and how they are a gift from the gods. Although I'm not discounting the possibility that these specific influences of this passage could have been Sumerian or Babylonian. It's just that if it is, then the origin would have probably itself been influenced from elsewhere, such as Egypt or the Indo-Europeans. And I had a sub-note here: for all those who say there is no Indo-European and Mesopotamian, Near Eastern crossover, then please watch my video on the Near Eastern creation myth, which shows without a doubt that there was.
But the place in the cattle part of the man's creation aside, the fact that man was made in God's image pushes back against the notion of Babylonian influence in this passage, as within Babylonian mythology, man was a servant of the gods and so would not have been made in God's image and would not have been given any control over anything. And so suggesting a more pastoral influence of this passage in the Bible. Plus, as man is created just by word, it again allies with Egyptian creation mythology. However, our analysis of this passage doesn't stop here, as the story offers more enticing clues.
With the name used for man in creation, he calls man "Adam." And this is not meant to be the actual name of the man created, but in this context, it means "people." And so, more than one person of no particular gender is being created here, so implying that God is creating a group of people. This is quickly cleared up when Genesis next states that God creates Adam in both male and female, which is something not specified for the animals. And so, it makes man different to animals, which again enforces their power and so control over animals. And again, really suggests that this is a Babylonian influenced piece of story, but also different to those mythologies, as it treats humans, a man, a woman.
Now, aside from all the evidence suggesting that this passage was not a Babylonian influence, and so probably influenced from Egyptian texts, we also know that the Babylonian texts, or specifically the Sumerian myth of Enki and Ninhursag, has man created from clay. And this method of man being created is in the next piece of text, which is in the next chapter of Genesis. And so, create some contradictions with this piece of text, showing that the Babylonian and Egyptian mythologies are clashing together. And so, with the Babylonian motif of creation in the next part of Genesis, it further implies this is Egyptian influenced mythology. Although there are also myths of man being created by clay and the potter's wheel in Egyptian mythology, and that was by the god Khnum. So, it's still possible, even if unlikely, that both versions of the creation of man at this point could have been influenced by Egyptian mythology.
The myth of the golden reading tells the story of Adam and Eve, who live in a paradise, except that God has decided to plant temptation slap bang in the middle of it, in the form of the Tree of Knowledge. And this tree provides knowledge that is considered both evil, but also good. Now, there are some who think the Garden of Eden was a real place, due to Genesis giving some geographical descriptions about its location, stating that the rivers Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates glugged. And this would certainly locate it in Mesopotamia, and probably on the east side, around where Baghdad is today. Although it really does depend on how big you think the garden is. I mean, these type of stories tend to place these constructs as within the boundaries of the land you own, as those lands outside that, outside those boundaries, are often considered the place where dragons and demons or enemies roam. And so, don't think of the garden as a literal garden which you have at the front of a house, but a land owned by someone, such as an owner's kingdom. And given the narrative, a land that is probably very lush and fertile.
Now, this paradise and how it worked is very similar to the other world, which I've spoken about in this video. And it's a world without want, where things are timeless. But this version of paradise, Eden, is located on this world, or allegedly so. And so, you could consider it a reflex of the typical mythical view of the other world. And as such, we see again how waters could shape existing known narratives and stories to make them more interesting and fit with this clinical timeline that takes place on the earth-owned one that couldn't be recycled by other religions. And we could come to this conclusion because even today, people think Eden existed. And so think how many people two and a half thousand years ago would have thought it was real, and how amazing that would have seemed having heard the story.
And so, with the golden reader made, God places Adam in there, who is now a single man made from clay, and tells him to look after the garden, which sort of suggests some agricultural influence, whilst reinforcing the fact that you do not eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. And it should also be noted that there is no use of a potter's wheel with the clay which was used to make Adam, which again reduces the probability that this particular creation is of Egyptian influence, and so increasing the certainty that this version of the creation myth and the creation of man is of Babylonian influence.
And so, when Adam has been created, and God realizes that Adam is all alone, and like everything else he has created, he then creates Eve from Adam's rib. Now, the term "rib," this could be perceived as a motive of sacrifice, with some translating this as Adam being cut in half to create Eve. And this may be a play on the primordial figure being cut into two to create the world, just like Tiamat of the Enuma Elish. Although we also see motives like this in Mesopotamia and Greek treasure myths, where part of the body of a god is used to make another. And we see this, such as "ear" being described as the ear of Ninurta, or Athena, who's born from Zeus's forehead, or the Indo-European belief that all classes of men were made from Ymir's body parts, which I'll talk about more in this video.
Be mythological origins are not definitely clear here. But what is clear is what happens next. And this is one of the more exciting moments for me. And it is when Eve eats from the Tree of Knowledge. Now, a story in the Bible says that the serpent persuaded Eve to take a bite of the fruit, and she then passes the fruit to Adam, who then takes a bite. Eve does not tempt Adam, as the word itself implies. The snake was speaking to more than one person, and the fruit is not said to be an apple either, which is another common misconception. But Eve does eat the fruit, and humans gain knowledge, and then use fig leaves to cover themselves when they realize they are naked. And when God sees them covered, and you wonder why God's happy to see them naked, and he realizes they ate fruit from the tree that was planted in the middle of the garden, he then expels Adam and Eve from Eden and explains that they would have to toil the land to stay alive, again, a bit of a not too agricultural lifestyle, and then makes them mortal.
Now, what is interesting here is twofold. Firstly, the use of fig leaves to cover the body suggests that this part of the story is Semitic in origin, as fig trees were not native to Mesopotamia. Secondly, the use of the snake, the fruit, and the awareness of sin, alongside the removing of immortality, shows the origin of this motif and how it has been twisted to fit the narrative of a supreme god. Now, whilst I will talk in detail about the second set of motifs in this video, in summary, what has happened is that a long-tolding mythology, one of our oldest myths, in fact, has been transformed. And this is the mythology of how humans lost their immortality. And it has a number of story types associated with it. And I will briefly talk about two of them here.
The first is where a snake tricks man into giving him his immortality, which was a story to explain why snakes shed their skin, because this was seen as snakes being reborn and so immortal. And because humans considered themselves better than snakes, then the snakes must have stolen immortality from them at some point in the past. And that's a number of various myths exist saying how the snake tricked the human to get the human's immortality. But there were also many myths where man is taught that the knowledge of sex, or the acceptance of a gift, often food, when taken from a malicious figure masquerading as a good figure, results in immortality being taken from them in return for accepting the gift. Again, humans are tricked. Although in these cases, the antagonist is normally an evil person or demon-like figure. And so, we see the snake in the Garden of Eden acting out this role. The snake which stole immortality, offering food by convincing the woman to eat it, which gives knowledge of sex, which leads to the loss of immortality. So, mythologically, the writers of the Bible have created a story that combines all these motifs and then applied them within this paradisical setting. But rather than it be a story about the loss of immortality, here again, it has been twisted to be a story about sinning and about how God must be obeyed. It is an interesting writing of the mythology, in one which again probably touches on stories to listeners of this would have felt at ease with, and again, different enough to be interesting, and yet still make sense.
After being expelled from the Garden of Eden, and full of newfound knowledge, we see Adam getting to know Eve, and children are born. And this is convenient, as these children are the key protagonists of the next mythological story to come into play: the story of Cain and Abel. The basic plot is that Cain becomes jealous of Abel, as Abel was seemingly more favored by God. And this inspires Cain to murder Abel. And this act has consequences, as Cain is then cursed and banished from his homeland by God, leaving him in fear of being murdered by anyone.
This story is sometimes seen as a conflict between a farmer and a nomad, so an agricultural farmer and a hunter-gatherer. Although to me, it is probably just as pickable to say agricultural farmer and pastoral farmer. And this may reflect cult differences and development going on in the surrounding regions, and the conflict of interests or beliefs that may have encouraged this feeling. And in fact, we do know of such conflicts within Indo-European mythology. But we also see similar stories as well in European mythology about the divine twins, which I'll talk about more in this video here. And whilst the different classes of twins is sometimes highlighted, it is sometimes hidden within these mythologies, but will align to the differences in these brothers. And so, I think the Cain and Abel story has key differences to this, and so are probably an evolutionary generation beyond the creation myth of the twins, and went in separate directions.
For example, a myth similar to this is that of Romulus and Remus from Roman mythology, which I talk about in this video. And these brothers are twins, and one brother dies at the hands of another brother, and dies during the founding of a city. And so, much like the story of Cain and Abel. But this thing's equation with the Indo-Europeans, but it does bring motives of sibling rivalry in the death of a brother at the hands of another, and a motif of consequence of unresolved conflict remain in that. However, I would assume a more local version of the story influenced the Genesis version we had, there were Cain and Abel, and maybe possibly a story that evolved from the Sumerian myth of Enmerkar and Enki, which is sometimes known as "Enki chooses the former," although this myth is about which season is better for agriculture, summer versus winter. But the premise is similar.
What we can say for sure, though, is that the motifs of sibling rivalry is an archetype, he is a common across the world in mythology. And so, this would again have been seen as a recognizable story. And the difference with this is that it adds a layer of "Don't annoy God, or you'll be expelled from your home," a very good way to secure such a message to a well-known theme.
And so, with all this sin in the world, with brothers killing brothers, and couples not listening to God, decides to start again by drowning lots of people. And by lots of people, I mean almost everyone. Which is very nice of him. Now, I do talk about the flood myth in this video, but I will explain some of the key motifs here. There's a history of flood mythology within the Near East, based on primary source information. And this allows us to understand how the myth developed. The earliest flood myths that we can attest to is the Sumerian flood myth, for the version we have written around 2100 BCE. This myth is recorded in the Eridu Genesis, which is the earliest known version of the flood story. And whilst we do not have the first parts of the tablet, it almost certainly would have contained their creation myth as well.
In the flood part of the myth, the gods decide to destroy humanity with the flood, but the god Enki warns the hero Ziusudra and instructs him to build a large boat to save himself. And then we see that around 1640 BC, the Atrahasis Epic, which is an Akkadian or Babylonian epic featuring the hero Atrahasis, who is warned by God Enki to build a boat. In a version of a flood sent by the gods to destroy humanity, follows the instructions and survives the flood. Then after this, we get the Epic of Gilgamesh, probably written in the latter part of the second millennium BCE. And in this story, Gilgamesh meets the immortal Utnapishtim, who recounts the story of a great flood sent him by the god Enlil, was warned by the god Ea or Enki to build a boat. We also see floods a bit of spoon written down in the Rigveda and in Greece.
And so, the biblical flood story, which seems to be an aggregation of a number of other stories, came together over time before finding the form we're familiar with towards the end of the first millennium BCE, and probably also influenced by the flooding of the Near East, especially after the Euphrates or Tigris Rivers. However, flood myths is a myth known across the world. And evidence suggests it was first told in Southeast Asia about 30,000 years ago. And its motifs were gathered from early Christian myths. These creation myths had an earth diver within them, often in the form of a bird who dived to the bottom of the sea to get mud, which when brought to the surface of the sea, it became land. But as the myth grew and was told in land, we see the creation myth changed to a flood myth, and the diving bird turns into a bird that flies and flies away to find land. In the case of Noah's flood, it collects an olive branch to represent land and returns with it, thus signifying the availability of land.
May also be worth saying that at this point, there is no evidence of a worldwide flood that has happened whilst humans have been alive.
The next piece of mythology in Genesis is referred to as the Tower of Babel. In this story, humanity decides to work together to build a tower reaching the heavens, and so thus showing how great humans are. God, again surprised by what humans could do, even though he did make them and provided them with the knowledge they know, is so displeased with humans' arrogance of building this tower that he scatters them across the Earth, creating languages and cultures, which ironically also would create new religions, gods, and beliefs. But I guess you probably didn't think of that either.
Anyway, the influence of this story, the Tower of Babel, may well have come from large buildings in the region, such as the ziggurat of Ur, the ziggurat of Eridu, and similar buildings. However, we see that there is an ancient Sumerian epic, the Epic of Enmerkar and the Lords of Aratta, which talks of a conflict between two cities. And Enmerkar tries to gain dominance of his city of Uruk over Aratta by asking Enki to help with the construction of a great temple. And so, we see there could be various influences in various ways between a great construction and divine intervention. And this has been used to influence the story, the Tower of Babel.
But we also see many tales where there are consequences of challenging divinity, or implications that come with power. And we see in various Indo-European mythologies a notion that being behind the clouds puts you in a realm which you can share with the gods. And from this, we also see stories such as that of Icarus, a skilled craftsman who creates wings to fly high, but it flies too close to the sun and trails. The similarities here when compared to other stories require more cautious approach due to being, or just there being less connection with regards to mythines and even motifs. And so, to me, it looks as though a general theme of being close to God by leveraging the largest buildings available at the time is probably what encouraged this myth, with the motif of the dangers of getting that close being popular in this and surrounding regions.
The Bible then changes its focus and concentrates on one person, Abraham, and starts telling his story. And maybe one day I'll explain this story, or perhaps publish my own version of the Old Testament, written in my own words, a slightly humorous affair, pointing out what I consider as some terrible decisions by God, and showing the clues which we left, we suggest amongst other things how God was once part of a Pantheon of many gods, and not given the chief god of that Pantheon, and telling the story of the defeated dragon as well, whose body was used to form the world. Although the main aim would be to highlight the nonsensical things about the mythology within the Bible. But that is for another day. Although if that sounds interesting, let me know, and I'll go to if it's to publish that sooner rather than later.
But for us, in this video, I hope you can now understand the concept of how Genesis was put together by using some of the most well-known myths of the time in the region, including the creation of the world, a man of paradise, of losing immortality, of the flood, of sibling rivalry, and the fate of challenging the gods. And I will list all the videos I've mentioned in the description of this video if you want to deep dive into any of these mythologies and find out their origins.
So, with that, I want to thank my patrons for their support, questions, and ideas. I want to thank you for watching and pressing the like button. And I want to thank God for making so many errors in creation, it allows us much more fun and a fascinating collection of mythology to exist. And if you wish to watch more of my work, then this video on death and immortality is an interesting one to watch. And with that, please stay safe and well. And this was Krakenfold.