The Banquet vs. Hamlet

A NOTE ON THE ENUMA ELISH CREATION STORY The Genesis excogitation stories are best read as ancient Israels retort to other creation stories circulating in the Ancient costly East. For example, the Babylonian creation myth, known as the Enuma Elish (http://www.sacred- texts.com/ane/enuma.htm), was filled with military force. The theology Apsu (= fresh water system) and the goddess Tiamat (= salt water) commingled resulting in the birth of gods Lahmu and Lahamu, followed by the the gods Anshar, Kishar, Ea/Nidimmud (the earth/ water god), and others. The children proved to be too noisy for Apsu, so he planned to kill them (Tablet I, lines 38-52) to resore quiet in the heavens. But out front the father could destroy the kids, Ea killed Apsu his father. The victorious Ea then fathered Marduk, and Marduk in m killed Grandmother Tiamat (Tablet IV, lines 31-145) who had been inspired by a new husband to round of golf against her murderous children. Marduk cut up her corpse to become the deliver and the firmament with their constellations. This creation story asserts that creation was born out of violence. military unit was normative, therefore violence is normativeâ€"it is the counsel of the gods/God and it the way of heaven and earth.

This theology of violence perpetuates itself down to modern times in a number of religions and, in my opinion, contributed to the violence of September 11. The biblical creation stories in Genesis 1-2 offered an alternative to the Babylonian apprehension of ultimate reality. For the Israelite theologians who crafted the Genesis story, Gods creation change chaos into cosmos, simply by the power of the word: and God said, permit there be . . . It was radically non-violent. The pre-existent Power (in Hebrew the noun for God means power), through a word created perception (Proverbs 8:22). And then, with Wisdom, the Power made it all. It was all good! Non- violence was normative in the act of creation and within the creation, itself. To... If you trust to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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