And God said, Let the waters under the sky be
GOD'S PROMISE OF SALVATION
REVEALED
Chapter 4
INTRODUCTION
Genesis
• One of the most familiar books of the bible
• Simply means "origin or birth". Such is the idea
regarding the placement of genesis as the first
book in the entire bible because it deals with the
questions pertaining the beginning of the cosmos,
plants, animals, and books of the bible
• Offers an insightful elaboration on the origin of sin
and its consequences on man and entire creation
• Positively highlights the restoring and redeeming
love of YHWH in the story of founding the chosen
people of Israel, through the calling of Abraham and
YHWH's renewed covenant with his descendants.
SIX DAYS OF CREATION AND THE SABBATH
1st day Light separated from darkness
2nd day Dome of the sky separate the
waters below from above
3rd day Created dry land and vegetation
4th day Created the stars, sun and moon
5th day Created sea creatures and birds
6th day Created land animals and humans
in his own image
7th day God rested and declared it holy
IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,
the earth was without form, and void and
darkness was upon the face of the deep, while a wind
from God swept over the face of the waters.
Then God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And
God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the
light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning
were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a dome in the midst of the
waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.
And God made the dome, and divided the waters
which were under the dome from the waters
which were above the dome: And so it was. God called the
dome sky. And there was evening and there was morning,
the second day.
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gathered together into one place, and let the
dry land appear: and it was so. God called the
dry land Earth, and the waters that were
gathered together he called seas, and God saw
that it was good. Then God said, Let the earth
bring forth vegetation: plants, yielding seeds,
and trees of every kind, bearing fruit with the
seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And
there was evening and there was morning, the
third day
And God said, Let there be lights in the dome of
the sky to separate the day from the night;
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and
for days, and years, and let them be lights in
the dome of the sky to give light upon the
earth: and it was so. God made the two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the
lesser light to rule the night - and the stars.
God set them in the dome of the sky to give
light upon the earth, to rule over the day and
over the night, and to separate the light from
the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the
fourth day.
And God said, Let the waters bring forth
swarms of living creatures and let birds fly
above the earth across the dome of the sky.
So God created the great sea monsters and
every living creature that moves, of every kind,
with which the waters swarm, and every
winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it
was good. God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas,
and let birds multiply on the earth.' And there
was morning and there was evening, the fifth
day.
And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living
creatures of every kind: cattle, and creeping
things, and wild animals of the earth of every
kind. And it was so. God made the wild animals
of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of
every kind, and everything that creeps upon
the ground of every kind. And God saw that it
was good.
Then God said, Let us make humankind in our image, BABYLONIAN CREATION EPIC
according to our likeness: and let them have dominion - Enuma elish describes the creation of the
over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, world starting from a state of primordia;
and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the chaos with the waters of Apsu (sweet
earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon primeval waters) and Tiamat (Salt primeval
the earth. So God created humankind in his image, in the waters) mingled together
image of God created he them; male and female created
he them. God blessed them, and God said unto them, 'Be • Lahmu (Silt)
fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it: • Lahamu (Slime, Mud)
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the • Anshar (Whole sky)
birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves • Kishar (Whole earth)
upon the earth.' God said, 'See, I have given you every • Anu (Sky God)
plant yielding seed, that is upon the face of all the earth, • Ea (Son of Anu, God of storm and father of
and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have Marduk)
them for food. And it was so. God saw everything that
he had made, and, indeed, it was very good. And there
was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished, and all
their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the
work he had done, and rested on the on the seventh day
from all the work he had done. So God blessed the
seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested
from all the work that he had done in creation.

PRIMORDIAL ELEMENTS - freshwater and salt water,

silt, mud, sky, earth, and storm

Apsu and Tiamat become annoyed by the noise of the

created gods and plot to eliminate them, but Ea
cleverly puts Apsu to sleep and kills him while also
incapacitating Mummu.

Tiamat was very angry about the death of Apsu, so

she created monsters and planned to destroy the
gods. Tiamat appointed Kingu as the leader of
Tiamat's army

Marduk was chose to be the protector pf the gods

and challenged Tiamat to a fight. Murduk defeated
Tiamat and used her body to create different parts
of the world
• Two eyes of Tiamat came two rivers of
Mesapotamia, the Tigris, and the Euphrates
• From her liver, the pole star;
• From her spittle; the clouds, rain, and fog
• From her tail; the milky way
• From her crotch; the support of the sky

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Marduk also created humans from the blood of Kingu, a leader
of Tiamat's army. Human were created to relieve the gods of
their endless work and toil.
CREATION ACCOUNT OF GENESIS AND ENUMA ELISH A
COMMENTARY
• The creation account in the book of Genesis echoes the
mythological stories of its Mesopotamian neighbors in
the ancient Near East.
• Differentiates the Israelites, the chosen people of YHWH,
from among the peoples of such time
CHAOS AND ORDER
• Concept of primeval chaos before creation, was a
common mythical understanding among the ancient
people
• In Genesis, readers may notice the formless of void and
darkness which covered the deep (Abyss)
• Babylonian creation myth, the chaos and waters which
mingled together
POLYTHEISM
The religious culture of the ancient near east; worship of many
gods
ENUMA ELISH (THE SEVEN TABLES OF CREATION)
• Apsu, Tiamat, and the assembly gods
• Apsu showed the characteristic of a selfish god and his
wicked nature
• Marduk showed similar vicious tendency
• However, Mesopotamians admired Marduk for his
protection and power
GENESIS
• Revealed a totally different God
• In contrasts to the assembly of the Mesopotamian gods,
Abraham and his descendants pledge their worship and
allegiance to YHWH alone - a monotheist religion
confession which was totally strange to the polytheistic
belief of the ancient near east.
• Lawrence Boadt also observe such contrast:
• Unlike the apparent arbitrary god of the Mesopotamians
who created and later to decide to annihilate its own
creation by violent means and for selfish reasons, YHWH
showed gratuitous action, deliberate will, and systematic
order in creation, as shown by the biblical authors:
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GODS AND THEIR QUALITIES
First, an announcement ("God said"); second, a
command ("let there be"); Third, a report ("And so it
was" or "God made); Fourth, and Evaluation ("It was
very good"); [and] Fifth, a placement in a temporal
framework ("first day, and on and on…")
(Ryken et al. 1998: 181).
GOD AND MAN: THE NATURE OF THEIR
RELATIONSHIP
• Epic od Atrahasis, man was created for the
sole purpose of carrying the toil of the
lower gods.
• Yahwist account of the creation of man and
woman and their relationship to God
In another Mesopotamian epic, the Epic of
Atrahasis, the man's purpose before the assembly
of great and minor gods defined that man was
created for the sole purpose of carrying the toil of
the lower gods. Humans are merely slaves of the
gods, bereft of any rewards or consolation of a
share in the divine assembly. It was also because
for the ancient Mesopotamians, man was a result
from the mixture of a (Kingu's) rebel's blood, flesh,
and clay
Yahwist account of the creation of man and
woman to their relationship to God
1. The principle and end of man is God the one
who breathed life, and destined him in
paradise
2. Man was elevated by God, willed from the
start, to be God's stewards
3. God in Genesis freely, deliberately and
lovingly creates and sustains his creation.
4. Unity, complementarity, and equality of man
and woman willed by God.
5. God is a pure spirit
6. God's creation - an ongoing and sustaining
creative act of God
CONCLUSION
• That God, YHWH, is the source, and origin of
all creation
• That God, out of his gratuitous love, destined
all his creation in glory and paradise
• That everything God created is good
• That man, created in the image and likeness
of God, is God's chief steward and caretaker
of the entire creation