Egyptians, Babylonians, and Hebrews have similarities yet also differences in their religions. The importance is not in the similarities as much as it is in the differences that distinguish the cultures from each other and their views on life. I would like to point out each civilization's creation and flood story. By analyzing these stories we can come to a better understanding of their world views.
The Hebrew creation story from the book of Genesis is one that most people know well. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form and void. God said, 'let there be light,' and there was light. He then separated the light from the darkness. He also created the land, plants, and animals. He saw everything he created and, behold, it was good. The heavens and earth were completed and all that dwelled within them. On the seventh day he rested.
The earth was complete, but there was nothing to take care of this creation. So, God created man in the image of himself. Man was created from the dust of the ground. God gave him the breath of life and the man became a living soul (Moses 1:1-2:7). With the background of that story, one should look at the Egyptian interpretation of the beginning.
At first there was nothing but chaos that contained the seed of everything to come. In this confusion the sun god dwelled. By an effort of his will he emerged from chaos as Ra and gave birth to Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess moisture. Shu and Tefnut gave birth to Geb and Nut, the earth god and sky goddess. Thus the physical universe was created. People were created from Ra's tears. Time passed and Ra grew frail, so the...
Creation Essay
This essay may have been written for a college sophmore course but it is only at high school senior level at best. A simple retelling of the story is great for high school but college should reflect a higher level of independant thought and analysis. This essay is super for getting an overall and wide view of the subject. I would suggest, since this is a essay about "myths" that the Hebrew God be referred to by the name that was used which is Yahweh. It is important to maintain a disinterested and objective stance when evaluating these ancient stories. In an academic paper, it is important to avoid obvious identification of any one belief system. However, I do want to point out that this is a very good first attempt on a very complex topic. For this paper to have been flushed out and expanded would have required the in depth study of the history of the Ancient Near East,its civilizations, its cultures, its beliefs, its people and their daily relationship to their gods.
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