Part8: Akkadian Dunnu Theogony (gilgy06.html)
As one might suspect from the title of this work, this work is about the origins of gods, and has a low probability of being borrowed from by the author of Genesis. We will treat it here for completeness.
We should also note here at the outset that this piece is also probably 'too late to the party'--it is classed as "Late Babylonian", which falls roughly in the 1000-750 BC range (during the monarchy in Judah). Here's Clifford's intro:
"In 1965, W. G. Lambert and P. Walcot published a Late Babylonian manuscript of a theogony. Some forty lines, not all complete, are preserved on the obverse, while only a few damaged lines remain on the reverse." [OT:CAANEB, p. 94]
Here's the text (be
looking for close and specific parallels to Genesis 1 and 2 as you
read this--smile):
|
[TCS1, 1.112] |
|
In the beginning [Harab
married Earth.] |
This amazing text describes a
seven-member genealogy of gods, which unfolds through incest and
parricide. The only references to some kind of earth-related aspects
present the earth as already existing (i.e., 'will we carve out of
the plowed land'). There is a reference to making vegetation more
abundant, but not to creating it, and there is the banality (to use
Kitchen's phrase) that grass was given to domesticated field animals
to eat. Accordingly, this piece is not cosmogonic (in a Genesis 1-2
sense, since God is not created in Hebrew through).
This bizarre piece is without precedent in the ANE, and would not likely be considered a source of religious foundational traditions for anyone, much less a monotheistic, incest/parricide-outlawing Hebrew nation...
"What is the purpose of the text? It tells how the present world arose from primordial pairs, and associates the transfer of power from the primordial pairs to the deities of the city of Dunnu. What is unusual is that the transfer of power comes about through parricide and incest. Despite the absence of comparable texts from Mesopotamia, there are some Near Eastern parallels. In the Hittite Kingship in Heaven, a succession of gods is violently dethroned: Alalu reigns nine years before being dethroned by his servant Anu, who after nine years, is displaced by his servant Kumarbi, who bites off Anu's "manhood"; the seed of a further usurper, the Storm God, is contained in that "manhood." In Hesiod's Theogony (late eighth century) Zeus kills his father, Kronos, with the connivance of his mother, Ge (Earth). A similar pattern recurs in the History of Kronos in Philo of Byblos's Phoenician History: Uranus (Heaven) succeeds his father, "Elioun, called the Most High" and marries his sister, Ge (Earth). Angered by his philandering, Ge persuades their son Kronos to usurp his rule; later Kronos castrates and kills Uranus." [OT:CAANEB, p. 96]
Dalley observes that this is further indication of the 'myth' of a standard Babylonian tradition of creation:
"Despite its incompleteness, the text is useful for showing that each city may have had its own local traditions about creation, which differed even in essentials from those of other cities. Unlike the Epic of Creation, in which the primeval forces were Sea-water and Fresh water, we have here Plough and Earth as the originators of creation and the parents of the Sea. In yet another text, an incantation against toothache, the prime mover of creation is Anu the sky-god, who creates the sky which creates the earth. Thus we cannot speak of 'the Mesopotamian view of creation' as a single, specific tradition, and this in turn shows the futility of claiming a direct connection between genesis as described in the Old Testament and any one Mesopotamian account of creation." [OT:MM, p.278]
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Okay, where does this leave us?
This is an easy summary: there are no parallels and there are TONS of anti-parallels, contradictions, and elements distinctly rejected by the author of Genesis (as well as MOST of the ANE!). This literature just is too distant from the biblical document in content, tone, intent, themes, particulars, and sequences...
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On to the next...(gilgy07a.html),
glenn
[gilgy06.html]
The Christian ThinkTank...[https://www.Christianthinktank.com] (Reference Abbreviations)