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  • From: TedBro AT aol.com
  • To: ishinan AT comcast.net, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] sky (Rolf's Response)
  • Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012 09:22:14 -0400 (EDT)

I'm familiar with Enuma Elish but not with Westermann's comment. Apparently
his book came out right about the time I wrote my paper in college!! I do
not read Akkadian and was dependent on Heidel's Babylonian Genesis.

As I previously wrote and as you state, the parallels between Gen 1 and
Enuma Elish are often overdrawn. I do / did feel the tehom and Tiamat were
related, not only phonologically, but also in motif. (Other scholars, before
and after disagree with Westermann, but I'm willing to look at his
arguments).

Both tehom and Tiamat represent primordial waters that are split into
oceans and vapors. That similarity, in and of itself shows some that the two
creation traditions are at least distantly related. However EE is theogenic
(story of the creation of the gods) while Gen 1 is cosmogenic (story of the
creation of the physical world).

Peace,
Ted


In a message dated 9/5/2012 4:13:22 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
ishinan AT comcast.net writes:


Dear Ted,

You are right when you say that metaphorical and mythical elements do
occur in narratives, and by and large I agree with your words below. There
is
one exception, though, that THWM most likely is a derivative of Tiamat. I do
not have the book at hand, but I remember that Claus Westermann in his
"Genesis A Commentary" (1982) in detail shows that Hebrew and Akkadian
Phonetics and orthography makes it impossible that there is a relationship
between
the two words.

When I, in a previous post mentioned that I have a list of 23 parallels
between Atrahasis/Gilgamesh and Genesis, all of these, except one, related
to
the flood in the days of Noah and not to the creation account in Genesis 1
and 2. I do not know your background, but it is my experience that most
people who who think there are parallels between the Babylonian creation
accounts and Genesis 1 and 2, have not made a detailed study themselves. But
they build on other persons whose assumption is that any ancient
cosmological
account is mythical. I therefore invite the listmembers who are
interested to make a careful comparison between Enuma Elish and Genesis 1
and 2,
and then inform us which real parallels they have found.


Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern





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