Creation
A creation by a Creator is in cults and religions the cause of the foundation of the world ( First Cause returned). Based on this, the created world (life, earth, universe) is also referred to as creation .
Concepts for creating the world from nothing or from a pre-existing chaos exist in various religions. These cosmogonic myths always use an independent personified power ( God ) as an explanation, which has created the world of its own accord. A creation myth is thus a mostly theological or religious explanation of the origin of the world, the universe or the origin of man .
Above all in Catholicism , but also in Islam, there is the idea that creation is not finished, but continues as creatio continua permanently.
Today's scientific cosmology tries to explain the existence and properties of the cosmos with the help of physical principles and theories. The term creation is therefore also used deliberately to refer to a religious background, for example when talking about the preservation of creation . If a contradiction is seen between the religious talk of creation and scientific cosmology and a decision is made in favor of the idea of creation, one also speaks of creationism .
Typology of creation myths
The American religious scholar Charles H. Long (1926–2020) distinguishes five types of creation stories in his standard work Alpha: The Myths of Creation (1983). The following phenomenological typology is used to this day:
- Emergence myths: People step out of the earth - e.g. B. stepping out of a hole - or from an earth mother, which later becomes earth. A fertilizing sky god can be part of the myth. The emphasis here is on the origin of man, so it is more an anthropogony than a cosmogony.
- Myth of the first parents: The world arises from the union and division of a primordial pair of parents, e.g. B. Earth Mother and Heaven Father, who originally represented a unit. Sometimes the earth mother (or the giant Ymir in Norse mythology ) is sacrificed; the parts of the world emerge from their body parts. The ancient Indian myth of the prehistoric man Purusha and the Babylonian Tiamat myth belong to this type
- Creation out of chaos or out of the original egg: The world is created out of a pre-existing undifferentiated mass ( prima materia ) or out of an egg. No creator god created this material.
- Creation from nothing; this idea presupposes a creator god who has always existed. It is not only common in the monotheistic religions.
- Earth diving myths: Here a god sends animals into the depths of the water to bring up the prima materia . The emphasis of the declaration is on the creation of the earth, not the cosmos. These include the myths of the indigenous peoples of Arizona and New Mexico .
Creation myths in religions
- → See also: List of Creation Deities
Old Orient
The oldest known creation myths of the western world are those of the Sumerians with the motifs that also appear later in the Bible. These myths, such as the creation of man , were adopted in an adapted form by the invading Semites .
Atraḫasis epic
The Atraḫasis epic probably originated around or before 1800 BC. The epic, which artistically combines various Sumerian themes and contains older mythological ideas, was not based on Sumerian poetry. Table 1 is entitled "When the gods were (still) people". The story, which exists in many similar versions, is, among other things, about the decision of the Anunna to create humans as the next generation of the likewise divine Igigu :
“You ( Nintu ) are the womb who creates people; create primitive man to bear the yoke upon himself. Let him take the yoke, the work of Enlil ; the carrying basket of the god is carried by man ... Geschtu'e, the god of planning ability they (the gods) slaughtered in their assembly. Nintu covered the clay with his flesh and blood. For all the days to come ... the flesh of the gods became Widimmu ... The Igigu, the great gods, spat saliva on the clay ... Mami / Nintu opened her mouth and said: I got rid of your (Igigu) hard toil, yours I put the carrier basket on the people. "
Epic of Gilgamesh
The Gilgamesh epic comes from the Babylonian area. It tells of the hero did Gilgamesh and his friendship with the goddess Aruru created humanoids Enkidu , but focuses mainly his quest for immortality . The epic is considered to be the first poetry to address the detachment from the gods, but also the fear of the transience of life.
The Gilgamesh epic contains numerous parallels to the biblical tradition. The figure of the biblical Noah is strongly reminiscent of the divinely chosen hero Utnapishtim . In Genesis , Chapter 6 EU, there is also the motif of angels who materialized on earth and entered into relationships with human women.
Enuma Elish
Translated, Enûma elîsch means "When above [heaven was not yet named]". It is not only the name, but also the beginning of the Babylonian creation myth and didactic poem .
When Babylon assumed a dominant position within the cities of Mesopotamia , the city deity Marduk also gained importance within the Sumerian-Akkadian pantheon . This was made clear when Marduk was included in the myth of the creation of the world. From then on, the work served to underpin the Babylonian claim to rule.
In the myth the embryonic world is portrayed as the earth was created. Here Abzu (“the primordial”) and Tiamat (“who gave birth to them all”; represented as a sea monster) are the first forms of existence, long before creation. Several gods emerge, but nothing is known about them apart from their names. Later, Abzu and Tiamat are overthrown by the young gods of the new generations in a battle between the gods.
Ancient Greece
In the Theogony ( Birth of the gods ) of Hesiod (around 700 v. U. Z.) describes how the cosmos its start takes with the appearance of six Urgottheiten. These are Chaos , Gaia , Tartaros , Eros , Erebos and Nyx . Gaia gives birth to Uranos , the sky, the Ourea , the mountains, and Pontus , the sea. With Uranos, she gives birth to the titans , the ancestors of the Olympian gods and of themselves the human race.
Plato sees the world created by a demiurge (divine "craftsman").
Aristotle assumes an unmoved primary mover (“ primum movens ”) as the starting point of every movement.
Since ancient times, the philosophical discussion has centered on the question of creation out of nothing ( creatio ex nihilo ). In contrast, there is the statement “ Ex nihilo nihil fit ” (“Nothing comes from nothing”), which first appeared in the pre-Socratist Melissos and was adopted by Aristotle.
Zoroastrianism
In Zoroastrianism , the Iranian religion founded by Zarathustra , Ahura Mazda is the creator god who first created the spiritual world ( Menok ) and then the material world ( Geti ) ; he embodies the power of light, is the creator and sustainer of the world and humanity and is the god of the fertility of living beings. The praise of the god Ahura Mazda as the creator of the world can be found in the Yasna , the most important script of the Avesta , in the first verse of the first chapter and throughout, including in the oldest Gathas , presumably going back to Zarathustra himself .
In the book Vendidad , which is counted among the more recent books of the Avesta (the date of origin is controversial), as well as in the Bundahishn written down in Middle Persian , but probably based on older traditions, again much later (around 800 AD) , the creation of the good god Ahura Mazda (Middle Persian: Ohrmazd) competed by the devil Angra Mainyu (Middle Persian: Ahriman), who created many evils. Ahura Mazda lets him go, but sets a period of 3,000 years before they can take effect and a further 3,000 years until he lets the devil's work be destroyed again.
Zarathustra's teachings also flowed into Judaism during the end of the Babylonian exile (which lasted for many decades) when the State of Israel was re-established with the support of Persia. The terms heaven and hell in particular were previously unknown in Judaism; Satan as an opponent of God probably goes back to Ahriman , and angels are also known in Zoroastrianism. They are called Malakhim and Daeva there. The concretization of the end times expectation that falls during this time probably goes back to the Zoroastrian doctrine, according to which the god Ahura Mazda only allows the devil Ahriman to do his mischief for a period of three thousand years and then promises to restore his originally perfect kingdom.
Old testament
“In no other subject,” said the exegete Jörg Jeremias , “did biblical Israel see a greater need to distance itself from the religions of its environment than with its creation texts, because in them a fundamental interpretation of the world as a whole and of the essence of human beings takes place. "
The Bible calls God the Creator. Examples:
- “For thus says the LORD, who created heaven - he is God; who prepared and made the earth - he founded it; He did not create it so that it should be empty, but prepared it that people should dwell on it: I am the LORD, and no one else. ” Isaiah 45:18 EU
- “For behold, it is he who makes the mountains and creates the wind; it shows people what they have in mind. He makes the dawn and the darkness ... “ Amos 4,13 EU
This idea of a creator god is formulated in the first two chapters at the beginning of the book of Genesis (Greek "origin", "emergence"), which according to the biblical criticism come from different authors from different times. The two texts also differ significantly in their linguistic form. The (more recent) text in Gen 1,1ff (see next subchapter) can be described as a hymn , while the text in Gen 2,4b is a narrative.
The Hebrew word ברא Bara ' and the Greek word κτίζω ktízo , "create" both "created" mean in the Bible are not only in the sense of Creatio ex nihilo used that as a concept for the first time in 2 Macc 7.28 EU appear , but also with reference to the creative, effortlessly executed action of God, which uses completely new things that have not been before. In various blessings , especially in the Kiddush on the Sabbath , God is addressed as boré (Creator).
Creation texts from the book of Genesis
Apparently the first book of Moses (Genesis) of the Bible provides two texts of creation.
In Genesis 1,1–2,4a EU the six-day work is described in strongly formalized language . According to most Jewish commentators, the introduction to the story of creation is to be understood as a temporal sentence: When God began to create heaven and earth, the earth was desolate and desolate and darkness on the surface of the abyss ... God said: Let there be light! And there was light. Every day starts with the word of God , followed by the affirmation “and it was so”. God looked at his “daily work” and “saw that it was good” (except on the second day “and God called to the vault: Heaven and evening and morning”). On the eve of the day is from "evening and morning" the next day, with little formal differences: in the original Hebrew is not the first time, as in some versions of the Bible , the first day , but the cardinal number one day , and the final sixth day is highlighted by the definite article . In the first chapter of Genesis the creation of the entire universe is described, man is created on the sixth day. He has a special meaning because he was created as the last living being and in the image of God .
There was a very similar creation story in the Egyptian city of Memphis : The god Ptah , god of craftsmen and builders, creates the sun god Atum through his tongue and heart . The Memphite Theology is the earliest known theology, on the principle of the logo is based, of creation through the word and speech. The “Teaching for Meri-Ka-Re ” also contains similarities with the biblical stories of creation.
Immediately afterwards ( Gen 2,4b – 3,24 EU ) follows the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden , as well as the expulsion from paradise . Both texts have in common that the world is represented as the work of a single God ( monotheism ). However, the two texts differ significantly in the course of events: While in Gen 1,1–2,4a EU the human being (as man and woman) is only created at the end, Adam is created at the beginning in Gen 2,4bff EU . Trees, animals and the woman are added later.
There are striking similarities between the two accounts of creation and the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elisch . The translation of the introduction to the history of creation as a temporal sentence in the form Als… da… finds parallels in the introductory sentences of Mesopotamian epic. Thematic references to the creation of the universe can be found in such trivial texts as the "conjuring up a toothache", but also in such an important work as the Sumerian list of kings .
The Hebrew word Tehom , used in the second sentence of Genesis for the "abyss", goes back etymologically to the same origin as the Babylonian goddess Tiamat . However, this is not a personified being, but an abstract concept. In contrast to the Babylonian creation myth, the biblical creation stories contain no description of a battle between the gods and no reference to an existence before creation. This is probably the reason why the “great sea monsters” are mentioned separately in Gen. 1.21 EU - to emphasize that they too were created by God.
According to the Mishnah ( Chagiga 2: 1) it is forbidden to teach two people the introduction to Genesis unless these students are wise and able to understand the material themselves. The study of the history of creation therefore belongs to the esoteric area in Judaism ( Hebrew sod - “secret”), which is only possible under restrictive conditions, for example only from a certain age.
Creation in the Proverbs of Solomon
In the Book of Proverbs there is another representation of creation. Wisdom personified there speaks:
“The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways, before his works in primeval times; I was educated in the earliest times, at the beginning, at the origin of the earth. When the primeval seas were not yet there, I was born when the springs did not yet exist, those rich in water. Before the mountains were sunk, before the hills I was born. He had not yet made the earth and the meadows and all the clods of the mainland. When he built the sky, I was there when he measured the earth over the waters, when he fortified the clouds above and let springs flow out of the primordial sea, when he gave the sea his statute and the waters were not allowed to break his command, when when he measured the foundations of the earth, I was with him as a beloved child. I was his joy day after day and always played in front of him. I played on his earth and it was my joy to be with the people. "
Wisdom personified, equated in Christianity as Sophia with the Holy Spirit , plays an important role in both Gnosticism and Kabbalah . As one of the emanations of the original, sole and unrecognizable supreme god, she breathed spirit into the material human creature of the further divine emanation, the demiurge Yaldabaoth , and thus what differentiates him from the animal.
In Kabbalah, Hochma (wisdom) is also one of the divine emanations, here called Sephiroth . In the kabbalistic tree of life , wisdom takes second place under Kether (“crown”).
Christianity
The New Testament adopts the Old Testament idea of God as Creator, but also speaks of the Incarnation of God in Christ. The Creator (the Father) and Jesus Christ as Son of God reveal himself in the Holy Spirit in order to be present in spiritual form. In the prologue of the Gospel of John , a variation of the creation myth from Genesis, the Logos is equated with God.
In the letter to the Colossians the following is said about Jesus as co-creator:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him everything was created in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, thrones and rulers, powers and authorities; everything is created through him and towards him. He is before all creation and in him everything endures. He is the head, but the body is the church. He is the origin, the firstborn of the dead; so he has priority in everything. "
In the creed , God is referred to as “the creator of heaven and earth” (factor coeli et terrae) .
Islam
In the Koran are found in numerous sections quotes from the story of creation of the Judeo-Christian tradition. However, since in the Koran the narration of the story itself is not in the foreground, but the story is only intended to serve to illustrate the actual message, details appear in many suras and are sometimes repeated. Examples are Sura 21 , 30-33; Sura 32 , 4-9; Sura 41 , 9-12; Sura 7:54; Sura 10 , 3rd source is partly the biblical story of creation. For example, reference is made to the Six Day Work - in Sura 7,54; 10, 3; 11, 7; 25, 59 and 32, 4. But traditions that can only be found in non-biblical Jewish or Christian scriptures are also quoted throughout the Koran; so there is e.g. B. the story about the fall of Satan in sura 38 , 73ff. in the extra-biblical writings Life of Adam and Eve and Treasure Cave , but not in Genesis. A few places, e.g. B. Sura 31 , 10, are not passed down in the Christian or Jewish tradition, but could also have been known to the Arab Christians at the time the Koran was written.
Several terms that are counted among the 99 names of God in Islamic theology refer to God as the Creator. These include the terms al-Badīʿ '( Arabic البديع) and al-Bāriʾ (البارئ), which goes back to the Hebrew verb bārā used in Genesis. In the Koran the synonymous term al-Chāliq (الخالق) used over 200 times. The corresponding verbal noun Chalq ("creation") designates both the divine act and the work of creation itself.
The question of whether the Koran was created and thus criticized, as the Mutazilites advocated, or whether it had existed in the world as Kalam ( Logos ) from the beginning played a special role in Islamic history . During the rule of the Mutazilites in Baghdad in the early 9th century, it reached a particularly explosive level when the Kadis were asked by inquisitorial means ( Mihna ) whether they believed in the eternity of God and in the creation of the Koran.
Buddhism
The texts of Theravada - Buddhism ( Pali Canon ) know deities themselves are the unborn, imperishable therefore eternal Creator of the World (Brahma). There it is also possible for Buddha Siddhartha Gautama and some of his followers to come into contact with these deities. It becomes clear, however, that the Brahmas are mistaken about their omnipotence and immortality. Rather, due to their very long lifespan, they have lost the memory of their origin and there are also areas of existence that are inaccessible to them (see e.g. Brahmanimantaṇika Sutta , Majjhima Nikāya 49, Pali Canon).
The idea of any kind of creation and that of a creator, be it a divine entity or an abstract principle, is ultimately ignored or treated as irrelevant in Buddhism. Buddha Siddhartha Gautama himself justified this with the fact that dealing with such unfathomable questions in religious life ultimately does not bring any gain in knowledge and therefore he will not say anything about it. In addition to a few other questions (such as a precise description of the effect of karma ), the questions about creation and origin of life cannot be answered in a meaningful or complete manner and only created confusion and even madness (see Acintita Sutta, Anguttara Nikāya 4.77, Pali Canon).
To clarify this, there is a well-known parable: It describes the situation of a man who is hit by a poisoned arrow in an unexpected assassination attempt. The doctor who is called first asks who shot the arrow (see proof of God ), from which direction the arrow came (origin of the world), why the shooter shot (for what reason the world was created, see also theodicy ) and so on . From a Buddhist point of view, however, the danger lies in the failure to pull out the arrow in response to all these questions and explanations and the person who is shot dies before he can save his life or the other (cf.Cūḷamāluṅkya Sutta, Majjhima Nikāya 63, Pali Canon) .
More creation myths
Creation myths have existed on all continents since the beginning of mankind. Here is a selection:
- Gylfaginning ( Norse Mythology )
- Izanagi and Izanami ( Japanese Mythology )
- The good crocodile ( Timorese creation myth)
- Pangu ( Chinese mythology )
- Popol Vuh ( Maya )
- Rangi and Papa ( Māori mythology )
- Germanic creation story
Philosophy and Theology in Europe
The concepts already present in antiquity continued to have an impact on Europe's intellectual history . Augustine argued for a continuous creation (creatio continua) , later a. a. represented by Descartes and Spinoza . Schelling understood creation as a successive process kept going by God.
Thomas Aquinas taught that all that beings emerge from a first cause. Nikolaus von Kues interpreted the world as an unfolding (explicatio) of God's being.
In the course of the expansion of scientific explanations to original questions, these scientific approaches were taken up in the context of theology. In the area of tension between evolutionary theory and creationism or intelligent design , thought was also given to the role of a creator god, and the idea of a big bang at the beginning of the universe was associated with an act of creation.
See also
- cosmogony
- Creation story (priestly scripture) , the first of the two creation stories in the Old Testament
- Jewish calendar , counts the years from the biblical creation of the world
- Ussher-Lightfoot calendar , attempted dating of creation according to the Old Testament
- Intelligent design
literature
History of religion
- RJ Clifford: Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. Washington DC 1994.
- S. Henry: Israelite wisdom. Towards an ecological theology of creation. In: D. J. Muthunayagom (ed.): Bible speaks today. Essays in honor of Gnana Robinson , Bangalore 2000, pp. 173-180.
- Othmar Keel, Silvia Schroer: Creation. Biblical theologies in the context of ancient oriental religions. Göttingen 2002.
- AT Khoury: Judeo-Islamic doctrines of creation and their mandate to man. Increase, shape, responsibility in the world entrusted to him. In: Ordensnachrichten 39, 2000, pp. 13–24.
- BM Linke (ed.): Creation mythology in the religions. Frankfurt / M. 2001.
- Charles H. Long: Alpha: The Myths of Creation. Oxford UP, 1983.
- GP Luttikhuizen: The demonic demiurge in Gnostic mythology. In: Chr. Auffarth, L. Stuckenbruck (ed.): Fall of the Angels (= Themes in Biblical narrative. 6). Leiden / Boston 2003, pp. 148-160.
- Monika Tworuschka , Udo Tworuschka : When the world came into being. Creation myths of peoples and cultures in words and pictures. Freiburg i. Brg. 2005.
- Jean-Marc Rouvière: Brèves méditations sur la création du monde. L'Harmattan, Paris 2006.
- Monika Tworuschka, Udo Tworuschka: Creation myths. Darmstadt 2011.
- Origin . Lecture cycle 1986/87 on the origin of man and the world in the myths of the peoples, Museum für Völkerkunde, Frankfurt am Main 1987.
Exegesis of the biblical statements about creation
- Detlef Löhde: The story of creation: report or parable story? Size Oesingen 1989, ISBN 3-922534-50-3 .
- M. Dietrich: The creation of man in the garden of Eden: a Mesopotamian myth in the Old Testament. In: Communications for anthropology and the history of religion. 16, 2004, pp. 21-33.
- K. Löning, E. Zenger: In the beginning God created. Biblical theologies of creation. Düsseldorf 1997.
- HP Müller: Creation myths - literary and theological - with follow-up discussions. In: Journal for Theology and Church. 101, 2004, pp. 506-525.
- W. Schrage: Creation and new creation in continuity and discontinuity in Paul. In: Evangelical Theology. 65, 2005, pp. 245-259.
- Evamaria Strecker: The time message of creation (Genesis 1,1–2,4). In: online-bibelkommentar.de
- Diana Göbel: The creation of the house of life in six days (Genesis 1,1–2,4). In: online-bibelkommentar.de
History of philosophy and theology
- K. Bannach: Pelagianism in Franciscan Creation Theology? In: Freiburg journal for philosophy and theology. 49, 2002, pp. 73-93.
- BJ Brown: Bonaventure on the impossiblity of a beginningless world: why the traversal argument works. In: American catholic philosophical quarterly. 79, 2005, pp. 389-409.
- TP Bukowski: Beyond Aristotle… and beyond Newton: Thomas Aquinas on an infinite creation. In: The Thomist. 68, 2004, pp. 287-314.
- A. Dahm: Creation theology in Nikolaus von Kues: first approaches in the early sermons and their continuation in “De docta ignorantia”. In: Trier theological journal. 113, 2004, pp. 118-136.
- M. Hermann: Between pagan and Christian cosmology: Isidore of Seville and his worldview. In: Analecta Cracoviensia. 34, 2002, pp. 311-328.
- H. Hopig: Creatio ex nihilo. In: Yearbook Biblical Theology. 12, 1997, pp. 291-307.
- G. May: Creation from nothing. The origin of the doctrine of the creatio ex nihilo. Berlin 1978.
- I. Miller: Idolatry and the polemics of world-formation from Philo to Augustine. In: Journal of religious history. 28, 2004, pp. 126-145.
- JC O'Neill: How early is the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo? In: The Journal of theological studies. 53, 2002, pp. 449-465.
- OH Pesch: Creation theory and creation perspective in the theology of Thomas Aquinas. In: Kerygma and Dogma. 49, 2003, pp. 2-23.
- A. Schmidt: Creativity: Secret of Faith in the Light of Reason. Thomas Aquinas on belief in creation and understanding of being. In: Science and Wisdom. 69, 2006, pp. 211-229.
- NJ Torchia: Creatio ex nihilo and the Theology of St. Augustine. The Anti-Manichaean Polemic and Beyond American (= University Studies VII / 205). New York et al. a. 1999.
- M. Voicu: L'idée de créationet sa représentation dans la renaissance du XII. siècle. Mutations d'un ideal. In: Revue des sciences religieuses. 76, 2002, pp. 33-56.
Theological doctrine of creation
- Alexandre Ganoczy : Creation theory. In: W. Beinert, (Ed.): Faith accesses. Textbook of Catholic Dogmatics. Volume 1. Paderborn 1995, pp. 363-495.
- F. Gruber: In the house of life. A theology of creation. Regensburg 2001.
- H. Kessler: The groans of nature. Plea for a creation spirituality and creation ethics. Düsseldorf 1990.
- G. Kraus: World and Man. Textbook on the doctrine of creation (= outline of dogmatics. No. 2). Frankfurt 1997.
- C. Link: Question of God and belief in creation. Theological Studies. Neukirchen-Vluyn 1997.
- C. Link: Creation. Creation theology in the Reformation tradition (= Handbuch Systematischer Theologie. 7/1). Gütersloh 1991.
- Jürgen Moltmann : God in creation. Ecological creation theory. 4th edition. Munich 1993.
- D. Sattler, T. Schneider: Creation theory. In: Handbook of Dogmatics. Volume 1. 1992, pp. 120-238.
- K. Schmid: Creation (topics of theology 4). Tübingen 2012.
- Walter Simonis : About God and the World. God and creation doctrine. Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-491-70375-1 .
- Alex Stock : Poetic Dogmatics . Creation doctrine. Volume 1: Heaven and Earth. Paderborn 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76897-1 ; Volume 2: People. Paderborn 2013, ISBN 978-3-506-77784-3 .
- Harald Wagner: The creation - God's will for communion. In: Study books Theology: Dogmatics. Volume 18. Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-17-016469-4 , pp. 376-435.
natural Science
- Albert Sonnenburg: Tellus or the most excellent facts and theories from the history of creation on earth: for friends of natural science. Geisler, Bremen 1845 digitized
Fiction
- Franco Ferrucci: The Creation. The life of God told by himself. Translated from the Italian by Herbert Schlüter and Stefan Richter. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.
Web links
- Dimitry Kiryanov: Cosmology and Creation: the Orthodox Perspective
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christianity and Islam, accessed February 27, 2013.
- ↑ Wolfram von Soden : The ancient Babylonian Atramḫasis myth. In: Otto Kaiser u. a .: Texts from the environment of the Old Testament , Old Series, Volume III Wisdom Texts , Myths, Epics , 3.1 Wisdom Texts . Gütersloher Verlaghaus Mohn, Gütersloh 1990, ISBN 3-579-00072-1 , pp. 623-624.
- ↑ Cf. 1. Book of Moses (Genesis), chapters 6–9 and 11th panel of Gilgamesh epic .
- ↑ Jörg Jeremias: Theology of the Old Testament (= Outlines of the Old Testament . Volume 6 ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-525-51697-3 , pp. 18 .
- ↑ For the time of origin and authorship of the two texts, see also the main article Pentateuch
- ^ Encyclopedia Judaica , Art. Creation and Cosmogony. Vol. 5, p. 1059
- ↑ James B. Pritchard : Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament. Pp. 100 or 265, in: Encyclopedia Judaica . Art. "Creation and Cosmogony", Volume 5, p. 1061.
- ↑ Encyclopédie de l'Islam , Vol. IV, pp. 1012-1013.
- ^ David Adams Leeming (1937): Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia , Santa Barbara 1994; Barbara C. Sproul: Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World , HarperCollins, London 1979
- ↑ Jürgen Mittelstraß : Article creation. In: Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. Volume 3, 1995, p. 730.