The Bible Begins with a Battle?

How Do Stories Shape The World We See?

Do stories really shape the way we see the world? Or are we modern people, unlike the ancients immune to being swayed by stories?

History- selected events arranged in a way that highlights certain heroes, villains, successes, or failures.

The Boston tea party (which account do you believe?) Samuel Adam’s “Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre” And “A Fair Account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance at Boston in New England” by B. White

Not just physical text but movies are stories as well. Has a movie shaped you?

Star Wars, Avengers, Hunger Games, Harry Potter

What do these movies tell us about life?

Enuma Elish

“The only songs of victory ringing in their ears would be those that were recited and sung at the Babylonian Akita festival at which every year the Enuma Elish was recited and acted out…The awful reality was that Babylon was established and Marduk to all intents and purposes appeared to have won the victory over all his enemies, including Judah and its god.” (Angel, 21)

“The prophet tried to persuade the people that Marduk was a lifeless and powerless idol whose images would soon be carried in disgrace from Babylon, fleeing the Persian army as they took over the proud city of Babylon…It looked as if Marduk was the real conqueror of chaos and as if Marduk was the king of the universe but the prophet tired to persuade the people to believe a different story all the same.” (Angel, 22)

“They have heard the story of Marduk loudly and clearly and experienced the reality of Marduk in their daily lives in exile. However, the author of Genesis calls them believe this story is a lie….The poet who penned this text asks the people of god to believe they can and will live out a different reality.” (Angel 23-24)

Reading The Text and Key Comparisons

Genesis 1:1–2 “At the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth, 2 when the earth was wild and waste, darkness over the face of Ocean, rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters”

Enuma Elish Tablet 1 “When the heavens above did not exist, 2 And earth beneath had not come into being — 3 There was Apsû, the first in order, their begetter, 4 And demiurge Tia-mat, who gave birth to them all; 5 They had mingled their waters together 6 Before meadow-land had coalesced and reed-bed was to he found — 7 When not one of the gods had been formed 8 Or had come into being, when no destinies had been decreed, 9 The gods were created within them:”

Genesis 1:6–8 “God said: Let there be a dome amid the waters, and let it separate waters from waters! 7 God made the dome and separated the waters that were below the dome from the wasters that were above the dome. It was so. God called the dome: Heaven! There was setting, there was dawning: second day.”

Enuma Elish Tablet IV 137 He split her into two like a dried fish: 138 One half of her he set up and stretched out as the heavens. 139 He stretched the skin and appointed a watch 140 With the instruction not to let her waters escape. 141 He crossed over the heavens, surveyed the celestial parts, 142 And adjusted them to match the Apsû, Nudimmud's abode.

Genesis 1:9–10 “God said: Let the waters under the heavens be gathered to one place, and let the dry land be seen! It was so. 10 God called the dry land: Earth! and the gathering of the waters he called: Seas! God saw that it was good.”

Enuma Elish Tablet V He fashioned heavenly stations for the great gods, 2 And set up constellations, the patterns of the stars. 3 He appointed the year, marked off divisions, 4 And set up three stars each for the twelve months. 5 After he had organized the year, 6 He established the heavenly station of Ne-beru to fix the stars' intervals. 7 That none should transgress or be slothful 8 He fixed the heavenly stations of Enlil and Ea with it. 9 Gates he opened on both sides, 10 And put strong bolts at the left and the right. 11 He placed the heights (of heaven) in her (Tia-mat's) belly, 12 He created Nannar, entrusting to him the night. 13 He appointed him as the jewel of the night to fix the days, 14 And month by month without ceasing he elevated him with a crown, 15 (Saying,) "Shine over the land at the beginning of the month, 16 Resplendent with horns to fix six days. 17 On the seventh day the crown will be half size,

Genesis 1:26–27 “God said: Let the waters under the heavens be gathered to one place, and let the dry land be seen! It was so. 10 God called the dry land: Earth! and the gathering of the waters he called: Seas! God saw that it was good.”

Enuma Elish Tablet VI 31 They bound him (Tiamat’s consort), holding him before Ea, 32 They inflicted the penalty on him and severed his blood-vessels. 33 From his blood he (Ea) created mankind, 34 On whom he imposed the service of the gods, and set the gods free. 35 After the wise Ea had created mankind 36 And had imposed the service of the gods upon them— 37 That task is beyond comprehension

“Marduk assuming dominion over the world; Baal becomes king at the end of the Canaanite Baal myth. In Gen 1, the one who assumes kingship at the end of the creation story is the human being. But the human being that reigns is humanity.” (Miller II, 202)

Mythic Parallels

Genesis 1:20-21 God said: Let the waters swarm with a swarm of living beings, and let fowl fly above the earth, across the dome of the heavens! 21 God created the great sea-serpents and all living beings that crawl about, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind”

הַתַּנִּינִ֖ם Tannin

Notice that chaos is not destroyed- just ordered. There is still chaos in God’s good world.

Note the +1 - stars, sea-serpents, crawling things

Wrap-up

Our author calls the people of God to believe their lives have not dissolved into the chaos and evil of exile forever but that their God has complete control over the chaos monster precisely because he created them. if God can create them by speaking a few worlds he can surely destroy theme equally easily.” (Angel 23)

Works Cited

Angel, Andy, and N. T. Wright. Playing with Dragons : Living with Suffering and God. Cambridge, The Lutterworth Press, 2014.

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Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy ; a New Translation with Introductions, Commentary, and Notes (New York: Word Publishing, 1995), Ge 1:1–2

Mark, Joshua. “Enuma Elish - the Babylonian Epic of Creation.” World History Encyclopedia, 4 May 2018, www.worldhistory.org/article/225/enuma-elish---the-babylonian-epic-of-creation---fu/.

“MHS Collections Online: A Fair Account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance at Boston in New England.” Masshist.org, 2025, www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?br=1&item_id=386&pid=2&utm_source=chatgpt.com. Accessed 20 Sept. 2025.

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“MHS Collections Online: A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston...” Www.masshist.org, www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=337&pid=2.

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Miller, Robert D. The Dragon, the Mountain, and the Nations : An Old Testament Myth, Its Origins, and Its Afterlives. University Park, Pa, Eisenbrauns, 2018.

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