How similar is the Enuma Elish to the creation account in Genesis?

from the old testament

• While the creation account in the Enuma Elish involves many gods, Genesis begins with a historical claim about the one true God who brought everything into existence. Moses wrote, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). That sentence indicates that before creation, there was just God, not gods (plural). Also, rather than creation arising from chaos, God set about to create an ordered universe.
• The poetic structure and terminology in the Enuma Elish are similar to those in Genesis 1. This has led some biblical scholars and others to argue that the Genesis 1 account is a poetic interpretation of creation, rather than a literal, factual account. However, more conservative and orthodox scholars argue that the style of writing does not imply figurative content. All that the similar form in the Enuma Elish and the Genesis account shows is that the writings came from similar cultural backgrounds, not that both are mythological.

from the new testament

• Jesus affirmed the Genesis creation account as accurate and authoritative. When questioned about marriage, He quoted from Genesis, saying, “He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,” and then, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife” (Matthew 19:4-5). That is, He treated Adam and Eve as real people, created by God at the beginning of history. His appeal to Genesis shows that He believed the creation record revealed what God actually did.
• The rest of the New Testament confirms this same truth. John opens his Gospel by identifying Jesus as the divine Word through whom “all things were made” (John 1:1-3), echoing the language of Genesis 1. Paul likewise teaches that all things were created through and for Christ (Colossians 1:16), grounding human purpose and dignity in the creative act as recorded in Genesis. Hebrews adds that “the universe was created by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). Together, these passages affirm that the Genesis account is not myth but the foundation of all New Testament theology.

implications for today

The Enuma Elish, known as the “Seven Tablets of Creation,” is a Babylonian myth whose title means “when in the heights.” It is a mythical account of a battle between gods, predominantly featuring Marduk and the goddess Tiamat. While fighting for control, Marduk kills Tiamat and splits her body in two—half forming the sky and half the earth. He then makes humans from divine flesh and bone to serve the gods and maintain order in the universe.

The Old Testament book of Genesis is dated to about 1400 BC, making the Enuma Elish about 300 years younger than the creation account. While the author of Enuma Elish could have borrowed from the Genesis account, it’s clear that the intention was to record a completely different account of creation.

It can be unsettling to hear claims that Genesis is just one of many ancient creation stories. However, similarities in wording or structure do not necessarily mean the message is the same, nor that Genesis is a myth simply because other creation accounts are. Writers in the ancient world often employed familiar patterns of description, and God chose to reveal His truth within the same literary framework. Genesis is distinct from all other accounts in that it is a plain, straightforward account—nothing fanciful, mythological, or exaggerated about it. Indeed, it displays God’s unique creating power, something that is beyond our understanding. But it presents it as a factual, historical account.

Many scholars who dismiss Genesis as an accurate account of creation approach have the underlying bias of atheism. Their assumption that God is yet another myth shapes their conclusions long before they open the text. In fact, their goal is often to explain away the supernatural and to deny the moral weight of what the creation account means—that we are creatures, not self-made beings, and that we have rebelled against our Maker.

Because we have turned away from the God who made us, the world bears the marks of our rebellion—sin, death, and separation from the One who gives life. Yet the Creator did not abandon His creation. In love, He sent His Son, Jesus, to live as the perfect human we failed to be and to bear the judgment our sin deserves. Through His death and resurrection, He offers forgiveness and restores all who trust in Him to a right relationship with their Creator. The same God who spoke the universe into existence now speaks peace to every heart that turns to Him in faith.