Characteristics Of Creation Stories

Improved Essays
A creation myth is the philosophical and theological elaboration of the primal myth of creation within a religious community. The term creation refers to the beginning of things, whether by the will and act of a transcendent being, by emanation from some ultimate source, or in any other way (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). Creation myths are archetypal because of the similarities and characteristics that they display when referencing the creation of the earth. They are allegorical because they show elements of dramatization to emphasise the power of God and the authority of his command. Creation stories reveal the nature of God and the relationship between humankind and God through the recurrence of God punishing mankind for his mistakes, …show more content…
For example, the Christian and Babylonian creation myths have many distinct similarities such as the darkness that surrounded the world before the creation of earth and the fact that the first development of the earth was the formulation of light. Both stories share the fact that the second and third components in the worlds creation was the formation of the sky and the sun, moon and stars respectively. The final two developments in the creation of earth according to both the Christian and Babylonian stories was the creation of men and women and the resting of God (Religioustolerance.org, 2010). These two creation stories share many common attributes and the the sum of the similarities shown between the two stories concludes that creation myths are archetypal in their themes and …show more content…
He created human beings as an image of him, and therefore we share common attributes with him. God created us to be loving, patient, kind, just, merciful, gracious, joyful, creative, generous, jealous and wrathful. Christians affirm that the universe was created by an omnipotent, omniscient and transcendent being (Ham, 2010). This description of God as having unlimited power, knowing everything, and not being apart of our material universe reveals that the version of God presented by Christians is one of an almighty and powerful God. Depicting God in this way compels the image of God as a punisher, and encourages the following of the ten commandments so as to not face the wrath of God. The nature of God in the Bible is that of an almighty, disciplinary God, but in Genesis 1 (creation story) he is depicted to be caring for the world and its creatures, which are his own creation. The interpretation of God that is presented in the Babylonian creation myth is of two Gods who spawn many smaller Gods. These Gods end up in a war because of the noise of the smaller Gods, and after much fighting the God Tiamat is killed, and the earth and humankind are made from her blood. This may explain why humans are prone to mistake, as a result of them being formed by the blood of a God who lost their life as a result of fault. The creation myth shows the nature of God to be unforgiving, but

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    For instance, in the Ojibway creation story, animals were the only to survive the great flood besides Nanabush (a human). The idea of birds seemed to be another reoccurring topic, given that “swans cushioned the wifes fall” (Onandaga story) and “birds caught the woman on their backs” (Iriqouis story). Birds play a big role in the Cherokee creation myth given that they believe the buzzard shaped the landscape of North America with his wings. Muskrats also play an important role of being the one that believes in himself more than the other animals. In multiple creation myths such as the Onandaga and the Ojibway the muskrat is the one who believes he can swim to the bottom of the hole in order to bring up earth.…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two Worlds Become One How does the Iroquois Creation story show similarities and differences from the Christian Creation story? In “The Iroquois Creation Story” by David Cusick, connections can be made with the Christian Creation story.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the creation myth “The World on Turtle’s Back” the Iroquois Native Americans describe their beliefs about the creation of the world and humanity. The myth exhibits many archetypal settings and greatly resembles the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis. The differences between the two creation stories’ archetypal settings, however, illustrate the greatest difference between the two cultures; monotheism and polytheism. Both “The World on Turtle’s Back” and the Book of Genesis involve a tree that connects heaven to earth. In the Iroquois story, it is the “Great Tree… [that] had grown there forever….…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The term ‘God’, and its equivalents, are commonly used within all the three creation myths. Even though the myths are derived from three different cultures, the idea of a supreme god is still shared among them. One explanation for unwavering similarity is that there is an actual god that truly does exist. That god dictated the basic components of how people all around the world explained the creation of the world around them. The similarities found between the three myths are factors of the myths that are very important.…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Navajo Creation Story

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Origin Stories A creation story is any story that tells of a creation, these stories can be as specific as the creation of a new invention or they can be as broad as the creation of everything (Creation Story Definition). Many creation stories have points that are very similar and point out that it is very possible that many of these events are true since they are in common. There are also many differences in these stories as well. This paper however is going to detail the similarities and differences between the Native American creation story of the Navajo “Haijiinei” to the creation story of the Bible which is detailed in the book of Genesis.…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Relationship Between God and Man Within Myths Gods have expectations that man struggles to understand. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Popol Vuh, and Genesis, like many creation stories, show similar themes that create a common lesson for the reader to learn from. There are rules, laws and commandments that the gods use to instruct man on how to live. When these commandments are broken, the gods impose punishments that show their authority over man. The punishment is not only given to the immediate offender, but to all of mankind.…

    • 1501 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout our lives we are taught different stories that can affect us dramatically, either in a positive way or negative way. During our childhood we read the Tortoise and the Hare, which is a story that taught us the moral, “slow and steady wins the race”. We also read things such as: The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which taught us essentially not to lie, because if you lie enough, you won’t be believed when you tell the truth. These stories taught us valuable lessons growing up, but not only do these children books teach us lessons. As we get older we start reading things known as creation myths in our classes.…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mayan Food History

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For example, one myth told by the Mayans in their sacred book, the Popol Vuh, tells about the creation of mankind through their God’s many attempts at creating the human that best fit their needs. The story tells how mankind was first made from mud, but this didn’t work because man could hardly see, hear or walk and were soon washed away. The Mayan gods then made other beings out of wood and these beings were successful for operating but they lacked blood and souls, so they were destroyed. Finally, after much discussion and deliberation, the gods decided to take advantage of the ingredients they had and they added maize to the mixture and made the third generation of humans out of white and yellow ears of maize. The Mayans believed that they descended from this third generation of men and that their wives were created shortly…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two Creation Stories

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It more accurately reflects liberal Christians and cultural Jew’s. The two genesis creation stories initially originate and come from the Jewish religion which later were adopted by Chstistianity and both can be sourced from sacred religious texts. As there are two creation stories, this can have a significant impact on both Christians and Jews. The discrepancy of the two stories is what contributes to the induvial beliefs within the two religions and their personal world views (Wayne Jackson, n.d).…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    * Compare the creators, creations, the steps or cycle of creation, and the cosmic elements of the two myths. What are the similarities and differences?(Keep your responses entirely in the third person, in keeping with the requirements of sound academic prose.)Format your citations and references consistent with APA guidelines. | No later than 6:00 p.m. Rogers, AR time, Wed., May 30 | 10…

    • 2803 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The literary form and genre of the book of Genesis is prose: biblical and historical narrative. Biblical narratives in Genesis show that “God is active in His world” and these narratives typically “chose certain events to reveal God.” For instance, this element is apparent when the Angel of the Lord speaks to Hagar, granting her the promise of descendants (Gen 16:10). In the same manner, this element is reinforced in subsequent chapters (Gen 17:19; 18:10). In describing this book, it is significant to note that most of the characters in the narrative are flawed.…

    • 94 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The myths that I choose to compare and contrast their major elements are the Ute Creation Myth and the Hawaiian Creation Myth. These two myths are similar but they possess some differences as well. In the creation in the Ute Myth there was a spirit in the sky named “Manitou” alone in the heavens with the clouds, sky, and sun. However, in the beginning of the Hawaiian Myth there was only darkness, from there the night was born as a male creature, meanwhile the female one was the essences of the darkness itself. But, both tales the way that things came into the world have a similar order, the creation stared with plants which surrounded the earth, the fishes, birds, and lastly animals.…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The similarity of the biblical and Navajo creation stories are that in both stories there are the first man and first woman, both of which are made from the earth. Also, all of humanities ancestors eventually leads back to Adam and Eve, the man and woman in the Navajo story had many children, who ad many children, and so on. There are many differences in these stories. There were no "previous worlds" in the Bible as mentioned in this legend.…

    • 133 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Iroquois Vs Genesis

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout history, creation stories describe the way people have thought Earth has been made. After reading the creation story from the Native American tribe, Iroquois, and reading the creation story from Christian Bible, one could make some comparisons between the two. (Throughout the rest of the essay the Christian creation story will be referred to as “Genesis” although the source material doesn't include all of book of Genesis written in the Bible, and the Iroquois creation story will be referred to as “The Sky World”) The first thing to notice is how the universe is set up at the beginning of the stories, what there is to work with, and any characters there are. In Genesis, a single deity, God stands center place as the main figure…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Every Christian relates with the God who is described as being great, wise, infinitely good and infinitely powerful. The great description of God allows Christian to develop a perfect figure to look up to for guidance and blessings. However, the evil nature of the world disqualifies the description of God as prescribed by Christianity. God is described as all perfect and good while the world is marked with evil and misery. There is no connection between the supremacy of God as described by the Christianity and the extremity of evil as described by the nature of the world.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays