Analysis Of The Popol Vuh And Genesis

The Popol Vuh opens by telling how the multiple Mayan gods created the Earth, everything it is composed of, and how they later create beings capable of worship. In Genesis, one God is responsible for the creation of everything, the most important being mankind. The Popol Vuh and Genesis are so similar that the Popol Vuh is sometimes thought of as a Mayan take on the Bible. The most paramount similarities are explaining the origin of humanity, illustrating the consequences for not following the rules set by the gods or of God, and the creation of everything on Earth. The Popol Vuh tells the story of how human kind began, the four Mayan gods attempt to make beings that are capable of worship, and reproduction so the worship will continue. The gods make animals first but they cannot speak and thus are not able to praise the gods, after the animals are created there are a series of trial people. The first in this series are the mud people, …show more content…
It represented the Mayan efforts to accommodate Christian beliefs.” (Danver 6). In the Popol Vuh the gods create earth simply by saying the word Earth “Then the earth was created by them. Merely their word brought about the creation of it. In order to create the earth, they said, ‘Earth,’ and immediately it was created. Just like a cloud, like a mist, was the creation and formation of it.” (Popol Vuh 61). The gods created the Earth in one day in Genesis God took seven days to create Earth and everything on it, however in both of these works there is a hierarchy for creation. In both myths, the day and night, light and dark, oceans, trees, and animals were all created before human