[OT] References to Mesopotamian gods in Genesis 1:2

References to Mesopotamian gods in Genesis 1:2

  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Hebrew transliteration here).

• Form and Void in Hebrew: "Tohu" and "Bohu"
  

• "Void" (Hebrew "bohu")  - possible reference to the  goddess Ba'u or Ba-u. [UC 22]

• Bau was a Sumerian/Akkadian Goddess, daughter of An and Ninurta's wife who had seven daughters

• The oldest king of Ur known to us is Ur-Ba'u (servant of the goddess Ba'u ).

• According to Philo of Byblus, Ba'u, was a Goddess of the primal night, mother of the 1st mortals . But it is doubtful this reference is related to the Canaanite Goddess Ba-u.

• Deep = "Tehom"  [UC 23-24]

• Tehom belonges to the poetic creation epic tradition of the area.  It does not have a definite article ("the" or in Hebrew "ha").  It is not "The Deep" but simply "Deep" or "Tehom."  The definite article does not occur in Canaanite writings, and rarely in Hebrew poetry.
  

• 'Tehom" is missing the feminine ending "t" but is still a feminine word in the context of this sentence.  It might have been rendered "Tehomat."

• "Tiamat" was the Akkadian name of the goddess of the primeval World-Ocean, who had always existed and was the mighty foe of the creative god.

• Her name seems ultimately to have been a Sumerian one, as in that language ti = Life, and ama = Mother, t = feminine ending, suggesting her original name may have been "the mother of all life" (compare Gen 3:20, Eve is the "mother of all living."  Tiamat is depicted as  a  dragon, and is shown rearing herself on two legs.  There could be parallels with Eve and the serpent).

• Isaiah 51, 9-10 refers to tehom ("deep") saying regarding YHWH "was it not thou that didst cut rahab in pieces, that didst pierce the dragon?  was it not Thou that didst dry up the sea, the waters of the great DEEP...?"

• The Babylonian epic Enuma Elish begins "When above" the heavens did not yet exist nor the earth below, Apsu the freshwater ocean was there, "the first, the begetter", and Tiamat, the saltwater sea, "she who bore them all"; they were "mixing their waters".

This "mixing of the waters" is a natural feature of the middle Persian Gulf, where fresh waters from the Arabian aquifer mix and mingle with the salt waters of the sea. This characteristic is especially true of the region of Bahrain (whose name means in Arabic, "twin waters"), which is thought to be the site of Dilmun, the original site of the Sumerian creation.

• Tiamat was the "shining" personification of salt water who roared and smote in the chaos of original creation. She and Apsu filled the cosmic abyss with the primeval waters.

• Slicing Tiamat in half, he made from her ribs the vault of heaven and earth (compare to firmament). Her weeping eyes became the source of the Tigris and the Euphrates. With the approval of the elder gods, he took from Kingu the Tablets of Destiny, installing himself as the head of the Babylonian pantheon.  Kingu was captured and was later slain with his red blood mixed with the red clay of the Earth to make the body of humankind (see discussion of Adam below) created to act as the servant of the younger Igigi

• "Ruah" (Hebrew for "spirit," "breath" or "wind") of God could be a strong wind that divides the upper waters from the lower water.  Using "wind" for ruah, "and the Wind of God moved upon the face of the waters."  (compare Moses parting the red sea: "the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.").

• A possible connection between "Ruah" and "Lilith" exists.  In Mesopotamian literature, Lilith is a 'dark maid' who flies off on her wings to the desert.  In Akkadian tradition she is the goddess of the South wind. Rabbinic literature mentions her as the 1st wife of Adam.
• "Lilith" is connected with two root words - LayiI, Hebrew for night, and Lil, Sumerian (c. 3000 BCE) for 'wind' or 'breath' or 'spirit'.
• The possible connection to this verse is Ruah/Lilith, connotating darkness and/or wind, where she is a winged goddess hovering over Tiamat in darkness.
  
• "Lilith" occurs once in the bible, in Isaiah 34:14, translated variously as 'night hag,'  'screech owl,` 'night-jar,' 'night monster,'  'vampires,'  a spirit or goblin, and "Lilith" (in the New American Bible, NRSV and The Message Bible).
• Another possible translation of Genesis 1:1-2 is:
'In the beginning, a number of gods ("Elohim") began to give birth to the heavens and the earth. The earth still belonged to Tohu and Bohu (goddesses of formlessness and ultimate space), and darkness was on the face of the mother creator goddess Tiamat, and a huge wind flapped its wings over the face of the water.