Enûma Eliš: The Creation Story Before Genesis

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]One of the first creation stories ever recorded was [music] the Enuma Elish. In the beginning, there was only Apsu, the primordial god of fresh water, and Tiamat, the mother goddess [music] of the salt sea.

[00:00:14]Their waters mixed together, and from them the younger gods were born.

[00:00:19]The young gods were loud [music] and chaotic, and Apsu got so annoyed that he planned to destroy them. So, his son, Ea, beat him to it.

[00:00:29]Tiamat, enraged by Apsu's death, created an army of monsters, [music] dragons, and demons to avenge her husband.

[00:00:38]Ea, too afraid to face his mother's wrath, sent his son, Marduk, [music] to face her. Marduk battled Tiamat and split her body in two. From one half, he made the heavens. From the other, he made the earth.

[00:00:53]Similar stories were told across the lands. In India, the storm god Indra splits open the cosmic serpent [music] to unleash the life-giving waters. And the Canaanite god Baal defeats the primordial sea god Yam to claim kingship. [music] Even the Bible keeps echoes of the same myth. God separates the primordial waters to form the world and defeats [music] the Leviathan, preserving traces of older Canaanite sea monster traditions.