Tonight we start a new shelf. Seventy years before the Seventy-Two, a priest of Babylon called Berossus wrote the history of his people in Greek, for the Greek kings. It begins where every history begins: at the beginning.
Myths of the Near East · Comparing
In the Beginning
Both… and, neither… nor, either… or, the same as, similar to, different from: the grammar of putting two things side by side, as Sophia takes a Babylonian book off the shelf and Philo lays Genesis beside it.
🌊 Play the story too: in the gamebook, you are Marduk, in the Babylonian story.Play the gamebook →
SOPHIA
PHILO
And I have brought another beginning. Let’s put them side by side.
Two stories
After Berossus of Babylon, and Genesis 1
In Berossus, at first there was only darkness and water, and in the water lived monstrous creatures, ruled by a woman called Thalatth: Tiamat, the salt sea. The god Bel (Marduk) went out against her, split her body in two, and made the sky from one half and the earth from the other. Then he ordered another god to cut off his head, and mixed the blood with earth, and from it people were made.
In Genesis, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The earth was without form, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Over six days, God separates light from darkness and the waters above from the waters below, and makes the land, the plants, the sun and moon and stars, the fish, the birds and the animals, each one by speaking. At the end he makes man and woman “in his own image”, and in the second chapter he forms the man from the dust of the ground and breathes life into him. On the seventh day, he rests.
Both stories begin with dark waters. Both divide the waters to make a sky. Both make people from the earth. But in one there is a battle, and in the other there is only a voice.
Berossus’s Babyloniaca survives only in quotations by later writers. Genesis 1 is quoted from the Septuagint.
What we know today
In the 1800s, archaeologists digging in the ruins of Nineveh found clay tablets of the Babylonian creation poem itself, which we now call the Enuma Elish, after its first words: “When on high…”. It tells the story of Marduk and Tiamat at much greater length, and it was recited every year at the Babylonian New Year festival.
Scholars have long compared it with Genesis. Some see Genesis as a deliberate answer to stories like it; others see the two as independent. Readers draw their own conclusions.
Both… and
DEMETRIA
Both stories start with water. Both Babylon and Genesis divide the waters to make a sky.
SOPHIA
Both… and puts two things together that share something. Both can also stand alone before a plural noun: both stories, both of them. The verb is plural: Both stories begin with water.
Neither… nor
PHILO
And in neither story does the world simply appear by chance. Neither Berossus nor Genesis says that.
SOPHIA
Neither… nor joins two negatives: not this one, and not that one. The verb after neither… nor agrees with the nearer subject: Neither Tiamat nor her monsters were able to stop him.
The same as, similar to, different from
MARCOS
So they’re the same. Water, sky, people from mud. It’s the same story.
PHILO
It is similar to ours, Marcos, but it is very different from ours. In Berossus the world is made from a dead monster. In Genesis it is made by a word.
SOPHIA
Watch the prepositions: the same as, similar to, different from (or different to, in Britain). Not “the same like”, not “similar with”.
Like and alike
THE CLERK
So my two copies of Berossus are alike, and my copy is like the original?
SOPHIA
Exactly. like + noun: my copy is like the original. alike after the verb, with no noun: the two copies are alike. And either… or offers a choice: either the sea or the sky.
The difference
PHILO
For me the most important difference is at the very start. The Babylonian gods are born out of the waters. In Genesis, God is there before the waters, and makes them.
SOPHIA
A Greek philosopher would put it this way: in one story the gods are part of the world; in the other, God is outside it. You can compare them without deciding tonight which is true, Marcos. That is what good scholars do.
Sophia’s summary
| Form | Use | From the fable |
|---|---|---|
| both… and / both + plural noun | two things that share something (plural verb) | Both stories begin with water. |
| neither… nor | not one and not the other | Neither Berossus nor Genesis says it happened by chance. |
| either… or | a choice between two | It was either the sea or the sky. |
| the same as / similar to / different from | comparing two things | Berossus is similar to Genesis, but different from it too. |
| like + noun / alike | resembling | This copy is like the original. The copies are alike. |
Practice
Answer all the questions, then press “Check my answers”. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Choose the best form
Choose the form that fits best.
1. ___ stories begin with dark water.
2. In Berossus, the world is made from a monster. In Genesis, it is made by a word. They are very different ___ each other.
3. The Babylonian story is similar ___ Genesis in some ways.
4. Neither Tiamat nor her monsters ___ able to stop Marduk.
5. Is the sky made from ___ a monster or a word? It depends on the story.
6. My copy of the scroll is exactly ___ the original.
B · Complete the sentence
Write the missing word.
7. Berossus and Genesis divide the waters to make a sky. (both)
8. Neither story says that the world appeared by chance, does Philo’s teacher. (and not)
9. The two copies of the tablet are completely . (similar)
10. Philo’s scroll is not the same Sophia’s.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
11. “This story is the same like that one.”
12. “Both the sky and the earth were made from her body.”
13. “Neither story begin with light.”
Now play the Babylonian story yourself, as Marduk against Tiamat.Play the gamebook →