Greek myths about the origin of the earth. Legends and myths about the creation of the world
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.
(Genesis 1, 1-2).
The biblical teaching about the creation of the world is briefly called Six days. Day means day. In 1823, Anglican priest George Stanley Faber (1773-1854) put forward the day-age theory. This opinion has absolutely no basis. In Hebrew to express words indefinite period of time or era there is a concept olam. Word yom in Hebrew always means day, day but never period of time. Rejecting a literal understanding of the day greatly distorts the biblical teaching about the creation of the world. If we take a day as an epoch, then how to determine evening And morning? How to apply the blessing of the seventh day and the rest in it to the era? After all, the Lord commanded rest on the seventh day of the week - Saturday, because He Himself rested: and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He rested from all His works(Genesis 2, 3). The Lord created plants on the third day, and the sun, moon and other luminaries on the fourth. If we accept the idea of a day - an era, it turns out that for an entire era plants grew without sunlight.
The Holy Fathers understood day literally the first chapter of Genesis. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons: “Restoring this day in Himself, the Lord came to suffer on the day before the Sabbath - that is, on the sixth day of creation, on which man was created, through His suffering giving him a new creation, that is, (liberation) from death.” Saint Ephrem the Syrian: “No one should think that the six-day creation is an allegory.” Saint Basil the Great: « And there was evening, and there was morning, one day... This determines the measure of day and night and combines them into one daily time, because twenty-four hours fill the continuation of one day, if by day we mean night.” Saint John of Damascus: “From the beginning of a day to the beginning of another day is one day, for the Scripture says: and there was evening and there was morning: one day».
How then did the alternation of day and night occur before the creation of the luminaries, which appear on the fourth day? St. Basil the Great writes: “Then, not by the movement of the sun, but by the fact that this primeval light, in a measure determined by God, either spread out, then contracted again, day occurred and night followed” (Six Day Conversation 2).
Genesis begins with a description of the magnificent work of God - the creation of the world in six days. The Lord created the Universe with countless luminaries, the earth with its seas and mountains, man and the entire animal and plant world. The biblical revelation about the creation of the world rises above all existing cosmogonies of other religions, just as truth rises above any myth. Not a single religion, not a single philosophical doctrine could rise to the idea of creation out of nothing that surpasses reason: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
God is self-sufficient and absolutely complete. For His existence, He does not require anything and does not need anything. The only reason for the creation of the world was the perfect Love of God. Saint John of Damascus writes: “The good and most good God was not content with contemplating Himself, but out of His abundance of goodness He wanted something to happen that in the future would benefit from His benefits and be involved in His goodness.”
The first to be created were disembodied spirits - Angels. Although the Holy Scriptures do not contain a narrative about the creation of the angelic world, there is no doubt that Angels by their nature belong to the created world. This view is based primarily on the clear biblical understanding of God as the omnipotent Creator who laid the foundation for all that exists. Everything has a beginning, only God is beginningless. Some holy fathers see an indication of the creation of the invisible world of Angels in the words God created the sky (Genesis 1, 1). In support of this thought, Saint Philaret (Drozdov) notes that, according to the biblical narrative, the physical heaven was created on the second and fourth days.
Pristine the earth was unsettled And empty. Created from nothing, matter first appeared disordered and covered in darkness. Darkness was an inevitable consequence of the absence of light, which was not created as an independent element. Further, the writer of everyday life Moses writes that The Spirit of God hovered over the waters(Genesis 1, 2). Here we see an indication of the creative and life-giving participation in creation of the third Person of the Holy Trinity - the Holy Spirit. An extremely short and precise definition - everything is from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Water mentioned in the above verse is the most important element without which life is impossible. In the Holy Gospel, water is a symbol of the life-giving and saving teachings of Jesus Christ. In the life of the Church, water has a special meaning, being the substance of the Sacrament of Baptism.
First day of creation
And God said: Let there be light. And there was light... And God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness night. And there was evening and there was morning: one day(Genesis 1, 3-5).
By Divine command arose light. From further words: and God separated the light from the darkness we see that the Lord did not destroy darkness, but only established its periodic replacement with light to restore and preserve the strength of man and every creature. The Psalmist sings of this wisdom of God: You extend the darkness and there is night: during it all the forest animals roam; lions roar for prey and ask God for food for themselves. The sun rises [and] they gather and lie down in their lairs; a man goes out to his business and to his work until evening. How numerous are Your works, O Lord!(Ps 103:20-24). Poetic expression and there was evening and there was morning ends with a description of the creative activities of each of the six days. The word itself day the saints took it literally.
Light was created by the Divine in a word possessing omnipotent creative power: for He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it appeared(Ps 32:9). The Holy Fathers see here a mysterious indication of the second Person of the Holy Trinity - the Son of God Jesus Christ, whom the Apostle calls In a word and at the same time says: Everything came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that came into being.(John 1, 3).
When describing the first day, put first evening, and then morning. For this reason, the Jews in biblical times began their day in the evening. This order was preserved in the worship of the New Testament Church.
Second day of creation
And God created the firmament...<...>and called... the firmament the sky(Genesis 1, 7, 8) and placed the sky between the water that was on the earth and the water above the earth.
On the second day God created physical sky. In a word firmament the word in the Hebrew original is conveyed, meaning prostrate, for the ancient Jews metaphorically compared the firmament to a tent: you stretch out the heavens like a tent(Ps 103:2).
When describing the second day, we also talk about water, which is found not only on the earth, but also in the atmosphere.
Third day of creation
And God gathered the waters under the sky into one place and opened the dry land. And he called the dry land earth, and the collection of waters he called seas. And God commanded that the earth should grow greenery, grass and trees bearing fruit. And the earth was covered with vegetation. The Lord separated the water from the dry land(see: Gen. 1, 9-13).
On the third day were created oceans, seas, lakes and rivers, and continents and islands. This later delighted the Psalmist: He gathered up the waters of the sea like heaps, and placed the abysses in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all who live in the universe tremble before Him, for He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it appeared(Ps 32:7-9).
On the same day God created all vegetable world. This was fundamentally new: God laid the foundation for organic life on the ground.
Produce flora Creator commanded the earth. St. Basil the Great says: “The then verb and this first command became, as it were, a natural law and remained in the earth for subsequent times, giving it the power to give birth and bear fruit” (St. Basil the Great. Six Days. Conversation 5).
The book of Genesis says that the earth brought forth greenery, grass, and trees that sowed seed according to their kind. The Holy Fathers attached fundamental importance to this, for it indicates the constancy of everything created by God: “What came out of the earth at the first creation is preserved to this day, through the preservation of the race by succession” (St. Basil the Great. Six Days. Conversation 5). As you can see, the third day was dedicated to the structure of our planet.
And God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:12). The writer of everyday life expresses in poetic language the idea that God creates wisely and perfectly.
Fourth day of creation
And God said that lights should appear in the firmament of heaven to sanctify the earth and to separate day from night. The calendar and time will now be counted based on the created luminaries. And the luminaries appeared: the sun, the moon and the stars(see: Gen. 1, 14-18).
In the description of the fourth day we see the creation of the luminaries, their purpose and their differences. From the text of the Bible we learn that light was created on the second day before the luminaries, so that, according to the explanation of St. Basil the Great, unbelievers would not consider the sun to be the only source of light. God alone is the Father of lights (see: James 1:17).
The creation of luminaries had three purposes: first, to illuminate land and everything that is on it; a distinction is established between the luminaries of the day (the sun) and the luminaries of the night (the moon and stars). Secondly, separate day from night; distinguish four time of year, organize time using calendar and keep chronology. Thirdly, to serve for signs of the end times; This is stated in the New Testament: the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven; and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory(Matthew 24:29-30).
Fifth day of creation
On the fifth day, the Lord created the first living creatures living in water and flying in the air. And God said: Let the water bring forth living things; and let the birds fly over the earth. This is how the inhabitants of the waters appeared, aquatic animals, insects, reptiles and fish appeared, and birds flew through the airspace(see: Gen. 1, 20-21).
At the beginning of the fifth day God turns His creative word to water ( let the water produce), while on the third day - to the ground. Word water is taken in this place in a broader sense, denoting not only ordinary water, but also the atmosphere, which the sacred writer also calls water.
On the fifth day, God creates a higher form of life than plants. By God's command, representatives of the water element appeared (fish, whales, reptiles, amphibians and other inhabitants of the waters), as well as birds, insects and everything living in the air.
The Creator creates the first beings of each kind (“according to kind”). He blesses them to be fruitful and multiply.
Sixth day of creation
On the sixth day of creation, God created animals living on earth and man in His image and likeness(see: Gen. 1, 24-31).
Description sixth creative day Prophet Moses begins with the same words as the previous days (third and fifth): let it produce...God commands the earth to create all the animals on earth (living soul according to its kind). God created everything in a certain sequence increasing perfection.
And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils breath of life, and man became a living soul (see: Gen. 1:26-28).
The last, as the crown of creation, was man was created. He was created in a special way. The Holy Fathers first of all note that his creation was preceded by the Divine Council between all the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity: let's create man. Man is distinguished from the entire created world by the way the Lord creates him. Although his bodily composition was taken from the earth, the Lord does not command the earth to produce man (as was the case with other creatures), but He Himself creates him directly. The psalmist says, addressing the Creator: Your hands created me and formed me(Ps 119:73).
God said that it's not good for a person to be alone.
And the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and when he fell asleep, he took one of his ribs and covered that place with flesh. And the Lord God created a wife from a rib taken from a man, and brought her to the man(Genesis 2:21-22).
The Lord, of course, could have created not only one married couple, but several and produced from them the entire human race, but He wanted all the people of the earth to be one in Adam. After all, even Eve was taken from her husband. The Apostle Paul says: From one blood He brought forth the entire human race to live on all the face of the earth.(Acts 17:26). And that's why we are all relatives.
At the dawn of human history, God established marriage as a permanent life union between a man and a woman. He blessed him and tied him with the closest bonds: they will be one flesh(Genesis 2:24).
Having created the human body, God blew into his face breath of life and man became a living soul. The most important distinguishing feature of a person is that he the soul is godlike. God said: Let us make man in Our image [and] after Our likeness(Genesis 1:26). About what it is the image of God in man, we talked earlier. When God created man, He brought all the animals and birds to him, and man gave them all names. The naming of names was a sign of man's dominance over all creation.
With the creation of man, the six-day creation of the world ends. God created the world perfect. The hand of the Creator did not bring any evil into him. This doctrine of the original goodness of all creation is a sublime theological truth.
At the end of times will the perfection of the world has been restored. According to the testimony of the seer, the holy Apostle John the Theologian, there will be a new heaven and a new Earth(see: Rev. 21, 1).
Seventh day
And God finished on the seventh day His work which He had done, and on the seventh day He rested from all His work which He had done.(Genesis 2, 2).
Having completed the creation of the world, God rested from His works. The writer of everyday life uses a metaphor here, for God does not need rest. This indicates the secret of true peace that awaits people in eternal life. Before the onset of this blessed time, already in earthly life we see a prototype of this state - the peace of the blessed seventh day, which was in the Old Testament Saturday, and for Christians it is a day Sunday.
The creation of the world is the original question in any religion. How and when everything that surrounds man was born - plants, birds, animals, man himself.
Science promotes its theory - a big explosion occurred in the universe, which gave rise to the galaxy and the planets around it. If the general scientific theory of the creation of the world is united, then different peoples have their own legends about it.
Myths about the creation of the world
What is a myth? This is a legend about the origin of life, the role of God and man in it. There are a huge number of such legends.
According to Jewish history, Heaven and Earth were original. The material for their creation was the clothes of God and snow. According to another version, the whole world is an intertwining of threads of fire, water and snow.
According to Egyptian mythology, initially darkness and chaos reigned everywhere. Only the young God Ra, who shed light and gave life, could defeat him. In one version, he hatched from an egg, and in another version, he was born from a lotus flower. It is noteworthy that there are many variations in the Egyptian theory, and many contain images of animals, birds, and insects.
In the stories of the Sumerians, the world came into existence when the flat Earth and the dome of Heaven united and gave birth to a son - the God of Air. Then the deities of water and plants appear. Here for the first time we speak of the emergence of a person from the organ of another.
The Greek myth about the origin of the world is based on the concept of chaos, which swallowed up everything around, the sun and moon were inseparable, cold was combined with heat. A certain God came and separated all opposites from each other. He also created man and woman from a single matter.
The parable of the ancient Slavs is based on the same chaos that reigned everywhere and around. There are deities of time, earth, darkness, wisdom. According to this legend, all living things appeared from dust - humans, plants, animals. The stars came from here. Therefore, it is said that the stars, like man, are not eternal.
Creation of the world according to the Bible
The Holy Scripture is the main book of Orthodox believers. Here you can find answers to all questions. This also applies to the origin of the world, humans and animals, plants.
The Bible has five books that tell the whole story. These books were written by Moses during his wanderings with the Jewish people. All the revelations of God were initially recorded in one volume, but then it was divided.
The beginning of the Holy Scriptures is the Book of Genesis. Its name from Greek means “beginning,” which speaks of the content. It is here that the story is told about how the origin of life, the first man, the first society occurred.
As the Scripture says, man, by his existence, carries the highest goal - love, beneficence, improvement. It contains within itself the breath of God himself - the soul.
According to biblical history, the world was not created in eternity. How many days did it take for God to create a world filled with life? Even children know about this today.
How God created the earth in 7 days
The appearance of the world in such a short time is briefly described in the Holy Scriptures. There is no detailed description in the book, everything is symbolic. Understanding transcends age and time - it is something that lasts for centuries. History says that only God can create the world out of nothing.
First day of creation of the world
God created "heaven" and "earth". This should not be taken literally. This does not mean matter, but certain forces, entities, angels.
On this same day, God separated darkness from light, thus creating day and night.
Second day
At this time, a certain “firmament” is created. The personification of the separation of water on earth and air. Thus, we are talking about creating air space, a certain atmosphere for life.
The third day
The Almighty orders the water to gather in one place and make room for the formation of land. This is how the earth itself appeared, and the water around became seas and oceans.
Fourth day
Notable for the formation of celestial bodies - night and day. The stars appear.
Now the possibility of counting time arises. The successive sun and moon count days, seasons, years.
Fifth day
Life appears on earth. Birds, fish, animals. This is where the great phrase “be fruitful and multiply” comes into play. God gives the beginning, the first individuals who themselves will raise their offspring in this paradise.
Sixth day
God creates man “in His image and likeness” and breathes life into him. Man is molded from clay, and the breath of God revives dead material and gives him a soul.
Adam is the first person, man. He lives in the Garden of Eden and understands the languages of the world around him. Despite the diversity of life around him, he is lonely. God creates a helper for him, the woman Eve, from his rib while Adam sleeps.
Seventh day
Called Saturday. It is reserved for rest and serving God.
This is how the world was born. What is the exact date of the creation of the world according to the Bible? This is still the main and most difficult issue. There are claims that time is being described long before the advent of modern chronology.
Another opinion says the opposite, that the events in the Holy Book are our time. The figure varies from 3483 to 6984 years. But the generally accepted point of reference is considered to be 5508 BC.
Creation of the world according to the Bible for children
Initiating children into the doctrine of God teaches correct principles of behavior and points to undeniable values. However, the Bible in its present form is difficult for an adult to understand, let alone a child’s perception.
In order for a child to be able to study the main book of Christians himself, a children's Bible was invented. A colorful, illustrated publication, written in a child-friendly language.
The story of the creation of the world from the Old Testament tells that initially there was nothing. But God has always been. All seven days of creation are narrated very briefly. It also tells the story of the emergence of the first people and how they betrayed God.
The story of Adam and Abel is described. These stories are instructive for children and teach them the right attitude towards others, elders, and nature. Animated and feature films come to the rescue, which clearly show the events described in the Holy Scriptures.
There is no age or time for religion. She is beyond everything essential. Understanding the origin of the environment and the role of man in the world, finding harmony and one’s path is possible only by understanding the values that faith carries.
10.10.2015 16.09.2018 - admin
7 mythological concepts of the creation of the world
Most mythologies have general stories about the origin of all things: the separation of elements of order from the primordial chaos, the separation of maternal and paternal gods, the emergence of land from the ocean, endless and timeless. Here are the most interesting myths and legends about the creation of the world.
Slavic
The ancient Slavs had many legends about where the world and everyone inhabiting it came from.
The creation of the world began with filling it with Love.
The Carpathian Slavs have a legend according to which the world was created by two pigeons who sat on an oak tree in the middle of the sea and thought “how to found the world.” They decided to go down to the bottom of the sea, take some fine sand, sow it, and from it would come “black earth, cold water, green grass.” And from a golden stone, which was also mined at the bottom of the sea, “blue sky, bright sun, clear month and all the stars” would come from it.
According to one myth, the world was initially shrouded in darkness. There was only the progenitor of all things - Rod. He was imprisoned in an egg, but managed to give birth to Lada (Love), and by her force he destroyed the shell. The creation of the world began with filling it with Love. The family created the kingdom of heaven, and under it - the heavenly kingdom, and separated the Ocean from the waters of heaven by the firmament. Then Rod separated Light and Darkness and gave birth to the Earth, which plunged into the dark abyss of the Ocean. The Sun came out of Rod’s face, the Moon came out of his chest, and the stars came out of his eyes. From Rod's breath came winds, from tears - rain, snow and hail. His voice became thunder and lightning. Then Rod gave birth to Svarog and breathed into him a powerful spirit. It was Svarog who arranged the change of day and night, and also created the earth - he crushed a handful of earth in his hands, which then fell into the sea. The sun heated the Earth, and a crust was baked on it, and the Moon cooled the surface.
According to another legend, the world appeared as a result of the hero’s battle with the serpent who was guarding the golden egg. The hero killed the snake, split the egg, and from it emerged three kingdoms: heavenly, earthly and underground.
There is also a legend: in the beginning there was nothing but a boundless sea. A duck, flying over the surface of the sea, dropped an egg into the abyss of the water, it split, and from the lower part of it came “mother earth,” and from the upper part, “a high vault of heaven rose.”
Egyptian
Atum, who arose from Nun - the primary ocean, was considered the creator and primordial being. In the beginning there was no sky, no earth, no soil. Atum grew like a hill in the middle of the world's oceans. There is an assumption that the shape of the pyramid is also associated with the idea of a primary hill.
Atum absorbed his own seed and then vomited two children into the world.
Afterwards, Atum broke away from the water with great effort, soared over the abyss and cast a spell, as a result of which a second hill grew among the water surface - Ben-Ben. Atum sat down on a hill and began to think about what he should use to create the world. Since he was alone, he absorbed his own seed, and then vomited out the god of air Shu and the goddess of moisture Tefnut. And the first people appeared from the tears of Atum, who briefly lost his children - Shu and Tefnut, and then found them again and burst into tears of joy.
From this couple, born of Atum, came the gods Geb and Nut, and they, in turn, gave birth to the twins Osiris and Isis, as well as Set and Nephthys. Osiris became the first god to be killed and resurrected to an eternal afterlife.
Greek
In the Greek concept, there was originally Chaos, from which the land of Gaia emerged, and in its depths the abyss of Tartarus lay deep. Chaos gave birth to Nyukta (Night) and Erebus (Darkness). The night gave birth to Tanat (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), as well as moira - goddesses of fate. From Night came the goddess of rivalry and discord, Eris, who gave birth to Hunger, Sorrow, Murder, Lies, Exhaustive Labor, Battles and other troubles. From the connection of Night with Erebus, Ether and the shining day were born.
Gaia gave birth to Uranus (Sky), then Mountains rose from its depths, and Pontus (Sea) spilled across the plains.
Gaia and Uranus gave birth to the Titans: Oceanus, Tethys, Iapetus, Hyperion, Theia, Cria, Kay, Phoebe, Themis, Mnemosyne, Kronos and Rhea.
Kronos, with the help of his mother, overthrew his father, seizing power and marrying his sister Rhea. It was they who created a new tribe - the gods. But Kronos was afraid of his children, because he himself had once overthrown his own parent. That's why he swallowed them immediately after birth. Rhea hid one child in a cave in Crete. This rescued baby was Zeus. God was fed by goats, and his crying was drowned out by the blows of copper shields.
Having matured, Zeus overcame his father Cronus and forced him to vomit his brothers and sisters from his womb: Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia. Thus came the end of the era of the Titans - the era of the gods of Olympus began.
Scandinavian
The Scandinavians believe that before the creation of the world there was a void called Ginungagap. To the north of it lay the frozen world of darkness Niflheim, and to the south lay the fiery country of Muspellheim. Gradually, the world emptiness of Ginungagap was filled with poisonous frost, which turned into the giant Ymir. He was the ancestor of all frost giants. When Ymir fell asleep, sweat began to drip from his armpits, and these drops turned into a man and a woman. From this water also the cow Audumla was formed, whose milk Imir drank, as well as the second man born from sweat - Buri.
The son of Buri Bore Bor married the giantess Bestla, and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Ve. For some reason, the sons of the Storm hated the giant Ymir and killed him. Then they took his body to the center of Ginungagapa and created the world: from flesh - the earth, from blood - the ocean, from the skull - the sky. Ymir's brain was scattered across the sky, creating clouds. With the eyelashes of Ymir they fenced off the best part of the world and settled people there.
Drops of sweat from the armpits of the Scandinavian giant Ymir turned into a man and a woman.
The gods created the people themselves from two tree branches. From the first man and woman all other people descended. The gods built the Asgard fortress for themselves, where they settled.
Chinese
Zoroastrian
The Zoroastrians created an interesting concept of the universe. According to this concept, the world has existed for 12 thousand years. Its entire history is conventionally divided into four periods, each lasting 3 thousand years.
The first period is the pre-existence of things and ideas. At this stage of heavenly creation there already existed the prototypes of everything that was later created on Earth. This state of the world is called Menok ("invisible" or "spiritual").
The second period is considered to be the creation of the created world, that is, the real, visible, inhabited by “creatures.” Ahura Mazda creates the sky, the stars, the Sun, the first man and the first bull. Beyond the sphere of the Sun is the abode of Ahura Mazda himself. However, Ahriman begins to act at the same time. It invades the firmament, creates planets and comets that do not obey the uniform movement of the celestial spheres.
Ahriman pollutes the water and sends death to the first man Gayomart and the primeval bull. But from the first man are born man and woman, from whom the human race descends, and from the first bull come all animals. From the collision of two opposing principles, the whole world begins to move: waters become fluid, mountains arise, celestial bodies move. To neutralize the actions of “harmful” planets, Ahura Mazda assigns her spirits to each planet.
The third period of the existence of the universe covers the time before the appearance of the prophet Zoroaster.
During this period, the mythological heroes of the Avesta act: the king of the golden age - Yima the Shining, in whose kingdom there is no heat, no cold, no old age, no envy - the creation of the devas. This king saves people and livestock from the Flood by building a special shelter for them.
Among the righteous of this time, the ruler of a certain region, Vishtaspa, the patron of Zoroaster, is also mentioned. During the last, fourth period (after Zoroaster) in each millennium, three Saviors should appear to people, appearing as the sons of Zoroaster. The last of them, Savior Saoshyant, will decide the fate of the world and humanity. He will resurrect the dead, destroy evil and defeat Ahriman, after which the world will be cleansed with a “flow of molten metal”, and everything that remains after this will gain eternal life.
Sumerian-Akkadian
The mythology of Mesopotamia is the most ancient of all known in the world. It arose in the 4th millennium BC. e. in a state that at that time was called Akkad, and later developed in Assyria, Babylonia, Sumeria and Elam.
At the beginning of time there were only two gods who personified fresh water (the god Apsu) and salt water (the goddess Tiamat). The waters existed independently of each other and never crossed. But one day the salt and fresh waters mixed - and the elder gods were born - the children of Apsu and Tiamat. Following the elder gods, many younger gods appeared. But the world still consisted of nothing but chaos; the gods felt cramped and uncomfortable in it, about which they often complained to the Supreme Apsu. The cruel Apsu was tired of all this, and he decided to destroy all his children and grandchildren, but in the battle he could not defeat his son Enki, by whom he was defeated and cut into four parts, which turned into land, seas, rivers and fire. Tiamat wanted to take revenge for the murder of her husband, but she was also defeated by the younger god Marduk, who created wind and storms for the duel. After the victory, Marduk received a certain artifact “Me”, which determines the movement and fate of the entire world.
world creation By God is the tradition with which the first chapter of the Bible begins. All religions of the world without exception speak about the creation of the world in one form or another, confirming the fact that the world did not arise by chance
Creation of the world according to the Bible.
The Bible describesThe creation of the world is very brief. This description is not intended for a specific historical time and is intended to be understood by people of all times and different backgrounds. Therefore, the creation of the world is expressed in symbols that are very capacious in meaning, and are not always correctly understood by us. For example, the word “yom” (translated as “day”) in Hebrew can mean either “day” itself or an unlimited period of time. In favor of the latter option, some Bible researchers cite the words of the Apostle Peter: “... with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8),” although the direct meaning of this word is also possible.
The story of the creation of the world. Creation of the world from nothing
In Holy Scripture andThe story of the creation of the world begins with the words: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The concepts of “heaven” and “earth” in this case should not be taken literally. “Heaven” here refers to the “heavenly powers,” that is, the world of angels - bright spirits fulfilling God’s will. Literally, “angel” means “messenger.” And the word “earth” denotes abstract space (possibly the Universe). This “earth” was “formless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” And God said: “Let there be light,” and light appeared. God separated him from the darkness and called the light day and the darkness night. "And there was evening, and there was morning, one day." A distinctive feature of God the Creator is the power of His Word: only He was able to create the world from nothing, only the Word is capable of calling into existence the non-existent and returning the dead to life - no one in the world except Him can do this.
On the second day, God created the “firmament,” which he called heaven (actually, the firmament), and “separated the water that was under the firmament from the water that was above the firmament.” Thus, the waters of the earth and the waters of heaven appeared, capable of spilling onto the earth in the form precipitation.
On the third day, God said: “Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” He called the dry land earth, and the “gathering of waters” seas. "And God saw that it was good." Then the Lord said: “Let the earth bring forth grass, grass yielding seed after its kind and in its likeness, and a fruitful tree bearing fruit after its kind, in which is its seed on the earth.”
On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon and stars “to illuminate the earth, and to separate the day from the night, and for signs, and seasons, and days, and years.”
On the fifth day birds, fish, reptiles and animals were created. The Lord blessed them and commanded them to “be fruitful and multiply.”
Creation of man by God
On the sixth day, God said: “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness,” and He created man and woman. Creation of Man in the image and likeness of God does not imply external similarity, but the presence of the “image of God” in the human soul, i.e., internal similarity. And the Lord created man, forming him “from the dust of the earth,” that is, from clay, and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” The first man's name was Adam, which means "man" in Hebrew, but is sometimes translated as "made of red clay."
In the country of Eden, God planted a garden of unprecedented beauty and abundance (in the Russian translation, the Garden of Eden is called “Paradise”) and settled Adam there so that he would cultivate and preserve it. Then God said: “It is not good for man to be alone. Let us make him a helper suitable for him.” He created animals and birds - and brought them to Adam. Adam gave them all names (According to ancient legends, Adam was able to understand the language of animals and birds, see their properties and command them in the literal sense of the word). But among the birds and animals “for man there was no helper like him.” Then the Lord plunged Adam into a deep sleep, and while he slept, taking out one of his rib, he created a woman from the rib. Subsequently, she received the name Eve (“life”), but at first Adam simply called her a wife, saying: “This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called woman, for she was taken from her husband.” God blessed the first people and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the beasts, and over the birds of the air, and over every livestock, and over all the earth.”
On the seventh day from the beginning of the creation of the world, God “rested from all His works.” This day was called "Saturday", which means "rest", and was established as a holiday - for rest and service to God. This is how God created man.
The existence of angels long before the creation of man is indicated by the words of the Lord to Job: “... where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know. Who put the measure on it, if you know? or who stretched the rope along it? On what were its foundations established, or who laid its cornerstone, with the general rejoicing morning stars, when all sons of God shouted for joy? (Job.38:4-8)”
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Any mythology is based on myths about the creation of the world and people. It is difficult to identify any specific trend in all this. The creators of the world are sometimes gods, sometimes animals, and even plants. How a primordial creature arose from primeval Chaos and how it created the world - every myth has its own story about this. This article presents several myths about the creation of the world of the Slavs, Greeks, Sumerians, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, Scandinavians, Zoroastrians, Arikara, Huron, Mayan Indians.
Slavs.
The Slavs had several legends about where the world and its inhabitants came from. Many peoples (ancient Greeks, Iranians, Chinese) had myths that the world arose from an egg. Similar legends and tales can be found among the Slavs. In the Tale of the Three Kingdoms, the hero goes in search of three princesses in the underworld. First he finds himself in the copper kingdom, then in the silver and gold. Each princess gives the hero an egg, which he rolls into in turn and encloses each kingdom. Having emerged into the white light, he throws the eggs onto the ground and unfolds all three kingdoms.
One of the ancient legends says: “In the beginning, when there was nothing in the world but the boundless sea, a duck, flying over it, dropped an egg into the watery abyss. The egg split, and from its lower part the mother earth came out, and from the upper part arose the high vault of heaven.”
Another legend connects the appearance of the world with the hero’s duel with the serpent who guarded the golden egg. The hero killed the serpent, split the egg - three kingdoms emerged from it: heavenly, earthly and underground.
And here is how the Carpathian Slavs talked about the birth of the world:
When was the beginning of the world,
Then there was neither sky nor earth, only the blue sea,
And in the middle of the sea there is a tall oak tree,
Two marvelous doves sat on an oak tree,
Have you started thinking about how to establish a light?
We will go down to the bottom of the sea,
Let's take out the fine sand,
Fine sand, golden stone.
We will sow fine sand,
We will blow the golden stone.
From the fine sand - black earth,
The water is cold, the grass is green.
From the golden stone - blue sky, blue sky, bright sun,
The month and all the stars are clear.
Here's another myth. At the beginning of time the world was in darkness. But the Almighty revealed the Golden Egg, which contained the Rod - the Parent of all things.
The clan gave birth to Love - Mother Lada and, by the power of Love, destroying its prison, gave birth to the Universe - countless star worlds, as well as our earthly world.
The sun then came out from His face.
The bright moon is from His chest.
The frequent stars are from His eyes.
The clear dawns are from His eyebrows.
Dark nights - yes from His thoughts.
Violent winds - from the breath)..
"Book of Kolyada", 1 a
So Rod gave birth to everything that we see around - everything that comes with Rod - everything that we call Nature. The genus separated the visible, manifest world, that is, Reality, from the invisible, spiritual world - from Novi. Rod separated Truth from Falsehood.
In the chariot of fire, Rod affirmed thunder. The Sun God Ra, who emerged from the person of the Family, was established in a golden boat, and the Month - in a silver one. Rod released from his lips the Spirit of God - the bird Mother Sva. By the Spirit of God, the Rod gave birth to Svarog - the Heavenly Father.
Svarog finished making peace. He became the master of the earthly World, the ruler of the Kingdom of God. Svarog established twelve pillars supporting the firmament.
From the Word of the Most High, Rod created the god Barma, who began to mutter prayers, glorifications, and recite the Vedas. He also gave birth to the Spirit of Barma, his wife Tarusa.
The clan became the Heavenly Spring and gave birth to the waters of the Great Ocean. From the foam of the Ocean waters the World Duck appeared, giving birth to many gods - Yasuns and Dasun demons. The clan gave birth to the Cow Zemun and the Goat Sedun, milk spilled from their breasts and became the Milky Way. Then he created the Alatyr stone, with which he began to churn this Milk. From the butter obtained after churning, Mother Earth of Cheese was created.
Sumerians.
The Sumerians explained the origin of the universe as follows.
In Sumerian mythology, heaven and earth were originally thought of as a mountain, the base of which was the earth, personified in the goddess Ki, and the top was the sky, the god An. From their union, the god of air and wind Enlil was born, himself called the “Great Mountain,” and his temple in the city of Nippur was called the “house of the Mountain”: he separated the sky from the earth and organized the cosmos - the Universe. Thanks to Enlil, the luminaries also appear. Enlil falls in love with the goddess Ninlil and takes possession of her by force as she sails down the river in her barge. For this, the elder gods banish him to the underworld, but Ninlil, who has already conceived a son, the moon god Nanna, follows him, and Nanna is born in the underworld. In the underworld, Enlil three times takes the form of guards of the underworld and gives birth to three underground gods from Ninlil. They return to the heavenly world. From now on, Nanna travels in a barge, accompanied by stars and planets, across the sky at night, and through the underworld during the day. He gives birth to a son, the solar god Utu, who wanders across the sky during the day, and at night he travels through the underworld, bringing light, drink and food to the dead. Then Enlil develops the earth: he raised the “seed of the fields” from the earth, brought into being “everything useful,” and invented the hoe.
There is another version of the creation myth.
The beginning of this story is quite beautiful. A long time ago, when there was neither heaven nor earth, there lived Tiamat, the goddess of sweet waters, Apsu, the god of salty waters, and their son, the fog rising above the water.
Then Tiamat and Apsu gave birth to two pairs of twins: Lahma and Lahama (demons), and then Anshar and Kishar, who were smarter and stronger than the elders. Anshar and Kishar had a child named Annu. Annu became the god of the sky. Ea was born to Annu. This is the god of underground waters and magic.
The younger gods - Lahma, Lahama, Anshar, Kishar, Annu and Ea - gathered every evening for a noisy feast. They prevented Apsu and Tiamat from getting enough sleep. Only Mummu, the eldest son of Apsu and Tiamat, did not take part in these amusements. Apsu and Mummu appealed to the younger gods with a request to stop the celebrations, but they were not listened to. The elders decided to kill everyone who interfered with sleep.
Ea decided to kill Apsu, who had started a conspiracy against the younger ones.
Tiamat decided to take revenge for the death of her husband. Her new husband, the god Kingu, strongly supported this idea.
So Tiamat and Kingu hatched a plan for revenge. Having learned about Tiamat's plan, Ea turned to his grandfather Anshar for advice. Anshar suggested striking Tiamat with the help of magic, because her husband was dealt with in this way. But Ea's magical powers do not affect Tiamat.
Anu, Ea's father, tried to reason with the angry goddess, but nothing worked. Since magic and negotiations came to nothing, it remains to turn to physical force.
Who should we send to battle? Everyone decided that only Marduk could do this. Anshar, Anu and Ea initiated the secrets of divine magic into young Marduk. Marduk is ready to fight Tiamat, demanding the undivided power of the supreme god as a reward for victory.
Young Marduk gathered all the Anunnaki (as the gods called themselves) so that they would approve the war with the supreme goddess and recognize him as their king. Anshar sent his secretary Kaku to call Lakhma, Lahama, Kishara and Damkina. Having learned about the impending war, the gods were horrified, but a good dinner with plenty of wine calmed them down.
In addition, Marduk demonstrated his magical powers, and the gods recognized him as king.
The merciless battle lasted for a long time. Tiamat fought desperately. But Marduk defeated the goddess.
Marduk took the “tables of destinies” from Kingu (they determined the movement of the world and the course of all events) and put them around his neck. He cut the body of the slain Tiamat into two parts: from one he made the sky, from the other - the earth. People were created from the blood of the murdered Kingu.
Egyptians.
In the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, “the pride of the Sun,” as the Greeks called it, Atum was considered the creator and primal being. He arose from Nun, the primary ocean, which Atum called his father, when there was nothing yet - neither sky, nor earth, nor soil.
Atum rose like a hill among the waters of the world's oceans.
The prototypes of such hills were real hills that stood out on the water surface of the flooded Nile. Suitably fortified, they became a platform for the first temples, the construction of which seemed to perpetuate the act of creating the world. The shape of the pyramid is apparently associated with the idea of a primary hill.
- I exist! I will create the world! I have no father and no mother; I am the first god in the Universe, and I will create other gods! With incredible effort, Atum broke away from the water, soared over the abyss and, raising his hands, cast a magic spell. At the same moment, a deafening roar was heard, and Ben-Ben Hill rose from the abyss amid the foamy spray. Atum sank down onto the hill and began to ponder what he should do next.
But the lonely creator had nothing to create from, and he copulated with his own hand and absorbed his own seed, and then spewed out of the mouth of the god of air Shu and the goddess of moisture Tefnut, the first divine couple. Ocean Nun blessed the creation, commanding it to grow. As soon as they were born, the children disappeared somewhere. Atum could not find them and sent his daughter, the Divine Eye of Atum, to search. The goddess returned the fugitives, and the overjoyed father shed tears. His tears turned into the first people.
From the first couple born of Atum came the god Geb and Nut, the goddess and embodiment of Heaven. The air god Shu and his wife separated the earth and the sky: Nut rose in the form of a firmament above Geb, leaning on it with her hands and feet, Shu began to support the firmament in this position with his own hands.
It was necessary to separate heaven and earth, because as long as they remain united, in embrace, there is no place on earth for other creatures.
But Geb and Nut managed to give birth to twins Osiris and Isis, as well as Set and Nephthys. Osiris was destined to be the first to be killed and resurrected to an eternal afterlife.
The earth and sky are surrounded on all sides by waters. Every night Nut swallows the sun, and in the morning again
gives birth to him.
Memphis had its own version of the creation myth. The creator god Ptah creates all things with the power of thought and word: “Ptah pacified himself, creating all things and divine words. He gave birth to the gods, created cities, placed the gods in their sanctuaries. All kinds of works, arts, movements of arms and legs arose, according to the order, conceived by the heart and expressed by the tongue, which created the essence of all things."
The main gods of ancient Egypt, created by Ptah, were his own incarnations. In Egyptian mythology, there is another version of the creation of the world, which arose in the city of Shmunu - the “City of Eight”. According to her, the progenitors of all things were eight gods and goddesses - Nun and Nuanet, Huh and Huakhet, Kuk and Kuaket, Amun and Amaunet. Male deities had the heads of frogs, female deities - snakes. They lived in the waters of primeval chaos and created the primordial egg there. From this egg came the solar deity in the form of a bird, and the world was filled with light. "I am a soul emerging from chaos, my nest is invisible, my egg is not broken."
During the New Kingdom (XVI-XI centuries BC), the city of Thebes became the political capital of Egypt. The main Theban deity is the sun god Amon. The Great Hymn to Amun says:
Father of fathers and all gods,
Who raised the sky and established the earth,
People came from his eyes, gods became from his mouth
The king, long live he, long live,
May he be prosperous, the head of all gods
The myth of Amun combined previously existing versions of the creation myth. It tells that in the beginning the god Amon existed in the form of a serpent. He created eight great gods, who gave birth to Ra and Atum in Iunu, and Ptah in Memphis. They then returned to Thebes and died there.
There is almost no mention of the creation of man by the gods in Egyptian mythology. According to one version, people arose from the tears of the god Ra (this is explained by the similar sound of the Egyptian words “tears” and “people”); according to another, people were molded from clay by the god Khnum.
However, the Egyptians believed that people were “the flock of God” and that God created the world for people. "He created for them the sky and the earth. He destroyed the pitchless darkness of water and created air so that they could breathe. He created for them plants, livestock, birds and fish in order to nourish them." It should be noted that in almost all traditions, legends and myths - this is common