Many of the stories in the book of Genesis echo those found in other religions of the ancient Near East. For example, there are strong parallels between the ordering of creation found in our Mass readings from earlier this week, and a similar ordering found in the Babylonian creation narrative Enuma Elish. At the same time, the story of the fall of Adam and Eve articulates a very different understanding of the source of evil in our world.

Enuma Elish depicts the cosmos as a battleground where the various gods compete and seek to dominate one another. Human beings—fashioned from the blood of the gods—reflect their warlike nature and are created to be slaves so that the gods “might be at ease.” These things are inescapable. We must resign ourselves to their endless repetition.
Genesis rejects this deeply pessimistic view. There is no primordial warfare between the gods.

There is one God who creates. Rather than creating human beings to put the gods “at ease,” it is the Lord God who puts human beings at ease, placing them within a garden (the word Eden means “delight”) where their every need can be met.

Evil is not part of God’s nature and is not part of the plan. As Shakespeare once noted, “the fault. . . . lies not in the stars but in ourselves.” The message of these chapters of Genesis is that evil is a choice, not a destiny. We are not condemned to simply repeat our history but—with God’s help—to confront and change it.

Deacon J. Peter Nixon

J. Peter Nixon is a deacon serving in the Diocese of Oakland, California. A regular contributor to Give Us This Day, he holds a master’s degree in theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University.