The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

362 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

absorbed the prerogatives and attributes of the older gods; their
virtues, as it were, passed to him along with their sovereignty
and kingdom. The fact is very plainly expressed in what appears
[395] to be the concluding tablet of the Epic. Here the names, and
therewith the essential natures, of the other deities are formally
handed over to Bel-Merodach of Babylon. Henceforward he is
acknowledged in heaven as well as in earth, the supreme Bel or
Baal of Semitic faith, the father of gods and men. Ea, the lord
of the deep, and Bel of Nippur,“the lord of the earth,”alike
yield up to him their powers; he assumes their names and titles;
and, thanks to the centralising influence of Babylon, Babylonian
religion approaches monotheism as nearly as its local character
ever allowed it to do. The creator alone could rightfully claim
the worship of the creatures he had made.
But it was an approach merely; the final step was never taken,
even by the more speculative theologians of Babylonia, which
swept away the polytheism of the local cults, and left Merodach
without a rival.
Herein lies the great contrast between the Babylonian and the
Hebrew conceptions of the creation. The Hebrew cosmology
starts from the belief in one God, beside whom there is none
else, whether in the orderly world of to-day or in the world of
chaos that preceded it. On its forefront stand the words,“In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”There was
chaos, it was true, but it was a chaos which had no existence
apart from God, who was its absolute master to carve and fashion
as He would. The deep, too, was there; but the deep was neither
the impersonation of Tiamât nor the realm of Ea; the breath of
the one God brooded over it, awaiting the time when the creative
word should be uttered, and the breath of God should become
the life of the world. The elements, indeed, of the Hebrew
cosmology are all Babylonian; even the creative word itself was
a Babylonian conception, as the story of Merodach has shown
us; but the spirit that inspires the cosmology is the antithesis of