od
of light. Nor ought we to find a discrepancy between the Babylonian and
the Hebrew accounts in the creation of the heavenly bodies after the
plants, related in Gen. i. 14-18. For the position of this creative act
is due to the necessity of bringing all the divine acts into the
framework of six working days. On the whole, the Hebrew statement of the
successive stages of creation corresponds so nearly to that in the
Babylonian epic that we are bound to assume that one has been influenced
by the other. And if we are asked, "Which is the more original?" we
answer by appealing to the well-established fact of the profound
influence of Babylonian culture upon Canaan in remote times (see
CANAAN). An important element in this culture would be mythic
representations of the origin of things, such as the Babylonian Creation
and Deluge-stories in various forms. Indeed, not only Canaan but all the
neighbouring regions must have been pervaded by Babylonian views of the
universe and its origin. Myths of origins there must indeed have been in
those countries before Babylonian influence became so overpowering, but,
if so, these myths must have become recast when the great Teacher of the
Nations half-attracted and half-compelled attention. More than this we
need not assert. Zimmern's somewhat different treatment of the subject
in _Ency. Biblica_, "Creation," S 4, may be compared.

Popular writers are in some danger of misrepresenting this important
result. It is tempting, but incorrect, to suppose that a docile
Israelitish writer accepted one of the chief forms of the Babylonian
cosmogony, merely omitting its polytheism and substituting "Yahweh" for
"Marduk." As we have seen, various myths of Creation may have been
current both in N. Arabia (whence the Israelites may have come) and in
Canaan prior to the great extension of Babylonian influence. These myths
doubtless had peculiarities of their own. From one of them may have come
that remarkable statement in Gen. i. 2b, "and the spirit of God (Elohim)
was hovering over the face of the waters," which, until we find some
similar myth nearer home, is best illustrated and explained by a
Polynesian myth (see Cheyne, _Traditions and Beliefs of Ancient Israel_,
ad loc.). It is also probably to a non-Babylonian source that we owe the
prescription of vegetarian or herb diet in Gen. i. 29, 30, which has a
Zoroastrian parallel[26] and is evidently based on a myth of the Golden
Age, independent of t