Creation Legends

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30342, 18 January 1964, Page 3

Creation Legends

Creation Legends of the Ancient Near East. By S. G. F. Brandon. Hodder and Stoughton. 212 pp. Ulus. Index. Dr. Brandon, professor of Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester, in this work has presented the first comprehensive study of the ancient cosmogonies. The event of creation, if one can call it so, is so definitely a part of the ancient -world’s thinking, for man has always a passion to know and to explain, that this excellent survey will be welcomed not only by theologians and philosophers but also by intelligent laymen who are interested in the “beginnings” of tilings. The Near East countries of the ancient world are Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Greece, and Iran. The two earliest States are Egypt and Mesopotamia and there is written evidence of their thought concerning creation as far back as 3000 years B.C. In Egypt the concept of creation was linked with the religious sanctuaries. The river Nile, with its annual inundation, had great influence in. the formation of Egyptian thought about the beginning, just as the rivers Euphrates and Tigris had upon the thinking of Mesopotamia. The cosmogonies of both countries. Egypt and Mesopotamia, are really attempts to explain the conquest of chaos. The Hebrew concept of creation is closely related to the Babylonian cosmogony. The accounts of creation in Greece and Iran are explained with clarity. In Greece, the religious influence is diminished and secular rationalism takes its place. The Iranian view, called Zoroastrianism, shows the conflict between good and evil. The Western world has been influenced more by the Hebrew story of creation; indeed it has formed the basis of Christianity. These legends are really attempts to explain “time” which even today eludes definition. How things began is still the tantalising question that underlies iresearch. Perhaps the highest concept is to be found in the second chapter of Genesis.