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Creation Story Comparisons
By Kyle Adams
All over the world different people have their own stories, or beliefs that explain how mankind came into existence upon the earth. The interesting fact about the different creation stories is that though they are very different, they seem to share some common charachteristics. A good example of this can be seen in the Onondaga Native American creation story and the Hebrew Bible creation story. The Hebrew people and the Onondaga Native American people make up two very different civilization from two different sides of the world with two very different origin stories, yet suprizingly seem to be linked together by some key similarities.
One of those similarities would be the fact that before the earth was formed there was only deep water. The book of Genesis states, "When God began to create the heaven and the earth – [the earth was] unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water"(Jewish Pub. Soc. 36), while the Onondaga creation story states,"Before the earth existed there was only water" (Caduto and Bruchac 18). Both stories share the common feature that the earth was formed, there was deep water.
Next a huge difference can be acknowledged. The Hebrew Bible states that God created the earth. The Bible says, "God said,"Let the water below the sky be gathered into one area, that the dry land may appear." And it was so." This is very different from the Onondaga creation story which states "A courageous muskrat dove to the botttom of the deep water, brought back some earth, placed it on a great turtle's back and the earth grew until it became what we stand on today." (Caduto and Bruchac 18) The difference which can be seen here is that the Hebrews believed that God created the earth for man, while the Onondagas believe that the animals created the earth for man. One shows a dependance on God while the other shows a dependance on the animals.
The other difference that can be seen here is who has dominion over who. The Hebrews believe that men have domionion over the animals and that it is man's responsability to care for the animals. This can be seen in Genesis chapter three verse twenty six "They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth and all creeping things that creep upon the earth." (Jewish Pub. Soc. 36) This can also be seen during the time of the great flood, when the book of Genesis states, "From birds of every kind, cattle of every kind, every kind of creeping thing upon the earth, two of each [came to Noah] to stay alive."(Genesis Chapter six verse twenty Jewish Pub. Soc. 45)
The Onondaga creation story is very different on the other hand. It indicates that it is the animals who have domionion over mankind and that it is they who care for us instead of vice versa. This can be seen when, "Two swans from down below saw a sky woman falling from the skyland and flew up to slow her fall, while the muskrat dove down to find some earth for her to land on." ( Caduto, Michael J., and Joseph Bruchac 18) The animals saved the woman's life instead of man saving the animals lives, completely opposite of the story found in Genesis.
With such huge differences it is easy for many to overlook the similarities because the differences are so great; however, if one pays close attention to the similarities the similaries kind of thread the two stoies together. Many are not just differences, but opposing views. After careful observation of the two stories, one can suspect that at one time the two stories were once the same story, but have been changed over the course of time to fit the people's different views and changing beliefs.
An important similarity to observe is the fall of mankind. "While in the gardin of eden Adam and Eve were given one commandment which was not to partake of the fruit of knowlege of good and bad, lest they die. When they did so, they were thrust out of the gardin, became mortal, and lived out the remainder of their lives toiling and eating their bread by the sweat of their brow." (Jewish Pub. Soc. 36)As for Adam and Eve, the Hebrew people refer to the fall of Adam and Eve as being the transiton from their immortal state of being to a mortal state of being and having everything provided for them, to having to toil for what they get.
The Onondaga's similarly also belive in a fall, but in a different sense. They believe, "Above our world there was a sky land and in this sky land a pregnant woman had a dream about uprooting a great tree. The woman told her husband, the great cheif, about her dream and he told her that it was a powerful dream and that they needed to make the dream come true. They did so by uprooting the great tree which created a hole that led down into the world below. The sky woman then went to take a better look, then accidently fell in into our world" (Caduto and Bruchac 18) The difference here is in the Hebrew story there was a spiritual fall of mankind, while in the Onondaga story there was a physical fall of mankind.
In observing the fall that took place in the two stories one can see that the reasons for the fall were very different, yet the idea of a fall remains the same. In continuing to observe these two beliefs another difference can be seen in the presence of sin. As mentioned before, in the book of Genesis God stated,"As for the tree of knowledge of good and bad [they were not to] eat of it, for as soon as they [would] eat of it they [would] die" (Jewish Pub. Soc. 36) and one can see that Adam and Eve fell because they sinned by breaking that commandment.
In contrast to the book of Genesis, according to the Onondagas, as also before mentioned,the great cheif said, "When one has such a powerful dream we must do all that we can to make it true. The Great Tree must be uprooted." Were it not for this commandment the sky woman never would of fallen, hence one can see that she fell because of her obedience. Again, this leads one to suspect that the two stories were once the same, but there were two different opionions, one that the fall wasn't supposed to happen and the other that the fall was supposed to happen. These two opinions caused the stories to change over time until today where we have two very different stories with some key characteristics that seem to thread the two stories together.
The reasons for the fall and the results from the fall in each story are very different; however, there is another key similarity that still stands in the fact that there is an important tree in both stories that directly had something to do with the fall of mankind. This makes the tree stand out as another important thread that connects the two stories. In taking note of that, another thread can also be found in the fact that the Onondaga sky woman who was pregnant started life on earth and the fact that Adam named is wife Eve, "for she was the mother of all living."(Jewish Pub. Soc. 36)Both stories claim that it was a woman who started life on earth.
Though both the Onondaga creation story and the Hebrew Bible creation story are very different, coming from two very different civilizations from two opposite ends of the earth, they have some strong similarities that seem to link them together. The facts that they both state that before the earth was formed there was deep water, there was a fall of mankind, there was a special tree that played an important role in that fall, and that life on earth started because of a woman, all indicate that the two stories are more similar than most people realize and might of at one time even been the same story.
Bibliography:
The Jewish Publication Society, trans. “From the Bible: Genesis 1-3 (The Creation and the Fall)” Comp. Coleman Barks. 36-50. Print.
Caduto, Michael J., and Joseph Bruchac, trans. “The Earth on Turtle's Back. “ Comp. Susan Power. 18-20. print.