TL;DR
- The Enūma Eliš opens with a cosmos that exists without names, hence without fixed roles.
- Two verbs—nabû and zakāru—flag naming as a performative speech-act that finalizes reality.
- Pre-naming chaos is not atheistic; deities (Apsû & Tiamat) already swim in it.
- Once Marduk wins the divine war he assigns fifty names, locking the cosmic job chart.
- Genesis 1 and Vedic hymns echo the same logic: creation = separation + naming.
1 The Akkadian Line, Word by Word#
| cuneiform | transliteration | literal gloss | note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enūma | enūma | when | temporal adverb |
| eliš | eliš | on-high | locative “upstairs” |
| lā | lā | not | negation |
| nabû | nabû | (had been) named | G-perf., root “call” |
| šamāmu | šamāmu | heaven | dual sky-vault |
| šaplīš ammatu | šaplīš ammatu | below earth | “ground-water” mush |
| šumma lā zakratū | šumma … zakratū | had not been called | poetic synonym for nabû |
Text after W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Creation Myths (2013).
2 Why Naming = Creation Tech#
- Speech-acts were legal instruments in Mesopotamia; uttering a formula enacted property transfers and curses.
- The gods receive titles (𒌓 dUTU “Sun-god,” 𒀭𒀀𒉡 dAN “Heaven-god”) that double as functional specs.
- Marduk’s post-war honour roll (“He shall be called …”) ties each of his fifty names to a domain—wind, medicine, justice—which priests could then invoke.
“Language does not describe the cosmos; it stabilises it.” —Robson, Language and Cosmos in Greece and Mesopotamia (2023). 1
3 Cosmological Status Report#
| Stage | State of matter | State of law |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-naming | Watery mingle, no sky-earth split | No destinies, no jurisdictions |
| Separation | Tiamat split → sky roof / earth floor | Tablet of Destinies contested |
| Naming | Constellations, calendar, river-beds labelled | Divine bureaucracy activated |
Naming is the final seal after violent cosmogony and spatial separation.
4 Comparative Glances#
| Text | Pre-cosmos line | First creative move |
|---|---|---|
| Enūma Eliš | “When on high the heaven had not been named …” | Marduk slays Tiamat → names everything |
| Genesis 1 | “The earth was formless” | Elohim separates, then calls Day/Night |
| Rig Veda 10.129 | “There was neither non-being nor being” | The gods named the quarters |
| Hesiod, Theogony | “Chaos was first” | Entities appear already named—Greek skips the suspense |
5 FAQ#
Q1. Does “no name” mean the gods didn’t exist yet?
A. No. Apsû and Tiamat are present but lack defined roles; absence of names blocks bureaucratic power, not existence.
Q2. Is nabû always divine speech?
A. No—Akkadian contracts use the same verb; any authoritative naming (royal, legal, or divine) crystallises reality.
Q3. Did Hebrews borrow the naming motif from Babylonia?
A. The parallel is strong, but scholarly opinion splits between direct borrowing during the Exile and convergent Near-Eastern narrative logic.
Footnotes#
Sources#
- Lambert, W. G. Babylonian Creation Myths. Eisenbrauns, 2013.
- Robson, E. “Language and Cosmos in the Epic of Creation.” In Language and Cosmos in Greece and Mesopotamia, Cambridge UP, 2023. 2
- Heidel, A. The Babylonian Genesis. University of Chicago Press, 1951.
- Mark Damen, “Mesopotamian Literature: Enūma Eliš.” Utah State University lecture notes, 2024. 3
- Brill, A History of Akkadian Onomastics, 2021. 4
- Wikipedia contributors. “Enūma Eliš.” Last modified 2025-05-30. 5