Comparison and Contrast the Creation of Earth Within the Iroquois, Islamic and the Jewish Myths

The Iroquois historically have been a very powerful Native American Tribal confederation operating within the north east of North America, as with most civilizations around the earth they have their own unique myths and mythology that give cause to the natural event that humans could not have scientifically reason at the time, among those myths is their creation myth which I shall be deciphering, comparing and contrasting to my own cultural beliefs.

The creation of earth

In Iroquois, land was created on the turtle’s back by the pregnant lady who fell from the sky with the help of the animals of the sea. While within my own beliefs ( Islamic ) the whole universe including earth was created by god within 7 days. While within the Jewish doctrine the universe was created by god within 6 days and he rested on the 7th that’s why in the Jewish culture working on the sabbath is strictly forbidden.

The fall of man to earth

There was a man who lived with his pregnant wife in a sky world, within the sky world the source of light was an ancient Apple tree, once a mighty strong wind blow the tree away and turned their world to darkness and the lady fell in the hole and she landed on a turtle with the help of a bird. As it's believed in my culture the Islamic god allah created Adam followed by Eve and he allowed him to live in heaven as long as they don’t eat a fruit from the cursed tree, but a member from the jinn race known as iblis whispered to them and convinced them to eat from the cursed tree, which angered god, so he banished them to earth. While the Jewish mythology is very similar to the Islamic one as they both evolved within the same region, but their exist slight variations as in the Jewish myth Yahweh(the Jewish god) gave Adam a wife from the same dirt as he was but she proved to be rebellious against Yahweh's commands, so god decided to give Adam a more righteous with Adam’s status as Yahweh’s favorite creature caused jealousy among some of the angles but specifically samael, ha-satan the great accuser who turned into a serpent and convinced Eve to eat an apple from the forbidden tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil,and she intern convinced Adam to have a bite from the apple, introducing evil to the soul of all mankind, which angered Yahweh, and he decided to banish humans from the heavens onto the earth.

Portrayal of the gods

While both the Jewish and the Islamic creation stories believe that god exists should be worshipped and revered as the only god as he has no equal in the universe, and that man’s fall from the heavens came as a direct result of disobeying him, while the Iroquois creation story comes from a polytheistic culture which believes that the gods are benevolent in nature as the creation myth doesn’t indicate a punishment for mankind, with the fall of man being a mere accident.

As stated above, creation myths are unique to every culture, but each has its own variation which adds a twist to the story, whether it be an all powerful god creating the earth or it could be a combined effort of the animals, at the end it's only there to answer the questions of who we are? and why are we here on the earth.

In this essay I have compared and contrasted between the three mythologies to show the uniqueness of each creation myth while pointing out three of the most glaring differences, which are the creation of earth, the portrayal of the gods and the sky origins of mankind in each creation myth.

Bibliography

1. Isaacs, J. (2019). Creation of the World. [online] Chabad.org. Available at: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246605/jewish/Creation-of-the-World.htm [Accessed 28 Sep. 2019].
2. Mufti, I. (2019). Story of Creation (part 1 of 2). [online] Islamreligion.com. Available at: https://www.islamreligion.com/articles/11041/story-of-creation-part-1/ [Accessed 28 Sep. 2019].
3. Cs.williams.edu. (2019). Creation Myths -- Iroquois Creation Myth. [online] Available at: https://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_12.html [Accessed 28 Sep. 2019].
4. Aslam, I. (2019). Adam & Eve In The Quran | The Revival. [online] Therevival.co.uk.
5. Available at: http://www.therevival.co.uk/article/adam-eve-quran [Accessed 28 Sep. 2019].
6. Altein, Y. (2019). The Story of Adam and Eve in the Bible. [online] Chabad.org. Available at: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246606/jewish/The-Story-of-Adam-and-Eve-in-the-Bible.htm [Accessed 28 Sep. 2019]. 

Cite this page