Similarities Between Genesis And Popol Vuh

Genesis and Popol Vuh are both stories of how Earth was created. Although they differ due to different cultures writing them, they have many key similarities. The differences begin at the title. Genesis means “In the Beginning” and Popol Vuh translates to “Book of Community.” Both stories begin with Earth being a vast palette for the god(s) to work on. In Genesis, there is only one god yet in Popol Vuh, there are four. The god(s) of both stories decide to add features to the Earth like mountains and oceans. They then created animals and after, humans. In both stories, the gods created animals and decided that their job would be to supply their meat. The creation of the animals in Genesis was purely for meat, whereas in Popol Vuh, the animals became meat

The four gods in Popol Vuh had lots of trouble creating their design for a human. When they first tried, “its head wouldn’t turn…, its face was just lopsided, it couldn’t look around, [and when] it talked at first, [it was] senseless...”(Popol Vuh 80) Both gods also believed in being superior to their creations by taking away their knowledge. The gods in Popol Vuh hid knowledge from the humans and dimmed their eyes. The god in Genesis hid knowledge from humans by using fear. He told the humans, “of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Moses 67). The fruit of the tree was the fruit of knowledge so God was very angry when he found out the humans had gained knowledge. The anger the god of Genesis had resulted in him creating a flood so that he could wipe out all of the humans except one good family. The gods in Popol Vuh also created a flood so they could clear out their bad creations. Both gods believed that they needed to have a flood to clear out their