DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
Half of Tiamat's body. In Enuma Elish the storm god Marduk kills Tiamat, the goddess of the salt sea, in battle. He slices her in half and puts one half up to roof the sky, then draws a bolt across so her waters cannot escape. In Genesis 1:6-8 the sky is also a barrier between waters, but God makes it with a word: "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters" (Genesis 1:6).
Why it’s interesting
Michael Coogan and Cynthia Chapman, two Bible scholars, point out that the Hebrew word for the deep in Genesis 1:2, tehom, is related to Tiamat's name. They read Genesis 1:2, with its darkness over the deep and a wind from God, as setting the stage for a retelling of the battle. Instead, God speaks.
Scholarly consensus
Learn the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.