Popol Vuh

The first five chapters of Popol Vuh, which was written by the Mayans, tell their version of the creation of life and time on earth. It was intriguing to compare the Mayan's myth of creation to the Biblical perspective of creation. Starting from the beginning of the text, the comparisons are evident. The first similarity I noticed was the order that the gods created everything including the earth. They seem to generally coincide. In the Biblical worldview, God created the light first, and then proceeded to create living things. The same is true in Popol Vuh; the gods created light and then they went on to create living creatures. Some of the text in the two stories are identical. In Genesis one the Bible says, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Popol Vuh states, “Thus they spoke. Let there be light…” Another parallel is how both state that things came into existence by the spoken word. Some religions and theories believe in other forms of creation, but verbal creation is a unique factor that I found. I have been raised in a Christian home all my life and have strong beliefs about the foundations of the earth. I found this excerpt of Popol Vuh to encourage my belief. I believe that the parallels are present because all people got their information from the same source and have changed and twisted the story to fit their culture. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to read this passage and take a closer look at the ancient Latin-American literature.