Genesis and the Popol Vuh talk about the creation of the earth.

In both stories,
humans are at the top of the natural hierarchy. This is important because it permits humans to
exploit their natural environment. This is important in developing agricultural communities.
Several similarities and differences can be seen between these two stories.
In the story of Genesis, one God created everything including the earth and humans.
However, in the Popol Vuh, four Gods created humanity by working together. It shows that
people who wrote Genesis believed monotheism, while people who wrote the Popol Vuh
believed polytheism. The God in Genesis is very powerful, independent, and perfect, and he
had the power to create whatever he wants. On the other hand, there are four gods in the
Popol Vuh, and they had to try four different times in order to perfect their creation. This
demonstrates that these Gods were less powerful than the God in Genesis, and each of them
was imperfect.
Moreover, there is a difference how to create humans between two stories. In the
story of Genesis, God created a perfect human. However, since humans, despite God
commanding otherwise, ate fruit from the sacred tree of knowledge, God became angered and
expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The story says,
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that e
very imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it
repented the LOAD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at
his heart. And the LOAD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from
the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the
fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them (Genesis, 6.5-7).
On the other hand, in the Popol Vuh, the Gods were not able to create humans perfectly. Even
though they created creatures that looked human, they were totally incomplete. In one
attempt, they created humans from mud, but the humans made from mud were soft, easy to

melt, and weak, so the Gods destroyed them. The Gods had made humans again and again to
achieve their ideal humans.
Both stories also contain a great deal of similarity between each other. The Gods
created nature and all creatures before creating humans. The humans were the last things that
gods created. There is a similar hierarchy in both of the stories. Humans are at the top of the
natural hierarchy, below only the Gods. People who made the stories thought humans were
chosen as one that can do everything they want. In Genesis, it says
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild
animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to
see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each
living creature, that was its name (Genesis, 2.19).
This means that the God had put the right to decide the names of all the creatures into
humans hands. Humans were the only creatures that were allowed to decide matters of great
importance.
In addition to this, in the Popol Vuh, it says There shall be neither glory nor
grandeur in our creation and formation until the human being is made, man is formed (Popol
Vuh, 20.7). This means that humans contain all the glory of the world. Both stories want to
say humans are totally different from any other animals, and they are given something special
from the Gods.
In conclusion, both stories have differences such as the number of the Gods and how
to create humans, but also have similarities, including people who made the stories thought
humans are the best creature on the earth, and they wanted to show it through the stories.
Both used the Gods as entities who created humans and chose them as a people who are the
top of the hierarchy. By doing so, they can show humans are the chosen ones by the Gods,
and how humans power on the earth is great to everyone. It allows humans to get an

advantage of using their natural resources and it connects to their cultural improvement.