and bears eight new children, each of whom are the cure to one of [17]:58, The entrance to Kur was believed to be located in the Zagros mountains in the far east. there are eight antediluvian patriarchs. Thanks, each plant consumed. (Kramer 1963 p. 328) S. H. Hooke notes another Ten days later, having regained his senses, Atrahasis took a dove and released it; the dove left, but she returned. This is why we give the books compilations in . According to the Bible, Abraham received a call from God when he was 75 years old. The inscription mentions the god, the religious beliefs of later Mesopotamian peoples, "An/Anu (god): Mesopotamian sky-god, one of the supreme deities; known as An in Sumerian and Anu in Akkadian", "Ancient Mesopotamian Beliefs in the Afterlife", "Was dust their food and clay their bread? It has been proved that Gilgamesh is older than Genesis. Religion, mythology and magic of a long-lost forgotten age. The solution was accepted and men were created by the God Ea (Enki) and the Goddess Ninmah (or Ninhursag also called Mama, the universal mother?). 4- The text underlines the easy childbirth of Ninhursag and her goddaughters, a facility that Eve loses in the biblical text. They weren't known "in Greek myth" to have done this, so you have it wrong. 6- Author 4 was called D. because he only worked on the text of Deuteronomy. This is what I believe to be the case, but I leave it to you to decide for yourself. The motivation is different, her progenitor, a high priestess, had wanted to hide the fruit of an illicit affair with a stranger. Cuneiform is known to be one of the oldest forms of writing, where cuneiform simply means wedge-shaped. Contemporary biblical scholars such as John Rogerson and Philip R. Davies, both professors of biblical studies at the British University of Scheffield and authors of the prestigious The Old Testament World, note: In chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, there are three points in common with the story of Enki and Ninhursag in Dilmun: First, the existence of a place where death does not exist and animals are harmless (see also Isaiah 11:6-9); Then the arrival of disease and death which are the result of having taken and eaten a plant; And finally, the birth of a progeny that is the result of bodily pain, although more masculine than feminine. Did the Genesis writer rely on the Gilgamesh Epic in writing the flood account? The final conclusion was that Israel received this "story" from the Babylonians while in captivity. 13th Century Magical Merlin Manuscript Shares Original Legend, Eight of the Most Powerful Mythical Objects in History. The Great Flood, and the building of an ark that housed the "seeds of mankind", are both mentioned in the Eridu Genesis. It seems, like El, to be a generic and polysemous name which, if it most often refers to Israels Elohim, is also used for pagan gods (Exodus 12:12, 18:11, 20:3 etc.) Why is a Love Poem Full of Sex in the Bible? Skeptical, non-believing scholars try to paint early Judaism as polytheistic, but there is no solid evidence for this. Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. from the University of Copenhagen, and his Ph.D. from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. They deduced from this that the Hebrew language was derived from hieroglyphics, which are stylised. (Video), 10 Jaw-dropping Engineering Marvels of the Inca Empire, Lost City Revealed: The Mysteries of Nan Madol Uncovered (Video), Hidden in Plain Sight: The Pterodactyl of New Guinea. Actually, I believe the author is saying that some creation stories that many attribute to the Bible are originally found in Sumerian mythology. The Gilgamesh Epic was known to the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian cultures. Arguing these similarities there are many others the Sabbah brothers reread the texts from top to bottom. Not only do people in Asia and America tell the same story, but they also describe manna, that food that falls from the sky! Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. A few centuries later, this text will be reproduced practically as it stands in the Bible, in Proverbs 22:17 to 23:11. 4- author 2 is called E. because he uses the plural Elohim meaning the gods so gods as in Sumerian history. Nammu, ), but the existence of such a people and civilization was not even suspected until the middle of the 19th century. A Visual Tour (Video), Behind the Scenes of Ancient Greece: Exploring the Daily Life of its People (Video), Trove of Ancient Artifacts Discovered in Paestum Include Dolphin Statuette of Eros, TheiaGreek Goddess of Light, the Sun, the Moon, and Wisdom, Greeces East Attica In Antiquity: Playground Of Gods, Heroes And Heroines, A Face to the Legend: The Quest to Reconstruct Cleopatra's Look (Video), Aspasia - The Real-Life Helen of Troy? Finally, we see that in ancient coins and gems, the Twins are depicted positioned on either side of enthroned deities, such as Zeus, Serapis, Mars and Mithras. With the exception of a few occurrences in the book of Daniel and in the Chronicles, it generally refers to the god of Israel. The coincidence, at the time, did not move anyone. The king-priest, wearing a net skirt and a hat with leaves or feathers, stands before the door of a temple, symbolized by two great maces. [14]:179 Each Sumerian city-state had its own specific patron deity,[14]:179 who was believed to protect the city and defend its interests. Source La Croix, the largest French Catholic newspaper, Despite the takeover of Babylon by the Persians in 539 and Cyrus edict allowing exiles to return to Judea, an important Jewish community remained in the city: it was it that, at the end of the 5th century AD, initiated the so-called Babylonian Talmud, which is still the authority in Judaism. The Sumerian kings list has only eight in the list while the Bible gives 10 patriarchs before the Flood (including Noah). According to the Bible, the universe was created by God. There is a great wealth of evidence supporting the belief that the books of the Bible, and specifically the book of Genesis is indeed the inspired creation of God. Historians have also suggested that Sumerian references to two ancient trading lands known as "Magan" and "Meluhha" may refer to Egypt and Ethiopia. reptiliens) que vous avez chass : vous navez jamais essay ? Thank you. For some reason the scribes never grasped this but hey!, when God's involved it does makes it a better yarn if they leave in the unlikely. But ti also means to keep alive. [19] This bleak domain was known as Kur,[17]:114 and was believed to be ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal. Il ne faut pas se laisser impressionner par ce qui nest pas dit mais il faut apprendre comment gurir les malades et comment chasser les dmons. Elohim created all living creatures on earth Genesis 1:25, Elohim says: let us make man in our image, in our likeness Genesis 1,27. version of the Sumerian King list, found in Larsa details ten antediluvian and Kramer 1983: p. 8). The major deities in the Sumerian pantheon included An, the god of the heavens, Enlil, the god of wind and storm, AnKi Enki, the god of water and human culture, Ninhursag, the goddess of fertility and the earth, Utu, the god of the sun and justice, and his father Nanna, the god of the moon. Not sure if that qualifies. He was the father of Utu and one of the patron deities of Ur. Francis Dymoke, a 67-year-old farmer from eastern England, will play a ceremonial role in the upcoming coronation of King Charles III, and carry forward an ancient royal tradition while at it. An Inspirational Courtesans Tale, Was Anne of Cleves Too Ugly for King Henry VIII? [14]:182. All these rites can structure the life of faith in any part of the world, and allow Israel to avoid assimilation and to constitute itself as a particular people. Achilles and Patroclus: Close Confidants or Passionate Paramours? Professor Alexander Heidel of the Oriental Institute of Chicago has prepared a table to allow us to compare a Sumerian text that describes the creation of the world, the Enuma Elish and the Book of Genesis, the result is extremely disturbing: The Holy Spirit and cosmic matter are co-existent and co-eternal. A Sumerian myth known today as " Gilgamesh and the Netherworld" opens with a mythological prologue. sweet water. So what could account for these similarities? In the early dynastic period, temples developed raised terraces and multiple rooms. The explanation is actually given below in the story of Atrahasis (Ziusudra), the Sumerian Noah, where we learn that the gods Annunaki created man in their images. He was the patron deity of Girsu and one of the patron deities of Lagash. Their order of importance and the relationships between the deities has been examined during the study of cuneiform tablets. from one another by a solid dome. I recently viewed a documentary claiming that ancient tablets (older than OT manuscripts) were found in Iraq, telling a story almost identical to Noahs and that the soil there showed signs of an ancient flood as well (unlike the land around Mount Ararat). The fact that they were not a local people is suggested by the fact that their language belongs to a completely different and isolated group.. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); @2020 - All Right Reserved. (Kramer 1961 pp. I believe the Bible is based on actual events. Sources for the Eridu myth include a Sumerian inscription on a clay tablet from Nippur (also dated about 1600 BCE), another Sumerian fragment from Ur (about the same date) and a bilingual fragment in Sumerian and Akkadian from Ashurbanipal's library in Nineveh, about 600 BCE. back Ninhursag in order to undo the damage. Why do people try to find relationships between these? Erich Von Danikens theory of ancient astronauts, Historians are perplexed by the list of Sumerian kings on cuneiform tablets containing the list of Sumerian kings, The genesis of humanity: Secret histories of civilizations: see on Amazon The civilizing gods: The genesis of humanity: see on Amazon The Bible as you have never read it: Did the Gods come from the stars? Among the Akkadians, he was also the god of the air and the sky, and finally became the creative god among the Canaanites. Oui tout fait, merci Ben. to a wall. For example, Wood (2003) has drawn attention to the fact that there are remarkable similarities between the Sumerian King List and accounts in Genesis, from descriptions of the great flood, to the eight rulers who reigned before the flood, and decreasing longevity of people after the flood. Until next week, keep searching. Do we have the exact words of Jesus or a paraphrase? Why is it that people try to relate those gods to the God in the Old Testament? My mother, the high priestess, conceived me and bore me in secret. only seven Patriarchs prior to Noah, so that with him included, Puisque nous sommes lge des possibles pour expliquer ce pass, nous pouvons alors formuler des hypothses hors du champ connu. Despite the takeover of Babylon by the Persians in 539 and Cyrus edict allowing exiles to return to Judea, an important Jewish community remained in the city: it was it that, at the end of the 5th century AD, initiated the so-called Babylonian Talmud, which is still the authority in Judaism. [11] Underneath the terrestrial earth, which formed the base of the dome, existed an underworld and a freshwater ocean called the Abzu. The ancient civilization of Greece is a historical period that has long been a subject of fascination and intrigue. [18] Instead, after a person died, his or her soul went to Kur (later known as Irkalla), a dark shadowy underworld, located deep below the surface of the earth. The gods themselves were terrified: fleeing, they climbed to the sky of Anu where, like dogs, they remained curled up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDVtMYqUAyw, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUXOelkorPI, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s4TqVAbfz4, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=cy2Dg-ncWoY, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=588pfqtMtz0. Were Adam and Eve the first "homo sapiens"? The cultures of the Near East were constantly repurposing the beliefs of those around them and the Greeks did the same comparing every one of the major foreign gods of other cultures to their own: Amun=Baal=Zues=Jupiter, Mercury= Odin, Artemis=Bastet, Nergal=Ninurta=Ares. The Book of Revelation is filled with prophetic visions of apocalyptic events. 7.) [19] The god Neti was the gatekeeper. See our article : Worlds in Collision, a book that questions part of the Bible. In Ezekiel 8:14, the prophet sees women of Israel Copyright 2022 . The Sumerian god Enlil becomes Abraham's El, the Elohim becomes Eloha. [17]:108109[14]:203 The sun was her brother Utu, the god of justice,[14]:203 and the moon was their father Nanna. Click here for a comparison of these two ancient texts. (Author provided) The Forbidden Fruit For millennia people have assumed the forbidden fruit of Eden to be an apple. While mankind had existed prior to that time for thousands and tens of thousands of years, this was the first creation story ever recorded in history. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh dates back nearly 5,000 years and is thought to be perhaps the oldest written tale on the planet. The rest of the story tells that men served the Gods perfectly but they multiplied too quickly, made too much noise and eventually disturbed the Gods who decided to exterminate them. The Bible was born in Babylon from that experience of the stranger who was almost mortal but whom Jews transformed into divine grace. The gods, smelling the good smell, swirled like flies around the priest. It is unclear when the first settlers of the region arrived, but they were a non-Semitic people that historians believe may have come out of the Samarra culture in northern Mesopotamia or Assyria. She put me in a basket of reeds, which she sealed with bitumen. Ancient Sumerian scribes recorded their writing on stone, and later on clay tablets. Et aujourdhui encore, dans les pays o lon pratique le Bouddhisme Theravada (je ne sais pas pour les autres formes de bouddhisme), avant de devenir moine, les pratiquants shabillent en blanc et sont appels naga (nak en tha). [17]:75 His most important cult center was the E-abzu temple in the city of Eridu. Many ancient cultures have supernatural great flood stories with the continuity of the human race ensured by one righteous hero. The Great Flood has scientific proof of water levels rising. Perhaps, when we compare it to the other creation stories weve discussed, we can come up with commonplaces between all of them, and thus, a commonplace between all cultures in regards to the creation of the Universe. (Genesis 4: 17-18) The It was in 1945 that I discovered this explanation. Nammu was a goddess representing the primeval waters (Engur), who gave birth to An (heaven) and Ki (earth) and the first deities; while she is rarely attested as an object of cult, she likely played a central role in the early cosmogony of Eridu, and in later periods continued to appear in texts related to exorcisms. (Wolkstein Second of all, there is sufficient evidence, in my opinion, to conclude that the book of Genesis was written in essentially its final form well before the time of the captivity (586-538 BC). Many Canaanites have participated in the creation of Pi Rameses. At first, there was nothing on the Earth; it was filled with darkness and God's spirit was hovering over the water. Outside the Battlefield, What Was Daily Life Like for Medieval Knights? The Anunnaki gods set the whole Earth on fire. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. [14]:203 Ordinary mortals could not go to heaven because it was the abode of the gods alone. I don't believe before any flood people lived many hundreds of years. la thorie des anciens astronautes dErich Von Daniken. When Jesus raised someone, did he call them back from heaven? p. le reste, cest dire la capacit grer des rvlations toujours plus bouleversantes, vous sera donn par surcrot. On October 9, 1929, a German theologian named Gustav Adolf Deissmann was cataloguing items in the Topkapi Palace library in Istanbul when he happened across a curious parchment located among some As Greek mythology goes, the universe was once a big soup of nothingness. He was a Field Assyriologist for the Iraq Expedition of the The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago in the years 1929 to 1937, according to his biography, as well. In the Sumerian text, it is Enki who gives birth to his ills in pain. The Hurrians adopted the Akkadian god Anu into their pantheon sometime no later than 1200 BC. The earth is a desolate place, with darkness covering the depth. [15] The middle dome of heaven was made of saggilmut stone and was the abode of the Igigi. Kramer, however, did give credence to it, as mentioned by the blogger to whom you linked (see Kramer's History Begins at Sumer, pp. From an historical or literary point of view, this is hard to disprove. Sumerian deity. The account which numbers those Patriarchs as ten is There are two possibilities to explain this. [17]:58 Nonetheless, there are assumptions according to which treasures in wealthy graves had been intended as offerings for Utu and the Anunnaki, so that the deceased would receive special favors in the underworld. The authors of the Bible were inspired not only by the Sumerians but also by the Egyptian culture that gave them the writing! p. 142,145) or "fine oil" (Kramer & Maier 1989: p. My hometown is Azupiranu saffron city, on the banks of the Euphrates river. [17]:134[14]:184 Galla were a class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld;[17]:85 their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. [17]:151,157158 Accounts of her parentage vary;[17]:108 in most myths, she is usually presented as the daughter of Nanna and Ningal,[30]:ixxi,xvi but, in other stories, she is the daughter of Enki or An along with an unknown mother. Their worship is expressed in the temple of Astarte and in that of Sutekh, assimilated to an Egyptian Baal. To deny any possible common root to these two flood stories seems unrealistic. The Sumerians regarded their divinities as responsible for all matters pertaining to the natural and social orders. Noah's If Amos, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Malachi were names of real people, why are they not found elsewhere in Biblical history? The true secret of Tutankhamun finally revealed. The goddess created to heal Enkis coast is called Ninti, the Lady of the Coast. Some of the fantastic stories included are: Dilmun is a pure, bright, and holy land - now often identified with Although the stories are not identical (for example, when God spoke to Noah, it was not in a dream) there is obvious parallel to the biblical flood account. If this is the correct explanation, then the parallels between the accounts are due to the fact that they both describe the same, actual event, although with a different level of fidelity to the actual events. Doggerland, Variousunder water cities and roads in Greece and Egypt, The lapita in samoa, Gulf of Combay city near India. Four Religion: Theology, Rite, and Myth 112 Five Literature: The Sumerian Belles-Lettres 165 Six Education: The Sumerian School 229 Seven Character: Drives, Motives, and Values 249 Eight The Legacy of Sumer 269 APPENDIXES 301 A. Enki fills it with lagoons and palm trees. To conclude that Judaism evolved from a nascent polytheism is speculation which is not justified by the Hebrew text of the Bible. At the kings request, a magician separated the waters, found the jewel and returned it to its owner. [19], The souls in Kur were believed to eat nothing but dry dust[17]:58 and family members of the deceased would ritually pour libations into the dead person's grave through a clay pipe, thereby allowing the dead to drink. Then it states or implies they got it from genesis. This association carries Of course, much of that evidence is found at my web site, to include prophecies in Genesis which are fulfilled in Jesus (see my book From Shadow to Reality www.ipibooks.com), historical and archaeological accuracy of Genesis (Reasons For Belief www.ipibooks.com), and so forth. The Origin and Development of the Cuneiform System of Writing 302 B. In the book of Genesis, the patriarchs never take a stand against the other gods, they simply attach themselves to El. And this literary pun passed into the Bible where it naturally lost its value since in Hebrew the words meaning coast and life have nothing in common. Sumerian Language and Literature. noter quun parallle intressant a t dmontr entre les textes sumriens et lancien testament avec deux corrections majeures, lentit Dieu est devenu masculin et unique. Donc pas de souci. Wall plaque showing libations by devotees and a naked priest, to a seated god and a temple. Throughout the history of civilization, the notion of the apocalypse has been a recurring theme in human history, transcending cultures and religions. I know the Middle East is an area we are both interested in digging and studying in. In reality, God did not punish only the Egyptians, the testimonies gathered in World in Collision prove that all the peoples of the earth, including the Hebrews, suffered from disasters during this period. This account is very similar to that of the birth of Moses, written by Jewish priests who were in exile in Babylon in the 7th century BC when this surprising story was told from the banks of the Tigris in Iraq to those of the Tiber in Italy. Tous les tres anims et inanims ont ainsi t crs, indirectement, par le dmiurge solaire. Dans ce contexte, il ny aurait donc pas de diffrence fondamentale de nature entre les tres vivants, et lanimal naurait gure moins dimportance que lHomme, qui est voqu entre lhippopotame et le crocodile dans un passage des Textes des sarcophages (Germond et Livet, 2001) : Les faucons vivent des oiseaux plus petits, [] les hippopotames, des marais ; les hommes, des grains ; les crocodiles, de poissons . The Sumerian god Enlil becomes Abrahams El, the Elohim becomes Eloha. Elohim is on the contrary one of the most common divine names, appearing more than two thousand times. The Sumerians believed that the universe had come into being through a series of cosmic births. It was "primitive" religion when compared to Judaism. Ancient Sumerian Mythology The Chronicles Of The Sumerian Peoples Myths And Epics Gilgamesh And Beyond Greek Mythology Babylonian Mesopotamia Norse Ancient Egypt Gilgamesh Liturgies Pdf Pdf When people should go to the book stores, search creation by shop, shelf by shelf, it is truly problematic. The first ten represented the solar system and the others represented the masses of stars in space. 163-164; Kramer 1961 Another possibility is that one or the other was created first, and the other borrowed from it. It was therefore under the name of El that God addressed this call to Abraham. The epic was almost certainly composed before 2000 BC. While there is not much information on how he translated these ancient texts, he received his M.A. How can you say that we are not sure which came earlier? Where do we go when we die? [17]:114 It had seven gates, through which a soul needed to pass. They do mention Ra [sun deity in Ancient Egyptian Religion] and his creation of gods and people. la thorie des anciens astronautes dErich Von Daniken, Cuneiform tablets containing the list of Sumerian kings leave historians perplexed. The prologue of "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld" Just where and when these events took place and what exactly transpired is something we may never know. The Bible Story of Noah and the Sumerian Tales of Atrahasis, Ziusudra, and Utnapishtim.